2016 was our 4th full year of living large. And this year we have the receipts to go with it.
We traveled a bit, spending time in 16 countries. This includes a month in Thailand, a month in Malaysia, a few days in Singapore, 4 months in Western Europe, 2 months in the US, and a few months in Taiwan. Jr has been to 17 countries now.
If that weren’t enough, Winnie finished and published her book (in Mandarin), we took a ton of photos, wrote some blog posts, attended a blogging conference, and even appeared in People Magazine (print only, see all press here.)
Whew! One of these days we are going to have to actually retire, or something.
Total Expenses
All of that moving around rang up some serious expenditures. Despite saving over $10k through strategic use of credit cards, we still managed to have our most expensive year yet.
Total spending for the year was $72,002, or ~$197/day.
Details | 2016 Annual Expenses | Notes |
---|---|---|
Housing | $20,723 | ~$57/day |
Healthcare | $2,887 | ~$8/day |
Transportation | $10,613 | ~$29/day |
Groceries | $5,010 | ~$14/day |
Dining Out | $16,903 | ~$46/day |
Alcohol | $914 | ~$3/day |
Entertainment | $2,854 | ~$8/day |
Misc | $12,099 | ~$33/day |
Total | $72,002 | ~$197/day |
If we use the 4% rule, it would require a portfolio of around $1.8 million to sustain this level of spending. That isn’t our plan.
More realistically, our average daily cost over 4 years is closer to $138/day. If you insisted on having a baby every year (I wouldn’t recommend it), you could lump in all of our IVF and child birth expenses and our total comes to ~$155/day.
Data for previous years: 2013, 2014, 2015.
A Little Analysis
It wouldn’t be smart to live large without doing a little analysis about where the dollars go.
$29,067 (or 40% of the total) went to our European travels. I analyzed that spending in this post. The short version is: we are amongst Airbnb‘s favorite customers, and we like to eat all the things.
Roughly, a day in Europe cost 2x a day in Thailand or Malaysia. This is in part because we moved around between cities on at least a weekly basis. Trains, planes, and automobiles, oh my.
Healthcare was mostly insurance through Taiwan’s national health system, plus travel insurance while we were in Europe and the US. This basically paid for itself after reimbursement for care in Europe.
Upon returning to Taiwan, one of us started nesting again… we now have a kitchen full of useful kitcheny things. We are eating well at home more often.
Miscellaneous is the least innocuous category of spending. About 1/3 of it is baby related (diapers, formula, toys, books, etc…) ~1/3 is clothes & shoes. And the final 1/3 is all of those life things that come up: driver’s license renewal, mailing service, and electronics (rechargeable electric razor, new Kindles, and a new smartphone.)
Photo highlights
See Instagram for more.
Conclusions and Projections
So yeah, we spent $72k this year. Good times.
2017 is off to a strange start. We plan on avoiding US airports for awhile, and will likely remain in Asia for the next year or four. Expenses are expected to be a repeat of 2014, with another round of IVF and childbirth if all goes well. That would put annual spending around $60k.
Thank you for reading and for your support.
Please share your GCC love on Twitter and Facebook!
Jeremy, Winnie, & Julian
Go Curry Cracker!
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Sounds like you had quite a year! European travel can get pretty expensive depending on where you go. But I’m sure it could have been way more expensive had you not used Airbnb.
Indeed. Airbnb is the way to go in Europe.
Awesome breakdown of your expenses! Really helps visualize how much can be spent per day!
I bet your Europe trip was fantastic! It’s a pretty expensive place to travel to, which can explain the uptick in expenses, but it looks super awesome and well worth it from you Instagram pictures!
Europe was very nice. We wouldn’t mind being there permanently.
That sounds like one helluva year! Thanks so much for sharing your journeys with everyone on the WWW. The pics are amazing and worth the $72k all on their own :) I’m looking forward to cheering you guys on for another fun-filled year of adventures! Woot!
Mrs. Mad Money Monster
Thanks! Here’s to another great year for you too!
Amazing considering how much you guys have traveled. No doubt Europe would be more especially given some of the countries you were able to explore. I have not yet used Airbnd – each time I have tried (3) the owners haven’t responded! I feel burned but will def try again as I see what a great resource it could be…especially having a kitchen for long term stays,
Lots of luck with the next round of IVF!! Julian is adorable, no doubt #2 will be as well. Can’t wait to see the turnout!! :)
Thanks much!
Don’t be afraid to contact 10 different places on Airbnb in a city you want to visit. We just do mass mailings and see what sticks.
How did I miss that you went to Positano? One of my favorite relaxation/sit by the beach and read books/eat myself silly places in Europe.
