Short answer: if you’re married or in a long-term partnership, your retirement number isn’t “your number” — it’s a household number. It needs to account for your partner’s spending, their own Social Security or retirement income, and what happens to your household if one of you outlives the other by many years.
How does a spouse or partner change your retirement number?
The 25x-spending guideline doesn’t change. What changes is the input. If your personal spending in retirement would be $90,000 a year but your household actually spends $140,000 a year, your target savings should be built around the $140,000 figure — not the $90,000 figure. Leaving out a spouse’s spending, travel, and healthcare costs is one of the most common ways a retirement number ends up understated.
It’s also worth separating two related but different planning goals: retiring together as a couple, and protecting whichever spouse lives longer. Both deserve attention before you set a savings target.
How do spousal Social Security benefits work?
A spouse — even one with little or no earnings history — may be eligible for a Social Security benefit of up to 50% of the working spouse’s benefit at full retirement age, per the Social Security Administration. If the spouse has their own earnings record, Social Security generally pays whichever is higher: their own benefit or the spousal benefit.
A common misconception is that delaying your own claim to age 70 also increases what your spouse can receive. It doesn’t. Delayed retirement credits increase your own benefit, but the spousal benefit stays capped at 50% of your full retirement age amount, not your delayed amount — a detail worth building into a joint claiming strategy.
What if your spouse doesn’t have their own retirement savings?
If a spouse or partner was out of the workforce, worked part-time, or earned little relative to you, they may still be able to build retirement savings in their own name through a spousal IRA. The IRS allows a working spouse’s income to be used to fund an IRA for a non-earning or lower-earning spouse, subject to the same annual IRA contribution rules that apply to any IRA — see IRS guidance for current limits. Building savings in the spouse’s own name can also matter for tax diversification and required-minimum-distribution planning later on.
What happens to household income if one spouse dies first?
This is often the piece that gets skipped. When one spouse passes away, one Social Security check generally stops (the smaller of the two), and pension income may be reduced or eliminated depending on the survivor election that was made. The Social Security Administration’s survivor benefits guidance explains how a surviving spouse can generally step up to the higher of the two benefits — one reason many households consider having the higher earner delay claiming when it’s feasible. Beyond Social Security, life insurance and the survivor election on any pension or annuity are the two main levers for protecting the surviving spouse’s income, and both deserve a specific conversation rather than an assumption that “it will work out.”
What if one spouse is younger, or you want to retire at different times?
Age gaps and mismatched retirement timelines create two practical issues. First, healthcare: Medicare eligibility generally begins at age 65, per Medicare.gov. If one spouse retires before the other and the younger spouse isn’t yet 65, that gap needs a coverage plan — COBRA, a marketplace plan, or continued employer coverage. Second, cash flow: if you and your spouse retire in different years, your household withdrawal rate in the interim years may need to be higher, then adjust once both of you are fully retired.
One vs. two: how the planning changes
| Planning item | Single dentist | Dentist with spouse/partner |
|---|---|---|
| Spending basis for the 25x guideline | Personal spending only | Combined household spending |
| Social Security | One benefit to plan around | Two benefits, plus spousal/survivor rules |
| Retirement savings vehicles | Dentist’s accounts only | May include a spousal IRA for the partner |
| Healthcare timing | One Medicare eligibility date | Possible gap year(s) if ages differ |
| Survivor planning | Less relevant | Life insurance and survivor elections matter |
Frequently asked questions
Not necessarily, but having some savings in the spouse’s own name — such as through a spousal IRA — can help with tax diversification and flexibility later, even if most household savings sit in the dentist’s accounts.
No. Delayed retirement credits only increase your own benefit. The spousal benefit remains capped at up to 50% of your full retirement age amount, regardless of when you personally claim.
Using only their own personal spending in the 25x calculation instead of full household spending, and not addressing what happens to income if one spouse passes away first.
Sources
Founder & Financial Planner · Investment Adviser Representative · Series 63 & 65
Ian McGinnis is the founder of Dental Wealth Partners and a fee-only financial planner dedicated to dentists. As an investment adviser representative (Series 63 and 65), he built the firm to give dentists coordinated, fiduciary advice across their practice, taxes, investments, retirement plans, and long-term goals — the whole picture in one strategy. A graduate of Belhaven University, Ian previously worked at Davis Private Wealth, MML Investors Services, and Northwestern Mutual, and is based in the Jackson, Mississippi area. He is the author of The Wealthy Dentist and hosts the Smiles & Cents podcast.
Keep reading
- How much money does a dentist need to retire?Your retirement number depends on spending, not income. Here’s the 25× rule, a simple table, and why dentists tend to retire later.
- Building your retirement paycheck: turning savings into incomeRetirement flips the problem from saving to spending. How dentists can turn a portfolio and practice-sale proceeds into a reliable, tax-smart paycheck.
- At what age can a dentist actually retire?The age a dentist can retire depends on their number, not the calendar. How to estimate your target and why many dentists could retire earlier than they think.