BB,
Ha ! Yes we did/do have a Detailed Budget.
Regarding Life Happening, hopefully the short answer is the 7 P's !
Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance !
The Too Long Did Not Read Epistle follows.....
I retired effective 1-Feb-21, after working 43 year in the Oil Patch(s) around the world. ms gamboolgal had "retired" as a school teacher when I went to oversea's so she could come over and live with me full-time oversea's the last ~18 year as permanent Married Accompanied expats as I was working for megaoil corp.
We saw many other fellow folks we worked with retire and then come back as Contractors. I talked with a good many of them and in quite afew cases, they had not planned realistically for there retirement expenses and budget. Hell - alot of them had no budget. It became clear that alot of those folks did not really understand what they spent their monies on before retirement, and then going into retirement they just spent.
I always said that I would work until we was as confident as we could be that once I went to pasture that we would be able to live the planned / desired lifestyle that we wanted.
Regarding our List of Expenses for our Budget....
We had kept our home in Texas the whole time we were overseas and our son lived in it. So, we had a pretty good handle on a lot of the Non Discretionary Base Expenses.
Where it got abit fuzzy was the Variable - Almost Non-Discretionary and the pure Discretionary Expenses.
It was easy to identify the large ticket "One Offs" - we just had to be honest with ourselves about the things we would purchase.
As we began seriously planning for Retirement and the "Budget" - we tried to identify all expenses. We tried to be very honest with ourselves on the expenses. As I said, I had seen many folks who were unrealistic in identifying
The List as shown is still what we are using today. It has been accurate for us as to the Line Items listed. Our original estimates for the Line Item Spends has been pretty close also.
We erred on being Conservative on the amounts we Budget.
This resulted in quite afew "One More Year(s)" at work so we could be confident when did retire.
We have alot of room to reduce expenses if necessary. For instance this year has been ugly for our Portfolio as we are down Year to Date ~ <-8.7%>. We have not really cut back as we had/have ~3 years of Cash of Living Expenses to allow our portfolio and us to ride out the Valleys of the stock market.
We realize it's a personal choice and there is no right or wrong for a couple to manage their business. But for ms gamboolgal and I - we treat our personal affairs the same as I did planning, managing, and executing large Offshore Projects. I was responsible for Cost/Schedule and Budget estimates and for actually executing the work.
I was used to being used/abused and raked over the Coals on Busted Budgets and Schedules - accordingly I was/am very detailed and realistic in identifying Costs and Contingency(s).
I guess it was just natural for us to treat our personal business the same.
Time will tell but thus far our retirement is fantastic.
By far, my favorite thing in retirement is being able to full-time chase ms gamboolgal around the
old new 4 Poster - Buck Neckid.
gamboolman....
Lifes A Dance And You Learn As You Go...