After you FIRED and retired, were there expenses you immediately cut or stopped?

[martyp]

Wine club. Living near the Napa Valley, spending on wine was fine during my w*rking years but an indulgence when retired. I cut back on restaurant spending as well.

 

[friar1610]

Since I had more time and less money, we eliminated the house cleaner and lawn service. I took over both chores as my wife was still working.

 

[scrabbler1]

The NYC subway and for the most part the Long Island Rail Road.

Also "shopping the stash" for clothes and jewelry which I (or DH) bought while working. I might as well enjoy some of my own vintage stuff.

Like my fellow harried Long Island commuter, when I retired in late 2008 I eliminated this cost. As I have posted here many times over the years, the best part (and biggest reason) about retiring was eliminating the awful commute. Mine, at the end, was to Jersey City, New Jersey, so I eliminated the PATH train, slightly cheaper and a little more tolerable (but a little longer) than the NYC subway. I was working only 2 days a week when I ERed, but my commutation costs for that reduced commute were about the same as they were when I was last working FT in 2000!

I also eliminated the FICA taxes. Working so little, I had eliminated the 401k contributions the previous year.

The rest of my expenses stayed roughly the same. Some went up a little, others went down a little. Losing FICA and commuting expenses freed up money to pay for my own health insurance (pre-ACA).

 

[daylatedollarshort]

More and more expense reductions just always seem to keep popping up for us the longer we stay retired. Like we found out Ticketmaster gives all their unsold tickets to vets for a small service charge. There are also other vet discounts we never knew about before but take advantage of now at stores, our bank, restaurants and other ticket venues. We just saw an amazing play with a $50 vet discount off our 2 tickets. And now we are getting old enough for senior discounts, like 2/3 off train fares and senior discount days at some of the local stores.

 

[Teacher Terry]

Dash, I can’t do much physical because of my back and neck. But I do office work which many organizations need. I also have helped putting on events where booths need to be occupied or the programs need to be explained to potential or present donors. It’s great that you contribute financially.

 

[Cobra9777]

The obvious work-related stuff went away automatically, like work clothes, dry cleaning, commute expenses, and eating lunch out with coworkers. And of course, payroll tax and savings went to zero. Federal tax went way down as well until I started doing big Roth conversions.

Also, my ER coincided with our youngest finishing college. So all those expenses went away, which was huge. We also paid off the mortgage.

But otherwise... I started cooking every day, and we adopted a low-carb lifestyle. So we eat out less and seem to spend less at the grocery store, since we only shop the perimeter.

I kicked the kids off our cellular family plan and now use low-cost MVNOs. Canceled cable TV for streaming. Also canceled landline phone and use Obi-200 plus Google Voice, which is free.

I do a lot of maintenance around the house that we hired out previously, mainly because we didn't have time. We reduced from 4 cars to 2. But then we bought a Class B camper van, which cost twice as much as our first house.

Other things that increased after retirement were health insurance, travel, home improvements, and certain hobby expenses.

Overall, lots of changes. And still tons of variability, with about 30-40% discretionary. But the total is generally well within our FireCalc 95% figure. So after a few years of conservative spending, we're learning new ways to BTD.

 

[Koolau]

Haven't bought a suit or tie since FIRE 16 years ago. Don't eat out nearly as much. Haven't bought a new car since '91. I'm sure I could think of some other cuts if I had any more interest in the subject. But, I'm awfully busy being retired. YMMV

 

[whatnot]

We stopped our bi-weekly house cleaner. I felt we now have the time and energy to do this ourselves. But as we get older, this will probably come back. But for now, we can handle the work.
I used to get a monthly massage. And I really loved it. It was my stress relief. We moved shortly after retirement and I now go maybe 1-2 a year as a treat.

 

[gayl]

I immediately cut down on gas & fewer lunches out, but spent more on Starbucks. During covid that went. I've unintentionally increased my savings

 

[Stormy Kromer]

At risk of starting a new thread. When did you kick DKs off your cell plan? Its a big expense for us and DD's phone is over half of ours. She's 25.

 

[gayl]

I removed DD, DS, and the DGS that lived with me when they graduated / left college.

 

[Katsmeow]

We cut our expenses by a lot. Some of the main ones:

1. Less money on clothes since not going to the office. I did work very part-time for a few years and kept one or two nice outfits in case I had to go in. But I mostly worked from home. This also less to virtually no dry cleaning costs.

