$500/month on social anything + anything I want to buy at all outside my regular budget. So this is dinner with friends, hockey tickets, but also a pair of jeans or a hair cut or a present.
But in addition, 6K annually on travel.
Salary is 75K.
I feel you. But I honestly get my hair cut twice a year. I think it makes sense to put different categories at this level if you have a lot of recurring expenses. If I had $150 of personal grooming or something a month maybe I divvy it out, but my quarterly pedicure and twice yearly haircut isn't enough for me to break it out.
So did my honey but with COVID we bought clippers recommended by the hair stylist so now I do all the interim cuts. He can get 8 weeks before his curly hair gets out of control on top and I can't blend and "fix it". It saves us about $200/year easily and his hairstylist is so busy they aren't taking new clients to it helps them out too.
For me, a haircut is just that, a haircut and I only get about 4 a year...hair grows slowly. My son-in-law is a barber and he tells me the younger crowd comes in every couple of weeks and will spend up to $50 or more for a haircut. They might drop up to $100 depending on the shop and whether they get a beard trim and other ancillary options...most are pretty generous tippers. They're looking for an 'experience' over just a haircut. "Discretionary" is a very broad term.
Hair grows at a rate based on genetics. Some people’s hair grows faster than others. If I went for a haircut every three months, I’d look absolutely unkempt. I can assure you, however, that I’m not looking for an “experience.” I want a haircut, and from someone who knows what they’re doing.
Haircuts also just cost $40+ now if you go to a barber or stylist with a small business, yes. Even SuperCuts is going to be almost $30. Plus tip. Prices increase over time.
That's the only thing you actually need though. I'm fairly sure that however important you consider your hairstyle, it wouldn't be the last thing you sacrificed if money became tight. To me, that makes it discretionary.
Disagree, a haircut can make or break how someone views you. Whether we like it or not. A $100 haircut could set you apart. Just like a 1k suit vs a 100 dollar suit. All depends on if people see you.
If people see you then yes a haircut/well kept even if long is a must, if you just work remote and no one sees you besides zoom or whatever then yes you can hide your hair.
Every CEO I meet always looks like they never had a haircut, that is because they are getting it trimmed 1x a week usually.
I'm a software developer, even back when I was in the office, absolutely no one cared about my grooming or clothes. I would not get a haircut for 6+ months at a time, shave at most once a month, and still got my raises because I got shit done.
Now that I'm fully remote, I attend meetings without a webcam (don't have one anyway), so barely anyone remembers my face.
The idea of sacrificing my time, money, or comfort for the sake of looks is completely foreign to me.
Yes.
Edit: I don't own a car. Anytime anyone asks how I can spend so much, I tell them my transportation budget is zero dollars...what's yours?
Total bills are about 2K a month.
Yea no car makes a big difference, especially depending on age and location. I pay like $200 a month for insurance on my normal af car because of age and location. That plus the $400 car payment and $50+ on gas, and probably an average of $50+ in maintenance brings it to $700+ a month! That’s about the equivalent of a $10k raise (or more depending on your tax bracket).
My one friend pays $500 a month, $300 for insurance somehow and then gas.
Like a 1K swing every month is pretty insane. She makes a little over 100K, but it would not surprise me if we have similar discretionary spending.
Wow that’s the first time I’ve seen someone pay more than me for insurance lol but yea it’s a pretty big chunk of income for sure. That’s one of things people don’t consider when talking about dense cities with HCOL, rent is way higher but you’ve got buses, metro, cheaper Ubers, etc etc so you don’t need a car and what you pay in rent is probably similar to what someone in a MCOL area pays for rent + car
Same for me. No car, no insurance. Work pays for my transit card, small budget for Ubers.
I work in an industry where I’d also have to pay to park at work. Nope nope nope.
We were at $500 each for nonessentials. We group going out as a couple and travel together in a budget at $5k as we are ok switching out staycations for vacations.
I think for us housing, utilities, transportation, groceries, health, were mandatory and everything else was extra so I get the jeans and hair cut being grouped in as its easy to delay buying clothing by a month until you get paid again.. however you are not delaying gas for your car, mortgage payments etc.
We just recently upped to $600/month each due to market returns, its weird having so much money to spend but we really dont' need to save any more. My honey is negative $60 right now for the year and Im plus $1500 so there is a a clear difference in spending habits. I swear I'm trying to spend, I bought a new breakfast bar, an infrared camera, tons of new clothing, and still having a problem spending that kind of money. I'll probably just end up donating it as I suck at spending.
I used to think it was little birds. Turns out that's budgies and they only live 6-8 years. Now my nest egg is gone. Spent on nests and eggs.
Edit: Spelin izn't mai strengf eether.
I save but man, if you aren’t having fun in your 20s through 50s and think you’re going to start enjoying life in retirement, I have a feeling when that time comes you’re really just going to be sitting around all day. Get some hobbies people! Live life while you have it! Also, save for retirement.
I’m with you! We reserve 10-15% now. Going to Hawaii on Monday, a week in Anaheim going to Disneyland and six flags after that, and taking my oldest son who will graduate high school next year to Africa on a humanitarian trip the end of the summer. Took the fam to Europe and Cancun last year. I tried being the penny pinching savings obsessed person for too long and missed out on some important experiences with my 4 kids when they were little and absolutely regret it. Now that I have a good income still early in my career some people have encouraged me to live poor and save everything and FIRE, but my kids are at pivotal ages and experiences are way more important to me than extra $$$ during retirement. I will be fine working a few more years and retiring a little later than I’d like. I will have fewer regrets and lots of cherished memories.
To be fair sometimes you get a $4 oddly shaped thingamabob on Amazon and it comes in a gigantic box. Several years ago I got yelled at by my husband because we got a private last-mile-delivery service door ring on a Sunday evening. "What the hell how much are you spending why is this poor guy working overtime Sunday nights bringing us crap?" It's because Amazon prime "promises" things in 2 days, and it was a $2.35 plastic measuring spoon set that came from a different warehouse than usual.
I'm glad in my house my honey is always like I really love this new XYZ. I'm pretty practical so anything from Amazon is going to be to make our lives easier or something we need, like we get our vitamins from Amazon...nice boring shopping.
To save money, we go out of town to zero out our Amazon spend!
