What I Spend

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Bankai
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Re: What I Spend

Post by Bankai »

Why the need to immediately cut other expenses when a one-off happens? The whole point of one-offs is that they happen very infrequently so should be treated differently. How about amortizing the cost of the microwave over its expected lifespan? Say, $150 over 10 years is about $1.25 a month. Otherwise, if you insist on chopping something else immediately when a one-off happens, what will you do if you need a new roof or a car or have a huge medical bill? Go hungry for a few months? I don't expect my post-retirement expenses to be consistent from month to month (or even year to year) any more than I'm expecting stock market returns to be consistent. As long as you're roughly on track you should be good.

Married2aSwabian
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Joined: Thu Jan 07, 2021 7:45 pm

Re: What I Spend

Post by Married2aSwabian »

Scott 2 wrote:
Sat Oct 30, 2021 9:24 pm
I don't feel good about paying $412 a month to have this as my healthcare strategy. I feel held hostage by threat of medical bankruptcy, forced to spend all my preventive care dollars on catastrophic insurance. The high deductible PPO offers almost no practical benefit. Crossing a doctor's threshold starts at $200. If they touch me or want a test??? I'll find out the additional $$$ - $$$$ I owe in 6-8 weeks.
Is this an ACA bronze plan? We’re planning to go to something similar next year after I pull the plug on day job and need to study up on details. I feel like many here are young enough to think of healthcare as a low priority/ something that’s given short shrift.
“Gettin’ old ain’t for sissies”! as Betty Davis famously said. Maybe for us it’s more like, “Gettin’ from your 50s to Medicare age while retired ain’t for sissies”. :)

Scott 2
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Re: What I Spend

Post by Scott 2 »

Bankai wrote:
Sun Oct 31, 2021 7:22 am
Why the need to immediately cut other expenses when a one-off happens?
This is an implication of our choice to spend 100% of planned annual SWR. We took infrequent big ticket items off the top (property tax, home owner's insurance, concierge medicine membership, income tax, etc.) and then divided by 12. In practice, there is $500-$1000 of "optional" spend each month. Smaller unplanned events have to come from that discretionary bucket, because we are spending it all.

The strategy is specifically targeted at weakness in our individual personalities. I am financially insecure. My wife fears uncertainty. Together - we will deprive ourselves to hoard money. Yet, our stated goal is not a high score, but to maximize quality of life. We live much better playing retirement as this series of tiny, low stress budgeting games.

We didn't fully appreciate these traits until the salary based income was gone. Living within specified means feels much different than running a high savings rate against extremely predictable income. At first, even these small games felt very high stress.


A large unplanned event would be amortized over several months or even longer. So far, the worst we've seen in a month is about $500 (pet emergency). We absorbed it that month, but suffered, triggering the current forward looking approach. Ideally, we'll head large events off proactively during annual planning. IE - let's get a new car and reduce the next 5 years by $5k. Or - let's replace the fridge for $2k this year.

In the extreme case (>$10k - major medical issue, house wrecking disaster), we might opt to re-plan with adjusted net worth, effectively amortizing the purchase into perpetuity. Provided events like that are infrequent, the impact on monthly spend would be minimal. In practice, I am sure we will still be upset. There is margin of safety built into our SWR, but that money is also our long term care strategy.

Scott 2
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Re: What I Spend

Post by Scott 2 »

Married2aSwabian wrote:
Sun Oct 31, 2021 7:47 am
Is this an ACA bronze plan?
Yes, it is.

As I understand it, unless you can partake in cost sharing, silver plans are a bad deal. You either go bronze (planning to avoid most care) or gold (planning to actively partake in the medical system). I'm not sure the net out of pocket is substantially different between gold and bronze, if you are actively consuming healthcare.

I front loaded the year with doctor appointments, while on corporate insurance. Based upon those results, I chose the Bronze plan. What I didn't anticipate, is retirement means much more time to explore the limits of my body. Now that I am not trapped behind a desk, running other people's scripts 40+ hours a week, minor issues feel more significant.

I specifically chose a PPO, thinking it would give more options. In practice, if a doctor is out of network and providing non-emergency treatment, they can balance bill. It makes going out of network financially impractical. There is a game happening between insurers and medical providers, that makes out of network rates absurdly high.

