Final 2023 Expenses

[wmc1000]

Just looked at my totals for 2023.

$135,359 including non-routine expenses of a vehicle and additions to our house.

So, our 5 year recap is:

2019 $60896
2020 $59874
2021 $40072
2022 $45213
2023 $64030 excluding $71329 of non-routine expenses in 2023

Our charity/gift expenses were upped significantly this year and DW had an extra $8K for implants. Most other expenses were in line with previous years plus some inflation.

 

[Vincenzo Corleone]

Year	Total Expenses	Note	YOY Change	Fixed	% of Total	Discretionary	% of Total	Disc. Less Travel	% of Total	Travel
2019	$73,886		5.66%	$37,911	51%	$35,975	49%	$6,454	9%	$29,521
2020	$57,145	Covid-19	-22.66%	$42,746	75%	$14,399	25%	$11,674	20%	$2,725
2021	$69,408	Covid-19	21.46%	$40,933	59%	$28,475	41%	$5,911	9%	$22,564
2022	$96,728		39.36%	$44,449	46%	$52,279	54%	$8,020	8%	$44,259
2023 (Est)	$104,370		7.90%	$44,792	43%	$59,578	57%	$11,655	11%	$47,923

Includes property taxes but not income taxes. We up'd our travel game the last couple of years. BTD!

 

[wmc1000]

Year	Total Expenses	Note	YOY Change		Fixed	% of Total	Discretionary	% of Total	Disc. Less Travel	% of Total	Travel
2019	$73,886		5.66%		$37,911	51%	$35,975	49%	$6,454	9%	$29,521
2020	$57,145	Covid-19	-22.66%		$42,746	75%	$14,399	25%	$11,674	20%	$2,725
2021	$69,408	Covid-19	21.46%		$40,933	59%	$28,475	41%	$5,911	9%	$22,564
2022	$96,728		39.36%		$44,449	46%	$52,279	54%	$8,020	8%	$44,259
2023 (Est)	$104,370		7.90%		$44,792	43%	$59,578	57%	$11,655	11%	$47,923

Includes property taxes but not income taxes. We up'd our travel game the last couple of years. BTD!

Great! Looks like our fixed expenses are fairly similar.

 

[audreyh1]

I haven’t quit spending yet, ha ha!

 

[PaunchyPirate]

I was just looking at my expense tracking this morning. I'm single, so only 1 person's expenses.

Total expenses just over $72,000. Of that, just over $31k was for travel. So, less optional things were about $41k. Some of that $41k could easily have been skipped this year.

These numbers are in the same ballpark as my previous 4 years of retirement. So no big surprises to me.

I'm on track.

 

[disneysteve]

I having quit spending yet, ha ha!

Exactly. It’s only the 29th. I won’t have final numbers for a few more days.

 

[Al18]

Tracking expenses seems to take the fun out of it. I’ve never tracked expenses and won’t start now.

 

[marko]

I'm uninterested in what I spend on and only interested in how much I've spent all year.

Here's how I track it: At the start of each year, my checking account is in Excel. Each line has my normal, repeating expenses...utilities, insurance and so on. I also include my monthly incomes. It all tracks out to Dec 31 with a final balance number. As I add more expenses throughout the year I add them in as well as any additional deposits.

So my deposits are added up and are reconciled against my year end balance and that’s what I've spent. It also gives me a running spending level throughout the year. Deposits minus year-end balance.

And, yes, I assume a zero balance at the start of the year, which isn't exactly true but gives me a close enough number. Within $1000 or so is close enough...just can't get any more invested to go deeper as it would serve no purpose.

 

[jollystomper]

I having quit spending yet, ha ha!

+1

DW and I will be doing some partying and socializing this weekend. I'll know more after Monday .

 

[W2R]

I having quit spending yet, ha ha!

+4

I don't plan to spend zero today, tomorrow, and Sunday, sorry! I'll eat if/when I get hungry, it's been cold beyond belief so I'll heat my home, and so on.

So far I have spent about the same this year EXCEPT that:

1) I had a new roof put on my house, and

2) I had a new extra-large-super-duper water heater installed, plus

3) my house and car insurance skyrocketed to previously unseen heights like everybody else's around here.

I tried really really hard to economize and make up for all that unusual spending, but somehow despite great efforts it just didn't happen. Looks like my spending for 2023 is up somewhere between $20K-$25K more than my 2022 spending.

Not good. What a budget-busting year, the most I have ever spent in my entire life and none of it for pleasure. Let you know more in January.

 

[PatrickA5]

A couple of days left, but this will be the first year under $100K in forever. Sure helps to have the kids out of college and off the payroll. Will report back on Monday.

 

[audreyh1]

Generally I don’t know all my annual spending until all the credit card statements that include Dec charges come in. This takes me until Jan 22 thereabouts.

 

[Ronstar]

Me 92445.59
DW 67532.72

Total 159978.31

I don't categorize spending anymore. Did it for decades, but don't see the need to do so anymore.

 

[foxfirev5]

Looks like our checking account and Fido cash management have a tad more than last year on this date. Close enough for me.

