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Old 09-03-2015, 05:21 AM
 
Location: MA
1,623 posts, read 1,715,427 times
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I spend less money. I don't drive an hour to work each way so lots lets gas. I don't have to go out to lunch every single day anymore. I wear what I want to wear now. I go to movies on bargain days and when I shop for clothes I go and do it on clearance aisles and make it fun. I'm not at work having to contribute to so and so's going away party or buy somebodys kids girlscout cookies.
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Old 09-03-2015, 05:29 AM
 
9,617 posts, read 6,032,252 times
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Spending doubled, more or less, in retirement. By design. We purposely 'squished down' our spending leading up to retirement for a period of 10 years or so before retirement. Bulk of 'squishing' meant more $$$ thrown to retirement investments and debt pay down.

Funny though, we became such frugalistas leading up to retirement that it is sometimes not easy to just spend.
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Old 09-03-2015, 11:45 AM
 
Location: SW Florida
14,859 posts, read 11,994,149 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by earthlyfather View Post
Spending doubled, more or less, in retirement. By design. We purposely 'squished down' our spending leading up to retirement for a period of 10 years or so before retirement. Bulk of 'squishing' meant more $$$ thrown to retirement investments and debt pay down.

Funny though, we became such frugalistas leading up to retirement that it is sometimes not easy to just spend.
LOL, that's me. Guess I spent too many of my younger years having to squeeze every dime to make sure the bills were paid and essentials met (including contributions to savings) not to tend to do the same thing instinctively now.

We spend less in our retirement than we did when we were working. We built our retirement house using an equity line of credit on the paid off house we had lived in for years, so when we sold the old house we paid off that equity loan, realized a nice profit additionally and ended up in a new house witn no mortgage. We have no other debt, we pay off credit cards monthly and moved to a lower cost of living area for retirement. Taxes and insurance are considerably less here than in our old location, and monthly bills lower.

We don't eat out as much as we did when we were working, although we eat out when we feel like it. We don't travel much, really no desire to do so. Medical care is well covered by Medicare and secondary insurance from DH's former employer, so far so good there.

The monthly income is actually more than when we were working and our expenses significantly less, so we are able to save a significant amount of the income , so when unexpected expenses come up the money is there without us having to touch our invested savings. We are fortunate, indeed.
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Old 09-03-2015, 03:44 PM
 
Location: Forests of Maine
37,273 posts, read 61,034,194 times
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My pension is about 1/3 of my salary. Maybe a 1/4 of what our gross income was when I was working.

When I was working we did a lot of travel, though mostly work related / mandated. After I retired we stopped much of the travel. My Dw just got home from 2 weeks in Norway, she still likes to make one big trip each year. I stayed home.

She is working now, though she plans on going on her pension next March.

Before much of our discretionary spending went into our portfolio and tax-sheltering.

We spent all of our portfolio on purchasing our retirement home, and fixing it up. Now most of our income has been going into our retirement home. Though most of our big construction projects are nearing completion.

When completed our COL will be much lower. Even though our pensions are a lot less than what we were each making by working we will still be able to invest.
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Old 09-03-2015, 10:10 PM
 
1,200 posts, read 922,997 times
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I have cut way back in four areas, three of which I planned for prior to retirement. First is clothes. I did have to dress for work, and now dress casually in inexpensive clothes that never need dry cleaning. Second is hair. I now color my own at home and go to an inexpensive salon. Third is books. This is the unplanned one. With my local library, overdrive and scribd, I read a couple books a day for less than $10 a month. Entering retirement I had planned to use my library more, but had no notion overdrive and scribd would be born waving frantically in my direction and calling my name. Used to spend a couple hundred a month on books. But the biggest savings is my hobby. I was a collector and would scour antique stores and eBay and budget a lot of money monthly for my collection. I went cold turkey in retirement, and now enjoy scanning and posting my existing collection.

Spending doesn't go down as an overall pattern. It plummets in certain targeted areas. And targeting these areas allows me to increase a bit in a few areas such as eating out more and buying a new iPad and iPhone every few years.
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Old 09-03-2015, 11:18 PM
 
Location: Phoenix
29,899 posts, read 18,744,842 times
Reputation: 25859
I haven't retired yet but me wife has and I plan to retire in the next 6 months. Here's my expectation of how retirement will affect spending.

Housing I expect to go up since my wife is designing a custom home that she wants to build. Utilities should be lower as our house size will go down.

