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Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: slugsworth on January 31, 2017, 06:20:03 PM

Title: Post Fi budget
Post by: slugsworth on January 31, 2017, 06:20:03 PM
I'm just curious what line items decrease in FI besides obvious ones like commuting. Does anyone have any experience they are willing to share?
Title: Re: Post Fi budget
Post by: Greystache on January 31, 2017, 11:53:55 PM
Transportation is the big one. Related to that is insurance. Since we don't drive as much, the rates go down slightly. We dine out less now that we have more time to cook. Also do more of my own auto and home maintenance since I have the time. I took a part time gig at the golf course in exchange for green fees and practice facilities. This significantly reduced my golf budget.
Title: Re: Post Fi budget
Post by: Laura33 on February 01, 2017, 06:25:50 AM
I think that's too broad a question without some sense of your plans.  For ex., I could RE and drop my food costs a ton by using my 3/4 acre to garden extensively; I could walk/bike more and drive less; I could probably even drop my Crossfit membership (right now I need the 6 AM workout time to get it in before work, but not so much if my whole day is my own).  If I were a putterer, I could spend practically nothing and be happy.

OTOH, we just redid our RE calculator this weekend, and DH now has our expenses going up, because we intend to travel extensively for the first several years, and he is assuming some pretty ridiculously high numbers for that.  I think there is also the risk of boredom spending if you don't have a plan and stuff to do with your time, e.g., "gee, honey, we've been puttering around the house all week, why don't we go out to lunch?"  I suspect that, if you have built patterns and habits that involve spending, that urge will likely remain, even when the specific trigger changes -- "I'm so stressed, let's go on vacation" becomes "I'm bored, let's go to the beach."  Or, for us, DH eats out for lunch every day [yes, I have tried to change that; no, it isn't going to happen].  So I sincerely doubt he will happily transition to having soup and sandwiches at home every day, you know?  It's more likely that he will still want to eat lunch out periodically to break up the routine and the day, so my realistic RE budget should include a few lunches out each week.

So the best thing to do is to look at yourself -- how do you want to spend your time, how much do you enjoy insourcing, what are your triggers to spend, etc. -- and plan around that.
Title: Re: Post Fi budget
Post by: zolotiyeruki on February 01, 2017, 02:25:44 PM
You might get more responses if you ask the same question over in the post-fire subforum (http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/post-fire/)
Title: Re: Post Fi budget
Post by: Cassie on February 01, 2017, 02:31:37 PM
As others mentioned gas, insurance etc everything car related went down. Clothing expenses too. Health insurance skyrocketed from 1200/year to 10k/year because they charge retirees way more then active employees. OUr travel budget went way up too as did our entertainment budget. When working f.t. we were too tired to go out.