Budget question

[retirementguy]

I'll be retiring the end of the year after a long time working. THe good news up to this point is that up to now we have never really had to worry about a budget - as long as we didnt get too crazy we kept our head above water and were able to save. Now we're on a "fixed income" - fortunately a fairly high one. Anybody have any tips for setting up a budget that keeps the wolf from the door but doesnt get unnecessarily tedious?

Any help appreciated!

[Red-y]

My recommendation is to use Quicken. If you limit your methods of paying for things to a few accounts (checking/debit card, cash money in your pocket, one or two credit cards), it's very easy to track your spending.

I take about 15-30 minutes once a month to enter all my transactions into the Quicken Cash Flow Center. After a few months, the program will have "learned" your repeating expenses and it is really quick and painless to enter them all. Assign meaningful categories to your spending as you enter them.

With a few months worth of data, you'll be able to run reports that show your recurring mandatory and discretionary expenditures. From that you can develop a reasonable budget. Then you can look at a different set of reports that compare your actual spending to your projected budgeted amounts over time.

It's been very helpful to me to see what we REALLY spend--on eating out, medical insurance and copays, travel, etc.--that are intermittent transactions but really add up.

I've got Quicken 2003 Premiere that I think I paid about $65 for...money well spent. Many people also use it to track their investments, portfolio performance, etc. but I haven't really gotten into those features yet.

[retirementguy]

I am really glad to have learned about Quicken and your experience with it. Thanks! I feel better already.

[honcho2]

I'm not a great budgeter by any means. But one fairly effective tool i use in retirement is take the money that we intend to spend for the year and put it one or 2 different (interest bearing accounts - i have one at etrade and 1 at vanguard). Transfer the money in to your regular checking accounts at regular intervals based on what you think your regular monthly expenses will be. It's kind of like making sure your paycheck is going to get you through the month. Too big a disaster to start spending our retirement funds before we can afford to.

[Richard]

I like your idea honcho2, because we're doing the same. In that case it is less likely to happen that you "waste" money.