2015 Expenses

[rodi]

I like the idea of presenting categories and percentages like W2R did. So here are my categories and the tally.

Oops - forgot taxes - Edited to correct for taxes

Category | %
vacation and travel | 29%
insurance (medical, dental, home, rental, cars, umbrella) | .. 15%
Groceries | .. 9%
Medical OOP| 7%
Home Repair (includes a major bathroom remodel) | .. 7%
Education | .. 4%
Taxes (Property, federal, state) ... | 13%
Auto maintenance and gas| .. 3%
Entertainment (cable/internet/movies & shows) | 2%
Utilities (water, gas, electric, phone)| 3%
Dining out |1%
Misc |7%

It shows how different folks are perfectly happy with different allocations. Again using W2R for comparison (please don't feel I'm picking on her) - she likes eating out most days for lunch - so her restaurants category is much higher than mine. But she dislikes travel - and I love travel. Both are very valid choices of how to spend money to be happy.

 

[W2R]

I like the idea of presenting categories and percentages like W2R did. So here are my categories and the tally.

Category | %
vacation and travel | 31%
insurance (medical, dental, home, rental, cars, umbrella | .. 16%
Groceries | .. 10%
Medical OOP| 8%
Home Repair (includes a major bathroom remodel) | .. 8%
Education | .. 5%
Property Tax ... | 4%
Auto maintenance and gas| .. 3%
Entertainment (cable/internet/movies & shows) | 3%
Utilities (water, gas, electric, phone)| 4%
Dining out |1%
Misc |7%

It shows how different folks are perfectly happy with different allocations. Again using W2R for comparison (please don't feel I'm picking on her) - she likes eating out most days for lunch - so her restaurants category is much higher than mine. But she dislikes travel - and I love travel. Both are very valid choices of how to spend money to be happy.

Exactly! I'm glad you got the trip of a lifetime this year, too. I'll leave traveling to those of us who enjoy it, because I just don't.

[-]Is your medical insurance cost included in the medical OOP?[/-] Oops, I see where it is now. Even so, you did well in medical expenses, especially considering the injuries your kids sustained last year.

 

[rodi]

LOL - it's an even smaller percentage when I add in taxes to my list (see my edited post above to compare.)

I use quicken - but it didn't include my brokerage account - and I'd made tax payments from my brokerage account when I took money out of an inherited IRA. I made extra tax payments on the withdrawal because I wasn't paying tax on the rental income as it came in.

 

[Mulligan]

Heck, here's how much I spent in 2015: just a couple of grands below the 6-figure mark.

It was of course higher when my children were in college, but by now I thought I would be safely well below that level. Housing costs are higher than I thought, when you have two homes that need maintenance repair and some upgrade.

There!

That is TMI... You gave yourself away... You have too much money...Us "wealth confiscators" are coming by to pay a visit today.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Danmar]

@W2R. Sounds like you really lucked in with the house. Congrats.

 

[W2R]

@W2R. Sounds like you really lucked in with the house. Congrats.

Thanks! Sometimes I just can't believe how lucky I was to find this house. I am very happy with it. I think it was a good way for me to spend money, since I don't have any desire to travel. Like some women (and even some men), I am kind of a homebody and enjoy having a better house to live in.

 

[Helen]

This is the first full year where we have both been retired. We travelled as much as we wanted and still came in 33% under budget.

Life is too good, I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop...

 

[Rdub]

Our budget was pretty close to actual. Although I budget a monthly amount for home maintenance, we had a few big ones this year.. replaced the roof, water heater and TV. We were spot on with entertainment, dining and vacations. I did not spend nearly as much as I wanted on a few of my hobbies this year (racing/golf). Instead of spending my weekends on hobbies, I spent them traveling to gymnastics meets to watch my daughter compete (well worth the trade-off). I did not meet my NW goal in 2015, but that was due to a weak market. My investments had a loss of less than 1% this past year, but my investible assets grew by 7%. Which means I saved a lot more than I spent.

 

[NW-Bound]

...huge 2+ car garage with workshop...

Yet, you have only one car.

Watch out. Monitor the Amazon thread. Won't be long now until W2R talks about buying floor jacks, air compressor and pneumatic tools, grinder, welder, bandsaw, drill press, router, etc...

 

[haha]

I'm sure there are folks here who spend more than us. So it's a personal preference so long as people are happy and content with their choices.

Oh come on, there is a contest going on here, where's your competitive spirit?

Myself, I spent -$50,000 last year. I hope to do better next year too! If I live long enough, I may eventually be a billionaire. Though I may have to increase my negative spending to make this mark.