Food - We like to go out a few times per week and I don't anticipate that changing. It is something we could reduce easily if we need to. We both buy whatever we want at grocery stores and enjoy nice wines...this is again something that we can easily reduce.

Medical Care - Because we have a long way to Medicare, this will increase greatly.

Travel - We travel a lot and don't expect to change that. However, we will probably plan and fly at lower cost times.

Gas - we expect to travel more so this should increase.

Cars - we both plan to buy a new car of our choosing when I retire so we may have some increased cost of insurance with newer cars.

Recreation - Cost of gym membership and yoga will go up as we are now in Peru and don't have a gym membership but plan to when I retire.

Giving - We currently give to our Church and other causes that we believe in. This will likely go down unless our retirement and investment incomes somehow exceed or at least approach my current earnings (which is not likely).

Taxes - We have considered moving from Washington to Oregon...if we do so, our taxes will increase.

Overall, I expect our living cost to go higher in retirement until we get Medicare and as we age, we might travel less. It will be interesting to see.
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Old 09-03-2015, 11:44 PM
 
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
34,617 posts, read 57,620,656 times
Reputation: 46064
Quote:
Originally Posted by luvmyhoss View Post
my spending is going way up.

...
need to eat .
WAY way up for me... travel... was 'company paid' before. (I miss that and the 'direct deposit' )

eating FAR less in 'retirement'... that is a VERY good thing!





Quote:
Originally Posted by Submariner View Post
...
Before much of our discretionary spending went into our portfolio and tax-sheltering.

...
When completed our COL will be much lower. ....
Eventually (in next 3 yrs) will be spending MUCH less... (still 'fixing' on retirement homes and buying tractors and such.. bought a windmill last week, thank goodness only ONE of those will be required ) We bought 6 investment properties since retirement... that cut into the portfolio!!! but realized I needed better 'inflation indexed' cash flows, and I do better with RE than equities.

Great that DW was able to go solo / international travel... we are doing same for 1 month of German Christmas Markets... I'm not a very good (happy) 'shopper'...I will be MUCH happier and tolerable staying home!


Quote:
Originally Posted by Tall Traveler View Post
...

Medical Care - Because we have a long way to Medicare, this will increase greatly.
I'm taking the risk and going with Christian Healthcare Ministries: Home ~$300/month

or similar + Medi-vacations...


Travel - We travel a lot and don't expect to change that. I hope to live long enough to qualify for a Senior National Parks pass, and I will save $100/ yr! that I have been spending since age 17)
Gas - we expect to travel more so this should increase. I use WVO... free fuelhttp://alternativefuels.about.com/od/biodiesel/a/collectingwvo.htm

Cars - I hope I can keep my beater going for 40 more yrs...
Recreation - Oh I would love to be in a town with a Lap Pool

Giving - We set up and funded a 'donor advised fund' / family foundation in our 30's. it will fund our mission / donations in perpetuity

Taxes - We have considered moving from Washington to Oregon...YIKES!!!! stay North of the border (Vancouver) You can use my 'gorge' house... I will be traveling or in income tax free TX! actually I think I would like to do an 'equity share' with another couple who travels! I have multiple living spaces as well as neighboring homes (currently rented)

Overall, I expect our living cost to go higher in retirement until we get Medicare and as we age, we might travel less. It will be interesting to see.
Look me up... I need INFO about South America!!! planning to go for Christmass 2015!, and... I am serious that our home is available much of the time! 20 min to PDX for ez get-aways' and our view is not too shabby! My Bio-Diesel processor is available too!, as well as plenty of CHEAP cars to burn it! (selling 3 spares this month)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ariadne22 View Post
...during my working years .. was an aggressive saver. ...
Could/should travel more - but since I did a lot of traveling when I was younger - don't have a big yen for it, anymore - and I am not an early riser - which is necessary for travelers. Of course, should my income double - that could change.
Good points and good job preparing... I do not rise early as a traveler! but some nights I don't ever get to bed either! (Spain / Portugal...)

I was able to work my first 10 yrs with out TOUCHING my earnings from my 'real' job. That went a LONG way to funding early retirement.

Last edited by StealthRabbit; 09-03-2015 at 11:52 PM..
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Old 09-04-2015, 09:54 AM
 
Location: Phoenix
29,899 posts, read 18,744,842 times
Reputation: 25859
Medical Care - Because we have a long way to Medicare, this will increase greatly.
I'm taking the risk and going with Christian Healthcare Ministries: Home ~$300/month

or similar + Medi-vacations...


