Goldman Sachs: 40% of $400-500K and $500K+ households “live paycheck to paycheck”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The curious thing if you look at the graph of responses:

Most people earning $200-$300K did NOT state they were living paycheck to paycheck. The majority 56% said they were doing considerably better than that, and felt they were able to make significant progress on short and long term financial goals.

Yet as people moved up the income scale, that percentage dropped a lot! Only about 25% of pe3ople earning $300K+ felt that they were making significant progress on short and long term goals.

I'm wondering about the age of the respondents and whether theyhad kids?

$200,000 income (one parent) + 2 little kids with a Stay at Home Parent is probably doing better than $300,000 HHI where both parents earn $150,000 and you have to pay for daycare for 2 kids.

It’s lifestyle creep. We live like we make $200K so people assume we make $200K. In reality we make a ton more. Our friends making $400K live like they make what we actually make and frequently complain about how stretched they are financially and how it “keeps them up at night.” You learn a lot about people and money when you live below your means and people assume in conversation you make less than them.

How do you know what your friends make? I would never tell anyone what I make. I bet they think the same thing if you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yea I do not understand people, this year it looks like we will hit about 800K (two incomes). Between us we will have put 47k into 401K before employer contribution and another 40K of after tax mega roth money. We then do direct deposit of 30% of our net income into our brokerage account at every pay cycle. Even after forking over ~222,000 each year to retirement and taxable investments, we still are left to blow 23,000/mo on life. The key for us is we do all of this out of payroll deductions so there is no lifestyle creep, we never see that money.. And yes, we do have a 2nd home and do drive expensive cars and do take ski trips out to the rockies. At this point our investments are like having 3rd full time wage earner in the house. Our growth last quarter was around 250K...not bad for 3 months of work! And yes at age 48 if we both lost our jobs we could get by on taking a low wage job just for the health insurance. We would not lose our home, our kids would still have college paid for and we still would live a good life.

If you make our income and are strapped and not reaching your short and long term financial goals you are a complete and total moron.

Curious, what’s your net worth? We are 44/43 and very similar financials.

to be honest i don’t really know. My spouse handles all of the finances and we just do a “state of the union” twice a year. All I know is what we contribute and that we have never pulled money out. We also have rentals that i pay exactly zero attention to which factor into NW. Probably 8M? he just makes grand announcements when we have a particularly good quarter.

Similar here but I’m retired. I don’t do ski trips to the Rockies. That’s so UMC. Ski every year in the Alps either Switzerland or Austria. We make over $800K/yr tax free.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We make about $450k. We max out most deductions, have a $4,800 mortgage payment, no daycare or debt and we pay cash for cars and vacations, and I can not fathom paying for a nanny, dual private, country club, and cleaning. When college comes we have savings. No quarterly tax payments (we're regular employees).

Must be nice to have such a low mortgage

Two GS-15 Fed on 375K HHI. No mortgage on a 3.5M home in McLean, no car payment on two 2024 Lexus vehicles, 2M in TSP and 4M in investment. I only pay utilities, property tax, home insurance, home maintenance. I am a sucker for guitar and piano. I recently bought a 150K piano and three vintage guitars for 40K each, without breaking a sweat. Still have a lot left over on both paychecks.

What’s your point other than to brag? What did you pay for your house (not what is it worth)? I’m assuming you pay at least $35K a year in property taxes. Inheritance or stock market picking a winner or two because there is no way you could do that with $375K HHI.

It literally doesn't add up so either 1) complete BS or 2) tons of outside help so it's still BS. There is absolutely no way to afford those specifics at 375k/year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We make about $450k. We max out most deductions, have a $4,800 mortgage payment, no daycare or debt and we pay cash for cars and vacations, and I can not fathom paying for a nanny, dual private, country club, and cleaning. When college comes we have savings. No quarterly tax payments (we're regular employees).

Must be nice to have such a low mortgage

Two GS-15 Fed on 375K HHI. No mortgage on a 3.5M home in McLean, no car payment on two 2024 Lexus vehicles, 2M in TSP and 4M in investment. I only pay utilities, property tax, home insurance, home maintenance. I am a sucker for guitar and piano. I recently bought a 150K piano and three vintage guitars for 40K each, without breaking a sweat. Still have a lot left over on both paychecks.

