I've been doing some preliminary review of my expenses for 2009 and starting to prepare an expected budget for 2010. It's been interesting for me to see what my largest expense categories are in retirement and wondered what the greatest expenses are for most others on this board. Here are my 2 largest:
#1 is Property Tax on my house. Even though I live in a modest home in an average middle-class neighborhood, the tax bite is big and getting bigger. The tax increase is capped at 10% per year, so they are still catching up to the run-up in prices several years ago. I know the solution to this is to move to a lower COL area, but that is a few years off.
#2 is Health Insurance. Even with a HDHP and HSA, this is an ever-growing component of my budget. I will be turning 50 soon and am hitting that big bump-up in premium. In the back of my mind, my fallback plan is to maybe switch to a higher deductible/lower premium plan, but if I do that, I won't be eligibile for the HSA.
I've been surprised to realize that all other expenses pale in comparison to these. It's not what I would have guessed years ago when I started preparing for early retirement. Of course if I still had a mortgage, that would be #1 on the list.
So, what are your one or two largest constant spending categories?
#1 is Property Tax on my house. Even though I live in a modest home in an average middle-class neighborhood, the tax bite is big and getting bigger. The tax increase is capped at 10% per year, so they are still catching up to the run-up in prices several years ago. I know the solution to this is to move to a lower COL area, but that is a few years off.
#2 is Health Insurance. Even with a HDHP and HSA, this is an ever-growing component of my budget. I will be turning 50 soon and am hitting that big bump-up in premium. In the back of my mind, my fallback plan is to maybe switch to a higher deductible/lower premium plan, but if I do that, I won't be eligibile for the HSA.
I've been surprised to realize that all other expenses pale in comparison to these. It's not what I would have guessed years ago when I started preparing for early retirement. Of course if I still had a mortgage, that would be #1 on the list.
So, what are your one or two largest constant spending categories?