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Nope. I’m done. This is enough.
I never thought I’d get to a point where I was making in a month what my single mother made in a year. It’s overwhelming and crazy and if this doesn’t make me feel secure and full-filled, literally nothing will.
I’m now devoting the rest of my life to taking trips with my mom. We made it!
💯 ^^ same! I was elated at $140 (more than my entire family combined…..); at $220 + LTI, I can support every cause I care about, help my family cover gaps, travel wherever I want and treat my loved ones. Life is great!
We’ll make $400K this year in a LCOL area. We have two young kids and I don’t ever worry about money and know that we are very well off. But you definitely get used to whatever you have. And lifestyle creep is so real. We max out our 401ks and save about $2k extra per month. I guess this is what being “rich” feels like, but I don’t feel rich.
That said, I’m also not going around talking about how “hard” it is to survive on $400k or how other people “just don’t get how expensive private schools are.” I’m blessed and thankful.
I feel like because we can never guarantee a great return on investment from private school (kids are all different and who knows how they will turn out regardless), a good quality public school is the way to go. Plus, I want my kids to work for their college tuition, no free ride from us.
Spouse and I are both 40 and HHI is ~ 850k. I have a target of 1M HHI for next 10 years so we can retire at 50..
10M
I'm at 200k now but HH W2 income of close to 325k. With investment income, we're making an additional $5k per month. The goal is to continue buying rental properties and when that baby closes, we become cash poor again. We could probably use another 5k in rental income per month to plan for having kids and a bigger house (currently live in top floor of a duplex and rent bottom on Airbnb).
All that said, I could jump to 250k easily with my skillset but I like my job, boss, and hours (40 a week with a ton of flexibility). That additional income isn't worth the extra hours or headache.
2 beds, 1.5 baths. Parking out front.
Totally understand your point about the markets being too expensive. We're technically cash flowing negative until one tenant moves out in July. All leases end within 6 months. We may Airbnb one of the units if we're feeling adventurous.
Put down 25% which is required for investment properties at the bank we use.
Rising Star
I’m at $320k HHI in VHCOL with $600k mortgage and two toddlers and I’d say we’re comfortable for doing normal-person things - drive a Ford SUV, takeout a couple times a week, eat at a Yelp $$$ restaurant once a month (if that’s at all a benchmark), go on an intl family vacation once a year, have devices/apple watches whatever. The luxe things we spend on is Montessori for our oldest and a nanny for our youngest both totaling around $4k/mo.
Certainly not investor-rich or able to rock Balenciagas/have a lot of luxuries (although I will be buying a $1.5k designer bag for my wife for her birthday which’ll be her first and the most we’ve ever spent on each other), but I’d say this is steady-state for an upper middle class lifestyle in a VHCOL city today.
wow, I'm at $80k and I'll never ever even dream of making what y'all make. these posts crack me up
I started at $70k with my first consulting job, the next one I took (1.5 years later) bumped me up to $135k. It gets better pretty fast.
$250k is by no means poor but it doesn’t go very far in HCOL / VHCOL once you have a few kids… home in a good school district (or $$$ private), taxes, saving for retirement and college, kids activities, orthodontics etc eats up a lot of $.
We make more than that but basically it’s too little to not have to worry about money but too much to get anything like the stimulus checks, college aid etc. And we pay a heck of a lot in taxes.
Be content, or you will keep wanting more. Find a purpose. We only have a limited amount of time on the planet. I work at a startup, own a few business on the side and the more income you make really doesn’t make a difference it’s all in your head and just a numbers game! Wishing you best of luck in your journey.
Yes I would actually, the restaurant I own I haven’t even taken a salary in 2 + years and still love it. I quit my consulting job to join a startup, even took a pay hit because the mission this start has to help small businesses is far from what extra money can do for you and I. Hey, keep working and keep trying to get more and more money if you think it can change your life go for it but in reality happiness is what we should all be chasing.
Are all of these real numbers or wishful thinking? how is everyone making so much? 🤔
🤥?
