2017 budget based on 1998 spending

[HillCountry]

Let's play some budget game. I will provide our 1998 expenditure, and you can guess the 2017 budget.

1998 was the first year after marriage. And we lived in Silicon Valley.

2017 we have two kids (12 & 14). And we live in Austin suburb. Our house is about 10 times as big, no mortgage.

1998 we took mostly road trip.

Last year we took 4 flights for vacations, as Texas is too big to get out by car.

Our budget was about 2600 per month in 1998, including -
Rent: 850
Utility: 100
Household: 100
Auto loan: 400
Auto insurance (2 cars): 150
Gas etc: 100
Food (grocery & restaurant): 400
Clothes: 100
Entertainment: 150
Others: 250

So what is 2017 budget? We have twice bigger family, and inflation over the years is around 50%.

1998 spending attached here.

 

[Whisper66]

If reading notes right, you apparently retired early, before kids out of college, moved to a low cost area from a very high cost area, my wild guess is you are from the moderately frugal group with budget of $45k/yr, $3750/mo. All based on very little data but sometimes guess is fun.

 

[Rambler]

I'll take a SWAG at it...$2600

 

[exnavynuke]

WAG:
Property tax+Insurance $500
Utilities: $500
Household stuff: $175
Cars paid for $0
Auto Insurance $125
Gas $110
Food: $800
Clothes $150
Entertainment $300
Others: $500

Total $3,160

 

[Whisper66]

Wonder what the prize is for the closest guess?

 

[Earl E Retyre]

Let's play some budget game. I will provide our 1998 expenditure, and you can guess the 2017 budget.

1998 was the first year after marriage. And we lived in Silicon Valley.

2017 we have two kids (12 & 14). And we live in Austin suburb. Our house is about 10 times as big, no mortgage.

1998 we took mostly road trip.

Last year we took 4 flights for vacations, as Texas is too big to get out by car.

Our budget was about 2600 per month in 1998, including -
Rent: 850
Utility: 100
Household: 100
Auto loan: 400
Auto insurance (2 cars): 150
Gas etc: 100
Food (grocery & restaurant): 400
Clothes: 100
Entertainment: 150
Others: 250

So what is 2017 budget? We have twice bigger family, and inflation over the years is around 50%.

1998 spending attached here.

I'll play along ... guessing:
Real Estate Taxes on an assumed 4,000 sqft house: 750
Utility: 300
Household: 100
Auto loan: 0
Auto insurance (2 cars): 100
Gas etc: 50
Food (grocery & restaurant): 500
Clothes: 100
Entertainment: 150
Others: 250
Travel: 300
Total: $2,600
But this does not include health insurance and medical out of pocket. So assuming I add another $1000 for that then $3,600.

 

[rodi]

I'm guessing it's more than $2600 because there are no health insurance fairies... And a family of 4 needs health insurance.

I'm retired with a family of 4 - kids age 14 and 16. We live frugally, but very comfortably... the kids have cell phones and computers, play sports, I drive them to these things so gas is not insignificant... But insurance is our biggest bill - specifically health insurance. Next up is the broad category of groceries... which includes everything bought at Costco or Vons. I have teenage boys - so we spend more than $1000/month on groceries.

I'm guessing the monthly budget including insurance, taxes, everything... is $4-5k or more.

 

[GrayHare]

my WAG $8000

 

[FANOFJESUS]

I am guessing 2017 number is $3600

 

[Murf2]

Bout 3.50?

 

[Jerry1]

my WAG $8000

I'm guessing at least this. In the spirit of the Price is Right, I'll say $8,001.

 

[nvestysly]

42!

Based on a response from several people on another thread the answer is always 42.

Seriously... our expenses did not increase much from 1998 to 2017 - at least they didn't increase with the rate of inflation. So my guess for your total expenses in 2017 is in the range of ...

$2833 - $3129

 

[HillCountry]

I am still employed.

Property tax definitely is biggie. When I bought the house in 2009, it was about 1000 per month. Last year, it was a bit less than 1700.

Before I moved to Austin, I was not planning for such high prop tax.

And I wish there is something similar to CA prop 13. We have homestead limitation, but tax can go up 10% per year.

 

[rodi]

I am still employed.

Property tax definitely is biggie. When I bought the house in 2009, it was about 1000 per month. Last year, it was a bit less than 1700.

Before I moved to Austin, I was not planning for such high prop tax.

And I wish there is something similar to CA prop 13. We have homestead limitation, but tax can go up 10% per year.

Ok... so you *do* have a health insurance fairy... your employer. LOL.

