Has the wealth effect changed your spending?

[Scuba]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RobbieB I am spending more dough now than I've ever spent before. And loving it - Porches, decks, concrete, hot tubs, diamonds for my lady. And I haven't even started on the inside of the house. That ought to be 3X the cost of the outside.

If you need some ideas to "blow that dough" inside your house, feel free to pm me. We spent a small fortune before we retired remodeling our condo. Put in a lot of unusual finishes, art, furniture, and other items that we love. Would be happy to share ideas.

[Scuba]

Quote:

Originally Posted by W2R One of these days your house will be perfect and exactly what you always wanted. Then what? Oh well, you could always throw parties for 300 people serving that fabulous king crab you got a while back, and lots of expensive champagne.

Great idea, and you could invite your ER friends! [emoji12]

[RobbieB]

That crab was so good I've re-ordered twice. The last batch with some lobster tails, sea scallops, halibut and shrimp. Just under a grand!

Blow that dough -

[NW-Bound]

Quote:

Originally Posted by W2R One of these days your house will be perfect and exactly what you always wanted. Then what? Oh well, you could always throw parties for 300 people serving that fabulous king crab you got a while back, and lots of expensive champagne.

Hope I will be invited. I do not eat caviar, but can help with the XO Cognac that Robbie will get a few cases of. And who says Dom Perignon has to go with caviar? I will drink it with Robbie's grilled lobster.

Oh wait, he will be serving Louis XIII, not the pedestrian XO that I drink.

[RenoJay]

I've done a lot more discretionary spending on travel, meals out, and other things that would be easy to cut if/when the bear strikes.

[Canoesmith]

...my god. If I ever have to worry about buying an iPad or a vacuum when I’m retired, I’m not ever going to retire.

[Scuba]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2017ish +1. But, we are only 5 months into retirement and our spending changes/increases were of the type and magnitude that we long planned. So take my response with an extra few grains of salt.

+1
We are 13 months in. We have not adjusted our lifestyle other than a few planned things like increased travel post-ER. Once we've been retired longer, I'm sure we'll have no problem bumping up spending if portfolio value will support it. Healthcare costs are a big uncertainty as is sequence of returns.

One thing we are considering is paying off or paying down our HELOC with some of this year's windfall. It's not due until 2024 and we have plenty of funds to pay it off anytime. It's at 3.99% now but that will likely gradually increase in 2018. Not sure about paying off 4% debt but if it gets up to 5-6%, we'll definitely pay it off.

[Ronstar]

I’m not spending more in this bull market, but I’ll spend less when the bear market hits.

[robnplunder]

Not much change for me. I remember the down markets. When stock goes up, I consider it a temporary event. Ditto when it goes down.

[NW-Bound]

Forgot to add, my expenses this year are the lowest since I started to keep track closely, back from 2010 or so. No more college tuition, no recent major home repairs or updates, no major medical, dental bills, major purchases, no daughter wedding. This year's expenses are about 65% of the past highest year.

I think I am sliding down Bernicke's curve.

[sheldon cornped]

As a recently transplanted fellow Georgian, I'll help you in your quest to keep pace with the Colonoscopy thread.
No change in spending with the bump in portfolio. For me, it's just a feel good exercise to look at the FIDO planner and see how much more we'll theoretically have (underperforming market) when the lights go out. It's always good to have ample wiggle room.

[GrayHare]

New car, caviar, four fish day dream,
Think I'll buy me a colonoscopy team?

Been running below SWR so if I can't blow more dough during a Roaring 20Ks Market, when can I?

[Dog]

Just updated monthly budget and net worth spreadsheets today. We are under budget, but feel like we are spending when and where we want to. LBYM is a very hard habit to break. The stock market seems too good to be true and I have fresh memories of dot.com bubble and real estate collapse, so proceeding with caution. But, it is fun to watch our net worth grow without any effort on our part [emoji854]

[ejman]

Hum, add this thread to the Déjà vu feeling the party is about to end...

[audreyh1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ronstar I’m not spending more in this bull market, but I’ll spend less when the bear market hits.

That’s depressing.

[Cayman]

Not spending more 'cause we have a comfortable budget and enjoy LBYM. We're 50, and will loosen up the purse strings a bit in a decade or so if things look good.

[Danmar]

If people don’t spend more when times are good, and certainly won’t spend more when the bear hits, why be in equities at all? Why not just annuitize? Why take the risk for no reward?

[6miths]

No

[DrRoy]

The rise in value and a tiny increase in my low WR has me spending about $10K more this year.

[flintnational]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NW-Bound Forgot to add, my expenses this year are the lowest since I started to keep track closely, back from 2010 or so. No more college tuition, no recent major home repairs or updates, no major medical, dental bills, major purchases, no daughter wedding. This year's expenses are about 65% of the past highest year. I think I am sliding down Bernicke's curve.

We were hit with a lot of car repairs and needed replacement appliances. But, travel was way down this year. So the overall budget was flat compared to past years expect for the DAF and Roth contributions mentioned in the opening post.