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06-19-2014, 10:27 PM
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#81
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Mar 2003
Posts: 18,085
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Quote:
Originally Posted by aja8888
NOT Travel - traveled for business for 35 years and hate the hassle these days. If we decide to do a vacation trip, we drive and take our sweet time.
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I am having a real hard time thinking of a reason to get on a plane. I will eventually get backed into it, but at least this year I don't want to set foot on a plane if I can help it.
__________________
"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."
- George Orwell
Ezekiel 23:20
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06-19-2014, 10:58 PM
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#82
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Jul 2012
Posts: 281
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Casino trips about 4x a year, that's my travel and entertainment.
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06-20-2014, 11:25 AM
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#83
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Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Portland
Posts: 4,946
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Hmmm...
If your means are sufficiently large, living below them is not particularly hard.
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06-20-2014, 11:39 AM
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#84
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Administrator
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: N. Yorkshire
Posts: 34,054
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Quote:
Originally Posted by M Paquette
Hmmm...
If your means are sufficiently large, living below them is not particularly hard.
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Exactly. We haven't needed to be frugal since we entered our 30's but always lived below our means, never had any debt other than a mortgage.
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Retired in Jan, 2010 at 55, moved to England in May 2016
Enough private pension and SS income to cover all needs
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06-20-2014, 12:39 PM
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#85
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Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 17,773
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I realized recently that we don't really look at what the things we want cost. Forever I counted pennies, clipped coupons, and shopped for the lowest prices on almost everything, not so much to put extra $$ away for the future but to enable us to raise two kids through college. Now that DH is 65 and I'm two years behind him, we are starting to exhale a little and enjoy ourselves in the time we have left.
So our splurge I guess is not looking at the price tag any more. Fortunately we don't have many high-end wants.
__________________
“Would you like an adventure now, or would you like to have your tea first?” J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
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06-20-2014, 12:39 PM
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#86
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Bastrop
Posts: 88
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Options
Horrifically frugal by nature, after LYBM'ing for so many years I have much pent up spending demand. So...just spent almost $4K on new bed, mattress (best sleeping experience of my life!), and bedding. Also just spent $2300 on a new sofa and chair. All should last 20 years or so because they're high quality. I've learned (the hard way) that quality lasts and is cheaper in the long run. Then just spent more than a few hundred on casual clothes because I have none.
Next spring I will buy a new MBZ to reward myself for making it to ER. I don't believe material things bring happiness, but they can bring satisfaction if bought wisely/optimally, which is something else entirely.
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+1. I got tired of cranking on cheap weed eaters and chain saws and having to buy new ones. I'll pay extra for a Stihl any day and be done with it for quite a while. This pretty much applies to all of my household goods. Not necessarily top of the line, but the best bang for the buck. I enjoy doing my homework on that.
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06-20-2014, 12:48 PM
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#87
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Bay Area
Posts: 2,745
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It's good to see/know that despite financial conservatism I see in this forum, most of you are making good use of your money to enjoy life.
Pura Vida.
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06-20-2014, 01:23 PM
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#88
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Administrator
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: N. Yorkshire
Posts: 34,054
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Quote:
Originally Posted by johnnyfuego
+1. I got tired of cranking on cheap weed eaters and chain saws and having to buy new ones. I'll pay extra for a Stihl any day and be done with it for quite a while. This pretty much applies to all of my household goods. Not necessarily top of the line, but the best bang for the buck. I enjoy doing my homework on that.
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+2
We got married at the end of our junior year in college and bought our first car a month after we graduated ready to start work (at the same company as it happened so only 1 car needed). It was a pretty old 850cc mini and I bought a hand-book, a very long screw-driver for getting at radiator clamps and a single wrench, 2-ended that I was told would fit most all the nuts I'd need to get at. Happy days, but it was nice to get through the first couple of years without needing to borrow money, other than the 95% mortgage on our first house, which we bought 3 months after starting work, the $800 down payment took every penny we had.
__________________
Retired in Jan, 2010 at 55, moved to England in May 2016
Enough private pension and SS income to cover all needs
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06-20-2014, 04:05 PM
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#89
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Moderator
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Eastern WV Panhandle
Posts: 25,299
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Quote:
Originally Posted by robnplunder
It's good to see/know that despite financial conservatism I see in this forum, most of you are making good use of your money to enjoy life.
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Well, that IS the point of the whole exercise.
__________________
When I was a kid I wanted to be older. This is not what I expected.
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06-20-2014, 09:11 PM
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#90
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: May 2013
Posts: 725
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Trawler
Boats and Booze
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+1 Same for me.
__________________
“If you don't do it this year, you will be one year older when you do.” - Warren Miller
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06-21-2014, 07:48 AM
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#91
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 782
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Travel mostly, except for that recent trip to Rogers & Holland for 40th anniversary present for DW.
__________________
***********
My motto is.... "a dollar saved is better than a dollar earned. I don't pay tax on the dollar I saved."
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06-21-2014, 07:54 AM
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#92
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jun 2013
Posts: 2,518
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I look for coupons to eat at the most expensive restaurants.
