2021 spending thread

[youbet]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gamboolman Thank you W2R for putting this out there. I retired effective 1-Feb-21 and the following Expenses Listing includes right at $60K in One Off 1st Year Retirement Expenses that we planned for. ETA - All expenses were within our pre-retirement planned budgeting. ETA 2 - Per Mr. Wizards good catch - these are all Net numbers and do not include accounting for the dreaded Income Taxes - we are just starting that exercise and I will try to post back in 1st Qtr 2022 with the results and how the numbers look then. But even accounting for that - we have spent alot. I am abit sheepish to put it out there but it is good to get feedback and criticism from the folks on this board. There is no doubt in our minds that advice was in large part how ms gamboolgal and I were able to plan for retirement when I joined in 2012. Sincere thanks to all. It will be interesting to post 2022 stats next year and see how we compare. Ok - Nomex (Fire Retardent) Carhartt work shirt and jeans and steel toed Cowboy Boots is on ...... Flame away.

No spending for income tax? That's my biggest category.

[youbet]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NW-Bound Wow, little things added up. Without Quicken, I would not know.

That's why I don't use Quicken........ I don't wanna know!

Pretty much everything we spend funnels through the checking account. So I just add up the outflows from there and (again this year) decide we're doing OK. If some period of time looks way out of whack, I scan the checkbook for spending reminders. If the big checkbook outflow was paying the CC bill, then I scan the CC statement for that month. But a Quicken level of detail....... no thanks!

[NW-Bound]

With not many days left in the year, it is safe to say my WR this year is less than 1%.

But, but, but how come the WR was even lower last year, and in addition the market god has been incredibly generous?

Oh, it made sense when I looked again at the Quicken screen. I bought a new vehicle in Jan 2021.


2020 WR: 0.62%

2021 WR: 0.99%

[RobbieB]

This year's spending was $182,000.

[youbet]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RobbieB This year's spending was $182,000.

Including income taxes?

[RobbieB]

Yeah. I just use the tool on the BofA site for the checking account. Everything is paid out of that account, so property tax, state and federal estimates, health insurance, the works.

[NW-Bound]

Quote:

Originally Posted by athena53 ...35% went to charity...

The above number impressed me more than anything else on this thread.

My hat off to you.

My highest number in one year was 13%. It's generally below 10% (I don't go to church and don't tithe).

[street]

Quote:

Originally Posted by athena53 Yeah, DH and I had a VERY expensive year when we downsized- fixing a few things on the house we sold (including a surprise bill for $5K to un-clog a basement drain) and much more than we expected to make improvements to the house we bought (enclosing porch, replacing a few windows). It smoothed out after that and carrying costs on this place are definitely cheaper. My tally was over $100K but sustainable; net worth continues to increase (average of 4.5% annually) in the 7 years since retirement. Of that, 35% went to charity, 8% to travel (low for me), 11% to taxes, 13% to home improvement (exterior painting, deck rebuild, quartz countertops) and 10% to out-of-pocket medical (mostly 2 dental implants).

That is outstanding!! My hat also goes off to YOU.

At year end I will see what percent of spending goes to charity. It has been in the 25% range in the past.

[kgtest]

Spent over 120k.

35k to mortgage note, property tax and insurance.
25k on a backyard reno (patio slab, steel underdecking, electrical work, new door, irrigation, new yard and new hardscape river rock and boulders.
24k on childcare.
16k on vacations. Some of that was pre-paying for airfare and hotel into 2022 though.

The rest went to bills, entertainment and charity.

Worth noting investment expenses were only $395.00 for our self managed portfolio that's returning over 26% this year.

Edit to add, we had a tougher time saving this year with the remodel, but still saved "enough". Hoping to double our savings next year.

[rodi]

Ours was higher this year - but we had some expected large expenses... and some unexpected ones....

All in was $130k. (It hurts just to see that.) And this was *not* FAT fire.

Big one was $24k in various educational expenses - most qualified and therefore pulled from the 529. Older son is going to community college, younger son is enrolled full time, with dorm at CalPoly. Also some stuff I tossed in that category like cap & gown, senior HS pictures, etc. Older son is hoping to go back full time this coming year and the $$ will kick up even more. But we have 529 funds to cover.

Another unexpected expense was medical - older son had ameloblastoma recur. We offered to pay for the OOP costs for this. He has decent insurance but it was still $4k we weren't planning on. (Vs the $44k before his insurance.)

And - travel. DH did some car travelling this year - with me joining him (by plane) for part of one of the trips. Add in that we pre-paid our Machu Picchu/Galapagos trip for next year and put money towards our cruise/europe trip this coming spring... Travel hit $24k.

