Average Spending in Retirement

[dtbach]

We don't have a spreadsheet. I figured out a SWR and have $$ sent from various IRAs to the checking account. Plus get a decent pension. I think it all adds up to around $8600/mo after taxes.

Then we just live and it seems to be less than what goes into the accounts each month. If the checking accounts starts to grow, we sweep some into the travel account.

Will add 2 SS checks to the stash in the next 3 years.

Seems to work so far.

 

[SonofCohoes]

5200.00 per month all in.....

 

[NW-Bound]

I can identify with this. But surely over the past several years with the market doing so well your portfolio would still increase even with more spending? Mine has? I do loosen the purse strings somewhat when we get a nice market bump, like last year.

I keep a daily record of the value of my stash, going all the way back to 1999 when I realized that my stash was more than 7 figures and I needed to watch it, pamper it, nurture it (however, I did not keep records of money flow in/out of it).

And looking at that, yes, it has grown nicely since my earned income stopped a bit more than 5 years ago, and despite heavy withdrawals. Could not believe I spent that much. Without Quicken, I would not remember what I spent money on, but the numbers do not lie. I console myself with the thought that much of the heavy expense in recent years was due to one-time events, but I could be fooling myself. If different one-time events keep popping up, there's something wrong with the way I account for them.

So, absolutely nothing to complain about at this point, but being of a cautious and pessimistic nature, I have to ask myself how long this can last.

By the way there are some hopeful signs about my "one-time" expenses subsiding. Quicken says that the total expense for the last 12 months is only 80% of the preceding 12 months, and I have not lived any differently.

 

[W2R]

My problem is that I love to "count" my money, and to see it grow. Looking at that increasing number at the bottom left of my Quicken screen brings a warm and fuzzy feeling to this heart. Any enjoyment obtained from luxuries will be countered by the unpleasantness of seeing that number shrinks.

It's not the fear of running out. It's the sadness of seeing it diminishing.

I can relate to this! Right now, due to the bull market, my portfolio has grown to just $6022 less than its all time high in May 2015, just before I bought my Dream Home in cash, moved, and had all that extensive landscaping done.

I am all excited because if it just grows $6022 more, I will have a free Dream Home. Or at least, that is the fable I am telling myself.

This may take forever because my investment AA is so conservative and low risk. Like you, I am still engaging in a reasonable amount of discretionary spending.

 

[kcowan]

Wow a free house! Pretty soon, Nemo will accuse you of being benignant but at least you can afford a croquet Madame AVEC oeufs!

 

[meierlde]

I'm envious. In many parts of Texas the property taxes on a $900K home could easily be over $27K per year. We fought and fought this year to bring the (tax) appraised value of our home down to under $300K but the property taxes will still be close to $9K so I pretty much budget $800 a month for those alone.

One of the ways to control property taxes in Tx is to be sure that your property is not inside city limits. Where I live outside the city if I were inside the city property taxes on a 374k house would go up roughly $1965. Then there are differences in school tax rates depending on when the district built and outstanding bonds. The county and school taxes come to 6700 a year. but being over 65 the amount is frozen at earlier values. So city taxes can add a lot. Of course you do get garbage service for the taxes which might save $600 a year.

 

[W2R]

Wow a free house! Pretty soon, Nemo will accuse you of being benignant but at least you can afford a croquet Madame AVEC oeufs!

Oui, bien sur!

 

[kcowan]

I've been saying this here for years to little avail. People always seem to have strong opinions on how much and on what other people should spend their money.

I had a windfall on June 30 when a 5 year convertible debenture matured after paying 6.25% p.a. And the conversion price made the $40k principal worth $225k. I have used it as an excuse to buy dinners for my friends this month.

(Does not happen often!)

 

[W2R]

I had a windfall on June 30 when a 5 year convertible debenture matured after paying 6.25% p.a. And the conversion price made the $40k principal worth $225k. I have used it as an excuse to buy dinners for my friends this month.

