Poll

What was your total spending in 2017?

under $20,000
41 (9.7%)
$20,000 - $30,000
48 (11.3%)
$30,000 - $40,000
51 (12.1%)
$40,000 - $50,000
54 (12.8%)
$50,000 - $60,000
52 (12.3%)
$60,000 - $70,000
43 (10.2%)
$70,000 - $80,000
40 (9.5%)
$80,000 - $90,000
18 (4.3%)
$90,000 - $100,000
27 (6.4%)
$100,000 - $120,000
19 (4.5%)
$120,000 - $140,000
10 (2.4%)
Greater than $140,000
20 (4.7%)

Total Members Voted: 418

Author Topic: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?  (Read 14850 times)

TheWifeHalf

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Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
« Reply #50 on: January 11, 2018, 07:49:15 AM »
2 adults 59 & 61
3 kids all moved out 2013-2016
Had a 35,000 mortgage (1980) at 12% and had to decide whether to refinance when rates went down, or just pay it off. TheHusbandHald got a severance pay from his job, found another, better, within 5 months, so we just paid the whole thing in 1990.

Paid 45,000 for the house in 1980, hired the construction of addition shell about 60,000 in 1992, did the rest ourselves. Last year decided to hire the kitchen completion. I was in a car accident in 2008, decided any serious complications would have shown up by now, so used 45,000 of that money for the kitchen.

Before the accident we spent 6,000-8,000 on dogs (traveling around the country, breeding, showing expenses) but now, maybe 2500. Currently down to 4 old adults, had 23 - 8 adults, one year.
We are also down to one vehicle, replaced after the accident. We probably spend 2500 on golf - him, not me.

LCOL area
Have had no debt since 1994 (car loan, 0% interest)

So, in 2017 we spent 42,000 yearly expenses and 45,000 on the new kitchen.  Spending amount does not include the things that are automatically taken out of TheHusbandHalf's paycheck. (Health insurance, union dues, charity, life insurance)
« Last Edit: January 11, 2018, 07:52:16 AM by TheWifeHalf »

aceyou

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Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
« Reply #51 on: January 11, 2018, 02:27:39 PM »
Married with a 5 and 2 year old.
Lcol area.
50k total spending for the year.
About 75k towards savings.
Definitely our best year yet.

NoraLenderbee

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Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
« Reply #52 on: January 11, 2018, 03:13:07 PM »
~75K. 2 adults in HCOL area in California. This excludes income and payroll taxes and retirement savings. It includes medical and dental costs (mostly copays and small premiums for employer-provided insurance), and mortgage PITI. Our grocery bill was quite high, so that is going to be the focus of the next optimization.

2Birds1Stone

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Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
« Reply #53 on: January 11, 2018, 03:34:10 PM »
Since everyone is all over the place in regards to household size, location, etc.....the whole poll thing doesn't really tell us anything.

I voted anyway ;)

~$48k for a household of 2, in HCOL area (Long Island, NY)

This includes all spending, including car depreciation.

Arbitrage

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Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
« Reply #54 on: January 11, 2018, 05:23:02 PM »
A little more than I had thought:

$103,500 for 2 adults + 2 young children in HCOLA.

Of that, $10,000 was debt (finishing off payments on second car, and student loans)
$32,000 was PITI ($24,000 was principal + interest)
$19,000 was Day Care

Savings, not counting the normal paydown of mortgage principal, was just shy of $95k.  Could be better, could be worse.  Certainly should improve once Day Care costs decrease (will start to this summer), unless I replace the other car and/or buy the DW a new kitchen.

DaveSch

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Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
« Reply #55 on: January 12, 2018, 11:38:16 AM »
This old guy spent approximately $14725 in 2017, about the same as 2016.
In 2015 I had to buy a new used car, and a new boiler to heat the house. That was about $36987.
Last year my SWR from investments was less than 1%.
I'll let my nephews spend my stash after I'm gone.
Dave

djadziadax

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Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
« Reply #56 on: January 12, 2018, 01:51:07 PM »
45K, 3 adults (MIL with us) + toddler in very HCOLA. Given that we started the Mustachian way in April of last year, this looks pretty good.

44%  Mortgage+HOA fees
7%    Utilities      
          Cable/Satellite   
          Condo Insurance   
          Electric   
12%    Groceries   
9%      Child/Dependent (and that is with MIL serving as "nanny")
4%      Student Loan
9%      Life Improvement (new bed, other household items)

15%    Other items - minimal travel, transportation, restaurants, health/medical, gifts


BlueMR2

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Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
« Reply #57 on: January 12, 2018, 05:46:46 PM »
I'm astounded by how high some of these numbers are.  I *know* I'm not a very good mustachian, having some expensive hobbies and paying people to do work I should learn to do myself, but man, I'm seeing some serious multiples of my yearly spend here.  Are you people on the right site?  HCOL or not, maybe Bogleheads would be a better fit...

NoraLenderbee

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Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
« Reply #58 on: January 12, 2018, 06:58:11 PM »
I'm astounded by how high some of these numbers are.  I *know* I'm not a very good mustachian, having some expensive hobbies and paying people to do work I should learn to do myself, but man, I'm seeing some serious multiples of my yearly spend here.  Are you people on the right site?  HCOL or not, maybe Bogleheads would be a better fit...

Our property taxes alone are about 9,000 annually, and our house is around the median value for our county.

Firehazard

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Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
« Reply #59 on: January 12, 2018, 07:09:04 PM »
$43,689

$14,150 Basic living expenses
$  2,500 Discretionary spending
$27,039 Principal and interest on mortgage (LOTS of extra principal payments)

Mortgage will be done by the end of 2018.  I know not everyone condones paying off a mortgage early, but I get a kick out of knowing I'll take less time to pay off my house than most people do to pay off their SUV!

