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View Poll Results: My annual household expenses excluding taxes is:
$24,000 or less 29 10.70%
$24,001 to $36,000 35 12.92%
$36,001 to $48,000 47 17.34%
$48,001 to $60,000 50 18.45%
$60,001 to $72,000 34 12.55%
$72,001 to $84,000 23 8.49%
$84,001 to $96,001 18 6.64%
$96,001 or more 35 12.92%
Voters: 271. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 11-02-2008, 10:38 AM   #41
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I was going to post a number, but then there were so many caveats. The way RIT asked for the number, I calculated $40,600 per year. It should be way less than half that amount after the kids are grown and gone and the mortgage is paid off. Probably closer to one third.

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Demographics: single, three kids with me a third of the time. Newer modest house, older modest car, reasonable mortgage.

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Old 11-02-2008, 11:09 AM   #42
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Single, grad student, living with a roommate.

Expenses including rent (not including income tax or tuition, which are both much larger ): $9k/year
Expenses not including rent: $3k/year

I can use up to $48k/year, inflation adjusted, once I graduate, to meet my savings goal of retiring at 40. I will probably use most of this the first year, due to buying a house, but plan to otherwise use significantly less than this and ramp up into it. I will probably have a roommate for company and to reduce the big expenses (the downsides of this are very minimal for me), at least until I find the person to spend my life with.
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Old 11-02-2008, 11:17 AM   #43
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We spent 52000 last year. This year we are on track to spend 60000. We had to put 6000 into the house. Of course if I count the new car we are looking to spend 31000 more this year But normal expenses were inline. Entertainment was more this year we did more traveling.
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Old 11-02-2008, 11:31 AM   #44
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Right now it looks like I will be around $44,000 this year. That does include $4500 for my Berlin trip last spring and a new washer and dryer that I used my rebate check on. I also had a new tile bathroom floor installed in the basement for about a thousand. I really hope I can stop doing "extra" things like the tile floor during this next year. Seems like there is always something that needs to be repaired.
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Old 11-02-2008, 11:50 AM   #45
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Without taxes, or DW generosity around Christmas, we're just south of $3000/month. After DD graduates into her own post-graduation job next year (I hope), it should be closer to $2400-$2600 I think. Of course the real trick is to equalize the income and expenses and minimize those "one time expenses" taken from the nest egg without living the life of a hermit. It's still 4%, right?
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Old 11-02-2008, 02:15 PM   #46
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3200 sqft Condo in SW Ohio - No mortgage or car payments - two people retired for past 6 years-

Our basic living budget is just over $60k not including prop taxes, fed and state taxes, and savings. The Basic Expenses have been going up about $4k/yr since retiring in early 2003.

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Old 11-02-2008, 02:24 PM   #47
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Old 11-02-2008, 03:49 PM   #48
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I indicated $48-$60. We could make due with less but are comfortable where we are.
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Old 11-02-2008, 07:34 PM   #49
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Since I started tracking my expenses in detail, I surprised at how much I spend on beer each year!
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Yes, but that's a necessity, a staple, is it not?
Wouldn't that fall under "medical expenses"? It's a medication used to help reduce the stress and the queasiness caused by rollercoaster stock market rides.
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Old 11-02-2008, 07:48 PM   #50
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We've never calculated it. When I was W*orking, my best year including bonus was about 135K. Being Canadian, I willingly coughed up about 45K in tax. At that time we also saved a bit & spent 20K on kids doing higher ed.

Now, we don't track expenses. I guessed that we need 60-72K$. Less than we were spending (at the peak) on tuition, savings, taxes, KD etc.

Bear in mind that to generate 60-72K we need to tap the investments to the tune of about 3%. FireCalc says "ALL RIGHT".
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Old 11-05-2008, 03:23 PM   #51
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I did not and will not vote. Reason: I don't know yet where we fit!

Following are our actual expenses, as I obtained from my wife's spreadsheet. You see, as I keep track of our portfolio and our income, my wife keeps track of our expenses. As LBYM practitioners, we have not had the need to budget since we married 28 yrs ago. As long as we stuffed our 401Ks, and IRA or Roth in the years when we qualified, and still had plenty leftover to take to the Scottrade and Ameriprise "casinos", who cared? Found a good airfare to Europe? We're on!

As long as our "cash buffer" (checking account) ran in the high 5 figures, who needed a stinkin' budget?

After coming to this forum, and see how the real early retirees plan their expenses, I suddenly realized we have been way too casual. Yes, the recent market performance plus my fortuitous stock picks allowed us to splurge, but something has changed. I am still making some money from free-lance part-time work, but that may dry up.

Yes, we have been LBYM'ers, but it's time to realize that our means have taken a "haircut". And what if it takes another haircut, ie. a "crew cut"?

Anyway, here are our actual past expenses.


2001: $45.1K
2002: $43.4K
2003: $66.9K
2004: $58.2K
2005: $122.0K
2006: $111.0K
2007: $92.8K
2008YTD: $83.4K

Horrendous fluctuations! And it seems our expenses have reached a "permanently high plateau", to borrow from Irving Fisher.

A little reflecting showed me what happened. In 2001 and 2002, I had some family and career traumas, in addition to being post 9/11, so we did not spend much. Then, in 2003, I suddenly realized that I could never take it with me, and we discovered Europe travel. Of course we got hooked. And the bull market kept feeding my accounts. It was great when we went trekking for 2 weeks, and came back to discover we had more than when we started. Being budget travelers, we could not spend it fast enough.

Then, in 2005 my wife quit her megacorp work in disgust. Great! As I was working only part-time, we had even more time to travel. And then, we spent more money to remodel our 2nd home in the mountain. And our children started college. And we started to buy our own medical insurance.

As all good things must eventually end, WallStreet collapsed, taking the economy and my stock values with it.

We are still OK though, with the 73% of the highwater mark in Oct 07, of which 68-70% is currently in cash and I-bond, while the other 30% is fluctuating wildly.

I just have to sit down to see what are truly "one-time" expense items. I remember the past press releases from one of my former megacorp employers. In the early 90's, when there were doubts that it might not survive, its quarterly reports heroically put a positive spin on the earning, or lack of it thereoff. "Excluding these one-time items, we would have made $xxx per share". The problem was there were always some one-time items, one quarter after another.
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The Good Life Awaits you
Old 11-05-2008, 03:50 PM   #52
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The Good Life Awaits you

Really low expenses...

1 sack of beans
1 sack of rice
1 box of shotgun shells plus all the varmits I kin' catch

you can live the good life too !

Stop workin' and start livin'
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