How Will I Budget My Money In Retirement
If you are familiar with YNAB then you know exactly what this screen means. If you are not I think it’s worth looking into YNAB. This is my November 2016 budgeting screen – that’s 4 months from now.
Now that I don’t have a job to worry about I know much more accurately what my expenses are going to be in future months. I can plan for them way in advance.
I have about $40k in cash right now. $9k is sitting in my checking account. Though I could invest this money I prefer the liquidity of it. The $9k is enough to get me through 7 months of expenses.
I got my paycheck of $6k and $3k refund from state taxes. Instead of transferring that to my savings account I am just going to leave it in the checking and assign dollar amounts to each category you see above.
The nice thing about YNAB (probably other budgeting softwares) is that I can budget into the future. With the $9k in my account I can fill each budget category for up to 7 months.
August, September, October all look the same, about $1,242 budgeted in total for each month.
Housing for me is HOA, property taxes and property maintenance. There might be some repair expenses but I can do all the work myself, making labor an insignificant expense. There is a rebuild center so materials should be negligible.
Food expenses should only be groceries, dining out is a luxury which I think I can afford so I went ahead and threw it in there.
Health expenses will come into play once I have to buy my own health insurance. My medical group will pay for my health insurance for the next few months so it’s nothing anything I have to worry about immediately. Since I won’t have any more income coming in I will get quite a discount on the health insurance exchange but I went ahead and factored in more.
Exercise can be done for free. I probably don’t need the expensive gym membership but again, it’s a luxury I can afford so I will continue paying for it.
The other categories are things that I could cut back on but they each have a certain value to me so I will continue paying for them. Personal finance is paying for my financial adviser and a few other subscriptions I have to follow personal finance news. Clothing, bike maintenance and commuting likely will cost me less than what I have budgeted for – I’d rather overestimate than come up short.