The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: Exflyboy on February 19, 2014, 12:20:38 PM
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Hi all,
Got into an interesting conversation with a fellow MMM yesterday (no names) who indicated that he and his Wife spend well above the $25k Nirvana and seem to be pretty frugal. I honestly don't KNOW what my Wife and I spend but we are "hoping" its around $30k.. Its just the two of us a horse (cost about $110 a month), paid off Mortgage and about $1700 in RE taxes.
We have about $3k per year charitable giving (which we would like to keep funding) and live in Oregon (projected state taxes of say 2k).. Up till now we have assumed that as MMM Pete spends about $25k.. we would spend about $30k.
We are about to start tracking our actual monthly against our projected monthly budget of $1908... this is just for basic living, no vacations, road trips or anything so we thought that seemed very reasonable.
But then in thinking about it, I can't remember seeing if people are really spending about this much or if Pete is some sort of super frugal human and the rest of us have no chance?
So simple question.. $25k.. Really does that work in a reasonable state like Oregon (i.e not Kalifornia or NYC)?
Frank
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It takes me until 35 to reach FI living on 30k per year if we drop our living cost to that at retirement from our current 50k a year lifestyle. we probably could hit the mark by 30 if we went there now. we are 27 and 26. man as i type this i think we should try to cut back to that. but we have decided to not cut back our living and just work til the ripe old age of 40 and retire then. One interesting thing i'm now considering ... is what if you cut your cost to the 30k now. how much earlier could i reach the 1.25MM we need to retire at 50k a year. and would we ramp our lifestyle back up to that
sorry this was a ramble
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I spend $36,000 a year to live. I rent an upscale condo downtown Calgary...probably the most expensive city in Canada. $12,000 of that $36,000 is child support. Once that goes away in 11 fckn years I'll be in great shape to be living on the cheap! Fckn divorce has cost me the opportunity to retire anytime before I am sixty.
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Actually that was a good ramble.. I mean cutting back now has huge FI advantages.. But it also reduces your risk, e.g if you lost your job in say a few years then you will be glad you had dropped your expenditure because you'd be closer to FI and therefore less at risk of losing your house etc etc.
Frank
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I spend $36,000 a year to live. I rent an upscale condo downtown Calgary...probably the most expensive city in Canada. $12,000 of that $36,000 is child support. Once that goes away in 11 fckn years I'll be in great shape to be living on the cheap! Fckn divorce has cost me the opportunity to retire anytime before I am sixty.
So take out child support and your living on $24k (US) and that is for one person but includes rent.. How much is your rent?
Frank
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We are still working on reducing our spending. With that, we spend WAY more than $25k/year. Housing alone (rent for a one bedroom apartment) puts us around $25k.
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We live comfortably spending ~27k/year, including our mortgage (10k/year) and 4-5k/year on travel. However, we're in Kentucky which is very reasonably priced compared to some places.
Honestly, our level of spending is easy here by just not eating out, and sharing one car. We still have a lot we could choose to cut (personal spending, groceries, travel), but I feel we've struck a sweet spot on the spending vs happiness spectrum.
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We are currently spending at a rate of 57K per year. This is for me and my wife, and 2 cats. We are in the process of cutting the budget.
Some large items in our budget that push it up, and we could cut fairly easily in an emergency scenario.
Donations - 7800
Travel - 6000
Gifts - 1800
Maid - 3100 (I know, I know - clean our own house)
Piano Lessons for Wife - 1600
The dreaded Misc. - $8400 (this is our current focus for cutting)
So I guess we could get to 28300 or less tomorrow if we really wanted / needed to. I'm also sure we could cut even further than that - that's just minus the big items mentioned above.
So I mean, to me it certainly looks like it can be done, but we choose not to get down under 30K right now. A big help for us is our paid off condo - condo fees / taxes / insurance run under $300 / month. Of course we're thinking about selling said condo and moving closer to everything and our costs will certainly go up if we do that.
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We are at about $30k with a mortgage. Expenses excluding mortgage would be about $17k, and that's a generous estimate.