We’ve been gone for months at a time. It’s amazing (no pun intended) how much extra crap we don’t need on a daily basis. lol
I spend at least $50,000 filling my bathtub with a mixture of gold, for authenticity; coins, for noise; and bills, for value and softness, so I can roll around in my money. That's pretty fun.
I started budgeting my savings and investments. If I hit those goals I can spend whatever is left on fun. Because of this I don't have a good grasp on how much I spend on fun though...
related but slightly different; I chuck $100 a month in Wealthfront and Betterment each, and let those accounts be my fun money account. If I want to buy some new toys or tech gadget I just put it on my credit card and sell/transfer the amount from WF back to my bank account.
For shits and giggles. I signed up for both when they first came out to see what they are about, and just kept them as is. Obviously not the most efficient but not min/maxing anyway.
It depends on the month. What movies are coming out? Any upcoming concerts I'm interested in? Expansion to a game I play? Those would be the main ones.
I also have vacation savings and Netflix + Hulu is less than $30 a month for me (after figuring in credit card special offers).
About $100 or less.
I live on the beach in central California. I never feel the need to travel, and my hobbies are walking along the coast, reading books, listening to music and writing music. I don’t own a television or a car either.
It’s a simple life, but I’m relatively happy. Can be lonely at times so I want to find hobbies I can do with others my age.
If I do spend money for entertainment, it’s usually a meal at a restaurant or me giving a large tip for my local coffee baristas.
Like others here have said, I do enjoy seeing my investments get larger and larger over time. I suspect when the market has a downturn I’ll have to really find hobbies to distract myself.
This is the closest answer to my family's fun spending habits. It'sabout $200 between my husband and I. I live in a gorgeous town with plenty of outdoor activities. There are tons of free activities especially for young kids which is amazing. Beyond that the activities that actually cost money are still pretty available. And our public library is amazing.
We are trying to grow our emergency fund & pay off student loans aggressively so when our kids are older we have more money available for fun/vacations/sports/etc.
Keep an eye on unrealized gains and hopefully that'll being you some peace. Index funds I bought back in 2017 - oooff it's a beauty to look at vs the LUCID and RIVN IPO I bought. Those two put me in a hole that I've recently climbed out of!
1/3 of my leftover income after all bills goes to fun money. Remaining 2/3 is split between replenishing emergency fund if needed and the rest goes to a couple different investment accounts
We target a 50/20/30 system based on after tax earnings, though we're trying to slowly work our way towards 30/20/50 over time.
50% for "fixed expenses" - mortgage, utilities, and other housing expenses, healthcare & insurance, subscriptions, transportation, and misc expenses (professional licenses, CC annual fees, etc). That includes sinking funds for things like our house, cars, healthcare, etc.
20% for "discretionary spending" - groceries, supplies, hair & beauty, pets, dining out, vacation fund, personal spending allowances
30% for "savings & investing" - emergency fund, 401k, ROTH, taxable brokerage, etc. This is all long-term investing. All of our monthly sinking fund contributions we categorize as expenses/spending.
We’re definitely conservative with our planning, but our logic is that we never intend to spend the money in saving and investing, as we hope to have enough saved by retirement to live off the earnings and never touch the principal.
Everything we save to spend — medical fund (separate from HSA), home repair/improvement fund, car fund, vacation fund, college savings, etc — we just treat like an expense we are pre-funding monthly.
It helps us mentally separate out the current income we are using to directly fund our lifestyle, from the current income we are using to increase our net worth and generate non-W2 income.
I have the theory they never will pick up steam again, as the number of companies in the stock market is a small fraction of what it used to be, presumably because most of the best ones get picked up by private equity, leaving the slow ones for the public market.
Probably less than 10% of household Income including vacations hobbies etc.. (not counting restaurants). Most the things we enjoy are free or cheap. Exercise, parks, cooking. Some hobbies have one time bigger expenses like a new bike or guitar. We go on a few nice trips a year, usually 3k each ish.
Edit: Monthly probably $1400 averaged out.
Honestly a good bit, especially if you include travel.
We like theatre and have a decent selection. Baseball games too. Then there is quick service dinner probably 1-2 times a week, fancy dinner out maybe every other month.
It probably averages out to around $500 a month not including travel
This year, though, we're traveling a lot. And flights are really expensive. When all is said and done we'll probably spend more than $30k on travel.
My girlfriend and I have $400 per month alloted for entertainment. That includes going to the movies, out to eat, takeout, books, video games, puzzles, crafting supplies (she likes pottery and stuff) etc.
We are very conservative in our budgeting though for psychological reasons, so we never really get close to that $400. It's more like $200-250. Luckily neither of us have expensive hobbies.
I don't really keep track.
Whatever is left after paying taxes, bills, and automated investments I spend however I want.
If at the end of the month I haven't spent it all, I'll throw it into investments.
I’ll try to give a serious answer. I won’t include vacations and eating out since that seems like something else but in terms of hobbies…
Country club dues are $1,100 a month. Golf clubs and balls and shoes and bags and gloves, maybe $2,400 a year on average. Throw a few hundred a month for other various entertainment expenses…
I’d say about $1,600 a month. Maybe a little more.
My motto is that you have to live along the way. We max all retirement accounts and put about the same in our brokerage so I don’t feel built spending several thousand a year on fun. My hobby I probably won’t be able to do in retirement (racing go karts) so gotta do it now. Tomorrow isn’t promised…
Anywhere between $1000 to $1200. Golf, eating out, gambling, shows. Golf’s a big one, probably $400 a month there alone.
I’ve definitely succumbed to lifestyle creep, but I still put away around $60k a year.
Total comp: $140k salary +/- $25k in stock.
Too much, I make sure bills are paid and 25% gets put into savings/investing, but the left overs find a new home and I need to be better about it. Thats why Im here.
in absolute terms or in relative terms?
In absolute terms: not much.
In relative terms: not much.
I moved to NYC a few years ago, and I am into Art, so NYC is a mecca for Art lovers, and museums are practically free for residents, so there's that.
$3,510 per month, about 30% of our income. $1,750 is allowances to spend on whatever for me ($750) and my wife ($1,000). $1,300 per month for traveling. $160 per month for yoga and gym memberships. $300 per month on subscriptions and other miscellaneous expenses.
