January 2022 Spending Report - Our Nomadic FIRE Life (Financial Independence, Retire Early)

[@Nyhiker]

Great video! I think we missed out on a lot in Guadalajara. Looks like you had a nice time there. The Chedraui Select was a nice find. We missed that too.

[@dauphinaisdauphinais9161]

I SOOOO look forward to my Wednesdays!! Thank you!!

[@GoWithLess]

This makes me so happy!

[@erinaustin9968]

Tim & Amy, you haven’t steered us wrong yet! Thanks for the the video.

[@GoWithLess]

😀

[@cltinturkey]

I really enjoy these explanations of how you use, track, and maintain your credit cards and the explanation of non-owner auto insurance. Super helpful!

[@jamesgiacobbe7046]

Thanks guys for another great video and for the information on the car insurance.

[@cltinturkey]

Just FYI, I looked into going to the movies in Auckland, New Zealand. It was $18 per person! There are hundreds of reasons to visit NZ, but the movies don't make the list.

[@melankazuidervliet9841]

We totalled about 5500 € in January. Which did include a lot of shopping for skiing stuff. New trousers, helmets, shoes. Again car costs made up a lot, some of it still for our old car. Restaurant costs, as this is expensive in skiing areas. Rent of the apartment, and the skiing passes. But for this we spent 18 days in a skiing area, it was good value for money 😊 I’m amazed your shopping is always so low. There seems to be always something we need 😏

[@GoWithLess]

When we each have one suitcase and a backpack for our tech gear, what are we going to buy? If it's an item for the home, it can go in Home & Lodging. That's not only rent and hotels but flowers and food storage containers, too. Nail polish ends up in Health, Fitness & Beauty. Those could be in Shopping. It's really about the bottom number. How it's separated is just a guideline. Happy you had such a great trip! You looked so happy in your photos!

[@NilDreams]

“I thought I was going to have a chicken on my lap.” 🤣🤣 hahaha cracked me up!

[@GoWithLess]

😂

[@slowmads]

Just tallied our January spending. And reaffirmed out 2022 international nomad budget. We don’t do the housesitting thing and will average $2K a month for rent. And we will pay a total of $11,300 for 54 nights of cruising on 5 cruises. Our food budget is $1000 a month. Other than eating out, we stick to our budget. 😱😍

[@melankazuidervliet9841]

What is then your total monthly budget? 🤔

[@slowmads]

@@melankazuidervliet9841 our core budget is $5000, including rent, car, entertainment, phone, groceries, and eating out with an extra $30K a year for variable things like cruises, rail passes, airfare, and our short getaways which often include hotels. We put our longer term rentals in the core budget.

[@GoWithLess]

@@slowmads Does that work out to about $90k a year? We have lots of similarities with our spending. If we are paying for an Airbnb, we want the average cost to be $2k/mo. So, $1,350/mo in less expensive Guadalajara balances out with the US and Scotland later this year. What cruise lines are you taking? We are trying to get our cruise video out next!

[@slowmads]

@@GoWithLess Yes. Around $90K a year planned during the next 10 go-go nomad years. These next 18 months, a huge chunk of that is from savings/investments but then I will take full SS at 70 and our SS income will cover all our core living expenses and investment draws will cover travel (we plan for $0 in the investment accounts when we are 90-good luck, children, with your careers😂😂). I have been on 40+cruises over the past 25 years. Started with Carnival as a single mom. Now Nick and I favor Princess. But we book based on itinerary and price. I will always cruise rather then fly if I can. For transAtlantics, we like Cunard. Took one NCL but wasn’t too impressed. We plan to splurge on an Oceania trans-atlantic from Aruba to Barcelona in 2023 and a 110-day Princess WC Auckland-Auckland in 2024 (it has been cancelled twice now). I get a lot of offers for “free” casino cruises. My budget for gambling is set at what we WOULD have spent on the cruise. I am a blackjack player (my only vice🤪) I come out ahead of the game about half of the time.

[@terricarver4873]

Super video! Sounds like you’re on track for fun! ♥️♥️♥️

[@GoWithLess]

You know it, Terri!

[@lilac1941]

What bus did you guys take? We're about to take a few buses here in Mexico and it would be nice to have a comfy ride.

[@GoWithLess]

ETN. Primera Plus is also nice.

[@jacquelinesmith2966]

Haven’t started nomad life yet, but I’m the kind of person who likes to have a plan A, plan B, plan C, etc, etc; so I love these monthly expense videos from you and other bloggers and vloggers. Helps to plan the future.

[@GoWithLess]

I'm glad you find them helpful! I like seeing how much people spend on their nomadic lives, too.

[@julietravels6400]

I don't mean to pry, but I am still trying to figure the best way for estimating tax liability in retirement and tracking taxes as expenses. I pay estimated taxes during the year (to cover investment income/Roth conversions). For tracking purposes, I calculate a subtotal of monthly expenses that excludes taxes (and a few other things) to provide a better idea of what my "regular" monthly expenses are and to allow me to align taxes and income for the same year. To further confuse things, I purposely overpaid Q4 2021 estimated taxes in January, so I can buy paper i-bonds with my overpayment when I file taxes. I noticed that you mentioned fees for paying taxes in your "miscellaneous" category, related to prepaying estimated taxes (for 2022?), but the "tax" category amount was zero. I wasn't sure if that was because your taxes were business related, which I think you exclude from your expenses now, or maybe because of purposely overpaying taxes or aligning taxes to the appropriate year.

[@GoWithLess]

We did overpay our estimated quarterly taxes with the intent of receiving a refund we can use for i-Bonds. Once that all shakes out, there will be an accurate entry to our taxes line item. It's possible our personal taxes will be "0" and we won't report our business taxes.

