Poll: Standard of living before & after retirement.

[donheff]

I voted "smooth" but on reflection I am probably spending a bit higher since I travel more now. I didn't include savings, college tuition, and taxes as "spending" from my work years. Those were temporary and when included in the calculation my pre-ER cash flow was much higher than today's.

 

[happy2bretired]

I voted smooth even though I'm more fugal on a monthly basis than I was when working. I also spent more last year for maintenance on the house (furness, a/c, windows, patio door) and also buying a new car this year. I'm hoping to replace these big ticket items now, just in case we are hit with higher inflation rate at some point.

 

[Dawg52]

About the same although I will start to pump up my travel budget a bit going forward.

 

[grasshopper]

Don't really have a spending plan or watch over standard of living. We just live the same as before and always seem to have plenty of cash to do anything that we want to do and not fret over financial matters at all.

That is us to a T.

 

[HighRoller]

I voted "Smoothed" - I plan to spend about the same. My first full year in retirement was pretty much on target.

 

[Bestwifeever]

We are definitely spending on ourselves much more now than during most of my working years. We are also enjoying it much more.

We are not denying ourselves in the BWE house, let's just say.

 

[Walt34]

Smoothed, or perhaps a bit more but not by much.

 

[jim747]

Smoothed but costs will go up in a couple areas when I quit my "retirement" job. I'll have to start paying cell phone and will lose some company vehicle benefits.

 

[karluk]

I voted "smoothed". We will need to replace the windows in our house soon, which would put us in the +20% category. But that's a one-time expense that would have occurred whether or not I continued working.

I expect our biggest reductions in spending to come from reduced payroll taxes - income taxes should remain about the same - and going from being a three car family down to only two cars. As far as increases in spending, it's likely we'll do more traveling. Other than that, we're comfortable with our current lifestyle, so I don't expect a lot of changes day-to-day either for increases or decreases in spending.

 

[Brett_Cameron]

I voted smoothed. Expenses have not changed much.

 

[retire2020]

planning to spend same as I do now. Voted for smoothed.

 

[W2R]

We are definitely spending on ourselves much more now than during most of my working years. We are also enjoying it much more.

We are not denying ourselves in the BWE house, let's just say.

Same here. I have never spent this much before, I can afford it, and I am unashamedly enjoying it, too.

 

[audreyh1]

I planned on more, because I knew when we retired we'd have TIME to spend more. And we wanted to do a good bit of traveling - something we had no time to do while working. Before we were way too busy working and saving to spend any money.

I think retired folks tend to get a big jump in standard of living anyway: you don't have to commute, spend money on work-related clothing, spend money for tasks you don't have time to do. Once retired you have time to research and take advantage of major deals. You can enjoy leisurely vacations. When working, vacations tend to be more expensive because you are rushed.

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

We better be able to live on 20% less, maybe a lot less.

One planning problem is that due to working outside the country, it is impossible to track expenses that can be projected to when we are home and retired.

Sometimes I despair. DW wants to keep the 2 cars and the house. I have a Plan B in case reality becomes impossible to ignore.

 

[misty57]

I voted "live it up", but only because I know that we will be spending more on travel and other leisure activities that we do not have time for now. I also suspect that leisure activities will cost more in the earlier years of retirement and wane as the years pass.

DH should be RE in the next quarter (age 56) and we are looking forward to "hitting the road".

 

[FUEGO]

Smoothed.

We plan to live about like we do now, but hope that investments will grow over time to such an extent that we can slowly ramp up spending. Not an ER deal breaker if that doesn't happen though.

We do have an extra retirement vacation budget that represents around 20% more than we spend now if we didn't take any vacations, but some years we do spend a significant amount on vacations, so on average the increase would be less than 20%, hence roughly smooth (pun?) spending before and after ER.

I largely ignore work related expenses in our budgets and planning since I view those as a cost to produce income. Of course post-ER work expenses will be zero as compared to thousands we spend right now annually on work related expenses.

 

[David1961]

I voted smooth, although my expenses have gone down slightly - mostly in gas and food. No big surprise that my gas expenditures has gone down. I attribute my lower food spending on the fact that I'm cooking more and eating at home more.

 

[dtbach]

Definitely in the "live it up" camp here. Before FIRE, we lived on about $5K/mo (take home after taxes, SS, medicare, HCA, etc). We were socking away 25% of income for retirement.

Now after FIRE the after tax situation is $8250/mo. So going on vacation, eating out (hmmm, think I'll have 2 appetizers and yes that desert looks good too), theater, and charity, all get a higher amount and we still LBYM.

Life is good.

 

[MBAustin]

I voted "smoothed" as day to day things aren't much different. Some things are higher and others lower. Although our official IRS income is much lower, we budgeted to maintain our charitable giving at ~10% of our pre-retirement income, so that's a much higher percentage of our budget than it used to be.

 

[Badger]

It appears that I saved more than I needed to so now I need to learn how to spend before I lose out on the fun of being FI. I think I'll have 2 beers tonight.

Cheers!

 

[kz]

Definitely spending more in retirement. Health care, vacations, and eating out are the main culprits. And I can't believe how much we are spending on clothes. Hubby had always been the shopper in the family but I'm running right along side him lately. Luckily for us he took a part-time job that pays well and he loves so that's our fun money. Haven't dipped into retirement money yet but if we keep taking vacations at the rate we've been lately we will be withdrawing from the IRAs.

 

[palomalou]

We expect to spend more in NYC than we do now in flyover country. Probably not the full 20% though. Will eat out a bit more, have access to higher quality/variety of groceries, and go out more. Will give it a 6 week test drive this summer (we did a 3 week in 2010). Report upcoming.

 

[jclarksnakes]

We will have quite a bit more to spend in retirement than we have been spending. I attribute this part to luck and part to hard work and LBYM.

 

[rodi]

My plan is "smooth" for spending. We will have a smaller income stream, but will no longer be saving for retirement, paying FICA, etc. And if the timing of retirement works out - no more mortgage. (I may retire earlier than the official plan if I get laid off. House due to be paid off Jan next year... so it's a race.)

Higher health insurance costs will eat some of that savings. We'll also continue to fund the kids 529's for another 8 years.... so that's another big expense that isn't going away.

But day to day spending should be smooth once you take out mortgage p&i and 401k contributions.

 

[Rambler]

I've already replied once to this thread, but I've been thinking about it some more:

Does spending directly correlate to standard of living? I have to say that, by not working, I no longer have the opportunity to eat at high-end steakhouses on work related dinners. However, I also do not have to "endure" those dinners that sometimes lasted 3-4 hours. So, while the poll was structured around money, I have to say that even though we spend less, my "living" standard has improved. I eat better, I sleep better, I get more exercise, have less stress, and most of all, I have more time. Is this not a higher "living" standard?

R