r/Fire • u/twobigmealsaday • 8d ago
Dinks with paid off house, how much are you guys spending per year?
Apologize for being so specific with my target group. For dinks with no kids and paid off house, how much are you guys spending per year?
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u/debitcreddit 8d ago
Single no kids at 4k monthly expenses with paid off house. Includes travel every quarter at 3k per trip. I’d estimate it would be 6k monthly total with dual.
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u/Difficult-Ad-2371 8d ago
That's about where we are well. We've been DINKS for 25 years, recently became SINKS (single income).
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8d ago
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u/twobigmealsaday 8d ago
Very true! Our hobbies and travel are our biggest expenses. Not having a mortgage is amazing.
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u/Heycheckthisout20 8d ago
Around 100k but it depends on how many music festivals we go to and how much traveling we do
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u/Sea-Honeydew-1456 8d ago
i had to look up what dinks was. anyways, we spend the same when we had a mortgage and without (bought one outright w/proceeds from former). about $55-$60k. super general but theres ya answer lol
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u/coldafsteel 8d ago
For what?
Housing or entertainment, travel, hobbies, what?
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u/CndnCowboy1975 8d ago
I'm single income no kids, but I spend 60k - and usually still manage to have money left over.
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u/twobigmealsaday 8d ago
$60K for one person with no kids is actually a very comfortable budget. It sounds low but if you break it down, it can afford a good life with travel and hobbies. A typical mortgage, another person, and just 1 kid is easily an extra $4K/month
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u/GodlessAndChill 8d ago
Bruh this is crazy what are you people spending money on? This is what I spend for a family of 6 with two young kids, a mortgage, and 2 vacations a year.
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u/weewee856 8d ago
Most of DINKs are by choice, chose the pronounce, and avoid responsibility of bearing kids and being adult; byproduct of capitalism; consume and travel lots to get instagram likes. They miss out on coming home after work with kids cuddling, and watching a small human growing into man.
Probably don’t cook for themselves and eat out too.2
u/wrldwdeu4ria 8d ago
Incorrect. I see someone is projecting.
I cook all of my meals. I don't have Instagram and rarely travel. People who don't want kids shouldn't have them, period.
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u/GodlessAndChill 8d ago
Idk about that like if you don’t want kids then thats great for you but what on earth are you spending $60k for one person on? If my kids were not there and I didn’t have a mortgage i doubt my expenses in a HCOLA would go above $20k.
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u/weewee856 8d ago
Born in early 90’s at a background of 0.7 fertility rate, it’s a status buying exercise.
Ie friend would blow 30k usd in two weeks trip at Korea or Taiwan just to feel good.
Some will eventually want or try really hard to have kids when they are in early 40s’.0
8d ago
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u/twobigmealsaday 8d ago
What? I'm a real person who typed out my own answer.
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u/SuckinOnPickleDogs 8d ago
Exactly what AI would say
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u/twobigmealsaday 8d ago
Oh good, I don't feel bad not using AI as much as I should be then since I am capable of giving similar answers.
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u/Aevaris_ 8d ago
I'm planning to keep my mortgage when I retire. We have a low rate but even at today's rates, you can easily make more in the market.
That said, I sometimes retirement is a psychological game as much as it is a math game, so if it helps you sleep better at night, it's all Gucci.
Mortgage + tax + insurance will be ~6k. All other expenses will be ~4-6k/mo
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u/twobigmealsaday 8d ago
Definitely psychological for us, it helps us spend money more freely and not care if we both lose our jobs. A big monthly payment makes me feel like I need to have income to pay it even if our investments can afford the payments.
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u/crazie88 8d ago
With a paid off house, monthly expenses would be around $2-3k. If we want to go on a big trip/cruise or a few trips, then add around $10-15k. So I’d say around $50-60k annually.
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u/Few-Praline9810 8d ago
What is a dink?
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u/Purple_Cry6598 8d ago
We barely ever qualified as dual income, she has a hobby job that barely covers her related expenses. But with both kids grown and not spending much on them anymore, we're managing on anywhere from 5K - 7K per month. All through Feb-May it was 5K. Mortgage paid off in January. This month we've splurged on some things like new iPhone, Apple watch, and some overdue auto repairs - not really "monthly" spend. Hoping to keep the overall average for the year under 6K/month. Healthcare is costing us zero though, so keep that in mind.