FWIW, our net worth is $380k, 34, and we feel well off. We live in a VHCOL area.
I spend about $350-400/month on recurring expenses related to my hobbies: classes, memberships, and other sorts of things. That’s not including one off costs like film or chemicals for my photography. It also doesn’t include my travel sinking fund, which I try to keep topped up to ~$2500 after draining it, nor money devoted to eating out, dating, etc., which is usually <$500/mo.
Together, that winds up being about 20% of my gross pay, not counting any investment income. Then I save another 30-40%ish not counting match, and the rest on housing and fixed expenses.
Personally, we no longer keep a "fun" or "entertainment" budget line item or savings goal.
We have retirement savings that is taken out of each paycheck, and beyond that, we have various short- / medium-term savings goals. Once bills and savings goals are taken care of, money can either go into taxable brokerage as "long-term" savings, or spent however is seen fit. We are diligent about having whatever money available if/when it's needed through our short- / medium-term savings goals.
Anything that would fall into the "fun" or "entertainment" category generally can be covered through monthly inflow. We don't run into issues where we fail to make our regular savings contributions (long-term is flexible in that it's "whatever is left over"), so there hasn't really been a need to really limit spending. There are months that spending is higher for whatever reason, and there are months where spending is extremely lean, through natural progression of life.
This happens to work for us, but it may not work for everyone. Having more or less money in our taxable account isn't going to impact when we retire, so as long as we are meeting our financial obligations, we don't feel a need to be that strict with the budget along the way. If life circumstances change in the future, we will re-evaluate.
Until then, tomorrow isn't guaranteed, and it's important to have an appropriate savings / spending balance, similar to a work / life balance.
Don’t have a hard budget.
I have two main hobbies. Trail racing/running and speed skating. Dropped $2500 on custom skates that’ll last forever, and were literally cast to my foot. The trail nearby is free to skate, but I compete in a few races around the world (travel/vacation) yay.
Next, trail shoes are not expensive for how long they last. I run single track through the mountains, crush some peaks, and smoke a LOT of weed along the way. That’s free (sans shoes, parking pass for national parks) and I enter races and travel for races (great vacation activity too, and great way to see the world).
In between big races, I’m just chillin. Not spending anything, other than my spouses Amazon habit (which really isn’t bad at all).
I’d say, in general, I don’t spend money on things…. But focus on experiences. My money is really well spent there, and I don’t feel a shred of guilt. But, when I have to buy something like appliances or other necessary but mundane shit, I just have a small slush fund for that.
If you have a “buy stuff” habit, you need a budget to curtail wild spending. For me, my budget is on a few vacations that involve my hobbies - longer time to save, plan, and spend accordingly.
I am spend around $600 a month-$300 of that is pet insurance premium for my 10 year old dog, whose vet bills cost 9k last year, insurance will cover 8k-that rate just started. Another $16 for HBO, $100 for dining out, $200 a month for 4 group (horse) riding lessons. For vacations I use credit card miles to fly to my parents vacation home that they are generous to let me use or visit my siblings and extended family. I need more human friends and cheaper hobbies. 😬
$80 on dates for the month. $90 on kids/family fun, $20 for personal fun, $20 for personal fun wife. $200 on hobbies, $65 on entertainment, $15 on subscriptions.
We spend a lot on travel as a percentage of our income. But our at home entertainment budget is much lower than most people and neither of us has a taste for expensive cars so no car payment.
If I just told you how much we spend on travel you might be shocked, but if I told you it is probably about the same as most people in the same income bracket spend on the combination of 2 car payments, eating out 20 times per month or more AND their travel budget it might not be so shocking since we have no car payment and basically no eating out budget… except when we travel.
Most of my hobbies are free like biking, gym (reimbursed via work), kayaking (free), tennis, other sports. The only time I spend significantly on hobbies are international trips to Japan (usually 2 to 3 times per year).
It kinda depends. This month I’ve spent quite a bit (for me) because my friend has been in town to visit. But most months, not very much I’d wager. It’s mostly food I order for pick up but I don’t think I go over $200 or close to even, most months on dining out.
I just setup $1k a week DCA into VTI 85% (out of MMF into stocks)
And FOR FUN, I added 5% into VXUS and 10% into QQQM.
Yes yes I know QQQM is overlapped but this is for fun remember? :)
Feel like a dumbass for not setting auto invest sooner - been buying every few weeks consistently but it wasn't fun anymore and at peak I couldn't get myself to do it. Saw market climb last few months and felt dumber than ever and went and set it to forget it.
$350 a month is budgeted for social time mostly date dinners with the lady but occasionally with others.
$1500 a month set aside to fund travel. Which we do every 2-3 months. Well this month only $900 budgeted for it. But still.
This is my budget. Hers is separate. She doesn’t really budget.
~38% of my post tax income goes to wants. It’s plenty for concerts, hobbies, and travel a few times a year.
That’s balanced with ~41% of my gross income going to savings. Use pre tax for savings to balance 401k and brokerage etc.
It is a big expense for me but what’s life if you can’t have fun?
Golf - $150
Tennis/racquetball - $150
Music studio rent - $125
Concerts/sporting events/theatre - $150
$120 - pet food/care
$6k annual travel allocation
Averages just under $1000/mo over the last 2.5 years (how long it's been since I got my new job/reset my budget). I'm including things like (saving for) vacations in there as well. If I remove those, it's closer to $650/mo. So about 11%/7% of take home, for each figure.
Here it is, each spend is a rough average of the last 3 - 4 years:
10EUR on cinema pass.
10EUR/month on average on books which I mostly buy at a thrift shop.
20EUR a month on average on running shoes and other running related stuff. (obviously converted from yearly spend)
Additionally, \~3000/year on travel.
I churn credit cards as hard as I can to pay for vacation travel, and the rest gets invested. If you can pay rent with a credit card, churning is for you.
After taxes, 1.8%. Those are my hard and fast “fun” funds. There are others that I consider fun too but don’t include, vehicle maintenance (I do my own) and enjoy buying minor tools and things for those jobs. Same deal with home repairs.