2 adults and a 75lb dog.
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Two adults:
w/rent: $35k
w/o rent: $21k
Includes $5k for travel and charity ($5k is for both travel and charity, not $5k for each).
/edit -- we live in a highish cost of living area -> that rent's for a decent 1 bdrm
/edit -- not including health insurance premiums - those add about $2500 in cost (employer provided HDHPs that come with an additional $1200 the employers put into the HSAs, so real cost to us is more like $1300)
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We are at about $30k with a mortgage. Expenses excluding mortgage would be about $17k, and that's a generous estimate.
2 adults and a 75lb dog.
This and Dougstche.. We live comfortably spending ~27k/year, including our mortgage (10k/year) and 4-5k/year on travel. However, we're in Kentucky which is very reasonably priced compared to some places.
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Holy cow that is impressive!
I just talked to a friend.. Her and her Hubby plus one kid live on about $22k gross... Including a mortgage.. I know things are VERY tight for them but even so amazing!
Frank
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With a mortgage and animals, 2 humans easily living on under 30k/year. I can't imagine spending that amount not including housing!
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I am one person and a cat living a ridiculously luxurious life with spending of $24,000 per year in a crazy high cost of living area. About half of this amount is for housing.
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I must admit I am feeling a little more encouraged now..:)
Frank
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Here is our spending for the last 3 years (2 adults, Las Vegas area):
2011: ~$22,000
2012: ~$21,000
2013: ~$18,700
That includes our housing (mortgage, not rent) and student loans (both of which I technically could skip counting the principal part of those payments, and only count the interest, but I have included both the principal and interest amounts in the above figures). Housing is about 6k/yr if you want to subtract that out and not count it to have an apples-to-apples comparison.
Additional income taxes paid above our withholdings (i.e. giant check we send to the IRS in in April) is not counted, though all other taxes (like property tax) are.
That counts lots of wasteful spending (we take vacations, have fancy electronics like iPads and laptops, unlimited iPhone plan, etc.) in there. If we wanted to cut the fat, there's a lot we could trim. But, as noted in the "frugal fatigue" thread, we spend as much as we want, whenever we want.
We did not mean to decrease our spending (actually were planning to increase it), it just happened, apparently (I was surprised when totaling the final numbers for 2013 a few weeks ago).
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I'm in Oregon. I track my spending and for me alone it was around $14K. My husband doesn't track his but is just as frugal and we split all bills 50-50 so probably $28K for both. The mortgage is paid off. So yes, I think $30K is eminently doable.
Our biggest luxury is eating out once a week. We also have two cars which I would definitely cut back to one if I were FI>
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Yep. Do we have an expenses poll yet?
edit: this is close, but maybe I'll start a specific poll
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/what's-your-target-annual-income-in-retirement/
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We spend 31k/yr with two kids and a mortgage. I don't see what the big deal is. We even have two cars and are doing renovations to the house.
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Spending for one, including $725/mo rent last year (it went up to $750/mo this year): $23,106.85. I was making more, working 2 jobs, and got a little spendier than I should have. Bad me.
This year, even including the $750 rent, I'm shooting for $18017.15. That's right, rent is estimated to be 50% of my annual spending. People without rent/mortgage, I don't know what the hell they're spending all that money on! There was a lot of crap I was able to cut, including expensive cell phone plan. I could cut probably another 2k if I wanted to give up gifting, lower my thermostat, and go to dial-up internet. Not gonna happen though, unless due to emergency.
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Well its a big deal if you don't KNOW what your spending like we don't.. We are very frugal of course.. I have just quit work and I'm a little gun shy having just waived goodbye to a fairly muscular salary..:)
Yes a poll would be great.. I though of that after I started reading these posts..:)
Frank
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We spend $36,000, including rent, for a family of 6 in Oregon.
ETA-- double-checked 2013 and the total was $36,213.55 and that included fancy kid activities -- viola, soccer, swim team and baseball. We could cut back a lot more if necessary. Our savings rate is 50% of gross, so life is pretty sweet right now
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We spend $38K for two (including rent) around the Boston area. But we do live a very ridiculously luxurious life.
