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

[ElizabethT]

For those who routinely track spending, do you have examples where the results changed your behavior? Mentioned elsewhere that I once tracked expenses for a year (slavishly - and to the penny if possible). Once I looked at the data, I couldn't think of a thing I wanted to change - even though there were a few minor surprises.

Just wondering.

In general, tracking - aside from enjoying the process, which takes about 10 mins a week, or one to two minutes a day - helps me to continue to evaluate output vs satisfaction. If I'm uncomfortable adding a spend entry, that's an indicator that the purchase did not deliver corresponding pleasure or satisfaction. I love to spend money - I dislike overspending, which is what I deem any output that fails to deliver equivalent satisfaction.

That may be to macro, so I can remember one specific input I made for an attendance for two people to an Angels baseball game. Adding in the cost of the tickets, the cost to park, and the price for food and beers, I was dismayed and grumpy when I made the input. Not because we couldn't afford it - we could - but because the cost for me/us fell far short of the subsequent enjoyment. This is not a statement about the cost of attending professional sporting events (I adored the Lakers throughout the Shaq and Kobe years, and no cost to attend then was to great!), but specifically that event at that time. So we didn't repeat it. We began attending collage games instead, where the costs were more in line with our enjoyment factor.

Conversely, we have generous budget amounts for Hobbies, Dining Out, Entertainment, and Travel. Our goal at the end of any year is to spend every dollar allocated, and tracking ensures that happens.

I think I primarily do it because it gives me ongoing confidence that we can spend and spend and spend, and as long as we're not over our allotted annual amount at end year, I can continue to have zero concerns about outliving our portfolio.

 

[PatrickA5]

I've been tracking spending for 40 years. Started in 1985 using a 12-columnar pad. Sometime in the 90's (I think), I switched to Money software and later to Quicken.

We've never "budgeted", just kept track of spending. I'll probably continue doing it until I can't anymore. It's a hobby at this point since I really don't "need" to do it. Playing with numbers was also my career (CPA), so I don't know any other way

 

[audreyh1]

These days I generally just track total spending during the year, looking only occasionally. At the end of the year I might look at the breakdown which Quicken provides in a report. I’m usually just interested in how much went to travel and gifting.

 

[Koolau]

These days I generally just track total spending during the year, looking only occasionally. At the end of the year I might look at the breakdown which Quicken provides in a report. I’m usually just interested in how much went to travel and gifting.

We track NW year over year, but the really big expenses are obvious to us as well - such as housing, charity, travel. Otherwise, it's all in the overall spend rate which we do track.

 

[audreyh1]

We track NW year over year, but the really big expenses are obvious to us as well - such as housing, charity, travel. Otherwise, it's all in the overall spend rate which we do track.

I do track net worth annually against inflation from the beginning of our retirement. This is the longest term metric and if we are ahead of inflation I’m really pleased.

At the beginning of the year I have a certain amount allocated to after tax spending. So during the year I’m generally tracking expenses against that.

 

[brett]

I do track net worth annually against inflation from the beginning of our retirement. This is the longest term metric and if we are ahead of inflation I’m really pleased.

At the beginning of the year I have a certain amount allocated to after tax spending. So during the year I’m generally tracking expenses against that.

Agree.

I pay attention to our average ROI. Our real average ROI, net of inflation, is even more important to us.

On an annual basis..... with close attention paid to the 5, 10, and 15 year moving average ROI, net of inflation.

As well as our respective average income tax and marginal tax rates.

 

[iloveyoga]

I don't track our spending any longer. The money going in to our checking account covers our expenses and then some. Big extras come out of my IRA if needed. It is very nice not to have to worry about every little expense.

 

[athena53]

I'm a numbers person and a financial control freak so I find it a good exercise. It's also reassuring for me to see what a huge % of my spending is discretionary (mostly travel and charity), which could be cut back if needed. It also comes in handy at tax time since I have all the details on my deductible expenses (charitable, medical, health insurance) in one place.

 

[38Chevy454]

Beside my luddite tendency to use my paper checkbook register, I roughly track monthly and yearly total expenses. No detailed breakdown, no worrying about what it was spent on. Just so the total is around what I expected or planned.

I do have a small home based small business, so I do keep track of those exact expenses (business and home office deduction) that are part of my taxes. But it's not budgeting, it's record keeping, after the fact.

 

[kcowan]

I do an annual compare of inflows and outflows totals and compare that to the latest portfolio performance! And to our LR plan.. that is it!

 

[PaunchyPirate]

I meticulously track my expenses in Quicken. I started doing this about 2 years prior to retirement, which was 6 years ago. So 8 years worth. But I don't do this to really control or impact my spending habits really. I just like doing it. I'm a charts and graphs guy and always have been. I like following along with what I spend money on all year. But I don't think I've ever really had a sense of feeling a need to not make purchases because of what my tracking tells me. I guess that's because for all 6 years of my retirement my spending has been below what I expected it could be when I modeled things to determine whether I could retire. I actually enjoy my morning routine of downloading transactions and making sure everything in Quicken is accurate and how I want it. It's part of my retirement day. But that's just me.

