Retirement Budgeting... how did it go for you?

[jebmke]

Seems to me the biggest influence in your items will be how you choose to fill your time in retirement.
- If you're going to spend a lot going to black-tie charity events, then you're likely going to be spending quite a bit on clothing; however, if you're spending your time volunteering then you're likely not going to be wearing expensive clothes.

Some people fill their time shopping, going out with friends, traveling, picking up expensive hobbies and some don't.

I spend my time volunteering and hiking, so my expenses went way way down. My buddy took up flying and bought a plane.. his expenses skyrocketed.

Hopefully if you are at black-time charity events you are spending a lot more on charity than clothing. I have managed to avoid the former by doing the latter anonymously using our Donor Advised Fund.

 

[SecondCor521]

- If you're going to spend a lot going to black-tie charity events, then you're likely going to be spending quite a bit on clothing; however, if you're spending your time volunteering then you're likely not going to be wearing expensive clothes.

My volunteering tends to score me free t-shirts, so my already-low clothing budget is even lower!

 

[daylatedollarshort]

We have seen people at the ballet sitting next to each other and one will be in a tux and the person in the next seat in a flannel shirt and jeans. Another time there were people in evening clothes and at least one guy in shorts and flip flops. We try to dress somewhere in the middle so clothes aren't a big expense for us. Evening type clothes on BART just seem like a good way to get mugged so we never dress up too much these days.

 

[aja8888]

I do an annual net worth calculation, that's good enough for me. I don't care how much I've spent, just how much I have left.

Kind of me too, and my memory is good enough to remember where the "big dollars" went during the year. There are too many variables to worry about all of them.

Since DW is not interested in watching the "spend", I just keep a low throttle on her CC and ask about purchases I see that are unusual. (she secretly still spends money on the 24 year old granddaughter).

 

[Huston55]

We have seen people at the ballet sitting next to each other and one will be in a tux and the person in the next seat in a flannel shirt and jeans. Another time there were people in evening clothes and at least one guy in shorts and flip flops. We try to dress somewhere in the middle so clothes aren't a big expense for us. Evening type clothes on BART just seem like a good way to get mugged so we never dress up too much these days.

I live in the North Bay now so, don’t ride BART; but, used to back in the days when we lived in the East Bay. Is it really that dangerous now?

 

[daylatedollarshort]

I live in the North Bay now so, don’t ride BART; but, used to back in the days when we lived in the East Bay. Is it really that dangerous now?

We've never had any issues but there are a lot of homeless in the city and have been issues at some of the BART stations, especially around Civic Center BART near the symphony hall, so I would not go out of my way to make myself look like an exceptionally good robbery or pickpocket target.

 

[Walt34]

We never really had any issues with budgeting. Shortly after retirement DW wrote up the spreadsheet that we still use with some modifications over the years. The spreadsheet has our income for the month, estimated recurring expenses like groceries and utilities, and when one of us puts something on a credit card we enter that and the spreadsheet automatically recalculates the discretionary amount remaining. We also normally put some money in savings for "lumpy" expenses like property taxes, expensive repairs to car or house and replacement vehicles.

If we want to take money out of savings we can, but generally that's a rare thing, for something like having to have the water line from the meter to the house replaced one year or replacement vehicle. And when I started SS a couple of years ago that gave us a bit more wiggle room, we'll probably be able to just cash flow property taxes next month in addition to DW going to NC with her sister the same month. If not, taking a few hundred out of savings a couple times a year isn't a big deal. That's what it's there for, and it's almost back up to where it was when we bought a new car a few years ago.

 

[Martha]

We spend much more as retirees. And, it is on things I did not expect. Like musical instruments, bicycles and a second home. Provided our net worth doesn't drop signficantly I don't worry about it.

 

[REWahoo]

Martha, back for your annual visit to ER.org? Nice to hear from you.

 

[W2R]

We spend much more as retirees. And, it is on things I did not expect. Like musical instruments, bicycles and a second home. Provided our net worth doesn't drop signficantly I don't worry about it.

Hi Martha!!! Good to see posts from you again!

 

[Bamaman]

We have never budgeted. I always put 10% to 14% into my 401k and was matched.5% for 36 years. I funded my IRAs to the max. And my wife.had a great.job in hospital lab management. I used to play the equities aggressively however I am more or less on cruise control with a well diversified portfolio.

I went into ER at 58 1/2 and.my wife has been disabled.since.age 52. My wife grew up very poor and Frugal is her middle name. We chose to live in a very LCOL region and we have owned 4 big houses (4,000+ sq ft) with $800 or less monthly mortgages. Not having the big house payments allowed us to live a much higher standard of living on an upper middle class income.

We are now of real retirement age, and find ourselves with permanent custody of a 7 year old. We are fighting to maintain our health for the long run for her. Fortunately, we live in a great music city on a big, big lake and we seldom leave town or travel domestically. My wife and I spend late nights trolling the internet for real big travel bargains--mostly to Europe.

We continue our frugal way of life otherwise. Our car is a hybrid getting 50 mpg. My truck is a 16 year old diesel that should last me.to age 93. Our late model boats and fifth wheel RV are paid for. We only eat out once weekly, and it is usually at Captain D or Krystal. We wouldn't have to make any IRA Rollovers until age 75 or longer if it wasn't for RMDs starting in 2021. We shop at Aldi, and never set foot in a mall or S&B store.
All the little things add up to where we are financially stable. Informal budgeting is in our psychy--in the back of our minds. We just do not think about it.