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our yearly spend rate is easily around 45k right now but that includes a gross amount of money for vacations we are talking 800 a month. it also includes my wife's car payment of 360 and my car payment of 108. a truck insurance of 50 bucks. get rid of cable 50 and get rid of our home interest at retirement. 430 so if i cut our vacations in half which is probably what we actually spend. thats 400+108+360+50+50+440~ 1500 a month give or take that cuts 18000 bucks off putting us right around 28k when we retire. now what we havent accounted for is our 2 kids we plan to have. or the cost of healthcare at retirement. so you can probably add back in 400 a month for the health care on the high side. and 200 a month for the kids maybe 300. lets just say 700 total which brings savings down to 800 a month once those expenses are gone. or around 10k a year meaning we could live with 2 kids retired at 40 or earlier for 35k a year and i probably grossly over estimated the cost of health insurance. AND this is living a pretty amazing lifestyle in a lake community with a boat and wakeboarding etc. and 5k a year in vacations.
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We are still working on reducing our spending. With that, we spend WAY more than $25k/year. Housing alone (rent for a one bedroom apartment) puts us around $25k.
Is that including the Four Alpacas? :)
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We would, except there are 3 of us, soon to be 4 and one Fido.
Note that if we stayed here in this house, my estimates of $29K also include $2K for random misc house maintenance and another $6K for health insurance. We eat in and would also only have 1 car.
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Two adults, early to mid-twenties, we are below 25k, including $900 and some change per month in rent. No kids.
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Girlfriend and I have separate finances, but we spend $30k a year including rent and two cars. I would give up my car in retirement.
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Our expenses in 2013 were under $20K per year, including vacations, but I was working for an airline until last October and we would travel on the very cheap, like under $500 for a week in Hong Kong or Istambul.
Our typical monthly budget for 2014 is higher because I must commute by plane to Yellowknife where I now work. While my commute adds about $6,000 per year, I tripled my salary. While in Yellowknife, I house-sit most of the time for free (which usually includes finishing whatever is left in the fridge) or stay with friends. I am also using my bike to commute and to run most errands whether I am in Yellowknife or Calgary. Also, we now rarely use our car, which sits in the garage 3 weeks out of 5 (my wife prefers to use public transit), and being new, requires little maintenance except a couple of oil changes a year. Our condo is paid for, so this is our real annual budget.
Food and restaurant: $600 (a bit high, but this includes a teenage daughter, and an adult son camping in our living room, hopefully temporarily)
Condo Fees: $380
Power: $50
Internet: $25
Phone: $105
I hate this but we are stuck with needing a land line for the condo, $35, just to buzz people in, and I have 6 months left on my cell phone plan, $70, after which I will ditch the cell phone
Condo Insurance: $10
Car (Gas and Maintenance): $40
Car Insurance: $100
Buss Pass: $100
Clothing (wife owns a clothing consignment store): $0
Miscellaneous (art shows, etc.): $50
Airfare (commute to work): $500
Total: $1960
We still plan to take at least a few weeks off this year to go to either Japan where my wife is from, or Spain/France/Italy where my relatives are, but I plan to use Aeroplan points (thanks to another thread, I just made over 60,000 points by signing up for 4 credit cards in the past two months), so airfare would be under $500 for both, and hotel/food under $1,000 or much less if we do some couchsurfing or stay with friends and relatives. Total cost for our annual vacation will be under $1,500.
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Here's the poll:
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/poll-what-are-your-annual-expenses-(per-adult-housing-excluded)/
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Ah we probably spend, as in not investing/saving and not investing-related-debt, less than $25k including a mortgage...
I have our budget at ~$1650 including $650 mortgage.
Now. That is not what we actually spend. Perhaps budget is the wrong word; our estimated mandatory spending, including an amount for maintenance, tax, etc, etc.
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Mandatory spending is totally different then what people actually spend. I think the poll was talking about what we really spend.
