Costs/cycle for expected replacement items

[Kronk]

However, if you have lived in a house for a reasonably long time, then empirical data (ie, the money that you have spent in the past), will be a pretty good indicator of the money you will spend in the future (adjusted for inflation). The assumption is in the course of a year you have replaced items on a regular basis because your income has come in on a regular basis. That is, you will not buy a new washing machine or TV if the roof is starting to look old. Conversely, if the roof suddenly needs to be replaced, then you will delay the replacement of other items around the house.

Actually, I'm reasonably on board with that. Most people kind of smooth their bigger expenses naturally. And I pretty much figure that my ER needs will be current expenses + monthly slush for emergencies. But I do appreciate a different way of looking at this. It also would make a nice sanity check to make sure that my home improvement / maintenance line item is in the right ballpark.

I am curious. Does your rolling 12-month average changes significantly over time?

Yes and no. The number I normally track doesn't include big ticket items, like a car. If I do a 12-month average of paying cash for a car at $15,000 (which we did last year), I'd have an inflated average expenditure that would suddenly drop to zero. I haven't had major ($5,000+) house expenses in the last couple of years, but maybe I'm getting to the point of having added costs due to deferred maintenance.

Just to emphasis the main point of my post, you can significantly alter your annual costs simply by making some rather modest lifestyle changes. For anyone looking at ER, a lifestyle change can shave 5 years or more off your retirement age. Trying to keep your current lifestyle with all the trappings makes ER unnecessarily difficult. The cost of clothes alone will drop significantly, not to mention all those things you buy on impulse - simply because you have the money to buy them.

Not sure if the original poster has that issue. I think you'll find that most people here are saving pretty aggressively, and don't have a whole lot more slack they can take up by reducing expenses. I'm currently living at the level I enjoy living at, which leaves a few grand extra every month, and I'm not willing to cut it further.

But I guess the gist of your point is that estimating expenses that occur less frequently than annually isn't really a good way to go about it. Personally, the closer I get to retirement (still 10+ years away), the more different ways I'll be looking at it, so I found this discussion useful.

 

[samclem]

Samclem,
I agree. I just crunched the numbers and even with a $350 rebate from the utility and a $300 tax credit, it doesn't make sense -- maybe in another 10 years (). Additionally, I was told that should there be a power outage, with a tankless model, you have no hot water and it requires electricity to ignite the gas (unlike standard or direct vent tanks).

-- Rita

If being able to work when there's no AC power is an issue, then you'll want a unit (conventional or direct vent) that has a pilot light. In addition, the fan on the direct-vent models won't work without electric power, so the WH won't operate.

Bottom line: If you want hot water when the lights are out, you'll need to get a unit with a pilot light and without a fan. (Hey, these are also the cheapest units--rejoice!)

 

[Gotadimple]

Yep! My thoughts exactly. Just found this on a search for 'useful life.' A listing of major home appliances and their useful life. The most comprehensive list I was able to find.

http://www.aham.org/ht/a/GetDocumentAction/i/5271

-- Rita

 

[haha]

I am wondering about interior and exterior repainting. Did I miss that?

 

[FANOFJESUS]

Well, in fairness, Rec7 told us he paid that $150 in 1990. So, right now that water heater probably looks a lot like soupxcan's water heater. Also, my figure was for a regular (non-direct-vent) gas water heater that I install myself. Four years ago, when I crunched the numbers regarding a high-efficiency direct-vent model, even assuming some increase in NG costs, it didn't make sense to me to buy one.
I doubt I'll be wanting to manhandle a water heater onto my flatbed trailer when I'm 80, so it would be wise to maybe include some increase in costs down the road for instalation. When we finalize this list, we'll need to include some comments regarding this point.

It was a regular one and we did the work. It was done in 1990 prices have went up like a rocket since then. The tank alone is I am guessing double. Not to brag but it does look better than soupxcan's.

 

[harley]

If being able to work when there's no AC power is an issue, then you'll want a unit (conventional or direct vent) that has a pilot light. In addition, the fan on the direct-vent models won't work without electric power, so the WH won't operate.

Bottom line: If you want hot water when the lights are out, you'll need to get a unit with a pilot light and without a fan. (Hey, these are also the cheapest units--rejoice!)

If you have a well, you're not going to be getting water during a power outage anyway, right? So you might want to add a generator to the list.

My mother just replaced a standard water heater last week. It was about $450 for the heater, with another $100 or so for the installation. I think she got a good installation price from the guys she always uses, so that might be a it of a low price.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Thats a great price. A decent 40-50gal HWH is $330-450 and I usually see around another $400 quoted for the install including delivery, haul away and minor to moderate code updates. If a platform needs to be built or any other major stuff is needed, thats extra.

 

[samclem]

If you have a well, you're not going to be getting water during a power outage anyway, right? So you might want to add a generator to the list.

Good point. I've got the generator, but it's not on the list because I forgot about it. This will be a very long durability item, as I don't run it much and take good care of it. The well pump was the highest wattage appliance I had to worry about, and drove me to buy a much larger generator than I otherwise would have. During a blackout we plan to run it for 30 minutes every once in awhile to pump some water into the bathtub and various jugs, recharge batteries, get the freezer cold again, run the furnace to get the house warmed up, then shut 'er down to save gas. If it's really hot out, we could run a room A/C unit, but that would be a luxury.

 

[harley]

During a blackout we plan to run it for 30 minutes every once in awhile to pump some water into the bathtub and various jugs, recharge batteries, get the freezer cold again, run the furnace to get the house warmed up, then shut 'er down to save gas.

Don't forget flushing the toilets. That's why we got ours.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Pssstt..dont flush them...you might need the water...