Year one budgets?

[tb001]

In our first year of semi-retirement (DH is still w*rking pt) and I’m finding we are spending a ton on ‘one time’ stuff for the house and future lifestyle. Some of it was planned for and money was allocated, and some is covid related, but I’m also finding with all of this extra free time I’m noticing more things that need fixed on the house, more little things that would streamline our life and make things easier, more hobby related stuff, etc...

Did anyone else go through a ‘first year’ money spend? Did it end

We’re still within budget due to the planned for expenses and lower covid expenses, and I’ve found lots of ways to cut our spend that I never had time to focus on before, but I’m surprised how many extras we’re wanting!

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

I asked something similar a couple of years ago, so some of the stories in the Retirement celebratory splurge? thread might be helpful, although that was more about planned, intentional spending.

 

[brett]

The exact opposite. We decide to downsize and sell our home. So our first seven months was spent preparing our home for sale and downsizing.

 

[W2R]

In our first year of semi-retirement (DH is still w*rking pt) and I’m finding we are spending a ton on ‘one time’ stuff for the house and future lifestyle. Some of it was planned for and money was allocated, and some is covid related, but I’m also finding with all of this extra free time I’m noticing more things that need fixed on the house, more little things that would streamline our life and make things easier, more hobby related stuff, etc...

Did anyone else go through a ‘first year’ money spend? Did it end

Quite the opposite! I was very concerned about "Sequence of Returns Risk", so I got everything fixed that I could before retiring, and bought a new car for retirement, in an attempt to eliminate big unusual expenses for the first few years. OK, I guess this makes me an official First Class Worry Wart. Also for some reason I didn't feel any need to spend a lot on entertainment/hobby/fun stuff.

I saved up for the car before retiring, and put the money aside with that in mind. But even if you count what I spent on the car that first year, still my first year spending was the 4th cheapest out of my first 10 years of retirement. The cheapest was year 2, then year 3, then year 9, then year 1.

 

[RobbieB]

I started blowing dough when I retired and I'm still blowing 5 years later.

 

[Walt34]

Did anyone else go through a ‘first year’ money spend? Did it end

Yes, instead of downsizing we upsized when we moved from the DC area to WV. Money for housing goes a lot farther in WV than DC, so while the new house cost less, it was larger, and brand new. We'd never bought a brand new house before so there were some things we didn't anticipate that we should have.

Who knew that new houses didn't come with so much as window shades? So we tacked up a large towel over the bathroom window the first day or two we were there. Fortunately the bedroom windows faced the woods and I figured the deer and squirrels wouldn't care what we looked like naked. DW wasn't so sure.

Anyway, for the first six months or so we were definitely spending more than our income getting the house to livable condition.

 

[intent]

We're in a similar situation (DW retired in Jan and I'm still working this year). I'm working from home now, and am frequently noticing things around the house I'd like to fix/improve that I never noticed before. Sometimes I bring these up to DW and wonder aloud if I should extend my career and spend some money on these things. So far at least she has been steadfast in making an argument that, based on her newfound perspective, none of the items I've mentioned are worth working longer to have.

So, we haven't spent more yet. Our sort of compromise for the time being is for me to prioritize these wants (because, in reality, none of them are needs), and then wait until the end of the year and see how our budget is panning out. At that point, with me just a few months from planned retirement, we'll review and see how much I still want these things.

She's openly betting that I'll be able to cull my list to just the items that will still allow me to retire on schedule

 

[goingtotravel]

Still w*rking but suspect we will have a similar year one budget to the OP. We have a list of improvements we want to make to our house but no time while w*rking to do them. DH will have to retire if they ask him to return to the office before a vaccine so hanging around longer at w*rk to get the projects done by someone else (more $$$) doesn't seem possible

. We are pricing one major repair annually into our budget since we have a 20 year old house and everything mechanical seems to have gone out on us in the last 3 years or so. At some point we will run out of HVAC systems, dishwashers, garage door openers, pressure tanks, hot water heaters and well pumps to replace. Then maybe we can redirect that part of the budget, temporarily, to 'nice to have' home improvements.

