What % of your takehome pay are you spending on living expenses?

[1SEIACLONE]

Being retired our monthly net income is a little over $11,000 a month. All in on house, insurance, taxes and utilities takes about $5000 of that, so we are around 45% of your total. We put away 2 grand a month for vacations or emergencies. We have been overpaying on our home to get the balanced down, and will be looking to refinance our loan, currently have 28 years left, at 6.75%, plan on moving it a 15 year loan hopefully around 5% rate. Vehicles are all paid off and really do not have much in the way of other bills. Did have to pay $3000 for my health insurance the other day, which will get me to Medicare age.

 

[CycloneDaddy]

You guys got an open marriage thing going on? I'm down to clown.

Not really because we cant agree on who we should ask to be in the throuple. I want Paige Spiranac and she wants Sydney Sweeney.

 

[clones_jer]

No idea because I dont know what my wifes take home pay is and we have seperate checking accounts and credit cards.

this makes my eyelid twitch

 

[MeowingCows]

I'm somewhere near living expenses being 50% of take home, so I'm probably too far towards the unsafe side... Of course, I just bought a house for the first time less than a year ago. I have a large chunk in savings and another outsized chunk of my gross is being socked away in retirement accounts. My house-to-gross ratio probably isn't too bad.

 

[clones_jer]

so I think the calculation we're doing is:

[(Monthly Mortgage payment * 12) + (Monthly Utilities * 12) + Annual Insurance / taxes (if not escrowed)] / Annual Gross (or Net?)

mines either 21% (of gross) or 28% (of net)

if we're including things like internet / garbage / home repairs / improvements it will be considerably higher than that.

 

[clones_jer]

for reference, if Breece spends a very conservative 20% on housing over the next 3 years, he'll want to stay right at about $3M annually.

 

[CycloneDaddy]

this makes my eyelid twitch

It has worked for 25 years but will probably have to change that approach once we hit retirement.

 

[TiedieCy2022]

Currently at 13.3% for rent, utilities and internet. Fiancé and I split rent in TX but I have the rest of the bills. However I think we are living significantly below our means compared to average. If we wanted to have a home this would change significantly. Probably get into that 20-30% range.

 

[clones_jer]

It has worked for 25 years but will probably have to change that approach once we hit retirement.

livin like roommates but legally married ... just seems super risky to me.

how do you do shared goals? how do you know how much to spend on vacation or a house or when to retire?

how to you know she's not blowing it all on hookers and pulltabs? (or vice versa)

 

[SolarGarlic]

I agree but if you do it right you can have a lot of fun and then die on the credit card companies/banks dime

You make me feel better about my situation. Doing just fine, but my Catholic guilt does not allow for this way of thinking

 

[madguy30]

livin like roommates but legally married ... just seems super risky to me.

how do you do shared goals? how do you know how much to spend on vacation or a house or when to retire?

how to you know she's not blowing it all on hookers and pulltabs? (or vice versa)

Why would anyone care including you?

 

[clones_jer]

Why would anyone care including you?

because ... it's a message board? is this not a place people discuss things they want to understand or do we just get yelled at by randoms?

 

[clones_jer]

now I gotta know lol, was it the hookers or the pulltabs that hit a nerve with you @madguy30 ?

 

[madguy30]

because ... it's a message board? is this not a place people discuss things they want to understand or do we just get yelled at by randoms?

Well in the spirit of message boards I think it's stupid to ask such stupid questions to someone who posts about something that's worked for them for several decades.

 

[isufbcurt]

You make me feel better about my situation. Doing just fine, but my Catholic guilt does not allow for this way of thinking

I was raised Catholic but don't agree with much of what they teach so I moved on.

When my dad passed I thought I was doing the right thing by paying off his bills with what little he had. Turns out I was the sucker, we didn't need to pay those bills and all it did was mean less $ for my siblings and I to share. Won't make that mistake ever again.

 

[isufbcurt]

livin like roommates but legally married ... just seems super risky to me.

how do you do shared goals? how do you know how much to spend on vacation or a house or when to retire?

how to you know she's not blowing it all on hookers and pulltabs? (or vice versa)

Shared goals? lol

My wife wants to retire in 5 years and she's on track. Nice thing about my job is I don't need or want to fully retire, I can do accounting and taxes in moderation as long as I want because it's flexible.

My wife and I have separate accounts and a joint account to pay household bills. I don't care what she is out spending her money on (lots of Amazon packages) and she doesn't care that I spend all my money on racecar stuff (although she wouldn't like how much I spent on a new engine).

 

[madguy30]

now I gotta know lol, was it the hookers or the pulltabs that hit a nerve with you @madguy30 ?

Yes.

 

[BWRhasnoAC]

I think his point to try to stay out of debt if you can. Having a safety net, not a hoard of cash as that’s not usually possible for the average person, is smart.

Debt can be suffocating and hamper your quality of life more than budgeting and saving some, when possible, would.

Agree but for the average person it's not a budgeting problem. It's an affordability/inequality issue.

 

[Drew0311]

And when I say living expenses im talking mortgage, property taxes, and utilities. I just cant bring myself to spend over 30%. I know people who spend 50%. I always leave room for savings or for unexpected expenses. If im bringing home say 7500$ monthly im not spending more than 22-2300 on it. There's no way in hell im going to be housebroke or be a 2 month layoff away from being in deep ****.

I am 52 with two homes and no mortgage on either. I do have HOA fee's. $500 at one house and $230 at the other. Most of my money is being spent on my daughters college right now. Crazy how much college is right now. Also my car insurance is very high with a few tickets', a few accidents and a 22 year old on my policy and yes I have looked around a lot. It's just gonna be high until some of this stuff falls off. I put about 22 percent of my paycheck into 401K. Just trying to retire a lot earlier at this point. So my spending money is not exactly really high to be honest.

 

[flycy]

Yep gotta buy the wants, it’s about thriving not just surviving. As long as you aren’t screwing up your future or current finances buy what you want that makes you happy or brings you some joy

As long as you aren't going into debt to do it, fine. Never borrow for wants.