What percent of your spending is recreation?

[TheWizard]

Similar to a few others, I don't keep track or categorize my spending in retirement, now in my tenth year.

OP asks what percentage of my "spending" is for recreation, not what percentage of my retirement income.
About one third of my retirement income is needed for basic expenses, so I suppose up to 2/3 could be used for recreation, but I don't spend it all: I invest a portion of the excess.

I do have trips to Indonesia, Japan , and Australia in the next six months so I'm spending some of the excess.
But I can't give you a percentage...

 

[rrs26ja]

Vacation Only

Our vacation is currently 9.8% for this year, this does not count a 45th anniversary trip we will go on in Oct.

 

[RobbieB]

This year, more than half. Bought a big boat for cash.

 

[skyking1]

^ if you look up a lumpy expense, it has a picture of Robbie's new boat there.

 

[dmpi]

Maybe 25%.

 

[SecondAttempt]

Hi all.

I have a Quicken category called Recreation. For the most recent six months, that category represents 8.18% of my spending.

It includes things like golf, bridge, movies, swimming, skiing, and vacations. Basically anything I do that is optional and fun (to me).

It excludes eating out, which is categorized as Food. It excludes Pets, which gets it's own category in my world.

I'm curious what other's percentages are. Feel free to split out vacations if you like; that is where a large portion of my Recreation spending goes, and it could be it's own category.

You and I have completely different breakdowns but I will respond to try to be helpful.

I have three relevant Quicken categories:
Recreation - these are cost related to activity but not travel, biking, scuba diving and equipment, hiking, etc.
Vacation - basically anything travel related
Entertainment - this is basically passive activities, streaming, subscription to Ancestry and a couple of other things, movies in theater, concerts, etc.

These combine to 21% YTD. We've made a couple of trips including one to expensive Tahiti which dominate. If I look at my plan for the first few years of retirement those expenses constitute about 25%. But that makes sense to me because I have a lot of travel planned.

 

[deserat]

Not fully retired yet (I know, REWahoo - but hey, I get to stay in Europe for a few more years!) but I have started to loosen up the purse strings this year trying to see if I could just spend on what I want when I want it and still cover it. Needless to say, this year the credit card has been screaming from use (I pay it off every month, but it has been used a *LOT* more this year - probably cuz it was not used much during the 2 COVID years over here where I looked out my window oat my backyard for recreation and entertainment).

I have a projected amount for travel for when I retire, so wanted to see if I would hit that with all of the travel and fun stuff I had planned. So far, not even close! And I have had a lot of stuff I've done: biking, hiking, canoeing, kayaking, trips all over, concerts (new item!), skiing, buying art (not new but more frequent), buying yarn, etc. I keep cringing inside but the dent is less than one-half of what I projected I wanted to spend.

Some of that may be due to the fact that I live over here, so the actual travel part (air transport, train transport, driving) isn't as expensive because I don't have to pay for the flight over the ocean. Nevertheless, it has been a lot less than I anticipated when I was planning this year and as I've added activities.

I also suspect that the ingrained mindset of looking for bargains or deals and/or buying that which I truly value versus other stuff has kept the overall amount in line.

I have an upcoming trip back to the UK this week and then a week in Morocco in the Atlas mountains and Sahara desert. Those along with the UK trip in March, hiking Amalfi coast and hiking Hadrian's wall were the most expensive. All others were weekend excursions that were relatively inexpensive.

Total so far this year: ~$15K - includes music, books, recreation, vacations, sports and crafts. Budget for when retired $35K. Will probably reduce crafts as am swimming in yarn and kits now so need to get crocheting. Music was a lot more this year as I went on an 'I'm a super fan' concert run, so that will probably go down. Books may go down as well. Sports, recreation and vacations will probably go up. % of budget will be ~20% when retired.

 

[explanade]

I don't use Quicken to track budget but in the spreadsheet I use instead, I have both Travel, Entertainment, Restaurants as distinct categories.

All combined, I'd guess around 35%, maybe a bit more. That was probably in 2019.

This year my spending in those categories and overall will probably be close to 2019.

 

[SecondCor521]

Just replying to say thanks to everyone for the responses. It confirms what I suspected, which is that my spending in this area is relatively low compared to other early retirees.

Starting this thread is also part of my way of psyching myself up for spending more on stuff in general and recreation in particular. I'm 53, healthy, and have a 0.6% WR, and phrases like "die with zero", "fly first class or your kids will", "go go years" etc. are seeping into my thoughts more and more.

 

[Huston55]

Just replying to say thanks to everyone for the responses. It confirms what I suspected, which is that my spending in this area is relatively low compared to other early retirees.

Starting this thread is also part of my way of psyching myself up for spending more on stuff in general and recreation in particular. I'm 53, healthy, and have a 0.6% WR, and phrases like "die with zero", "fly first class or your kids will", "go go years" etc. are seeping into my thoughts more and more.

Excellent!

Hint: Hang out with Robbie & learn to BTD!