Gyosho

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Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
« Reply #60 on: January 13, 2018, 10:04:07 AM »
Singler Person, HCOL SF Bay Area:

$3000 a month for mortgage, HOA fees, property tax = $36,000
$5400 charitable contributions for the year
$24,000 everything else (including home maintenance and some good vacations)

Total: $65,000

BlueMR2

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Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
« Reply #61 on: January 13, 2018, 11:42:50 AM »
Our property taxes alone are about 9,000 annually, and our house is around the median value for our county.

Do median things, get median results.  Sounds like you have some wonderful opportunities to really kill some spending!

wildbeast

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Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
« Reply #62 on: January 13, 2018, 11:46:09 AM »
$18k. One person, no debt or dependents, paid off house and free medical. HCOL coastal SoCal.  FIREd and fine with spending - about half covers basic expenses and half to fun stuff like travel.

I would love to see a breakdown of your expenses.  I'd love to get down to $9k in basics like property taxes, insurance (car and house), utilities, groceries, pet food, car care and gas.  I live in the Bay Area so we probably share cost of living.

Off the Wheel

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Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
« Reply #63 on: January 13, 2018, 08:37:46 PM »
Just over $60,000 CAD, so $48,000 USD. That's for 1.5 adults in a HCOLA. (I count my husband as .5 this year since he was in school for most of it, and I covered the mortgage and most of the household expenses.)

Without mortgage (principal + interest, $20K CAD off that.)

Hoit

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Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
« Reply #64 on: January 14, 2018, 06:17:29 AM »
$59,000 for four people living in a LCOLA. Of which err, $22,000 was on travel. Wonder what I can cut back on this year.... better have another look at my grocery expenses in case I can remove any fat from there.

MasterStache

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Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
« Reply #65 on: January 14, 2018, 08:00:50 AM »
Roughly speaking we were at 50-60K. That's a lot considering I semi-retired this year. However, nearly 10K was in home improvements/renovations and another 5K for our two kids activities (Soccer, Boy Scouts and Competitive Gymnastics). Home renovations will drastically decrease along with a couple other categories now that I am home more often.

simonkkkkk

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Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
« Reply #66 on: January 14, 2018, 08:07:46 AM »




I will spend to much i guess haha

wildbeast

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Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
« Reply #67 on: January 15, 2018, 05:37:03 PM »
$18k. One person, no debt or dependents, paid off house and free medical. HCOL coastal SoCal.  FIREd and fine with spending - about half covers basic expenses and half to fun stuff like travel.

I would love to see a breakdown of your expenses.  I'd love to get down to $9k in basics like property taxes, insurance (car and house), utilities, groceries, pet food, car care and gas.  I live in the Bay Area so we probably share cost of living.
My basic expenses are generally a bit less than $9k and I generally don't spend $9k on 'everything else' each year but I'm lazy and no longer track so just say $18k/year since that's my current passive income (can increase that if needed or wanted).. A basic annual breakdown.would be $2000 prop taxes, $1000 house insurances, $600 old beater car liability insurance and registration, $1500 all utilities and around $3000 for food and gas for car. So approx $8000/ year. No cable, landline or home internet and a cheap $100/year Tracfone smart phone.  The remaining $10k gets used as needed for everything else but often part of that gets saved and added to a slush fund for future large purchases or spending.

I'm changing my life up right now by moving and getting new vehicle and travelling a bit more so my 2018 expenses will be different (maybe higher maybe lower) so am going to resume tracking for a bit. You might also want to look for @Herbert Derp journal as he has very low expenses.

@spartana - Thanks for posting your numbers.  It's weird, I see your numbers and they look very doable for us, but somehow we end up much higher.  I think it's mindless spending (on my part) that's driving our numbers way up.  Tracking my spending would be a very good idea.  Thanks for the tip on Herbert Derp, I'll check him out.

Optimiser

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Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
« Reply #68 on: January 16, 2018, 09:30:17 AM »
Our property taxes alone are about 9,000 annually, and our house is around the median value for our county.

Do median things, get median results.  Sounds like you have some wonderful opportunities to really kill some spending!

Love this!

flyingaway

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Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
« Reply #69 on: January 17, 2018, 03:12:42 PM »
Interesting, there is almost no health insurance cost.

wenchsenior

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Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
« Reply #70 on: January 17, 2018, 03:45:55 PM »
Interesting, there is almost no health insurance cost.

I have to be honest, I didn't even think to include our premiums in our total spending.   Those were an additional $6200+, which would put or spending at around 77K.  Ugh.  I always forget those because we have never 'seen' that money.  I did count our co-pays, etc. this year, which were ~3800$.   

haypug16

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Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
« Reply #71 on: January 18, 2018, 02:31:56 PM »
Total spending for the year is $40K. This is for 1 person in the Boston area, so HCOL

I found MMM at the end of March. Spending for Q1 was $11K spending for Q4 was only $4.6K big difference, so glad I found this place.

FR2000EE

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Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
« Reply #72 on: January 23, 2018, 04:35:43 PM »
Age 52, Single, No Debt, No Mortgage, 2.1M investments

2017 Spending

Misc Cash   $460.00   1.4%
Water Utilties   $611.13   1.9%
Internet   $455.09   1.4%
Home and Car Insurance   $1,238.90   3.8%
Massages   $3,180.00   9.8%
Food/Gas/Entertainment/Clothes/Auto repair   $14,847.98   45.7%
Property Tax   $1,124.72   3.5%
Gas Bill   $463.20   1.4%
Electric Bill   $676.57   2.1%
IRS Payment   $9,414.00   29.0%
Total Spending $32,471.59   

Does not include medical costs paid by employer or with payroll taxes