Budget after retirement (normal retirement age)

Has anyone done a budget for retirement or have actual figures? I tried to make one mostly based on current costs. But still have a few things for kids in there and probably life insurance will drop off. I added a catch-all 2000 per month for retirement activities/hobbies/travel but I’m not sure how realistic that is.

Happy to get feedback on anything that looks wrong or I missed.

Expense Monthly cost
House insurance 50
Mortgage payment 1,542
House sinking fund 1,000
Food shop 1,180
Holidays 250
Trips 130
Car fuel 173
Gifts 67
Electricity 150
Internet 90
Eigenmietwert 600
Car service 83
Oil 417
Car insurance 21
Billag 33
Car registration 8
Museum pass 17
Dentist 55
Tram 5
Kids stuff 145
Rental property costs 890
AXA life insurance 130
Mobile phone 42
Legal insurance 11
Health insurance 726
Post-retirement accident insurance 125
Sports 60
Retirement hobbies and travel 2,000
Total 10,000
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I excluded taxes, so that might be another 5k per month on top.

What the hell are you powering ? Taking todays cost of approx. 25 cts/kWh that would mean 7’200 kWh/y, and energy costs are rather going up than down. (only thing would be electric car and heat pump, but you have also oil and fuel, so would be redundant).
Average electricity usage for 4 persons is about 4’000 kWh/y

This would mean about 4633 L/oil per y (at an actual price of 108 CHF/100L, which is equivalent of 45’000 kWh/y. This would correspond to about 280 m2 of living space for an average heating usage. So either you live in a huge house or you should really think about renewing your insulation (or tell the kids to f*cking hurry up in the shower).

Should be about half if I look at actual black friday offers ?

This is higher than my average credit card bill (total) for 2 persons per month, and you already have 1100 CHF for food. What kind of hobbies do you have that they are so expensive ? Once you got the stuff you need, hobbies are mostly not that expensive anymore… BTW, you also have 130 CHF/month for trips, 60 CHF/month for sports and 250 CHF/month for Holidays…

For how many persons ? Including restaurants or not ?

Just wondering, are we still on a mustachian forum ?

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You are right. I took a heavy month and extrapolated it, but the average is actually only 90 CHF per month or around 4400 kWh per year. Which isn’t too bad for 3 kids who do not know how to turn off lights…

Yes, we consume around 4000L +/- 500L of oil per year. The number might be higher due to the oil price spike after the Russian invasion which was when I took the cost after filling the tank then - rather unfortunate timing :roll_eyes:

Maybe we can get that down to 360, but yes, it is a large old house.

Yes, actual internet is 43 per month, but then there’s also the cablecom connection tax which doubles it. Maybe when fiber internet comes, this will be reduced down to 65 per month.

Food shop is for 5 people, no restaurants (we don’t go to restaurants) but includes maybe 120 per month for lunch at work. But I think 7.87 Fr. per person per day for food is OK.

Work from home gives food savings too, as then all meals are home cooked instead of having to spend money at the canteen (and I’m way too lazy to pack a lunch!).

250 a month on holidays is only 3000 per year budget for a family of 5…
60 per month is a weekly badminton court

I just put this as a placeholder as I have no idea how much extra will be spent in retirement. The friends I know in retirement are travelling a lot, which I guess is expensive. Right now, I feel that we are doing nothing as all time is just spent working and dealing with the kids, so I have no free time to actually spend any money. Although looking at the numbers, ‘doing nothing’ in Switzerland is not cheap.

I figured after retirement, I’d have more time to do stuff which will cost more money.

Yeah. There are things like university costs and wedding costs which appear in my model on specific years. Here, I try to include a typical year excluding these ‘special events’.

These are also in today’s money. In my model I inflate the costs for inflation.

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I’m a little nervous also because I’m not sure how much kids will cost me as they get older. So the 2000 was a bit of a filler bucket of unaccounted for expenses.

But even if we exclude that 8k per month was a lot more than I expected, because the last time I did a budget/review of expenses, was in 2010 when I was single and spending around 2.5k per month.

I think if I make the corrections and reduce the 2000 to around half that, I end up with 8’500. I think the big ticket item is housing. Maybe with kids gone, it makes sense to sell/downsize and then I think I get down to a more sensible 7’200 per month.

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This shows again that expected expense estimates depend on the individual situation one is experiencing. I’m currently planning with only half of your amount per month (5K), not including taxes. But I don’t have a wife, children, houses, cars, etc.

I do include a 2% inflation increase for 90% and 4% for 10% of my current expenses per year in my calculations. 4% for health related expenses.
Roughly results in doubling my monthly expenses after 30 years.

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I am pretty sure that there is potential to reduce your oil consumation.My parents had the same number,I reduced it almost by half only by adapting the settings. Did the same at my house.

PM me if you are interested in the topic

I think, you have all parameters needed - focusing on the numbers is probably a bit early, depending on your age.
I would add a “Pharma” category; couple of years after retirement, the need for drugs will increase heavily, statistically seen. Moreover, I think, 2k p.M. for retirement hobbies could be more or less right; the more time you have the more you will automatically spend.

Statistically, the spendings for hobbies will have a hefty increase starting retirement and the older you get, the lower they will be (maybe the category “gifts” will start to increase for potential grand-children). Moreover, medical consultation and drugs will also start to increase by ca. 70y.

But I think, your list is quite complete.

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