Who is Spending Less This Year?

[Milton]

A prescient article from two years ago: U.S. Personal Savings Rate.

Quote:

Originally Posted by fmhealth I'm spending MUCH MORE! Just retired in Jan of this year. My children recently moved from Cleveland to Scottsdale. Instead of costing us about $100.00 to drive & stay with them every two months. We now fly & rent a condo. Total cost around $2,500 for an incremental increase of $2,400/trip or about $10,000/year.

Perhaps you should consider moving to Scottsdale on a permanent basis.

[megacorp-firee]

We're spending more ... but it was part of 'THE PLAN'.

Travel and indulging in my vices (aka Las Vegas, ... my excuse is that this is how I keep my raging hormones in check ... that's my story and I'm stick'n to it! ).

The important part is that it is part of the plan. Unless something real bad happens (yeah ... it's not bad enough yet ), I will continue with my plan. After 57 years, it's too late to second guess myself. So far it's (planning your w*rk, w*rking you plan) gotten me here...

Leave with the girl you brought to the dance, I say.

[beowulf]

You actually know how much you spend I try to do this a different way - since we are both still working, I care more about how much we are saving. While I track major expenses, I'm not yet into the track everything on a spreadsheet mode. What I do know is that we are increasing savings every year at a rate exceeding our salary increases. I suppose that tracking expenditures is the only way to do it once you are not accumulating - maybe next year. It's going to be a real shock to our psyches not putting anything away and just pulling out. Have to resist the urge to buy the 100 lb bag of Alpo :-)).

[megacorp-firee]

Quote:

Originally Posted by restonham You actually know how much you spend I try to do this a different way - since we are both still working, I care more about how much we are saving. While I track major expenses, I'm not yet into the track everything on a spreadsheet mode. What I do know is that we are increasing savings every year at a rate exceeding our salary increases. I suppose that tracking expenditures is the only way to do it once you are not accumulating - maybe next year. It's going to be a real shock to our psyches not putting anything away and just pulling out. Have to resist the urge to buy the 100 lb bag of Alpo :-)).

We're in distribution mode (i.e. retired) and it's the 1st year, so being a compulsive planner, I am tracking what we spend to see if it matches my plan (which it is, ... so far).
When working we tracked our savings also. ... and the shock (pulling out) is not as great as you would think... as long as you have anticipated them.

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by restonham You actually know how much you spend I try to do this a different way - since we are both still working, I care more about how much we are saving. While I track major expenses, I'm not yet into the track everything on a spreadsheet mode. What I do know is that we are increasing savings every year at a rate exceeding our salary increases. I suppose that tracking expenditures is the only way to do it once you are not accumulating - maybe next year. It's going to be a real shock to our psyches not putting anything away and just pulling out. Have to resist the urge to buy the 100 lb bag of Alpo :-)).

Yikes. I'd strongly urge you to track your total spending, at least in some reasonable layer of granularity, prior to reaching the "not accumulating" phase. Once you're no longer working and living off your nest egg is no time to discover your expenses exceed a reasonable withdrawal rate.