How much money do you think that you need to retire? There are many assumptions involved in answering that question, but one assumption is the greatest of all: how much money will you need for your health care costs? Fidelity projects that a 65-year old couple who retired in 2016 should expect an average cost of $260,000 over twenty years, and that excludes any nursing home costs . Too often, seniors are worried about medical expenses draining their funds and forcing them to become a burden to their families.