Review my retirement budget expenses

[Cap_Scarlet]

Putting the finishing touches to our retirement plans and have gone through our expenses in detail but want to get some input on things I might not have thought about. This is a European budget in € (add 10% for $) so some things may be less expensive than the US (health insurance) but some will be a lot more (car insurance). A lot of the things are based on actual payments or current bills. I'm interested to know what people spend on in retirment that they did not spend on while working. anything which looks odd? All observations appreciated!

Household
Property tax 282
Waste	84
Electricity	720
Heating	1.560
Sewage	140
Water	50
Gardener	700
Boiler Service	200
Bank Chgs	64
Subtotal	3.800
Insurance
Building & contents	640
Health - Me	4.768
Health - DH	1.203
Health (perscription and own cost)	600
Subtotal	7.211
TV, internet, communications
Satellite	60
TV Licence	302
TV subscription - internet	396
TV subscription - netflix / Amazon	144
Magazines	120
Music	240
Internet	450
Telephone	1.200
Subtotal	2.912
Cars
Petrol	1.800
Ins & Tax	5.000
Service	600
AA	80
Subtotal	7.480
Personal spending
Food	6.000
Alcohol	1.200
Cleaning Products	600
Dog	600
Clothes	2.400
Skiing	1.500
Cash	2.400
Gifts	2.100
Subtotal	16.800
Total regular expenses	38.202
Discretionary / One time expenses
Overseas holiday	15.000
European Trips	4.000
Other local trips, meals and days out	5.800
Home maintenance	4.000
Miscellaneous	2.400
Subtotal	31.200
Total expenses	69.402

 

[DrRoy]

I did not see anything for automotive depreciation/replacement.

 

[mystang52]

Presumably, based on how well you can pin down your expenses, you can afford them and they are within a SWR. To your question, for the most part we do not spend any more - or less - than we did before my ER. About the only extra $$ I spend now is for my Bridge games, about $30 US per week.
Plus, there's the extra gas (petrol) I use because I will sometimes drive relatively far just to use my bicycle on a new bike path.
So, we basically have not changed our budget.

 

[Cap_Scarlet]

I did not see anything for automotive depreciation/replacement.

Good point. At the moment we both have newish cars and would downsize to one assuming there is no money coming in. I also expect we would downsize to less expensive vehicles but overall you're right there should be something in there.

 

[Cap_Scarlet]

Presumably, based on how well you can pin down your expenses, you can afford them and they are within a SWR

Yes, that would put us at about 3% of current taxable investment assets.

 

[mountainsoft]

I assume this is an Annual budget and not monthly?

282 for property taxes? Wow, I wish, ours was $4200 this year and we have a small 1500 sq/ft house on less than two acres.

1200 for telephone? Is that a landline, cell phone, or both? I would think you could find cheaper alternatives. We pay under 300 a year for VOIP phone service, and our Tracfone service is usually around 100 a year per phone.

 

[W2R]

I did not notice any income tax amounts, or any dental expenses unless they were covered by your medical insurance.

Personally I spend more than I spent when working and saving for retirement. Right now I am doing a lot of discretionary spending, and plan to cut back on some of that if/when the market crashes.

 

[Cap_Scarlet]

I assume this is an Annual budget and not monthly?

Yes it is .....otherwise I certainly wouldn't be here ;-)

282 for property taxes

I guess its just a question of where they grab you. We have car insurance tax of about €85 a month (each).

1200 for telephone? Is that a landline, cell phone, or both?

Thats two mobiles and a landline and may be excessive (my cell is currently 100% by w**k)

 

[Cap_Scarlet]

I did not notice any income tax amounts, or any dental expenses unless they were covered by your medical insurance.

Those are net expenses - i keep income tax separate and when I am retired most will in any event deducted at source (on dividends and interest).

Dental is within health insurance. There may be a deductible which is within other.

 

[OldShooter]

No plan survives first contact with the enemy. The only way to verify it is to actually start living it and see.

As far as looking for something odd, I would have to see a column of numbers that reflected actual spending/average for the past few years and understand any major differences.

Planning a budget is a bit like planning a program to lose weight. It's not the planning that is difficult. It is the execution.

 

[Blue Collar Guy]

I assume this is an Annual budget and not monthly?

282 for property taxes? Wow, I wish, ours was $4200 this year and we have a small 1500 sq/ft house on less than two acres.

