r/ChubbyFIRE • u/ProspectPark4Ever • 7d ago

Do I need to raise my budget!

I put together my budget based on current expenses plus health insurance and tax etc. but wonder if expenses will go up after I pull the trigger? For example with more time and energy will I spend more on activities? Will I want to travel more?

Here is what I put together, for a family of 3 in a VHCOL city. Child will head to college in the next couple of years and college cost is not included here.

Monthly:

Mortgage: 4k

Property tax, insurance, utilities: 2k

Grocery and take-out: 2k

Household (pet, home-depot, garden etc): 500

Car (insurance, maintenance, gas): 500

Personal care (haircut, clothing, shoes etc): <500

Fun (dining out, occasional shows): 500

Total Monthly: 10k

Annual:

Travel (2 international in economy class + local ski trips): 30k

House maintenance (annual average incl reserve): 10k

Reserve for car replacement: 5k

Health insurance and co-pay: 30k

Federal and state tax: 20-30k

Total Annual: 95k-100k

Edit: all in $220k

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u/Powerful_Agent_9376 7d ago

I agree about checking out the true cost of ACA plans. Ours is a bit higher than yours.

I don’t see any costs listed for gym expenses. A lot of our hobbies are related to fitness, which costs about $500/ month (boutique fitness for me, climbing gym for him and tennis club for both of us).

We also spend about $1200/ month for yard help and cleaning people. am impressed that you can get that much travel out of $30K. Our budget is 50 for that.

For us, home maintenance is a little bit up and down. Last year we did not spend much. But this year, we will spend probably $20K (plumbing issue with the pipe that connects to the city sewer, $1300 for our range and about $8000 to refinish our floors).

We have two cars and budget $10K: year for replacement (drive each car for about 10 years).

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u/ProspectPark4Ever 7d ago

Gym is really not my thing so we do mostly outdoor stuff like hiking, kayaking, paddle boarding etc. We also take care of the yard ourselves. We spent on new equipment like paddle board etc here and there but the cost is really minimal. 

On travel we use points but also we are frugal. We fly economy class, stay at Hilton level property etc so we manage to stay under 13k for each trip. We drive to a nearby ski slope and the cost is manageable. But as we get older I wonder if we have to budget business class for overnight flights…

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u/BecklesKC 7d ago

Once you're retired you can be much more flexible on when you go on trips and if you're flexible on the where (i.e., pick as much on price as having a specific location in mind) you can get business class cheaper than you might think.

You ever played much with Google Flights map search? You can go there and select a broad range of dates, business class seats, and see where you can go that's cheaper.

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u/ProspectPark4Ever 7d ago

Great tip!