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Nords, you spent $13.8K to leave Hawaii ?? Now that's funny
Mostly a West Point graduation and a college-search trip, during which we heard that sentiment expressed about 10 times a day...
The ultimate irony of vacationing Hawaii residents is at Disneyland & Vegas, where it's not unlikely for half the residents on a hotel floor to be from the same island. I think the hotels & casinos recruit our demographic...
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Originally Posted by LOL!
Didn't I ask about charitable contributions last year? What happened?
But then they wouldn't be anonymous, would they?
We greatly expanded that program this year and will keep it up with a percentage of our investment returns.
__________________ *
* For more info see "About Me" in my profile.
Wife and I. I wont break down the numbers. Just expenses listed including tax
However in 2006 it was 50000 + or - 500
2007 50000
But it includes all the usuals. House repairs and the unexpected dental work. Plus a couple great vacations. It was curious how close the numbers were. If push came to shove we could reduce that amount by an easy 5000 which is what we budget for our vacations. It will probably go up this year due to having a roof done that is a fairly large expense.
For wife and I, $63,800 (excluding taxes), down 1.4% from 2006. Car expenses jumped almost 40% from 2006 (lots of costly repairs for my 7year old VW plus higher gas prices), grocery costs increased nearly 10%, and we spent almost 35% more on gifts (mostly cash gifts to help family members). But durable good purchases decreased almost 20% and our utilities cost cutting measures are starting to pay off with a 15% drop from 2006. The results are surprising as I thought we spent a lot more money in 2007 than we did in 2006 (it just felt like a very expensive year for some reason).
But in 2007 our tax bill came to a record $32,500 (includes Federal, state and FICA), up 16% though income was up only 7%.
__________________
DINKs, mid 30s, still working. FIRE portfolio = 25 x annual living expenses. Goal: FIRE Portfolio = 40 x annual living expenses and ESR by 2013.
Last edited by FIREdreamer; 01-01-2008 at 11:58 AM.
Including the 'exceptional' items we spent $202,976.
*Cash - I know this category is bogus, but such are the limits of my record keeping. In reality its a mixture of Food, Entertainment, and Transportation
Other notes on categories: 'Entertainment' includes eating out. 'Misc' includes public transportation. Lots of transportation costs (taxis) are hidden in that 'Cash' category, maybe even 8-10k worth.
__________________ Money's just something you need in case you don't die tomorrow.
Last edited by Maurice; 01-01-2008 at 01:27 PM.
Reason: fixed typos
Mortgage (12,397)
Property Tax (2,970)
Charity (5,040)
Home Insurance (762)
Auto Insurance (467)
Auto Gas (829)
Cable TV (636)
Phone (343)
Internet (219)
Electricity and Gas (247)
Water (219)
Trash (142)
Medical (713)
Veterinary (345)
Food (1,646)
Misc (2,727)
Total (29,703) (plus 65,287 in estimated income taxes)
This thread is a good inspiration for me to calculate my spending. This year total 2007 spending was $84,200 not including taxes. This included a one time cash gift of $12k, and expenses related to fixing up my condo for sale, as well as moving and refurnishing expenses.
I am thinking that my ongoing living costs will be about $60k a year now that I'm living in the city... it's more expensive than the suburbs where I spent $51k last year.
BTW for those of you who aren't sure how to calculate your spending, you might want to try my super simple approach. I have a single checking account through which all spending flows, and I just get a year end spending report on it from my bank. To make this work I needed to have a separate checking account that I use for all transfers... any money that will leave the account into another of my financial accounts. I am careful that any money going out of the spending checking account is actually spending, and any money going out of the transfer checking account is actually not spending.
Don't mean to hijack the thread, but I am just wondering how you guys do the record-keeping to keep track of all these categories? Do you use a digital tool like wesabe/yodlee/quicken or are you just unbelievably disciplined at keeping up spreadsheets?
I really liked my AmEx as they produced a nice end of the year categorized spending list for me, but now that I switched to the EmigrantDirect cashback card, I don't think they have that feature.
I try to do all my spending on credit, but some large expenditures can't be done that way (like my rent and electricity). Plus in NYC, many restaurants are cash-only, as crazy as that is.
I'd love to track all expenses as well, but i just know I am not disciplined enough if it requires paperwork...
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Dallas
Posts: 5,255
Quote:
Originally Posted by Olav23
Don't mean to hijack the thread, but I am just wondering how you guys do the record-keeping to keep track of all these categories? Do you use a digital tool like wesabe/yodlee/quicken or are you just unbelievably disciplined at keeping up spreadsheets?
I really liked my AmEx as they produced a nice end of the year categorized spending list for me, but now that I switched to the EmigrantDirect cashback card, I don't think they have that feature.
I try to do all my spending on credit, but some large expenditures can't be done that way (like my rent and electricity). Plus in NYC, many restaurants are cash-only, as crazy as that is.
I'd love to track all expenses as well, but i just know I am not disciplined enough if it requires paperwork...
For expenses, I have just one excel spreadsheet for each year. The biggest PITA was setting up the catagories. Every once in a while I'd have to add a new one. Most of our expenses are on 2 credit cards, so that makes it pretty easy. I post the other expenses when I receive the bills. The cash part goes into a misc fund, but it is never over $200 a month. If it were, I would separate those as well.
To me, this is an important step to retirement. We have to know how much it takes to pay the bills, where the money goes and what we could cut if there is a need.
Don't mean to hijack the thread, but I am just wondering how you guys do the record-keeping to keep track of all these categories? Do you use a digital tool like wesabe/yodlee/quicken or are you just unbelievably disciplined at keeping up spreadsheets?
I'd love to track all expenses as well, but i just know I am not disciplined enough if it requires paperwork...
Quicken. A few minutes a day or a half-hour a week.
What matters is finding a method that works for you. The software is pretty much a personal preference as is the degree to which you drill down into categories.
__________________ *
* For more info see "About Me" in my profile.
Don't mean to hijack the thread, but I am just wondering how you guys do the record-keeping to keep track of all these categories? Do you use a digital tool like wesabe/yodlee/quicken or are you just unbelievably disciplined at keeping up spreadsheets?
I really liked my AmEx as they produced a nice end of the year categorized spending list for me, but now that I switched to the EmigrantDirect cashback card, I don't think they have that feature.
I try to do all my spending on credit, but some large expenditures can't be done that way (like my rent and electricity). Plus in NYC, many restaurants are cash-only, as crazy as that is.
I'd love to track all expenses as well, but i just know I am not disciplined enough if it requires paperwork...
I do it on a spreadsheet. Once a month, I paste the activity from my Visa, the wife's Visa, and our checking account into a spreadsheet. From there I select a category for each line item and the spreadsheet totals it for me.
The problem I have is the 'cash' bucket becomes a catch-all which limits the utility of my system. I too live in NYC and spend a lot in cash. To really track that I'd have to take notes during the day or update a spreadsheet each night, something I'm probably not disciplined enough to do. One thing I could do is use my debit/credit card whenever I can, at least that would minimize the 'cash' bucket.
__________________ Money's just something you need in case you don't die tomorrow.
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Haven't found a way....yet!
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