1200 for telephone? Is that a landline, cell phone, or both? I would think you could find cheaper alternatives. We pay under 300 a year for VOIP phone service, and our Tracfone service is usually around 100 a year per phone.

less than 2 acres. nice, im living in terms of feet,3000 Square feet, of which i just learned that of the 3000, 857 of it is green space(lawn maintenance company measured it. i pay $6200 for 3000 square feet.

 

[ABQ2015]

Since you welcome all contributions, are you including haircuts, manicures, pedicures, beauty products and personal care items, vitamins and supplements, over the counter medications (e.g. cold remedies), etc? As a woman, I spend a good amount of money on that category. Replacement costs of appliances and electronics? I assume you and your spouse clean the house yourself. And pets have cost me more than $600 a year, especially as they age and require more medical care. Even a pet dental cleaning can cost more than $200. Just a note but living in the southwestern US, I find the $50 a year water bill to be incredible. With a lawn, my bill is at least $100 a month.

 

[Cap_Scarlet]

Since you welcome all contributions, are you including haircuts, manicures, pedicures, beauty products and personal care items, vitamins and supplements, over the counter medications (e.g. cold remedies), etc? As a woman, I spend a good amount of money on that category. Replacement costs of appliances and electronics? I assume you and your spouse clean the house yourself. And pets have cost me more than $600 a year, especially as they age and require more medical care. Even a pet dental cleaning can cost more than $200. Just a note but living in the southwestern US, I find the $50 a year water bill to be incredible. With a lawn, my bill is at least $100 a month.

All contributions definitely welcome!

For me there are no haircuts (I do it myself - buzz cut) and my BH has hair cut every couple of months (which goes out of cash). We don't buy any OTS medicines (my BH has medication for migraine on prescription).

As for replacement electronics - that could come into the equation somewhere although we have fairly new stuff. Nevertheless you're right and something should go in the budget.

The dog is old and has already had a couple of very expensive operations but I don't think she could go through another one hence relatively low cost (and we're decided not to have a dog for a few years after shes gone).

We do clean the house ourselves but we also get a gardener a couple of times a year for bushes and other things we can't do ourselves.

 

[Cap_Scarlet]

As far as looking for something odd, I would have to see a column of numbers that reflected actual spending/average for the past few years and understand any major differences.

It would've been a lot higher but mainly one offs like we rented a second house for a year. We bought two new cars etc. Those things are now gone.

 

[socca]

Very interesting - thanks for posting. I had to google your region to find out where it's located - it looks scenic and peaceful.

A couple of minor observations:
• most budgets use round numbers (rounded up, usually), to increase the probability of staying within budget. For example, if I were doing your budget, I would round your health insurance up to €5,000 / year.
• my second-highest budgeted expense (taxes are #1) is for non-recurring necessary expenses such as roof replacement, A/C replacement, etc. Your €4,000 / year may be OK for your situation, but it's much too low for mine.

 

[Cap_Scarlet]

Very interesting - thanks for posting. I had to google your region to find out where it's located - it looks scenic and peaceful.

It is, thank you. Plus it has great skiing in the winter (€1,500 in my budget)

A couple of minor observations:
• most budgets use round numbers (rounded up, usually), to increase the probability of staying within budget. For example, if I were doing your budget, I would round your health insurance up to €5,000 / year.

Its based on a quoted figure - but I take your point, easier to use round sums and leave a smallish buffer.

my second-highest budgeted expense (taxes are #1) is for non-recurring necessary expenses such as roof replacement, A/C replacement, etc. Your €4,000 / year may be OK for your situation, but it's much too low for mine.

No need for A/C! Our house is reasonably new (2008) and therefore some of the big stuff should last a few years. We are having the house painted this year which will come out of pre-allocated funds. Other than that I would hope (expect?) that I would only spend €1-2K per year with the balance accumulating for bigger one off items.

 

[walkinwood]

I can't comment on your numbers, but from my own experience, your SWR should be comfortably (say 10-15%) higher than the total above. Yes, you could tighten your belt if needed, but the idea of ER is to enjoy your life and a life spent watching pennies isn't a great one - not to me, at least. Starting with a budget somewhat more than you need gives you the flexibility to cut back more easily if conditions demand.

And you have way too little allocated for booze!

 

[W2R]

And you have way too little allocated for booze!

W2R's booze allocation: $0.00/year except for my last month of life, when I might want to spend $5 and drink a toast to eternity.

 

[Koolau]

W2R's booze allocation: $0.00/year except for my last month of life, when I might want to spend $5 and drink a toast to eternity.

Heh, heh, maybe drinks are "on the house" in the afterlife. YMMV

 

[Luck_Club]

Alcohol is right in line with 20% of your food consumption