What are your numbers?

[jkern]

My monthly living expenses are:

Essentials (housing, food, utilities, transportation, medical): $2,350
Routine spending (entertainment, travel, gifts, etc.): $1,200
Budget for non-routine spending (new purchases and auto replacement): $1,000

Total for me: $4,550 per month

Recently married, additional expenses:

Essentials: $1,100
Routine spending: $1,200
Non-routine spending: $1,000

Total for spouse: $3,300

Total for both: $7,850

 

[FiveDriver]

Determining a Budget is one of the most important steps in Retirement. We've tracked expenses for several years, and have a real good feel for our number.

Note that our current Home is fully paid for and our Daughter's College Costs have been completely covered. I'm on Medicare and my younger and better-looking Wife is ACA eligible, for what that's worth. Our Real Estate Taxes are due in full in January, and we divide the total by 12 for this Budget. The Utility Bill is higher in summer, but is averaged over 12 months. The Entertainment portion of our Budget is a big Slush Fund that includes a generous amount for Dining Out. We nominally budget $100 per month for annual vacation, but here in Charleston.....every day is a vacation.

All in, our number is around $3500 per month.
In my Opinion, being Mortgage-free is a big positive in Retirement.

 

[Koogie]

Married, no kids and paid off house.

I semi-REd in 2015. Still working just over half time.

Our baseline spend to keep the lights on, food in the fridge, etc.. is 3.5K/mo.

Currently spending 6.0k/mo.

Looking at increasing that to 6.5-7.5k/mo. when we fully RE.

 

[NW-Bound]

...Since retiring over 2.5 years ago we are living totally off of investment income. No SS for another couple of years. No big worries as we are spending much less than 2% of invested assets. Once SS kicks in we should be in a very nice situation, that is assuming no major changes to SS or Medicare.

With SS close at hand, you can spend a lot more than 2%, and still have plenty of safety margin. So, I assume that you see no need to spend more. If that is the case, then your spending will likely not change when you have SS. There are posters who said they lived entirely off SS and or pension, and not touched their savings at all.

A lot of people will die rich that way. Nothing wrong with that, as one can make a will to direct the use of that money after their demise.

 

[wmc1000]

Current spend is $4400 monthly- that includes $1100 mortgage pmt which will go away in 3 years.

 

[Teacher Terry]

Health insurance is one of our biggest expense (10k). The past few years we spent 10-15k on vacations. So all together we are spending 73k/year. We want to travel while we can.

 

[street]

It is interesting to see where each of us compare to spending. I'm in that 3300 a month so far but I haven't had a whole year of retirement to see where I will be at for sure. I did figure in all expenses monthly and yearly and padded that to come up with an average.

Thanks for sharing your living expenses.

 

[redshift]

What are yur numbers?

We live in a very high COL area, and have a place in Hawaii - even higher COL. In first year of retirement we've managed to spend around $12K/mo. We do have a mortgage of ~$2K on one property. Property taxes are our largest budget item - I hate to even think how much...

 

[karen1972]

Well by the Numbers:

Base Expenses: $3500 (spent that exactly last month)
12 month average: $6400
Budgeted: $5000

What makes up the difference:
A) Unusually high medical
B) Unusually high vehicle

Which A&B were part of the Budget and could have been covered.. I guess I just assume if bad things happen you take less expensive vacations.

C) Moving and related expenses to settling into new home.

I hadn't expected to buy when we set up our yearly budget, had to pull money out of the market to make the downpayment at not an ideal time; HOWEVER, the pricepoint on the new place just couldn't be passed up and we should re-coup all costs by end of 2017 and expect $5000ish budget to hold for 2017

 

[Sue J]

Our monthly living expenses for two of us in a low cost of living area is about $2350/mo and that includes health insurance. November was particularly low at just $1984 but we are rarely under $2000.

No mortgage, no debt. Our splurge is DirecTV and a really generous budget for groceries and miscellaneous.

 

[Live And Learn]

I don't know how you guys do it ! I feel like I never buy anything but my spending over the past 4 years has been 80k / year ($6,673 per month). That is in Florida where there is no state income tax. I have included a bogie of 6k / year in for federal income tax since I've only been retired 18 months or so. I feel like a big spender now.

 

[W2R]

I don't know how you guys do it ! I feel like I never buy anything but my spending over the past 4 years has been 80k / year ($6,673 per month). That is in Florida where there is no state income tax. I have included a bogie of 6k / year in for federal income tax since I've only been retired 18 months or so. I feel like a big spender now.

If you can afford what you are spending, then great! Pat yourself on the back for a job well done. There is absolutely nothing wrong in spending one's hard earned money, in my opinion anyway. In fact, that's great.

On the other hand, if your numbers seem like more than you want to spend, then you can join me in trying to tighten the belt. I do need to cut back before the next 2008-style recession, for sure. My situation is that I can afford what I am spending now, but I want more leeway just in case the market dips.