 

[TripleLindy]

It fluctuates year to year, but average is probably in the 20% range. Like many, we’ve kind of blown the budget this year because of pent up demand, even though we avoided summer travel. Had a family get together in Maui in the spring and are heading to the Grand Tetons (Jenny Lake Lodge) in a couple of weeks!

 

[FLJim]

Hi all.

I have a Quicken category called Recreation. For the most recent six months, that category represents 8.18% of my spending.

It includes things like golf, bridge, movies, swimming, skiing, and vacations. Basically anything I do that is optional and fun (to me).

It excludes eating out, which is categorized as Food. It excludes Pets, which gets it's own category in my world.

I'm curious what other's percentages are. Feel free to split out vacations if you like; that is where a large portion of my Recreation spending goes, and it could be it's own category.

I have been using Quicken since the MS-DOS days. But never to slice and dice down to the minute details that Quicken now allows. Mostly use it to keep track of lots of investment accounts & update balances.
Am missing something? Should I be putting every dollar into a category? And if I DID, why would I want to know those percentages? We keep spending as much as we can, and Quicken tells us the NW keeps growing.

 

[SecondCor521]

I have been using Quicken since the MS-DOS days. But never to slice and dice down to the minute details that Quicken now allows. Mostly use it to keep track of lots of investment accounts & update balances.
Am missing something? Should I be putting every dollar into a category? And if I DID, why would I want to know those percentages? We keep spending as much as we can, and Quicken tells us the NW keeps growing.

Probably the main reason people like me categorize every dollar, and reconcile accounts, and look at Quicken reports and similar sorts of activities is because we enjoy it as a hobby and find it intrinsically interesting.

There are some ways that I've been able to use Quicken in general (not just the categorization stuff) to improve my finances. If you're sincerely asking (and not just asking to start a debate), I could elaborate.

If you don't find it fun or interesting, haven't been doing it and are happy with your finances, they hey, you do you.

 

[gamboolman]

Retired effective 1-Feb-21.

We Budget 20% for Vacations.

Seems to be a pretty good number based on the spends so far since we retired.

We mostly do Road Trips of a few days to about a month at a time.

In fact we are getting ready to head out for a Months Road Trip to Pearl River Mississippi for the Milly in Philly Poker Tournament and then on down to New Orleans for Poker Gras Tournament.

Since retirement, we have not taken any International trips - as we both lost the allure of International Travel after ~18 year of living and working oversea's and having to make dozens of Transatlantic Flights.

I would be happy to never get another stamp in my Passport ever again.

Having said that ms gamboolgal wants to do a Scandinavian, Norway, Scotland extended trip and I will do it - because she wants too. Love does that to a fella...

 

[FLSUnFIRE]

Am missing something? Should I be putting every dollar into a category? And if I DID, why would I want to know those percentages? We keep spending as much as we can, and Quicken tells us the NW keeps growing.

I've tracked my expenses my entire working life (Excel). Initially to determine how much I'd need to FIRE -gross numbers are only so valuable as some categories will change as life goes on. Percentages don't matter per se; OP was curious and quick and easy for me to answer. I guess the last 25 years of expense tracking was all to help the OP satisfy their curiosity!


Benefits of tracking for me:


It's fun (if you're a dork that likes spreadsheets and personal finance)!
Use to reconcile CC statements.
Use to find areas I may be able to be more efficient in.
Use to find areas spending is creeping up/value not there (alcohol consumption, dining out, etc)
Use to project future needs, specifically with respect to FI.
Use to look up when I bought something; this occasionally comes in quite handy -almost a financial diary.

 

[Koolau]

^^^^^^^

I did the tracking for a year. It was kinda fun and definitely interesting. Strangely, I already had a good idea what we were spending (by year's end) but I was off significantly on the categories.

When I finished, I looked it all over, learned some things and then just went back to my old way of doing things (IOW though I learned some things, I changed virtually nothing.) Based on that, it seemed a waste of time to track if I wasn't going to use the data to improve my buying habits. I was under no financial stress, so I just said "that was fun" and moved on. YMMV

 

[SecondAttempt]

Just replying to say thanks to everyone for the responses. It confirms what I suspected, which is that my spending in this area is relatively low compared to other early retirees.

Starting this thread is also part of my way of psyching myself up for spending more on stuff in general and recreation in particular. I'm 53, healthy, and have a 0.6% WR, and phrases like "die with zero", "fly first class or your kids will", "go go years" etc. are seeping into my thoughts more and more.

I've gone maybe one step further. I'm 57 and plan to retire in a little over a year and a half. This is not driven by finances but by other life factors I described in a previous thread including my partner needing to work until about then to meet pension rules.

But my plan has the first 10 years as go-go years with lots of travel and spending. That will make me 69. My oldest parent lived to 72 and had a lifestyle similar to mine - not awful but not super healthy either. So I expect to be slowing down by then and plan to ramp down spending. I should not need to ramp down because I will be selling a property around then that I have a lot of equity in but I also don't see myself personally as aa 75 year old traveling the world. I know many folks on here do, and I say more power to you. But personally I want to go-go and cross everything off my bucket list early in retirement.

