Annual living expenses range

[Perryinva]

I pay $6k/yr on 700k home in VA.

 

[pb4uski]

Our expenses are around $6,500/month... but that is for two properties.

 

[jollystomper]

Since retirement, our 2 person household with a small mortgage and approximately $4.5K yearly property taxes has averages $11K/month for all expenses, including taxes.

Subtract out federal and state taxes (some of which are driven by Roth conversions), vacation travel (done comfortably, not cheaply), charity, and gifts, and the average is $6K a month.

 

[Winemaker]

We have ranged from $7,000 to 12,000/ month for the past 5.5 years. We pay $5k for our property taxes, and $20k for health insurance, $22k Federal income tax. The rentals gross ~$56k, their expenses are $30K, if I permit it.

 

[FANOFJESUS]

We spend $1430 a month for everything.

 

[brett]

Is this not a function of where you choose to live and how you choose to live and what you plan to do in retirement.

How can there possibly be one number that fits all?

 

[ncbill]

"on $50,000 a year you can't even keep clean..."

we own our home outright and live a LCOL lifestyle in a MCOL area but I could still cut our monthly expenses in half if I had to do so.

 

[Teacher Terry]

We live in a MCOL but property taxes are only 700/year. We spend 48/year which includes all taxes but not travel.

 

[jkern]

One person, house paid off.

Essentials: $30K/yr
Recurring discretionary spending: $15K/yr
Non-recurring discretionary spending: $15K/yr on average

 

[Joylush]

Thanks for sharing your various experiences. I think I have enough not to worry about anything.

 

[FIREd]

In my 10 years of retirement, my annual living expenses have been all over the place:

Married, living in the southeastern US, homeowner: >$80K a year
Married, living in San Francisco, renter: >$150K a year
Single guy, living in France, homeowner: <$30K a year (this month, with the Covid lockdown, my spending dropped to a record low: $900!)

It might go back up if my family situation changes again.

 

[liberty53]

The BLS has good data on expenditures by household type and region.

Poke around the BLS website to get a baseline and go from their.

Summary for 2018: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/cesan.pdf

 

[gamboolman]

ms gamboolgal are not retired - just yet...but are planning to do so within the next ~1 yearish.....

No mortgage, no debt, Property Taxes are about $900/month. For Health Insurance, we will keep from Megaoil Corp - using $1k per month for our cost/part which is included in our budget(s).

We are basing our retirement budget on Net per month expenses of $8K to 13K per month.

Lifes A Dance And You Learn As You Go....
gamboolman...

 

[Shredder]

Our budget has not been stable for a long time. Mostly because of remodeling and adding structures to our homestead. We bought this place in 2012 at the tail end of the housing crisis, and never stopped working on it. Last year we added another pole barn, (a guy needs two, right?) this year wood flooring and a redesigned bathroom. But our biggest expense this year was paying off our home. Normal expenses roughly $4000 monthly, property taxes $2000. Income from pensions and SS $5400 monthly. At 65 Ive only tickled my tax advantaged funds so far, but now that we paid off the house, future big expenses will come from them.

 

[DrRoy]

My budget this year was $15K/mo. $5K of that was for one time home improvement projects, and $2.5K of that was for travel. Since those things are not happening right now, I'll find out what the real baseline is.

 

[JustCurious]

$3,000 to $12,000 per month.

 

[Rustic23]

When we retired, 2002, our expenses were $48,000. Today they are $52,000. Without a long post as to what makes up that data, it is darn near useless! Working expense went down, playing expense went up, worry expense went down, fun expense went up.