What We Spent in 2018 & The January $$$ Meeting

What We Spent in 2018

2018 was the first full calendar year of Hubs retirement so I wanted to look back on how we did financially that first full year of retirement.

Our income included.....
*  12 months of an Annuity payment which came to a net of $38,482.83.
*  12 months of Interest earned on deposits which came to $4,053.05.
*  3 quarterly 401K withdrawals which netted us a total of $15,450.57.
*  4 quarterly Dividend payments which netted us a total of $395.43.
*  Blogging Revenue over the whole year of $490.29.
*  eBay Sales net for the year of $177.09.

This totals $59,049.26 of income in 2018*.

(* I took the Healthcare Premiums and the RMSA reimbursement out of the equation as the RMSA took care of the premium and this didn't impact our other finances.  Being a reimbursement account it's not technically income.)

(* I am not counting our Federal Tax Refund or any Cash Rebates/Refunds received in our "income" for this purpose, as those are not taxable.)


All our 2018 expenses came to $43,107.38.

This amount was from......
*  $34,275.98 in regular monthly expenses(utilities, food/toiletries/HBa/paper goods, internet, gas, medical we paid OOP, cash taken, c/c bills).
*  $8,831.40 in irregular bills(sewage, garbage, various insurances, taxes).

After expenses we had $15,941.88 leftover income when 2018 was said and done.

We also have $1016.74 in the Sinking Fund that carried over from Dec. 2017 into Jan. 2018 to account for in the overage.
Add in our tax refund, cash rebates/refunds and we finished the year with $23,237.05 in leftover funds.

I'd say, considering a few things, we did ok in 2018.......
Considering we were partially supporting 2 adult children.
Considering we owned a second house in LA for part of the year.
Considering we paid some tuition in Jan. of 2018 for Ex-College Boy.

In hindsight we probably could have done without any 401K withdrawals in 2018.
But Hubs insisted we take them.

Originally he wanted to take 4 withdrawals of $9K each but I talked him into taking only 3 withdrawals of $6K which was exactly half of what he planned.  ;-)
And even with half, we still had a boatload of cash leftover.  8-)))

The difference between our 401K in Jan. 2018 and Jan 2019 was only $5K....so our $18K in withdrawals for 2018 dinged our 401K to the tune of only $5K.

The January Financial Meeting

We sat down in January and went over all the numbers with Hubs and two things will change.

* Instead of taking 401K withdrawals in 2019 to cover irregular bills/to fund the Sinking Fund, we will use reserves of cash(in the savings and checking accounts)to cover irregular bills.
At least for now.

I'd rather use the cash earning less than what the 401K funds are earning to pay these bills.
Makes a lot of sense to me and Hubs agreed.

*  The other change is to how much WAM we take each month for personal use.  I am fine with the $100 we were taking but Hubs chafes at this limit.  So for at least the foreseeable future we will increase the WAM to $300 a month($150 for each of us).  I hope this stops his bitchin'.....lolz

My needs are few and my wants are simple(mostly).  Hubs?...who knows at this point.

*  We have a few large expenses coming in 2019 that aren't covered in the usual or irregular bills.

Both of our cars need new tires....mine need them tout suite.  My car has under 28K miles on it but the tires are coming up on 5 years old and they are starting to disintegrate and leak.  We are figuring $2K should cover both sets of tires.

Come Spring we will be getting some work done on the house.  Expensive things like remodeling a bathroom, new windows for the whole house, refurbishing the kitchen, replacing 2 bedroom's carpeting.  That stuff ain't cheap.

All these expenses will be talked to death here and we'll figure out how to handle them in time. ;-)
Retirement planning continues to be a moving target.....like nailing Jello to a wall.


How is your retirement going financially?
Do you revisit your finances periodically and revamp your plans?
What has been your biggest financial challenge in retirement?


Sluggy