Living Expenses

We want to capture all the basic non-discretionary living expenses here. These are, for the most part, your regular monthly bills. 

The Living Expenses Benchmark Calculator has living expenses organized by categories (e.g., Utilities) and sub-categories (e.g., Internet, Phone, Electricity, etc.). A good way to gather up your expenses is by looking for common charges between two credit card statements. Color coding in the “You” column indicates how low or high your particular expense is compared to the benchmark. Red indicates when your expense exceeds the benchmark by >10%, green when it is <10% and yellow when it is within +/-10% of the benchmark.

The goal here is to increase your self-awareness about your own spending habits and not so much to be in line with the benchmark so long as the spending is justified for the lifestyle you choose.