steelyman
Moderator Emeritus
.Just another opinion all in good fun.
My opinion is that this opinion is a good opinion (say what?). I see no harm in keeping detailed records and taking the time to post/share in a thread like this.
.Just another opinion all in good fun.
Who’s trying to convince you to track your spending differently? That’s your business, no one here is criticizing your approach. And I missed the post where someone was worried about spending minutiae.Interesting how some are very detailed....like down to toiletries, toothpaste etc.
I don’t see the point or any need to keep track of that level of minutia. If I ever do...shoot me.
All the major expenses to really be concerned about like property taxes, auto and home insurance, utilities, cell phone-internet-cable, auto, health insurance and groceries are all pretty much fixed expenses. No surprises there.
Sure, there will be the occasional outlier expense pop up. That’s why we have a checkbook.
That’s just me. Life is to short to be thinking...”Honey, why was our toiletries expense $3.87 higher than last month? Did you buy an extra tube of toothpaste? You need to clear that with me first.” Lol.
I’m to busy living life!!! Grandkids, Tennis, guitars, church, good wines.......
I was only making the observation that some people go into extreme detail and other people like me do not no one said it was bad or good
THis is what I visualized after attempting (unsuccessfully) to tally up last years spending, which contained DD's wedding (I paid for it), two newer cars, helping DW's daughter move and paying for her rent for 6 months, and some very expensive medical stuff Medicare wouldn't cover:
View attachment 30426
Budgets were blown and new stuff was not previously budgeted for.
THis is what I visualized after attempting (unsuccessfully) to tally up last years spending, which contained DD's wedding (I paid for it), two newer cars, helping DW's daughter move and paying for her rent for 6 months, and some very expensive medical stuff Medicare wouldn't cover:
View attachment 30426
Budgets were blown and new stuff was not previously budgeted for.
no one said it was bad or good
Life is to short to be thinking...”Honey, why was our toiletries expense $3.87 higher than last month? Did you buy an extra tube of toothpaste? You need to clear that with me first.” Lol.
Who said someone was trying to convince me?
No one. Geez
I was only making the observation that some people go into extreme detail and other people like me do not no one said it was bad or good
I don’t see the point or any need to keep track of that level of minutia. If I ever do...shoot me.
That’s just me. Life is to short to be thinking...”Honey, why was our toiletries expense $3.87 higher than last month? Did you buy an extra tube of toothpaste? You need to clear that with me first.” Lol.
I’m to busy living life!!! Grandkids, Tennis, guitars, church, good wines.......
.
That’s just me. Life is to short to be thinking...”Honey, why was our toiletries expense $3.87 higher than last month? Did you buy an extra tube of toothpaste? You need to clear that with me first.” Lol.
I’m to busy living life!!! Grandkids, Tennis, guitars, church, good wines.......
.
As a recently retired person, I still need a financial plan - I would hate to realise too late that I frittered away too much money on toothpaste and now we can't afford new tyres or the annual holiday.
Yikes! I was trying to make light and have some fun with the super trackers and the non trackers like myself. Was not my intention at all to offend. Thus the
LOL.
I’m out
These unforeseen expenses can be pretty rugged! I hope your older son is doing well. And as for your younger son's wisdom teeth, believe it or not, I had one break through for the first time last fall, at age 70!! Maybe now I'll become wiser?Ok.... Spent more than planned due to unforseen medical expenses for older son.
Family of 4, spent about $99k.
Biggest expenses were: $11k in medical and dental (after insurance....) older son had a short hospitalization resulting in us hitting his deductable and OOP expense. And at the end of the year younger son had his wisdom teeth out - since we don't have dental (and most dental insurance doesn't cover anyway) $3k in wisdom teeth surgury.
With two teenaged boys, that seems pretty good. Most boys that age eat a lot IIRC.Groceries were just under $12k... which was our budget.
Since we officially had inflation, I think a lot of us will be spending a bit more this year.WR (from our investments) was 3.15% from our beginning of year nest egg. 3.31% from the original, at retirement, budget, no inflation adjustment. But we have additional income from rental, DH's ss, and my micro pensions. We did withdrawal more this year, for the first time. We haven't increased for inflation in previous years.
The Italy trip will be fun and so educational for the boys at that age. It's hard to believe that your oldest is college age already! They grow up so fast.Next year will be a bigger withdrawal because we are planning a big Italy trip for the summer. Every 4 years (while we have kids under roof and on our travel budget) we do a europe big trip - about 4x our annual travel budget.
Older son starts college (hopefully) in the fall. But we have 529 funds, that I don't count in our nest egg, that will hopefully cover his expenses.
Ok.... Spent more than planned due to unforseen medical expenses for older son.
Family of 4, spent about $99k.
Biggest expenses were: $11k in medical and dental (after insurance....) older son had a short hospitalization resulting in us hitting his deductable and OOP expense. And at the end of the year younger son had his wisdom teeth out - since we don't have dental (and most dental insurance doesn't cover anyway) $3k in wisdom teeth surgury.
Groceries were just under $12k... which was our budget.
WR (from our investments) was 3.15% from our beginning of year nest egg. 3.31% from the original, at retirement, budget, no inflation adjustment. But we have additional income from rental, DH's ss, and my micro pensions. We did withdrawal more this year, for the first time. We haven't increased for inflation in previous years.
Next year will be a bigger withdrawal because we are planning a big Italy trip for the summer. Every 4 years (while we have kids under roof and on our travel budget) we do a europe big trip - about 4x our annual travel budget.
Older son starts college (hopefully) in the fall. But we have 529 funds, that I don't count in our nest egg, that will hopefully cover his expenses.