What have been/will be your big money spenders in retirement?

[motley]

Travel? New car? New home? What?

I think mine will be mostly travel early on. I also plan on building a home studio, but that should be a one-time cost mostly and not really all that much in the grand scheme.

 

[RetiredHappy]

Golfing - private country club, lots of golf at good courses while we travel for 3 months a year. For a while we were spending a ton on cruising (suite staterooms). After we got golf crazy, we just wanted to jump off the ship to go golf, so we stopped cruising.

 

[Luvtoride]

We are renovating both bathrooms (Master and guest) at our Beach Condo starting right after Labor Day. We spent the summer getting designs, interviewing contractors, picking out vanities, bathroom fixtures and tiles and the work is ready to now begin. It’s a very large spend, but it’s an investment in our biggest asset which we and our family will enjoy for years to come.

 

[Aerides]

While I would like to say travel, it's probably home stuff. Repairs, improvements, upgrades.

Includes adding a pool, replacing our AC and all the duct work, new fence, replaced and upgraded our electrical panel, new furniture in most rooms, that's the kind of stuff that has averaged about 20k per year. Ofc the pool was a big chunk, without that category would be down a bit, but we're less than 5 years from needing a new roof, need to repaint and redo floors, so I don't think travel will overtake it anytime soon.

All the kind of stuff you might put off while saving, but now we're off the mindset to do things sooner than later, so we can enjoy the benefits, since it's not like we have to wait till the next paycheck.

 

[street]

Taxes.
In the past years been land, vehicles. remodeling and home improvements.

 

[zangbao]

More than half of my expenses this year will be on travel.

 

[motley]

While I would like to say travel, it's probably home stuff. Repairs, improvements, upgrades.

Yeah, I'm hoping to avoid that by selling the house before I retire, so there is more "fun money" available,

 

[Jerry1]

I’ve been retired almost 7 years. My big expenses have been a pool and a couple of new vehicles. We’ve taken a few trips but nothing financially big. I have a couple other house projects I’d like to do but were wondering if it would be better to just move. So those projects my never happen, or be scaled back considerably.

 

[jollystomper]

Beyond taxes, vacation and travel and auto (spending between $30-$60k on a car before the end of the year, after spending $20K on a car in 2019). Debating now whether to replace a 12 year old heat pump before the end of the year, given the refrigerant change for 2025 that will make new systems more expensive.

 

[RetiredHappy]

We did sell and bought another home (about $100K more) and spent another $150K to fix and renovate the home.

Health care is another $35K a year, until I get old enough to be on Medicare.

 

[Exchme]

DW is retired, I'm still working a little, but mostly living the way we will once fully retired. Our expenses, in order of size-
1. Taxes - by a mile - because the government said so
2. Gifts to kids because we'd rather give them a leg up now and let them learn to handle money
3. Home upkeep and repair because we aren't handy and our house is at the age where everything is wearing out
4. Healthcare because we are the age where everything is wearing out
5. Food because we have a bad habit of eating every single day
6. Utilities & similar because we like running water, sewer, lights, gas, trash pick-up, internet, TV, phones, etc.
7. Travel, eating out and entertainment just because.

 

[rk911]

We're 19-years into the retirement 'mission'. Our most recent single biggest cash purchase was a new vehicle, a 2023 Jeep Wrangler. But in terms of on-going spending it was travel in our motorhome.

We first began RV travel back in 1986. Over the next almost 3-decades we criss-crossed the country and much of Canada many times. At first we only had two-weeks vacation time so that meant 10-12 hour driving days to get where we wanted to be. As time went by we were able to take an entire month off, usually September.

After retirement in '05 we would be gone for 6-months, March thru May and again August thru October. Later, when family obligations had eased, we were able to spend our winters in AZ. We'd leave home in early January after the holidays, take a month to get to AZ, leave AZ in early April and take a month to get home. In 2000 and again in 2015 we were able to buy new motor homes for cash.

Health issues forced us to sell our motor home last year and we miss it terribly but lots of good memories.

 

[Teacher Terry]

Travel and home repairs/remodeling. I almost forgot vet bills. Vets are very expensive in Nevada.

 

[tmm99]

Definitely the home stuff. Repair, replacements and renovations. Next is vehicle. We hardly use our travel budget. COVID kind of killed the enthusiasm.

 

[Diogenes]

A number of folks have mentioned taxes as their foremost expense. That tracks - especially after RMDs kick in. For a FIRE-type of person, I would imagine that taxes are #1, unless somehow the portfolio is cleverly structured to avoid them.

 

[RetiredHappy]

A number of folks have mentioned taxes as their foremost expense. That tracks - especially after RMDs kick in. For a FIRE-type of person, I would imagine that taxes are #1, unless somehow the portfolio is cleverly structured to avoid them.

Death and taxes are certainties, so we don't even worry about them.

 

[2017ish]

More than half of my expenses this year will be on travel.

Same--we retired August 1, 2017, and travel has been more than 50% in every year, including 2020. (I exclude taxes on Roth conversions, as they are "accelerated future spending" to me....) But, for nearly 30 years, we planned to retire early to travel, and we travel ~6 months of the year, so we are outliers.

 

[Fielding]

Vacations and home improvement projects the top two discretionary, with taxes being the mandatory top.

 

[CyclingInvestor]

Taxes by far, then vacations, then health insurance (now on medicare)

 

[DrRoy]

Remodeling the house, new car, and travel, travel, travel.

 

[FLSUnFIRE]

Biggest expenses are insurance (home, auto), healthcare (premiums and copays), taxes (property -managing low realized income so income tax is negligible for now), home maintenance this year (A/C replacement). Spending shifts from working? - I spend a bit more on travel due to more frequent and longer trips.

 

[athena53]

Travel and charity, in that order. Taxes will become a far bigger player when RMDs kick in in a couple of years.

 

[Midpack]

I’m paying way more in Fed and state taxes, but only because I’m aggressively converting to a Roth. That will end in a few years, and taxes will be more reasonable again.

Although it wasn’t the original plan, we moved to a slightly higher COL city/state and bought a bigger, more expensive home. Though we pay twice as much in property taxes now, roads & muni services are significantly better here, so I don’t mind paying more.

We spend a little more on dining out and theater, because we can.

Like many (?) our medical expenses went up in retirement, once we both lost Megacorp health insurance. But we spent $15-25K a year on sail racing for over 25 years while working, now we spend nothing on sailing - so we’re saving there at least.

Our WR is still very, very low. We’re fortunate.

 

[mrfeh]

Travel? New car? New home?

Those are the big 3. Each could be at the top of the list in a given year.

 

[jebmke]

Taxes