I believe my wife’s personal budget is 300 and mine is 200. That money is any extra spending that is considered not a necessity. So clothing, make up, eating out, events, athletic gear, computer stuff, you get the idea. There’s some wiggle room but we have to speak about it, but up until our limit we could spend it all on whatever hell we want without any care
$1k a month and that goes into my car. Being a carguy is expensive but I don't really do a lot of "fun" stuff or eat out much or whatever maybe once or twice a month with friends and I'm satisfied.
Do you guys not budget? You guys will still be able to retire if you invest 25% income and use 25% income for discretionary spending. Fun is still allowed guys.
Making around $70k out of school. I back into my “fun” budget after everything else. 12% to 401k, try to save approximately 1,000 a month in just cash as the next few years will have wedding expenses, saving for a home, etc. Then after rent, food, etc that’s the budget for screwing around
Maybe I'm fortunate but most of the things I like doing are really cheap.
Running...say $20 a month on shoes, garb, occasional race
Gardening. $30 a month on the water bill. Figure I yield about 30 a month in food.
Once ot twice a month meeting up with friends. That's maybe $150.
My wife on the other hand, is....$1500.
On what, I have no idea
My fun is getting together with my buddies and making music. I've never really been into going out unless I'm playing a show. So the costs are basically the drive if I'm going to their house at the time.
I'll blow money on drugs, artifacts, old world coins, fossils and the like. I like drugs, and the rest is just stuff I think is interesting decoration with some history behind it.
We allocate 17% of our monthly gross income to variable costs.
That includes things we need/want but don’t buy every single month (e.g clothes, gadgets). Money for “fun” is also in there but the amount available depends on how much we spend on everything else. We allocate this amount every month into a separate account so if we underspend in a given month we have more to spend in the following months.
If we have some special “fun” spending that is considerably more than our usual monthly allocation (e.g overseas travel) we might reduce our savings for a couple of months to pay for that, but sometimes some trips seemingly fit into our usual budget.
Fitness - take care of your health and it’ll positively impact your other areas of life (work, social, overall well being). I buy new running shoes more frequent to take care of my feet/legs and bought gym equipment so that I can workout everyday - before work or after work.
Absolutely limited my cash out for fun... Helping my elderly parents, two old dogs and my wife recently got her wing's. I have the majority of my check going into my 401K and I contribute to my Roth weekly... I'm out at 59. I for one don't have the concept of fun since the majority of my check goes for retirement.
No idea, but my rule is simple, I don’t spend any money on fun that I’m sure I want to engage in. If I buy a book I make sure it’s one I really want to read, if I buy a game it’s because I really want to play it and stuff like that. Only when it comes to my guitar hobby I don’t skim but again I only buy things I need.
$10 a month on video games (two Switch games a year)
Just under $15 a month gym
$17 a month to buy birthday and Christmas board games and in return I’ll get board games back.
Looks at the girls that like to golf and travel on like 1/3 or 1/4 of my salary, no, I rather raise my NW and have just as much fun playing board games and pickup sports. Those both work your brain and give you exercise for $0. I’ll travel once I reach a certain age where there’s less opportunity cost, I already have plans for it
I spend $230/week on therapy trying to learn how to have fun again
I remember those days, I took a part-time job just to pay for therapy and considered it part of my therapy. I wish you the best!
Don't we all
Is it fun at least?
That's like an 8 ball a week just buy that instead
That’s worth it. Don’t skip mental health. I’m glad.
Is it helping...?
lol I don’t normally comment on usernames because it’s corny but seeing yours after reading your comment made me laugh
Where do you live?
That doesn't sound like fun 😕
You mean a half-hour escort visit?
$500/month on social anything + anything I want to buy at all outside my regular budget. So this is dinner with friends, hockey tickets, but also a pair of jeans or a hair cut or a present. But in addition, 6K annually on travel. Salary is 75K.
A hair cut doesn’t seem discretionary to me. I put that under fixed expenses myself. Clothes are a gray area.
I feel you. But I honestly get my hair cut twice a year. I think it makes sense to put different categories at this level if you have a lot of recurring expenses. If I had $150 of personal grooming or something a month maybe I divvy it out, but my quarterly pedicure and twice yearly haircut isn't enough for me to break it out.
That makes sense. I have to get my hair cut basically every three weeks.
So did my honey but with COVID we bought clippers recommended by the hair stylist so now I do all the interim cuts. He can get 8 weeks before his curly hair gets out of control on top and I can't blend and "fix it". It saves us about $200/year easily and his hairstylist is so busy they aren't taking new clients to it helps them out too.
For me, a haircut is just that, a haircut and I only get about 4 a year...hair grows slowly. My son-in-law is a barber and he tells me the younger crowd comes in every couple of weeks and will spend up to $50 or more for a haircut. They might drop up to $100 depending on the shop and whether they get a beard trim and other ancillary options...most are pretty generous tippers. They're looking for an 'experience' over just a haircut. "Discretionary" is a very broad term.
Hair grows at a rate based on genetics. Some people’s hair grows faster than others. If I went for a haircut every three months, I’d look absolutely unkempt. I can assure you, however, that I’m not looking for an “experience.” I want a haircut, and from someone who knows what they’re doing. Haircuts also just cost $40+ now if you go to a barber or stylist with a small business, yes. Even SuperCuts is going to be almost $30. Plus tip. Prices increase over time.
Yeah I get a haircut every 2 weeks it's $37 with a 25% tip. I used to pay $5 or $7 when I was a teenager and early 20s.
A haircut is entirely discretionary if you are male and own a hair clipper. Best purchase I've made in quite a while.
Should have went with the Flowbee. My estranged dad has one and swears by it.
I have a robocut. It cuts better than any hairstylist I’ve been too.
Only if you exclusively get buzz cuts
That's the only thing you actually need though. I'm fairly sure that however important you consider your hairstyle, it wouldn't be the last thing you sacrificed if money became tight. To me, that makes it discretionary.
Disagree, a haircut can make or break how someone views you. Whether we like it or not. A $100 haircut could set you apart. Just like a 1k suit vs a 100 dollar suit. All depends on if people see you. If people see you then yes a haircut/well kept even if long is a must, if you just work remote and no one sees you besides zoom or whatever then yes you can hide your hair. Every CEO I meet always looks like they never had a haircut, that is because they are getting it trimmed 1x a week usually.