What’s your point other than to brag? What did you pay for your house (not what is it worth)? I’m assuming you pay at least $35K a year in property taxes. Inheritance or stock market picking a winner or two because there is no way you could do that with $375K HHI.

It literally doesn't add up so either 1) complete BS or 2) tons of outside help so it's still BS. There is absolutely no way to afford those specifics at 375k/year.

Prior poster - I suppose the other poster could be right at retirement age (2 GS-15's doing the bare minimum and failing upward) and fibbed a bit on the house price and it could *possibly* make sense, but this is by no means possible unless you are in your late 50s/60s and you were completely lucky buying at the bottom. Still calling BS, but I guess it could happen and they were right here to brag on this thread

[Anonymous]

I don’t believe most of the posts on DCUM regarding income and NW.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The curious thing if you look at the graph of responses:

Most people earning $200-$300K did NOT state they were living paycheck to paycheck. The majority 56% said they were doing considerably better than that, and felt they were able to make significant progress on short and long term financial goals.

Yet as people moved up the income scale, that percentage dropped a lot! Only about 25% of pe3ople earning $300K+ felt that they were making significant progress on short and long term goals.

I'm wondering about the age of the respondents and whether theyhad kids?

$200,000 income (one parent) + 2 little kids with a Stay at Home Parent is probably doing better than $300,000 HHI where both parents earn $150,000 and you have to pay for daycare for 2 kids.

It’s lifestyle creep. We live like we make $200K so people assume we make $200K. In reality we make a ton more. Our friends making $400K live like they make what we actually make and frequently complain about how stretched they are financially and how it “keeps them up at night.” You learn a lot about people and money when you live below your means and people assume in conversation you make less than them.

How do you know what your friends make? I would never tell anyone what I make. I bet they think the same thing if you.

They tell us. Pretty straightforward.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yea I do not understand people, this year it looks like we will hit about 800K (two incomes). Between us we will have put 47k into 401K before employer contribution and another 40K of after tax mega roth money. We then do direct deposit of 30% of our net income into our brokerage account at every pay cycle. Even after forking over ~222,000 each year to retirement and taxable investments, we still are left to blow 23,000/mo on life. The key for us is we do all of this out of payroll deductions so there is no lifestyle creep, we never see that money.. And yes, we do have a 2nd home and do drive expensive cars and do take ski trips out to the rockies. At this point our investments are like having 3rd full time wage earner in the house. Our growth last quarter was around 250K...not bad for 3 months of work! And yes at age 48 if we both lost our jobs we could get by on taking a low wage job just for the health insurance. We would not lose our home, our kids would still have college paid for and we still would live a good life.

If you make our income and are strapped and not reaching your short and long term financial goals you are a complete and total moron.

Curious, what’s your net worth? We are 44/43 and very similar financials.

to be honest i don’t really know. My spouse handles all of the finances and we just do a “state of the union” twice a year. All I know is what we contribute and that we have never pulled money out. We also have rentals that i pay exactly zero attention to which factor into NW. Probably 8M? he just makes grand announcements when we have a particularly good quarter.

Similar here but I’m retired. I don’t do ski trips to the Rockies. That’s so UMC. Ski every year in the Alps either Switzerland or Austria. We make over $800K/yr tax free.

Can’t roll my eyes hard enough at “UMC.” The skiing in the west has been much, much better than the Alps in recent years. Snow just hasn’t been as good in the Alps. We go to both every year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yea I do not understand people, this year it looks like we will hit about 800K (two incomes). Between us we will have put 47k into 401K before employer contribution and another 40K of after tax mega roth money. We then do direct deposit of 30% of our net income into our brokerage account at every pay cycle. Even after forking over ~222,000 each year to retirement and taxable investments, we still are left to blow 23,000/mo on life. The key for us is we do all of this out of payroll deductions so there is no lifestyle creep, we never see that money.. And yes, we do have a 2nd home and do drive expensive cars and do take ski trips out to the rockies. At this point our investments are like having 3rd full time wage earner in the house. Our growth last quarter was around 250K...not bad for 3 months of work! And yes at age 48 if we both lost our jobs we could get by on taking a low wage job just for the health insurance. We would not lose our home, our kids would still have college paid for and we still would live a good life.

If you make our income and are strapped and not reaching your short and long term financial goals you are a complete and total moron.