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Housing aside, we were around $30k last time I checked over a trailing 12-month period. We could probably get this down by $5k (or more) if we cut down on travel and eating out, but we're happy enough with our rate of progress toward FI as it is.
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We spent 25K last year, but 10K of that was travel. We have very low housing costs (no mortgage, $260/year taxes, small house so low utilities). I feel like it is very luxurious - can't believe how good I have it!
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My 15 year old son and I live on less than $25k a year after mortgage payments.
We don't have a car but spend $3k/year traveling to our trailer on the east coast. We live in a lower cost area. My brother rents a room from us.
It depends on priorities, but it can be done.
Those who say it can't be done haven't been creative enough, in my opinion, or they don't want it badly enough.
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Family of two people here, living on $25k excluding the mortgage. And we're in a high cost of living area. It's totally possible. We have plenty of luxuries.
We plan to increase our spending in the future, but that's a separate issue.
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We're positioned similarly to frankh, except no horse. We're doing $30,000 in a relatively cheap area. But (yeah, I know--facepunch), we still have not cut cable TV and a too-expensive cell phone. Also, the monthly discretionary spending on books, DVDs, music, and clothing is outrageous and must be curbed. There is no reason we can't cut out the fat and should be able to do $25K easily.
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We live on about $24,000 a year with rent.
Our household expenses per month from the last 3 months:
Internet 47.47
Food 220-400
Electric 29-40
Gas (heating) 13-45
Rent 1130
Gas (car) 37
One time expense: parking the car at the airport: 58
Our entire total for household expenses (without rent) for 2 people for three months was 1393.68.
We also pay for things on our own, but we're both safely spending less than 1000 per month per person.
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Mandatory spending is totally different then what people actually spend. I think the poll was talking about what we really spend.
Was that @ me? If so - yes, and I'm saying "we spend sub $25k; we spend about $1.6k a month on mandatory stuff (inc mortgage) = $19.2k a year; and we spend less than $6k extra".
Dat ok wit'choo? :)
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Add another sub-$25K, including about $13K/yr mortgage, for 1 human, 2 dogs, and a horse. I don't track expenses exactly, just count up what's left over at the end of the month.
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Add another sub-$25K, including about $13K/yr mortgage, for 1 human, 2 dogs, and a horse. I don't track expenses exactly, just count up what's left over at the end of the month.
manure - hay = profit?
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I've been monitoring our expenses for two years now and taking out some bloat and the mortgage were are 32k post FI. Our home is very unmustachian and if we downsize I think 30k is reasonable. We're in a higher COLA area and could also consider a move from here (Pacific NW - no state income tax) to get even lower. 2 people 1 big cat:)
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I might as well be the one to say that we're way, WAY over $25k. At least for last year. $60k excluding housing expense. The cool part is that our expenses are dropping, dropping.. our youngest is now in college on a full scholarship, our oldest is out of college and working, our cars and related bills have been downsized, etc. Our biggest remaining weak point that I'd like to improve is frequent dining out.
I'm happy to say that we're living in a paid off house now, our other house is undergoing some renovations to turn it into a rental, and I anticipate cranking our savings rate up tremendously as the ongoing optimization continues.
Like MMM and others have written, you're not going to plug all of your financial leaks in one magical week. We're making steady progress though, and I'm optimistic for the future.
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We're two adults, 27 and 25, live in Vancouver, and spent $26,377 in 2013, and $28,039 in 2012. That included every penny we spent, rent, travel (France, Caribbean cruise to Miami, Mexico, Caymans, and Belize, France again, Italy, Monaco, and Guatemala), everything.
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We're two adults, 27 and 25, live in Vancouver, and spent $26,377 in 2013, and $28,039 in 2012. That included every penny we spent, rent, travel (France, Caribbean cruise to Miami, Mexico, Caymans, and Belize, France again, Italy, Monaco, and Guatemala), everything.
Well done. Vancouver is expensive, and that's a lot of travel. Kudos.