 

[athena53]

I'm at $148,000, compared to $145,000 last year so less than an inflation increase. Travel was $25,000, charity was $40,000 and home improvements (window replacement and down payment on bathroom remodel) was about $15,000, so essential expenses weren't that much. My investments have gone up an average of 2.5%/year in the 9 years since I retired AFTER withdrawals so it's sustainable. I'm reassured by that and the fact that the big pieces I cited could be scaled way back if necessary- but our church Treasurer would cry. (They don't get all of that $40K but they'd still miss it.)

 

[Teacher Terry]

I spent more than usual this year because I had my balcony enclosed for 7k and I took a 11 day trip to Europe for 6k. So I spent 46k. But I also have been consulting for the past year and earned 10k.

 

[BlueberryPie]

I won't know until a few days in the new year, the year is not over and it takes a few days for my credit card expenses to go from Pending to Final. I use Personal Capital (now Empower) to track my expenses, you can export a CSV file that you can then massage in Excel as needed.

I have a spreadsheet that shows a pie chart of categories (Mortgage is still #1, #2 is usually groceries or travel, but "groceries" is pretty broad category for us: anything from Costco is automatically classified as "groceries" but I may have bought a pair of boot and some dishwasher soap along with actual food items for example.

I also track year-over-year (blue line) and adjusting for inflation (gray line). That shows that once adjusted for inflation, I spent more in 2021 and less in 2022 than I will likely have spent in 2023, so my spending is staying flat after inflation, which is mostly how I want it.

Tracking where your money goes helps you make the best choices of where to spend it (I'm always happy to see travel as 10-15% of our spending!) and where you could make choices to reduce (wow, I spent a lot on alcohol in 2021, and as a result decided to quit the 2 wine clubs that were sending us stuff regularly. It's more fun to go to tastings and buy stuff when you truly like it)

I'm about 4 years from retirement so this tracking is very important to me, it will help me understand what to expect in retirement. We still have a kid living at home, so some of those related expenses will go down, but I'm also planning on spending even more on travel in retirement. I'm sure things will change over time, but that's the best I can do with the info I have!

Since I'm still employed, I am tracking the cost healthcare (dark gay pie slice) as provided by my employer, knowing they pay a large percentage of the actual premium, so I also know some of those things will change. The mortgage (blue slice) will be paid off when I retire, so what we currently pay towards it will likely go to healthcare (a quick look at ACA for my state seems to indicate it will be more than enough), knowing that only the P&I will go away but insurance and taxes remain...

Home improvements like a new water heater or new flooring are part of my yearly expenses, but rather than have large lump sums for cars, I added a "sinking fund" (top gray slice) that is roughly what I expect the cost of a new car to be, amortized over 10 years (x2 cars, not sure we'll keep 2 in retirement, but planning on it at first).

Kid in college is also off the tracking spreadsheet, so actuals were higher by quite a bit, but still socking away 30% of my gross income, getting so close to FI!

 

[Digger1000]

$13,363.70

 

[Sunset]

Mine has for the past 5 years been between $35,000 -> $39,300 , I just track what I spend without any budget.

This year it was $39,273

Doesn't include Income tax or house property tax as DW pays for those.

 

[Finance Dave]

What a coincidence...I was working on this today! Not quite done yet, will have to post up in a few weeks. We had a lot of "odd" things going on last year due to selling a rental property and closing down an LLC...so I have some adjustments to make. I look at ours similar to the way the OP does.

 

[TheWizard]

In my eleventh year of retirement now, I've never seen a need to track my spending.
I'm fortunate to have excess income most months which I transfer to the settlement fund in my taxable account. So I'll print a copy of all those transactions for the year to get a feel for how I'm doing.

So, for example, if my AGI for the year is $150k and I put $40k into my taxable account, then I must have spent $110k, including income taxes...

 

[FLSUnFIRE]

I won't finalize my 2023 expenses until I file my taxes but I expect final expenses of about $44K and cash outflows of about $36K (expenses less PTC and sinking fund/auto depreciation). Own my home free and clear so lifestyle would be more like $65-75K spending level adding in imputed rent/mortgage which is about the median HH income for my city.

 

[aja8888]

*Normal* expenses are ending at $70K. Lumpy expenses not included in that amount are big numbers for a:

New 1,500 sq.ft. house,
New EV
Storage and Moving costs
Gifting to daughter and her husband.

I really don't want to add all this up this year.

But next year should be normalized, or whatever....

 

[athena53]

I spent more than usual this year because I had my balcony enclosed for 7k <snip>

Well worth it! DH and I had the deck in our previous house turned into a 3-season room. As soon as we moved into this house we had the screened-in porch overlooking the lake enclosed. Both were $$$$ but quickly became the favorite space in the house- for us and for visitors- except in winter.

 

[racy]

Inflation-adjusted, our in-retirement annual spending has been around $113,000 the last several years. This includes property tax, sales taxes, and vehicle taxes but not income taxes. Also includes vacations, my DW's Amazon addition and some pretty good bourbons for me.