frommi Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 Everything in €, wife+me, no kids, medium sized german city, 1 car: 10k rent+heating+electricity 2.5k health insurance 6k groceries/food 3k car incl. gas/insurance etc. 1.5-2k travel 1k internet/handy/movies 1-2k other Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redskin212 Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 This is a wonderful thread - I track all my expenses on Quicken and every year during my tax preparation I prepare a detailed summary of the household expenses. Every year it is a painful exercise but a necessary one for myself and I share the information with my wife to reinforce our cost of living. We live in Arlington VA and have two young children, so our cost of housing is quite high however all the other expenses are pretty typical of families in the area. $22k - mortgage 15K - property taxes 10K - utilities (gas, power, phone, cable, internet) 20K - medical (16K premiums, $4k doctors co-pays ...) 26K - child care (hopefully to down significantly in 2015 as both kids will be in school full time) 4K - Preschool 4K - kid camps and sports 8k - vacations/travel 18K - groceries 5K - dining 6k - clothing 7k - auto 14k - household (maintenance 4K, furnishings $10k) 2k - gifts and parties (my kids go to at least 30 parties each a year - crazy!) 3K - Insurance (house, life and umbrella) 5k - charity 3K - ATM (? no idea where it goes) Add it all up and you get about $170k but in truth the actual number is closer to $180K or $15k/month. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jurgis Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 Oh man, this is depressing! For better or worse, living in SF means that my rent alone is more than the majority of posters' total spend. Married + 1 kid in SF, annual running $100k-110k -$50k rent + utilities (crappy neighborhood even! wife can't walk alone at night). As an aside, rental market in SF / silicon valley is outrageous. friends of mine signing new leases now are paying ~$2k to rent a room in a 4 br house. Nothing fancy either. Every rental has competition, and bids to buy are all cash. Loco. ........... Could probably improve the after tax savings by moving to a more affordable part of the country (could buy a great house where I grew up for 4 years rent, for example)--but I love the work out here and there's a lot of exciting companies in this part of the country (not the stupid apps, and ones that no value investor would touch)! Man, I feel your pain. I'd love to live in SoCal, but Silly Valley is just crazy... I have a job in hi tech in Boston area. Not cheap, but you can get house for 400K'ish in OK neighborhood with <30 min drive to city/tech-corridor/etc. Every time I look at considering SoCal the RE prices just kill any wish to move... Have a friend Google millionaire - spent all his money to buy under-average house for something like $1.5M in Los Altos. People can retire on that kind of money elsewhere... Crazy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parsad Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 This is a wonderful thread - I track all my expenses on Quicken and every year during my tax preparation I prepare a detailed summary of the household expenses. Every year it is a painful exercise but a necessary one for myself and I share the information with my wife to reinforce our cost of living. We live in Arlington VA and have two young children, so our cost of housing is quite high however all the other expenses are pretty typical of families in the area. $22k - mortgage 15K - property taxes 10K - utilities (gas, power, phone, cable, internet) 20K - medical (16K premiums, $4k doctors co-pays ...) 26K - child care (hopefully to down significantly in 2015 as both kids will be in school full time) 4K - Preschool 4K - kid camps and sports 8k - vacations/travel 18K - groceries 5K - dining 6k - clothing 7k - auto 14k - household (maintenance 4K, furnishings $10k) 2k - gifts and parties (my kids go to at least 30 parties each a year - crazy!) 3K - Insurance (house, life and umbrella) 5k - charity 3K - ATM (? no idea where it goes) Add it all up and you get about $170k but in truth the actual number is closer to $180K or $15k/month. Wow! $15K for property taxes in Arlington...crazy. You guys better have the best sewer system, roads, transit and city services than anyone else I know. Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thepupil Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 This is a wonderful thread - I track all my expenses on Quicken and every year during my tax preparation I prepare a detailed summary of the household expenses. Every year it is a painful exercise but a necessary one for myself and I share the information with my wife to reinforce our cost of living. We live in Arlington VA and have two young children, so our cost of housing is quite high however all the other expenses are pretty typical of families in the area. $22k - mortgage 15K - property taxes 10K - utilities (gas, power, phone, cable, internet) 20K - medical (16K premiums, $4k doctors co-pays ...) 