Spending

[Martha]

To coincide with DanTien's poll, interested in what retirees are spending a year.

 

[wabmester]

How do you define spending?   Some of our biggest expenses were for remodeling -- is that considered spending or capital improvements?

And for large purchases, do you amortize?

Taxes?

 

[RockMiner]

Why the bi-modal distribution?  I'm shocked that no one falls in the 40-50k range..I thought this was the most commonly quoted ER spending level!

Waiting for more data...

 

[preben]

$5k/month seems to be the winner sofar - I expected that actually. Personally I have not had a full year in FIRE yet (but almost) but around $15-20k/year seems to be the cost pic for now (based in Thailand before somebody asks what cat food I enjoy the most ) Cheers!

 

[laurence]

O.K., between the 8 million dollar net worths, and the 200k a year outflow, we have some people who want to adopt me around here! Martha, weren't you going to?

 

[FlowGirl]

Why the bi-modal distribution?  I'm shocked that no one falls in the 40-50k range..I thought this was the most commonly quoted ER spending level!

Waiting for more data...

Yeah, I was expecting more in the 40-50K range as well.

 

[Lancelot]

$5k/month seems to be the winner sofar - I expected that actually. Personally I have not had a full year in FIRE yet (but almost) but around $15-20k/year seems to be the cost pic for now (based in Thailand before somebody asks what cat food I enjoy the most  ) Cheers!

Jeez Ben, in Thailand you can afford cat food on $20k annually? I spend $13.2k, but I'm eating out of trash cans and begging to get by...

 

[SteveR]

Jeez Ben, in Thailand you can afford cat food on $20k annually? I spend $13.2k, but I'm eating out of trash cans and begging to get by...

So what kind of cat makes the best cat food?

 

[Outtahere]

I asked my 71yr old dad what he spends now, he said his yearly expenses are about $20,000 a year. They don't travel or have a cell phone but do have cable. He said right now his biggest expense is food but that doesn't surprise me since his 91yr old FIL drives down every day for lunch, the "kitchen" is always open with the coffee on for neighbors who come and go all day and he cooks Sunday breakfast for anyone that shows up (mostly kids and grandkids) which is a lot of times 15 to 20 ppl.

 

[Martha]

How do you define spending? Some of our biggest expenses were for remodeling -- is that considered spending or capital improvements?

And for large purchases, do you amortize?

Taxes?

I just kept it simple. It is only a snapshot of what people spent last year, whether in regular expenses or a big capital improvement.

 

[astromeria]

Since DH is still working, I kinda sorta don't count as retired as we're living off his income.

My 79-yr-old retired mother spends everything SS and her IRA RMD dump into her money market account. At the moment, that's ~$35k--and she occasionally dips into principal for more, like last year when she bought a new house and got some new furnishings.

 

[SteveR]

I did not vote because I still work. But like some of the others, I can discuss what my mother spends since I do her finances for her.

She is selling her house so she still has some expenses like taxes, insurance and utilities but otherwise it is paid off.

She lives in an Assisted Living center. That runs her $35,000/year

She has no car (can't drive). So no auto expenses.

Her other biggest expenses are medical above Medicare and contributions to her church.

Her total runs about $40,000/year. Before Assit. Living, it was $6k.

 

[preben]

He,he - have you not heard that the all-you-can-drink-for 4 hours deal have increased to 150 Baht($3.50)!?
I had several one time purchases as I moved into my apartment so I will be closer to your costs in the future I think - now where are the best trash cans?
Beers soon? Cheers!

Jeez Ben, in Thailand you can afford cat food on $20k annually? I spend $13.2k, but I'm eating out of trash cans and begging to get by...

 

[Lancelot]

He,he - have you not heard that the all-you-can-drink-for 4 hours deal have increased to 150 Baht($3.50)!?

$3.50 for all I can drink for 4 hours? Outrageous! Those tourists have ruined it for us Ben...

Yes, lets meet for beer soon, before they raise the price again!!! I want to hear about your Viet Nam trip

Lance

 

[tryan]

Interesting that ~40% can function on 40k or less. Must be family dynamics.

No way a family of 4 can survive on less than 40k on the northeast. Heck, healthcare alone is more than 10k.

 

[kz]

Our first (partial) year in retirement cost us much more than I thought it would.

Planned expenses were new carpeting, landscaping, and health insurance.

Unplanned expenses were son #1's unexpected wedding (he left for Iraq), son #2's apartment/moving expenses (graduated college and rec'd job offer in Chicago), a 3rd vehicle (son #2 didn't want it anymore), and a 50" TV for hubby. (the man is spoiled)

2006 will be much cheaper!!

