How much do you actually spend each month in retirement?

[audreyh1]

And by the way are we the only 2 people who have no desire to travel? It seems that is what you should do when you retire but it's just not appealing to us. If we do go anywhere it's to visit family or them to visit us.

Traveling is a very personal thing, varies wildly.

 

[audreyh1]

That is why I give ridiculous answers to questions like this.

Oh no! I gave a serious answer, but fortunately didn’t share any personal info.

 

[marinauser]

As most have said, there is a huge variation between participants here - for us, probably state and federal income tax and property taxes alone for this year will probably be about $8000 a month

 

[aaronc879]

My DF got just over $30,000/year from SS, and he spent his entire career working a blue-collar, solidly middle class job. I don't think he ever made more than $70,000 in a single year. So I have to think that many, many folks out there are getting more than $21k in SS.

I have never even hit $50K in a year. I, along with most blue collar workers, will collect at 62 which further lowers the payout. I'll get around $1000/mo.

 

[aja8888]

I traveled way too much during my career to ever want to get on a plane again.

Same here! I drive if I want to go on vacation. And, no more international travel for me!

 

[TheWizard]

I can't help but notice that OP has not responded to any of the comments in this thread, including questions posed directly to him. And it seems his user profile has disappeared (or been deleted) from this forum! Odd.

It's called TROLLING.
A good reason not to give too much detail early on...

 

[Stormy Kromer]

Health insurance eats up $1150, out of our $5,000 draw each month. That's how HSA works. I was promised I could keep my old plan when ACA started.......it didn't work that way. I am a rare one, I have been self employed for over 40 years and always bought my own health insurance.

For those looking forward to medicare at 65. You'll be paying around $200 for medicare and another $200 for a supplement. EACH PERSON. per month. Don't think health care is free once you hit 65. You will be paying more then than you are now when you're on your employers plan. Plan on at least $10k per couple after retirement for health insurance. Its not deductible either....

This is what it is like buying your own health insurance.

 

[doneat54]

"Base" budget is around $9k a month, includes $1500/mo for dining out and fine wines, FYI. Extended budget hits $12k/mo and includes a stout travel budget, plus Home Improvement budgets......

 

[TickTock]

I was promised I could keep my old plan when ACA started.......it didn't work that way.

I remember Obama saying, "If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor".

:headdesk:

But perhaps not for the immediately apparent reason: that it wasn't true. You *already* couldn't keep your doctor (if you liked your doctor) before - if your company changed healthcare providers and your doctor wasn't on the list, you couldn't keep your doctor either.

Our premiums eat ~20% of our after-tax spend. And that's before a $10k deductible. It is galling to spend that much just to have the privilege of paying another $10k BEFORE getting financial benefits (yes, some basic preventative services are covered with the premiums...) to prevent the possibility of financial ruin due to medical issues. But there's no better choice available.

 

[TickTock]

It's called TROLLING.
A good reason not to give too much detail early on...

I get it. I try not to give more detail on a public forum than I'm comfortable with, regardless of if its responding to trolling or not.

 

[target2019]

I can't help but notice that OP has not responded to any of the comments in this thread, including questions posed directly to him. And it seems his user profile has disappeared (or been deleted) from this forum! Odd.

OP has an agenda that is not clear. One thought I had was that the posts in this thread will be mined for an article to be written and posted elsewhere.

OP also participated in a gold IRA thread that disappeared.

So my guess is OP is trolling and has been successful as you can read in this unfocused thread.

 

[Stormy Kromer]

I remember Obama saying, "If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor".

:headdesk:

But perhaps not for the immediately apparent reason: that it wasn't true. You *already* couldn't keep your doctor (if you liked your doctor) before - if your company changed healthcare providers and your doctor wasn't on the list, you couldn't keep your doctor either.

Our premiums eat ~20% of our after-tax spend. And that's before a $10k deductible. It is galling to spend that much just to have the privilege of paying another $10k BEFORE getting financial benefits (yes, some basic preventative services are covered with the premiums...) to prevent the possibility of financial ruin due to medical issues. But there's no better choice available.

Yes, I am in your camp.

I lost my cardiologist at the Mayo clinic with ACA. I have been self employed since age 18 in 1984 and I've had an individual plan with Blue Cross and Blue Shield. After ACA Blue Cross stopped offering individual plans in MN a few years ago I got tossed to the wind. I've never been uninsured a day in my life. Soon, I had to find another insurer with ACA. None were available in the Mayo Network. Good bye my friend Dr. Patrico A. you good person who saved my life.. Haven't seen him in 10 years. He's no longer in my network. I can't go back. I got the only plan ACA in MNsure offered me. I've been paying full price with no subsidy. $1150 a month last year, set to go to about $1,600 a month this year. For a Bronze plan.

Back to the OP. Health Insurance is already, or will soon be, the biggest part of your expense. Don't think health insurance is free once you're 65. It is just disguised that way as a deduction from your social security benefit. Your still paying for it, about $200 a month. Medicare supplements can easily reach another $200 plus a momth If you're taking IRA withthdrawls and collecting social security and have some dividend income....your income could push your medicare premiums even higher. For many your retirement years will be the most you've every paid for health insurance out of pocket. Plan on at least $500 per month per person for medicare and supplement.

 

[TickTock]

I lost my cardiologist at the Mayo clinic with ACA. I have been self employed since age 18 in 1984 and I;ve had an individual plan with Blue Cross and Blue Shield. After ACA Blue Cross stopped offering individual plans in MN and I got tossed to the wind. I've never been uninsured a day in my life. Soon, I had to find another insurer with ACA. None were available in the Mayo Network. Good bye my friend Dr. Aloman, you good person who saved my life.. Haven't seen him in 10 years. He's no longer in my network.