I make 150 base and my wife makes 100; plus bonus ~300k tc. 10 yoe.
I feel like I’m another 5-10 years we can be at 400-450 without moving jobs. I don’t think that’s unrealistic.
I passed 300 base this year, and our household is around 450 with my husband's income, in a LCOL city. I feel like this is enough. We have everything we need. We bought my parents a home and I've almost paid it off, and I'm able to support them financially so they don't have to worry about money anymore. We're able to invest over 50% of our salaries, give to charities and we paid off our student loans. Next step is having kids, hopefully next year. I wake up every day feeling so grateful... it almost doesn't seem fair we are where we are at when so many live in poverty 🥺
I started making more than this individually this year, and my husband and I have had a combined income over this for a few years. Honestly, this year I stopped worrying about money and it was pretty nice.
Based on some other comments on this thread, I feel like I should add that I live in the Bay Area and have a kid. So HCOL and not a DINK
My wife and I went from 160k to 550k in the 5 years since we started dating. We have way more than we need but our careers (mid-30s) are still growing. Now I think it’s less about the numbers and just continuing to try to be successful. It’s less I’ll go jump to this because it’s a 20% raise and more what is the trajectory how hard will you have to work.
Great way to do it I think!
I Have a $450k HHI in my late 20s. I feel a lot more comfortable than I did 2 years ago with a $250k HHI. We live in a very HCOL area where our starter home cost is $1.6M. it's a nice home but not what I hope my future looks like.
My wife is very frugal and really tries to prevent life style creep. We have a single used car, don't buy clothes very often, don't have top of the line gadgets.
The 2 things we like to spend on are travel and nice restaurants. But even then I'm not flying business class on my own dime.
Despite all that I'm pretty happy with how things are going. I really just want to get to the point where I can buy a transatlantic business class ticket without blinking an eye.
Today I can spend a couple hundred dollars on something we need or have someone come to fix something in the home and not worry about it. But spending $1000+ is not where I'm at.
I think the key is to keep monthly fixed expense rate as low as possible, including mortgage, schools, childcare, cars and aggressively invest in retirement and non-retirement accounts. The right ratio to me is keeping expenses max at 50% of after tax income. One probably feels like they have enough at that point of savings rate.
I do but what I really want is a big million dollar plus home which I can afford to maintain. Rest everything that I seem to need, I can afford.
Not big or fancy in my city. Nice ones start at 1.4m
We are at ~1M HHI, with high fixed expenses (mortgage, private school, nanny, food, sports etc). A lot of those are things we could live without, but not luxury in the more outrageous sense of the term (no expensive watches, $4K suits, Porsche or boats to be clear). $800K felt very similar to $1M. If we made $1.5 I would probably not even notice the difference, it’s just you save more for maybe retirement one day in the far future
I cannot fathom not having a Porsche or a boat and bringing home 1M a year. Idiots!!
Find cheap hobbies that give you meaning, I go do MMA for $200 a month
Director 5 - where are you buying your MDMA? It's pretty cheap....
If you have kids and live near a city 250k just isn’t enough to afford big enough home, car, food, school, toys, and have tastes in line with your income.
Yes of course. Hard to stop wanting more until you feel money doesn't matter anymore.
I used to think that figure was around $15-20m net worth, then I took a PJ for the first time. Now I think it's enough to avoid flying commercial (NetJets, not owning), which is maybe 2x that.
It's about $190k for a 25-hour card on an entry-level plane (I fly around 100 hours a year).
Find it pretty hard to justify spending over $0.5m a year on travel without more than $20m in the bank.
Pro
Need? No. Want just in case? Yes.
No matter how much money you make, it always boils down to CASH FLOW.
More money just usually means the same challenges as everyone else, just magnified at a different level.
Chief
I’m single and make 160 in MCOL area. I save about 70k a year and don’t feel pinched. I try not to spend high on worthless things like clothes, cars, and bars. I even shop at Whole Foods sometimes and don’t look at the prices.