24K Retirement "budgets"

[gwix98]

There have been a number of posts on this board
with testamonials to the 24K budget. I and others I'm
sure would like to see even a rough itemization as to
how various ER's are spending these funds.
Maybe this subject has been visted before, but as a rather new member here, I'd sure be interested in
how the monies are spent and for what.

gwix

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Do a search for "24000" or "24,000" and change the days at the bottom from "7" to "999" or some such.

A lot of discussion has gone into these, and several people (self included) have given very detailed budgets.

 

[KB]

Here is my budget. I have 2 teenage boys living at home, so some of these expenses (clothing, AAA, auto ins,food, guitar) will drop once they are stabilized. That money will be allocated to Health Insurance once I ER. I work full time so Health ins is paid from my employer and my salary at this time.

I have a brand new house with stucco and tile roof. Maintenance is filters and carpet cleaning mostly.

Monthly 1150
Utilities (gas, water, phone, cell, garbage, DSL) 262
Auto Gas 50
HOA 97
Food/Misc 500
Guitar lessons 80
Satellite 61

Annual or Irregular avg 2059 month
AAA 109
Haircuts 150
Auto Ins /license 2432
Auto maintenance 600
House maintenance 600
Charity 600
Clothing 800
Gifts/Xmas 1100
Bug man 375
House ins 438
Med/Dental 500
NBA channel 160
Newspaper/Magazines 240
Property tax 4600

2208 month which is about 26500/yr.

 

[panhead]

All right, Here's mine. This gets refined as I get more and more good ideas from this board, but this is basically what it looks like today:

Current

mortgage $0.00
taxes $100.00
home ins $45.00
electric $50.00
heat $140.00
water $30.00
misc* $90.00
food $400.00
hm phone $0.00
cable $50.00
cell phone $120.00
car ins $80.00
bike ins $35.00
excise $10.00
gas $225.00
clothes $30.00
gym $30.00
HC $0.00
isp $50.00
entrtnmnt $400.00


total $1,885.00
annual $22,620.00


Some comments:
1) This is pre-retirement budget (current). With
various random expenditures, its likely this eclipses
$24k per year.
2) If I allow for $24k/year, I can re-arrange plenty of $$ to pay for health care.
3) the "misc" category consists mainly of disposable regularly needed items (toothpaste, floss, etc).
4) There is also enough slack in here to save/buy for a used car/appliances, etc, if need be.
5) I'm single

-Pan-

 

[bruce1]

Hello This is what I am planning. I am still working and am living on this budget plus some work related expenses. This is a bit over 24000 but has a lot of provision for home maintenance, furniture replacement and car replacement.
monthly annual
Car ins 100 1200
Car Fuel 150 1800
Car mnt/purchase 300 3600
Phone internet TV 100 1200
Food 400 4800
Home mnt 200 2400
Major apps 50 600
Yard 50 600
Furniture 50 600
Property Taxes 120 1440
Hydro 100 1200
Home Ins 75 900
Ent/Traval 300 3600
Clothing 100 1200
MISC 100 1200
TOTAL 2195 26340


Good Luck

 

[John Galt]

I think I already posted some of my "real" expenses
as well as my hypothetical "$50 per day budget"
for a couple, which I still insist can be done in 2004 in the USA. Bare bones? You bet! But ER nevertheless.

Anyway, a few tips. Either a cell phone or land line, not both. No cable TV. Clothing, appliances, lawnmowers,
furniture bought almost exclusively at garage sales,
second hand shops, and/or auctions, or scrounged for free. No gym,
country club, or anything else where dues are required
(library card is okay ). Drive old cars and find a cheap
shade tree mechanic to keep them running. Assume
some risk with all of your insurance, or go the unclemick route and just skip a lot of it completely. Buy groceries
in big lots and on sale. Hunt and fish and have a garden. Honestly, if I was halfway handy, I could lower
our expenses by a lot even from where we are now,
which is way below what most here are planning to
spend.

