Do You Track Your Spending Activities?

fmdog44

fmdog44

Well-known Member
Location
Houston, Texas
I really don't but at the end of this year I am going to sit down and print out all my spending and money matters for this year.
 

Yes, I keep a notebook and jot down all expenses as they happen and tally them up each month.

Annually I jot down the total spending and compare it to my total income including the estimated sustainable draw from investments.

I calculate the estimated draw three different ways, a straight 4%, inflation-adjusted 4% since I stopped working in 2005, and inflation-adjusted three-year rolling average. I've been doing these calculations annually since 2005 and so far they appear to be sustainable with enough growth to cover inflation. Who knows what the future holds but so far it has been encouraging.

At this point, I don't make a significant annual draw from investments but I like to see what would be available in the event that I move to an all-inclusive retirement complex of some type.
 
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I USED to, and was very meticulous and to the penny, but then stopped for many years. I'm planning to start doing it again in 2020. I just take a ruled sheet and split it into 13 columns on the horizontal (12 months and the total balance). On the vertical I list the income sources and all the utilities and other expenses and just write down the monthly total for each. That will help me better calculate where I could be saving and how much to withdraw for the RMD. So far I've been withdrawing what Vanguard tells me is the minimum withdrawal.
 

I don't, but I do track our saving activities and as long as we are poking around 15% of our after tax income into CD's, I don't worry about our spending. We are required to take our MRD, and figuring out what to do with it is our problem. We do know that at some future point we are likely to have much greater expenses that we have now in our 70's so we do not waste money.
 
I only track the total as we go along ..we have no budget issues so I don’t really need to know where it is going ...whatever we are doing we are going to keep doing ...I can get a ballpark automatically on fidelity full view and pretty much see what went where . But I have no reason to , other than just make sure we are on track
 
We have a monthly budget that we stick to and have different categories for expenditures such as food, gas, car maintenance, and entertainment and we each get our own allowance. When it’s gone it’s gone. We pay our bills from a separate account.
 
No formal tracking. Had to do just basic tracking (e.g., keeping an eye on the checking account) when we were working/saving. Once retired I continued doing that. We pay bills on-line so I'm in the account once or twice a week anyway.

Our income has increased in retirement but the majority of it is spouse's pension. Our CFP firm handles our investments and distributions on a tax-efficient basis. We've been very pleased both with their investment results and their handling of our requested distributions/RMDs. Our tax adviser agrees they do an excellent job for us.

Basically we are free to spend all of our income. No kids, only a small second mortgage that is interest-only, retiree health policies from spouse's employer and separate LTCi policies. Had a meeting recently with our CFPs and they did suggest setting up a donor fund since we give on average 10% annually to charitable orgs.

In doing this we can "pre-load" our giving which will allow us to itemize deductions for 2020, to take advantage of the new tax laws. On our 2019 return we could only use the standard deduction because of the new $10K cap, so the 2018 charity donations couldn't be used to offset income.
 
Yes, when I have overspent :ROFLMAO: I am trying to do better. I keep a track in my head, always have. When I check my account I am not too far off. My over spending is from grocery.. I need to attend Grocery Anonymous. Hi my name is Lady bj and I spend way too much on grocery. There is a story behind that... I need to discuss it in a session with my counselor. The first step is admitting it.
 
Lethe200 said:
No formal tracking. Had to do just basic tracking (e.g., keeping an eye on the checking account) when we were working/saving. Once retired I continued doing that. We pay bills on-line so I'm in the account once or twice a week anyway.

Our income has increased in retirement but the majority of it is spouse's pension. Our CFP firm handles our investments and distributions on a tax-efficient basis. We've been very pleased both with their investment results and their handling of our requested distributions/RMDs. Our tax adviser agrees they do an excellent job for us.

Basically we are free to spend all of our income. No kids, only a small second mortgage that is interest-only, retiree health policies from spouse's employer and separate LTCi policies. Had a meeting recently with our CFPs and they did suggest setting up a donor fund since we give on average 10% annually to charitable org

In doing this we can "pre-load" our giving which will allow us to itemize deductions for 2020, to take advantage of the new tax laws. On our 2019 return we could only use the standard deduction because of the new $10K cap, so the 2018 charity donations couldn't be used to offset income.
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You guys sound like you planned very well!!!!
 
