2021 spending thread

[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]

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.

 

[athena53]

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.

I'm pretty much in that position, too. I don't have any real "wants" that I can't fulfill with what I'm drawing now. My primary objective is not to outlive my savings so I'm not going to go looking for more things to buy. Dad died after 18 months in LTC and still left us a legacy that was far more than I expected. I hope to do the same if that happens to me.

 

[brett]

We spent much less. Probably $25K less than if we had been able to travel internationally during the year.

We do not keep track of categories, just total after tax spending. Not a budget really, just a way of f'casting cash requirements for the next six month period.

 

[tb001]

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.

Someone needs to head to the BTD thread with pictures of the boat!

 

[SecondCor521]

Someone needs to head to the BTD thread with pictures of the boat!

Or buy a cabin for RobbieB's wife

 

[RetiredHappy]

You all got me looking and RobbieB got me going through each month in the BOA spending feature to get all the numbers. We sold and bought a new home in January this year. The difference in the cost of the home is not included in the spending.

Total spending Jan to Dec 2022: $268,399.51.
With the new home, we spent $93,549.47 on new HVAC/Furnaces, 2 partial bathroom remodel, Ring security/Whole house Wifi speakers, pool equipment replacement, gas firepit and movers.

Total without new home expenses:$174,850.04.
Add estimated taxes, comes up to around $200K.

Trips we made: 2 weeks to Palm Desert, CA, 2 weeks to Ko Olina / Oahu, 2 separate trips a week each to Newport Beach, CA, 8 days to Scottsdale, AZ, 2 trips to California to visit family and 2 Staycations.

 

[seraphim]

Been an unusual year, and we spent a bunch on our son and family.

Normally we get by on $79k pensions - no mtg, 1 car payment, and do what we want. Pre-Covid we travelled and took out money from investments as needed. We had planned on $20k a year, but have done more than that since investments were doing well and balances have grown.

In 2021 we took out about $60k. Paid for son’s wedding as their wedding gift, $30k advance on building new home, and covered son going back to school to get his teaching certificate

So we’ve spent about $145k this year. Spent less on us, partially because we picked up $1600 in rent after selling our house. We also spent on the new grandchild lol.

But we took out a lot less than we made. That might change in the future though, as we’ll be picking up a mortgage and property tax burden. Those will be shared expenses since the house will have two masters and the family will be living together - but it will still be an added expense

 

[Philliefan33]

I use Quicken but don’t bother to track withholding from DH’s pension for HI and FIT, so my records are more of a cash ledger than a true account of spending. That said, $136K went out of our accounts this year. The two biggest categories were the balance due on a very large FIT bill resulting from the sale of our rental property in 2020, and a loan to DD to pay for her graduate work.

Without those one-time spends, we are at $80K. That is less than our annual income so we’re good.

 

[Alan]

I track monthly spending but don't go itemize in great detail.

For 2021, expenditure was $45,424. Income tax on top of that of $14,351

 

[Cobra9777]

For the two of us, total expenses were $104K in 2021. That includes $46K of taxes (federal and property), with $25K of that driven by a large Roth conversion.

This is significantly lower than pre-pandemic, when spending was typically $120-140K. And most of those years had much smaller Roth conversions. Last year (2020) was even lower at $88K.

But we're making up for it with the purchase of a Class B camper van, which is finally scheduled for delivery in January 2022. The van will set us back roughly $150K (all in). I'll post a BTD picture once it's in the driveway.

 

[Tafkah]

I live alone in a paid-off 1,200 sf house in the SF bay area.

Total spending before tax $16,000
Tax $5,300
Stimulus received - $2,600
Net Spending $18,700

Without California Prop 13 and the ACA, it would be a lot more. Guess I need to develop some expensive habits if I want to get my spending up to most of you guys.

 

[street]

^ wow! Living in CA for under 20K is huge. I don't believe under 20k in fly over country in a small-town USA I could live that cheap.

 

[tominboise]

2021 was our first full year of retirement. We spent about $120k, which is about 10% under our budget. I have more detail but it's on another computer in our other house right at the moment. I was happy to have hit our budget as close as we did. This spending does include Federal income tax, local property taxes but not our state income tax, which should be minimal as we are managing our AGI to maintain an ACA subsidy.

 

[wmc1000]

With all expenses in for 2021, all expenses excluding our home remodeling and barn building costs which I throw in our asset pile, ($81,500 total this year), our expenditures were $40,072 for the 2 of us.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

2021 Totals for 2 people. Seems about average for the group I think after looking at others with some exceptions at either extreme.

 

[statsman]

About $63k for us in 2021, with $5k of that for the deductible to have our hail-damaged roof and gutters replaced. $10k for property taxes/HOA. $10k for my under-65 medical premiums and out-of-pocket. $3k for DW's Medicare, Part B gap, Part D, deductibles, and non-covered expenses. So, $35k for expenses we have some control over.