I'm also doing a lot of "channel stuffing" now - buying things for projects I will tackle in retirement, mostly related to home automation. While some might argue these are hobbies and should have been included as recreation, I see them as home improvement. And in any case, while it is physically a fairly large pile, it would barely move the needle financially.

 

[FLSUnFIRE]

I've tracked my expenses my entire working life (Excel). Initially to determine how much I'd need to FIRE -gross numbers are only so valuable as some categories will change as life goes on. Percentages don't matter per se; OP was curious and quick and easy for me to answer. I guess the last 25 years of expense tracking was all to help the OP satisfy their curiosity!


Benefits of tracking for me:


It's fun (if you're a dork that likes spreadsheets and personal finance)!
Use to reconcile CC statements.
Use to find areas I may be able to be more efficient in.
Use to find areas spending is creeping up/value not there (alcohol consumption, dining out, etc)
Use to project future needs, specifically with respect to FI.
Use to look up when I bought something; this occasionally comes in quite handy -almost a financial diary.

One benefit I thought of mentioning but didn't and think I should have is the feedback loop of tracking. I find feedback loops to be very helpful in adjusting habits (I also track my food consumption in an app). This morning I did my monthly update and noticed the last few months my spending has been increasing a bit driving up my FI number. It's not particularly concerning but will likely subtly influence my spending decisions over the next few weeks. Since I do track, I could dig in but I'm not (I took several trips and bought my Thanksgiving ticket along with a few larger discretionary expenses off the top of my head).

 

[Koolau]

I've gone maybe one step further. I'm 57 and plan to retire in a little over a year and a half. This is not driven by finances but by other life factors I described in a previous thread including my partner needing to work until about then to meet pension rules.

But my plan has the first 10 years as go-go years with lots of travel and spending. That will make me 69. My oldest parent lived to 72 and had a lifestyle similar to mine - not awful but not super healthy either. So I expect to be slowing down by then and plan to ramp down spending. I should not need to ramp down because I will be selling a property around then that I have a lot of equity in but I also don't see myself personally as aa 75 year old traveling the world. I know many folks on here do, and I say more power to you. But personally I want to go-go and cross everything off my bucket list early in retirement.

I'm also doing a lot of "channel stuffing" now - buying things for projects I will tackle in retirement, mostly related to home automation. While some might argue these are hobbies and should have been included as recreation, I see them as home improvement. And in any case, while it is physically a fairly large pile, it would barely move the needle financially.

I retired at 58 and can attest from my experience that you are definitely on a bit of a clock when it comes to go-go living. I was "done" at 70 when the body started giving out. Do it early in retirement but YMMV.

 

[pacergal]

I kind of do a WAG on our spending, never know do I put something in home improvement or home maintenance ? lol I know it is how each of us wants to categorize our own budget.

We usually pay the bills, send some to the yearly savings acct for future travel, and any left over monthly $ are spent as desired. I would make a guess of 5-10% of Income spent on Entertainment (recreation, travel, etc.)
We are blessed to have pensions and SS, so rarely pull from IRA or brokerage. At least for now.

 

[Teacher Terry]

Koolau, I am surprised you were done by 70. My mom traveled internationally until her 3rd bout of cancer at 84.

 

[Surewhitey]

For the next few weeks, it's 100%

 

[explanade]

For the next few weeks, it's 100%

Looks like Italy.

 

[Koolau]

Koolau, I am surprised you were done by 70. My mom traveled internationally until her 3rd bout of cancer at 84.

Yeah, I guess we're all different. I do still travel, but no longer have the stamina to do anything too strenuous. Also, the "easy" stuff (like cruising) isn't my cup of tea (did it once and that was enough.) Most of our travel is to/from family friends. DW and I both have health issues which make travel somewhat difficult. YMMV

 

[Retire2013]

I have a different Quicken breakout - not saying it is better than yours, it is just different :

• Recreation = Things I physically choose to engage in. Gym membership, sports activities, equipment needed for those sports activities. Also, this is done when not on a "vacation" i.e. day trips only.
• Entertainment = Things that I enjoy passively. Concerts, plays, ballgames, movie theaters, , etc. Also when not done on a "vacation".
• Vacation = all expenses when I am on an overnight vacation of my choice for enjoyment (for example, I do not count expenses for a trip to attend a relative's funeral that involves overnight stays as "vacation"). I do have sub-categories under that for travel, lodging, food, activities, etc.

For the last 12 months/since retirement as a percentage of expenses:
- Recreation: 3.5%/2.8%
- Entertainment: 0.8%/0.5%
- Vacation: 9.2%/10%

Thank you for sharing the way you categorize these expenses. Your method gives me some great ideas on how to tweak mine. Have a great day in Retirement