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This thread spurred me to look at expenses when we lived in a rural town compared to a major city. Back then, our expenses were less than $30k/year because we rarely needed to drive, didn't use AC or heating much, plus food and housing was very cheap. Every day we dream of going back there once my training is done. Now they are up to $60k/year, mostly because of housing and driving.
I understand big expenses such as education and mortgage, but don't really know what people are spending on otherwise.
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I think we're at $50,000 a year for a family of four, but a good portion of that is debt reduction so we must be close to closing in.
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I feel like this chart (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Distribution_of_Annual_Household_Income_in_the_United_States_2012.png) is relevant. It's always weird to me when people talk about 30k being impossible when almost 30% of the USA lives on that or less.
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I feel like this chart (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Distribution_of_Annual_Household_Income_in_the_United_States_2012.png) is relevant. It's always weird to me when people talk about 30k being impossible when almost 30% of the USA lives on that or less.
It depends, when I was living on $17,000 a year 30k sounded wonderful. Then I jumped up to 42,000 and had a baby at the same time. Suddenly, I was paying for things like 1000 dollar a month childcare in addition to the student debt I was already paying. $42,000 wasn't quite enough at that point.
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Even though we live in an expensive are i have run the numbers numerous times and once the 4 kids are out to college or??? we downsizing etc. can easily live comfortably on 25-30k a year. Now not a chance. Not even close.
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Not counting savings & mortgage, we spend about $50K/yr, but $15K of that is travel. I work rotating shifts so I'm able to travel more frequently than most people. I'm more than willing to delay FI for this. When we FIRE we plan to return to the south closer to my family which will cut our non-travel spending by a lot - cheaper taxes, car insurance, electricity, no more commuting, etc.
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we're on 26k (2 adults and 1 cat) in AUD. 8-9k rent. We eat out generously and travel to interstate twice a year. We could cut it alot and still eat out at least once or twice a week
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$26600 last year for two adults including renting in Chicago and $3000 in travel
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We still pay rent, and for now we live in nyc so our annual cost for two people is $38k. This is a bit misleading though because my fella is in college- we're paying as he goes so that's an added expense that won't always be around. If I didn't include our cost of rent, to simulate no longer having to pay a mortgage, our cost for two people would drop to $22k. Without college bills (which we won't have in about two years) our cost for two people would drop to about 15k.
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We spend about $38,000/year but that includes the mortgage (about $3000) and daycare/child expenses. When those end we will be spending the $25-30K including health insurance if we stay in the same area, which we probably won't. The numbers really depend on COL, we could not be living on what we are in say California (bay area).
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I'm just starting to pay down my mortgage (purchased in 2012). If you subtract just my mortgage (not the taxes or upkeep) then in 2012 my fiancée and I lived on about $18,000 (takehome pay/after taxes).
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We're two adults, 27 and 25, live in Vancouver, and spent $26,377 in 2013, and $28,039 in 2012. That included every penny we spent, rent, travel (France, Caribbean cruise to Miami, Mexico, Caymans, and Belize, France again, Italy, Monaco, and Guatemala), everything.
Any tips you'd like to share? I know Vancouver CAN be very affordable, but you have to know what you're doing. (On that note: have you tried Sushi Ville? Amazing sushi for the best prices I've seen!)
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Married with 1 dog and no mortgage (at the ripe old age of 25 and 24). If you take out donations, taxes and savings, we are living comfortably on about 27k. We have vacations. We eat about once a week. We have 2 cars and drive them tons (moving down to 1 and will hardly even drive it once we move, this is about 8k of the 27k). I should mention this is in KC so it is a very reasonable cost of living.
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Family of five, one income, I homeschool the kids, and we spend $25K a year not counting the mortgage and including health insurance and travel(US camping and visiting relatives). We're in an average COL area with a 1500sq ft house, two cars and soon to be camper. Without the kid expenses, we'd easily fall somewhere in the 18K a year range. If we downsized the house(in a scenario without kids) it'd be in the 15K a year range. Although I suppose we'd travel and go out more if we didn't have the kids, but not much more.