Some of the other stuff improved or stayed the same. Groceries went down (family of 4 till Aug/Sept - then family of 2 after that.) $10k Groceries is everything bought at costco/vons/sprouts... so it includes booze, some clothes, toiletpaper, etc.

Insurance - home, health, umbrella, car, every type of insurance. $17k

Auto: - repair, purchase, repair, gas... everything but insurance. $10k. This included a van purchase and the materials to build out camping beds, new power steering pump, new differential. We now own 4 cars - one of which resides with older son. We do a lot of the maintenance ourselves.

Utilities (gas/electric/water) $3500
Phone (magic jack and t-mobile * 4) - $1300
Entertainment (cable, internet, movies, netflix) - $3000

Since taxes were mentioned - state and federal taxes - $9.3k

Last year was $90k... Travel, education, and medical definitely kicked it up for 2021

[corn18]

Retired 21 Mar of this year @ 55. Spend outlined below. $258,310 so far. Didn't plan on spending that much but we have $29k more in savings than when I retired. So there's that.

Oops, need to add in taxes of $160,966. So $419,276. Severance was pretty big.

[RobbieB]

I stand corrected. One hundred seventy two grand. I bought an I Bond -

[Teacher Terry]

W2R, I view my remodeling expenses as money well spent as I spend a lot of time at home and it’s really important to me. So I have the same philosophy as you on it). I paid 211 for my condo and they already are selling for 250.

[RobbieB]

I view all my expenses as money well spent.

[NW-Bound]

Yes, I also think most of my money is well spent. Most, because I occasionally buy something that does not work out, but that is rare. I don't want more stuff to clutter the home.

If I am sure I will enjoy something and I can afford it, I buy it. If not, I don't buy it. It's all very simple.

For example, I thought about a nice DSLR camera, but then decided against it. I am a point-and-shoot kind of guy, and not really into photography. The camera would just sit there collecting dust. And I would have the additional chore of dusting it without getting any benefit from it.

I like planting. The edible types, so I spend a bit of time doing gardening. It's a really cheap hobby, and I enjoy doing that a lot more than going out to buy organic veggie. And it gives me some exercise too, which I like to do a lot more than walking on a treadmill. Gardening supplies are not expensive, compared to what other hobbies may require.

[SecondCor521]

My annual run rate based on the past six months is about $35K. That excludes college costs for the two college sophomores, which comes from the college accounts which are segregated. If I exclude discretionary and other kid-related costs, it's about a $23.1K annual run rate.

Since I live in a low- to medium-COL place and have a paid off home and car, and have no expensive hobbies or BTD desires, my life and budget are honestly pretty boring.

Comparing to 2020, the numbers in the various categories vary quite a bit, but the total is about the same or a bit less. Looking forward to 2022, health insurance should be about $2.3K less than 2021 due to the ARP Act.

If I'm fortunate, by this time next year I'll have two college juniors. This year about 38 cents out of every dollar of spending went to college costs, which is my #1 spending category and larger than categories #2 through #4 total (Food @ 13% / House @ 12% / Kids @ 11%).

Net WR% at the moment is 0.68%, but don't try to do the math as there are a ton of adjustments I make to get to that number.

[FIREd]

Total spending for 2021 is close to $50K (single guy, high-ish COL area in Europe, own my home outright). Discretionary spending includes eating out, travel, home decor, clothing, etc...)

[athena53]

Quote:

Originally Posted by street That is outstanding!! My hat also goes off to YOU. At year end I will see what percent of spending goes to charity. It has been in the 25% range in the past.

Thanks- it's due partly to reduced travel (travel + charity are usually 40% of my budget but more evenly distributed between the two) and due to some donations after I received an inheritance that I honestly don't need. My grandchildren's 529 accounts will get most of the inheritance.

[Time2]

We have never kept a budget, never kept track of our spending, other than I got a ballpark idea before we retired. We are just naturally frugal, and always lived on less than we earned. We are retired and all our spending does go through the checking account, so it is very easy to pull up the account online and see what I spent for the previous year, not particularly any by item, but insurance, taxes, CC, and health ins. would pop out.
I do a net worth statement every 3 months, looking forward to 12-31-21. But, I have looked to see I'm up 22% for the year, however I recently moved $98k from investments to my bank for next years spending. Putting us at 16%. We don't spend $98k, but I did a Roth Conversion and we will owe about $28k in taxes. I'm also going to fund my son's Roth for next year.

With SS still to come, we are in position to BTD, but I can't get my wife to loosen her purse strings, I could, if I can just figure what I want for.

[bigcmagor]

Here comes the lead balloon @ $648,000. Includes taxes of $210k, boat $205k, car $53k and windows $40k. Probably our last boat purchase and we get 7-20 years out of our cars. Don't plan on buying any more windows either. Aside from Covid intrusion into our lives, year one of retirement has exceeded our expectations.