(Does not happen often!)

Congratulations! That seems like a great reason to celebrate over dinner with friends.

 

[Blue Collar Guy]

I had a windfall on June 30 when a 5 year convertible debenture matured after paying 6.25% p.a. And the conversion price made the $40k principal worth $225k. I have used it as an excuse to buy dinners for my friends this month.

(Does not happen often!)

I dont know the mechanics involved in your windfall. But from what I gathered you invested 40 thousand and got back 225 Grand in 5 years. Thats awesome.

 

[Fermion]

That is an amazing return. I thought the mining company bonds I bought at 25% of par that were paying 12.5% were a deal but your $40k to $225k beats that. Was it an extremely risky investment like the mining company bonds? (I didn't hold them to maturity, I sold them at less than 50% of par only to have them reach 100% of par one month later)

 

[Travelfreek]

We have monthly income of $8300 take home (from pensions). We are currently spending 75 % of that due to our $2000 a month principal and interest house payment (there's another $750 for the insurance and taxes on the house). Once that disappears in 4-5 years as we clobber our mortgage with some extra withdrawals from our IRAs, we'll be down to only a budget of about $6000 a month. Our property taxes are over $6,000 a year here in CA on a house worth about $850k at the moment.

I remember my mom in law (in Michigan) living on about $13k a year (mostly social security) and she had no mortgage. She was very thrifty and proud of it. But she died with at least $100k in the bank and IRA combined and her house was paid for. So, it all depends on your habits and the cost of living in your area. Gas prices were much cheaper there than CA and so are the restaurants and food for wedding receptions. She did play bingo and go on trips to casinos with some fun money from time to time.

We definitely have some fat in our budget (cable tv for example) and we have LTC insurance policies plus term life policies on the 2 of us for different reasons (to replace pensions). But we tend to be frugal too (don't go to restaurants much). We play regular sports that cost very little also which is fun and healthy. We haven't traveled much but hopefully will ramp that up in the not too far future. We are very thankful for having saved for the future and hope to live healthy and "long" to be able to enjoy it.

 

[Shanky]

A lot of the quoted figures for Medicare expense are for lower income levels. For 2017, part B is $134 plus $294 for IRMAA. Part D has a 76.20 IRMAA in addition to the part D plan chosen. So Medicare for a higher income couple can be $134 part B+$294 IRMAA+76 part D IRMMA+70 Drug plan+ 180 medigap plan F * 2 people or about $18000 a year. This is based on your MAGI, so it may be difficult to avoid when RMDs are in play.

 

[Danmar]

I had a windfall on June 30 when a 5 year convertible debenture matured after paying 6.25% p.a. And the conversion price made the $40k principal worth $225k. I have used it as an excuse to buy dinners for my friends this month.

(Does not happen often!)

Good for you. I'm sure your generosity will be much appreciated.

 

[Corporateburnout]

A lot of the quoted figures for Medicare expense are for lower income levels. For 2017, part B is $134 plus $294 for IRMAA. Part D has a 76.20 IRMAA in addition to the part D plan chosen. So Medicare for a higher income couple can be $134 part B+$294 IRMAA+76 part D IRMMA+70 Drug plan+ 180 medigap plan F * 2 people or about $18000 a year. This is based on your MAGI, so it may be difficult to avoid when RMDs are in play.

The premiums you quoted are for a couple with an MAGI exceeding 428K. We will gladly pay 18K/year for Medicare with such an MAGI

 

[Rianne]

This was my 1st post and I got 10 pages of thoughtful and humorous responses. Everyone probably knows this link, but I thought I'd share it just for fun. The market's been loony toons but I'm happy it's where it is, rather than where it was when I started here.

https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/index/djia/charts

 

[Offgrid Organic Farmer]

We have a large home on 150 acres of land with 1/4 mile of riverfrontage in Maine, our property taxes run about $850/year.