It’s a great place, right? I could definitely spend a month or three there.
Man you are rocking it.
Funny I put out my own “2016 year in review” post today too. We came in at $39000 for the year (including new used minivan purchase – our form of “nesting” lol). And that includes most of our Europe travel expenses thanks to the epic Airbnb gift card deal I got in on. We’ve booked 54 nights in Europe (out of 64 total) and still have $2000 remaining of the $5800 gift cards I purchased. Of course we have yet to book 3 nights in Amsterdam so I’m not sure how much we’ll actually have left over (damn that place is expensive and I’m not even going to indulge in their top two tourist attractions/vices). Of course it’s easily within our budget so no worries there.
Best of luck in 2017 and save me a spot (or 5) in Taiwan in case I have to do a rapid exfiltration at some point.
Those Airbnb Gift Cards are the way to go. I would get some more of them but I’m not sure when we travel next.
Amsterdam is expensive, but it is also one of my favorite places. It’s a great city for biking, walking, drinking coffee… ahhh.
I’ll probably end up with $7-800 or so left over and they never expire (as long as Airbnb remains solvent…).
I’m looking forward to Amsterdam. Yeah it’s expensive but not crazy. We’ve found several 3 (!!) bedroom apartment rentals about 10-15 minutes by transit from the center of town for about $500-550 for a 3 night stay. Not sure which we’ll pick but it doesn’t seem too bad. Transit passes are the only other thing I’ve priced and it’s only like 17 euro for 3 days and e2.5 per kid per day. Worst case we dine on cheap pastries and grocery store finds if restaurants end up being $20 for a waffle and orange juice. It’s our last 3 nights in Europe so we might be tired of dining out anyway.
But at the end of the day I’m glad I’m going to Amsterdam in spite of high $$$. Always wanted to visit and it seems to have a different feel than other parts of Europe with the canals and laid back attitude. I doubt I’ll miss the $800-1000 we’ll spend there when I’m lying on my deathbed in several decades.
Would you be able to share the Airbnb GC deal?
Last month, Gift Card Mall had Airbnb GCs available for 20 or 25% off.
You could buy them through the BeFrugal shopping portal for 2% cash back, plus $10 off your first purchase.
I believe Justin bought $5k worth…
Hey just now saw your comment. The airbnb deal I got is dead now. Check out somewhere like Slickdeals.net and set up an email alert for “airbnb” there and you’ll occasionally see offers for $15 off $100 airbnb GC. Sometimes it’s just one or two or three. Sometimes unlimited quantities like I got.
Sounds like you had an awesome year! Good luck on the next round of IVF and on your travels in 2017!
We ended up having a pretty low expense.year, and 2017 is shaping up to be a year with even higher incomes and lower expenses, even though my husband is doing an unpaid student teaching internship for half the year! Woohoo!
Higher incomes and lower expenses make for a great year. Congrats.
Best of luck with the IVF! Yeah Europe can definitely be more expensive than Asia. I’m headed there myself this year, but it’s not an every year trip that’s for sure!
Thank you, Tonya. Where are you off to in Europe? The Euro is great right now.
It sounds like you had some wonderful adventures in 2016. :) It sucks that adventure comes at a price, but hey, it’s worth it in the end. Hopefully that spending can come down so your FIRE number can decrease as well!
Good luck with the IVF!!!!
Thank you!
I’m not terribly worried about the $, we can sustain this if we wanted to. 16 countries is a bit much for one year though, we are more of a spend 3-6 months in one place kind of family.
Living a life of luxury! Love the awesome photos. Considering all the travel with a family, you guys are killing it!
We came in at 38k for the two of us living in CT. We weren’t in Europe for months, but travel was one of our biggest expenses at $7k. We managed to go to Colorado, New Mexico, Nova Scotia, maine, and to Costa Rica twice. While we don’t have any childcare related expenses, we did spend a lot more of our budget on beer ;)
I’m a little disappointed in our beer budget. I’ve probably underreported it, since meals throughout Spain and Italy often included beer or wine but I was too lazy to split the expenses this year.
Sounds like great travels, I’ve always wanted to do NE Canada.
Wow, I’m crazy jealous of all your travels! I’ve heard Europe is pretty expensive, but I’ve never been there. Good luck on the IVF!
The infinity pool picture is awesome! I love those!
That pool is the rooftop of the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. The pool is amazing, but I give the hotel a meh. For $300/night, I expect a bit more.
Wow, thanks for sharing your numbers GCC! That’s a large budget, but then again you guys really live it up with all that constant traveling.