States need to raise revenue somehow... In CA it's income tax, sales tax, etc... In Texas it's property taxes.

 

[Running_Man]

I think your budget is nearly a little over $13,200 per month.

 

[FIREd]

$850 a month for rent in Silicon Valley? Those were the days. Actually, my wife and I were paying about the same amount to rent a 2-bedroom apartment in NC back in 1998. We were also paying about $400 a month for food (I cannot remember the other bills, but we drove paid-for beaters). Our combined income back then was around $2,500 net per month and we were saving some cash every month, so our spending was probably around $2,000 a month.

Ex-healthcare costs, our 2017 budget for basic living expenses is actually going to be pretty similar to what it was in 1998 (lower housing expenses with (larger) paid-for house, but other costs have gone up a bit).

So, to answer the OP's question, I am guessing around $3,000 a month for 2017.

 

[EastWest Gal]

Let's play some budget game. I will provide our 1998 expenditure, and you can guess the 2017 budget.



1998 was the first year after marriage. And we lived in Silicon Valley.



2017 we have two kids (12 & 14). And we live in Austin suburb. Our house is about 10 times as big, no mortgage.



1998 we took mostly road trip.



Last year we took 4 flights for vacations, as Texas is too big to get out by car.



Our budget was about 2600 per month in 1998, including -

Rent: 850

Utility: 100

Household: 100

Auto loan: 400

Auto insurance (2 cars): 150

Gas etc: 100

Food (grocery & restaurant): 400

Clothes: 100

Entertainment: 150

Others: 250



So what is 2017 budget? We have twice bigger family, and inflation over the years is around 50%.



1998 spending attached here.

You must have lived in a tiny place or in a bad part of town in Silicon Valley. We moved to Sunnyvale 10 years before you in 1988 and paid $1000/mo rent. Prior to that we lived 3 years in San Mateo in a tiny apartment and paid $600/mo.

My stab:
Rent/mortgage: 0
Property tax: 750
Utility: 350
Household: 400
Auto loan: 0
Auto insurance: 120
Gas, etc.: 250
Food (grocery and restaurant): 700
Subscriptions: (cable, internet, phone, cell phone): 200
Clothes: 250
Entertainment: 350
Other: 500 (includes kid specific expenses)
Homeowners insurance: 150
College savings: ?
Home repair: depends on age of the home
Total: 4020 + college savings

 

[NanoSour]

I won't break down the categories, but based on my budget with 3 teenagers I'm gonna guess $6,018.56/month. Although 4 flying vacations per year could make this significantly higher depending on where those vacations were to. We spent $10K last year for our one trip to Europe.

Oh while I'm at it. Here's our 2017 budget:

Mortgage: 1,100
Property Tax: 390
Insurance (Car, Home, Umbrella): $106
Medical: 47 (Tri-Care)
Utilities: (Electric-Gas/Phone/Water/Internet): 139/54/130/50
Household: 4,000 (this is all spending that doesn't fit in one of the above categories)

 

[euro]

I'll guess 5200/mo
The 4 trips are a red herring because you use frequent flyer miles accumulated at work to fund them?

 

[Tom52]

SWAG $4,000 per month

 

[respond2u]

Here's my guess (are you going to tally things up for a "wisdom of crowds" experiment?)

$5100

Rent: 1700 (that's about 1/3 of what I'm paying for my house that's half your's size )
Utility: 400 (light/gas/water)
Household: 400
Auto loan: 400
Auto insurance (2 cars): 200
Gas etc: 200
Food (grocery & restaurant): 800
Clothes: 300 (including gear, etc. for kids)
Entertainment: 200
Others: 500 (including vacations)

 

[HillCountry]

We lived at the corner of Mary and El Camino (Sunnyvale) in 98. A small 1 bed room but nice and convenient.

Never could we at that time imagine we will pay twice as much for property tax 20 years later In Austin.

As rodi said, we traded property tax for state tax. We actually saved a bunch during the 9 years here, though saving money was not the main reason we moved to Austin.

We are very happy with the current home and really enjoying it. The similar houses in Bay Area easily cost 3 to 5 times more.

We definitely will sell after kids leaving for college. We expect to downsize to 2000 sqft and cut every housing related expenditure in half.

Austin is not very cheap any more. But we don't plan to relocate immediately after retirement. We want to stay somewhere warm, so that it is easy for kids to join us for Christmas, at home.

 

[FANOFJESUS]

HillCountry and the answer is?

 

[W2R]

My guess is $10,000/month, but that is not based on any computations. Just life.

 

[kimcdougc]

And the answer is?