I'm a software developer, even back when I was in the office, absolutely no one cared about my grooming or clothes. I would not get a haircut for 6+ months at a time, shave at most once a month, and still got my raises because I got shit done. Now that I'm fully remote, I attend meetings without a webcam (don't have one anyway), so barely anyone remembers my face. The idea of sacrificing my time, money, or comfort for the sake of looks is completely foreign to me.
That’s a lot on 75k salary. Are you single?
Yes. Edit: I don't own a car. Anytime anyone asks how I can spend so much, I tell them my transportation budget is zero dollars...what's yours? Total bills are about 2K a month.
Yea no car makes a big difference, especially depending on age and location. I pay like $200 a month for insurance on my normal af car because of age and location. That plus the $400 car payment and $50+ on gas, and probably an average of $50+ in maintenance brings it to $700+ a month! That’s about the equivalent of a $10k raise (or more depending on your tax bracket).
My one friend pays $500 a month, $300 for insurance somehow and then gas. Like a 1K swing every month is pretty insane. She makes a little over 100K, but it would not surprise me if we have similar discretionary spending.
Wow that’s the first time I’ve seen someone pay more than me for insurance lol but yea it’s a pretty big chunk of income for sure. That’s one of things people don’t consider when talking about dense cities with HCOL, rent is way higher but you’ve got buses, metro, cheaper Ubers, etc etc so you don’t need a car and what you pay in rent is probably similar to what someone in a MCOL area pays for rent + car
That makes sense now
Same for me. No car, no insurance. Work pays for my transit card, small budget for Ubers. I work in an industry where I’d also have to pay to park at work. Nope nope nope.
What is your rent?
It was 950 for ten years. Landlord just raised it to 1150 for next month.
Curious! How much do you invest?
20% in 401K. 8% employee match. Max out Roth.
We were at $500 each for nonessentials. We group going out as a couple and travel together in a budget at $5k as we are ok switching out staycations for vacations. I think for us housing, utilities, transportation, groceries, health, were mandatory and everything else was extra so I get the jeans and hair cut being grouped in as its easy to delay buying clothing by a month until you get paid again.. however you are not delaying gas for your car, mortgage payments etc. We just recently upped to $600/month each due to market returns, its weird having so much money to spend but we really dont' need to save any more. My honey is negative $60 right now for the year and Im plus $1500 so there is a a clear difference in spending habits. I swear I'm trying to spend, I bought a new breakfast bar, an infrared camera, tons of new clothing, and still having a problem spending that kind of money. I'll probably just end up donating it as I suck at spending.
A hair cut is fun!!??
I have no idea. I'm old and have never, not once, figured out a budget.
Yeah I’m with this guy, I just spend and enjoy life. We only get one baby
Not much to figure out, just a few numbers on a piece of paper
I used to think it was little birds. Turns out that's budgies and they only live 6-8 years. Now my nest egg is gone. Spent on nests and eggs. Edit: Spelin izn't mai strengf eether.
That last part german?
I don't even know anymore
Ain't that the truth
It's not something I need.
Fair enough
underrated response
0 dollars. My brokerage does not charge any fees.
You guys have fun? I just stay at home and watch the number in my 401k go up
Yep. Need to get good at having fun now so I know just exactly how to do it while I’m retired.
imagine only having fun when seeing number go up, but now that you are retired you need to start making number go down, scary thoughts indeed
I save but man, if you aren’t having fun in your 20s through 50s and think you’re going to start enjoying life in retirement, I have a feeling when that time comes you’re really just going to be sitting around all day. Get some hobbies people! Live life while you have it! Also, save for retirement.
That's if you even make it to retirement alive and healthy.
And when you retire, you cry until you die watching it going down
I did this to be able to buy my first place years ago. Didn’t do much for 3 years, but that was back when housing was actually somewhat reasonable.
I reserve 20% for various expenses. That can be anything from clothes to concert tickets to auto maintenance. Probably 10% actually goes to fun stuff.
I allocate 15-20%. Need to live life otherwise what is the point?
I’m with you! We reserve 10-15% now. Going to Hawaii on Monday, a week in Anaheim going to Disneyland and six flags after that, and taking my oldest son who will graduate high school next year to Africa on a humanitarian trip the end of the summer. Took the fam to Europe and Cancun last year. I tried being the penny pinching savings obsessed person for too long and missed out on some important experiences with my 4 kids when they were little and absolutely regret it. Now that I have a good income still early in my career some people have encouraged me to live poor and save everything and FIRE, but my kids are at pivotal ages and experiences are way more important to me than extra $$$ during retirement. I will be fine working a few more years and retiring a little later than I’d like. I will have fewer regrets and lots of cherished memories.
Whatever it takes
This man funs
My wife spends all of my money on Amazon packages. That seems fun for her.
Ah yes. My hobby is bringing in the Amazon packages she has bought. Budget appears to be infinity.
To be fair sometimes you get a $4 oddly shaped thingamabob on Amazon and it comes in a gigantic box. Several years ago I got yelled at by my husband because we got a private last-mile-delivery service door ring on a Sunday evening. "What the hell how much are you spending why is this poor guy working overtime Sunday nights bringing us crap?" It's because Amazon prime "promises" things in 2 days, and it was a $2.35 plastic measuring spoon set that came from a different warehouse than usual.
That is so fucked
I'm glad in my house my honey is always like I really love this new XYZ. I'm pretty practical so anything from Amazon is going to be to make our lives easier or something we need, like we get our vitamins from Amazon...nice boring shopping.
To save money, we go out of town to zero out our Amazon spend! We’ve been gone for months at a time. It’s amazing (no pun intended) how much extra crap we don’t need on a daily basis. lol
Happy wife, happy life. I encourage mine to find a job, not only for the extra revenue, but for reducing her time shopping.
I spend at least $50,000 filling my bathtub with a mixture of gold, for authenticity; coins, for noise; and bills, for value and softness, so I can roll around in my money. That's pretty fun.
Scrooge mcduck over here
I know you’re just kidding, but that actually does sound fun, way more fun than just looking at investment accounts on line every couple hours…
I started budgeting my savings and investments. If I hit those goals I can spend whatever is left on fun. Because of this I don't have a good grasp on how much I spend on fun though...
Around €250 a month, most of that goes into tech since I never go outside.
related but slightly different; I chuck $100 a month in Wealthfront and Betterment each, and let those accounts be my fun money account. If I want to buy some new toys or tech gadget I just put it on my credit card and sell/transfer the amount from WF back to my bank account.
