Frugal and retired - anyone alse?

[Major Tom]

I sold my house and bought a condo. That’s been a great move not only financially but I have made 4 really good friends in my building.

This reminded me of an article I read recently. I don't remember where I read the article, so cannot go back and re-evaluate it for credibility, but it made a lot of sense. The author was quoting the results of a survey, which indicated that when people made big changes in their lives, they nearly always ended up experiencing greater happiness, regardless of whether the change had been deemed fully successful or not. This makes a lot of sense to me. I think that the process of dealing with change helps us to feel more engaged and fully alive. In living through change, we often cast off old habits that, although they might have been very agreeable, had become perhaps a little too familiar and predictable. We also are forced to adapt, form new habits, and engage with new (to us) people.

Glad that your big change worked out well for you Teacher Terry!

 

[jollystomper]

I tend to be frugal on almost all the "little stuff" (don't buy drinks at a restaurant) but near spend thrift on the big stuff (where I live - a HCOL are to be sure.)

I would agree with this. we avoid the small but (in our view) overpriced items. When we eat out we always drink water. I still mow our lawn as the lawn moving services around here charge the equivalent of buying a new low end riding mower every 12-18 months, I can still physically do it, and it only takes 90 minutes to perform the task. I look for bargains when buying various computer/electronics parts (my main hobby), and look for open source versions of software applications that I want to use (which I will donate money towards when I find them useful). We will still look for sales when shopping, and we tend to shop at bargain clothing stores.

We are not cheap when it comes to others - close to 20% of our retirement spending has been for others (charity and gifts). I "blame" my parents, even though we barely clawed to middle class while I was growing up, they were still very charitable to others (though I think it hurt my dad when he tried to be a landlord), a lesson I will always remember.

But for big things, we will splurge. I related a few months ago spending $16K on a trip to Paris than, if we chose to do it frugally, could have done it for probably $4K, but we felt it was worth it. And while my car buying has been good used cars 2-3 years old with relatively low mileage, my next car purchase might well be a brand new car - at 65 I am thinking this might be my last or next-to-last car purchase opportunity, so why not splurge.

It still fascinates me that, in five years of retirement, where we have modified our frugality approach as described, (tough to make a sudden change are tried to not be very frugal, we still have more).

 

[HI Bill]

Frugal? In some things. I don't fly first or business class. I do 'upgrade' to get reserved seats, and like to stay in 4-star hotels. I ended working up 5 years longer than my original goal of FIRE of age 50. This was so that we could afford increased travel and a house. What's the point of "Frugal Fire", if there there are things you reasonably want to do or have, but can't afford them? I wanted to be able to retire in a high COLA, and still afford to be able to buy toys, scuba dive, travel, and have some of the many things I put off for decades when LBYM. Now, I tend to buy the best I can reasonably get, and my wife gets purses that cost what some of the best DSLR bodies cost nowadays. Carpe Diem! I'm using VPW to maximize our spending, especially during the first 15 years of ER!

 

[brett]

Pre covid our routing was to spend 8-9 winter weeks in Thailand/Malaysia/Australia and 8-9 weeks in southern Europe during the fall.

Last time we had a connection from San Francisco-Singapore. 17.5 hour flight.
When we booked, business class was too expensive. SO...I waited until a week, perhaps two to blastoff. I was able to buy an upgrade to a lay flat business class seats for less than half the price that was offered at time of booking.

We had done 20 plus cruises. The vast majority have been late booking balcony cabins. Booked anywhere from 3 days out to 30 days out. Med, Caribbean, South America, Alaska. We may watch pricing on three Med ships. When one drops the price down to our target price we buy it.

 

[Mark2024]

Is it just me? This thread about "frugal" has turned into another "BTD" one.

 

[marko]

Is it just me? This thread about "frugal" has turned into another "BTD" one.

Frugal = LBYM, where "M" is relative to each individual and "B" is often situational but "L" is what it should be all about. "Y" is "Y not stretch B sometimes to enjoy a little more L?"

 

[Surewhitey]

Still frugal, but lessening on travel specifically. Learning to enjoy the food experience in our travels too. Probably upped spending in general ~10% for 2 years straight. DW wants to continue working, so I keep my trap shut if she wants to do something like a girls trip to Mexico... We don't need anymore, so spending what we make is the pre-retirement fun. Not that we spend 30-40% of take home.

Still mow the grass and fix most things around the house. Just scored a "new" washer /dryer set from a client that was only 5 years old... Score!

Neighbor was just throwing out his dryer and took our old one too. Get free, give free.

 

[Sittinginthesun]

Make lots, save lots, spend lots.

 

[timbervest]

It may not be alot but I find shopping online for products/trips/accommodations overseas (like a tour or a hotel) the price is quoted in USD and local currency. I always purchase in local currency using my credit card and invariably when I look at the statement the USD amount charged is a much better conversion rate -- sometime by several percent. I had the same experience when traveling internationally. Most vendors wanted us to pay by card in USD but I always ask for local price. My hat tip to frugality.

 

[djsander]

We are frugal do to my wife. When we met she was the saver and I was the spender. She did whip me into shape. We use coupons at the grocery store, do our major grocery shopping on the first Wednesday to get the senior discount, always ask for senior or veterans discount where ever we go. We live beneath our means and will continue to. We could spend twice as much as we do, but we have everything we need or want. When we make a purchase we research it and will try to buy the best for the best price. Cars are held 10-15 years. Probably most things that people think about. Always looking to save a buck.