In my area, a single private equity group owns most of the hospitals and doctors, further tilting the playing field. Going without insurance becomes more impractical, when a single financial dispute impacts your relationship with all medical care in the area.

In my state, the PPO was also my only HSA eligible option. Another reason I thought it was a great choice.


Without having experience under an HMO, I suspect it will be better suited to my need for financial certainty around medical costs. I guess that is next year's insurance experiment. At this point, I am strongly considering trying to hit either 1.5x or 2x of the poverty limit.

In that case, I would plan to meet the capped max out of pocket, consuming medical care in an "all I can eat" fashion. It's possible I could run 2x the poverty limit for a sustained period of time, while keeping my long term tax strategy reasonable.

This experience makes me more open to using expanded Medicaid, especially below the age where claw back provisions kick in. I cannot get our income that low, but I have much less objection towards the overall strategy. When a system is this broken, the only practical choices are to game it or opt out entirely.


@RealPerson - you are not the first person to suggest medical tourism. My bias is towards a game that lets me avoid travel. But, failing that, there aren't many options left. The combination of healthcare and insurance is by far our largest expense.

Salathor
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Location: California, USA

Re: What I Spend

Post by Salathor »

Before I had employer-provided health insurance, I paid for the platinum plan rather than the cheaper bronze. We were having a baby and figured it was a very small gamble to make it worth it. I don't have the exact numbers now but at the time I believe it was something like better value to go platinum than bronze if you hit your maximum OOP even once in 3-4 years. Between ongoing prescriptions and having kids, we thought that seemed appropriate.

And then the birth bill came and it would have been $100k if we weren't insured, so we 'won' for those first few years at least.

Scott 2
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Re: What I Spend

Post by Scott 2 »

I think it also important to know if you are the type of person who will avoid medical care to save money. I absolutely fit that profile. Another reason Bronze is not a great long term fit for me.

Married2aSwabian
Posts: 265
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Re: What I Spend

Post by Married2aSwabian »

Thanks for the insight on ACA bronze plan, Scott 2. Doesn’t sound optimal. I agree that our healthcare system is broken. I had to look twice when Salathor wrote about a $100k birth bill! Jesus, didn’t people used to have babies at home with only a midwife to help?

We had an HMO for a couple of years, but that was in mid 90s, so no idea how much those have changed.

It’s my understanding that ACA premium subsidies are based solely on income, phased out as income approaches max of 4x FPL. I read in a recent Forbes article that NW doesn’t enter into the equation. Is that right?

But for Medicare, as you (and others) have mentioned, there’s a claw back?
Last edited by Married2aSwabian on Mon Nov 01, 2021 10:51 am, edited 1 time in total.

Scott 2
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Re: What I Spend

Post by Scott 2 »

Married2aSwabian wrote:
Sun Oct 31, 2021 8:25 pm
I had to look twice when Salathor wrote about a $100k birth bill!
...
It’s my understanding that ACA premium subsidies are based solely on income, phased out as income approaches max of 4x FPL, right? I read in a recent Forbes article that NW doesn’t enter into the equation. Is that right?

But for Medicare, as you (and others) have mentioned, there’s a claw back?
When you see a bill that high, there is a good chance it is symptomatic of games being played between the insurer and providers. In the end, it is likely the providers get paid much less than the $100k.

Your understanding of the subsidies is correct. Important to note - they can true up at tax time. There's not much need to estimate your income to get them.

The other key factor is cost sharing. Only available on the silver plans, if you can hit income levels between 1.39 and 2x poverty limit, cost sharing substantially changes what you pay for care. Individual max out of pocket falls to $2900 (from up to $8700). The actuarial value of the plan also increases, a concept I only loosely understand. In the best case, it goes from 0.7 to 0.94 - which I interpret as paying less per medical event.

https://www.healthinsurance.org/glossar ... reduction/

Cost sharing has to be selected when you pick your plan. You cannot qualify for it retroactively. If you earn more than you estimated, you don't have to pay it back. I imagine there is a significant amount of fraud related to this. I don't know what is done about it. Not a game I am willing to play.

I believe cost sharing is part of why silver plans are relatively more expensive than bronze or gold, if you cannot hit the cost sharing bands.


