Finally stopped tracking our spending - am I missing any reasons to do it?

[TheWizard]

I've never tracked my spending, before or after retiring in 2013.

A few years before retiring, I did put together a detailed spreadsheet itemizing all of my various expenses, including well padded amounts for infrequent expenses. That was a confidence building exercise in planning retirement.

One thing I do at the end of each year is total up the net amount of excess retirement income that I moved to my taxable investment account. That's usually a hefty amount, so I'm in good shape...

 

[Car-Guy]

I decided I don’t really need to track it anymore. We have substantially more financial assets than we did 8 years ago, so I am thinking we no longer need to think too much about how we spend our money.

IMO, Once you realize you have more than you need (won the game) what's the point.

 

[Gumby]

Although I'm now almost 6 years retired and certain we'll never run out of money, I still keep a detailed spreadsheet to track spending. It's just what I do, and I doubt I'll ever stop. But that's no reason you have to do it too.

 

[rodi]

I'm a quicken user. So it's easy/automated.

And I'm able to use past data for planning. Tax planning, travel budgets, planned big ticket spending...

I only update quicken about 1x week... used to be daily.

 

[imjustawarrior]

Many years ago when we switched to using bill pay, I set up a spreadsheet to make sure all the bills actually go paid. I have continued that spreadsheet because it also shows our monthly and annual spend. It has one row per bill.

I keep using it because:

1. takes very little time
2. make sure the bills are being paid (enter bills in red font, when the $ comes out of checking it becomes black)
3. shows our spend

I'm not concerned about running out of money as long as our spend does not skyrocket.

 

[pb4uski]

Quicken tracks our spending already and it’s automatically categorized. I mainly use Quicken to track our cash flow, scheduled bills, transfers etc. I import transactions and reconcile statements, so the spending info happens automatically. I occasionally look at a spending report.

+1 While we a similarly situated with the OP in that we have no particular need to track spending, all our financial accounts are linked to Quicken and I update them periodically with One-Step Update and use accepting the downloaded transactions as a process to review activity. It is a quick and easy process most of the time so I'll continue to do it even though I don't really need to.

 

[brett]

Yeah, we simply look at cash in and cash out for the year plus change in Net Worth yearly. That's all we seem to need for our comfort level. Even after 20 years of FIRE, NW is still going up (knock on wood). No detail really needed.

That is all we have ever done. Manual. Never used Quicken or any other expense tracking/categorization programs. Prior to or after FIRE. Complete opposite of my previous working environment.

I total 6-8 numbers from our current account at month end. Autopays, credit card payments. That is it. Less that 5 minutes, and another 5 minutes at Y/E. More out of interest than anything else. Our run rate retiment pension incomes covers our monthly expenses, then some.

I subscribe to 80/20 rule. I pay attention to the large, recurring expenses like insurances, capital expenses etc. If we are on an extended travel trip, 2 months or so, I tend to look at the total cost out of interest. Easy to do since all of our FX transactions go through one credit card.

There has never been an appreciable benefit to us in categorizing our day to day living/spending expenses. We have always had a very clear understanding of how we spend our money....basic and discretionary expenses.

Our focus is, and has always been, on income items, investments, income tax, and net worth.

 

[jollystomper]

If you do not track it, it will be tough to answer the annual "What were your expenses?" and "What was your withdrawal rate?" threads, and the "what percent are you spending on XYZ" threads that tend to pop up here .

When I retired I shifted more to tracking cash flow, as I had set aside cash to spend down to avoid being forced to sell securities to cover expenses. At this point I really do not need to do it, but from a data nerd perspective I continue to do so. Since we use Quicken, we track our expenses but also more from a nerdy/curiosity/trend point of view. And to give decent answers to the aforementioned threads .

 

[AudiDudi]

Multi-decade Quicken user. Used to track in a lot of detail. Now I use broad categories like household, recreation and groceries.

 

[RetiredHappy]

I don't think there is a need to track spending. We never tracked when working and in retirement. We have been retired for 9 years now and I do keep a spreadsheet of cash flow to ensure that our checking account has at least $50K at any point. We don't even blink an eye when we have to write a $50K or $100K for something that we want to do out of the blue. It is simply a case of how much do we need to liquidate from our brokerage and transfer money over to the checking account.

 

[pacergal]

If you are comfortable with your spend/withdrawal rate and portfolio values, then you probably don't need to track your budget if you don't want too.

I track our spending in a hand written 12 column ledger (old fashioned!) and have for years.
A bit OCD, but it doesn't take much time, maybe two hours a month as I pay bills or as they are auto-paid from account. Each ledger will hold 4-5 years of info
I generally keep the ledgers for about 10 years before I shred. It's fun to review for me, anyways!

Our bank and credit union will keep yearly budget/spend analysis on line for about 3 years back, I can download and save them if I want. I may switch to that rather than the ledgers eventually.

I don't really need to track spending, as we are doing fine. It is simply something I like to do.