Yah. On a much smaller note, we had an HSA plan last year but no insurers offering one this year. It messed up our taxes.

I have no idea how this would work, but I'd like to see health care insurance that paid the same across all doctors/medical providers. So you could choose the one that works best for you.

 

[Koolau]

I spend an average of around $1000/mo. I saw one post of spending of $32K/mo. So somewhere between those two numbers. Hope that's helpful.

Others people's spending has nothing to do with your spending.

I think this is a great post. aaron879 shows that there is a huge range of monthly spending that can be appropriate to Early Retirement (with Financial Independence). IOW it's not what you have and it's not even what you spend. It's whether you can match your income/savings/spending in such a way as to make it w*rk.

Clearly, most of us here at FIRE Forum have made it w*rk with what ever we have. That should be encouraging to all who are contemplating Early Retirement.

 

[Koolau]

You don't want to know my numbers. My travel budget alone is $70K. But, the point is you cannot compare to others. As mentioned above, look at your budget and plan from there, That's what I did...at least until my wife invited the kitchen design lady over....

Yeah, my housing budget is outrageous.

My HOA payment is $1400. My 2nd home rent is $1000. A conservative estimate of my opportunity cost of Condo ownership is likely $3000. Ignoring utilities and taxes, that's already $5400/month. If the value of the Condo were going up, that wouldn't be so bad, I suppose, but the value has been stagnant for several years following a spurt in the late 20-teens.

So we each have our own "weakness" when it comes to spending. IOW we all value different things when it comes to spending. (Our travel budget is more like $800/month). YMMV

 

[Koolau]

Health insurance eats up $1150, out of our $5,000 draw each month. That's how HSA works. I was promised I could keep my old plan when ACA started.......it didn't work that way. I am a rare one, I have been self employed for over 40 years and always bought my own health insurance.

For those looking forward to medicare at 65. You'll be paying around $200 for medicare and another $200 for a supplement. EACH PERSON. per month. Don't think health care is free once you hit 65. You will be paying more then than you are now when you're on your employers plan. Plan on at least $10k per couple after retirement for health insurance. Its not deductible either....

This is what it is like buying your own health insurance.

$10K per couple is a good starting point for Health Care. It only goes up from there on MC, especially if you can't avoid IRMAA.

 

[Dtail]

We have 14k budgeted yearly for medical for a couple both on Medicare. So far only on pace for 8k.

 

[Finance Dave]

We spend about $6k/month normally, but our expenses are quite "lumpy". For example, if we pay to have our privacy fence re-stained then it would be $10k that month. Oh, and last year I bought a new car...paid cash...so there's $145k that month. I'd say we spend about the same as we anticipated, although we're spending more on medical than we thought and less on "fun" things due to health issues, surgeries, and so on.

When I do our budget, I "even out" the unexpected large items so we budget for about $9k/month...but as I said $6k is more the "median" and $9k would be the "average".

I will add that we live in a low COL area in the midwest. We are considering moving in the next few years, and our research shows that the areas we're looking at have a similar COL EXCEPT for housing...which is about 25% higher in most of the areas we're looking at.

 

[Stormy Kromer]

Not to start a new thread or get side tracked. But, I see many people preparing for ER worried about the cost of health insurance before they retire before the age of 65. Scares the hell out of everyone covered under their employer's health plan.

Please note. If you're scared of buying your own health care before 65, get used to it.

Many folks don't realize that medi-care premiums and supplements will cost about $5k per person after 65. Get ready everyone.

Lots of folks will be paying much more after tax income for health insurance after 65 than before when they were employed and covered under an employer's plan.

Plus, its not before taxable income that pays for this like when you were employed. It is after tax income.

For those preparing for ER, don't think health care is free once you reach 65.

.

 

[equakesfan]

Hey folks,
I’m in the early stages of retirement and trying to get a real-world sense of what monthly spending actually looks like. Most of the online calculators give me wild estimates, but I’d rather hear it straight from people who are living it.

If you're comfortable sharing — how much do you typically spend in a month during retirement? Has it been more or less than you expected? What surprised you the most about your retirement budget?

Thanks in advance!

I just completed my first year of retirement. Excluding spending on the rental property, I budgeted $120k/year of spending. I actually spent $129k. However, that included ~$28k on deferred maintenance of which $6k was budgeted. We knew that there was deferred maintenance to be completed. Also there was no vacation (we went on vacation in April last year and will go on vacation in June this year so no vacation in the year) which we budgeted $12k.
So excluding vacation and maintenance we spent $101k and budgeted $102k. I don't control the spending, I just track it after the fact (It is my nature to be cheap).
To set the budget I took the spending we did the year before we retired, estimated what was "work expenses" and subtracted those out. I still have kids in school so there hasn't been much "fun" spending.

 

[jim584672]

About $1,333 a month.

 

[ls99]

Much less than pensions tand investment income.

 

[Dtail]

I just completed my first year of retirement. Excluding spending on the rental property, I budgeted $120k/year of spending. I actually spent $129k. However, that included ~$28k on deferred maintenance of which $6k was budgeted. We knew that there was deferred maintenance to be completed. Also there was no vacation (we went on vacation in April last year and will go on vacation in June this year so no vacation in the year) which we budgeted $12k.
So excluding vacation and maintenance we spent $101k and budgeted $102k. I don't control the spending, I just track it after the fact (It is my nature to be cheap).
To set the budget I took the spending we did the year before we retired, estimated what was "work expenses" and subtracted those out. I still have kids in school so there hasn't been much "fun" spending.

Good results. I budget and track it along the way. For the most part, it is not to control the expenses day by day but overall for the year to some extent. Nothing to do with cheapness due to tracking.