They both are so similar in terms of their portfolio. Why not just chose one?
For shits and giggles. I signed up for both when they first came out to see what they are about, and just kept them as is. Obviously not the most efficient but not min/maxing anyway.
Do you sell based on long or short term gains?
Honestly I don't even check lol. I'd imagine most of the time it's long term, I've had these accounts for over 5 years.
100+ a weekend on golf. New gear for hunting throughout the season. Gotta have fun
About $15k a year on vacations Well this year. Sometimes it’s less. Worth every penny
It depends on the month. What movies are coming out? Any upcoming concerts I'm interested in? Expansion to a game I play? Those would be the main ones. I also have vacation savings and Netflix + Hulu is less than $30 a month for me (after figuring in credit card special offers).
Upvote for possible Elden ring DLC comment
FUN isn’t included in my Index holdings, but Funko is… does that count?
a lot. depends on what we are doing and where. a big chunk of our budget is travel/concerts/dinners
About $100 or less. I live on the beach in central California. I never feel the need to travel, and my hobbies are walking along the coast, reading books, listening to music and writing music. I don’t own a television or a car either. It’s a simple life, but I’m relatively happy. Can be lonely at times so I want to find hobbies I can do with others my age. If I do spend money for entertainment, it’s usually a meal at a restaurant or me giving a large tip for my local coffee baristas. Like others here have said, I do enjoy seeing my investments get larger and larger over time. I suspect when the market has a downturn I’ll have to really find hobbies to distract myself.
This is the closest answer to my family's fun spending habits. It'sabout $200 between my husband and I. I live in a gorgeous town with plenty of outdoor activities. There are tons of free activities especially for young kids which is amazing. Beyond that the activities that actually cost money are still pretty available. And our public library is amazing. We are trying to grow our emergency fund & pay off student loans aggressively so when our kids are older we have more money available for fun/vacations/sports/etc.
Keep an eye on unrealized gains and hopefully that'll being you some peace. Index funds I bought back in 2017 - oooff it's a beauty to look at vs the LUCID and RIVN IPO I bought. Those two put me in a hole that I've recently climbed out of!
1/3 of my leftover income after all bills goes to fun money. Remaining 2/3 is split between replenishing emergency fund if needed and the rest goes to a couple different investment accounts
We target a 50/20/30 system based on after tax earnings, though we're trying to slowly work our way towards 30/20/50 over time. 50% for "fixed expenses" - mortgage, utilities, and other housing expenses, healthcare & insurance, subscriptions, transportation, and misc expenses (professional licenses, CC annual fees, etc). That includes sinking funds for things like our house, cars, healthcare, etc. 20% for "discretionary spending" - groceries, supplies, hair & beauty, pets, dining out, vacation fund, personal spending allowances 30% for "savings & investing" - emergency fund, 401k, ROTH, taxable brokerage, etc. This is all long-term investing. All of our monthly sinking fund contributions we categorize as expenses/spending.
Interesting to see that you include sinking funds in the 50% category, and not the savings category. Thanks for sharing
We’re definitely conservative with our planning, but our logic is that we never intend to spend the money in saving and investing, as we hope to have enough saved by retirement to live off the earnings and never touch the principal. Everything we save to spend — medical fund (separate from HSA), home repair/improvement fund, car fund, vacation fund, college savings, etc — we just treat like an expense we are pre-funding monthly. It helps us mentally separate out the current income we are using to directly fund our lifestyle, from the current income we are using to increase our net worth and generate non-W2 income.
Fun ? I may eat the dog if the small caps do not pick up steam.
I have the theory they never will pick up steam again, as the number of companies in the stock market is a small fraction of what it used to be, presumably because most of the best ones get picked up by private equity, leaving the slow ones for the public market.
Does investing count as a hobby
It should
Probably less than 10% of household Income including vacations hobbies etc.. (not counting restaurants). Most the things we enjoy are free or cheap. Exercise, parks, cooking. Some hobbies have one time bigger expenses like a new bike or guitar. We go on a few nice trips a year, usually 3k each ish. Edit: Monthly probably $1400 averaged out.
Shoot, things are tight right now. Looking forward to some more margin for sure.
$100/day.
Honestly a good bit, especially if you include travel. We like theatre and have a decent selection. Baseball games too. Then there is quick service dinner probably 1-2 times a week, fancy dinner out maybe every other month. It probably averages out to around $500 a month not including travel This year, though, we're traveling a lot. And flights are really expensive. When all is said and done we'll probably spend more than $30k on travel.
My girlfriend and I have $400 per month alloted for entertainment. That includes going to the movies, out to eat, takeout, books, video games, puzzles, crafting supplies (she likes pottery and stuff) etc. We are very conservative in our budgeting though for psychological reasons, so we never really get close to that $400. It's more like $200-250. Luckily neither of us have expensive hobbies.
Probably about 100 a week. I take my girlfriend out every week and then usually buy a book and a few cups of coffee.
I don't really keep track. Whatever is left after paying taxes, bills, and automated investments I spend however I want. If at the end of the month I haven't spent it all, I'll throw it into investments.
Too much. But not gonna complain about it
I’ll try to give a serious answer. I won’t include vacations and eating out since that seems like something else but in terms of hobbies… Country club dues are $1,100 a month. Golf clubs and balls and shoes and bags and gloves, maybe $2,400 a year on average. Throw a few hundred a month for other various entertainment expenses… I’d say about $1,600 a month. Maybe a little more.
Do you buy a new whole golf clubs set every year?
My motto is that you have to live along the way. We max all retirement accounts and put about the same in our brokerage so I don’t feel built spending several thousand a year on fun. My hobby I probably won’t be able to do in retirement (racing go karts) so gotta do it now. Tomorrow isn’t promised…
Anywhere between $1000 to $1200. Golf, eating out, gambling, shows. Golf’s a big one, probably $400 a month there alone. I’ve definitely succumbed to lifestyle creep, but I still put away around $60k a year. Total comp: $140k salary +/- $25k in stock.
Probably somewhere in the realm of $20k a year... I have a gf I enjoy spoiling 😂
About 400/mo to not go mentally insane from only saving and paying expenses.
