My interest in tracking spending and increasing our 'allowance' based on CPI, each year, is mostly academic. In 2021, we spent ~2.4% of invested assets, so it's not like we're, exactly, chafing at the bit to spend more money. I just like to keep track of how much we could spend, based on the 4% 'rule', which includes increasing the yearly spend by CPI. So far, the yearly CPI increases have always been under 2%, but it compounds, so our allowance has already gone up pretty significantly. Adding another 7% on top of the cumulative increases we've made since 2016 is going to really jack up the amount we could be spending. Was just curious how others were thinking about this. Personally, we're not a typical family, so we're not near as affected by inflation as most normal people. For example, we bought the first new car of our entire lives in 2019. Drove it up the West Coast from L.A. to Vancouver, B.C., then, across the country to the East Coast. For the past two years, the car has mostly sat parked in front of our house, which seemed kind of dumb. So, we just sold the car to CarMax, with 15K miles on it, for almost as much as we paid for it brand new in 2019. The proceeds from the sale of our car will easily pay all of our living expenses for 2022. So, we shouldn't need to spend anything from our investments this year. I just like keeping track of how much we spend, and on what. It helps me to sleep better at night.