John Galt

 

[panhead]

Hey John Galt, good observations. The budget I posted is what I'm basically living on now while I'm working, thus health care (HC) is -0-. This is why I say there is LOTS of slop in this budget, and my er budget is similar. If I need to cut back, bye bye cable tv, which also gets rid of cable isp, which will also get rid of my cell phone, so now I would have a land line and dial up internet. Good enough. Food budget is very high and easily reduced. Gas expense is mainly from commuting to and from work. I would keep my gym membership, it's one of the hobbies I don't want to part with right now. Entertainment budget easily cut in half. Motorcycle insurance ? This is a MUST HAVE ! My cheaper budgets illustrate these points, just to see how low I cold go. If anyone is interested, I'll post some of the reduced spending budgets as well, just ask.

-Pan-

 

[John Galt]

One thing that will help anyone's budget is not
having a lot of cash in non-income-producing assets.
I would venture to guess that 100% of all our personal
property (including vehicles and boats) can't be worth
much over $15,000 tops! Why, just one of Cut-Throat's
cars (is it Lexuses or Lexi?) is worth more than that

John Galt

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

The average middle class family has "personal assets" that range between $100k and 150k. This includes cars, appliances, furniture, jewelry and clothing.

Pretty amazing, huh?

 

[Cut-Throat]

The average middle class family has "personal assets" that range between $100k and 150k.  This includes cars, appliances, furniture, jewelry and clothing.

Pretty amazing, huh?

I ran these numbers with my Insurance Agent about 5 years ago and we opted for $150K coverage. It could be 250K replacement cost now that excludes cars and appliances.

This includes Furniture, Jewelry, Art, Electronics (25K in stereo gear alone).

My wife's closet probably has over $30K alone and she has nothing to wear :

 

[Zipper]

Bruce, we're neighbours. I'm in London and I believe you are in the Niagara area. I pay about $2900 prop taxes on a $225 000 home?? Should I move to Ft. Erie?

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I ran these numbers with my Insurance Agent about 5 years ago and we opted for $150K coverage. It could be 250K replacement cost now that excludes cars and appliances.

This includes Furniture, Jewelry, Art, Electronics (25K in stereo gear alone).

My wife's closet probably has over $30K alone and she has nothing to wear :

You're probably a little closer to the upper end of upper middle class life, which indeed sees net worth minus the home in the quarter million plus range.

Those numbers still boggle the mind.

I love my wife...she wears $20 outfits, thinks Budweiser is perfectly good beer and has very little interest in expensive stuff.

 

[Cut-Throat]

You're probably a little closer to the upper end of upper middle class life, which indeed sees net worth minus the home in the quarter million plus range.

Those numbers still boggle the mind.

I love my wife...she wears $20 outfits, thinks Budweiser is perfectly good beer and has very little interest in expensive stuff.

And TH, we never came close to the money that you were pulling down. But of course I worked until I was 50, and my wife is still working.

Not sure what you mean by ' sees net worth minus the home in the quarter million plus range.'

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

My initial statement was the average middle class family has "stuff" (exclusive of the home) worth 100-150k. For an upper middle class family, that goes to the 250k range. Right where you said you were. You live in a nice house, you've got some nice cars, you've got some nice stuff...you sound like you're in the upper middle class living area, hence your "stuff" valued at 250k is pretty much right on.

Did I 'splain that better?

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Yeah, I realized I fell into the "net worth" trap which means different things to different people, I meant "personal property, in exclusion of the home"...in george carlins parlance "Yer Stuff!"

As far as the "mind boggling" part, I cant believe MY STUFF cost as much in aggregate as it did.

I was reminded of this when starting my garage cleanup a few months ago. I had piled some truly useless junk into a big box and remarked to my wife "You know, in its day, this stuff cost roughly ten grand...and now its completely worthless".

 

[bruce1]

Hi Zipper! Don't pack too quickly. I am on a farm in Haldimand County. I pay lower taxes as my land is in agricultural production. The Taxes would be double if it were not. In addition I am not on town sewers or water and am responsible for my own septic bed and water. My own choice but sometimes when something goes wrong it can be a pain. Not usually too expensive as I am quite handy but inconvenient. I also have a natural gas well so heat is cheap for now. I have a friend in Fort Erie and their taxes are on a par with yours.

Bruce

 

[Cut-Throat]

I was reminded of this when starting my garage cleanup a few months ago. I had piled some truly useless junk into a big box and remarked to my wife "You know, in its day, this stuff cost roughly ten grand...and now its completely worthless".

My old computer stuff falls into this category.

But, I also have been squirreling away some Vacuum Tubes from the 40's,50's, and 60's that are no longer made. These tubes have done better than any stock I've ever owned! Some of them have doubled in less than a year!