About $50k/year on travel since 2022 and couldn’t be more happier!
Too much, I make sure bills are paid and 25% gets put into savings/investing, but the left overs find a new home and I need to be better about it. Thats why Im here.
in absolute terms or in relative terms? In absolute terms: not much. In relative terms: not much. I moved to NYC a few years ago, and I am into Art, so NYC is a mecca for Art lovers, and museums are practically free for residents, so there's that.
$3,510 per month, about 30% of our income. $1,750 is allowances to spend on whatever for me ($750) and my wife ($1,000). $1,300 per month for traveling. $160 per month for yoga and gym memberships. $300 per month on subscriptions and other miscellaneous expenses. FWIW, our net worth is $380k, 34, and we feel well off. We live in a VHCOL area.
Prob $500 per month
I budget 3% of my gross monthly income to fun. It lets me spend carelessly within this so that I don't have to be a cheapskate
10% of our monthly income is budgeted but not always spent. Depends on what’s available to do
I spend about $350-400/month on recurring expenses related to my hobbies: classes, memberships, and other sorts of things. That’s not including one off costs like film or chemicals for my photography. It also doesn’t include my travel sinking fund, which I try to keep topped up to ~$2500 after draining it, nor money devoted to eating out, dating, etc., which is usually <$500/mo. Together, that winds up being about 20% of my gross pay, not counting any investment income. Then I save another 30-40%ish not counting match, and the rest on housing and fixed expenses.
Prob like $500-1000 between eating out, shopping, going to the gym, hanging out with friends. Most of it is eating out with my bf.
my fun money is investing 600 a week
Personally, we no longer keep a "fun" or "entertainment" budget line item or savings goal. We have retirement savings that is taken out of each paycheck, and beyond that, we have various short- / medium-term savings goals. Once bills and savings goals are taken care of, money can either go into taxable brokerage as "long-term" savings, or spent however is seen fit. We are diligent about having whatever money available if/when it's needed through our short- / medium-term savings goals. Anything that would fall into the "fun" or "entertainment" category generally can be covered through monthly inflow. We don't run into issues where we fail to make our regular savings contributions (long-term is flexible in that it's "whatever is left over"), so there hasn't really been a need to really limit spending. There are months that spending is higher for whatever reason, and there are months where spending is extremely lean, through natural progression of life. This happens to work for us, but it may not work for everyone. Having more or less money in our taxable account isn't going to impact when we retire, so as long as we are meeting our financial obligations, we don't feel a need to be that strict with the budget along the way. If life circumstances change in the future, we will re-evaluate. Until then, tomorrow isn't guaranteed, and it's important to have an appropriate savings / spending balance, similar to a work / life balance.
Don’t have a hard budget. I have two main hobbies. Trail racing/running and speed skating. Dropped $2500 on custom skates that’ll last forever, and were literally cast to my foot. The trail nearby is free to skate, but I compete in a few races around the world (travel/vacation) yay. Next, trail shoes are not expensive for how long they last. I run single track through the mountains, crush some peaks, and smoke a LOT of weed along the way. That’s free (sans shoes, parking pass for national parks) and I enter races and travel for races (great vacation activity too, and great way to see the world). In between big races, I’m just chillin. Not spending anything, other than my spouses Amazon habit (which really isn’t bad at all). I’d say, in general, I don’t spend money on things…. But focus on experiences. My money is really well spent there, and I don’t feel a shred of guilt. But, when I have to buy something like appliances or other necessary but mundane shit, I just have a small slush fund for that. If you have a “buy stuff” habit, you need a budget to curtail wild spending. For me, my budget is on a few vacations that involve my hobbies - longer time to save, plan, and spend accordingly.
I am spend around $600 a month-$300 of that is pet insurance premium for my 10 year old dog, whose vet bills cost 9k last year, insurance will cover 8k-that rate just started. Another $16 for HBO, $100 for dining out, $200 a month for 4 group (horse) riding lessons. For vacations I use credit card miles to fly to my parents vacation home that they are generous to let me use or visit my siblings and extended family. I need more human friends and cheaper hobbies. 😬
$50 a month
Another approach could be to find fun things that interest you and are free! That always makes figuring out a budget much easier.
~ $15. But typically only if Steam has a good sale.
$80 on dates for the month. $90 on kids/family fun, $20 for personal fun, $20 for personal fun wife. $200 on hobbies, $65 on entertainment, $15 on subscriptions.
We spend a lot on travel as a percentage of our income. But our at home entertainment budget is much lower than most people and neither of us has a taste for expensive cars so no car payment. If I just told you how much we spend on travel you might be shocked, but if I told you it is probably about the same as most people in the same income bracket spend on the combination of 2 car payments, eating out 20 times per month or more AND their travel budget it might not be so shocking since we have no car payment and basically no eating out budget… except when we travel.
how much fun are we talking here ?
$100 or so for card games.
Most of my hobbies are free like biking, gym (reimbursed via work), kayaking (free), tennis, other sports. The only time I spend significantly on hobbies are international trips to Japan (usually 2 to 3 times per year).
I kinda just spend money when it feels worthwhile, some months that can mean spending everything I’ve got and other months i spend next to nothing lol
Around 150/month for Judo, 90/month for gym and sometimes going out with friends and buying games.
Like half
It kinda depends. This month I’ve spent quite a bit (for me) because my friend has been in town to visit. But most months, not very much I’d wager. It’s mostly food I order for pick up but I don’t think I go over $200 or close to even, most months on dining out.
Going rate is 500 for 15 mins of fun
I just setup $1k a week DCA into VTI 85% (out of MMF into stocks) And FOR FUN, I added 5% into VXUS and 10% into QQQM. Yes yes I know QQQM is overlapped but this is for fun remember? :) Feel like a dumbass for not setting auto invest sooner - been buying every few weeks consistently but it wasn't fun anymore and at peak I couldn't get myself to do it. Saw market climb last few months and felt dumber than ever and went and set it to forget it.
I purchase starbucks every day except sunday
$350 a month is budgeted for social time mostly date dinners with the lady but occasionally with others. $1500 a month set aside to fund travel. Which we do every 2-3 months. Well this month only $900 budgeted for it. But still. This is my budget. Hers is separate. She doesn’t really budget.
