Surprise Expenses?

Judycat said:
Property taxes. I am behind one year but got a notice from the bureau of an impending tax sale in September. I have been paying on them every month for years and suddenly this notice! I called the Tax Claim Bureau. The woman who answered said the notice was a form letter that went out to everyone. She said, You're OK but we didn't want you to feel special. Then she cackled like a lunatic. Good Lord. People!
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We over paid on our property taxes and it’s hard to get the money back. Still waiting for the check 🤦🏻‍♀️.
 

chic said:
Car repair and my bills seem to be going up more during this pandemic (just when I need them not to) than ever before. :oops:

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This is true for all of us, everything just keeps going up and up. The stimulus payments have helped get those things you could replace or get on the first place, like my bed frame but do nothing for the day to day increases.
 
The entire Economy is "overheated". This virus has slowed things down a bit, but as the vaccines begin to reduce the infection numbers, and people begin a return to normal, I expect to see Inflation becoming a major issue. Already, the Federal Reserve is trying to play Games with its monetary policy...which is driving much of the recent stock market volatility.
 

We were thinking of selling/renting our SFH and going to either senior living or maybe condo rental (single floor and elevators sounded good). Then the lockdown hit, travel became a no-go, and we joined the zillions of homeowners who had nothing better to do than find contractors and landscapers to beautify our current homes!

So, surprises - I was expecting to replace the DW and upright freezer, with a wish to replace the stove as well. Was not expecting to find one side of our foundation has "rolled" - that's the technical term - and must be replaced.

We live on the side of a hill in earthquake country, so with a 1940 home that never heard of earthquake proofing back then, I guess we're just lucky the south wall foundation waited until now to need replacement!

Gotta love "contractor speak". Had two contractors out to give us quotes, both came around the same amount. Both guys said, "Oh, this is a small job. Easy!"

"Small" means $30K. "Easy" means 2 weeks minimum for project, plus hoping that the sewer pipes won't be in the way and the permits come through. And because everybody's busy, we signed the contract last month and they won't start until August 15th - MAYBE.

On the good side, interest rates were so low we decided to take out a new first mortgage to have enough cash for the foundation work as well as redoing all the landscaping, which is sorely needed. We ran the decision by our CFP firm and they agreed there was no point in taking it out of the portfolio assets. We'd get socked with income taxes on any distribution. We'll be able to deduct the interest next year so it was a win all-around.

We didn't take out very much, so I was surprised the bank insisted on a full appraisal. Our neighbor was getting a refinance at the same time with a different bank, for the full appraised price, and his bank just did a drive-by appraisal!

OTOH, our appraiser must have approved of our master bedroom upgrades we did in 2015. Spouse said she looked through all our closets downstairs! I was surprised, since she didn't do that to the upstairs rooms (I was at my desk upstairs so would have noticed)! We had upgraded the MBR closets with custom organizers :). I guess she liked them a lot, LOL - gave us a nice high appraisal.
 
My range top had a melt down a few weeks ago and needed to be replaced that was a $4k unplanned expense.
My house is half cedar and half brick. The cedar needs to be stained this summer so even though we planned on it, it does not happen on a regular basis...that's another few thousand. Otherwise things are as planned. Both vehicles are under warranty so I'm good there. I think my wife wants to buy a car.........uh.oh.
 
jujube said:
Dental work....YOW! I've been true to my teeth all my life and up until lately, they haven't been false to me. BUT now things are beginning to fall apart and even though I have a dental policy, it doesn't cover all the cost of the treatments. I had to have two crowns this year so far and I'm pretty sure a root-canal is lurking around the corner. Then there was the "deep cleaning", which is the Spanish Inquisition of the dental world and, of course, barely covered by insurance. More fun ahead.....

Another thing that nobody plans on is the cost of going to out-of-town funerals. We get older, EVERYBODY we are related to or know gets older and the funeral music starts playing. I spent a lot of money going back and forth to my mother's house for months, eight hours driving each way, wear and tear on the car/tires/me. I had other deaths in the family and close friends circle that normally I would have been driving/flying to funerals for, but, of course, I didn't attend because of Covid. But as things loosen up, I figure there are a lot of them in my future.

Weddings, too, are expensive to attend, but at least you get some cake and some booze and have fun!
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Everybody in the family knows that I don't like funerals. So, I don't attend. Zero costs.
 
Uptosnuff said:
For those that are retirees, what have you found to be your biggest expense(s) during the year? Were these expenses a surprise or did you anticipate them?

I will be retired in a few months. I think I know what my biggest yearly expense will be, but I'm curious about others.
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My biggest surprise was five years ago when the central air system broke. Replacing the exterior/interior units cost me $9K.
 
Like a lot of others, I anticipate my property taxes and my car, house insurance will be my biggest expenses during the year. The last few stimulus checks have gone to pay property taxes. My state is one of the worst to retirees because of them. 😞

I was surprised I didn't see more people mention health care costs. That is one area I have been leery about. Maybe it depends on your medical insurance? I will have pretty good coverage from my employer that will carry over to retirement.
 
Well it seems I spoke too soon. Yesterday our on site maintenance man called me and told me that there was a leak in the basement that was coming from my bathroom. I was surprised because there was no visible leak from my toilet. Turns out the piece in the middle of the commode and I think a pipe that was attached had worn out. The job took a couple of hours to complete and the man was very neat and caulked the toilet very nicely. I was worried at first that he might mess up the floor tiles surrounding the toilet but he didn't, thank God because it's discontinued. He cleaned up after himself nicely as well. I have no idea what I'll be charged because they'll submit the bill to the management agency which will bill me at some point, if at all, with my carrying charge bill. Right now I'm assuming that since the problem started with my toilet, I'll be charged.
 

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