 

[SteveR]

Ok, those 7 people (so far) that claim they are living on $15k or less; are you also getting any Gov. assistance, i.e., food stamps, etc.? I am not trying to be nasty, just wondering, since a family of 4 could get some assistance from a variety of state and/or Fed. programs at this income level.

 

[Spanky]

We are pretty frugal - small vacation expense ($5,000), hardly eating out, no new furniture or appliance, etc. However, our expenses still run into the $45 to $50K range. It's hard to image spending less than $50K.

 

[preben]

I am guessing (as I spend a bit more) than SOME live abroad. Also; we seem to be focused on familys here - I am not so sure that is the norm for most FIREd people. Single/w. partner/kids left the nest or whatever are options too.
I am single and live abroad so my cost picture can look very different from others. Cheers!

Ok, those 7 people (so far) that claim they are living on $15k or less; are you also getting any Gov. assistance, i.e., food stamps, etc.?  I am not trying to be nasty, just wondering, since a family of 4 could get some assistance from a variety of state and/or Fed. programs at this income level.

 

[Lancelot]

Ok, those 7 people (so far) that claim they are living on $15k or less; are you also getting any Gov. assistance, i.e., food stamps, etc.?  I am not trying to be nasty, just wondering, since a family of 4 could get some assistance from a variety of state and/or Fed. programs at this income level.

No government assistance for ole Lance. But I do pan handle on the streets of Bangkok and eat from dumpsters quite often...



Mai pen rai na...

Lance

 

[brewer12345]

Interesting that ~40% can function on 40k or less.  Must be family dynamics.

No way a family of 4 can survive on less than 40k on the northeast.  Heck, healthcare alone is more than 10k.

My real estate taxes are a shade over $6k alone, and I'm living in a ~2k square foot house in a ho-hum middle class area. If I stay here for any length of time after FIRE, it will require more than $40k.

 

[kat]

My real estate taxes are $2.8k, so I agree that alone makes a difference. With mortgage paid off, and no kids, I can keep my expenses very low very easily. My favorite activities -- hiking, snowshoeing, cross country skiing -- are free after you plunk down the $ on gear that lasts a long time. I plan to keep my four year old Honda another eight years or more. I still have income coming in from work, and that's for the extra pot.

 

[Martha]

A year ago a thread was started on living on $36,000 a year. This was one of the most viewed threads on this board. http://early-retirement.org/forums/index.php?topic=1604.0

A year before that another popular thread was started on living on $50 a day.
http://early-retirement.org/forums/index.php?topic=258.0

Maybe we need a new thread--living on $200 a day.

Median so far is around $50,000, but our self selected small sample probably doesn't mean much.

 

[retire@40]

Interesting that ~40% can function on 40k or less.  Must be family dynamics.

No way a family of 4 can survive on less than 40k on the northeast.  Heck, healthcare alone is more than 10k.

The problem with a poll asking "how much did you spend last year" is that you are going to get answers from single people all the way to married folks with many children.
So this is more of an average household spending poll.

What we need is one of those sophisticated polls with categories like single, married, married with one child, married with 2 children, married with 3 children, married with more than 3 children.

 

[greg]

I roughly totalled our spending for this month, our first time in a number of years. $3000. Ahhhhhhhhhhh! The money is whizzing out of our pockets. I thought we were living a rather semi-frugal lifestyle, but there are so many non-recurring items that look like they--or similar ones--that will keep occuring so that it now appears frightening. I bought snow tires (should last 4-6 years-$140), replaced a windshield ($350--no deductable applied), a by-pass for the water heater on the camper ($75). Other than those items, everything was a regular monthly expense. And the irregular ones will happen regularly because if it's not one thing it's another. And this doesn't even include pornography

Possible solutions: Become fake Amish, wearing one set of dark clothes everywhere we go and bring a picnic basket with us that includes ham bologna sandwiches and fresh fruit, fly to Hawai and stand on a busy corner with a sign that says "Will work for poi," crawl in the basement and hide under the bed, or suck it up and just complain about taxes and inflation like everybody else..

Seriously, we are going to delve into the budget and see where we can slash and burn. We have zero regular monthly payments other than utilities and it's still $2500/mo expenses.

Thank God we have this board for cheap thrills, have Dan for our adult entertainment, REW to keep us me honest amused, and JG for spiritual guidance. So I start by counting my blessings, so far three. The good-bad ratio is currently 3:3000. Ahhhhhh!

--Greg