26K - child care (hopefully to down significantly in 2015 as both kids will be in school full time) 4K - Preschool 4K - kid camps and sports 8k - vacations/travel 18K - groceries 5K - dining 6k - clothing 7k - auto 14k - household (maintenance 4K, furnishings $10k) 2k - gifts and parties (my kids go to at least 30 parties each a year - crazy!) 3K - Insurance (house, life and umbrella) 5k - charity 3K - ATM (? no idea where it goes) Add it all up and you get about $170k but in truth the actual number is closer to $180K or $15k/month. Wow! $15K for property taxes in Arlington...crazy. You guys better have the best sewer system, roads, transit and city services than anyone else I know. Cheers! judging by the size of the taxes, maintenance, and utilities relative to mortgage, I think Mr. Redskin dropped a big chunk of cash on a down payment. Redskin, I appreciate you sharing. I'll probably end up in the DC area in a 1.5 yrs so I found the breakdown useful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yadayada Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 on ways of spending money, a personal cook is really the nuts. A private plane and a personal cook, those two things would be the first id buy if i had a shit load of money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orthopa Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 Interesting thread.... 34 yo, married no kids in Western New York. 11.5k property taxes 500k assessment 6k mortgage 30 yr 1k home owners insurance 3.5k utilities 1.2k car insurance No car payments 4k groceries 2-3k on vacations ~1.5k on car maintenance? oil changes etc, 4k a year combined on gas expenses. 1.5k a year eating out. 2-3k maybe for clothes/gifts for the year. I'm sure I'm missing some odd stuff that comes and goes but that's the major stuff. We run a pretty tight ship with our income. We are able to invest 2-3 times as much a year as a result. Spent first 2-3 years paying down house significantly then refinanced now rest goes to savings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stahleyp Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 My total expenses are around $9,000. No mortgage, no wife or kids. Eat a lot of organic food but rarely ever eat out. This is probably going to go up as my lady is kinda fancy. :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redskin212 Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 Quote from: Redskin212 on Today at 05:51:41 AM This is a wonderful thread - I track all my expenses on Quicken and every year during my tax preparation I prepare a detailed summary of the household expenses. Every year it is a painful exercise but a necessary one for myself and I share the information with my wife to reinforce our cost of living. We live in Arlington VA and have two young children, so our cost of housing is quite high however all the other expenses are pretty typical of families in the area. $22k - mortgage 15K - property taxes 10K - utilities (gas, power, phone, cable, internet) 20K - medical (16K premiums, $4k doctors co-pays ...) 26K - child care (hopefully to down significantly in 2015 as both kids will be in school full time) 4K - Preschool 4K - kid camps and sports 8k - vacations/travel 18K - groceries 5K - dining 6k - clothing 7k - auto 14k - household (maintenance 4K, furnishings $10k) 2k - gifts and parties (my kids go to at least 30 parties each a year - crazy!) 3K - Insurance (house, life and umbrella) 5k - charity 3K - ATM (? no idea where it goes) Add it all up and you get about $170k but in truth the actual number is closer to $180K or $15k/month. Wow! $15K for property taxes in Arlington...crazy. You guys better have the best sewer system, roads, transit and city services than anyone else I know. Cheers! I wish are services were that good - schools are some of the best in the area, but our services are pretty average, lots of excess spending by the county and excess taxing to keep our AAA rating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redskin212 Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 This is a wonderful thread - I track all my expenses on Quicken and every year during my tax preparation I prepare a detailed summary of the household expenses. Every year it is a painful exercise but a necessary one for myself and I share the information with my wife to reinforce our cost of living. We live in Arlington VA and have two young children, so our cost of housing is quite high however all the other expenses are pretty typical of families in the area. $22k - mortgage 15K - property taxes 10K - utilities (gas, power, phone, cable, internet) 20K - medical (16K premiums, $4k doctors co-pays ...) 26K - child care (hopefully to down significantly in 2015 as both kids will be in school full time) 4K - Preschool 4K - kid camps and sports 8k - vacations/travel 18K - groceries 5K - dining 6k - clothing 7k - auto 14k - household (maintenance 4K, furnishings $10k) 2k - gifts and parties (my kids go to at least 30 parties each a year - crazy!) 