Even the most carefully crafted retirement plans can go off track if you haven’t accounted for some of the biggest surprises along the way. While many factors can impact your retirement, the good news is that most are actually avoidable with the right planning.

In this week’s Better Money Boston with WCVB Channel 5, Nicholas J. Colantuono, CFP® shares how you can safeguard your retirement by preparing for the unexpected.

1. Rising Healthcare Expenses

Did you know the average 65-year-old couple retiring today can expect to spend approximately $330,000 on healthcare expenses in retirement? And that doesn’t include the cost of long-term care services.

It’s not just the cost you need to plan for, but also how quickly healthcare expenses tend to rise, often outpacing other retirement costs. The key is to build both rising healthcare costs and the possibility of a long-term care event into your retirement plan.

2. The Impact of Inflation

If you expect to live another 20 to 30 years, you’ll need to give yourself raises throughout retirement to outpace inflation. The rising cost of living often affects retirees differently than those still in the workforce. In retirement, you’re typically living on a fixed or semi-fixed income. Even with a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA), it’s often not enough to fully keep up with inflation.

Additionally, your primary expenses, such as healthcare, housing, and food, are among the industries most impacted by inflation. That makes it even more important to build inflation protection into your retirement income plan.

3. The Toll of Taxes

After healthcare, the next biggest expense most retirees face is taxes. The challenge in retirement becomes: how do you withdraw from this large nest egg you’ve worked so hard to build in a way that’s tax-efficient?

You’ve likely contributed to tax-deferred accounts for decades, but now, those distributions are treated as taxable income. That income can impact more than just your tax bracket — it may also affect your Medicare premiums, capital gains tax rates, and even how much of your Social Security benefit you take home. Many retirees are caught off guard by just how far-reaching the tax impact can be, which is why proactive tax planning is so important.