Could You Live On Just $32,000 Per Year?

[Tukaram (Tim)]

One vacation in 4 years?  ...and I have no savings.  I put it on the credit card and paid it off over a few months.  Not hard if you budget your money. Oh, and over half the trip was paid for with savings from not doing tourist visa extensions while on the BB stamp. 

Edited August 24, 2016 by Tukaram (Tim)

[robert k]

28 minutes ago, Tukaram (Tim) said:

One vacation in 4 years?  ...and I have no savings.  I put it on the credit card and paid it off over a few months.  Not hard if you budget your money. Oh, and over half the trip was paid for with savings from not doing tourist visa extensions while on the BB stamp. 

Ok 48 months. I stand corrected.

What is this about a credit card? Isn't the game supposed to be played with table stakes? Just kidding!

Sounds like the BB can be a good return on investment.

[AlwaysRt]

7 hours ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

First, I want you to understand that I am not picking on you because most of us do this but:

This means you are not living on a total budget of 35K pesos a month.  No way.  You must have at least that much again in savings or in your monthly budget to afford these kinds of trips.  I mention it because it is so misleading to newcomers here to believe they can live a great life on 35K a month.  My opinion is that newcomers should budget HALF of what their income is at the maximum and then save the other half for things like your Hong Kong trip.  Its what I do and it looks like its what you do.

This issue on budget topics has come up before and I am wondering if it is a British vs American English thing?

Is the British use of the word budget taken literally as all inclusive of expenses and savings?

To me, an American, when I talk or ask about a monthly budget I am really asking about monthly expenses (including housing which is another issue not always disclosed or included). I really don't care if you are saving one peso or one million pesos per month as savings is a separate issue since you aren't using that money to "live on". I have my big boy pants on and don't need to be told how much I should plan on saving - unless I ask, which is a different question.

After reading what I just wrote what I (we) seem to do subconsciously is by context replace "budget" with "monthly expenses" while others take the person asking the question as using the word they meant. When I do my monthly budget I do include savings. I agree 50% savings is a smart decision (but not always possible) and try to keep my expenses/savings at 70% to the savings side.

[Tukaram (Tim)]

Personally, if I am writing a budget I would include savings - if we were saving.   I have not had a viable savings account since 1983 (when I got married the first time ha ha).  In the US I never saved, as I was a single dad, and we liked going to Orlando!

[Jack Peterson]

 Hey  Don't even mention this Duel Standard Thing, We Brits Know what we Mean 

[AlwaysRt]

7 minutes ago, Jack Peterson said:

 Hey  Don't even mention this Duel Standard Thing, We Brits Know what we Mean 

 Just because you know what you mean, doesn't mean we know what we mean...as I found out reading my own post... know what I mean? 

[Jack Peterson]

Just now, AlwaysRt said:

 Just because you know what you mean, doesn't mean we know what we mean...as I found out reading my own post... know what I mean? 

 Gottcha 

[Dave Hounddriver]

16 hours ago, AlwaysRt said:

This issue on budget topics has come up before and I am wondering if it is a British vs American English thing?

Well I did hear about a constipated American mathematician who couldn't budge-it either.  But he did manage to work it out with a pencil.

I was taught that a "budget" is where you take all your income and all your expenses and do your best to balance them.  This means whatever is left over after allotted expenditures gets a heading of savings, or investments, or future home maintenance account etc.

Edited August 25, 2016 by Dave Hounddriver

[AlwaysRt]

1 hour ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

I was taught that a "budget" is where you take all your income and all your expenses and do your best to balance them.  This means whatever is left over after allotted expenditures gets a heading of savings, or investments, or future home maintenance account etc.

I admitted at the end of my post that my definition of budget is the same as yours.

I had another couple paragraphs typed explaining the difference but felt like I was spending too much time off topic. Better continued on some later date face to face with libations at hand.

So... the topic (slightly modified) Can You Live On Just p120,000 per Month? Yes, absolutely. I spend between p40k (about 30% of my passive income) and sometimes hits p60k on months we have more outings and is a VISA extension month. p25k+/- of that is house rent and utilities costs.

[davewe]

7 hours ago, AlwaysRt said:

This issue on budget topics has come up before and I am wondering if it is a British vs American English thing?

Is the British use of the word budget taken literally as all inclusive of expenses and savings?

To me, an American, when I talk or ask about a monthly budget I am really asking about monthly expenses (including housing which is another issue not always disclosed or included).

I don't know if it's a British vs. American thing. Maybe it's a retirement thing; what's the basics that I have to pay. The problem is that there are more things that we "have to pay" than just rent, utilities and food. I suspect that this is one of the reasons people struggle with their retirement budgets and debate about how little or not so little they can live on.

My retirement funds are through Fidelity and they have a nice online budgeting tool. Unfortunately this tool reminds me that there are other expenses beyond those basic requirements, for example: health/beauty aids; dental care; prescriptions; child support; car insurance, etc. There are also categories included that aren't essential but most of us still do (at least some): hobbies; travel; dining out; movies; charitable donations; Xmas and birthday gifts; yaya lol, etc.. Further, the tool allows me to designate expenses as essential and non-essential. Unfortunately, by the time I add all of the above, my modest budget is no longer so modest - and it has nothing to do with living in the Philippines. 

Let's see, I can eliminate gifts, but then might not stay married. I can eliminate those pesky health/beauty aids - but no soap, shampoo and the occasional haircut might also be detrimental to marriage. So my basic budget looks easy, but adding those extras squeezes it a bit, and adding travel and leisure stuff, presses it further still. But it's valuable so that I go into this retirement business knowing some reality and that I cannot do that iconic $1000/month budget.

Edited August 24, 2016 by davewe