I think our goal is more typical: to spend as much as safely possible over a 30-year retirement, likely spending more in earlier years than later years. I have no idea whether that is more, less or the same as in pre-retirement.Not necessarily. Our retirement budget is clearly lower than pre retirement, but we knew that going in.
In pre retirement with a Wall St career, there were many extravagant expenses which is not necessary or desired now. One simple example was our monthly food budget was $3,000.
I'm retired going on 3 years with DW still working the next year or 2. We don't really budget, we continue to run paycheck to paycheck. We get 3, Her work, my pension and SS. We always try to put 1/4 to 1/3 away into savings just to have a fallback. Over the last few years we have been spending heavily on rebuilding our retirement house, and using 0% interest store cards or CC offers. Latest big purchase was about $7500, put $4K on 0% Discover card and the rest from savings even though we had the money available.If you have a budget, how do you stick to it? What changes do you make when hit with unexpected expenses? What's the worst expense you had to pay for and how did you recover?
THANKS.......My goal in life is/was to become a moderately wealthy bastard
It's a common mistake for those new to budgeting. You should plan for some surprises, most of the big ones are entirely predictable - you just don't know exactly when they will hit. "Recovering" is largely avoidable.
Your budget has to include 'lumpy expenses' - those infrequent but often large ticket items that WILL happen to everyone. Replacing cars, replacing your roof/HVAC/applicances/consumer electronics, remodeling/updating (unless you're going to let your home become hopelessly out of date, replacing furniture/mattresses - those kinds of expenses. Cars don't last forever, and they won't get cheaper. Homes (primary, secondary, rentals) require maintenance, some very big ticket items like roof replacement, painting, HVAC/appliances, etc. Consumer electronics don't last forever, smartphones, laptops, tablets, etc. If you own boats or planes...
We have used budgets for many years, before and after retiring. For reference, in the past 5 years our total spending has averaged $104K per year without taxes, of that $29K was lumpy expenses (a car, new house expenses primarily). If we had budgeted for $75K, what daily living costs us, we would have been totally unprepared for those sporadic big ticket items. Not saying that exact ratio holds true for everyone, but everyone needs to budget for 'lumpy expenses' IME. And they are not insignificant.
Well there goes another expense.THANKS.......
I just spit coffee all over my laptop