What was your 2024 total spending amount?

[lem1955]

About $300k, but highly unusual - We gave large gifts from an IRA to four grown children in need of the cash, took two amazing trips - Portugal and a cruise through central Europe and paid a big honking sum to the federal government. Usual spend is about half that.

 

[Surewhitey]

Our biggest spend on travel this year put us just ~$74k & 3% of investment NW. Probably would be $7-10k lower if we didn’t have a few one-off's. We're ~9% over last year...

Estimated taxes from employment of ~$45k after maxing the 401ks. Hoping to get this "expense" mostly gone in a couple years. We also prepaid 6 months utilities, cell and internet for 2025 so DW can maintain her AA status too, so in theory 2025 should be lower.

Travel was by far the greatest in time (8+ weeks) and $$. Been a good year.

 

[youbet]

Never heard of youbet pub money.
Please elaborate...

"youbet pub money" is "Mama don't know" money I set aside for either medicinal or entertainment purposes as needed. It's spent at the pub. Whether it can be thought of as an investment in entertainment or in good health depends on the day. For example, if I'm there watching Da Bears game with the boys, it's definitely medicinal. There's absolutely nothing entertaining about Bears games this year.

For clarity, I know that Mama actually knows but she lets me go along thinking the stash is my big secret and I appreciate it.

 

[TheWizard]

"youbet pub money" is "Mama don't know" money I set aside for either medicinal or entertainment purposes as needed. It's spent at the pub. Whether it can be thought of as an investment in entertainment or in good health depends on the day. For example, if I'm there watching Da Bears game with the boys, it's definitely medicinal. There's absolutely nothing entertaining about Bears games this year.

For clarity, I know that Mama actually knows but she lets me go along thinking the stash is my big secret and I appreciate it.

Alrighty.
I think I get your drift at this point...

 

[Teacher Terry]

I fully realize this is the voice of great privilege speaking but I really can't comprehend how people live on 30K or less for 2 people or even 1 for that matter.

Property tax: $8,000 on a very modest 60-year-old 3BR home (paid for)
Health insurance: $12,000 after the subsidy plus thousands more on OOP costs
Auto insurance: $3,000 (for 3 of us)
Home insurance: $1,000
Utilities (gas, electric, water, sewer): $5,500

That puts us at $29,500 plus OOP medical before we've eaten a single meal or used a single gallon of gas or purchased anything at all.

4 years ago I only spent 30k and it was lean living for one person. Property tax in Nevada is cheap. I only pay 400/year. Being on Medicare is cheaper than the ACA. I pay 400/month. I have a small mortgage of 5k year. Spending 40k is much better living for me.

 

[Tom52]

I am now done spending for the year, the final tally is $104,786.91. Higher than normal because we bought a new vehicle and I paid extra federal taxes for my Roth conversion. Next year might be a little less but sooner or later I will need to replace the roof, at about $20,000 or HVAC and water heater at about $13,000. Other than the new vehicle and taxes my biggest expense is health insurance at $8,236 for the year.

 

[N02L84ER]

We have been retired for 12+ years. This year our spending was the highest ever (BTD) because of deferred house improvements, 139,400. Our previous high since retiring was < 70,000.

 

[Retire2023]

Hopefully next year will calm down a bit. Lots of BTD the last two years.

Living Exp	89,872.28
Medical	13,253.72
Travel/Gifting/Cars/Reno	130,800.91
	233,926.91
Taxes	59,650.00
Total	293,576.91

 

[joesxm3]

Just finished balancing the books.

Spending for 2024 including taxes came in at $62,000. Adding in shares that I donated to charitable gift fund would make it $86,000.

 

[copyright1997reloaded]

Late to the posting party but here goes. First a disclaimer - I retired in January and bought a new place mid year (still have the old one too) so this year is a bit of a mish-mash and hard to figure. I use quicken to track expenses but I don't have it capture deductions from my paycheck or retirement pension(s) so those are added on here and estimated a bit.

