Top Ten Expenses?

[Lagniappe]

This was an interesting exercise. This is an unusual year, with very high expenses, but travel is still up there!

1. Transportation 22%. (New Car, insurance, fuel, transit, etc.)
2. Federal Taxes 21%
3. Travel 20%
4. Home Related. 10% (buying condo, moving)
5. Food 6% (groceries and eating out)
6. Family, Gifts 5%
7. Health 3% (insurance, copays, gyms, etc)

 

[iloveyoga]

Another Travel #1 spender In our case 41 % of our total spend:
1. Travel 41%
2. House (mortgage & escrow) 16%
3. Groceries 8%
4. Taxes 7%
5. Dentist 3%
6. Lawn and Garden 3%
7. Automobile 2%
8. Other medical (Eyes, Ears, Insurance) 1.4%
9. Electricity 0.8%
10. Water 0.5%

I was very happy that travel was our #1 also.

 

[Dash man]

1. Church and charities
2. Gifts to family/529 contributions
3. New siding, roof, and bow window
4. Federal taxes
5. Property Taxes
6. Medicare/ Health care
7. Solar panel purchase and installation
8. Food
9. Long term care insurance
10. Home and auto insurance

 

[HarveyS]

top 10 for me in 2023
1 Income tax
2 Housing expenses
3 recreation/travel
4 entertainment
5 retail purchases (clothing, recreation items)
6 charity
7 dining out
8 grocery
9 health ins
10 gasoline

 

[iloveyoga]

Travel
Taxes
Insurance home auto life health etc
Food including out to eat
Gifts
The rest is pretty minor....
We could always have a home expense come up too
It's so nice not to have to worry much about $$

I looked a little more closely at my 2023 tax return and taxes and travel are very close and could flip in 2024.

Also, starting in 2023 all pension income is exempt from Iowa state income tax.

 

[Koolau]

Charities
Housing
Medical/Dental/Pharma
Mainland Travel
Kids' Up-Front Inheritance
Food
Insurance
Cars
Taxes
Misc.

 

[karen1972]

1. Replaced car
2. Grocery
3. Mortgage (no escrow)
4. Medical
5. Auto
6. Utilities
7. Software & Electronics
8. Property Tax
9. Travel
10. Going out (dinner, drinks, events)

 

[Samething]

1. Home (maintenance, property tax, HOA)
2. Insurance (health, flood, umbrella, homeowners)
3. Sports/Hobbies
4. Food
5. Auto
6. Income Tax
7. Utilities
8. Gifts
9. Medical
10. Travel

 

[sengsational]

We built a garage last year, so that was #1.
This year will be much different.

My definition of "expense" is "out the door, gone, gone". So if I built a garage for $Y, and my property value went up by, oh, let's just say 90% of $Y (because nobody but me likes garages, or I want to be conservative), I'd say the expense was 10% of $Y. But if I built the garage myself (sweat equity) and everybody likes garages, and it would fetch 110% of what I spent building it, I'd say I "earned" 10% of $Y. But realistically, I'd put the whole garage thing outside of income or expense and call it even. It's the same as moving money from a tIRA to a Roth. In that case, you're pre-paying taxes, so moving some income tax expense from later to earlier, so your income tax is higher than otherwise, but the amount of funds transferred don't count as expense.


I haven't done my numbers, but I know #1 is gifting, #2 is taxes. Shame on me for not getting travel above those.

 

[F.I.R.E User]

1. Rent.
2. Electric.
3. Food.
4. Haircut.
5. Gas.
5. Cell Phone.
6. Auto Insurance.
7. Water.
8. Internet.
9. Oil Change.
10. Theatre.

 

[meleana]

Taxes on Roth conversions
Medicare plus supplement
Travel
Property taxes
Groceries
Utilities
Taxes on Inherited Ira RMD
Car maintenance
Home, auto and umbrella insurance
New laptop, cell phones plus cell service

 

[sengsational]

I haven't done my numbers, but I know #1 is gifting, #2 is taxes. Shame on me for not getting travel above those.

Just ran the numbers. Travel DID edge out taxes by a tiny margin! Then came the house. There was a 'save money by not having a car' thread and even all-in, that was the smallest separate category tracked.