Ha

 

[MichaelB]

I'm also happy to [-]brag[/-] report that while we did exceed our 2015 budget by 9%, our WR was only 4.3% of our initial 2005 starting portfolio, a full 0.5% less than the inflation-adjusted 4.8% we could have withdrawn according to the Trinity Study.

Braggart! I exceeded my 2014 spending by 322%, if you include the house selling/buying/moving. If you don't, then 16%.

My WR without the house selling/buying/moving expenses would have been 1.7%, but with all included was a whopping 7.8%.

I am figuring that the dream house represents a permanent reduction in my portfolio principal. That's fine with me, because my average WR so far in retirement has been low, and it has gone down further in the past couple of years because I started getting SS. FIRECalc says I will be fine.

Oh, and my entire withdrawal went to support a poor little old unemployed lady surviving in hurricane devastated New Orleans. Well, given that all those adjectives are relative terms.

Wow. Our spending for 2015 was less than 2013 or 2014. How's that for self-control? Of course, no new roof or new car did help..

As for the moral high ground, that's definitely to be found among my siblings. And if not mine, DW's.

 

[24601NoMore]

I can't believe how many of you have spending below $30k. Really impressive. My DH and I have been spending $60k (combined) each of the last 3 years.

I was just thinking the same thing..we (2-DINCS) have what we always thought was a very "tight" budget, and it comes in north of $60K in real spending.

We LBYM and are not big spenders. We do live in an area where prop taxes alone are > $7K, autos run ~$1K / mo (2 leases on 'reasonable' Chrysler vehicles, insurance and gas), etc.

The $60K # is probably low (it's likely more like $70K - doing penny-level tracking for the first time this year in Quicken) and does not take into account "A"CA health-care that we'll have to pay at around $5-7K in our pre-Medicare years (roughly 6-8, depending on when we RE).

Would be interested in hearing how some of you are doing ~$30K and under. That's crazy. And impressive!

If we could do $30K, we could RE TOMORROW. But we'd need to move, buy beater cars, eat Ramen noodles and learn what in the world this thing with dryer sheets is all about from the sounds of it, also.

PS: The $60K does not include any mortgage costs as we own our house outright (zero mortgage).

 

[W2R]

Yet, you have only one car.

Watch out. Monitor the Amazon thread. Won't be long now until W2R talks about buying floor jacks, air compressor and pneumatic tools, grinder, welder, bandsaw, drill press, router, etc...

Ha ha!!! I seriously doubt it. I think it's great that some women can handle serious tools like that, but I'm not one of them. Well, except a drill press and router, but I have no need to use either. However, Frank has expressed some interest in using the workshop. Also he and I have talked about how he can put his car in my garage during bad storms/hurricanes and such.

 

[rodi]

I say charge him rent for the garage space!!! Ha!

(obviously just kidding.)

 

[24601NoMore]

I'd also be interested to hear how many of you are estimating expenses, vs doing penny by penny ""actuals" tracking in Quicken, Excel or similar tool...

We use Quicken and review "actuals" on Checking, CC and similar accounts and were astounded how much it takes to run the household living quite conservatively. We don't live "fancy" but it's very, very expensive on a yearly basis also.

Note that my RE involves a small cabin in the woods..if I could ever FIND said cabin, I'd buy it tomorrow, sell the house in the suburbs and be done with this whole mess. But, we also want something reasonably nice (large kitchen, patio, fairly current) also..

 

[W2R]

I'd also be interested to hear how many of you are estimating expenses, vs doing penny by penny ""actuals" tracking in Quicken, Excel or similar tool...

We use Quicken and review "actuals" on Checking, CC and similar accounts and were astounded how much it takes to run the household living quite conservatively. We don't live "fancy" but it's very, very expensive on a yearly basis also.

Note that my RE involves a small cabin in the woods..if I could ever FIND said cabin, I'd buy it tomorrow, sell the house in the suburbs and be done with this whole mess. But, we also want something reasonably nice (large kitchen, patio, fairly current) also..

I'm tracking everything, to the penny, in Excel. I balance with what is in my bank account and with what my credit card online account says I spent, to make sure nothing is forgotten and that my spending adds up to the money used. I even track where the money in my wallet goes and balance with what is left in my wallet.

Which means that for once, I actually know where every penny of my Miscellaneous category went.

 

[rodi]

Mine were from Quicken. As far as "to the penny" - I have a fudge category: misc - this includes ATM withdrawals that aren't for a specific category and mixed category receipts like Target... So I'm not "to the penny" as much as others. My misc category above actually includes some smaller percentage, but still tracked categories - piano lessons, sports fees for the kids, etc.