Quicken spending including property taxes and medicare but w/o payroll taxes: $135.5K
Including federal income tax, state, FICA, payroll medicare etc.: $173K

Single, no child deduction as dear child is now full time working and an adult. The above includes the taxes on 22.5K in Roth contributions (but Roth itself is not counted in spending). Nor do the above include annual money/asset transfer (i.e. gifting) to my child. It does include gifting to others for example nieces and nephews children (but not gifting I've been doing in a Donor Advised Fund).

Biggest categories:
1) Taxes (as can be seen above). Guess at all taxes (fed, state, medicare, IRMAA, property, but not sales tax) is about $60K! Perhaps that is why I am so peeved about them. The move is to a (somewhat) lower tax state but overall this won't change all that much as I would increase Roth conversions.
2) Vehicle Payments - I bought a new care in Dec 21 and another new one in April 22. Both financed at 0% for 36 months - a good deal but high payments. That accounted for about $24K in expenses (tracked in quicken). One is now payed off (December), other will be paid off April 25. So this will hopefully be considerably lower in 2025.
3) "Home" - Almost $20K. Includes some labor and materials on fixing things, HOA fees (new digs), rental of storage unit(s), etc. Also things like a washer/dryer at the new place. I would guess this will be higher in 25 to get the old place ready to sell and to buy some new things for the new place. I don't really budget (any more than what I am doing here, just guessing it will be higher/considerably higher).
4) "Entertainment/Travel. - About $13K. Vacation trips, e.g. ski trips, sporting tickets (including season pass). Likely will be similar in 2025. Not a lot here in terms of airline and hotels (mostly used accumulated points) but ski passes aren't cheap nor are two season tickets.
5) "Food/Dining" - About $10K. Groceries make up 37% of this, I don't see this changing much (in total) although the eating out portion may be slightly reduced.

My 2025 "plan" is to get my non income tax spending (i.e. the first quicken total) after the old house is sold/move completed into the 120k/year range (10k/month).

 

[NeilDH]

We're landing at right around $100K, two of us.

 

[robnplunder]

Wow. A huge range among us. I see less than $20ks and more than $300ks. I increase my 2025 budget slightly even though I underspent my 2024 budget.

 

[grasshopper]

Quicken says $70133,
Top 5
Travel $25946
Medical $ 10169
Groceries $8080
Pets $6234
Taxes $6692
Taxes were high due to RMD and $30K Roth conversion, last year for any conversions.

 

[tominboise]

2024 = $157731 (bought a furnace)
2023 = $144629 (bought a trailer for Corvette)
2022 = $197932 (bought a Corvette)
2021 = $123793

 

[sengsational]

We have been retired for 12+ years. This year our spending was the highest ever (BTD) because of deferred house improvements, 139,400. Our previous high since retiring was < 70,000.

For cash flow, every dollar counts, but some expenses are investments in disguise; if your house would certainly sell for, say, 100,000 more after the remodel, then you "spent" $39,400 and invested $100,000.

 

[TheWizard]

2024 = $157731 (bought a furnace)
2023 = $144629 (bought a trailer for Corvette)
2022 = $197932 (bought a Corvette)
2021 = $123793

It would be interesting to see a C8 Corvette towing a big Airstream!

 

[ArmchairMillionaire]

It would be interesting to see a C8 Corvette towing a big Airstream!

Slightly off-topic, but I was in Miami back in the late '90s or early 2000s and I remember seeing a C5 towing a rather large boat. I thought the driver was insane. But it appears many Corvette owners also have boats and tow them.
From the CorvetteForum:

Amazing...
Entire Forum Post

 

[PatrickA5]

Closed the books on another year! $262,297 Ouch!

Abnormal expenses were gifts to kids ($114K), Major home improvements ($40K)

Of the normal expenses, Vacations was 27%. Next closest was Food at 19%.

Our normal spending should be around $90K to $110K going forward.

We could, if we wanted to, easily get down to $75K.

