Identifying Special Expenditures

The instructions and tutorial seem to suggest that Special Expenditures are largely one-time major expenses planned for the future. On the other hand, the ESPlanner Forum discussion seems to suggest that other regularly recurring costs can be entered as Special Expenditures.

My employment arrangement pays for group health insurance for my spouse and me. I will qualify for medicare this year and will also add a Medicare Supplement Plan and a Part D Prescription Plan when I qualify. My spouse will be medicare eligible a couple years later. I'll likely continue my present employment until my spouse qualifies for Medicare. My employer will pay my medicare and Medicare Supplement and Plan D premiums while I am employed and will continue to pay my spouse's health insurance per COBRA under the employer group plan until I fully retire; but eventually those costs will be ours to pay.

ESPlanner takes into account Medicare Part B premiums, but makes no provision for the additional substantial costs of the Medicare Supplement Plan or Prescription Drug Plan Coverage that I expect will continue for a lifetime for us. There will be added costs for certain prescription drugs expected but not covered by these plans. We consider these to be recurring and necessary -- not "special" expenditures, but certainly affecting our available consumable assets.

My employment arrangement provides a personal vehicle and pays most vehicle expenses (license / maintenance / gasoline / insurance, etc). Such costs are substantial and I expect that they will continue after retirement out of our pocket.

There are other so-called "living expenses" built into my employment arrangement that we will need to pay upon full retirement.

In short (sorry, too late to be short :-)), I expect that our living expenses will rise considerably after full retirement. How do we handle this? Should these increased "living costs" be entered as Special Expenditures even though they are regular, continuing costs and there is nothing really "special" about them as far as we are concerned?

I would appreciate a layman's explanation of what items go into the "Special Expenditures" list in ESPlanner and what should not be entered there. Thanks very much, Walt