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01-01-2016, 11:06 AM
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#1
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 5,214
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2015 Expenses
How did you do last year? Stuck to the budget? Any surprises?
I will have to dive into it in detail now that 2015 is over, but at the first glance using Mint, it looks like I was within budget. I moved to Canada and that was the biggest item.
One thing I wasn't counting on is that the USD got stronger, and the spending in Canada once I moved has been below the planned spending by 25%+. And it helps since my portfolio didn't quite perform...
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01-01-2016, 11:19 AM
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#2
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 5,350
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I spent $16,730 in 2015. $11,453 if I don't include FICA, Fed and State Income taxes. FICA really hurts as a low income self-employed person. I expect to spend less in 2016 since I won't be going down to Florida this winter and my taxes will be lower as well.
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01-01-2016, 11:38 AM
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#3
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jul 2006
Posts: 11,401
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My lifestyle spending was more than 16% below budget. It has actually been pretty consistent since ER.
I had a tax refund in 2015, and my car loan was paid off during the summer, so my total spending, including debt repayment and taxes, was 2.82% of my investable assets at the time of ER, and 2.39% of investable assets on January 1, 2015. That's the lowest it's been.
However, I will be paying more tax this year because I have begun withdrawing from tax sheltered accounts early, to avoid massive RMDs and other bad things later.
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01-01-2016, 11:39 AM
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#4
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: St. Louis
Posts: 1,563
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We are coming in around 18k this year. Almost no taxes because of low income.
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01-01-2016, 11:43 AM
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#5
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jul 2008
Posts: 35,712
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I don't have a budget, but spent more than I thought I would when I started full retirement in 2012. It's still only 80% of what FIRECalc says I can, so no worry yet. Next year, I should be spending less. Maybe.
__________________
"Old age is the most unexpected of all things that happen to a man" -- Leon Trotsky (1879-1940)
"Those Who Can Make You Believe Absurdities Can Make You Commit Atrocities" - Voltaire (1694-1778)
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01-01-2016, 12:05 PM
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#6
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Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: New Orleans
Posts: 47,500
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tmm99
How did you do last year? Stuck to the budget? Any surprises?
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BIG surprises. Other than buying my dream house in cash in 2015, I stuck to my plans! (Edited to add: To clarify, I found my dream house without actively looking for it, as it more or less "fell in my lap", so to speak. Originally I had no idea I would be buying a house in 2015.) My portfolio is obviously way down, because I spent so much, but I had some excess so I am still within a reasonable WR.
Luckily SS began for me in 2013 so that helped. Lately I had been thinking about how I can't take it with me, and ramping up my spending in ways that make me happy. This is why I bought my dream house and it does make me very, very happy.
My spending, other than expenses related to moving, buying a house, and selling a house, was $740 more than 2014.
Expenses of moving, buying a house and selling a house were where most of the increased spending went. This morning I withdrew my spending money for 2016, which is more than I withdrew in previous years. It is still a reasonable WR, even though my portfolio is down.
__________________
Already we are boldly launched upon the deep; but soon we shall be lost in its unshored, harbourless immensities. - - H. Melville, 1851.
Happily retired since 2009, at age 61. Best years of my life by far!
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01-01-2016, 12:19 PM
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#7
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Mississippi
Posts: 1,894
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No big surprises, expenses will be a little over $16K. Not really a budget to stick to but just track spending to know where it went.
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01-01-2016, 12:30 PM
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#8
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Nov 2009
Posts: 6,695
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I had some health issues in 2015 which included a hospital stay. I'm fine now but I finally paid the hospital bill the other day (so I could deduct it on my 2015 income tax return). I had a 15% spike in my overall expenses which I do not expect to repeat in 2016 so my expenses should return to normal in 2016.
__________________
Retired in late 2008 at age 45. Cashed in company stock, bought a lot of shares in a big bond fund and am living nicely off its dividends. IRA, SS, and a pension await me at age 60 and later. No kids, no debts.
"I want my money working for me instead of me working for my money!"
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01-01-2016, 01:21 PM
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#9
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Apr 2012
Posts: 2,929
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I spent $30,500 in 2015 - right on the target I set.
Only 18-24 months to go before the mortgage is paid off, and then I'll be rolling in dough! Whatever will I do with those bazillions of dollars in the budget?
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01-01-2016, 01:24 PM
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#10
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Rio Grande Valley
Posts: 38,139
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Have to wait for all my credit card statements to come in. But through Nov was projected to be slightly under budget. I think this year may be the closest we'll have come to spending the budget. We'll see.
__________________
Retired since summer 1999.