 

[OnTheBeach]

We liquidated a main business with large unrealized gains last year:


Taxes 71%
Main Home 7%
Leisure 3%
Vacation Home 3%
Vacation 5%
Legal, Tax and Insurance 2%
Healthcare 2%
Groceries 1%
Charity 1%
Dining Out 1%
Other 2%

 

[pb4uski]

1. Property taxes 12.5% (2 homes, one homesteaded)
2. Federal income taxes 11.5% (8.1% from Roth conversions, no state income taxes in FL)
3. Travel 9.4% (cruise and other)
4. Health insurance 9.4% (Parts B + D, Medigap)
5. Home maintenance and repairs 8.0% (unusually bad year...replaced diswasher, refrigerator and on-demand water heater)
6. Transportation 7.4% (insurance, gas, repairs and maintenance)
7. Association fees 6.6% (on FL condo but includes insurance, cable tv, water, trash, etc and a special assessment)
8. Golf 6.2%
9. Dining out 5.1%

 

[Koolau]

1. Rent.
2. Electric.
3. Food.
4. Haircut.
5. Gas.
5. Cell Phone.
6. Auto Insurance.
7. Water.
8. Internet.
9. Oil Change.
10. Theatre.

Heh, heh, okay, I'll bite. How much does your haircut cost and how often? Enquiring minds want to know. My last (paid-for) haircut (back in September) cost $15.

 

[Finance Dave]

Not sure if I can easily list the top 10, but the top 5 are easy...

1) Taxes
2) LTC insurance
3) Property taxes
4) Groceries
5) Restaurants

Travel/fun would normally be on there, but due to a very old MIL we have been staying near home a lot lately.

 

[2017ish]

Travel (50% +)
Fed taxes on Roth conversions
Fed taxes
Mortgage (fixed 2.75%)
Everything else.

Sorry for lack of detail. Traveling and laptop SSD fizzled just 54 weeks after purchase.

 

[albundyz]

1. Mortgage
2. prop taxes
3. Health Insurance
4. House Insurance, including earthquake
5. Car related expenses
6. Federal Income Tax
7. Tips at the nudie bar

 

[shotgunner]

1. Taxes (I live in NH, large prop tax bill) plus federal income tax.
2. Transportation (vehicle(s) depreciation, gasoline, oil, maintenance,
registration)
3. Utilities (Elect, Heat, Water/Sewer, Garbage, Internet/TV Insurance).
4. Food (groceries and dining out).
5. Recreation & Vacation.
6. Medical Insurance/Dr. Dentist Copays.

7 to 10. negligible spending.

 

[jldavid47]

For 2023 in descending order:

1) Home maintenance and improvements
2) Utilities (gas/electric/cable/phones/sanitation)
3) Medicare (B, D, G)
4) Groceries
5) Property taxes
6) Insurance (home/auto/life)
7) Wife's fabric addiction
8) Auto (maintenance + gasoline)
9) Travel & Leisure activities
10) Healthcare

 

[Willers]

A little skewed since we bought a new truck:

1) Auto (purchase, gas, maintenance)
2) Medical/Dental
3) Income Taxes
4) Insurance (home, vehicle, umbrella)
5) Eating out
6) Utilities
7) Travel
8) Groceries
9) Athletics (skiing, biking, running, etc.)
10) Property Taxes

We bought our only remodeled home so, for the first time in our lives, home improvements don't make the top ten. I can't say I miss it much.

 

[RockLife]

I see a lot of replies where multiple taxes are high in the list. I've been skating on taxes so far (first 6 years of retirement), spending from taxable accounts where I'm only taxed on the gains. Most of the funding of those accounts were from the sale of our last house, so not taxable. Now those accounts are mostly depleted and it's time to start paying the piper.

But for now, I'm happy to see Gifts (to family) and Travel high on the list.

1 Mortgage
2 Gifts
3 Travel
4 Home Renovation
5 Federal Tax (no state tax in FL)
6 Groceries
7 Health Insurance
8 Restaurants & Bars
9 Utilities
10 Household

Looking at my 2023 spending my top 10 expenses from highest to lowest were:

1. Federal taxes
2. Travel
3. State taxes (CA)
4. Mortgage
5. Property taxes
6. Groceries
7. Medicare
8. Pet care (3 dogs, lots of boarding due to travel)
9. Social Security
10. Health care (insurance + deductibles/copay)

If I were to include my son's college expenses it would come in at number 7 last year (only paid for 2 quarters so far) but I didn't include it since it paid out of the 529.

I'm still working and get heavily subsidized health insurance so I expect in retirement health care will move up to the #3 spot until I qualify for Medicare. Curious what other retirees top ten expenses look like?

 

[F.I.R.E User]

Heh, heh, okay, I'll bite. How much does your haircut cost and how often? Enquiring minds want to know. My last (paid-for) haircut (back in September) cost $15.

Yes, I know I spend more on haircut. I get a cut every 2 weeks.

Supercuts location.

$23 - $3 (coupon every time). $5 tip. So, $25 x 2 = $50.

 

[Zathras]

1. Charitable Donations
2. Medical Insurance + out of pocket
3. Property tax
4. Insurance
5. Food
6. State/Fed taxes
7. Home maintenance

This is for 2023.
Getting a new car this year so Auto will make it on the list for 2024.