2. Less dining out. We still eat out a couple of times a week but before we ate out more often.

3. Way less money spent on gas. Basically our fuel consumption easily decreased by 80%. Also, very rarely driving on toll roads when before we did it every work day for two of us.

4. We downsized in stages. When DH retired and I semi-retired we still had kids at home. We downsized to a smaller house once we were down to 2 kids at home. Then 4 years ago (no kids at home) we downsized again. We have realized even this house is too large and plan to downsize again.

5. We upgrade our computers less often. Used to it was every couple of years, now it is more like every 4 or 5 years.

6. Health insurance and healthcare costs are far, far, far less given that we are both on Medicare with a supplement.

7. Kid related expenses. While these lasted longer than we anticipated they are nowhere near as much in recent years as they were back then.

 

[Koolau]

We cut our expenses by a lot. Some of the main ones:

1. Less money on clothes since not going to the office. I did work very part-time for a few years and kept one or two nice outfits in case I had to go in. But I mostly worked from home. This also less to virtually no dry cleaning costs.

2. Less dining out. We still eat out a couple of times a week but before we ate out more often.

3. Way less money spent on gas. Basically our fuel consumption easily decreased by 80%. Also, very rarely driving on toll roads when before we did it every work day for two of us.

4. We downsized in stages. When DH retired and I semi-retired we still had kids at home. We downsized to a smaller house once we were down to 2 kids at home. Then 4 years ago (no kids at home) we downsized again. We have realized even this house is too large and plan to downsize again.

5. We upgrade our computers less often. Used to it was every couple of years, now it is more like every 4 or 5 years.

6. Health insurance and healthcare costs are far, far, far less given that we are both on Medicare with a supplement.

7. Kid related expenses. While these lasted longer than we anticipated they are nowhere near as much in recent years as they were back then.

Heh, heh I forgot the KID expenses. Our last was leaving just about the time of FIRE. So indeed, expenses went down a lot. Of course, soon enough there were weddings and house down payments, but that's another story.

 

[athena53]

My retirement spending has been in two phases.

Retired in 2014. Obvious reductions: spending on clothing minimal, no contributions to savings, moved to smaller house (although that required many expenses to do some repairs to the old place and upgrades to the new one). Travel increased.

DH died in 2016. Eight years out from retirement I'm feeling more comfortable with what I can spend while enjoying life, giving more away and still having enough to pay for LTC if needed and leave money to DS and DDIL. Overall spending/giving increasing by more than inflation but it's sustainable, especially after filing for SS on my own record and getting a $1,700/month bump in my monthly payment. More restaurant meals with the guy I'm dating but nothing extravagant- we have a favorite local Mexican place. Spending on health insurance dropped significantly after I got off of the ACA plan and qualified for Medicare. I feel a lot more comfortable with the finances since the market has been good up to this year) and I don't have to plan for the scary scenario of one spouse in LTC and one at home.

 

[Out of Steam]

I told my DW that I'm not going to spend on clothing, jackets, and shoes, because I still have brand new walking & running shoes I have not worn and we've had enough clothes bought.

We moved to a lower-cost area, reducing our basic bills by about $1500 a month.

As for clothes, I took about an 18 month break from buying clothes after retirement, mainly to use up some items and reduce clutter. As I am a hiker who is very hard on shoes, I couldn't take a break from that. I have to buy a pair of some sort about every six weeks.

 

[old medic]

I figure I spent around $3500 a year for job related expenses that are history. My 401K contributions, I dont view as an expense, but my take home pension is more than my working take home.

 

[ncbill]

At risk of starting a new thread. When did you kick DKs off your cell plan? Its a big expense for us and DD's phone is over half of ours. She's 25.

Prepaid via MVNOs is cheap.

I switched to Visible (owned by Verizon)

Unlimited talk/text/data which includes hotspot.

List price is $40/month but drops to $25/month once you join a "party" with 4 or more members & since they lifted the cap there are now ones out there with hundreds or thousands of members.

Runs on Verizon towers only, though.

 

[Katsmeow]

At risk of starting a new thread. When did you kick DKs off your cell plan? Its a big expense for us and DD's phone is over half of ours. She's 25.

Two of our kids are on our cell phone plan (mid 20s). They pay their share at this point.

 

[copyright1997reloaded]

We immediately sold one of our 2 cars.

Overall our expenses went up because we then started doing a lot of travel.

Funny, I now have more cars than when I was working for mega-corp. (I am now working on reducing - sold the old RV I never took on trips, donated a car (picked up today). The fleet now consists of four vehicles, two I bought (new) in the last six months.