Congrats on the baby plans / nesting. Can’t wait to see some pictures of outstanding Taiwanese home cooked meals.
My pleasure. Not sure if we’ll get photos… it is always a race between the camera and my belly.
You guys were living large in 2017, but man, do you have a lot of experiences to show for it! Good luck on the ivf and enjoy Asia for a year or 4 ?. I’m sure it is going to be though…..
Thank you kindly. Yeah, we were living well last year. And the 3 years before that. We’ve basically figured out the lifestyle we enjoy, and then do that in different places.
At first blush it seems high until you remember the lifestyle you folks are living. To travel the world full time is a bit of the ultimate luxury, and to do it under 100K is truly amazing. Enjoy Asia and best of luck with IVF.
We are definitely living well. It doesn’t really seem high to me, just higher than previous years.
Nice pictures and glad you had a good year!
Man, the IVF in Taiwan is so cheap compared to Canada. Prices here are $15,000CAD for 1 cycle. And you guys did 2, so that’s 1/6 the price.
Good luck! Hope Julian gets a sibling soon!
We have friends in the US who spent from $40k to $150k… crazy.
IVF Australia (fancy): Cyc1: Payment $A9,155 – Medicare rebate $A4,790 = $A4,365. Cyc2: $3,809. The Fertility Centre (bulkbill): Cyc1: $A2,264, Cyc2: $A692.
Seems totally reasonable. At first glance seems about the cost in Taiwan, but no rebates
For what it’s worth, we had an expensive 2016, too, and international travel was also to blame.
Stupid world, costing me money.
As you noted, the important thing is to understand if the expenses are ongoing or more one-time, this year sort of stuff. There’s plenty of room for variance in a FIRE budget.
Stupid world, indeed. The international travel is definitely worth it though.
WOW. Retirement keeps you busy. Were you required to get Obamacare? I read somewhere (here?) that even if you don’t meet the requirement to be 330 days away you don’t have to enroll if you are a bonafide resident of another country (I assume you are a Taiwan resident).
We didn’t. I wrote about that a bit here.
thank you
Well, Europe is expensive. But you won’t be going there every year either. An year or two that are slightly more expensive, are not as bad since you will likely have 40+ years ahead.
I wish you good luck with the IVF!
DGI
If we stayed in one location in Europe, it can be reasonably priced. We could probably live in Spain for close to what we are spending in Taipei, in part because of really low rents and produce prices. Portugal would be even cheaper.
Best wishes for 2017 and good luck with IVF!
Thank you
Given how much you guys traveled in 2016, that’s a very reasonable annual expense. A second kid? Are you sure? We slept for maybe 1 hour last night due to a screaming baby. :) Good luck with the IVF!
Yeah, I don’t think it was out of line.
I hear you on the crying and lack of sleep… we are still in recovery mode from child #1. He likes to wake us up at 6 am to go play basketball, usually by dropping a ball on my head.
Appreciated that you reveal your expenditure but revealing your net position for the year would be more revealing. (‘No pressure’.)
I leave that as an exercise for the reader ;)
But we could sustain this level of spending indefinitely if we chose to do so.
Good luck on the IVF. Mrs. ROB and I are going through that right now. Unfortunately, we miscarried on the first try, but going for #2 actually on Wednesday. Hope we have better luck there. Best of luck again. Good to know others in the FI community are going through this as well.
We had to go 2 rounds with Jr, and almost lost him in Month 4 or 5. Winnie was put on full time bed rest for 2 months and all went well thereafter. Good luck to you and the Mrs
I grew up in North America and have been living in Asia for almost 20 years … mostly Beijing and South Korea …. so I spent several weeks in Europe mostly around the Alps area in 2016 too … it is so beautiful there … we did 6-7 cities for several days each with day trips … worked better with a kid … started in Swiss Alps … Zurich (Lucerne / Mnt Titlas/Black Forest (Germany)/Rhine Falls and several hour cruise around Lake Zurich) … awesomeness … then off to Geneva (Lausanne, Montreux, Gruyere area … nice chocolate factory and fondue near mist covered mountains …Lake Geneva is pretty), then off to the French Alps – the Lake Annecy area (with cruise around the Lake Annecy .. they have quite nice dinners … scenery spectacular … Annecy is quite beautiful too surrounded by mountains .. … a day trip to Chamonix Mount Blanc … several cable cars that are breathtaking …beyond words .. but is a place I would like to explore more ….. ) … then up to Strasbourg (beautiful historic old city with day trips across into German Freiburg, a german historic farming village in the Black Forest …) … then off to Germany – Munich and Mad Ludwig’s famed Disney ? :) castle …. then off to Austria – Salzburg … very beautiful area that I want to explore more think “The Sound of Music” …… and finally off to Vienna (…. should have stayed longer!!!! :) … looks better than Paris? :) …. If I go back there, I would probably stick to Switzerland – German side, maybe southern Germany again near Lake Constance / Munich? and am very much interested in exploring the Salzburg lake area more .. maybe Innsbruck area and go back to Vienna …. perhaps I have a thing for cows, mountains, lakes and German culture … not sure why but Paris and London or Southern Europe don’t draw me like the greater Alps area … the area is like heaven! :) …. if you don’t camp out for several years in Asia, then Switzerland, South Germany and / or the Austria Salzburg area I think would be a dream come true … God Bless, Beijing, China :)
Sounds great!