The claw back (asset recovery) is for Medicaid, not Medicare. When you die, depending on the benefits provided, Medicaid may try to recapture the costs from your estate. I believe the rules vary by state. Using CA as an example - anything provided after 55 or while in a long term care facility is fair game:

https://insuremekevin.com/will-covered- ... -payments/

Given the lack of transparency in pricing care, I imagine there are similar retail vs. negotiated rate games happening behind the scenes. Were I to use Medicaid benefits eligible for asset recovery, the cynic in me expects it would wipe out my remaining estate upon death.

When I was looking into long term care strategies, I found people will play games in an attempt to avoid the claw back. Two common ones are establishing non-revocable trusts and executing a Medicaid divorce years before the long term care is actually needed. I think making such strategies work for Medicaid as insurance from 55-67 might be harder.

Scott 2
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Re: What I Spend

Post by Scott 2 »

October 2021 Total (Couple) - $3324
Concierge Medicine - $2000 (Excluded from Total)
Healthcare/Medical - $793
Home Maintenance - $701
Groceries - $612
Utilities - $268
Exercise - $252
Automotive - $235
Phone/Email - $201
Entertainment - $128
Restaurants - $89
Clothing/Shoes - $22
Streaming - $19
Video Games - $3
Pets/Pet Care - $1

Concierge medicine was planned into our annual budget and is excluded from the monthly roll up. Last year, my wife's long term doctor went behind an annual $2000 paywall. Given her complex medical needs, keeping that relationship is important. So, we pay. Before entering concierge medicine, the doctor was sacrificing his personal life to provide similar care. The new model is the only reason he still practices. Still, the fee hurts.

Otherwise, we are at $3324 against a planned monthly budget of $3242. Replacing a failed microwave caused the overage, as discussed previously.

I believe the intentional discretionary spending is improving our quality of life. We bought things like - sandals, duvet, duvet covers, push broom, water bottle, elbow sleeves, donuts, etc. The craziest thing was either my wife's cupping set (pain management) or my bench press pad (shoulder care). So far, these feel like reasonable luxuries. Our friends might consider them needs.

Over time, I believe we'll find ourselves very comfortable at this spending level. There is still some disconnect, especially when consuming expensive relics of prior life. That unopened bottle of $140 whiskey? A reminder my days shopping from the glass case are over. Since I'd never replace it, having it raises feelings of "I used to have money" and "this is the last time".

We are incredibly fortunate. While the trade offs are worthwhile, I do remain conscious of them. Normal isn't here yet. My guess is by Q2 2022.


November 2021 Estimate (Couple) - $3250
We will pull an extra $200 from January's budget, to smooth monthly cash flow and use Black Friday sales. This gives us each $200 to burn.

There is also money allocated to our new couples activity - one home improvement per week. Neither of us has addressed the problems individually, so we'll try together. This month attempts especially low hanging fruit - corroded faucet aerators, a garage door keypad, a shower head, toilet guts, and some nerd stuff. I think a lot of people on ERE would bang it out in a day.


Rolling 12 Month Spend (Couple) - $52,378
Last October was a high spend month, so this is up only $222. We remain on trend for $57,000 by March 2022.

Net worth has returned close to all time highs. With inflation at 5.39% and CAPE10 at 39.5, I suspect our overall wealth has eroded slightly.

I read the 2022 social security "cost of living" increase is 5.9%. That is very similar to the 6.5% adjustment made in our budget earlier this year. Maybe my original estimate at our spending was closer than I thought.

Scott 2
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Joined: Sun Feb 12, 2012 10:34 pm

Re: What I Spend

Post by Scott 2 »

I spent a couple hours looking through the current health insurance rules and estimating income for 2022. Hitting 2x poverty level appears to be the clearly optimal strategy, in our circumstances. With Biden's legislative agenda in flux, I am going to wait before committing to a 2022 plan, but I think I have my answer. If I actively consume healthcare, I'll spend up to $4200 for the year.

I can't get our income below 1.5x poverty level, for the superior cost sharing. Going above 2x, the loss of cost sharing and subsidies hits hard. Outside of limiting the benefit of greater Roth conversions, it provides a strong incentive to avoid moderate increments in earned income.

Going from 2 to 2.5x the poverty level, the max out of pocket jumps about $4k. Subsidies drop by $1200. Earning an extra $8700 would put $3500 in our pocket. If I didn't fill the band, more income could even mean losing money. No thanks. The band from 2.5 to 3x poverty is similarly fruitless. It really sours my perspective on exploring significant part-time work. The system is broken.