 

[mistermike40]

In September I'll have been retired eight years, yet I still track expenses - more for my interest/enjoyment than anything else. I have two workbooks... one that has a seperate spreadsheet for each month's expenses, and the other is a year-over-year overview (to track my glidepath). Like many on here, I have more money today than when I retired... which would indicate that I could probably stop tracking everything. But again, it's something I enjoy and only takes about 15-20 minutes each month.

 

[shortstop14]

I use a spreadsheet to track total spending each month, subtracting unusual one time expenses and travel expenses, which are the only detailed expenses tracked. That shows me full expenses and 'standard' expenses year over year. We've actually never tracked detailed expenses.

Other than that, I just track year-end net worth and withdrawal rate. I also use another spreadsheet to track out-of-pocket medical expenses so that I can make HSA withdrawals.

 

[akck]

My wife tracks spending monthly, because it gives her something to do. Me, I just make sure our credit cards are paid off each month.

I find it interesting that we used to pay our bills by check years ago, then moved to debit cards (just after mistakenly ordering new checks twice), and now pay everything with credit cards and ACH payments (because debit cards risk opening our bank accounts to fraud). We keep our debit cards for ATM cash withdrawals, which we hardly do anymore and only go to the bank to make withdrawals for small bills before traveling and maybe make a deposit of excess cash. I look online at all of our credit cards and bank accounts multiple times each week (I’ve always done it), looking for fraudulent transactions. I have most of our credit cards set up for automatic payments, but I usually pay them before it kicks in. Our monthly bills post to a credit card or are ACH payments, all automatically posted. I do utilize our bank’s bill pay feature because it’s free if I make at least 1 payment but not over 5 payments each month. The only thing I “worry” about is how long this will go after we die.

 

[Texas Proud]

Wow... missed this one.... but then again was on a BTD trip....

I tracked our spending when we first got married... I wanted to try and keep DW on a budget... well, that was a massive failure... just caused arguments.... but I still kept track...

Then was retired.... not by choice at first... kept track for a few years... and then I decided.... why? It has not changed how we spend... it does not change where we spend... so a lot of work for no reason... so I stopped a few years back...

The only thing is that I told DW was that we had enough money for my lifetime but I have no idea about hers... she is 10 years younger... I will leave it up to the kids to take care of her if we run out...

 

[swakyaby]

My comment about watching only my portfolio size was probably an oversimplification. I have my cash management account or bank checking account linked to a much larger money market account. I will manually transfer funds from the money market to the cash management account if I anticipate larger expenses coming up, i.e. property tax, quarterly estimated tax. But this occurs infrequently because I have all dividends and capital gains from taxable accounts automatically deposited in my cash management account and checking account. So this is kinda like tracking overall spending in a very basic simplistic way.

I do look over my cash management account, checking account, and major credit cards regularly to look for any unexplained charges.

 

[RetMD21]

I broke my Quicken addiction after many years. I just look at my cc charges once a month to confirm that they're ours. I am in the bank account at least once a week to do some transaction and I look at transactions that I don't initially recognize. I never bother with statements. I was spending too much time tracking routine purchases.

 

[FLSUnFIRE]

For those who routinely track spending, do you have examples where the results changed your behavior? Mentioned elsewhere that I once tracked expenses for a year (slavishly - and to the penny if possible). Once I looked at the data, I couldn't think of a thing I wanted to change - even though there were a few minor surprises.

Just wondering.

I'm pretty set in my ways and have been tracking for a long time but I've made a conscious effort to spend more on entertainment when noticing it going down and I also track alcohol separately so if it starts going up I'll tend to back off... for health more than finance but alcohol, especially out, is expensive. I think a lot of the adjustments are subtle and a I'll also look back once in a while... generally, the large expenses in hindsight were not worth the expense to me after getting the toy so I'm less tempted now as I know I'll acclimate to whatever I purchase pretty quickly and return to baseline.

 

[DrRoy]

I just track in a small handful of categories, mainly to see what we spent on our #1 which is travel, and the total.

 

[yakers]

I am 75 & DW 77 (I retired 2008),No longer tracking spending and barely watch the portfolio. This changed 2 years back , after a lifetime of LBYM and watching everything DW went thru second round with cancer,. Took an expenxive trip to Spain & Portugal, a very expensive trip to Norway, two visits to New York and a bunch of local things, gave DS $20K to help replace a car, and bought DW a new car (first time I paid over MSRP! but that was a time when nothing was avialable) and at the end of the year the portfolio was up 4%, nice that it was a positive number but that may not matter so much to us these days.

 

[brett]

The spend that I do pay attention to are the larger annual spend such as insurances and comm costs.

I have been able to keep these in line by shopping if the annual increases are higher than inflation or if, in the case of comm, the prices no longer reflect market.

When it comes to other daily expenses and travel expenses....we spend what we spend. Our spend is well below our retirement income.

I believe that my time is far better spent focussing on our investment accounts than it is adding up grocery expenses or clothing spend.