Originally Posted by Walter S

Good point. I have dental coverage thru a policy at work - I won't have that when I retire. I've budgeted for buying health insurance and getting coverage like I have now, and doing that privately is expensive. But the older you get the more likely you'll have significant regular expenses that are not covered well enough by insurance for you to ignore them. I don't know what the right amount is to anticipate here. You could easily suffer more or less than some reasonable-seeming figure. It comes down to your personal risk tolerances and how bad you think being wrong might be. But if you plan for no such expenses or a few hundred dollars a year etc. then you're probably fooling yourself. But who am I to judge? other than another oddball for whom unexpected difficulties have taught us a lesson