Spending

[brewer12345]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tryan Interesting that ~40% can function on 40k or less.* Must be family dynamics. No way a family of 4 can survive on less than 40k on the northeast.* Heck, healthcare alone is more than 10k.

My real estate taxes are a shade over $6k alone, and I'm living in a ~2k square foot house in a ho-hum middle class area. If I stay here for any length of time after FIRE, it will require more than $40k.

[kat]

My real estate taxes are $2.8k, so I agree that alone makes a difference. With mortgage paid off, and no kids, I can keep my expenses very low very easily. My favorite activities -- hiking, snowshoeing, cross country skiing -- are free after you plunk down the $ on gear that lasts a long time. I plan to keep my four year old Honda another eight years or more. I still have income coming in from work, and that's for the extra pot.

[Martha]

A year ago a thread was started on living on $36,000 a year. This was one of the most viewed threads on this board. http://early-retirement.org/forums/i...p?topic=1604.0

A year before that another popular thread was started on living on $50 a day.
http://early-retirement.org/forums/i...hp?topic=258.0

Maybe we need a new thread--living on $200 a day.

Median so far is around $50,000, but our self selected small sample probably doesn't mean much.

[retire@40]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tryan Interesting that ~40% can function on 40k or less.* Must be family dynamics. No way a family of 4 can survive on less than 40k on the northeast.* Heck, healthcare alone is more than 10k.

The problem with a poll asking "how much did you spend last year" is that you are going to get answers from single people all the way to married folks with many children.
So this is more of an average household spending poll.

What we need is one of those sophisticated polls with categories like single, married, married with one child, married with 2 children, married with 3 children, married with more than 3 children.

[greg]

I roughly totalled our spending for this month, our first time in a number of years. $3000. Ahhhhhhhhhhh! The money is whizzing out of our pockets. I thought we were living a rather semi-frugal lifestyle, but there are so many non-recurring items that look like they--or similar ones--that will keep occuring so that it now appears frightening. I bought snow tires (should last 4-6 years-$140), replaced a windshield ($350--no deductable applied), a by-pass for the water heater on the camper ($75). Other than those items, everything was a regular monthly expense. And the irregular ones will happen regularly because if it's not one thing it's another. And this doesn't even include pornography

Possible solutions: Become fake Amish, wearing one set of dark clothes everywhere we go and bring a picnic basket with us that includes ham bologna sandwiches and fresh fruit, fly to Hawai and stand on a busy corner with a sign that says "Will work for poi," crawl in the basement and hide under the bed, or suck it up and just complain about taxes and inflation like everybody else..

Seriously, we are going to delve into the budget and see where we can slash and burn. We have zero regular monthly payments other than utilities and it's still $2500/mo expenses.

Thank God we have this board for cheap thrills, have Dan for our adult entertainment, REW to keep us me honest amused, and JG for spiritual guidance. So I start by counting my blessings, so far three. The good-bad ratio is currently 3:3000. Ahhhhhh!

--Greg

[Martha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by retire@40 The problem with a poll asking "how much did you spend last year" is that you are going to get answers from single people all the way to married folks with many children. So this is more of an average household spending poll. What we need is one of those sophisticated polls with categories like single, married, married with one child, married with 2 children, married with 3 children, married with more than 3 children.

I'll leave that to DanTien.

[RockMiner]

The spending numbers quoted here here don't represent a "normal" sample since most posters are both more frugal and better heeled than average. Anyone able to achieve ER has likely bested 90% of the population in these areas. Given this, I'm not sure what conclusions to draw from this poll?

Any family that can live well on 30-40K (spending) per year has my respect because I don't think we could do it, not unless we eliminated everything but absolute necessities. That's not the way we want to live.

In contrast, 60-70K would be quite generous. My budget is a work in progress, but it seems to want to settle in near 50K. I understand that many need less than that but living close to the bone all the time
would be stressful, and would it's self seem too much like work.

[SteveR]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lancelot No government assistance for ole Lance. But I do pan handle on the streets of Bangkok and eat from dumpsters quite often... Mai pen rai na... Lance

My comment obviously address folks living in the US.* Ex. pats. would be excluded by default due to your country of current residence.*

So is Thai dumpster diving any better or worse than US dumpster diving?

[Jarhead*]

We get by just fine on about $50,000 annualy.
(After taxes).

I also live in expensive area. (Calif.)

That amount includes the care and feeding of a 3400 sq. foot home with 2,000 sq. feet of wrap-around decking.

I spend about $8,000 annually on tournament golf, and fly fishing.

We have 3 cars. One is p/up for brush hauling, fishing, etc.