Hopefully, I don't have any issues proving our new income. 2020 was our best year ever, and (obviously) I don't have 2021 tax returns yet.

white belt
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Joined: Sat May 21, 2011 12:15 am

Re: What I Spend

Post by white belt »

Scott 2 wrote:
Tue Nov 02, 2021 7:59 pm
There is still some disconnect, especially when consuming expensive relics of prior life. That unopened bottle of $140 whiskey? A reminder my days shopping from the glass case are over. Since I'd never replace it, having it raises feelings of "I used to have money" and "this is the last time".
It strikes me that you are highly developed in the "ascetic" ways. You have frequently gone without to lower expenses. I'd like to point out that is only one solution. There are alternatives:
7Wannabe5 wrote:
Sun Sep 19, 2021 7:11 am
Cheap or clever substitution is my frugal modus operandi.
It's ok to like whiskey. It's ok to like fancy whiskey. Maybe you decide that you like fancy whiskey so much that you must find a way to keep it in your life! Think of ERE web of goals and how whiskey might fit in. There are always multiple solutions to a problem. Here's one I came up with off the top of my head, but you can probably think of many more:

I suspect there are many other men who also like sitting around and talking about fancy whiskey while they enjoy a glass. Maybe they want to sample a variety of whiskeys without having to drop a $100+ on a bottle and being stuck with ~16 shots worth? Perhaps you could start a distinguished gentlemen whiskey drinker's club? Find a location (your house/backyard?), charge an admission fee to cover the cost of the whiskeys, and wham bam now you can enjoy a variety of fancy whiskeys, good social interaction, and might even be able to keep a little profit for yourself.

I'm sure you can come up with a better idea that fits your web of goals, but the point is there is another side of frugality that involves creativity to get a high quality of life, rather than just the stoic/ascetic approach of satisfaction out of living simply. Luckily we are free to mix the two as we see fit.

Scott 2
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Re: What I Spend

Post by Scott 2 »

Fair point. With freedom from as my default nature, the clever social solution is never my first answer. Social distancing hasn't helped. Due to my wife's health considerations, we're still masking everywhere, timing all visits off hours, avoiding crowds, etc. I am not sure much change will happen within those constraints.

I have some hope that exploring freedom to ideas with my wife will lead to changes. She's better at that aspect of life. We do have some splurges. Our shared gym is $129 a month. My second gym is $40. And I have a home gym. There's my monthly bottle money :D.


It's worth pointing out - the disconnect I feel isn't about any one high quality item. Rather - I had (have?) ego attached to the purchasing power provided by my prior job. I could have anything I wanted, at virtually zero incremental discomfort. Dropping $140 on a bottle merited minimal consideration. That full order was $500. After the first one, I knew the value wasn't there. But, I was earning so much money, it didn't matter. Anything novel was justified, provided it kept me working.

The expensive bottle of whiskey is a reminder of my lost privilege. With net worth sufficient to cover expenses, I had reached an inflection point. Virtually anything was at my disposal, except freedom. It was a ridiculous and imbalanced set of circumstances. Giving it up was absolutely the right decision for me. But, handling the relics raises feelings of loss. At least I didn't buy a BMW.


My whisky answer - any novel bottle is fun. Barring bottom shelf, price is more an indicator of rarity than quality. For my palette, $60 is the point of diminishing returns. There is solid American whiskey in the $15-$35 range. Trader Joe's sells passable scotch in the $20 range. My wife and I were talking about this today. Instead of a $15 bourbon, I splurged the extra $8 to try their 10 year highland single malt. It fills the Glencairn. No regrets.

classical_Liberal
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Re: What I Spend

Post by classical_Liberal »

In the same way many people on the eco-ERE side of this forum distrust the financial system. I distrust the healthcare system. Your experiences are not unusual. My personal choice in this matter is, unless there is a truly chronic, debilitating and/or degenerative disease (like your wife?), often times it's best to only participate in the preventative side of things. Ie prevent problems and use the system to make sure you catch potential big ones (cancer, ect), early on.

Regarding developing an expert business. This ground can be shaky for people like you and I. I find the way you explained you "career" years very accurate for me in many ways. Trying to develop an expert business or consultancy requires soo much unpaid up front work, that it would be very easy to slip into the trap of: "If I'm going to work this hard I should just get a job and make six figures". I think people like us really need to be on firm ground that money is no longer the motivator before attempting. I'm getting better, but I'm still not sure I'm there yet. In the meantime, I have had success with the expense reducing hobbies and/or time utilizing menial work (only things that have benefits beyond income). Helping others, strengthening relationship with partner, and building social capital/strength, like you've already been doing are great too.