 

[brett]

I stopped buying name brand jeans, name brand shorts.

I found the the Costco Kirkland brand products were better. They wore better/lasted longer, and cost 1/3 of the price. Value based decision. I could care less about the label. Learned that years ago from a buyer in a large dept. store where I worked during university.

We always buy in local currency. We use a specific credit card for FX purchases that does not charge the hidden 2.5-3 percent admin charge that some cards charge. When travelling and staying in smaller places we always ask for a discount for cash (or an upgrade of some sort). Works especially well in Italy and Greece. Not usual to score a 10 percent discount just for asking. We also find booking direct gets us a better room that using a booking engine.

We also buy in different countries. Our last three Mexican AI stays were purchased through a UK agency because of price. . We purchased an OZ/NZ cruise from RCI by calling their reservation center in Sydney vs using our on line US agency because there was a 30 percent price difference. Same for some Aerolineas domestic air tickets booked direct with their BA call center vis their 1 800 NA number.

Sometimes NA travel sites are not the best place to book hotels, air, cruise, etc. There are differences.

 

[LateToFIRE]

Make lots, save lots, spend lots.

+1

This is me. I don't have the frugal gene. In my young adult years I didn't understand the concept of saving very well. I came from a hand-to-mouth situation growing up in hardship and I longed to escape to the Emerald City, make a lot of money and live the good life - and live it I have at the expense of extremely hard work and some big bets to acquire it.

Been there, done that on most of life's luxuries, and I'm glad for that because now I know from my own experience what of it is important to me and what of it is not.

But, that's not the end of the story. Fortunately, I married into frugal. DW was raised by extremely frugal folks, comes from a long line of frugal DNA. At first we argued about money, but ultimately reconciled our differing views arriving somewhere towards the middle - me focusing on bringing home big slabs of bacon, her focusing on trimming the fat and packing that bacon into the meat locker.

My in-laws also set a prime frugal example. At first they were puzzling to me - I'd scratch my head watching them focus on saving nickels on the smallest things, when clearly they had the means. They just could not bring themselves to BTD with few exceptions.

In time, I absorbed their mindset, and while I wouldn't exactly call myself frugal today, as we have what most folks would call a very nice standard of living, I'd say we've had a highly focused intentionality on spending, savings and investment.

For example, my (mid-luxury) car has 150K miles on it and plenty of beauty marks but I don't intend to buy a new one for a couple more years, though I could easily write a check for a new one without giving it a second thought.

Is that being frugal [when I'm pulling into my million dollar driveway]? It's all relative.

 

[Gumby]

You paid a million bucks for your driveway? Wow!

 

[pb4uski]

Yeah, I wonder what the house is worth if the driveway was $1 million?

 

[Koolau]

Is it just me? This thread about "frugal" has turned into another "BTD" one.

Heh, heh, you'll get used to that after a while.

 

[LateToFIRE]

You paid a million bucks for your driveway? Wow!

Yeh, it's one heck of a driveway

 

[LateToFIRE]

Yeah, I wonder what the house is worth if the driveway was $1 million?

You really don't want me to answer that question.

 

[Time2]

Yes we are frugal, living on $70K to $75K. About a 3% withdrawal rate, SS will start soon, dropping that to less than 1%. We want for nothing, not sure what we would spend more on. We have 3 vehicles, but they range from 1997 to 2009 and provide all we need. The 1997 is the daily driver. Our splurge will come when we start SS, I promised my wife we would upgrade the kitchen, I'm afraid that might start a snowball rolling . As in the carpet needs replacing, upgrade the bathrooms.
Luckily we had a hurricane 5 years ago and our home received $50k worth of outside repair, $90k total property. The hurricane also convinced my wife to retire as our small (tiny) business was demolished. It was 1 year to get back to normal, but for me, a blessing very well disguised. I can't say that out loud to the people here, as it was horrible. 5 years later there are still a few roofs with tarps on them.

 

[teej1985]

Yes we are frugal, living on $70K to $75K. About a 3% withdrawal rate, SS will start soon, dropping that to less than 1%. We want for nothing, not sure what we would spend more on. We have 3 vehicles, but they range from 1997 to 2009 and provide all we need. The 1997 is the daily driver. Our splurge will come when we start SS, I promised my wife we would upgrade the kitchen, I'm afraid that might start a snowball rolling . As in the carpet needs replacing, upgrade the bathrooms.
Luckily we had a hurricane 5 years ago and our home received $50k worth of outside repair, $90k total property. The hurricane also convinced my wife to retire as our small (tiny) business was demolished. It was 1 year to get back to normal, but for me, a blessing very well disguised. I can't say that out loud to the people here, as it was horrible. 5 years later there are still a few roofs with tarps on them.

If you have a 1% withdrawal rate, I certainly would recommend replacing a 1997 car with a car that has modern safety features.

 

[LateToFIRE]

If you have a 1% withdrawal rate, I certainly would recommend replacing a 1997 car with a car that has modern safety features.

I'm all for driving cars into the ground, given most cars are depreciating assets, BUT this is kinda where I draw the line - safety and reliability are bigger priorities than saving $$$.

 

[old medic]

Yeh, it's one heck of a driveway

If you live in a place called Lake Adger... Ive been to your house