Right now health insurance for my D and I. I will cover her until she is 26 or actually gets some kind of employer insurance. Next is home maintenance and covering D until she finds a full time job
@privatebanker, if taxes are an allowable category, I’m sure that would be a winner for me. As a business owner, if you add in the payroll tax I pay for others, it is even bigger.
Thankfully tuition is done. We had saved in 529 Plans and both kids went to undergrad and grad school. They are fully functioning, self-supporting young adults. Life is good! This would have been the second biggest category.
The second biggest category now is probably medical expenses – especially if you include what I pay as a business owner pay for my insurance premiums.
Costco/Food/restaurants is likely the third biggest category. I’m an unpaid evangelist for Costco and we buy a lot of food there. We didn’t eat out that much in our home city but have taken to doing it more with an empty nest. ShawWife is a great cook and likes to entertain.
Travel. Most of my travel is paid for by clients. I fly a lot for business. Sometimes ShawWife comes along (happened in trips to London and SF) and so part of the expense is personal. I try to use FF miles for personal travel, but that usually doesn’t work. Combined with ShawWife’s expenses when she travels with me on business, I suspect unreimbursed travel is the fourth largest expense category. This year, I can see flights to Florida, DC, NY (twice) and Italy in Q1 and Q2 that are personal. There is July trip to the Canadian Rockies.
13 more months until we’re done with college tuition. I hope we make it that long.
Food. Probably earlier in the school year it would be the kids’ activities.