Ladybj said:
Yes, when I have overspent :ROFLMAO: I am trying to do better. I keep a track in my head, always have. When I check my account I am not too far off. My over spending is from grocery.. I need to attend Grocery Anonymous. Hi my name is Lady bj and I spend way too much on grocery. There is a story behind that... I need to discuss it in a session with my counselor. The first step is admitting it.
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Same here. It's only me and I spend about $250 a month on groceries. I've read about some bloggers and posters bragging that they spend that on a family of FOUR. I wanted to ask if they eat a lot of ramen. My excuse is that trying recipes and cooking has become my new-found retirement hobby and that does cost more than basic cooking. Oh well, the hell with it, I never eat out or go to movies (can't hear) or go on vacation (no money), so I am not apologizing for eating good and nutritious meals. There!!!!
 
I mostly take care of paying house expenses.. Hubby puts a certain amount in my account and I take care paying bills and grocery shopping. He takes care of making sure we have paper products, bottled water and misc things we may need around the house and he pay his personal expenses, cell phone, car insur, etc. We both have our own checking/saving account. It definitely works for us. We tried having an account together....did not work for us.. no, no, no, no.
 
Catlady said:
Same here. It's only me and I spend about $250 a month on groceries. I've read about some bloggers and posters bragging that they spend that on a family of FOUR. I wanted to ask if they eat a lot of ramen. My excuse is that trying recipes and cooking has become my new-found retirement hobby and that does cost more than basic cooking. Oh well, the hell with it, I never eat out or go to movies (can't hear) or go on vacation (no money), so I am not apologizing for eating good and nutritious meals. There!!!!
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I spend close to $1,000 a month on grocery and its just me and my hubby. I eat pretty healthy for the most part. I admit I need grocery anonymous. However, if I lived alone I would not spend no where near that amount. I may sign up with Home Chef again..that use to save me on my grocery bill. I cannot see a family of four spending $250 a month for grocery..must have triple coupons.
 
@Ladybj My daughter suggested that those people probably were talking about ''food items'', whereas I include things like laundry soap, toilet paper, etc (non -edibles). Maybe she's right.
 
I pay the bills, and buy the groceries....We both have a pension...It's both ours....together....It's been like that for 54 years...
If hubby needs or wants something, he can get anything he wants and vice versa....He loves Amazon!!!!!
 
I started a notebook a year after we were married I know what comes in n what goes out, at the end of the month I split whatever is left in the checkbook 1/2 stays in the checkbook n 1/2 goes into a savings account, it has worked well for us. We invested a lot started an IRA n purchased a lot of CD’s with that savings over the years.I still continue to save but now I put my savings in a money market n at the end of the year I buy my family’s Christmas presents, I am certainly blessed!
 
Catlady said:
@Ladybj My daughter suggested that those people probably were talking about ''food items'', whereas I include things like laundry soap, toilet paper, etc (non -edibles). Maybe she's right.
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Maybe... My hubby takes care of laundry soap, toilet paper, bottled water and I still spend that amount on edible food. If they can make it work, that's great. I need their secret.
 
On another site, many folks log every single expenditure daily onto a spreadsheet and spend numerous hours on it. Then they compare daily, weekly, and monthly expenditures and analysis as to why any changes.

Oh my, life is too short and I don’t have that kind of time or patience. I have fun things to do and it’s not rocket science.

I know what our basic fixed expenses are: Property taxes on both homes, homeowners insurance on both, condo fees, club fees, averaged utility costs, cable, cell phones, car insurance, groceries (very easy to average out) eating out, Christmas and birthday gifting, and gasoline. These do not fluctuate very much.

I think everyone should do an in-depth one time total expense analysis to know where you are. After that you can easily figure out where your money is going and what you need to do.
 
I do know what is being spent and what is being paid. Is that tracking? I do all the financial business and we discuss bigger purchases. We do have a financial advisor who takes care of the money that is invested; RRSP's, TFSA (tax free savings account, other investments, etc.
 
I do budgets for fun, trying out different expense levels for different categories, and seeing their effect on overall financial health. I've done this since I was a kid. I also have my locked in budget that I use to try and forecast my future. It works quite well.

Someone, in here, spends $1000/mo. on food for two? Yow! Janet and I eat very, very well on, around, $450/mo., and as a gourmet, vegan chef, I assure you we eat very high quality foods. I guess meat prices must be sky high these days to allow any couple to blow a grand a month on grub! Either that, or these folks have BMI's that are off the charts!
 
I keep a track of my outgoings and incomings and keep a tally of misc. spends in a cash book which is handy to look back on for any queries. My late Hubby was a whiz at finances and kept things in order and now I do it and surprised myself how practical Ive become over the past five years.

One thing that is a problem is all the paperwork accumulated over decades and it is a mammoth task of sifting through it all and deciding what to shred. I tackled this very slowly but still have so much to do and it's a painful process as it reminds me of my Hubby and I have to abandon it..until my mojo creeps in again.
 

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