When we lived in NJ(medium-high COL, Southern) a few years ago, I calculated our bottom number for family expenses to be around $25K without mortgage or travel but with health insurance. So we're doing better here in an average COL area, even with a home twice the size of our last one, since our $25K base now includes a generous $3600 a year camping budget.
It helps if you actually love simplicity and feel overwhelmed with all the stuff and stimulation outside your front door like we do. Staying home and baking, reconstructing something old into something new, or reading library books is practically free as entertainment.
A budget can only go so low as your personal level of deprivation. Once you hit that level you bump it back up a notch and that's your bottom level. Different tolerances for different personalities so it's not always very helpful to compare to others.
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For a European comparison
2 people, number are really approximate
Rent: 18 000€ (24 000 USD) (in the center or Paris)
Rest: 21 000€ (28 000 USD)
Total: 39 000€ (52 000 USD)
That includes approximately 6 000€ worth of travel which is our main splurge.
Paris is an expensive place. I don't intend to stay here once I am FI.
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We eat about once a week.
Now come on.. I'm sure you can afford to eat more frequently than that! Unless it's some kind of new super diet?!
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We eat about once a week.
Now come on.. I'm sure you can afford to eat more frequently than that! Unless it's some kind of new super diet?!
LOL but he is married with 1 dog, and the dog wins all the time...
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We eat about once a week.
Now come on.. I'm sure you can afford to eat more frequently than that! Unless it's some kind of new super diet?!
LOL but he is married with 1 dog, and the dog wins all the time...
Haha! We actually dramatically cut down on the amount we went out to eat (and out for drinks) when we got our puppy. It was great! We've actually cutback on a few things to make things better for the dog, and it turns out that we're saving more (even including the ridiculous amount we spend on her). However, we are far from being mustachian.
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One adult and two part-time kids, I spend $33K a year with TWO mortgages (my job is in a different province from my home). With one paid-off home, I would be spending between $13.4K and $17.4K a year. Wah, that's an eye-opener...
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We eat about once a week.
Now come on.. I'm sure you can afford to eat more frequently than that! Unless it's some kind of new super diet?!
LOL but he is married with 1 dog, and the dog wins all the time...
Haha! We actually dramatically cut down on the amount we went out to eat (and out for drinks) when we got our puppy. It was great! We've actually cutback on a few things to make things better for the dog, and it turns out that we're saving more (even including the ridiculous amount we spend on her). However, we are far from being mustachian.
We don't have a dog, but I already had a cat when I met my wife. He left me for her, and she now treats him like royalty. He is the only one who get to have an all-organic all-natural diet in the household, hence our inflated food budget. When we go pick up his food at the local hipster organic market, I always say loudly that the only thing I can afford there is the free "organic" water from the water cooler. The wife is not always impressed with me when we go out in public LOL
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Any tips you'd like to share? I know Vancouver CAN be very affordable, but you have to know what you're doing. (On that note: have you tried Sushi Ville? Amazing sushi for the best prices I've seen!)
I don't think I've tried Sushi Ville since I live up in Gastown, but I'll add it to my list of places to try. Tips: Rent a cheap place, like a housing co-op or a unit in one of those beautiful big old heritage houses converted into private suites. Take advantage of the fact that the city is bikeable. There are a bazillion grocery stores, try to get in the habit of shopping at a lot of them. Take advantage of the oodles of free and cheap entertainment.
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We are at ~25K/ year without mortgage (which is about 10K/year)- 2 Adults (26+27)+ 2 Beagles
Our biggest issue is still the monthly $650 grocery bill. We only go out once a month, but for some reason can't seem to keep the food budget down. :( I'm amazed when I read here that people are feeding families of 4 on $100-200 less than what we, as two adults, are spending on food.
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Any tips you'd like to share? I know Vancouver CAN be very affordable, but you have to know what you're doing. (On that note: have you tried Sushi Ville? Amazing sushi for the best prices I've seen!)