 

[gayl]

At risk of starting a new thread. When did you kick DKs off your cell plan? Its a big expense for us and DD's phone is over half of ours. She's 25.

I kicked them off 3 months after graduation (DS - BS, DD - AA, GS1 - BA, raised him). Never put GS2 on a plan bc he opted out of college & lives with parent. Opened cc with him but he keeps it paid in full (so far). GD1 lives with me - on now & just put $20 on her clipper card. No to CDL. She doesn't need one if opting for BB instead of a J-O-B. But she's a 4.5 so not that shabby

 

[tulak]

Two of our kids are on our cell phone plan (mid 20s). They pay their share at this point.

Same here for DS. He’s done with school, working, and can pay his share. DD is still subsidized until she finishes school.

I save money by keeping them on my plan since I get a discount with more lines. I imagine someday this will change, but no idea when.

 

[nobody]

Dropped the house keeper.
Not eating out as much.
Gas usage is way down.
Dropped the yard guy, well moved to new location don't need one.
Stopped buying so many toys.
Big one I got on CO Medicare cause I basically have no income so I get free health insurance.
But the amount I spend on Coffee and food is way up.

 

[Global Wizzo]

Expenses

I must be the odd guy here. Most everything went up.

Work used to cover cell, internet, my travel and meals 150+ days a year. When wife went along her tickets were covered some as meals occasionally. Car stayed parked at the airport, etc. Work picked up embroidered shirts, so I guess dry cleaning actually went down. Medical was a zero deductible that company picked up and they covered International medical if needed. Day I retired, the basics went up at least 1K / month.

We still travel 60-100 days a year and all the expenses are on me. I’ve offered to send the occasional expense report to the CFO. He is still laughing.

When not traveling we eat out at least1/3 of the time.

Spend on the nicer stuff that we wouldn’t buy before. International flights are business ( but we shop deals on airfare and hotel rates). Age cars to at least 10 years and just finished last bathroom renovations. Maintenance expenses only but the roof will likely take 20K next year.

Whatever you do, keep a good reserve. Things break, grab the good deal when you see it or someone else will, and just enjoy life.

Just attended funeral # 3 or 4 this year.

 

[FIREarly]

Standing fast and investing to contribute at a later date to this topic

 

[Rambler]

I'm sure that many here live by frugal rules to achieve FIRE. And even though many of you have squirreled away enough for retirement and even for FAT Fire, I know that many tend to cut some cost after the paycheck stop.

I told my DW that I'm not going to spend on clothing, jackets, and shoes, because I still have brand new walking & running shoes I have not worn and we've had enough clothes bought. I still have basic cable with the fewest channels, and was thinking that could go, but I don't know yet. But we're going to spend more on travel.

Care to share what expenses you cut or downsized?

I used to wear relatively expensive suits every day to the C-suite. I haven’t bought a suit in over 10 years, not the belts or shoes or ties that go with them. I buy a few pair of shorts every year and maybe a dozen shirts, plus 3-4 pair of running shoes and a couple pair of sandals every year, and a hat or two and swim trunks. We live in the Phoenix area, so this past winter, it was only cold enough to wear long pants for about two weeks. At this rate, my 2-3 pair of 2-3 year old long pants will be around until the lesser of 10 years or until my wife makes me buy new ones (you know which is more likely ).

When we moved here, everything was close, and gas was cheaper than in Cali, so our gasoline costs went way down, as did income tax, property tax, insurances of every kind, etc. we had solar in CA but not here (yet), and even though electricity costs less per kWh here, the total is much higher. Food is generally cheaper, and Id say we eat out a bit less, but that just kind of happened, not as a cost saving choice.

We do spend a bit more on travel, but that is mostly because I traveled a lot for work and my points paid for vacations back then. We don’t pinch pennies because we don’t have to. But we don’t buy stuff that isn’t fulfilling either. I like to cook, and I like beef, so I’ve learned to find excellent primal cuts and dry age them myself. We also splurge on Wagyu beef - we used to live in Japan, and enjoyed it during business dinners. I have 6 different BBQs, smokers, grills and griddles, and shortly I intend to get an outdoor pizza oven.

If you were to ask me if I spend more now, or when I was working, I’d probably say that they’re pretty similar, or maybe a tad more now (FAT FIRE group - worked a year or two longer than necessary in a very high paying role). But that’s just because I had no time to spend money back then. I was always working, and there were a lot of perks that came with the job (like the miles and points, and business dinners with fine foods). So I just spend money differently, not so much less.