What is your annual spending?

[PhysicianOnFIRE]

I just finished tracking our annual spending for the first time ever. The number came in at about $74,000 for a family of four. All the details here (linked).

We're able to live pretty well at that level, having paid off our student loans and homes, and living in a relatively low cost of living area. How many of you track your spending?

This would actually be a good poll. Maybe we could have another thread with options (<$60k, $60k - 100k, $100k - $140k, $140k - $180k, $180k - $220k, >$220k)

Best,

-PoF

[soundbyte]

Family of 3 living off about 96k a year, with currently $38k of that going into our rental. We just started new jobs and moved to Northern Virginia, hence the high cost of rent for our home. Have to make sure we like our jobs and area before we consider buying a home.

So if we owned our home, We would be in similar numbers as you.

[jhwkr542]

I don't know yearly, but our monthly budget is around $7-8k per month (90k yearly), but I'd say over half of that is student loans and mortgage.

[wideopenspaces]

We're at about 67k/year + 24k/ year for mortgage. Family of 3 (soon to be 4!)

[jz]

$200k/year after tax .  that's the budget my husband and I are trialing  as we glide into retirement in 2.5 years. This includes two homes, country club membership, annual $5k gifts to each child, tithing, and travel.

[DoubleMDs]

Last year was $180,000 but 90,000 was student loans getting paid off rapidly.

[EH]

This year we are looking at 100k. We live in a hcol area so half of that is mortgage (15 year) plus property taxes. There were a couple of large house upgrades - I'm hoping those will stop eventually. Otherwise we are pretty frugal people. Next year will add in childcare so this will go up considerably for a few years! Wish it was less!

[Hatton]

This year 48k for me.  My husband has his own business and pays expenses on one house which he tracks.  When I first starting tracking this 10 years ago it was around 80k.

[DarrVao777]

Averaging 125+ the last 3 years

Year 1 = engaged and engagement ring (should've done this on a resident salary, not an attending one!)

Year 2 = wedding and honeymoon (admittedly my wife was the one reining me in on these costs)

Year 3 = new home, New cars, New baby and associated costs

Two takeaways for me:

1) the transition from frugal to extravagant can happen a lot quicker than anticipated

2) I agree wholeheartedly with POF. Those one time expenses change over time but maybe aren't quite so "one time" ☺️

[PhysicianOnFIRE]

DarrVao777 wrote:

Averaging 125+ the last 3 years

Year 1 = engaged and engagement ring (should’ve done this on a resident salary, not an attending one!)

Year 2 = wedding and honeymoon (admittedly my wife was the one reining me in on these costs)

Year 3 = new home, New cars, New baby and associated costs

Two takeaways for me:

1) the transition from frugal to extravagant can happen a lot quicker than anticipated

2) I agree wholeheartedly with POF. Those one time expenses change over time but maybe aren’t quite so “one time”

Click to expand...

You didn't go and spend three months' salary on that rock, did you?  I bought mine (hers) in the last few months of residency, for about 2 weeks' of my resident salary.

Those "one-time" expenses come at you non-stop when you're starting out, starting a family, and accumulating all those things you've been delaying. Move once or twice after that and you'll have a bunch more.

One reason I was hesitant to track it closely before now is that there was no such thing as a "normal" year. The last year and the next couple should be easily the most stable in terms of life and spending habits since finishing residency 10+ years ago.

Best,

-PoF

[GXA]

We are at about 20k monthly.  However, the mortgages for the home and investment properties will be paid off in about 10 years.  We will also no longer contribute to 529s, 401ks and 457s once FI and retired.  That will bring us all the way down to about 8,000 a month.

Thanks for sharing.

[PhysicianOnFIRE]

GXA wrote:

We are at about 20k monthly.  However, the mortgages for the home and investment properties will be paid off in about 10 years.  We will also no longer contribute to 529s, 401ks and 457s once FI and retired.  That will bring us all the way down to about 8,000 a month.

Thanks for sharing.

Click to expand...

Your "outflow" might be $20k a month, but what I would consider "spending" is quite a bit lower. I didn't count any of my investments as expenses. It's true that you won't be putting money towards any of those items as a retiree.

$8,000 a month might be the equivalent of $10,000 to $11,000 a month in ten years, depending on inflation. Of course, currently, inflation is running well under the historical average. You can also count on your investment properties, and the cashflow from them, to increase over time.

Best,

-PoF

[DarrVao777]

PhysicianOnFIRE wrote:

DarrVao777 wrote:

Averaging 125+ the last 3 years

Year 1 = engaged and engagement ring (should’ve done this on a resident salary, not an attending one!)

Year 2 = wedding and honeymoon (admittedly my wife was the one reining me in on these costs)

Year 3 = new home, New cars, New baby and associated costs

Two takeaways for me:

1) the transition from frugal to extravagant can happen a lot quicker than anticipated

2) I agree wholeheartedly with POF. Those one time expenses change over time but maybe aren’t quite so “one time”

Click to expand…

You didn’t go and spend three months’ salary on that rock, did you?  I bought mine (hers) in the last few months of residency, for about 2 weeks’ of my resident salary.

Those “one-time” expenses come at you non-stop when you’re starting out, starting a family, and accumulating all those things you’ve been delaying. Move once or twice after that and you’ll have a bunch more.

One reason I was hesitant to track it closely before now is that there was no such thing as a “normal” year. The last year and the next couple should be easily the most stable in terms of life and spending habits since finishing residency 10+ years ago.

Best,

-PoF

Click to expand...

1 month's salary completed within the first 3 months of attendinghood

One could very easily tell that the jewelry saleswoman was seasoned at taking advantage of doctors. Actually, in the midst of my shopping, another one came dressed in scrubs making for an even easier target

[PhysicianOnFIRE]

DarrVao777 wrote:

PhysicianOnFIRE wrote:

DarrVao777 wrote:

Averaging 125+ the last 3 years

Year 1 = engaged and engagement ring (should’ve done this on a resident salary, not an attending one!)

Year 2 = wedding and honeymoon (admittedly my wife was the one reining me in on these costs)

Year 3 = new home, New cars, New baby and associated costs

Two takeaways for me:

1) the transition from frugal to extravagant can happen a lot quicker than anticipated

2) I agree wholeheartedly with POF. Those one time expenses change over time but maybe aren’t quite so “one time”

Click to expand…

You didn’t go and spend three months’ salary on that rock, did you?  I bought mine (hers) in the last few months of residency, for about 2 weeks’ of my resident salary.

Those “one-time” expenses come at you non-stop when you’re starting out, starting a family, and accumulating all those things you’ve been delaying. Move once or twice after that and you’ll have a bunch more.

One reason I was hesitant to track it closely before now is that there was no such thing as a “normal” year. The last year and the next couple should be easily the most stable in terms of life and spending habits since finishing residency 10+ years ago.

Best,

-PoF

Click to expand…

1 month’s salary completed within the first 3 months of attendinghood

One could very easily tell that the jewelry saleswoman was seasoned at taking advantage of doctors. Actually, in the midst of my shopping, another one came dressed in scrubs making for an even easier target

Click to expand...

Wearing scrubs in public? Always reminds me of this scene from Wes Anderson's Rushmore: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=lMd2gB9L8So

[Hatton]

When tracking spending for purposes of figuring out FI or retirement I would mentally X out stuff like life insurance, disability, mortgage, retirement savings,and social security (self employment tax).  These costs go away.