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Old 12-15-2021, 05:18 PM   #21
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My father was extremely frugal and died with an estate worth about a million dollars back in the mid 90s. My sister is frugal like him but not me. We pretty much buy whatever we want, some frivolous, belong to a country club and travel 3 months a year. The "trick" is to figure out whether we can afford to live the way we live and the numbers look good, so we don't need to worry about it.

In your case, just look at the numbers for how you should reasonably spend, not be frugal, and if they work out fine, then just spend the money.
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I just did it. I winced at the end of the year when I found that I was blowing about 6% instead of the "safe" (nothing is ever safe) 4%.

Yup, I did it for 7 years straight. And at the end of the seven years I have 45% more dough than I started with.

So, if my spending stays constant, I'm now in the safe zone. But DSD only has a year more of school at UCLA, the home improvements are done (95%) and 2 late model cars are in the driveway.

So, looks like my spending will decrease and I'll have to look for more ways to...wait for it...

Blow That Dough -
Ah a breath of fresh air for spending.
A good thread would be a follow up years later on "I should have spent more now that I am 90".
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Old 12-15-2021, 05:22 PM   #22
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...wait for it...
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Old 12-15-2021, 05:52 PM   #23
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Spend money freely on what you value. Spend little on what you do not value. Formula for money happiness.
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Old 12-15-2021, 06:08 PM   #24
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I'm being a little cheap right now (relative to what I can statistically get away with) but I'm ok with that as I ease into spending mode.



If the markets stay friendly, my strategy is to to "budget" in order to spend... like the government! and not to save. My current budget is more of a projection of expenses but going forward in to my 2nd full year, I expect to have mandatory spending on such things as travel and maybe an occasional toy or luxury. I might make my rule that all unspent goes to charity so I cannot "save" it.


I'm also considering a remodel of my kitchen if/when my NW hits a certain amount... nothing drastic but might just do it all at once instead of upgrading as things break.
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Old 12-15-2021, 06:32 PM   #25
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I posted a similar thread about this year’s ago.

I don’t know if I am just frugal, or just uninterested in a lot of things. I am 59 and could retire. But jut sure what I’d do all day. I don’t care about cars. I don’t like to travel. A lot of that has to do with I don’t sleep well outside the house. I feel like I have everything that I need, I really don’t want anything, and the wife and kids seem happy with what they have.

All that said, every calculator I run I will never run out of money. Yet, I am still frugal. So I feel like I should spend it.

Ugh.
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Old 12-15-2021, 06:32 PM   #26
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Any time I feel my wife is overspending, I remind myself divorce would be much more expensive.
+1000 Ain't that the truth!!
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Old 12-15-2021, 06:35 PM   #27
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Spend money freely on what you value. Spend little on what you do not value. Formula for money happiness.
+1. A good way to put it.
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Old 12-15-2021, 06:39 PM   #28
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I posted a similar thread about this year’s ago.

I don’t know if I am just frugal, or just uninterested in a lot of things. I am 59 and could retire. But jut sure what I’d do all day. I don’t care about cars. I don’t like to travel. A lot of that has to do with I don’t sleep well outside the house. I feel like I have everything that I need, I really don’t want anything, and the wife and kids seem happy with what they have.

All that said, every calculator I run I will never run out of money. Yet, I am still frugal. So I feel like I should spend it.

Ugh.
Try to find a daily hobby.
For me, it is competitive Pickleball 6x weekly for 5 hours a day.
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Old 12-15-2021, 06:42 PM   #29
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Very hard to turn the switch from saving to spending. Eights later and still haven’t. Investment adviser even asking, now that you have all this money, what is your goal? He trying to get us to spend more too.
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Old 12-15-2021, 06:57 PM   #30
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Spend money freely on what you value. Spend little on what you do not value. Formula for money happiness.
Yeah Baby! This -
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Old 12-15-2021, 07:07 PM   #31
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Ha! For me it’s playing guitar. But I realized I can do what I want for under $500
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Old 12-15-2021, 09:14 PM   #32
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The first 6 years we were frugal and the last two we're spending more. We both turn 65 next year and I'll eventually get my SS which covers most of our necessities and we aren't worried about ACA cliffs anymore. Last year we blew some dough and this year DW decided we needed a great vacation. She's blown the price of our first house on it[emoji4].

Our investable assets are up over 35% in 8 years and our house has doubled in value in 5. With no heirs I'm comfortable in our ability to blow some $ before SS starts.
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Old 12-16-2021, 04:26 AM   #33
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This year we felt reckless spending about double the first year of RE. Much of that was on remodeling the house and travel. Even that was on 3% WR. Next year will be lower, even though we plan to replace our 4+ year old car. FIRETraveler, I suggest you read some of the Blow That Dough thread. My real splurge this year was to go hobnob with Apollo 16 Moonwalker Charlie Duke.
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Old 12-16-2021, 06:03 AM   #34
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Yep, I'm guilty of this all the time. A bit on the cheap er I mean frugal side, and I'm also a bit of a hoarder. My problem is that I just can't bear to get rid of something that I feel might be of use later...either to myself or someone else.