 

[jollystomper]

Year	Total Spending	Living Spending*	Top Spending Areas**
2019​	$143K​	$89K​	Taxes, Vacation&Travel, Auto, Medical, Charity&Gifts, Mortgage
2020​	$102K​	$53K​	Taxes, Medical, Charity&Gifts, Groceries, Mortgage, Auto
2021​	$107K​	$59K​	Taxes, Medical, Charity&Gifts, Groceries, Auto, Household, Utilities
2022​	$104K​	$62K​	Taxes, Medical, Charity&Gifts, Vacation&Travel, Auto, Groceries, Utilities
2023​	$117K​	$74K​	Taxes, Charity&Gifts, Vacation&Travel, Medical, Auto, Groceries, Household
2024​	$133K​	$77K​	Charity&Gifts, Taxes, Household, Vacation&Travel, Medical, Food

* Living Spending = spending excluding Taxes and Charity&Gifts
** Top Spending Areas = the spending categories, highest to lowest, that accounted for 80% of our total spending

 

[Toast]

Living expenses for me and DH, including medical/dental and state/federal taxes, totaled $127,146. Our basic living expenses made up only $68,926 of the amount.

 

[jtmax]

Close to 80k for us total for the year. No mortgage, no debt in North East Florida. Our budget was $150k, hopefully we will meet it in 2025. This includes vacation spending.

I'm curious about breakdown of your cost. I'm planning for ER now and I'm at $43k a month with no mortgage or car payments when I retire. Also no commute so car insurance should be low. Just want to make sure I'm not missing something. Plan on keeping my MAGI at $60k to get subsidized healthcare. Plan on living in area safe from natural disaster like non flood zone in Austin and not have home insurance and no income tax. Also plan on no federal income tax since all income non taxable at federal level. Just want to make sure I'm not missing something. I suppose if you're in Florida, your home insurance must take a big chunk. I consider Florida for retirement but worry about high home insurance and lumpy expenses from storms and hurricanes. Also plan on solar panels to lower utility cost.

Monthly Yearly

Healthcare	$610	$7,320
property tax	$683	$8,196
Home insurance	0	$0
Utilities	100	$1,200
car	300	$3,600
Food	500	$6,000
Home maintenance	100	$1,200
Travel	800	$9,600
Entertainment/discretionary	500	$6,000
Mortgage	0	$0

 

[disneysteve]

I don’t have my final numbers yet. Should be in the 130K range.

I've got final numbers now and we came in at $116,000 plus undocumented cash spending which was probably another few thousand so I'll call it $120,000 all in.

In 2023, our total was $133,000 plus cash so we spent about $15,000 less in 2024 as anticipated. The biggest reason for that was switching to an ACA plan which saved us thousands. We also had a couple of other reduced expenses including lower OOP costs for our daughter's therapy and me dropping my disability insurance when I retired.

 

[Jerry1]

We came in around $140K. But, that included paying off a car loan. I would have just made the payments given the low interest rate, but DW can't stand debt so she paid it off. She administers the money. I administer the portfolio. She won that "argument". We also gifted money that was atypical. Those 2 items came up to $36K so we were pretty close to our $105K budget. Of course a lot of years have some form of a lumpy expense so our average spend is probably around $125K. FireCalc says we're good (100% success rate) up to about $160K so we're still living below our means.

 

[wingfooted]

$511K

Big buckets:

Farm implements - JD 5130M tractor, four bottom plow, tandem disk, rollaharrow, flail mower, box blade, corrugator. $220K

Farm improvements - two new cement irrigation ditches, 10 inch line, commission pasture sprinkler system. $40K

Taxes $70K

All other (living expenses) $180K

 

[disneysteve]

$511K

Big buckets:

Farm implements - JD 5130M tractor, four bottom plow, tandem disk, rollaharrow, flail mower, box blade, corrugator. $220K

Farm improvements - two new cement irrigation ditches, 10 inch line, commission pasture sprinkler system. $40K

Taxes $70K

All other (living expenses) $180K

Your post made me realize something. You listed both business and personal expenses. I was thinking my number was just personal spending but it actually includes some business spending too. I don’t have a separate credit card for my business so those expenses are rolled in with the personal ones. Our actual personal spending is several thousand dollars less than my total. For some reason I had never really thought about that. Thanks.