One of these winters when Jr is old enough to learn how to ski, I’d like to winter in Austria or thereabouts. I’ve done trips to Chamonix before, and that place is amazing.
Is 72K including your regular day-to-day expenses when you were back home in US? Or is it just while travelling?
We don’t have a “back home in the US.” But this includes everything / all of it.
Awesome! Your budget mirrors ours in quantity, but not at all in how you’ve spent it. Your life is much more exciting.
I am happy to say I looked at three of the five pictures and was able to say “Hey I’ve been there!”
Cheers to another great year in 2017!
-PoF
Other options than AirBnB to keep costs down. We spent $22k on 11 months touring Europe last year, including the length of Norway, not a cheap country. Everyone’s budget will be different, for tons of reasons, but you don’t need to be a millionaire to live a wonderful FI life.
http://ourtour.co.uk/home/how-much-does-a-year-in-a-motorhome-cost/
Cheers, Jay
We are looking a bit at Australia for next year, and would probably buy (rent?) an RV while we were there.
I love that chart with your overall spending for 2017. Since our kids will both be off to college next fall, we’re hoping to travel much more. We’ve done AirBNB once – but I can see we will need to do a lot more research on that as we move forward. I need to re-read Justin’s post about those gift cards too. We’ll have more points available due to paying our taxes with a credit card and just getting new 100,000 point Chase cards! Best of luck with the IVF too. Exciting times for all of you.
My post Never Pay Retail Again is a good overview for stacking bonuses and cash back.
The short version: buy a discounted gift card (e.g. 25% off airbnb) through a shopping portal (2% back) with credit cards that also give cash back. Win win win win.
Your holiday snaps are overwhelmingly beautiful… perhaps you’ve hit on another way to be not-retired, gorgeous travel photography :)
Thank you. That is all Winnie’s work.
That makes sense – it would be tricky to take those photos of yourself ;)
I like that motorhome camper thingy option for Euro travel to save on hotels or AirBnb…had an Austalian friend rent a smaller camper van to tour Britain for a summer..seems to be good option if you don,t mind driving .. God Bless, Beijing, China
Great post GCC. We ended up spending half of your outgo in 2016, but then we don’t have your kind of great globe-trotting pictures to go with it! All in all, sounds like it was worth it, for sure. Always enjoy your writing and your blog. Best wishes for the baby #2 plan.
I love seeing these posts! Good luck on having a second child. Have you ever had a post about throwing a dinner party? I’ve seen such nice pictures of Winnie’s cooking and would love to be able to cook for myself and friends cheaper than going out to eat.
Hi Andrew, we haven’t put together a post on hosting parties, but I’ll ask Winnie if she wants to write one.
This post on making bread at home is probably the closest we’ve come.
2016 seemed like a great year for you! I just discovered your blog and love the content. Even though you had your most expensive year yet, you had a great time traveling the world. The deals you get using AirBnB certainly add up! Can’t wait to read about your 2017 adventures!
Great pictures. $72k sounds like a lot, but you traveled so much. When we do our RTW trip, it’d probably cost that much or maybe a bit more. Probably minimize western Europe, though.
Awesome pictures I gotta say. 72k includes all of it, right?
All the best!
Ben
yessir
Looks like you had a great time! Very similar to our spending.
Nice pic of the Blue Lagoon! Never been. I really liked the Turkish baths in Budapest last year. I could sit in one of those baths 4ever.
I wonder if I should track my spending as well. I haven’t really for years. Maybe i’ll be too afraid to find out the results!
Good luck w/ IVF. Are you doing it in Taiwan again? If so, can you remind us of the costs? Also, may I ask how old Winnie is? Might as try natural way concurrently with IVF yeah? Sorry for so many questions.
Sam
I’m shooting blanks, so the natural way is only for recreation rather than procreation.
Total costs were about $6k.