 

[CardsFan]

I don't know how you guys do it ! I feel like I never buy anything but my spending over the past 4 years has been 80k / year ($6,673 per month). That is in Florida where there is no state income tax. I have included a bogie of 6k / year in for federal income tax since I've only been retired 18 months or so. I feel like a big spender now.

I think a lot depends on HI and Taxes. In my case, with Roth conversions, my taxes this year will be over $14k (fed, state, real estate and personal property). HI is $11k, going to almost $15k next year. So these two alone account for almost $2,100/month (30% of total spend).

 

[foxfirev5]

Only 7 months in ER. Budgeted $5000 spending about $3600. The surplus is padding the capital expenditure budget. With two houses I figure about 100k will be needed eventually.
The $3600 figure includes $500 for travel and $650 for HSA contributions.

 

[Major Tom]

$7K.....I guess it's a NORTHERN California thing as well

Unless you're living in, say, Pioneer or Porterville. Not all Californians live near the coast.

 

[W2R]

C) Moving and related expenses to settling into new home.

I hadn't expected to buy when we set up our yearly budget, had to pull money out of the market to make the downpayment at not an ideal time;

Oh, how well I know that feeling. I did the same thing in 2015 - - did not expect to buy that year but did, and had to pull money out of the market to do it. In my case the timing was not bad, but still, buying a house and the related expenses sure mean spending a lot more than usual.

 

[MuirWannabe]

If you can afford what you are spending, then great! Pat yourself on the back for a job well done. There is absolutely nothing wrong in spending one's hard earned money, in my opinion anyway. In fact, that's great.

On the other hand, if your numbers seem like more than you want to spend, then you can join me in trying to tighten the belt. I do need to cut back before the next 2008-style recession, for sure. My situation is that I can afford what I am spending now, but I want more leeway just in case the market dips.

Belt, suspenders, rope, staples, tape, screws, rivets, twisty ties, bungy cord, caribiner, and any other fastener I'm forgetting. You are nothing if not very conservative W2R.

 

[NW-Bound]

I do not go commando. Does that count?

 

[Major Tom]

My monthly expenses for the last 5 years have been ~$1400. That figure is the total spend, including rent, food, clothes, transport, and frivolous fun. I just spent ~$5K on my teeth though, so that's going to affect the average quite a bit in the future.

It was money well spent. The luxury of being able to walk past any restaurant in town and know that I could chomp my way through their offerings with no pain or sensitivity at all is still a novelty. I feel like a million dollars with this complete set of fully functional teeth

 

[NW-Bound]

Unless you're living in, say, Pioneer or Porterville. Not all Californians live near the coast.

Posters have reported that other than housing, the rest costs the same, and that if you own your home, there's not much difference.

Well, I know that electricity costs a lot more, and also RE taxes for newcomers due to Prop. 13. What else costs more?

 

[W2R]

Belt, suspenders, rope, staples, tape, screws, rivets, twisty ties, bungy cord, caribiner, and any other fastener I'm forgetting. You are nothing if not very conservative W2R.

Thanks, and I think you are right. Still, I am (1) a worry-wart, and (2) a great proponent of sleeping at night.

The thing that's KILLING me is that I spent a lot on buying and fixing up my new Dream House (mostly the yard), in 2015. Then in 2016 I thought my spending would revert to normal and I had several of those big unusual expenses hit me all at once.

I have great hopes for 2017! I'd like to be able to look at my spending without cringing.

 

[W2R]

I do not go commando. Does that count?

If you did, bet it would lower the spending in your "clothing" category.

 

[Mo Money]

I am spending a fair bit under 2%, at about $5850/month, all in (health insurance, taxes, etc.). I plan to ramp it up in a few years to 3%. I want my SO to inherit a nice chunk, but I want to do some traveling in my late 50s and early 60s.

No debt, BTW, other than a credit card bill (double points!) that I pay off monthly.

 

[UnrealizedPotential]

Posters have reported that other than housing, the rest costs the same, and that if you own your home, there's not much difference.

Well, I know that electricity costs a lot more, and also RE taxes for newcomers due to Prop. 13. What else costs more?

That's the issue though is there is quite a lot of people who can't afford to buy. Rent in coastal California where most jobs are is extremely high. If one does own a home the buyer is looking at inflated mortgage payments every month. It makes sense to split that cost with friends and/or relatives but most people are not in a position to do that.

 

[FANOFJESUS]

My monthly expenses for the last 5 years have been ~$1400. That figure is the total spend, including rent, food, clothes, transport, and frivolous fun. I just spent ~$5K on my teeth though, so that's going to affect the average quite a bit in the future.

It was money well spent. The luxury of being able to walk past any restaurant in town and know that I could chomp my way through their offerings with no pain or sensitivity at all is still a novelty. I feel like a million dollars with this complete set of fully functional teeth

Just curious what did you have done for 5k?