$600K-$800K HHI

[Anonymous]

How much do you save, what's your networth? how old are you? how much do you spend on vacations? We are at this income level starting last year, and wondering how much to splurge vs spend. We are late 40s and have a networth of $3.5M, two kids in public and college looming.

If this post is not relevant for you, please skip over. I hope I can get some thoughts from people similar to us in HHI

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How much do you save, what's your networth? how old are you? how much do you spend on vacations? We are at this income level starting last year, and wondering how much to splurge vs spend. We are late 40s and have a networth of $3.5M, two kids in public and college looming.

If this post is not relevant for you, please skip over. I hope I can get some thoughts from people similar to us in HHI

Early 50's, just hit this level last year.

2 kids (1 public, 1 private; college fully funded), $2 million net worth, $80K pension expected at age 62.

We save $200K/yr (~$60K in 401s; $140K to taxable brokerage accounts).

We pretty much travel whenever we want--3 weeklong trips/yr plus a number of long weekend getaways.

No set travel budget: our major trips tend to cost around $10K ea.

[Anonymous]

We have had an HHI in that range for the last 10 years or so. Now we are both 54 with a net worth of about $5.5 million. Two kids in college, mostly covered by 529, but we will need to cash flow about $80,000 of college for one year.

We take 2-3 big vacations a year and then various weekend trips. Cost depends on the trip and how many of us go. But easily $15,000 in a week long trip. For example, we rented a beach house a week that totals about $10,000. Other family will come but we pick up the rental. For other trips, easily $800 per person for flights, then hotels in the $500 to $1000 range.

My biggest recommendation is to think through your approach to paying for college. Our approach was that we would pay for any school they pick (within reason, but this wasn’t a problem) without considering price or merit awards. They both picked very good but very expensive schools. They both had other good options that were much cheaper but we didn’t push them to pick cheaper. We wanted to provide them this choice. But, a different approach would have resulted in them picking schools that would have been hundreds of thousands of dollars cheaper. It is good to communicate your approach to kids well before they start the college search.

Also, do the back door Roth and build your taxable investment account for retirement (not just 401k).

[Anonymous]

We are right at 750k. Save about 150-200k, with the majority in our trust.

we are younger, mid 30s, so our NW hasn't caught up yet but its around 2.5M.

2 kids in daycare that costs us about 60k/yr

Will most likely do private so that will decrease our savings. Hoping to still be able to save 150k after privates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have had an HHI in that range for the last 10 years or so. Now we are both 54 with a net worth of about $5.5 million. Two kids in college, mostly covered by 529, but we will need to cash flow about $80,000 of college for one year.

We take 2-3 big vacations a year and then various weekend trips. Cost depends on the trip and how many of us go. But easily $15,000 in a week long trip. For example, we rented a beach house a week that totals about $10,000. Other family will come but we pick up the rental. For other trips, easily $800 per person for flights, then hotels in the $500 to $1000 range.

My biggest recommendation is to think through your approach to paying for college. Our approach was that we would pay for any school they pick (within reason, but this wasn’t a problem) without considering price or merit awards. They both picked very good but very expensive schools. They both had other good options that were much cheaper but we didn’t push them to pick cheaper. We wanted to provide them this choice. But, a different approach would have resulted in them picking schools that would have been hundreds of thousands of dollars cheaper. It is good to communicate your approach to kids well before they start the college search.

Also, do the back door Roth and build your taxable investment account for retirement (not just 401k).

Thank you for the recommendation. Our approach to college would be similar, our $3.5M includes ~400K for College for two kids. I am thinking we will stop the contributions and then cash flow (pull out of brokerage as needed).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are right at 750k. Save about 150-200k, with the majority in our trust.

we are younger, mid 30s, so our NW hasn't caught up yet but its around 2.5M.

2 kids in daycare that costs us about 60k/yr

Will most likely do private so that will decrease our savings. Hoping to still be able to save 150k after privates.

Good for you on hitting 750K at a young age, most likely your income would go up and you can continue saving 200K..

[Anonymous]

We save about $90k to retirement, $60k to after-tax and $40k to college 529s.

Liquid investments are $2.2 million; total net worth including real estate is about $4 million. Mid-40s. We started making this level of income in the last five years.

We spend about $30k/year on travel. Usually one nice big trip $10-$20k and a few smaller trips (four days at the Jersey shore, quick Florida getaway).

We pretty much buy what we want when we want but have choked at bigger expenses, like private school, which we decided not to do, mostly because the kids love where they are but also because three kids in private would have been over $100k/year. We did join an upscale country club which cost $50k plus probably $2k/mo between dues and the stuff we do there. House is paid for.

