For an overall level of spending, you probably have an account that receives your payroll deposits. In that account, add up all money moved out of the account (e.g. paying bills or moved to an account which is used to pay bills) during the year other than that which is moved into savings or investment accounts or is used to pay income taxes in order to get an idea of what your overall spending was for the year.
If you have irregular expensive spending items (e.g. replacement cars, home renovations, expensive vacations, etc.) that vary from year to year, you may want to exclude these from the above calculation to get your baseline spending, but then look up what these items were in past years to get a realistic longer term view of how much you spend on irregular expensive spending items so that you can account for them in retirement planning.
Of course, if the answer you get from the above is âtoo highâ, then you need to do more detailed accounting to see where your spending is âtoo highâ and can be cut.
I use Quicken to track spending. Most of our outflow goes through credit cards, and the automatic downloads make it easy to assign categories of spending. Whatâs a PITA is something like Amazon, unless youâre willing to just categorize them as âmiscellaneous household.â
@doschicos I also enjoy having no âsetâ daily schedule. Because I have been semi retired since late 40 and almost fully retired from early 50, I am used to finding things to do.
I am âforcedâ to set my own structure, community and meaning. My wife and I travel often â sometimes with our kid during college breaks â so I research on next travel destination and various ways to do so. Itâs hard for me to commit to lengthy volunteer duties because I have to travel here and there. That includes organized religion, although I attend Sunday church service when I can out of respect for my wife or to make her feel good.
I tried to volunteer driving the elderly people to their hospital visits, but found out I might be liable if I get into accidents while driving. In other words, my county or city did not have car insurance to cover me, and this concerned me enough so I didnât follow up. I am looking for a little flexible volunteer work that suits me, but the problem is I hate to have to commit to anything for lengthy time.
So far, only commitments I have been able to keep are my business work (when I was working), my marriage, relationships with my kid, my parents and sibling and my close friends. All other relationships got interrupted by the above.
I am similarly reluctant to commit, but found that it was okay. My wood stacking volunteering group meets Friday morning, the very day that my kids often arrive for a short visit. They didnât want to move the date, as it works for the majority, but a simple email when I canât make it works for them. The insurance thing they dealt with by having only one person do all of the driving (and sheâs a named driver to the insurance company), but stackers ride along for the job.
Become a trained volunteer crisis counselor (can be done anywhere you have an internet connection) for the Crisis Text Line! https://www.crisistextline.org/
Regarding crisis center thing, I would feel under stress doing that kind of thing because the person calling might commit suicide because of what I said or didnât say. I literally rather go back working than do that kind of stressful volunteering. I totally respect volunteers who do that, but I am not suited for that. They will probably fire me because I screwed up. I know what my strengths are, and that is definitely not it.
I have found a flexible volunteer gig at the local food bank - not during distribution hours (those have regular folks)but early morning shelf stocking, and sorting/bagging the produce donations from the local grocery stores. Our local food bank has an online calendar with opportunities posted; I can select shifts when I am in town.
@websensation, itâs all done on a computer and you have training, guidelines and a professional (MSW or equivalent) supervisor who guides the conversation when the texter is at risk (which happens but not often). Half the texters are under 18, and they text in on their phones. Counselors respond on a computer platform with all kinds of support.
I do lots of different volunteer things, and I have volunteered in the public schools for years, but one problem with that was making the commitment to go regularly, even if it is only for one hour, one day per week. If I wanted to take a trip I was loathe to tell a kid I canât make it that week. So last year I applied to be a substitute teacher. The flexibility is fantastic. I can decide at 11pm at night (or later) to work the next day. I can go online and look at available jobs for the next day.I donât have to talk to anyone (itâs all done online). I can decide to sub based on next dayâs weather. If itâs rainy and I canât play golf, I can sub! And the admin, teachers, and even the kids (!!) are always so grateful to me for coming in to sub. Apparently they often have trouble getting subs. I donât teach. Teacher leaves work for the kids. Sometimes I can help out if they need it. Sometimes I can see what they are up to.
Thanks for the suggestions. My current plan is to use my credit card statements, plus the 2 checks a month I generally write once my husband pays bills, and then I will âmanuallyâ adjust when I owe or people owe me relatively significant amounts.
Apparently, there was a lot of rebalancing and cashing out of the market last year⊠Keep encouraging your kiddos to invest in their retirement plans! We need the stock market to perk up.
I do pro bono projects. Just starting one now. Joining a team that is seeking to negotiate the resolution of a domestic conflict with sidnificant humanitarian implications.
H has been retired a little over a month now, and he spent the first couple weeks on the couch. He got bored, and he has been doing little projects the past couple weeks. He got quotes for a new iron filtration system for our water, picked the company, and âsupervisedâ the installation. He is researching another home improvement project we need done. Next week, he flies to visit his parents for a week - his dad recently got out of rehab after breaking a hip, and his parents (90 & 91) are living in their own home with help (finally using their LTC policy). A week from Monday, he has jury duty (he was called 2 days after he retired). After that, he might do some free-lance for a company that does sound for events (this would be for the Detroit Auto Show). He plans to volunteer for a local food bank where he volunteered a number of times through his former employer. He seems very happy.
The plan was for me to work for 2-3 more years. I would really like to do that, but NOT in my current job. I am hoping to find something else before I flip the bird & walk off into the sunset in frustration one day.
@kelsmom, one of our CC colleagues on another thread took a year of convincing before she decided to look for a new job as she was really unhappy in the old one. She is already feeling much happier.
âJoining a team that is seeking to negotiate the resolution of a domestic conflict with sidnificant humanitarian
implications.â
Sorry to be snarky, but is this recent post really in keeping with the original intent of this thread?
Most of the CC posters on this thread are not among those who have the financial wherewithal, upon retirement, to take the time, pro bono , to negotiate the resolution of a domestic conflict with sidnificant humanitarian implications.
Its nice that you can.
@menloparkmom my assets at age 70 are way below virtually all the posters here (but way above what the average American my age has saved for retirement!), but I read and contribute from time to time. Itâs a continuum, isnât it?
@menloparkmom I find @shawbridgeâs input to this thread quite interesting. This is a judgment free thread, over 14,000+ replies we have wandered far afield on many occasions. My reaction wasnât âthis doesnât belong hereâ but rather âI wish i knew exactly what he was talking about, it sounds so coolâ.
