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

Ah, ok, I didn't realise (maybe overlooked?) that you already have another income stream that may be using up some or all of your available tax credits (and paying PRSI contributions towards the OACP if applicable?). In my case I had minimal income last year so taking some of my PRSA early made sense for my circumstances. As mentioned, I'm still considering what to do in 2025 and going forward but realistically don't anticipate going into paid employment again unless something that really suited me came up.
 
It is very interesting @Cervelo to see your spending patterns change and flex over the years. I can see how making choices has allowed you more control over items such as food, bb, waste, mobile etc.

I can also see areas of spending where I am significantly higher. - clothes for one - and I don’t consider myself a big clothes or shoe shopper. And subscriptions, Netflix, Spotify etc, unless you have those wrapped up in house.

Another area of spending you don’t have is pets, but maybe I am just feeling bitter as our pet had to go to the vet yesterday (on a bank holiday!!) and it cost me €400. The pet unfortunately did not survive, so I will be pet bills free into the future, and saving on boarding fees for holidays. I do think that pets do cost much more than people realise, even the weekly food adds up and while I know that people adore their pets they can be a significant part of a weekly spend.

Does your spouse also have a private pension of her own, in your second post you talked about yours alone?
 
elcato said:
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.
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Yeah there are a few areas that I'm a tiny bit concerned about when I think about future spending and the house is one them

The roof is the original one put on in 1960, the windows and kitchen were replaced in '99 and we did a good bit of work on the house in 2004
Now if any of those 3 items needed replacing or work done on I feel I could absorb that cost quite comfortably if it were to happen in the near future but 20 to 25 years down the road might be a different story but I'm a big believer that no mater what life throws at you there is a solution to it, a work around, a compromise or just thinking outside the box

Another area is medical costs especially health insurance that's as far as I can see an "upward only" cost!!
 
RichInSpirit said:
Great work Cervelo.
I just had a quick look at the car and fuel columns.
It's frightening how much we spend on cars.
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Thanks Rich.

That's the one that frightened you, for me it was the "Sport" column or should I say what I've spent on cycling especial when you add in the Spanish trips

I'll be honest and say though I've been tracking my spending (obviously) but it was only last summer when I decided to put the yearly totals into one spreadsheet and while there were a few "Holy God" moments when I looked at the 20 year totals there was also a feeling of excitement or joy that this journey that I'm on, it's working, it's doable once I keep on eye on the spending
 
I'm glad that you and so many are finding it interesting, thank you one and all

Before I met Mrs C in '99 I would have spent a lot on my appearance as I'm sure we all did but as you get older or at least for me it doesn't play a big part in either of our lives, for me when I leave the house I'm in a pair of jeans, tee shirt and a hoody with a pair of Doc's in summer time the jeans and Docs get swapped out for shorts and Crocs, Yeap, I'm one of those fashion setters and Mrs C is similar except refuses to wear the Crocs. so it's not a big expense for us

The "subscriptions" is a relative new thing for us, back in '05 we had like most people Cablelink and/or Sky and we bought CD's and DVD's
so much so I'm now sitting on a dust collecting collection of 1200+ CD's and 300+ DVD's
In '20 we started to make the move to streaming when Eir BB had a years free Prime tv included and in early '21 dropped Sky and made the move to only streaming providers but as there's only the two of us here and one TV we generally only have one subscription on the go each month and keep swapping and changing through out the year but keep an eye out for special offers with Now Tv like in August this year we were offered six months TV for €18
With regards to music I very seldom listen to music in the house now it is mainly in the car or on my phone when out exercising
In May of last year I signed up to YouTube Music which I have to say has been great, yes it costs €13.99 a month but not only do I get all the music I can listen to it also gives me add free YouTube which when you go down the rabbit hole of YouTube, you just never know where you're going to end up

Condolences on your loss,
We are cat lovers and did have a cat that passed in late 2020 which upset me more than any person who had passed before
and though we had a few medical expenses we were lucky they were small and easily absorbed
I would love another one but as you say they can be expensive maintain and given that the type of holidays we like to do are generally in the timespan of a month or longer it's unfair on the little pests to cocooned in a cattery
So for now I'm enjoying one of the neighbours cat who regularly checks in to "Casa Cervelo" treats us like a all inclusive holiday home and leaves without paying the bill

No, Mrs C doesn't have a private pension of her own but will be entitled to the state pension

And just on a side note,
I've noticed in a majority of replies that I'm making here on this thread I'm using the word "I" a lot but let me tell you, there would be no "I" if it were not for Mrs C, in my world the sun rises and sets with this woman, I've often said on this site the second best decision I've made in my life was to retire early, the first was asking Miss C out on a date
 
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Another thanks for posting this, very helpful.

I have tracked my spending to the cent for the past 7 years (becomes a habit) and we are running at €36k per year for recent years. €9k a year of that is on holidays (3x €3k is our ritual now). Couple with no kids nor a mortgage.

Our plan is to spend the same plus another €9k on holidays in the youth of our retirement from say 50 to 60, as we love to travel and that is our main reason for wanting to retire.
 
Roro999 said:
Little or no holidays / Spain last two years. Have you finished the Go Go years Cervelo ?
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No No Nooooo
I don't know if anybody else feels the same way but Covid changed the way I see or view a lot of things in life
It renewed my appreciation of my house, my garden and the area I live, so much so that the desire to be consistently traveling every year is gone
We had intended to do a big holiday last year but for one reason or another it just didn't happen
But am glad to say and getting a little excited that we finally booked a long overdue trip to China and Japan for this April

So I think looking to the future we're still going to travel but it might not happen every year or we might think about a different type of holiday like living in a different country for six months or a European road trip that doesn't stop until we want it to
 
Close enough to our spend of 39k for 2024 which includes 8k holidays, 2k house repairs and no mortgage.
 