 

[GenXguy]

I just started doing full year tracking of all spending last year because it was my first full year of being retired. Quicken wouldn't work for automatic categorization from my credit card because a single trip to a store can be items from different categories, and I account for them differently on my spreadsheet, and some items in the same category may need added to my discretionary spending as well. I haven't had a very large expense for something like HVAC, but I will probably make a special entry for something like that so it doesn't throw off the typical budget numbers so much.

I track my total stash (NOT net worth since that includes my home) in a separate document.

I will probably keep tracking it for years to come, especially since I'm not yet on SS or Medicare, which will change things.

 

[UpQuark]

I never tracked my spending while I was working until the two years before I retired, when I was practicing living on my retirement budget (which thankfully turns out to be more comfortable than I expected).

I'm almost three years into retirement, and I am tracking so that I make sure I don't overspend on vacations and also to make sure I transfer money to my bank account in time for big withdrawals like insurance and property taxes. I used to keep plenty in my bank account, but it pays too poor of interest rate to be worth keeping any extra cash there now.

I don't track small details, I have one credit card I use for vacation related expenses and another that I use for non-vacation purchases, and I have a mental-budget-limit for the non-vacation card (if I go over the limit I like to know why, such as car maintenance, dentist, etc.).

It's good to hear that maybe in another 5 years I'll feel ok to not track anymore.

 

[Al18]

Never tracked spending in my life and never will. It’s a time wasting activity like standing in line at the DMV. I track networth on a monthly basis and have a 1 page budget spreadsheet for the year, indicating where money is coming in and any major expenses such as home renovations, buying a new car, etc. I don’t track vacation expenses - that takes half the fun out of a vacation.

 

[threeonesix]

One reason to keep an eye on things, at least occasionally, is to watch for purchases you did not make (fraud).

 

[RetiredHappy]

One reason to keep an eye on things, at least occasionally, is to watch for purchases you did not make (fraud).

You do that by looking at the credit card accounts and bank accounts.

 

[threeonesix]

You do that by looking at the credit card accounts and bank accounts.

... which is still, technically, "tracking spending", correct? I look at my accounts in Quicken, not bank websites. That would be awfully time-consuming, I have a lot of accounts.

 

[2017ish]

Another longtime quicken user here, and I continue to track spending, perhaps too closely. To be fair though, tracking the spending for travel (over half our spending) is useful to come up with loose guidelines for future trips. We do everything ala carte, so it is helpful to know how much a dive, trek, and/or driving trip cost the last several times.

 

[Dtail]

Um, because it's fun! I may not be right in the head but I get a little joy every time I log an expense. I've got speadsheets going back to 1998 the year I was fully launched and on my own after college.

I don't budget but like looking at trends and the feedback loop is helpful to catch myself if I'm drifting.. usually not strictly financial but if spending on alcohol or dining out out is spiking it is an indicator that I'm probably not eating as healthy as I prefer.

Another vote for the fun plus interesting aspect of it. Yeah crazy to some extent.

 

[Dtail]

+1 Obsessive type over here.

Fourteen years into FIRE, and still tracking away. I liken it to the same reason I get on the scale each day - it provides awareness and accountability.

This year our budget will have an entry for a new car - likely $40,000, and another for a cruise departing from Iceland - likely $20,000. I feel comfortable spending both of these amounts because they are well within our budget. Which I know, because I track the small things in and amongst the big things.

I very much enjoy seeing how we spend our money. I think I'm a more discerning shopper, and partaker of events, travel, and entertainment, as a result.

Another obsessive type here. I have explained it in another thread.

 

[RetiredHappy]

... which is still, technically, "tracking spending", correct? I look at my accounts in Quicken, not bank websites. That would be awfully time-consuming, I have a lot of accounts.

Not the same. Looking at accounts is to see anomalies. My credit cards run on $10k to $12k every month, sometimes $20k. Tracking spending is pointless.

 

[Koolau]

IMO, Once you realize you have more than you need (won the game) what's the point.

Kinda where I'm at.

 

[Toocold]

I track on a quarterly basis of how much we spent at an aggregate level, but it's just one part of updating networth.

 

[Koolau]

I never tracked my spending while I was working until the two years before I retired, when I was practicing living on my retirement budget (which thankfully turns out to be more comfortable than I expected).

I'm almost three years into retirement, and I am tracking so that I make sure I don't overspend on vacations and also to make sure I transfer money to my bank account in time for big withdrawals like insurance and property taxes. I used to keep plenty in my bank account, but it pays too poor of interest rate to be worth keeping any extra cash there now.

I don't track small details, I have one credit card I use for vacation related expenses and another that I use for non-vacation purchases, and I have a mental-budget-limit for the non-vacation card (if I go over the limit I like to know why, such as car maintenance, dentist, etc.).

It's good to hear that maybe in another 5 years I'll feel ok to not track anymore.

Likely, sooner than that. I think most of us have a good feeling pretty quickly about how much we're spending. We notice the check book balance and likely look at the brokerage and individual accounts every year. If everything is increasing in the investments - that's possibly good enough but we're all different. Enjoy the ride.

 

[Koolau]

One reason to keep an eye on things, at least occasionally, is to watch for purchases you did not make (fraud).

Agreed. We do watch the CC statements and bank statement carefully.