For the median retiree, inflation-adjusted spending decreases throughout retirement. Reducing Spending by ChoiceThe second particularly interesting finding is that even households that are “funded or overfunded” still reduce spending. That is, while some retiree households reduce their spending due to limited funds, even households who don’t need to reduce spending nonetheless typically do still reduce spending over time. Why People Reduce SpendingTo me, it’s not surprising at all to find that people reduce spending over their retirement, even when they aren’t forced to do so. So we have two factors, both of which point in favor of weighting earlier spending more heavily than later spending (though to differing degrees from one person to another).