A big fair play to you @Cervelo and definitely a well deserved thanks from all the AAM users for sharing all of that detail.

A few things that jump out at me from your figures and from some of the responses are:
  • The amount of money you spend is not actually the most important piece of information, it is that you have complete confidence in your spending patterns and behaviours and you can change them as needed.
  • Frugality/Shrewdness often get used interchangeably when they are very different things. Frugality is to go without to save money while being shrewd is to achieve your desired outcome while getting value. You are clearly on the shrewd side of this and your last simple example shows this. You use nearly all the streaming services but you don't need them all at once
  • Spending capital. It's another thing (IMO) that AAM struggles with is one-off spending in retirement. People decide I want to spend €10k on travel every year so therefore I must have €250k in my pension to cover it as income. In reality, you might only do this for a few years and can be budgeted for with capital spending.
  • The two most expensive things in my life are kids
More of a general comment but there is a tendancy on AAM to fear the transition from accumulating/decumulating and the concept of maintaining your lifestyle is used to justify the endless pension pot building.

I see it a lot amongst my peers (late 30's, early 40's & usually with kids) that a lot of their lifestyle is a 'reward' for working hard. They spend a lot more money on stuff to compensate for a lack of time. It's a vicious circle where the more you spend just leads to the more you need in the pension so you end up working all the way to 66 and don't have the will or desire to do the things you've saved for
 
_OkGo_ said:
More of a general comment but there is a tendancy on AAM to fear the transition from accumulating/decumulating and the concept of maintaining your lifestyle is used to justify the endless pension pot building.
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Thanks OkGo

This is one that took up a lot of head space for me, the movement from accumulating to decumulating of wealth
In the end it came down to a simple decision like most things in life, what am I keeping it for
Now I fully appreciate that it's an easier thought process for me as I've no dependants and there's no vultures circling the nest
For others not so easy!!
 
I suppose my approach is similar in some ways and different in others. I have spreadsheets which keep track of expenditure. I know what it costs to keep the show on the road. I also have a few bigger ticket things that I want to square-off down the line. I model things based on the current expenditure plus the big ticket items plus an element of contingency, all adjusted for inflation of course, and then funding for that forms the basis of my plan. But key for me is it being seamless, i.e. I don’t want ‘retiring’ to change how I think about money day to day.
 
I also have a similar approach, mostly forward looking plan based on current + prior years actuals - adjusted for contingency & inflation vs expected future income streams.

I am this year at last hitting my intended target date for early/semi retirement (see my thread "7 year semi retirement plan") so will be updating that in the coming months with current figures and the plan to slow down - I am looking forward to everyone's comments/feedback.

Your full expenses list is a great barometer to compare and contrast my own tracking, especially on the anticipated reduction from when I offload the kids in around 10 years. e.g. I estimate 800 per month for future food/groceries, assuming 2 mouths rather than 5 which I am glad to see it looks to have a big buffer. so +1 more for appreciation of this.

The switch from Accumulating is one I am already trying to align with, and its the detailed spreadsheet which really gets me over this hurdle I think.

50+O
 
That's a fascinating post, particularly as there is so much detail. I too have kept a note of all expenditure in an excel for the last 20 years. Some questions/observations:

Heating - it went up in 2023/energy crisis, but you got the gas and electric right back down again in 2024, how did you do this?

Waste - that's down to very little

BB - is that broadband? unbelievable reduction in the 20 years. Same with the mobile.

Car - that's the purchase price in any given year, and then the running costs I assume, with fuel separate. The petrol is costing €13 a week, for 2 cars, suggesting that maybe only one car is needed.

Medical - is that the cost of insurance (VHI) or medical treatments? I'd imagine that figure will go up, we have had very high bills in the last couple of years, and thank goodness for several insurances.

Clothing, it's not even frugal, it's non existent. Probably down to only getting socks/nicks the odd pair of shoes. AS we are getting older we buy a more expensive shoe for comfort. Can't remember the last time I purchased a fancy pair for an event (wedding type)

Holidays - can't see that low being the norm for many

Long Term care - how is that built in to your finances, as in, what is the plan?

Children - for others, we have the 'problem' of whether to make sure they get an inheritance or we just blow it. The cost of private education and third level has been sizeable for us. But getting to the stage of very nearly there. As of this June will only have one left to do for. So 2024 will have been our highest and I expect 2025 will be a lot less with another drop in 2026.

Thanks for the insight. The pensions body would do well to show us how they got to their totals.
 
And there is absolutely nothing wrong in the way you approach this GG

But looking at it through my eyes two things are different for my retirement/journey
I don't factor in inflation to future expenditure, yes I'm very aware that things are going to cost more in the future but I'm more hoping, expecting maybe foolishly, that my pension fund and the state pension will over the coming years grow in value to offset inflation
And when the time comes and I'm living off the ARF and OAP and if I find expenditure is tight that I can make a few changes to spending to help

The other thing is I've been using the the words early and retirement to describe my lifestyle and choices but really giving up work at 44 was not retirement early or not, it was a lifestyle choice and would have been impossible for it to be seamless but would fully agree with you that anybody retiring at normal age would want it to be a seamless as possible
 
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Food looks high to me for two. 2024 for us was 5,750 and for 2023 was 5,250. This includes household essentials. Also, included plenty of purchases for weekend family visiting. 90% shop in Lidl and Aldi.
 
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