How much do you live on?

[wanaberetiree]

I am getting criticized and disbelieved when I say that for my family - 2 people, with no mortgage on house and health care by my employer (~400$ mo excluded) we spend ~30-35K.

Can you vote on the poll please?

Regards

 

[calmloki]

Wanaberetiree you might have noted that people who vote in your poll have their names appended to the dollar number they vote for. Perhaps you weren't aware of that when you set the poll up. People who are shy might have a problem with learning they had posted their annual spending on a non-anonymous poll.

 

[aaronc879]

I didn't vote. Where's the <$20K/yr option? I'm single with a paid off mortgage. I will end up at just under $12K this year while making mortgage payments for part of the year. I should spend under $10K/yr going forward.

 

[Martha]

Wanaberetiree you might have noted that people who vote in your poll have their names appended to the dollar number they vote for. Perhaps you weren't aware of that when you set the poll up. People who are shy might have a problem with learning they had posted their annual spending on a non-anonymous poll.

I took the liberty with some old moderator powers I still have to edit the poll to remove who voted for what.

 

[NW-Bound]

I do not know how to vote. As mentioned earlier, I have been sloppy in tracking expenses, and when I looked at the records that my wife has been keeping the last 10 years, our annual expenses ranged from the $40K to more than $110K. Yes, the high number corresponded to a year when we had a lot of "one-time" expenses, while the low number was earlier when my children had not entered college and I did not have a 2nd home.

I still don't know what our expenses will be. Still trying to figure that out. Also still have some time to delay the day of reckoning, as I am still bringing in part-time income. That part-time work may have to last a while.

 

[Alan]

I assumed that it did not include income taxes when I voted.

 

[MasterBlaster]

I could live on $3k per month ($36k/year) given paid housing, health care, and taxes.

But take that $36k you need, add in close to $20k/year for health care and maybe another $10k for taxes and were up to $66k.

So, for your modest lifestyle one might really need $66k year gross plus a paid off house. Note that's approximately double what you spend.

 

[Sue J]

With the house paid off, no other debt and the kids done with college I'm surprised at how little we live on. Based on the last 6 months (since DH retired) it's just under $32k for the year. That includes all the taxes and our medical costs.

This should be even less going forward as we recently replaced our old leaky windows from 1955 and one of our sons moved out. I'm expecting some significant savings in utilities.

 

[youbet]

I am getting criticized and disbelieved when I say that for my family - 2 people, with no mortgage on house and health care by my employer (~400$ mo excluded) we spend ~30-35K.

Can you vote on the poll please?

Regards

So....... As long as you had the money to pay cash for a house and an unaccounted for extra $10k or so for health insurance that your employer now provides, you can live on $35k/yr?

 

[youbet]

I could live on $3k per month ($36k/year) given paid housing, health care, and taxes.

But take that $36k you need, add in close to $20k/year for health care and maybe another $10k for taxes and were up to $66k.

So, for your modest lifestyle one might really need $66k year gross plus a paid off house. Note that's approximately double what you spend.

+1

It's mighty hard for these "I live on a nickle a day" surveys to mean much. Things are usually far from apples to apples.

BTW, as long as DW takes care of all my physical and emotional needs, I don't need a cent to live on. I couldn't vote, there is no zero expenses category.

 

[youbet]

I took the liberty with some old moderator powers I still have to edit the poll to remove who voted for what.

Thank you.

 

[Nords]

Reminds me of the moldy golden oldie, "33%":
http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f28/33-thats-my-story-13934.html

Or these other claims, perhaps not so golden:
http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f28/50-a-day-no-way-14108.html

http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f28/50-per-day-revisited-15638.html

 

[lets-retire]

As soon as my mortgage is paid off, I'm sitting at right near 24k.

 

[obgyn65]

Is this survey for retirees, w*rking people, or everyone ? I would assume (perhaps wrongly) that retirees tend to live on less than w*king people, hence biasing your results if one group only answers.

 

[wanaberetiree]

I took the liberty with some old moderator powers I still have to edit the poll to remove who voted for what.

Thank you, I did not know about this option.

 

[Alan]

Is this survey for retirees, w*rking people, or everyone ? I would assume (perhaps wrongly) that retirees tend to live on less than w*king people, hence biasing your results if one group only answers.

First year of retirement and, as planned, our expenses are up by 20% due to lots of travel. Next year should be similar.

 

[youbet]

First year of retirement and, as planned, our expenses are up by 20% due to lots of travel. Next year should be similar.

Similar here. The only expense that diminished with retirement was commuting, a few $k/yr. But health insurance, travel and leisure and hobby expenses are way up.

And it's just great!

 

[Alan]

Similar here. The only expense that diminished with retirement was commuting, a few $k/yr. But health insurance, travel and leisure and hobby expenses are way up.

And it's just great!

Ditto on those commuter expenses - first thing we did was sell a car and move to a much smaller town. We both had 50 mile round trip commutes every work day, but now the average journey is under 10 minutes lot.

 

[NW-Bound]

First year of retirement and, as planned, our expenses are up by 20% due to lots of travel. Next year should be similar.

Similar here. The only expense that diminished with retirement was commuting, a few $k/yr. But health insurance, travel and leisure and hobby expenses are way up.

Just what I am afraid of, hence have to keep busy with the part-time work to keep from spending more money.

Anyway, those old $50/day threads sure are interesting and I am going to read through them. I have read frugal full-time RV bloggers who seem to do fine and enjoy themselves, but they still need around $24K/yr, yet boondock a lot to save on camping fees, which of course can be more than $50/day already. Their expenses were realistic because they included repairs and maintenance to their RVs, occasional computer replacements, etc...

By the way, my mother has a fine time living on less than $30K/yr. She owns her home, and only has Medicare Part B premium to worry about as far as medical costs go.

 

[Alan]

By the way, my mother has a fine time living on less than $30K/yr. She owns her home, and only has Medicare Part B premium to worry about as far as medical costs go.

Health care is still the big bogeyman lurking in the wings. So far we are still covered by my retiree insurance - long may it last !!

 

[bbbamI]

There's a difference between 'living' and 'living it up'.....

Right now, by budget is in dah middle of dah road.

(...oh...and this is under FIRE Related Political Topics? )

 

[73ss454]

Just hit 60K spent so far this year. Not including 17K for a new car.

 

[SecondCor521]

I could make arguments for any number from about $12K to about $64K, but actual expenses this year are running towards the latter figure; that is everything - taxes, child support, mortgage interest, utilities, etc.

Although it doesn't include mortgage principal payments because Quicken treats those as a transfer to reduce the mortgage balance. I suppose if you want to add those in add about another $7K per year.

So I voted for the $60-$80K option.

My alleged retirement budget is about $19K per year in a few years, but even that excludes college expenses for my kids, because I segregate those.

It really all depends on how you count.

2Cor521

 

[FIREd]

$60-80K a year for the two of us seems to be the norm.

 

[NW-Bound]

I would say that for $60K, most people would not feel deprived, except for the big spenders.

Can we talk about 4% SWR or 2.1% SWR now? That's the real bogeyman to me. Oh well, I think I can still afford the RV-in-the-NM-mountain lifestyle in the worst case. I am covered.

Wait... I forgot about the medical bogeyman. It is sad when one just wishes to get old quicker to qualify for Medicare.

Nah, medical care is overrated anyway. We all die sooner or later, and sooner may not be bad with some diseases I have seen.