Post RE Monthly Budget Categories

[Ed B]

I need one more peer review. I can start the paperwork for a June 1 exit any day. I have attached two screenshots that together show my monthly budget worksheet. I put this together from several examples I have seen in this community. I break out the items under general categories with some granularity. Am I missing anything significant?

I appreciate your help.

 

[W2R]

Natural gas? (I use that for heat in the winter, plus gas stove, dryer, water heater).

Water/sewage?

Dental? This becomes more and more expensive for me as I age.

Good job in assembling categories.

 

[Dtail]

Nice list.
How about the following:
Personal Grooming
Umbrella Insurance
Parking

 

[Ed B]

Just for fun this is a chart of how my expenses break out by percentage. I realize the text in the legend is hard to read. It doesn't include the 6% of undesignated revenue but probably should.

 

[Ed B]

We are on a well and septic and our house is total electric. I need to add dental. Good catch.

Our umbrella policy is bundled with our homeowner's insurance.

Thanks for the responses.

 

[DrRoy]

Just for fun this is a chart of how my expenses break out by percentage. I realize the text in the legend is hard to read. It doesn't include the 6% of undesignated revenue but probably should.

This was interesting. For us, our first year of RE was:
Food 4.5%
Housing 7.8%
Utilities 5.4%
Car 6.7%
Healthcare 13.9%
Travel 26.7%
FIT 11.2%
Other 23.8

 

[jazz4cash]

I looked at my own spreadsheet and I have a few categories for accruals toward major repair/replacement for the cars and house. I also accrue for bi-annual auto registrations and some other annual payments.

 

[COcheesehead]

If you use Fidelity's RPM tool, they have a nice form for creating your budget with all kinds of categories that you may or may not think of. They also let you tag them as essential and discretionary so you see a range of expenditures for flexibility, if you need it.

 

[joylesshusband]

Missing:
- income taxes
- car maintenance
- big seldom expenses (accr.)

 

[Ed B]

This was interesting. For us, our first year of RE was:
Food 4.5%
Housing 7.8%
Utilities 5.4%
Car 6.7%
Healthcare 13.9%
Travel 26.7%
FIT 11.2%
Other 23.8

In most years our healthcare actuals should be lower - I hope. I am assuming Max Out of Pocket in the calculations. DW has a chronic illness that led to disability and between the two of us we have significant HC costs but normally several thousand below my assumption.

 

[Ed B]

I looked at my own spreadsheet and I have a few categories for accruals toward major repair/replacement for the cars and house. I also accrue for bi-annual auto registrations and some other annual payments.

Thanks

I have accruals for house maintenance, HVAC maintenance and auto registration. But not for auto repairs.

 

[Ed B]

Missing:
- income taxes
- car maintenance
- big seldom expenses (accr.)

Thanks

I have income tax at an estimated 8% effective rate accounted for in the pie chart but not in the spreadsheet as an expense. I was kind of backing into that by going from total expenses and using the 8% assumption to get my required pretax gross income.

I don't have car maintenance and I don't have a set amount for big seldom expense. I should add those.

I will have about $18k set aside for a SHTF fund that is separate from annual revenue. It is intended for big lumpy break-fixes and I plan to replenish it from investments from time to time after having to draw it down for emergencies.

 

[Freedom56]

You should add Dental expenses and Federal and State tax expenses that are not already deducted (i.e. any amounts you owe in April). Attached is a summary of my expenses for 2017. Hope this helps.

 

[GravitySucks]

If you use Fidelity's RPM tool, they have a nice form for creating your budget with all kinds of categories that you may or may not think of. They also let you tag them as essential and discretionary so you see a range of expenditures for flexibility, if you need it.

That's what I use. I am nowhere near this level of tracking though.
My tracking is... How much did I draw - what's in my wallet.

 

[Carol1862]

What about toiletries, Haircuts (manicures), household cleaning items?
I like how you did breakdown your categories

 

[Omalley]

I follow a similar process to track my pre-RE expenses, so I can better estimate upcoming RE spending.

I have an accrual for eventual vehicle replacements for $XX,XXX after Y years. It is expressed in the budget as a monthly expense similar to eventual roof/HVAC replacements.

Omalley

 

[Ed B]

Thanks for the responses. They are helpful.

 

[Jerry1]

If you use Fidelity's RPM tool, they have a nice form for creating your budget with all kinds of categories that you may or may not think of. They also let you tag them as essential and discretionary so you see a range of expenditures for flexibility, if you need it.

That's what we use. It's a pretty good tool. DW handles bookkeeping. I print out the Fidelity tool and have her update the numbers using it as a template.

 

[pb4uski]

Good list.

Spending money (for us ATM withdrawals for cash that we use for smaller purchases)
Gifts
Charitable contributions

I also had car repairs and maintenance, umbrella insurance and dental costs but I see that others have mentioned those.

 

[RunningBum]

Thanks

I have accruals for house maintenance, HVAC maintenance and auto registration. But not for auto repairs.

I think accrual for auto replacement was being suggested too. If you plan on buying a new car every 10 years, at $20K over trade in, for example, you might want to budget $2000 each year.

It's up to you whether you want to have even expenses, or if you don't mind having your budget take a $20K hit at once, or if you use an exception fund for that. However you do it, you don't want to fool yourself into thinking your spending is on budget with your planned WR, then suddenly you need a car and that year's budget is blown out of the water. Probably not a problem if you have a big buffer, but it you're running tight, it could break your plan.

 

[Throwdownmyaceinthehole]

Allowance - we both get 100 bucks a week cash that we don’t track, he buys cigars, I buy massages, gifts
Bike
Boat
Booze - just from liquor stores or wine clubs, not grocery store or restaurants
Dog Vet bills
Misc for haircuts, or items that we don’t track
Newspaper
YMCA

Household cleaning supplies all go into food as it’s all purchased at HEB
When we travel, restaurants and food are still categorized as such, not as travel

 

[omni550]

Nothing to add.

Minor nit: descrectionary is misspelled. (should be discretionary and non-discretionary)

omni

 

[Hermit]

I'm retired! I don't have time to do all that detailed breakout stuff. If I buy something at the grocery store, it goes under Groceries. To make my life easier, I have a Cash category that is supposed to include eating out, liquor, small purchases, and other totally discretionary expenses that I shouldn't need to track closely. But then I decided I needed to understand those discretionary expenses better, so now I have sub-categories under Cash for Dining, Liquor, Skiing, and a couple of others.

I've only been doing this tracking stuff for around 30 or 40 years. I'll figure it out some day!

BTW, you have a fine set of categories. Enjoy retirement. Don't get too hung up on the financial details.

 

[iloveyoga]

I don't do a budget any longer either.

 

[Meadbh]

Entertainment could include other subcategories such as concerts and theatre (unless you never go). My entertainment category included dining out. Do you have any subscriptions? What about sports? I had a Golf category!