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What are your average yearly household living expenses?


Liberty
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Discussion in a different thread has made me curious about the average yearly living expenses of the members here. I'm sure there's a pretty wide range of lifestyles, and I'm curious to quantify that a little bit (I tried to give a broad range of poll answers yet keep some granularity so not everybody ends up between 50k-100k or whatever).

 

Please don't include taxes, money invested, business-related expenses, etc.

 

Only housing (including mortgage), food, clothes, entertainment, transportation, non-business travel, credit card bills, etc.

 

If you want to give more context, please post about the number of people in your household and what your biggest expenses are. If you are way above or below the average (and thus more interesting! ;) ), consider telling us your secret (how/why do you spend so much/so little?).

 

Thank you.

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My personal expenses in 2014 was slightly below $7,000.  I still live at home so that's why it's somewhat low.

 

You still in HS or college I'm assuming?  I'd say those aren't "real" living expenses.  You're getting a free house/food/utilities etc.  It's like saying "my living expenses are almost zero, the prison provides everything!!"  There's a real cost to your life it's just you're not paying it yet.

 

No issues with living at home, we all did at some point.  But once you graduate and fly the coop I'm sure they'll go up.

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I think you should clarify whether you want folks to include debt payments (mortgage and student loans for example).

 

I think these should be included. Mortgage falls into housing IMO. And student loans, credit cards, etc.. I don't see why that should be excluded, unless it's a loan to invest, or something that is clearly not a "living expense" (education falls in that broad category, I'd say).

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I haven't done this in depth in a few years but I should.

 

Married with 3 young kids (ages 5, 3, 1)

Wife works part time.  Kids go to daycare part time. 

 

Mortgage - $15k

Property Taxes - Just under $6k

Daycare - $22k

Utilities - $3k

Food - $10k

Auto - $3k (2 car family - buy used, keep for $10 years and only have payments on one car at a time)

Dining Out/Season tickets/regional travel - $8k

Other $12k

 

I know we have a large leakage in dining out and other.  Its a new years resolution for both of us.

Other -

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which state do you live in?

 

I haven't done this in depth in a few years but I should.

 

Married with 3 young kids (ages 5, 3, 1)

Wife works part time.  Kids go to daycare part time. 

 

Mortgage - $15k

Property Taxes - Just under $6k

Daycare - $22k

Utilities - $3k

Food - $10k

Auto - $3k (2 car family - buy used, keep for $10 years and only have payments on one car at a time)

Dining Out/Season tickets/regional travel - $8k

Other $12k

 

I know we have a large leakage in dining out and other.  Its a new years resolution for both of us.

Other -

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I voted 50-59k (apparently we are at 60k). I use Personal Capital to track expenses and haven't looked at all of 2014 yet. I thought this was a good opportunity to take a look.

 

This is just for my wife and I. It's our first year in our fixer upper so hopefully the Home Improvement, General, and Maintenance will fall quite a bit in a couple more years. 

 

Mortgage Taxes and Insurance - 14k

Groceries/Liquor Store - 7.5k

Travel - 5k

General - 4.1k <- Mostly house stuff Amazon/Target

Restaurants - 4.5k

Utilities/Gasoline - 4.4k

Clothing - 2.6k

Education - 2k

Health (deferred HSA) 1.5k

Gym - 1.2k

Car Insurance - 1k

Gifts - 900

Automotive Repairs and Tags - 900

Cable - 500

Movies/Concerts - 500

Pets - 300

Cell Phones - 200

 

Home Improvement - 5k

Home Maintenance - 3.5k

 

 

 

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Rent - 18,000

Utilities - 6,000

Fitness - 26,000

Vehicles - 18,000

Dining out - 15,000

 

I'm sure there's more but I ballparked around $60k and I'm already looking over $83k.  I'm sure it's somewhere over $100k when you add in everything.

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Fitness - 26,000

 

Is that a goddess level hot personal trainer?  :o

 

(I guess I never paid much if anything for fitness  ::) )

 

Indeed.

 

I actually don't think my expenses are too bad.  The fitness aspect will trail down in the future but the benefits are very important in my mind.  I know a lot of investors that lose health and never really get to enjoy their wealth.  My vehicle expenses are less than half depreciation so my true "steady state" expenses might be under $60k.

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Fitness - 26,000

 

Is that a goddess level hot personal trainer?  :o

 

(I guess I never paid much if anything for fitness  ::) )

 

Indeed.

 

 

/bow :)

I settle for Xbox Dance Central  :-X

 

(+ TaiChi, Yoga, but all that in total is less than 2K per year. I am value - I mean "cheap" - investor)

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I voted 20-29k.

 

My spouse and I currently live in Shanghai, China. An expensive city in a cheap country. Expats here spend a lot of money. So we don't live an expat lifestyle. It's not nice, but we survive. We also don't have expat packages and don't make a lot of money. We live frugally so that we have money to invest so that we aren't living in these conditions forever. The goal is to move to a low-tax and low-cost-of-living jurisdiction in the mid-term future so that we can have a life that is both pleasant and cheap. Right now life is cheap but anything but pleasant.

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Mine is at around USD130k. Married, two kids (aged 2 and 3) in private child-care, living in Singapore (as a foreigner but not on an expat package).

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