There's a thread in the "Hi, I am...." forum where someone said that he would need approximately $110,000 (or was it $120k? I don't remember the exact amount) to cover expenses in retirement. Someone responded, suggesting that the OP might be overestimating his expenses. It got me wondering because I've estimated that we would need approximately $106k if we wanted to retire today.
Spouse and I have kept track of our expenses for an entire year and I'm wondering if some expenses should be left out of our future expense estimates.
Our annual expenses are broken down as follows:
Mortgage: $42,979 (we pay more than necessary so that we can be free and clear sooner
Maintenance: $5,526 (we live in high-rise condo)
Utilities: $1,765
Food & Wine: $5,801
Entertainment: $1,890
Clothes: $1,273
Gifts: $1,772
Transportation: $2,290
Doctors: $3,225
Lunch (we don't pack a lunch for work): $2,275
"Other" (e.g., haircuts, magazine subscriptions, postage, etc.): $5,214
"1-Times" (e.g., we bought furniture): $7,253
Vacation: $10,455
Other Getaways: $2,908
Total: $94,650
Without the mortgage payments, expenses would be $51,671. But when we retire we'll need to pay for health insurance. And then there are taxes. Spouse loves to travel so the vacation expense is pretty much non-negotiable. And I'm a big wino
so cutting the expense for wine is a no-no (I usually buy cheap Chianti at approx. $8/bottle by the case).
Should we not be counting the expenses in the "1-Times" category? It's a category that has expenses that don't recur regularly, but aren't there always going to be "1-Time" expenses? Last year it was furniture, next year it may be something else, maybe not. I don't think my expense estimate is too way off. Would love to get different opinions.
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