Our farm is on Solar Power, and our heating fuel costs us about $1500/year.

We produce most of our food.

My pension is $1600/month, most of that goes to investments.

 

[Red Badger]

Never tracked my expenses before retiring last year. Haven't tracked expenses in retirement. If I run out of money, I'll wing it.

I think we're burning about $5K/month, But if I really wanted to know, I'd have to take my socks off.

 

[kcowan]

That is an amazing return. I thought the mining company bonds I bought at 25% of par that were paying 12.5% were a deal but your $40k to $225k beats that. Was it an extremely risky investment like the mining company bonds?

No it was a boring bus company, New Flyer Industries. Obama mentioned them because they supply buses to the Chicago area. They are HQd in Winnipeg but have manufacturing in the US. The conversion price of $55 on June 30 is looking very good as they are currently trading for just over $59. They did an acquisition which was accretive at year end.

BTW in my first year of retirement 2003 it was a year or two short of my financial goal but I had set the age so toughed it out. I closely managed the individual stock portfolio and made it work. Then in 2007, we bought a condo in PV MX and discovered our annual spend dropped in half! So now we can live forever! We have ratcheted up in the spirit of "blow that dough".

(BTW2 This was the last time that BCG commented on a post I made. Sure miss that guy.)

 

[Out of Steam]

For the 2 to 2 1/2 years until we collect the first Social Security check, our planned retirement income is about $2500 a month less than our current spending. We expect to make it up by being finished with college tuition and cutting housing costs by almost half through relocation. It could be a little tight, but we don't think we're in a place where we can OMY in our current jobs.

After the first year, I plan to do some part-time or seasonal work. We also think that one of us will hold onto our current job until we're actually relocated.

 

[Lawrence of Suburbia]

I sure hope I can get by under $2,500 because that's the likely upper limit of what I'll be able to collect from SS, a rather small pension, and safe(? I hope) withdrawals from my low-six-figure portfolio. My brother says I'll be able to "live cheerfully in genteel poverty", ha ha!

 

[Just_Steve]

No it was a boring bus company, New Flyer Industries. Obama mentioned them because they supply buses to the Chicago area. They are HQd in Winnipeg but have manufacturing in the US. The conversion price of $55 on June 30 is looking very good as they are currently trading for just over $59. They did an acquisition which was accretive at year end.

BTW in my first year of retirement 2003 it was a year or two short of my financial goal but I had set the age so toughed it out. I closely managed the individual stock portfolio and made it work. Then in 2007, we bought a condo in PV MX and discovered our annual spend dropped in half! So now we can live forever! We have ratcheted up in the spirit of "blow that dough".

(BTW2 This was the last time that BCG commented on a post I made. Sure miss that guy.)

New Flyer is also a supplier to NYC Transit. I have been to their assembly plant in St Cloud MN for final inspection prior to delivery.

 

[mountainsoft]

We have a large home on 150 acres of land with 1/4 mile of riverfrontage in Maine, our property taxes run about $850/year.

Sweet! We have a small 1456 sq/ft house on less than two acres in SW Washington state. Our property taxes were over $5000 this year!

 

[Offgrid Organic Farmer]

Sweet! We have a small 1456 sq/ft house on less than two acres in SW Washington state. Our property taxes were over $5000 this year!

I served on two different boats homeported at Subase Bangor, and we owned property in Bremerton.

We really wanted to retire in Washington. The Olympic Penn is a really nice area, all the way down to Grays harbor. I liked it.

But the math just did not work out.

We have known a lot of guys who retired from the Navy and stayed in that area. Every one of them has had to have a second career. The pension is not enough to support a family there.

Our property in Bremerton had taxes in the same level as our taxes are.

 

[Breedlove]

I don't know if this really works but we will be living in a 1000sq ft. barnaminium , from the outside it looks like a metal building garage and the inside is a house . kept the garage door on with 11 acres in Texas and we pay a whopping 950.00 yearly .