5 unforeseen expenses that ruin retirement

Wise retirement planning begins long before you give your boss two weeks' notice about your last day on the job. It involves analyzing current expenses, anticipating future outlays and making sure you will have enough income to cover them all. But beware of certain expenses that may thwart your best-laid plans.

On a typical retirement budget work sheet, you'll see lines for "miscellaneous" or "other" items, probably somewhere near the bottom. It's easy to gloss over this section once you've assessed your income needs for such basics as housing and health care. But when you get down to the details of filling in the blanks, these add-ons can account for a significant portion of your retirement spending.

Consider these five situations that might put a strain on your retirement budget if you're not prepared.