Glad to read things are mostly well for you!

Scott 2
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Joined: Sun Feb 12, 2012 10:34 pm

Re: What I Spend

Post by Scott 2 »

@cL - I lean that way towards healthcare but have also neglected preventative care. My intent is to reverse course in 2022. I'd like to get a testosterone baseline, look at a shoulder issue / elbow pain / developing bunions, maybe explore my self-diagnosed autism with a therapist, and look more seriously at the recommendation to fix my teeth. I should have been on top of these things while working. But, it was time I lacked, and they didn't bother me trapped at a computer.

The little doctoring I had this year was financially unpredictable. As a great demonstration of arbitrary pricing, my annual physical and blood work were incorrectly billed to my old insurance. The initial bill was ~$350 (out of state insurer), then ~$550 (claim denied, "cash" price), and finally $26 (preventive care, in state insurer). Few blood tests were considered preventative, but the insurer's negotiated rates are <20% my cash price. Total dumpster fire.

Considering it all, I've opted for the 2nd most expensive silver plan in my state, under the 2x poverty cost sharing band. It's with the same insurer I have this year, but everything suddenly becomes affordable. I'll pay $150 a month in premiums. Seeing a PT is $30. A therapist is $15. The deductible is $600. Max out of pocket $2900. I could have saved $1000 opting for a cheap silver plan, but I am skeptical obtaining care would go well. I am in an HMO, after learning a PPO blocks care out of network, by allowing balance billing. My doctor seems game to refer whatever I ask for.

Not to say I am standing idly by, waiting for experts to save me. Especially in the PT arena, I have attempts in progress. I would appreciate the input of a knowledgeable third party though. Maybe some imaging. Lifestyle interventions and exercises are welcome. I am more hesitant around drugs (dunno if I'd take offered TRT), and extremely hesitant to let someone cut me.


With mutual budgeting sorted and having disabled my LinkedIn account, my interest in an expert business has waned. So, like @cL said, I wanted it for the wrong reasons. With more clarity, it's easy to see the massive energy leak would add little to my quality of life. Other then getting money, nothing in my field of expertise adds to my lived experience.

Conversely, there is so much low hanging fruit I can spend that time on. Last week, I used a bleach based cleaner for the first time. That's an easy learning curve to scale - ventilate, don't mix, no metal, gloves. Things are cleaner, and it was less work. Learning that trick before 40 might have been worthwhile.

I tried to replace my garage door keypad. A different pattern for the mount screws (2) stopped me. No drill, no filler. I didn't fully appreciate the problem until I removed (further broke) the old one. Forcing the new one onto the remaining screw, I paused to consider implications of leaving a hole in my exterior trim. My dad is bringing tools on Thanksgiving. We are going to fix my deficiency.

Developing these skills easily adds to quality of life. They might not be highly paid, and I might not like them, but the benefit is obvious.

Salathor
Posts: 394
Joined: Fri Dec 18, 2015 11:49 am
Location: California, USA

Re: What I Spend

Post by Salathor »

Scott 2 wrote:
Mon Nov 01, 2021 10:24 am
When you see a bill that high, there is a good chance it is symptomatic of games being played between the insurer and providers. In the end, it is likely the providers get paid much less than the $100k.
In our case it wasn't. We're on Kaiser so the insurer and hospital are the same organization. Our daughter was three weeks early and had to spend 3 days in the NICU. Just an expensive delivery I guess! Our out of pocket ended up being $1,000.

Scott 2
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Joined: Sun Feb 12, 2012 10:34 pm

Re: What I Spend

Post by Scott 2 »

Kaiser is a unique organization. Faced with that bill, being on the hook for $1k must have been a huge relief. It emphasizes the need for a personal healthcare strategy.

Part of what I hope to gain with an HMO in 2022, is skill working the system. Should I later have a serious medical need, I'd like to be practiced at both navigating and affording care.

JollyScot
Posts: 212
Joined: Thu Feb 26, 2015 3:44 am

Re: What I Spend

Post by JollyScot »

I don't know much about which US whiskys are good however for a good selection of scottish whiskys at various price points try the following.

