20 Years Of Tracked Spending And How It Helps Me Plan For The Future

Yes that's the plan leave the PRSA in place until we're at pension age, until then we live off savings and investments
I'm expecting that by the time we reach 66 that that fund will be fairly well depleted

I was put on the books of the family business the day I turned 16 so I think I reached the quota now, Mrs C is a few years behind me but think she hits the magic number in the next 5 years

Yes my/our lifestyle and spending habits have changed a lot over the last 20 years, is that not normal??
Things that interested me 20 years ago, even things from 3 years don't interest me now and are replaced with other interests,
And that effects how and when I spend, But trust me when I tell you I don't do without anything that I desire or want or need in my life
 
Gordon Gekko said:
Thank you for sharing this information. It does come across as quite frugal though and I think people should aim to maintain their lifestyle in retirement rather than having to make sacrifices.
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Your very welcome

I'm not sure I would totally agree with you here, I think if anything I have improved my lifestyle in retirement and don't feel I've sacrificed anything
But there have been changes, lots of changes to how I spend with the most important one been that I look for value in what I spend
I make sure that when I buying something that I get to as close as possible to the cheapest price and that I don't overpay for anything
If you see that as been frugal so be it, I see it as been money smart and it's better off in my bank account than theirs
 
Cervelo said:
Yes that's the plan leave the PRSA in place until we're at pension age, until then we live off savings and investments
I'm expecting that by the time we reach 66 that that fund will be fairly well depleted
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Might it not make sense to take just enough from the pension to use up your tax credits that would otherwise get lost? That's what I started doing last year although I'm still considering my longer term plans.
 
This is something I had to adapt to mentally, moving from 28 years of accumulating wealth to becoming comfortable with depleting that wealth
And I can understand fully why some people have issues with it
 
Do you find that being retired allows you to be more frugal with money as you are now less frugal with time, less work and family commitments? We often treat ourselves to reward our hard work or pay for things we could in theory do ourselves if we had more time. Or we are tied to holiday at certain times as we are filling the school holidays so we pay more for that than travel off peak.
 
Yes, I left work late 2011 at the age of 44 and yes I have to factor into my finite funds not just how much I spend each year but how long are we going to be around and how our lifestyle will change over these remaining years
But not for all the tea in China would I or did I consider a return to full time work, once you taste retirement it just gets better and better each year
 
Well, done. Leaving at 44 is both early and impressive! How did you accumulate a full contributary pension at 44? I think you said you will both get full pension at age 66 ?
 
Persia said:
Cervelo, may I ask if retirement was forced on you through illness or similar or was it a calculated move to step back from the grind at a youngish age?
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I'd love to say it was a calculated move in 2011, it was something I had began to think about more and more in the years leading up to 2011
as I was really getting to point where I hated going into work and dealing with all the pressures of a 3rd generation family business
Until one day at a management meeting I said to myself there's got to be a better life than this and I asked for redundancy
And thankfully there isn't a day that's gone by since where I regretted that decision but I will say lady luck has played huge hand in it all
 
ClubMan said:
Might it not make sense to take just enough from the pension to use up your tax credits that would otherwise get lost? That's what I started doing last year although I'm still considering my longer term plans.
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Interesting, might be something to look into but I'm kind of in the mind set of leaving the PRSA alone until retirement age as it will hopefully grow tax free over the next eight years
We do have an investment fund and cash which is providing us with income until then but I'll double check with Mrs C and the accountant that we are using up all available tax credits or any other areas that might improve the bottom line
 
Funny enough we spent less on food during the cost of living/inflation crisis as we were eating in more often and started putting in more effort to batch cook and cook from scratch. I would say anybody who is simply watching their budget will naturally develop better habits as time goes on
 
I think been retired has definitely given us the option of been more flexible in how and when we spend and also allows us seek better value
An example of this is a holiday we have just booked, I mentioned here a few times that on Mrs C bucket list is a trip to Japan
Over the last 3 years we've been researching prices and times but for one reason or another it never happened
So late last year we decided lets just do it no matter what the cost so we contacted the travel agent and told him which tour we wanted, the extra days we wanted to add to and also a a 4 night stay with two day guided tour of Beijing
In '23 we priced that at over €16k to travel March/April, This year €12k for travel April/May
So yeah, been retired and of course not having kids offers a lot more options for easier cheaper living
 
Jordan Belfort said:
Well, done. Leaving at 44 is both early and impressive! How did you accumulate a full contributary pension at 44? I think you said you will both get full pension at age 66 ?
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Thank You!!
No I hadn't accumulated enough stamps by 44
As I said before I was put on the books at 16 so had 28 years of PRSI the next 12 were a mixture of credits and voluntary payments
Mrs C has been able to keep up her payments with the same mixture and I think now she pays for it thorough her tax return on investments
but will have to double check that with her
 
Very good, you probably know you can only have 520 credits when making up the 2080 contributions. Maybe that is why you did voluntary too.

Also if you started the ARF before 66 to make use of those annual tax credits then it may give you paid PRSI contributions too
 
Assuming House means general upkeep, you may be due a big cost like roof or windows but you sound like you're keeping ahead of this. Impressive that both of you can live on 27k a year. That was my spend last year as a singleton. You're missing the extra column I have though in the last 10 years.

Arthur Scargill
10,000
 
Soon people will be paying €5 to drink coffee in their own car. Twice a day, everyday would be €3650 :-(
 
@Cervelo Thanks for this really helpful thread. Yes it seems you were lucky in many ways but you're also a great example of wise financial planning over a long period.

I am only starting my journey with accumulating a pension fund and am late to the game. Have a thread about my situation on MoneyMakeOver, still considering the best approach.

I would like to start tracking my spending and expenses. Can you explain your process for tabulating your living costs? Do you literally save every single receipt and type it in to a spreadsheet - itemise and categorise every single thing? I pay for nearly everything now with a debit card so I suppose I could do an export from my online banking. But I would have to update the spreadsheet every few days or would start to forget what the numbers in the debit column were paying for!
 
CharlieMac said:
Thanks for this really helpful thread. Yes it seems you were lucky in many ways but you're also a great example of wise financial planning over a long period.
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Thanks, not so sure about the "Wise" bit though but sure time will tell, tune in in another 20 years for the update

It started years ago but was only done on an accountants paper spreadsheet and was a right pain to keep track of
So in '05 I started to use Excel but it was very basic, collected a receipt with every purchase and entered the amounts in named columns
but about 5 years later I was looking at something and could not for the life of me remember what that amount was used for
I then started to really knuckle down and put a note with every entry as to what the purchase was, where it was purchased and the date
It can be a bit of a hassle at first but like everything, stick with it and it will become second nature and interesting as time goes by
 
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