We’ve reached the halfway point of 2019 and it’s that time again to check how our spending has been going so far.
Last year I had to export our bank records as well as the credit card statements from 4 different credit cards into my trusty ol’ Excel spreadsheet and categorize each expense. This year, I simply exported all our transactions from Personal Capital (PC). Plus, PC already categorized most of the transactions. This saved me at least a couple hours. Hats off to the folks at PC for this feature.
A few disclaimers on the numbers to follow:
I’ve tabulated our spending by category and broken everything down into per month spending. Comparing half a year to a full year of data is not exactly apples to apples. Some costs are seasonal like utilities, personal property taxes and #PrimeDay, but overall this comparison represents the best data on how things are going so far.
Some “one time” expenses pop up here or there, which really skews the monthly numbers.
The Numbers
Welp, here it is… the Heartland on FIRE spending for 2019 thus far:
| Category | Amount | Per Month |
| ATM/Cash | $280.00 | $46.67 |
| Automotive | $1,491.42 | $248.57 |
| Booze | $542.49 | $90.42 |
| Clothing/Shoes | $2,074.40 | $345.73 |
| Daycare | $7,119.84 | $1,186.64 |
| Dining Out | $1,950.83 | $325.14 |
| Donation | $175.00 | $29.17 |
| Dues & Subscriptions | $99.00 | $16.50 |
| Entertainment | $566.99 | $94.50 |
| Gasoline/Fuel | $1,277.11 | $212.85 |
| General Merchandise | $2,581.97 | $430.33 |
| Gifts | $75.00 | $12.50 |
| Groceries | $6,421.27 | $1,070.21 |
| Grooming | $47.00 | $7.83 |
| Healthcare/Medical | $370.56 | $61.76 |
| Hobbies/Kid Activities | $631.09 | $105.18 |
| Home Improvement | $1,339.72 | $223.29 |
| Insurance | $236.34 | $39.39 |
| Mortgages | $15,247.73 | $2,541.29 |
| Parking | $9.00 | $1.50 |
| Pets/Pet Care | $593.77 | $98.96 |
| Rental Sewer | $406.98 | $67.83 |
| Security | $149.94 | $24.99 |
| Taxes | $2,044.48 | $340.75 |
| Utilities | $1,605.41 | $267.57 |
| Vacation | $1,704.95 | $284.16 |
| TV | $300.00 | $50.00 |
| Phone | $728.96 | $121.49 |
| Internet | $275.94 | $45.99 |
| Grand Total | $50,347.19 | $8,391.20 |
That there is a bunch of numbers… let me point out a few oddities and some key takeaways.
Worth Noting
- Taxes includes state income tax we owed and the tax software, it does not reflect the federal tax refund we received.
- Mortgages includes both our primary residence and our rental home.
- That rental home mortgage ($768 a month) is covered by the tenant’s rent.
- We’ve been purchasing our groceries primarily from Walmart. Additionally, a portion of the general merchandise category comes from Walmart as well. As such it is hard to distinguish which is which. The merchandise category should be higher and the grocery category lower. I need to find a better way to keep these categories sorted.
Key Takeaways
Our monthly spending year to date is $8,391 which is down from $11,970 in 2018 and $12,175 in 2017. It should be noted that I bought and paid off my car in 2018, so the 2018 numbers were inflated. However, even when pulling out the car costs, the 2019 numbers are about $500 lower than 2018. That’s a trend I like to see!
It appears the biggest drops in spending are in the general merchandise and home improvement areas.
Last year we were paying about $287 monthly in utilities. Spending is down so far this year about $20 per month.
We are slipping a bit on the Dining Out/Fast Food category to the tune of about $100 per month. In particular, Fast Food is up from $137 per month to $227 per month. Yikes! My wife told me I can blame this on her, as she started going out to lunch more often this year.
Gasoline is also up about $40 per month. I attribute this to generally higher gas prices and a skew in the data from our road trip to Gulf Shores. Dividing the fuel costs from the road trip over 6 months instead of 12 really jumps the number. We just traded in my wife’s Acadia for a more efficient CRV which should drop our spending eventually.
FI Number Estimate
Now if I back out a few expenses that we don’t anticipate having in “retirement” I can gauge what our spending would be when we are financially independent (FI). I would cut out, daycare, most of the automotive costs, pet costs (I don’t see getting another pet after this one… but who knows) and rental house costs (these are covered by the rent check) then our spending is:
- $4,992 monthly or $59,901 annually.
- Using the 4% rule of thumb (or 25X your spending) would give us a FI number of $1,497,525*.
If our mortgage is paid off:
- $3,219 monthly or $38,621 annually
- Based on the 4% rule our FI number would be $965,525.
*I’m targeting $2 million as our FI number currently. The higher number is to help with other expensive life goals such weddings/college, etc.
Looking Forward…
I expect the second half of the year to be quite a bit more expensive for these following reasons:
- We are refinancing our house from a 30-year mortgage to a 15-year term. The shorter term brings higher minimum payments. It also has closing costs which will be around $2,000.
- We replaced our water heater in late June for $1,200. This check was just cashed in early July.
- We traded in my wife’s car and bought a new Honda CRV. The first loan payment was in June. We’ve discussed paying the full balance off in the second half of the year so this could significantly ramp up expenses.
- There are two vacations planned one to San Francisco/Napa and another to Rocky Mountain National Park. Lodging and airfare has been mostly paid for but rental cars, food, and entertainment are yet to hit.
- There are a few larger expenses in the latter half typically including auto insurance, personal property taxes, and Christmas presents for the kids.
Wrap Up
So, what do you think about these numbers? Do you see any categories that are way higher or lower than yours? I always welcome suggestions on how we can improve!
In my next post, I will take a look at our savings this year to date.
Thanks for reading!