Old Pulteney 12yr - £30
Balvenie 14yr - £60
Lagavulin 16yr - £70 (Distinctive taste, I hate it, but favourite amongst some I know)
Highland Park 18yr - £105

A bottle will last me about 6 month and I typically get one for my birthday and one for Christmas. I'll let you convert to the right $ amount. I suspect these will also have an import premium for you, not sure though.

Scott 2
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Joined: Sun Feb 12, 2012 10:34 pm

Re: What I Spend

Post by Scott 2 »

You are right on the premium - both import and "luxury" pricing. My state also outlawed shipping of whisky to residential addresses - blocking online price competition and ensuring I pay a local tax around 11%. Typical out the door prices would be:

Old Pulteney 12yr - $50
Balvenie 14yr - $90
Lagavulin 16yr - $114
Highland Park 18yr - $182

These are up a lot in the past few years. I bought the Highland Park 18 for about $150 two years ago. Back when I could get the Lagavulin shipped, I paid $60. I think the Highland Park 18 was $99 back then. I enjoy peat, but because of pricing have stuck with a 10 year Ardbeg or Laphroaig recently.

I haven't had the others, but will keep them in mind.

With comparable American whisky being half the price, bourbon and rye tend to dominate my recent purchases. Since distillers will blend various ratios of corn / wheat / rye and are playing with secondary cask finishes these days, there's quite a lot of variety available. We've also had a recent uptick in local craft distilleries. Their spirit tends to be young, but interesting.

JollyScot
Posts: 212
Joined: Thu Feb 26, 2015 3:44 am

Re: What I Spend

Post by JollyScot »

I suspect the Highland Park will be partly because Tim Ferriss will have sent a whole bunch of people to the whisky so demand is unreasonable for it. The price difference look less bad than what I was initially thinking. Part of that is probably because we have 20% VAT included in the price. Then additional extra alchohol taxes on top. There is a minimum unit price tax as well. That doesn't hit this kind of drink though.

Scott 2
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Re: What I Spend

Post by Scott 2 »

November 2021 Total (Couple) - $3080
Healthcare/Medical - $912
Groceries - $644
Home Maintenance - $614
Exercise - $270
Clothing/Shoes - $237
Pets/Pet Care - $164
Utilities - $98
Automotive - $40
Phone/Email - $36
Entertainment - $27
Restaurants - $19
Streaming - $19

We landed a little under the planned budget of $3250. There was ongoing course correction and deal chasing through the month. Lots of energy, but it all looks very clean at the end.

Our plan to improve the house (as a couple's hobby) didn't gain much traction. The garage door keypad got replaced. It required help and tools from my Dad. We are going to try again next month. We did finally clean, to host my parents for Thanksgiving.

Allocating broad discretionary spending ($200 for each of us in November) has lead to time spent min/maxing. I hope as needs are met, this behavior relaxes. My purchases are moving firmly into wants - $70 of giant rubber bands, $60 of toe socks, etc. There's no shortage of "to buy" list, but my ability to integrate is starting to lag. I currently have two unopened packages.

I quit the serious lifting gym. I was paying $40 per month and driving 30 minutes each way, in hopes of finding community. Instead, I learned local hardcore gyms are aggressively conservative. I am not going to fit in, so I moved on. The change to recurring expenses will hit in January.


December 2021 Estimate (Couple) - $3241
We'll spend what was under in November, as well as pull a little from January. This gives my wife and I each $300 of discretionary money. Dunno what I am going to buy.

In the immediate term, our leanest months may be behind us. With my health insurance changing, January and February are on track to high amounts of discretionary spending. There's a $600 health insurance deductible, but I can only consume so much doctoring. Maybe we bring the house keeper back, or invest in some more significant home improvements.

March 2022, we plan for year 2 of retirement. Net worth is currently up 3% and income taxes might be down 50%. We'll have to decide how that reflects in budgeting. The big unknown is if I pursue significant orthodontia, which could quickly consume any extra money.


Rolling 12 Month Spend (Couple) - $52,593
Last November was a high spend month, so this is up only $215. We remain on trend for $57,000 by March 2021. I expect to see ~$1000 increments each of the next 3 months. This time last year, we started spending very carefully, since retirement looked possible.

Net worth is down slightly month over month. We did see some all time highs mid-month.

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