3K - Insurance (house, life and umbrella) 5k - charity 3K - ATM (? no idea where it goes) Add it all up and you get about $170k but in truth the actual number is closer to $180K or $15k/month. Wow! $15K for property taxes in Arlington...crazy. You guys better have the best sewer system, roads, transit and city services than anyone else I know. Cheers! I wish are services were that good - schools are some of the best in the area, but our services are pretty average, lots of excess spending by the county and excess taxing to keep our AAA rating Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redskin212 Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 This is a wonderful thread - I track all my expenses on Quicken and every year during my tax preparation I prepare a detailed summary of the household expenses. Every year it is a painful exercise but a necessary one for myself and I share the information with my wife to reinforce our cost of living. We live in Arlington VA and have two young children, so our cost of housing is quite high however all the other expenses are pretty typical of families in the area. $22k - mortgage 15K - property taxes 10K - utilities (gas, power, phone, cable, internet) 20K - medical (16K premiums, $4k doctors co-pays ...) 26K - child care (hopefully to down significantly in 2015 as both kids will be in school full time) 4K - Preschool 4K - kid camps and sports 8k - vacations/travel 18K - groceries 5K - dining 6k - clothing 7k - auto 14k - household (maintenance 4K, furnishings $10k) 2k - gifts and parties (my kids go to at least 30 parties each a year - crazy!) 3K - Insurance (house, life and umbrella) 5k - charity 3K - ATM (? no idea where it goes) Add it all up and you get about $170k but in truth the actual number is closer to $180K or $15k/month. Wow! $15K for property taxes in Arlington...crazy. You guys better have the best sewer system, roads, transit and city services than anyone else I know. Cheers! judging by the size of the taxes, maintenance, and utilities relative to mortgage, I think Mr. Redskin dropped a big chunk of cash on a down payment. Redskin, I appreciate you sharing. I'll probably end up in the DC area in a 1.5 yrs so I found the breakdown useful. thepupil - very observant with regard to my down payment. Actually put 25 % down and then paid for a big reno in cash, so my equity is around 60-65%. When I moved to DC 20 years ago from Toronto, I thought DC was a reasonably priced big city. Times have changed and I would now say it is a fairly expensive big city. Not first tier like NYC, San Fran, LA but definitely second tier in terms of cost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uccmal Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 This is a wonderful thread - I track all my expenses on Quicken and every year during my tax preparation I prepare a detailed summary of the household expenses. Every year it is a painful exercise but a necessary one for myself and I share the information with my wife to reinforce our cost of living. We live in Arlington VA and have two young children, so our cost of housing is quite high however all the other expenses are pretty typical of families in the area. $22k - mortgage 15K - property taxes 10K - utilities (gas, power, phone, cable, internet) 20K - medical (16K premiums, $4k doctors co-pays ...) 26K - child care (hopefully to down significantly in 2015 as both kids will be in school full time) 4K - Preschool 4K - kid camps and sports 8k - vacations/travel 18K - groceries 5K - dining 6k - clothing 7k - auto 14k - household (maintenance 4K, furnishings $10k) 2k - gifts and parties (my kids go to at least 30 parties each a year - crazy!) 3K - Insurance (house, life and umbrella) 5k - charity 3K - ATM (? no idea where it goes) Add it all up and you get about $170k but in truth the actual number is closer to $180K or $15k/month. Wow! $15K for property taxes in Arlington...crazy. You guys better have the best sewer system, roads, transit and city services than anyone else I know. Cheers! I wish are services were that good - schools are some of the best in the area, but our services are pretty average, lots of excess spending by the county and excess taxing to keep our AAA rating Hesus Amigo, I live in Toronto. Our house is about 3000 sq. ft, and my taxes are 5100 per year. Probably the highest in Canada. I will never gripe about taxes again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uccmal Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 Household Costs 4: - 2 adults, 2 kids Mortgage & Taxes: 36000 Cars: 8000 (est) Insurance. 5500 car and home Food. 10000 Daycare (1). 7200 phones/inet/data/cable: 3000 gasoline 4800 nat gas. 1500 hydro 1500 utilities 600 clothes. 1200 travel 12000 miscellaneous. 6000 home maint. 