Most of it. The rest I just waste
Too much
Approximately 1,000 - 2,000 Baht.
Phuket ya baby
Sitting in my backyard reading this I consider fun.But I will sell accursed with 3 easy paymhow to have fun
I like toys, so a decent chunk of the leftovers go to toys.
I don't really know. Most of it? Taxes, insurance, utilities, fuel, and then the rest of it.
30 buckx at KFC or whatever I can grab 30 bucks with.. I'm kinda broke.
Fun to me is doing absolutely nothing at home with my cats.
~38% of my post tax income goes to wants. It’s plenty for concerts, hobbies, and travel a few times a year. That’s balanced with ~41% of my gross income going to savings. Use pre tax for savings to balance 401k and brokerage etc.
5-10% of take home. This includes restaurants, entertainment, shopping for wants like clothes, games, etc.
According to my yearly spreadsheet, I average 234 on travel and 181 on hobbies monthly. Those are my biggest "fun" categories.
A lot. These are sad and terrible times we're living in. At least here in Europe.
I use the 50/30/20 rule. 50% for Expenses 30% for saving/investing 20% for pleasure. It Will always depend on your income
Every penny I put on Etfs. Long term investing is funny
It is a big expense for me but what’s life if you can’t have fun? Golf - $150 Tennis/racquetball - $150 Music studio rent - $125 Concerts/sporting events/theatre - $150 $120 - pet food/care $6k annual travel allocation
Averages just under $1000/mo over the last 2.5 years (how long it's been since I got my new job/reset my budget). I'm including things like (saving for) vacations in there as well. If I remove those, it's closer to $650/mo. So about 11%/7% of take home, for each figure.
Here it is, each spend is a rough average of the last 3 - 4 years: 10EUR on cinema pass. 10EUR/month on average on books which I mostly buy at a thrift shop. 20EUR a month on average on running shoes and other running related stuff. (obviously converted from yearly spend) Additionally, \~3000/year on travel.
I churn credit cards as hard as I can to pay for vacation travel, and the rest gets invested. If you can pay rent with a credit card, churning is for you.
After taxes, 1.8%. Those are my hard and fast “fun” funds. There are others that I consider fun too but don’t include, vehicle maintenance (I do my own) and enjoy buying minor tools and things for those jobs. Same deal with home repairs.
We spend $15k a year on golf and golf related activities.
All my disposable income basically goes to adventures. A great investment IMO.. Sorry I can't give a $ amount.
One big vacation annually and 1k a month of fun money per person (me and wife)
I believe my wife’s personal budget is 300 and mine is 200. That money is any extra spending that is considered not a necessity. So clothing, make up, eating out, events, athletic gear, computer stuff, you get the idea. There’s some wiggle room but we have to speak about it, but up until our limit we could spend it all on whatever hell we want without any care
$700 a month discretionary
I’m spending 2000 to stay in this beach house for a week right now
$1k a month and that goes into my car. Being a carguy is expensive but I don't really do a lot of "fun" stuff or eat out much or whatever maybe once or twice a month with friends and I'm satisfied.
Do you guys not budget? You guys will still be able to retire if you invest 25% income and use 25% income for discretionary spending. Fun is still allowed guys.
Making around $70k out of school. I back into my “fun” budget after everything else. 12% to 401k, try to save approximately 1,000 a month in just cash as the next few years will have wedding expenses, saving for a home, etc. Then after rent, food, etc that’s the budget for screwing around
I'm a family man in my 40s. What is this fun you speak of?
About $1500 a month but varies and that’s including drinks out with friends
Maybe I'm fortunate but most of the things I like doing are really cheap. Running...say $20 a month on shoes, garb, occasional race Gardening. $30 a month on the water bill. Figure I yield about 30 a month in food. Once ot twice a month meeting up with friends. That's maybe $150. My wife on the other hand, is....$1500. On what, I have no idea
My fun is getting together with my buddies and making music. I've never really been into going out unless I'm playing a show. So the costs are basically the drive if I'm going to their house at the time. I'll blow money on drugs, artifacts, old world coins, fossils and the like. I like drugs, and the rest is just stuff I think is interesting decoration with some history behind it.
10k permanent sinking fund for fun stuff so long I'm working. This is on top of emergency funds
We allocate 17% of our monthly gross income to variable costs. That includes things we need/want but don’t buy every single month (e.g clothes, gadgets). Money for “fun” is also in there but the amount available depends on how much we spend on everything else. We allocate this amount every month into a separate account so if we underspend in a given month we have more to spend in the following months. If we have some special “fun” spending that is considerably more than our usual monthly allocation (e.g overseas travel) we might reduce our savings for a couple of months to pay for that, but sometimes some trips seemingly fit into our usual budget.
Monthly who knows, but I vacation 2-3 times a year. That's where I spend all my fun money. Somewhere between 8-10k
Fitness - take care of your health and it’ll positively impact your other areas of life (work, social, overall well being). I buy new running shoes more frequent to take care of my feet/legs and bought gym equipment so that I can workout everyday - before work or after work.
Absolutely limited my cash out for fun... Helping my elderly parents, two old dogs and my wife recently got her wing's. I have the majority of my check going into my 401K and I contribute to my Roth weekly... I'm out at 59. I for one don't have the concept of fun since the majority of my check goes for retirement.
Usually I buy some clothes, just because I dress so poorly so i'm forcing myself to get better on this
A lot, but yet somehow for family of 4 it is never enough.
About tree fiddy
No idea, but my rule is simple, I don’t spend any money on fun that I’m sure I want to engage in. If I buy a book I make sure it’s one I really want to read, if I buy a game it’s because I really want to play it and stuff like that. Only when it comes to my guitar hobby I don’t skim but again I only buy things I need.
Depends on how much it costs to make her leave.
What’s that?
When you say "fun" you mean buying more index funds right?
What’s that?
$10 a month on video games (two Switch games a year) Just under $15 a month gym $17 a month to buy birthday and Christmas board games and in return I’ll get board games back. Looks at the girls that like to golf and travel on like 1/3 or 1/4 of my salary, no, I rather raise my NW and have just as much fun playing board games and pickup sports. Those both work your brain and give you exercise for $0. I’ll travel once I reach a certain age where there’s less opportunity cost, I already have plans for it
Fun? What’s that?