E-Bay this winter! - I've got to get rid of some of this stuff!

 

[panhead]

Sorry for the off topic question, but old vacuum tubes are worth money ? I know they still use vacuum tubes in some high end audio equipment, like some guitar amps, but I didn't know old ones they don't make any more are worth $$ ? Is this true ? Are you serious ? I ask, because I think my father has an entire cabinet dedicated to vacuum tubes, as he worked on em' when he was an engineer.

Got any links to check out ?

 

[bruce1]

Panhead

this is an antique electronic store
http://www.tubesandmore.com/

Search on E-bay for the tube your father has.

Many tubes are worth nothing but some have increased nicely. I say that as I have two or three large boxes of tubes. I have restored a few antique radios and want to build a higher end tube audio amp.

A few early tubes have risen in price astronomicaly. I do not think I have any of those.

There is a lot of information out there. I will try to post some more links when I am at work the middle of next week. I am in the market for soem old Rogers tubes that have the filament connection on top. (about $10 to$15) that were used in Rogers Batteryless radios.

 

[haha]

The average middle class family has "personal assets" that range between $100k and 150k.  This includes cars, appliances, furniture, jewelry and clothing.

Pretty amazing, huh?

I guess this is what they paid for them, not what they could get for them?

Once years ago I started adding up what I had paid for the books in our house. I could see I was heading toward a depressing figure, so I shut down the project.

Recently I liquidated some of them on Amazon. Some brought more then I paid, including an investment book that I sold for $175!

Mikey

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I have an investment book for sale.

It tells you how to make millions on your investments!

Half price vs Mikey's book...just $120...

 

[Cut-Throat]

I guess this is what they paid for them, not what they could get for them?

Mostly what you paid for them, but in some instances if the item has increased in value (Like Some Artwork). Usually this is thought of replacement value (what you should insure for).

 

[ESRBob]

Has anybody priced a copy of their old Terhorst "Cashing in on the American Dream"? Lots of copies on sale in the 50-!00 range, though there are a few available at around $20. I don't know much about the used book market, so this might be all flim-flam. The guy with the first edition, first printing wants close to $400 for his! Might be worth checking the frontice-piece of our old copies?

http://www.alibris.com/search/search.cfm?qwork=950738&wauth=terhorst&matches=24&qsort=r

ESRBob

 

[malakito]

I just placed a hold on Terhorst's book; thanks for the reminder. It's checked in at my local library and they have a web-based catalog. Very handy.

I wonder how much the library would charge me if I didn't return it?

malakito

 

[gayl]

Posting my 'normal' monthly budget. I'm on track except I've taken several long trips this year <6k> and done some major home remodeling <14k = new carpeting, tile floors, doors, window treatments, cabinets refaced> ... stuff that is only done once a decade that I pulled from savings. Guess I'll have to find my remodeling monies somewhere else next decade if I'm still around.  

• Pension Income - less health ins / state & fed taxes      1824
• Auto Gasoline      -110
•     Maintenance      -25
• Charity      - cash donations      -65
• Clothing            -25
• Dan - School Loan Pymts      -225
• Food - Grocers      -180
•     Coffee Card      -20
•     Dining Out      -120
• Gifts            -50
• Gardener            -90
• Personal - to lazy to track it-80
• Utilities - Cable      -45
•     Garbage      -19
•     Internet Access      -37
•     PG&E      -120
•     Telephone      -63
•     Water      -60
• Income less Expenses            $490

Y'know, that extra 490 is supposed to cover the 'extras' but it clearly doesn't.  So I am also withdrawing 8K per year from my 457 plan, netting 6k -- which I use for my prop taxes <2k>, home insurance <1.5k>, a family cruise next spring <Carnival offering it for only 349 per person X 6 = 2k>, and 1 wk at Lake Tahoe <360>. And yes, I am short for additional trip next year but it is all worth it. FYI: that 8k is under what my safe SWR is.  Maybe I'll just pull it from that when I want it all new again! Then again, my appliances tend to last 20 yrs, flooring was from 1986, roof has a 40 yr warranty, and I make my cars last 5 yrs.

I've found that people tend to spend whatever they have. Have a little more, spend a little more .... have a little less, spend less. What helps me out is that I own my home & 2001 car outright