6000 (avg) 105000: round to 120 k for margin of safety. Notes: Car expense is vehicle replacement plus maintenance over 5 yrs. Mortgage: Was much lower but refinanced at 3 % and took cash out of house. Will repay when/if interest rates rise. For the cash value left in my house I could buy a house in a smaller city nearby, outright. Notes: Kids education is fully funded - so once daycare is done 7 k a yr. less. Notes: I suspect clothes are higher but my wife pays for her own. Mine consists of a few shirts, 4 pr. jeans per yr, two pair shoes. Please dont ask about my backpacking equipment. Great Lakes Airlines (Minnesota) lost my main duffel on the way back from Az at LAX last year. When I added the value of the contents up it came to well over $2000.00. Fortunately it arrived a few days later with my gear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uccmal Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 What blows my mind is how cheaply I used to live when I was single: - rust bucket truck that would leave a print of itself on the ground when I bumped a guard rail - 700/month apartment, no home insurance, taxes, ultilities - no day care costs Those were the days. All the money I made investing came from the time Up to just before my son was born - he's 11 tomorrow. Family=Lifestyle Inflation - not that I am about to trade. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
original mungerville Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 I am about the same as Al's. A little less on mortgage, insurance; cars and utilities; more on travel, 3 kids instead of 2. Kids are 9, 11, 12 - university is getting funded currently ahead of time. Its like having a second mortgage! But its Canada, not the US - where university costs are clearly in a bubble. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rich379 Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 Interesting thread, although it is always difficult to compare between different family situations and cities/countries Here are our expenses 2 adults, 3 kids ages 7-15 and the dog Living in Switzerland, near Geneva We are, I think, relatively spendthift compared to many of our friends. However for the big ticket items (nice house with garden, healthcare) we spend what is needed, but otherwise we are very careful about our expenses (eg. clothing, car, phone, dining out, vacations). Over the last decade and until last year (when I quit work to start a new business), we were managing to save about 50-60% of our combined income. Mortgage $3'000 Utilities (electricity, water) $2'000 Heating $2'400 Phone, internet, tv $1'200 Medical insurance $9'200 Medical and dental bills $2'400 (we have high $2'500 deductibles) Kids activities $2'000 Vacation $4'800 Vehicles $2'400 (car + motorcycle, incl. depreciation) Groceries $10'000 Clothing $1'800 House maintenance $4'800 Other insurance $600 Gifts, dining out $2'400 Other $2'400 Total (without income taxes) $46'600 (although I suspect it is more like $50'000) Regarding our kids education, we are lucky because local university fees are publicly funded and still very low ($1'000/year) so there is no need to save for that purpose. Cheers, Rich379 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redskin212 Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 What blows my mind is how cheaply I used to live when I was single: - rust bucket truck that would leave a print of itself on the ground when I bumped a guard rail - 700/month apartment, no home insurance, taxes, utilities - no day care costs Those were the days. All the money I made investing came from the time Up to just before my son was born - he's 11 tomorrow. Family=Lifestyle Inflation - not that I am about to trade. Ain't that the truth! About 10-12 years ago I was living in the exact same neighborhood while single. I remember my expenses well for the year I was between jobs :) I got my monthly expenditures down to about $3k/month of which $2k was rent and utilities! So conservatively about $40k to be single in Arlington vs 4 times that when married with 2 kids. Like you it is all worth it, but I think it is a learning point for the younger members on the board. Start young, save lots of money when you are single and invest wisely because you WILL need it when you are married with kids! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