I don't think I've tried Sushi Ville since I live up in Gastown, but I'll add it to my list of places to try. Tips: Rent a cheap place, like a housing co-op or a unit in one of those beautiful big old heritage houses converted into private suites. Take advantage of the fact that the city is bikeable. There are a bazillion grocery stores, try to get in the habit of shopping at a lot of them. Take advantage of the oodles of free and cheap entertainment.
Great tips! Thanks! For Sushi Ville, I got a yam roll which I think was $3. Start small 'cause the rolls are HUGE. http://www.yelp.ca/biz/sushi-ville-vancouver
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I do! Since finding MMM, we're on track to spend about $30k for two of us in one year.
It's not amazing (especially compared to a lot of people in this thread!), but we're working on it. It also includes international travel, school tuition, & three pets. We've got a lot of room to trim, so I'm looking forward to decreasing this number.
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I just assumed we didn't fall into this category since it felt low when compared to how much the average, non-Mustachian household spends in a year. But I'm glad I ran the numbers because it turns out we're living this too!
Two adults, one cat: $43k/year including mortgage. Just under $29k/year without mortgage.
Both figures include taxes, HOA, healthcare premiums (through work), and general living expenses. They do not, however, include any savings (retirement or otherwise) or vacations (since that comes out of one of our various savings buckets). We will consider ourselves FI when our base expenses can come out of our investments and we need only work part time doing things we enjoy to cover travel and the like.
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Not including mortgage, we come in at just under 27,000. This includes saving buckets for travel, home renovations, and car replacement.
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@ Ian - thanks for that chart. A good reminder for me that I should be able to get along just fine in retirement.
Don't have a completely tight read on my budget yet, but when I subtract all the money that's currently going out to support my young adult kids and other family members, and house payments, looks like I'm currently spending about $28k/yr take-home for one. But that's 1) before streamlining my budget and 2) with expensive health insurance. So - even if I didn't streamline my budget (giving up those Starbucks lattes and concert tickets and international travel and restaurant meals) - if I pay off my house before retirement as planned, I could live quite comfortably on just a little more than my Social Security. Since I'll also have a pension and have a 401k - I'll be ok once all my family members get on their feet :).
And since I'm paying all the property taxes and utilities etc - if my boyfriend joined me in my home, our combined living expenses would likely only go up by 6-10k or so. So a rather luxurious not-so-mustachian lifestyle could be had in Southern California for $35k take-home for 2 if my house is paid off; could easily be reduced to 25-30k with more mustachian efforts.
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These are all splendidly encouraging responses.. I'm glad I asked...:)
Thanks to all of you for taking the time to provide the data.
Frank
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I am a single guy who lives off about 18K a year living in Alberta. Not hard to do at all, I eat well and have expensive hobbies. When I'm travelling, I knock down my expenses to around 10k/year :)
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I thought I was going to be somewhere out rageous in like the 40's but after putting it all together my budget aims for around 18k minus rent. That's for both my wife and I. This could easily be lower since this includes about $150/month in misc expenses and about $190/month for travel.
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Not including mortgage, we come in at just under 27,000. This includes saving buckets for travel, home renovations, and car replacement.
Sounds like my planned FI budget. A lot of the big expenses built into it are travel, home, and car savings buckets.
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shoot, if you don't count mortgage, we live on 25k for a family of 6!
our mortgage would add 9k to that total. it doesn't include any investing, savings or my stinkin student loan. but just what we live on. we do live in a low COL area and the kids are still small.
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If omitting mortgage, we are at $37K. That does include home insurance and property tax on home.
That also includes a good bit for kiddos' activities and such.
We are:
Two adults
Five kids
Two dogs
Two cats
Six chickens
Two cars
shoot, if you don't count mortgage, we live on 25k for a family of 6!
These sound incredible!
My girlfriend lives with me and our bills are separate but, excluding the rent, i'm on track to spend around 17-18k. Looking ahead to 2015, I should be under 10k.
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We're right at $26k including health insurance and house-finishing expenses. Once the house is done, realistically it'll drop, but we'll still plan for maintenance. This is two adults, two giant breed dogs, three cats. I have a 75-mile round trip commute four days a week and we eat out not quite weekly.