[@julietravels6400]

@@GoWithLess Thanks; great minds think alike 🙂

[@vjn2390]

Happy that you’re enjoying such a great dining experience 😍

[@GoWithLess]

Thank you...it's one of our favorite parts of this ifestyle.

[@kalebremillard7720]

❤️

[@slowmads]

We got a super deal from USAA for the six months we didn’t own a car while in Europe. Excellent advice.

[@GoWithLess]

I'm glad you knew about it!

[@georgejones565]

Wish I could get you guys to help me in my retirement, I need advice

[@RetiredLovingIt]

Good way to get the spending requirements with prepayment of cruises. 👍

[@GoWithLess]

Yes! The prepayment of everything!

[@cltinturkey]

Have you ever had an issue with identity theft? Your card tracking is amazing, but I wonder what would happen if someone tapped in and opened other cards in your name. Yikes! I bet you have a great way to stay on top of this. If you're willing, please tell us how you monitor your credit on an ongoing basis. Annual check of your credit reports or do you use some type of monitoring service?

[@gayjohnson9631]

Muchas gracias. I had no idea we’d have to pay more for insurance when we sold both cars. Great share to let us know about this huge cost savings. Enjoying watching your journey and cannot wait to join you. Viajes Seguros amigos!

[@GoWithLess]

A little tidbit most don't know about since the US is so car-centric. When do you hit the road?

[@travelrefocused]

The buses, hands down, are our favorite way to get around Mexico. It will be interesting to see how that budget evens out by the end of the year.

[@GoWithLess]

Were you as surprised by how fancy they are? I'm curious how things shake out, too! Hoping to throw in some under-budget months to balance things out.

[@travelrefocused]

@@GoWithLess Yes, we were surpised. I would take those buses over flying any day. We will have our biggest test of the buses coming soon. Its about a ten hour winding ride from Oaxaca City to Puerto Escondido. The bus is overnight, so planning to dowload a bunch of podcasts and hopefully get some sleep during the trip.

[@Mr.S65]

San Miguel is lovely. The buses in Mexico are pretty amazing, first class and all. Culturally Mexico is number one and its gastronomy above and beyond

[@GoWithLess]

We agree with everything you wrote. Add in really nice weather and our money going pretty far and it's no wonder we love Mexico as much as we do.

[@Mr.S65]

@@GoWithLess true, weather! How do you manage to stay in Mexico beyond 90 days ( if memory serves me well, I remember it’s 90 days max)?

[@pkcarm1]

Interested in this too

[@GoWithLess]

@@Mr.S65 It's 180 days max but that hasn't been offered uniformly since late 2021. Because of this, we are actively working on getting Mexican Residency. Flying to San Antonio, TX to get the ball rolling.

[@lextothepower]

Hey Tim and Amy! Thanks for another great video! How do you guys deal with mail? Credit card mailings, bills, etc? Have you already talked about this? I also learned that Amy loves popcorn, and Mexican buses will not allow a chicken on your lap :)! ps Great shirt Tim!

[@agasque]

We use Escapees, which Tim and Amy turned us onto in a video from last year (I think). We've had it for about 3 months and so far it has been great. We use Escapees Texas and friends of ours use Escapees Florida. All mail has to be routed through Texas since that is their HQ. I think we are faring a bit better than our friends with the Florida address, but only because our mail is processed a bit faster. Otherwise, we have both been impressed with their service and support.

[@GoWithLess]

Yes, we did a whole video about our mail toward the end of 2020. Short answer, we use a killer mail service. Here's that video Ashley mentions - kzbin.info/www/bejne/hH26lmqdpc51e6M. I think there are chicken buses...just not the fancy ones we take from city to city. And, who doesn't love popcorn at the movies? Movie #6 last night!

[@slowmads]

We use PostScan which was rated highly on an RVer site. All mail is either scanned, shredded or forwarded, if absolutely necessary. I can print off PDFs of important tax documents, etc. or screenshots if without printer. Costs between $25-35 a month. We will NEVER have to have another address as it is in the state we have established residency (many of these services offer mailing addresses in multiple states).

[@watson457]

Whoever is making these dynamic map graphics for you definitely needs a part of that raise you're giving yourself. 😁

[@GoWithLess]

Woot!! I just read that out loud to Tim. He makes them!

[@cynthiamoore2030]

Hey Guys. How do you keep your weight down with all that great food? I haven't been to the beach in 3 weeks. I can't seem to drag myself out of bed these cool 70* weather. Continue to live well.

[@GoWithLess]

Sadly, we aren't keeping our weight down. We've both gained weight in the past year. Lots of walking isn't enough. We often share one entree out and usually eat 2 meals a day. If we have a bigger meal out, my 2nd meal might be a snack. Both of us are ridiculous foodies so it's our biggest challenge.

[@esbiermann62]

The chicken busses are in Guatemala...for real. So, do you think you will always be pre-spending for trips, etc so that even on your "free" months" you are still spending ahead for say cruises, etc.?? So maybe you never get ahead?

[@GoWithLess]

Hola from Guadalajara! Our love affair with Mexico continues in this week's video. 2 new-to-us cities in January mean more to experience, more to love. As we visit new neighborhoods in Guadalajara, we're excited to soak it all up. Our group of friends here adds to our stay, too. If you're not in the GoWithLess Facebook group, join us here - facebook.com/groups/552873059012708. We're heading out now to grab the best burgers in town followed by game night and dessert at our place! Hasta luego! Amy

[@angelabarker8611]

Goals!

[@GoWithLess]

Hi Angela! Anything in particular?

[@angelabarker8611]

Retirement!