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06-21-2014, 09:23 AM
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#93
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Pacific latitude 20/49
Posts: 7,677
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Travel - one trip to Europe or other bucket list destination each year
We also snowbird in Mexico but that has turned out to be an LBYM activity and the extravagance is living in Vancouver for 6 months to keep our health care current.
Alcohol - wine with every evening meal and vodka/brandy
Entertainment - our bill for Internet and TV is high but we enjoy movies and surfing in retirement. I don't count our computers and smartphones. They are essential, right? I run older XP laptops for movies and scanners/printers not supported by Mister Softie under Win7.
Dining out - yes not eating out. We eat in but when we go out, DW wants a fine dining experience. No Applebys or Mickey Ds for us. Except to treat the grandkids.
Housing - we rent out our Vancouver place while away. This is probably our main LBYM activity. But after home swaps and purging stuff, we have it down to a science.
Gifts and grandkids - Investing for their university education and gifts every year.
Our budget has declined by 25% since retiring 12 years ago. We shop seniors' days at local stores and look for bargains by habit. We consider managing loosely to a budget. We buy our liquor on Tuesday when it is on sale in Mexico. We are building an inheritance and a charitable windfall. It is not by design but by chance. It also serves as a buffer during downturns. Buy and hold here!
__________________
For the fun of it...Keith
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06-21-2014, 10:54 AM
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#94
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jul 2008
Posts: 35,712
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My original goal was to do 2 foreign trips + 2 domestic trips a year, and we even did that for 3 or 4 years when I was still working part-time and my wife already retired. Back then, we had frequent mile deals as my wife traveled for business quite a bit. The domestic trips were the chances for us to exchange our timeshare, which was already a sunk cost. We traveled frugally. No fancy hotels or resorts unless my wife got special deals due to work travel again.
Then, we bought the 2nd home then the RV, so cut back on the foreign travel and fly-and-drive trips. Next came a serious health problem, which subsides for now, so I am looking to do more travel soon.
By the way, my sister and her husband have been doing even more than the 2+2 trips like I described above, and some trips were for a month or more. However, they do not have a 2nd home or an RV like I do.
I like to travel more now before I get older.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kcowan
Dining out - yes not eating out. We eat in but when we go out, DW wants a fine dining experience. No Applebys or Mickey Ds for us...
Our budget has declined by 25% since retiring 12 years ago...
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We eat at fast food and chain restaurants perhaps once or twice a year, and it was for convenience when traveling as we do not consider that as eating out. I am not a picky eater, but when eating out I like to go to places that do things differently or better than we can at home. We do not eat out just to eat out, and both of us like to cook.
And by the way, your spending is going down just like Bernicke's study showed. I think mine will too.
__________________
"Old age is the most unexpected of all things that happen to a man" -- Leon Trotsky (1879-1940)
"Those Who Can Make You Believe Absurdities Can Make You Commit Atrocities" - Voltaire (1694-1778)
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06-21-2014, 11:20 AM
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#95
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Kansas City
Posts: 7,968
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Quote:
Originally Posted by eta2020
LBYM depends on your age. For 70 or over I would use minimal IRA distribution calculator:
Required Minimum Distribution Calculator – FINRA
3.79% at 70,
5.65 at 80,
9.6 at 90.
You can't take to a grave.....
For someone below 50 2% withdrawal rate is LBYM IMO. But I am conservative ,other people may fell different....
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With 71 on the horizon, 21 yrs of ER under my belt, I will loosen up and party. After the IRS takes their cut.
remodeling here and there, food, travel and maybe a new vehicle.
heh heh heh - still back check with ORP and FireCalc to stay in the ballpark. If I screw up and pass with too much on the table - perhaps a nice headstone so pigeons can sit and poop.
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06-21-2014, 11:41 AM
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#96
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: South Texas~29N/98W Just West of Woman Hollering Creek
Posts: 6,671
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Prior to ER about 10 years ago we splurged on very few items. Since ER we splurge on whatever moves us to splurge on. A lifetime of self control and sane management pays dividends forever.
__________________
Part-Owner of Texas
Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. Groucho Marx
In dire need of: faster horses, younger woman, older whiskey, more money.
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06-21-2014, 12:23 PM
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#97
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Apr 2013
Posts: 11,078
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We splurged some back before RE seemed possible. After we could see the dream was real that changed. I guess the biggest yearly outlay was about 35k we spent in handguns, rifles, reloading equipment, and supplies. We really don't need 5 high end 1911s, but what the heck. Zombie repellant.
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06-21-2014, 01:05 PM
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#98
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 392
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Travel for us as well. 25% of our post retirement budget is travel.
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06-21-2014, 02:16 PM
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#99
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: May 2012
Posts: 421
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Sometimes I keep the library books past the due date!
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06-21-2014, 02:23 PM
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#100
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Dryer sheet wannabe
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Richmond
Posts: 18
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Wine. We don't buy high-dollar wine but we do buy what we like. Maybe books but I only buy from thrift or second-hand book stores - I just tend to buy more than I can read
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