Each year I set a "rough budget" - but I don't track it too much... just keep an eye to see if we're way out of wack in any category so I can pull in from other categories if necessary to compensate.

 

[tmm99]

I'd also be interested to hear how many of you are estimating expenses, vs doing penny by penny ""actuals" tracking in Quicken, Excel or similar tool...

I use Mint for the total spending and for major categories, but I keep track of weekly spending using a spreadsheet to keep track of spending by category. (It is hard to break down cash spending that came out of ATM withdrawals - Also on many occasions, one stop at a supermarket may consist of groceries and living expenses, etc so that's why I still do the spreadsheet.)

 

[RetireAge50]

I do not keep track of any specific category but know my expenses by taking total income and subtracting investment contributions, taxes, mortgage payments, and tuition paid.

 

[2017ish]

Mine were from Quicken. As far as "to the penny" - I have a fudge category: misc - this includes ATM withdrawals that aren't for a specific category and mixed category receipts like Target... So I'm not "to the penny" as much as others.....

That's us. We have "to the penny" on the big categories, but also have "Family Allowance" for cash, and even "Target" for misc. purchases there and WMT, etc. Probably could change it, but it's worked well enough for 20 years.

 

[Sue J]

I'd also be interested to hear how many of you are estimating expenses, vs doing penny by penny ""actuals" tracking in Quicken, Excel or similar tool...

We use Quicken and review "actuals" on Checking, CC and similar accounts and were astounded how much it takes to run the household living quite conservatively. We don't live "fancy" but it's very, very expensive on a yearly basis also.

I track to the penny using a couple of Numbers (like Excel for Macs) spreadsheets. I'm a numbers person and former accountant so for me this comes naturally and is my kind of fun, especially if we don't spend it all! I'm always surprised at how little it takes to run our household. Most of the monthly bills are the same every month so the only expenses we track throughout the month are Groceries, Gasoline and Miscellaneous which is any spending that's not groceries or gas.

DH and I get monthly cash for our wallets. I rarely spend mine so at month end it goes in a jar. I've accumulated so much cash that I've been using it for donations (a favorite senior dog rescue that has an Amazon wish list or the Salvation Army bell ringers last month) and an amount to my son who is going on a big trip tomorrow and I want him to have extra money for fun.

 

[audreyh1]

We track very closely in Quicken. No misc category. Most charges are credit card and are downloaded and categorized. Rarely use cash, but don't categorize beyond "cash" unless paying a maintenance worker.

 

[NW-Bound]

I use Quicken to track both investments and expenses by using its auto-download feature. We use very little cash spending which we do not bother to categorize by hand, but that amounts to only a few hundred dollars a year.

Just by looking at the Quicken screen on expenses, I know what we can cut down if the going gets tough. We can easily live on 1/2 of what we spent last year, but without the extra home-related expenses, gifts and charity.

 

[ABQ2015]

I’ve tracked my expenses for 3 years in preparation for retirement. Spending has been about the same each year although some categories like home repairs, car repairs, and dental work have fluctuated. Tracking expenses has allowed me to more easily discern categories where I could cut costs if needed. This year, my salary was divided into 38% expenses to include medical, 38% savings, and 24% income tax and social security.

So far my expenses (minus savings and social security contributions) can be easily covered by my expected retirement income (mostly secure income) but the unknown is that I’ll be retiring in a higher COL area and renting for at least a year. I’ve researched housing costs, state taxes, etc. but there could be some surprises. I prefer not to have a formal budget but I realize that I may have to eventually have one in retirement. But my expense tracking could be a good foundation for formulating a budget and gives me some sense of comfort that I will be able to live on my retirement income.

 

[aja8888]

I also track expenses with Quicken.

I haven't figured the annual spending yet as we had a few big expenses this year: New house A/C ($6K), new roof ($12K), Two new mattresses ($3).

We also increased granddaughter's college expense help since her parents were not able to handle very much. We paid her tuition and books for one semester and provided $100/month for spending throughout the year. This amounted to about $3,700. She has a job at the college, but it doesn't pay much. She graduates this year (yeah!). I also covered the A/C repair cost to her aging Ford Focus ($1200 repair).

For some reason, DW is one of those people who absolutely HAS to HAVE cash in her wallet at all times. That irks me to no end as I can go for months without cash in my wallet and not care. So our "Misc" category is filled with ATM entries from her use of cash. The story line is "lunch with the girls (church group), a few things at Walgreens, I picked up the dry cleaning, I don't remember, etc". Needles to say, it's a good thing I keep the reins tightened or I wouldn't be typing this.