We have "dish" with baseball and football package. Wife has cell phone.

Kids are long gone. Damn, they were expensive.

I plan on cutting back when I get old.

For ReWahoo: Yes, that figure includes a good supply of "Wheat Bread" on hand at all times.

[preben]

He, he - trust me Lancelot is certainly not dumpster diving - serviced apartment with maid and room service and the pool just outside the window in sunny Thailand 8).

Cheers!

Quote:

Originally Posted by SteveR My comment obviously address folks living in the US.* Ex. pats. would be excluded by default due to your country of current residence.* So is Thai dumpster diving any better or worse than US dumpster diving?

[Andre1969]

I've still got a ways to go before I retire, but I'm privvy to a some of my grandmother's finances. I know she brings in less than $30K per year between her retirement and social security, but she's always got money left over so I guess that would put her in the $20-30K annual spending range.

Her house is paid for, so the biggest single expense she has is property taxes, which I think were around $2500. Then there's utilities...oil, electric, phone, water, cable tv. She also gives to the church, I think around $200 per month. No car, so that saves a lot. Then there's all those prescriptions and meds that seem to go hand in hand with old people.

Actually, the more I think about it, even $20-30K per year might be too high. She might actually be down in the high-end of that $15-20K bracket. She probably could be, except that my uncle lives with her, and she buys most of the food for both of them, and doesn't pay rent. He helps her keep the house up, though, and at her age (81) I don't know if I'd want her living alone, so it's a good thing he's there!

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ex-Jarhead For ReWahoo: Yes, that figure includes a good supply of "Wheat Bread" on hand at all times.

That's good to know. But I'm curious. What would go first in your budget if you faced some hard times?

[Jarhead*]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo! That's good to know.* But I'm curious. What would go first in your budget if you faced some hard times?

ReWahoo: We've been on hard times for the last couple of years or so, since I discovered the properties in "Wheat Bread".

[haha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by retire@40 The problem with a poll asking "how much did you spend last year" is that you are going to get answers from single people all the way to married folks with many children. So this is more of an average household spending poll. What we need is one of those sophisticated polls with categories like single, married, married with one child, married with 2 children, married with 3 children, married with more than 3 children.

Yes; and at least 50,000 poll takers to give our results any bit of meaning.

Ha

[haha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Apocalypse . . .um . . .SOON I roughly totalled our spending for this month, our first time in a number of years.* $3000.* Ahhhhhhhhhhh!* *--Greg

I really don't understand how you could be upset by this. You have a high net worth, your wife is an attorney, and you spend <$40,000 per year. What more could one ask for?

Ha

[Martha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HaHa I really don't understand how you could be upset by this. You have a high net worth, your wife is an attorney, and you spend <$40,000 per year. What more could one ask for? Ha

But. . . the $3000 didn't include any insurance payments of any type and didn't include taxes. And he hasn't seen my credit card bill yet.

[brewer12345]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HaHa I really don't understand how you could be upset by this. You have a high net worth, your wife is an attorney, and you spend <$40,000 per year. What more could one ask for? Ha

Didn't you read: his wife is an attorney. 'Nuff reason for worry IMO.

[Martha]

http://www.bls.gov/cex/csxann03.pdf

This link is to Bureau of Labor Statistics information on household spending for 2001, 2002 and 2003. The average household had income of $51,128 before taxes and spent $40,817. The spending breakdown does not seem to include taxes. The greatest expense was for housing, transportation was next and food was third.

[MRGALT2U]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ex-Jarhead ReWahoo:* We've been on hard times for the last couple of years or so, since I discovered the properties in "Wheat Bread".

Wow! That is a helluva good question.

Honestly, I have no idea where we would cut first, although
there are lots of possibilities.

JG

[greg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HaHa I really don't understand how you could be upset by this. You have a high net worth, your wife is an attorney, and you spend <$40,000 per year. What more could one ask for? Ha

Ha: This morning's rough estimate of spending shattered a mis-conception I had about myself and DW's spending. I had the belief that we could and did always get by on $24K of spending each year--easily--not counting splurges like a new RV or a big vacation. And with all the remainder spent on wild excesses and dancing in the moonlight with a butler following us around with a bottle of that Dom Peri(crap).

We still have to do this budget thing for a few more months to get a handle on average expenses. But I seriously thought we were spending about $1K/mo. less. In my mind : , our estate would be roughly bigger than Warran Buffet's when we passed on because of wise investment decisions and our ability to live only on one-tenth of stock gains each year. I wanted almost all of that final amount to sucked up by the Democrat's estate tax and Social Security. Man, burst my bubble.

--Greg