Retired Bogleheads -- How much did you spend last year?

[me112964]

Fascinating thread. Have been reeding others but did not join until now. Currently I am 51 and my wife is 49. We are looking to retire at 58 and 56 respectively. Financial advisers have told us 75% of our income is our target. Both physicians. That number is ridiculous. I don't see any need to make that kind of money in retirement. We will have zero debt, kids independent and no mortgage. I am anticipating $90,000.00 annually with health insurance comprising the bulk share as we will not take SS unti 70. I think that financial advisers are too likely to misguide high income earners. Anyone think otherwise?

[BTDT]

68 and 62, both retired and spent $209,000 last year

[LadyGeek]

Fascinating thread. Have been reeding others but did not join until now. Currently I am 51 and my wife is 49. We are looking to retire at 58 and 56 respectively. Financial advisers have told us 75% of our income is our target. Both physicians. That number is ridiculous. I don't see any need to make that kind of money in retirement. We will have zero debt, kids independent and no mortgage. I am anticipating $90,000.00 annually with health insurance comprising the bulk share as we will not take SS unti 70. I think that financial advisers are too likely to misguide high income earners. Anyone think otherwise?

Welcome! me112964 is requesting help in this thread: Any Help Appreciated, Retirement planning, answer his questions there.

[BarbK]

I don't see how so many of you live so cheaply. $60K is our fixed costs.

2015 was our first year with both of us retired; ages now: 63,59 - no pensions, no SS, no mortgage

>30K in insurance premiums alone; which includes HUGE deductibles on both Health (12K) AND Homeowners (60K hurricane); otherwise it would be much more.

Florida is not considered a HCOL area but Home Insurance qualifies for HCOL. Property taxes are moderate.

We do our own lawn and pool maintenance;
Rarely eat out except on vacations;
Didn't have anything expensive to repair on the house; This was an anomaly.
Drive old Hondas (2006 is our newest vehicle); no expensive repairs

Discretionary includes vacation, fun things

[BarbK]

Our total budget is 108k. I'm 61 and spouse 63. Health insurance alone runs us 23k ($18,000 premium plus about 5k out of pocket ). LTC ins is 7k. Other insurance $3500. So there's a total of 33.5k just in insurance. State & federal taxes run about 15k and real estate taxes 2500. So right there is 50k. Looking forward to getting on Medicare!

So sad but true. Paying full fare for Health Coverage is no fun.

[itstoomuch]

Fascinating thread. Have been reeding others but did not join until now. Currently I am 51 and my wife is 49. We are looking to retire at 58 and 56 respectively. Financial advisers have told us 75% of our income is our target. Both physicians. That number is ridiculous. I don't see any need to make that kind of money in retirement. We will have zero debt, kids independent and no mortgage. I am anticipating $90,000.00 annually with health insurance comprising the bulk share as we will not take SS unti 70. I think that financial advisers are too likely to misguide high income earners. Anyone think otherwise?

For my father, No.
For my FIL, Yes.
For my MIL, Yes.
All physicians.

For me and her, Yes, We'll be 2x when start drawing on deferred GLW annuities and IRA accounts.
YMMV

[tennisplyr]

68 and 62, both retired and spent $209,000 last year

Sounds like somebody is having fun.

[RenoJay]

$200k. That includes about $80k of alimony/child support that will end some day. Please let it end some day!!

[Dick D]

I spent about 80K last year. I often wonder why these types of questions are asked.

[rnitz]

I'm a little embarrassed about our spending, so forgive me for omitting some details. In my late 50's and in the second full year of retirement our spending was 3.6% of our investable assets last year. Too high for my tastes, but some costs will go down. Major causes of spending:

Two kids in college (relatively inexpensive colleges). When they're out, it should drop down to closer to 2.6% of investments.
HCOL area (north San Diego), but no house payments and RE taxes of "only" $8K (we've been in the house >20 years.)
Surprisingly, our medical insurance is only $ 4.5K per year (myself, and two college age kids. Wife's on Medicare.) It's a private high-deductible plan (not Obamacare), so it shows that there IS a wide variety in health insurance costs.
Other costs are travel, and just enjoying the hell out of life.

[inbox788]

Sold my company in 2014 and retired March 2015. Last year had a lot of expenses preparing for retirement (new home and many home improvements, solar, new cars, etc.) For 2016 we have budgeted $96K. No current income but large nest egg and cash to live on for next 6 years and then start tapping retirement and brokerage funds and SS. Live in high cost area of San Diego - real estate tax is $12K. No debts but pay for house-keeping, yard help, bundle of insurance policies for everything except LTC. 64 and wife is 63. Scrimped my whole life and now am enjoying the fruits of my labors. This about 2/3 of pre-retirement expenses.

Great thread! Lots of actionable items. Spending $40k/year for someone who owns their home, car and has a solar system is quite different from another who rents ($1500/month), leases car ($250/month) and pays big electric bill ($150/month) leaving about half the actual amount that can be spent.

Useful to differentiate ongoing expenses (property tax, utilities, food, etc.) vs one time expenses like a new home (paid off vs mortgage payments vs renting). Now figuring out how to account for that solar system is going to be tricky, since spending $35k today means $2000 savings in future electricity for next 30 years (and there's always leasing). Same with buying a new car vs leasing and monthly payments. I've always assume I'd outlive the items I was buying, but that may change in retirement.

First order of business is to make a budget and track past year expenses. With spending less than income and decent savings rate, I've gotten very lax about budgeting. Many of the responses here are helpful in considering future budgeting and spending, and it will be much more important when income is fixed and more spending is mandatory.