I just finally made myself face a harsh reality, and I'm wondering: what should be done?
The short version of this is that my expenses are increasing at nearly the same rate of growth as my projected income from the stash. Help!
For those who are interested, here is the long version:
Since 2012, I've been graphing gross monthly pay, take home pay, actual expenditures, and theoretical monthly income from investments (calculated as 4% withdrawal rate from investments and retirement account stash.) Up until this morning, the only one of those I had excel draw a line through was the last one . . . showing a pleasant positive slope in my potential income for when the day comes that I live off of my investments.
Then, this morning I decided to have a line drawn for my actual expenditures . . . ACK! The slope is also positive and unfortunately nearly as large as that of my investments! If this keeps up, then those two lines will never cross. I'm so depressed right now.
This forces me to reflect on how I am spending that extra money. 2012 was probably the peak of my optimization frenzy in many ways, and since then perhaps I have just let things slide? Here are some categories (broken down as the increase/decrease in the monthly average amount spent from 2012 to 2016 on a per month basis):
Housing expenses have gone up somewhat. Mortgage payment is the same, but both property taxes and insurance have increase. I did up my home insurance deductible to $2500 a couple of years ago to try to offset this somewhat since the increases were downright criminal. Also, I've had to make some outlays for major maintenance projects (new roof, resurfacing 25 year old rotten deck boards, some bathroom repairs and water heater and air conditioning, etc.) Please bear in mind that I'm not doing any remodeling; just keeping things repaired and in reasonable condition. I get that those are part of owning a home, but it's painful. I've paid for these things as I've gone along and the amounts do add up.
Taxes/Insurance: Up $27 per month
Home repairs/maintenance: Up $248 per month
Household goods, furniture: Flat
Food expenses have gone up quite a bit. Part of this is laziness (eating out more, buying convenience foods) and part of it is that my children are just physically eating a lot more now. Monthly breakdown of this:
Groceries: Up $35
Eating out: Up $60
School lunches: Up $21
Utilities are one area I haven't been as stupid:
Gas/electricity/water/sewer/trash: Down $36
Phone: Down $53
Internet: Down $5
Clothing: Up $55 per month (for three people)
How do I even spend $55 per month on this?! . . . alas, that is just the increase; I spend more than $55 per month on clothing and shoes for me and the kids.
Transportation expenses have also actually gone down overall . . . a silver lining.
Gasoline: Down $144
Vehicle Maintenance: Up $20
Car Insurance: Up $7
Parking at work (don't get me started): Up $21
Licenses, Registration, Vehicle Taxes: Up $10
Health and maintenance:
Exercise, sports: Up $162
Medical insurance: Up $3
Medical/dental out of pocket: Up $46
Medicine/prescriptions: Up $13
Soap/Toothpaste/kleenex/sundries: Up $7
Haircuts/beauty: flat
Other Luxuries:
Travel: Up $360
Pets: Down $82 (deceased pets not replaced, now just have fish)
Entertainment: Flat
Personal Gifts: Up $48
Charitable Giving: Flat
Education: Flat
Life Insurance: Flat
Okay I can see some big categories for re-optimizing there. This has been a good exercise to open my eyes. Thank you for any comments, advice, or commiseration you can offer.