We spend a ton on our kids. Private music lessons, golf lessons, math tutoring, writing tutor, club sports, dance lessons, swim lessons, skating lessons. It feels good to be able to do that without thinking much about the cost, but it does disgust me when I think about how much it all costs.

[Anonymous]

This is an interesting and helpful thread. We are 37/41yo with one 4yo child and only recently started making much more. We’re ~$650k pretax income, variable based on RSU value as it vests. About $2MM net worth if you count real estate conservatively, majority wrapped in real estate including an inherited investment property. I feel behind hearing the NW in this thread! An aging parent is a large expense for us but we have $200k in kid’s 529. Maybe $600k in retirement, mostly 401k. We save maybe $200k year (last year a lot went to the 529 and were done with that for now). I was kind of shocked to see we spent $45k on travel last year including everything during those trips (food, treating family and guests, etc). We use YNAB and would like to aim for $30k this year.

[Anonymous]

HHI 750k, late forties, started making this money 6 years back. NW 4.2 mil, we do spend 20k on travel on one big international trip, travel exhausts me as I am the one doing all the organizing, planning etc and one trip is all that I can manage.

2 kids, both go to public, have 300k saved in 529s and add 18k per account each year. We do save 200k/year, we have a lot of catching up to do as we started making this sort of money later in career.

[Anonymous]

$700K, 62 with a NW of $5.2M, investments $4.8M. I was married to someone who spent quite a bit and then had a late in life divorce, so I had to make up some ground over the past few years. Sometimes I wish I would have saved more early on - but I guess I would have lost half of it so there you go.

I think at your ages and NW you’re fine to splurge on some things. I love vacations and am on the more is more time off plan at the moment. I go “chubby” rather than fully on “fat” for hotels, but have gone back to booking coach since I can usually pay for several really nice nights for the cost of one business upgrade. I’m jealous when I see the people spreading out and I’m squeezing into my coach seat, but I get over it.

[Anonymous]

early 50s, HHI low 700s. Started making this amount late in career, so playing catch up on retirement and college savings the past few years. invested net worth around $3m, which includes around $400k in 529s for 3 high school aged kids. Additional $500k home equity. Saving $200k annually apart from 529 contributions. Our kids play sports year round so big family vacations are limited, but we still end up spending around $20k/yr on week at beach and other short, quick hitter type trips. Trying to strike a balance between enjoying life and the financial freedom our income allows, but also saving responsibly for retirement/school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How much do you save, what's your networth? how old are you? how much do you spend on vacations? We are at this income level starting last year, and wondering how much to splurge vs spend. We are late 40s and have a networth of $3.5M, two kids in public and college looming.

If this post is not relevant for you, please skip over. I hope I can get some thoughts from people similar to us in HHI

DH and I are in a similar situation. $715K HHI, net worth $2.8M. We’re late twenties and have 1 year old and 3 year old kids. We spend about $10K per year on vacations, most on my parents so they can tag along and play the roles of patriarch and matriarch.

[Anonymous]

OP, here. Thanks for all your responses! Super helpful, please keep them coming. I am thinking based on variable HHI ($650K-725K), saving $250K seems a reasonable target.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How much do you save, what's your networth? how old are you? how much do you spend on vacations? We are at this income level starting last year, and wondering how much to splurge vs spend. We are late 40s and have a networth of $3.5M, two kids in public and college looming.

If this post is not relevant for you, please skip over. I hope I can get some thoughts from people similar to us in HHI

DH and I are in a similar situation. $715K HHI, net worth $2.8M. We’re late twenties and have 1 year old and 3 year old kids. We spend about $10K per year on vacations, most on my parents so they can tag along and play the roles of patriarch and matriarch.

Naah.. you are better off than us (saying it in a good way!). You have many years to increase your net worth. $10K on vacations seems so less, but then your kids are so little. At those ages, money seemed to be better spent on household help for us than vacations but then we earned less than half your HHI at that time

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How much do you save, what's your networth? how old are you? how much do you spend on vacations? We are at this income level starting last year, and wondering how much to splurge vs spend. We are late 40s and have a networth of $3.5M, two kids in public and college looming.

If this post is not relevant for you, please skip over. I hope I can get some thoughts from people similar to us in HHI

DH and I are in a similar situation. $715K HHI, net worth $2.8M. We’re late twenties and have 1 year old and 3 year old kids. We spend about $10K per year on vacations, most on my parents so they can tag along and play the roles of patriarch and matriarch.

Lol, not buying it - no one is worth $2.8M in their 20s.