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01-01-2016, 01:35 PM
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#11
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: Feb 2014
Posts: 731
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Will come in under our planned budget.
But then I purposely built in margin.
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01-01-2016, 01:51 PM
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#12
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Administrator
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: N. Yorkshire
Posts: 34,124
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The year we retired, 2010, I took 3% of the 1/1/2010 savings figure and added it to my pension, making that total our target spend. Each year since I have increased the target spend by the inflation rate as measured by the CPI. Not a very scientific way of doing things I know, but it is just a target. I retired right on my 55th birthday, DW is 9 months younger.
The first 4 years of retirement we were 20% or more below our spending target so this last 2 years we loosened the strings somewhat with a very extensive 5 months traveling trip last year in Australia, Vanuatu and New Zealand, and this year we had the purchase of a new car plus 5 months traveling in the US and Canada.
Last year we were over the spending target by 1%, and this year we were under the target by 1%. (pure luck in both cases).
__________________
Retired in Jan, 2010 at 55, moved to England in May 2016
Enough private pension and SS income to cover all needs
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01-01-2016, 01:59 PM
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#13
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: Ventura County
Posts: 1,433
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2015 was my last year of working and I was concentrating on saving rather than spending, so my expenses were a bit under 1.6% of my NW - less than half of what I saved. I expect that with additional travel costs expenses will rise significantly in 2016, my first year of ER, probably to 2.5% of NW. As both Firecalc and Fidelity RIP say I'm OK for 40+ years at over twice this level I'm not too worried.
(Famous last words: Here comes 2008 all over again - you can blame me.)
PS. I know the clever folks here are going, "Over twice 2.5% WR rate is safe? What gives?". The missing factor is a pension that will start next year putting out about 2% of my NW annually - so my spend rate will significantly exceed my WR.
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01-01-2016, 02:06 PM
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#14
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Colorado
Posts: 254
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No budget here, but I just checked Quicken and I did spend less than my pension. Yeah !
__________________
Don't you know that dynamite always blows down ? --- Moe to Curly
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01-01-2016, 02:26 PM
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#15
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Moderator
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Flyover country
Posts: 25,346
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Spent 7% less than budgeted for 2015.
For 2014, spending was 10% less than budgeted, so I have a pretty good record going.
For 2016, I expect to be much closer to the budget amount, due to some fairly expensive travel plans.
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01-01-2016, 02:46 PM
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#16
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 759
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Quicken says we spent $6271.05 under budget. I have a $2000 computer build in my Newegg cart but can't seem to click the "Place Order" button. Maybe I am too frugal
__________________
Retired July 2013 at age 49.
Lazy Portfolio Investor:
AA: 55% Stocks
35% Bonds
10% Cash
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01-01-2016, 02:52 PM
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#17
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Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: New Orleans
Posts: 47,500
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If it was me, I'd push the button! Life is short.
__________________
Already we are boldly launched upon the deep; but soon we shall be lost in its unshored, harbourless immensities. - - H. Melville, 1851.
Happily retired since 2009, at age 61. Best years of my life by far!
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01-01-2016, 02:55 PM
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#18
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jul 2006
Posts: 11,401
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LOL! I have a few hundred dollars worth of items in my Amazon cart, and I must admit I purposely held off pressing the button till 2016. Just wanted to see "how low can I go in 2015?", I guess.
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01-01-2016, 03:02 PM
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#19
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 7,372
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Not a great year for spending. We spent more than anticipated getting our previous house ready to sell, including a surprise $3K repair, the bank was willing to loan us $50k less than we wanted for the new house so $50k came out of the investments, the new house turned out to need a new furnace. (It was 20 years old so we knew it was due.). Withdrawal for 2015 was about 4.5% of assets. It was running under 3% before all the buying and selling craziness started. Even that will improve as Medicare and a $12k pension kick in 2 years from now and SS starts when I hit 70.
2016 should be better. Already I'm seeing the good effects of the downsizing: reduced mortgage, utilities, property taxes, insurance.
I think we can even afford a return to Iceland!
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01-01-2016, 03:06 PM
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#20
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: Ventura County
Posts: 1,433
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Gotta ask what's in your $2K build. I put one together from Black Friday sales last year for around $1K with pretty decent specs and I'm wondering what goodies the extra $1K buys now - Skylake CPU with a whole bunch of DDR4? Large capacity PCI SSD(s)? High end video card?
Mine has none of those things (4690K build so only DDR3, but running at 4.8GHz and using 500G SSDs for storage, it doesn't give up a whole lot to the newer builds).
Sorry to be nosy - PC building's just a hobby.
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