Learn about the Living Expenses place
Tip: For easier reading, click (above).
The Living Expenses place shows your current annual living expenses and lists events that will alter them. Living expenses include costs for food, housing, clothing, entertainment, and other day-to-day expenses. Over the course of your life, events such as the birth of a baby will change the cost of living expenses. The chart at the bottom of the screen shows the living expense adjustments based on events you list here.
In the Living Expenses place, you can:
What rate of inflation is assumed by the graph when I choose to show the effects of inflation?
By default, Money uses a conservative inflation rate, 3.0%, to estimate future inflation, but you can choose another rate to be used for forecasting. For information about changing this rate, see Learn how Money estimates inflation.
What's the difference between living expenses and "College & Other" expenses?
Living expenses include day-to-day expenses. In the Living Expenses place, enter adjustments to living expenses for events that will require you to increase or decrease your day-to-day spending. For example, your family's living expenses increase as your family grows, and they decrease when your kids move away and you retire.
Other expenses are one-time and short-term expenses. In the College & Other place, enter sizeable one-time or short-term expenses that you plan on having in your future. For example, you need to plan for one-time adoption costs or hospital bills when you have a new family member. You need to plan for short-term expenses when your child is in day care or college.
No. Loan and debt payments and the cost of major assets (such as your house) are not considered adjustments or expenses. Track these instead in the Loans & Debt and Homes & Assets places.
The Living Expenses Forecast graph shows my living expenses equal to zero. Why?
You need to define your current annual living expenses first, and then identify life events that will cause adjustments to those expenses.
Play the Getting Started With the Lifetime Planner video.
How do I define my current annual living expenses?
How do I add a living expense adjustment to my plan?
Why are some living expense adjustments automatically added to my plan?