Travel - We travel a lot and don't expect to change that. I hope to live long enough to qualify for a Senior National Parks pass, and I will save $100/ yr! that I have been spending since age 17)
Gas - we expect to travel more so this should increase. I use WVO... free fuelhttp://alternativefuels.about.com/od/biodiesel/a/collectingwvo.htm

Cars - I hope I can keep my beater going for 40 more yrs...
Recreation - Oh I would love to be in a town with a Lap Pool

Giving - We set up and funded a 'donor advised fund' / family foundation in our 30's. it will fund our mission / donations in perpetuity

Taxes - We have considered moving from Washington to Oregon...YIKES!!!! stay North of the border (Vancouver) You can use my 'gorge' house... I will be traveling or in income tax free TX! actually I think I would like to do an 'equity share' with another couple who travels! I have multiple living spaces as well as neighboring homes (currently rented)

Overall, I expect our living cost to go higher in retirement until we get Medicare and as we age, we might travel less. It will be interesting to see.Look me up... I need INFO about South America!!! planning to go for Christmass 2015!, and... I am serious that our home is available much of the time! 20 min to PDX for ez get-aways' and our view is not too shabby! My Bio-Diesel processor is available too!, as well as plenty of CHEAP cars to burn it! (selling 3 spares this month)

Stealth,

We are thinking of Medi-Share or similar as an option. Would like to hear your experience with your provider.

My wife wants a lap pool, she prefers to build one at our house but I'm not too keen on the idea. So hopefully we will have one in our selected area.

We pretty much have picked out the cars we want to buy as we enter retirement.

The house sharing might be something to consider. We have properties in Spain, Phoenix and Washington state. Oregon taxes are a problem but at least they don't tax SS income once we're old enough for that. Do you have property in Thailand....we love visiting Thailand.

As far as S. America, I've been working in Peru the last year and traveled in Peru and Chile so far. I hope to see more of S. America before I return to Estados Unidos. I do have a travel company to recommend for travel in Peru, especially around Cusco/Machu Picchu.



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Old 09-04-2015, 01:59 PM
 
Location: North Texas
3,421 posts, read 2,606,596 times
Reputation: 10891
In retirement our spending is about the same but has been rearranged. No more mortgage and car payments or children thus no more tax deductions.

My income tax is higher now and property tax was only slightly reduced after age 65. I'm on medicare and my company paid my insurance. I received a notice that effective next year they will pay $3000 annually and I need to find an insurance provider.

In retirement at our age we eat out more often, and we travel about two month out of the year. We buy a new car every four or five years and pay cash with the trade-in.

Our utility’s have increased since we are now at home. Clothing is a minimal expense, right now I'm wearing 20 year old jeans and a $10 t-shirt.

Our income has also increased considerably in retirement with RMD draw. Our savings are now more unintended than it was planned during our working years.
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Old 09-04-2015, 02:19 PM
 
Location: Los Angeles area
14,017 posts, read 20,849,137 times
Reputation: 32530
We all differ in how we budget and how we plan. I have always thought of my income in terms of my net income, and that's what I compare - net income before retirement to net income after retirement. For me "expenses" are things I have control over, or perhaps more accurately, things that run through my checkbook one way or another (such as cash from ATM's which comes from my checking account and automatic bill payments which also come from my checking account).

Therefore, I was not "aware" of certain "expenses" related to working which I no longer have. I am thinking of two items in that connection: Union dues and the 8% deduction for my pension plan. I never did see that money, so in a sense I never did "spend" it. Of course I am not stupid and I always knew it was coming out of my gross.

However there are other work-related expenses that we are directly aware of, sometimes painfully:

1. Commuting expenses, including parking fees if applicable. I had a short commute the last 15 years or so of my full-time career, and no parking fees.

2. Clothing, with dry cleaning as the kicker. I had almost no dry cleaning expense while working, and I still don't.

3. Eating out for lunch as a work-related "necessity". Sometimes prestigious jobs do not allow brown-bagging, but I did not have a prestigious job. There was an employee cafeteria which was very reasonable, and we could brown bag if we wanted. (Sometimes being on the lower end of the food chain has its advantages).

So with the union dues and pension deductions being "hidden" (as explained above), I now spend more in retirement, as explained in a previous post.
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