 

[jazz4cash]

Martha, back for your annual visit to ER.org? Nice to hear from you.

+1

 

[Teacher Terry]

We live on a budget that works for us. Our income is 62k before taxes. We spend about 10k/year on travel which comes from savings. We don’t spend a lot on clothes because don’t get dressed up that often. We spend more on events, eating out than when working because we have the time. Our cars are paid for and will easily last another 10-15 years. We fixed up the house right after retiring. Our mortgage is 500/month. Our dogs have been a big expense because we have had 4 old dogs. Now have 2 old and one young dog. When 2 of our old dogs died we had 300 more a month because of their medications. When the old big guy goes we will have 200 more. Will never have more than 2 again. I love them too death but wow are they expensive.

 

[NW-Bound]

Hey, I almost miss this post from Martha. Perhaps this forum is like Hotel California.

Welcome back. Tell us something about your RV adventure. Or perhaps you have given up on that, as some have done here.

Anyway, about budgeting, I don't really do it. I stumbled onto this forum, and this was where I learned about the Trinity 4% WR study. I learned the importance of knowing exactly what one spent, and started using Quicken.

Then, I saw that my expenses were high, but contained a lot of items that would go away such as college costs, home mortgage, etc... When I saw that my essential expenses were a lot lower than 4%, I said I was good to go. And that's that.

I still track expenses, which involves clicking on the "download all" button on Quicken. Tough job, but someone has to do it.

It turned out that Bernicke was also right, that people spent less when they aged. My trailing 12-month expenses are 2.4% of the current stash. Will be even lower when we start SS.

 

[W2R]

It turned out that Bernicke was also right, that people spent less when they aged. My trailing 12-month expenses are 2.4% of the current stash. Will be even lower when we start SS.

I am spending more now at age 70 than I did when I was younger. But my "stash" is growing too, so my percentage is going down.

I recently started getting more $$$ from SS. I don't know yet if I'll spend all of the extra, or what. So far, I have been spending about half of it but I think that with practice, I can learn to loosen up a little and spend more.

 

[NW-Bound]

I may spend money on things that make me happy, but I find nothing that excites me.

Even with travel, I have found that we are good with one long trip each year, alternating between a 2-3 month European trek with a 2-3 month RV trip. Did the Alaska trek this year, so it will be Europe for 2019. Maybe I will revisit Spain, and go see places not crowded with tourists like the Asturias region.

Oops, got carried away. Back to budgeting issues, my travel style is pretty low key, I have never had to budget for it.

Prior to our making the RV trip this year, a cousin of my wife visited, and upon learning about our upcoming long trip, asked what distance we would be driving. When I said it would be more than 10,000 miles at perhaps 8mpg, and gas in the Yukon is up to US$5/gal, she said "Uh, that's something you must make budget for".

I thought to myself, "Of course, travel will cost a few grands no matter what". I only add up the cost afterwards, not during the planning. It's simply because it has always been less than what would really concern me. LBYM means never having to count every thousand dollars.

 

[tmm99]

I am spending more now at age 70 than I did when I was younger. But my "stash" is growing too, so my percentage is going down.

That would be a dream-come-true-scenario for me. Congrats!

 

[audreyh1]

We spend much more as retirees. And, it is on things I did not expect. Like musical instruments, bicycles and a second home. Provided our net worth doesn't drop signficantly I don't worry about it.

Wow! I actually caught a Martha post! Hadn’t seen one in years.

 

[Oz investor]

total chaos here

the planned retirement date of January 2020 was brought forward to January 2017 because of medical reasons , any major planned activities are canceled at least until 2022

i have income ( pension ) and assets , and my outings consist medical appointments and shopping trips ( usually synced with trips to the pharmacy ).

but it could be worse my shattered budget could be leaking cash , but i would have liked to see if the plan worked out as hoped for .

 

[Moemg]

Hey, I almost miss this post from Martha. Perhaps this forum is like Hotel California.

Glad to hear from you Martha !

 

[NW-Bound]

Hotel California: "... You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave..."

Can't find my favorite video clip of this with acoustic guitars on youtube anymore, perhaps it got deleted.

But there's another copy here: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3nrrts.

 

[Dreamer]

Great hearing from you, Martha. I hope you stick around for awhile.

 

[joeprintz]

I think many of us use different terminology for the same thing.. Not to have budget but to look at expenses twice a year to see if they are inline with expectations is really like a budget isn't it?

 

[pacergal]

total chaos here

the planned retirement date of January 2020 was brought forward to January 2017 because of medical reasons , any major planned activities are canceled at least until 2022

i have income ( pension ) and assets , and my outings consist medical appointments and shopping trips ( usually synced with trips to the pharmacy ).

but it could be worse my shattered budget could be leaking cash , but i would have liked to see if the plan worked out as hoped for .

Wow, Oz! My thoughts are with you, hope things will improve.

 

[brett]

Our retirement spending was about what we had expected. We had increased it to account for additional travel. The total spend was on target but we ended up spending less on living expenses and more on travel.

The big surprise was net worth. Our net worth increased considerably more than we anticipated over the past six years. To the point where we are changing some of our travel habits. Did business class ticket to SE Asia this past year-a nice change from standard economy.

It takes us about 5 minutes to calculate our monthly spend since we only care about the macro number. I take a tape on our bank account. That's it. We do not care if we spend more on food or less on entertainment, etc during a particular month or during the year. This is primarily to determine how much we should be transferring down from our HISA account to our current account.