augustabound Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 Yeah, I turned 40 this year and recently thought about the days of my first job at Kresge's in downtown Hamilton (for those who aren't familiar, they were Kmart's bastard little brother and one of the original 5 and dime stores of the '20's). Working for the Princely sum of $5 an hour as a 16 year old. I was King of the freaken world I was. That $200 every 2 weeks was really something. After buying the latest cassette tape and a few packs of baseball cards I had plenty left over to put my $20 of gas for the 2 weeks (when I eventually bought a car at 17, my powder blue Plymouth Reliant K-car). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uccmal Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 Yeah, I turned 40 this year and recently thought about the days of my first job at Kresge's in downtown Hamilton (for those who aren't familiar, they were Kmart's bastard little brother and one of the original 5 and dime stores of the '20's). Working for the Princely sum of $5 an hour as a 16 year old. I was King of the freaken world I was. That $200 every 2 weeks was really something. After buying the latest cassette tape and a few packs of baseball cards I had plenty left over to put my $20 of gas for the 2 weeks (when I eventually bought a car at 17, my powder blue Plymouth Reliant K-car). I remember Kresge's, and Woolworths, down the street, Zellers around the block, Eatons, Robinsons on John Street where I shoplifted my only time (scared myself straight). Where are they all now? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
augustabound Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 I remember Kresge's, and Woolworths, down the street, Zellers around the block, Eatons, Robinsons on John Street where I shoplifted my only time (scared myself straight). Where are they all now? Don't forget The Right House. There are some great old pics on "Vintage Hamilton" on Facebook and others great pictures here, http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=151765 Actually the skyscraper forum is worldwide and has sub forums for the bigger cities. Unfortunately, when I started working downtown the days of it being a vibrant part of the city were long gone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkbabang Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 Don't forget The Right House. There are some great old pics on "Vintage Hamilton" on Facebook and others great pictures here, http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=151765 Actually the skyscraper forum is worldwide and has sub forums for the bigger cities. Unfortunately, when I started working downtown the days of it being a vibrant part of the city were long gone. I was just in Manhattan Christmas week and this new residential tower at 432 Park Ave dominates the skyline, it wasn't there last time I was in the city. You look at NYC now and three buildings stand out above the rest: 1 World Trade Center off to one side, The Empire State Building in the middle, and 432 Park Avenue on the other side. Inside New York’s $95 Million Penthouse: 432 Park Avenue EDIT: I forgot to mention that 3 additional residential towers all also with roofs higher than the Empire State Building are already under construction and will be finished in the next few years. 225 West 57th Street, 111 West 57th Street, and 125 Greenwich Street. There are a lot of people dropping $tens of millions on condo's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TorontoRaptorsFan Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 I think the secret is two-fold to greatly keep expenses down: 1) Marry someone who is frugal 2) Buy less stuff but higher quality Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liberty Posted January 17, 2015 Author Share Posted January 17, 2015 I've been reading the Mr Money Mustache blog archives from the beginning and I think it could interest some people here (those interested in early retirement, or in tips on how to reduce their expenses). http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-simple-math-behind-early-retirement/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
innerscorecard Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 I've been reading the Mr Money Mustache blog archives from the beginning and I think it could interest some people here (those interested in early retirement, or in tips on how to reduce their expenses). http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-simple-math-behind-early-retirement/ Have you checked out ERE (Early Retirement Extreme) as well? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liberty Posted January 17, 2015 Author Share Posted January 17, 2015 I've been reading the Mr Money Mustache blog archives from the beginning and I think it could interest some people here (those interested in early retirement, or in tips on how to reduce their expenses). http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-simple-math-behind-early-retirement/ Have you checked out ERE (Early Retirement Extreme) as well? Next on my list (including the book). What are your thoughts on both MMM and ERE? Are you following the plan (either, both?). Do you prefer one over the other? So far it's mostly stuff I had read years ago in some of the old school versions of this philosophy (Your Money or Your Life, Tightwad Gazette, Simple Dollar, etc), but it's good to refresh the ol' memory and it does provide extra motivation (kind of like reading on value investing, even if the principles don't change). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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