A couple weeks ago, I took a pickup truck load of stuff to the dump, and there were a few items I was on the fence about. I had an old computer desk, a small shelving unit, and a section of kitchen cabinet. The kitchen cabinet was a holdover from my old condo, and dated back to around 1972-73. I had the place remodeled before putting it on the market in 2003, and to save a bit of money I pulled out the old cabinets myself. Whatever fell apart went to the dump, but some items that held their shape, I held onto, and I used this one piece in my garage, for countertop space and storage.

I also had a wardrobe, that was of sub-Ikea grade quality, that I initially thought about keeping. But, it made the decision for me, when I tried to move it, the back popped off and it started leaning to one side. I stood away from it and it collapsed.

One good thing about our landfill, is that the area where you dump stuff off, it's about a 15-20 foot drop into the dumpsters. So once you drop something down there, the decision is pretty much final...you're not going to just change your mind, and put it back on the truck! Plus, dropping something from that height often damages it, and if that doesn't, dropping the next item down on it sometimes does the trick!

It's amazing, how I can feel apprehensive, unsure, and start getting sentimental thoughts, as I'm loading the truck up, but once all that stuff has been jettisoned, and the truck bed is empty, damn that's a liberating feeling!
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Old 12-16-2021, 06:43 AM   #35
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Being too frugal was easy when I was working 60 hours a week. I didn't have time to spend money. Now retired, I can surf Amazon and order stuff all day long.
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Old 12-16-2021, 06:51 AM   #36
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I feel your pain, and a lot of sage advice here. We were managing to spend close to a safe amount, very safe, before covid with some nice travel. Travel has lost a lot of its luster for us, more hassle than the destination's worth. Hence the pension and SS more than enough for our needs, we're actually adding bucks to the portfolio.

We spend whatever we want on things/activities we want, but can't bring ourselves to spend just for the sake of ridding ourselves of spendable cash. I'd guess the spendable but unspent has approached six figures this year. We've upped our charitable and spending on kids/grandkids. Heck, I even buy the imported butter these days. But I shake my head when I do.
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Old 12-16-2021, 06:51 AM   #37
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I just did it. I winced at the end of the year when I found that I was blowing about 6% instead of the "safe" (nothing is ever safe) 4%.

Yup, I did it for 7 years straight. And at the end of the seven years I have 45% more dough than I started with.
+1 I mentioned a few months ago that I had discovered the following:

Sixteen years ago I RE'd with $X.

Over the next sixteen years I spent $X (the same amount of money as what I started with). Today I have $2X!
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Old 12-16-2021, 07:04 AM   #38
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Ha! For me it’s playing guitar. But I realized I can do what I want for under $500
I used to have a $500 acoustic guitar and it did exactly what I needed it to do. But then I sold it and bought a $1700 guitar. It sounds better, is easier to play, and looks nicer.

The truth is that I didn't need a better guitar. I'm a bass player in my bands and rarely play guitar, it comes out when I'm on the couch or when people are sitting around a campfire. But I decided that if I'm only going to own one guitar then it may as well be a nice one even if it's only played a couple hours a month.
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Old 12-16-2021, 07:59 AM   #39
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Robbie and Marko's posts reinforce something I've really noticed in the years I've retired. My go-to is the Fidelity calculator and to a lesser degree Firecalc. We all seem to get so focused on the worst case scenarios; for example Fido's "worst 10%" case. And by golly it hasn't happened in the 10 years I've been out free, except maybe in March of 2020. So we all so focus on the safety of these conservative assumptions. All appropriate IMO, but it also argues for a bit of optimistic harvesting now and then (if there's something meaningful to you you want to spend $$ on) if things have been diverging from worst case. I keep a printout of the Fido prediction every few years, it's really changed quite a bit. Yes, some of the positive is because we didn't take as much as they said we could, but there's a lot more in the pot from growth that was NOT the worst case of the worst 10% of market performance. So we can all make adjustments if need be, up.
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Old 12-16-2021, 08:00 AM   #40
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Still very frugal, even though I don't need to be. A few years ago, I allowed myself to spend 'big money' on craft beer at $25 a case. But now the same stuff is $39 a case, and I can't (won't) do that. I do allow myself to buy lots of craft beer on sale, however. I am comfortable spending 'big bucks' as in flying somewhere for vacation, but it has to be a good discount deal, for me to be happy spending it.
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