 

[Dtail]

We were under budget our first year, but was watching the dollars closely, since we retired all of a sudden and wanted to make sure we stayed on course.
It was a decent budget, so was not really sacrificing anything in the end.

 

[brett]

Nine years of retirement.

We did not have a budget as such but we did have an 'estimate' of what we would spend. We did this on the basis of after tax spend. Although we did a very quick tape every month it was the annual number that we wanted to see.

So far the estimate has been dead accurate. The big variable was the items in that estimate. I put it down to two things. First was lifestyle change. Second was a conservative approach. We padded the number and added increments for inflation.

We did track after tax spend for the two or three years leading up to retirement. Then adjusted for travel, etc. It was not fancy, were were only interested in the one spend number...not spend categories.

 

[SumDay]

2nd year anniversary of retirement is next month. In our first year our HVAC needed to be replaced, the sump pump crapped out, as did the garage door opener. Those weren't things we planned on, but we had an emergency fund. We did not have to eat cat food, and pretty much managed to do whatever else we wanted to do. This year, we decided to replace sunroom windows with Renewal by Anderson, which was more than the emergency expenditures in Year 1. We're still not eating cat food, so I now realize I was probably being a little too tight with our spending so it's helped me loosen up.

My first year of retirement I ran a Quicken spending report the last day of every month. I haven't done it in a while. I think I'm moving into the "Blow That Dough" mode.

 

[nap470]

I am a newbie to retirement, entering my 4th week. I was planning to retire in September or October this year and had everything planned but had not notified my boss or company. Smaller company so no retirement "package." In mid-June, there was a shake-up at work that I was very unsatisfied about, so I gave my 2-week notice that day and left at the end of June. Very happy about it but still adjusting. Since then, my dependent 19 year old daughter needed surgery, the balance of 2019 taxes were due, property taxes due, and my daughter also developed a pulmonary embolism as a result of blood clots developed and just spent 3 days in the hospital ICU. So the first month has seen it's share of unplanned costs. Hopefully I will save some money on room & board if her college goes online for at least the first semester. I'm assuming the first year retirement budget will slightly overrun the original estimate, but will adjust if needed. For now, just thankful for the time with the family.

 

[jollystomper]

Once I started planning for retirement, we started spending money on many "one time" house items before retirement, so as not to deal with them after retirement.We got out of the way things like a new roof, new driveway, renovated bathrooms, etc. It was easier to spend the money from my paycheck for this and not have to worry about anything major after retirement. We do have so additional one time things but I consider these minor items (e.g. new floors in a couple of rooms, refinishing steps).

We no longer focus on a budget, cash flow for us is a better indicator of how we are doing. So far in two years of retirement, we are under spending our cash flow plan, even if the pandemic had not happened.

 

[Koolau]

We still had our youngest at home and lived in a relatively low COL area (certainly, compared to now.) In any case, we were just waiting to get the last kid out the door, so we didn't do much of anything - no vacation, no big purchases, no special entertainment, house paid off, etc. SO, first year was probably our least expensive year.

 

[VanWinkle]

The first year did include a new vehicle(company vehicle went back with retirement). It was new because my DW was to be the driver. I kept a 6 year old vehicle for myself. Other than the new vehicle, my costs went down considerably. I was better able to devote time to controlling expenses. Now the problem is making myself spend more. After saving for 45 years, it seems to be hard to start enjoying the fruits of our labor. Also had built a new house 5 years before retirement so no improvements needed.

 

[tb001]

Interesting to see how for many spend actually was lower in that first year! DH is still working, and has made more this year than we expected, so I think this is part of why we’re spending now. For the first time I actually have time to deal with some of this stuff and our baseline expenses are covered by DH, though don’t know how long that will last...