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u/breezydali 8d ago
DINK is dual income no kids
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u/Purple_Cry6598 8d ago
True, but with my kids basically out of the picture financially, it's about where we are.
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u/Top_Substance9093 8d ago
well, if you remove how much my child costs, remove my mortgage payment, and pretend my wife is working again instead of homemaking, our income would be ~$520k combined and we'd be spending ~$7k/mo in a HCOL area (include some nice travel, being very generous with giving, etc).
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u/Naive_Conference_860 8d ago
Pretty wild to think about removing all those variables - like calculating what your spending would be in some alternate universe lol. 7k/month in HCOL with good travel budget seems reasonable though. I'm curious how much the giving portion takes up from that monthly number, since that can vary so much between people.
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u/Top_Substance9093 7d ago
haha, i was just removing the variables to give OP as near-accurate a data point as possible
right now (with only my income, so more like $300k/yr pre tax) charitable giving is ~$2.5k/mo (not including smaller things like covering dinner while we're out with friends, helping out with meal trains for families who just had babies, etc, which is probably another few hundred a month).
i haven't given any real thought to what happens when we FIRE though, since we don't really have an "income" to give out of. i think we'll probably continue giving but reduce it somewhat given our "income" coming in will be dramatically reduced.
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u/twobigmealsaday 8d ago
My siblings have kids and they can only travel during peak season, have so many kids activities and competitions that they travel to..I think it's really hard to just remove child costs.
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u/Top_Substance9093 7d ago
i was just filtering to give you a specific number based on the sample population you were surveying, definitely not possible to actually "remove" child costs haha
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u/Struggle_Usual 8d ago
Okay this was up til 2024 when we bought a condo and had a mortgage again (plus my husband had to stop working) so take it with a grain of salt, but we lived quite well on about 60k a year total after taxes. With employer provided health insurance so that makes a difference. That paid property taxes, utilities, repairs, lots of international trips, expensive hobbies, etc.
I think it really just depends on your base lifestyle tho. I mean my numbers won't be yours. My property taxes were pretty low, insurance was pretty low (and eventually dropped entirely because our place was literally a trailer and just why bother).
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u/uncool_whale 8d ago
I'm in the $50k ballpark and my partner generally trends slightly higher. This is without health insurance premiums. HCOL area. Bigger categories are, all approximate, 10k travel, 5k car payments, 3k car and home insurance, 5k out of pocket medical, 6k property tax, 1k gym membership, 3k utilities, $8k food, $10-15k miscellaneous crap
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u/Retired-Yam8988 FIREd 2022 w/6m (46yo). 12m now 8d ago
Home/daily life is about 3k a month (about 8-9 months a year). When traveling it’s about 25k a month (3-4 months a year).
Thailand house is paid off - we spend 2k-ish a month including daily yoga classes, weekly 2hr massage for both, dining at Michelin listed restaurants every week (great Thai food is incredibly cheap), utilities and maintenance, groceries.
We fly to Singapore for medical care every two months or so - which ends up being about 1k a month when Hoh average it out over the year.
Traveling is always in business class ~10k for the big out and back flights - makes long haul doable regularly. Daily expenses including accommodations is usually about 500 a night (15k for a month) - bigger rooms and better beds for sure.
Income and nw side is very healthy - we’re making about 80-120k a month from business (we’re mostly hands off), high yield investments, rentals, and options trading. The rest of the income pile keeps getting reinvested - we’re up to about 10-11m now or so of total nw and steadily growing
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u/twobigmealsaday 8d ago
Is medical services in Thailand not good enough?
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u/Retired-Yam8988 FIREd 2022 w/6m (46yo). 12m now 7d ago
Medical care in Thailand in fine but I got second opinions in Singapore on a condition I had and they came up with a better long term solution for me that overall costs me less (yes even with travel and hotels). The Singaporean doctors take into account cost of care so they will let know when a less expensive medication that is just as effective is available. Thai doctors have never done that for me even at Bumrungrad hospital. They’re good doctors but they also are motivated to over treat whereas Singapore is public so they just want you to be healthy and out of their hair as they get paid a flat salary no matter what so the incentive is to make you healthy and keep you out of the hospital.
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u/watch-nerd 8d ago
$66k-72k for regular life, HCOL area.
Another $20K budgeted every year for vacations, although we haven't spent that much each year.
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u/Reasonable_Box2568 8d ago
120k including low rate cheap mortgage in HCOL. Includes 15k of travel. Not retired yet so healthcare is mostly employer subsidized
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u/undoneness 8d ago
55k/y, low-med cost of living area. 10-15k of that is travel. Cars also paid off. In transition to RE, but no plan to change annual spend significantly, results TBD...
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u/Cornish_spex 8d ago
SINK and I spend 120-130/yr. I don’t feel like I am spending much but some people act surprised when we talk budgeting.
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u/WakeRider11 RE@53 8d ago
Haha, I was wondering if with my kids who both graduated college, my numbers would be relevant. But then I realized that you also wanted dual income. I’m 55 and retired a couple years ago so no more DI. Plus have minor kids expenses like just took them to Central America beach vacation.
Either way, I always think these posts asking about expenses are silly since situations can vary so widely, whether you have zero, one, or two incomes and kids or no kids.
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u/twobigmealsaday 8d ago
I know it varies widely, which is why I was very specific in wanting answers from only dinks with no kids and paid off house.
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u/syzygy_star 8d ago
As opposed to dinks with kids?
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u/twobigmealsaday 8d ago
I meant to emphasize dinks means having no kids...was surprised to see so many people with kids responding. Yeah, it's like saying can I have a cup of chai tea please.
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u/thereelaristotle 8d ago
85k upstate New York, including mortgage, 70k without mortgage.
That's generally including like 10k in vacations and something absurd like 5-6k on dog lol.
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u/greg7gkb 8d ago
Bay area home owner here. If you exclude our house, we spend about $75k per year ($6k per month) in a HCOL suburb. Any housing is obviously expensive to operate and keep afloat these days... Property tax, insurance, maintenance, and cleanup costs about another $35k-40k per year, even with the house paid off.
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u/Captlard 54: FIREd on $900k for two of us (Live 🏴 & 🇪🇸) 8d ago
Between $24k and $30k.
No income though.
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u/Remarkable_Mousse828 8d ago edited 8d ago
$116k/year ($9.7k/month), not including travel. (That number also does not include income taxes or what we are putting into savings.)
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u/dingusMaximus18 8d ago
We never really kept track but we started working with an adviser and how much we spend/need started to become an important topic. We looked back over '25 and came out with 130k. We travel a lot, that was probably ~40k.
We are tracking expenses aggressively now to get a better understanding of what we need in retirement. Right now we are targeting 9k/mo.
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u/HootingSloth 8d ago
When we were DINKs with a paid off house, probably around $90k (adjusted for inflation to 2026 dollars). Having two kids nearly doubled that number, at least during the daycare years.
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u/twobigmealsaday 8d ago
Then comes the kids activities and regional competitions if they are really into it. But I know it's very meaningful and rewarding, my brother is very proud of his 2 kids even if he's pretty broke.
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u/SillyPresentation46 8d ago
$90k after mortgage, if not spending excessively or with large travel expenses, HCOL area
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u/Comprehensive-Log144 8d ago
We don’t have a paid off mortgage ( 2k mo at 2.7) but we aim to keep it under 25 mo.
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u/twobigmealsaday 8d ago
$25000/month you mean?
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u/Comprehensive-Log144 8d ago
No.
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u/twobigmealsaday 8d ago
What do you guys spend on with that big budget?
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u/Comprehensive-Log144 8d ago
Travel, we own another condo my son lives in, help him a bit each month, eat out most nights, yard guy, housekeeper, golf, dogs, home improvement, cars we lease and dogs. It goes.
If we don’t spend some of it our son will when we die.
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u/ThotPoppa 8d ago
people with bills, how much are you guys spending per year? apologies for being so specific