Curious, what’s your net worth? We are 44/43 and very similar financials.

to be honest i don’t really know. My spouse handles all of the finances and we just do a “state of the union” twice a year. All I know is what we contribute and that we have never pulled money out. We also have rentals that i pay exactly zero attention to which factor into NW. Probably 8M? he just makes grand announcements when we have a particularly good quarter.

Similar here but I’m retired. I don’t do ski trips to the Rockies. That’s so UMC. Ski every year in the Alps either Switzerland or Austria. We make over $800K/yr tax free.

Can’t roll my eyes hard enough at “UMC.” The skiing in the west has been much, much better than the Alps in recent years. Snow just hasn’t been as good in the Alps. We go to both every year.

Colorado is so overplayed, filled with pothead dorks from Denver and rich people from Texas. Telluride & Wolf Creek are great because they are in the middle of nowhere and not filled with those crowds. But yeah, I’ll take the Alps 9 out of 10 times compared to the U.S. and I’ve pretty much been everywhere.

[Anonymous]

These people don’t understand what living paycheck to paycheck actually means. It means not being able to buy a quart of milk or loaf of bread if you run out the day before you get paid. Trying desperately to find a ride to work because you don’t have enough gas to drive tomorrow because you had to make an unexpected trip to pick up your husband at work at 1am when he had to work late washing the dishes at the restaurant and missed the last metro train, and don’t have $5 to put more gas in the car until payday. Two totally different worlds, two far ends of the “K” eceonomy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yea I do not understand people, this year it looks like we will hit about 800K (two incomes). Between us we will have put 47k into 401K before employer contribution and another 40K of after tax mega roth money. We then do direct deposit of 30% of our net income into our brokerage account at every pay cycle. Even after forking over ~222,000 each year to retirement and taxable investments, we still are left to blow 23,000/mo on life. The key for us is we do all of this out of payroll deductions so there is no lifestyle creep, we never see that money.. And yes, we do have a 2nd home and do drive expensive cars and do take ski trips out to the rockies. At this point our investments are like having 3rd full time wage earner in the house. Our growth last quarter was around 250K...not bad for 3 months of work! And yes at age 48 if we both lost our jobs we could get by on taking a low wage job just for the health insurance. We would not lose our home, our kids would still have college paid for and we still would live a good life.

If you make our income and are strapped and not reaching your short and long term financial goals you are a complete and total moron.

Curious, what’s your net worth? We are 44/43 and very similar financials.

to be honest i don’t really know. My spouse handles all of the finances and we just do a “state of the union” twice a year. All I know is what we contribute and that we have never pulled money out. We also have rentals that i pay exactly zero attention to which factor into NW. Probably 8M? he just makes grand announcements when we have a particularly good quarter.

Similar here but I’m retired. I don’t do ski trips to the Rockies. That’s so UMC. Ski every year in the Alps either Switzerland or Austria. We make over $800K/yr tax free.

Can’t roll my eyes hard enough at “UMC.” The skiing in the west has been much, much better than the Alps in recent years. Snow just hasn’t been as good in the Alps. We go to both every year.

Colorado is so overplayed, filled with pothead dorks from Denver and rich people from Texas. Telluride & Wolf Creek are great because they are in the middle of nowhere and not filled with those crowds. But yeah, I’ll take the Alps 9 out of 10 times compared to the U.S. and I’ve pretty much been everywhere.

lolol! colorado isn’t the only state with skiing. But glad your cellared very single ski area in the state. That’s impressive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t believe most of the posts on DCUM regarding income and NW.

Half of them must be dealing drugs.

[Anonymous]

The cost of college - this is the bracket where full pay comes into play at the lowest qualifying incomes. Looking at the figures in this report, private college costs have jumped 86% as percentage of income (private) and public 36% in just 5 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The curious thing if you look at the graph of responses:

Most people earning $200-$300K did NOT state they were living paycheck to paycheck. The majority 56% said they were doing considerably better than that, and felt they were able to make significant progress on short and long term financial goals.

Yet as people moved up the income scale, that percentage dropped a lot! Only about 25% of pe3ople earning $300K+ felt that they were making significant progress on short and long term goals.

I'm wondering about the age of the respondents and whether theyhad kids?

$200,000 income (one parent) + 2 little kids with a Stay at Home Parent is probably doing better than $300,000 HHI where both parents earn $150,000 and you have to pay for daycare for 2 kids.

It’s lifestyle creep. We live like we make $200K so people assume we make $200K. In reality we make a ton more. Our friends making $400K live like they make what we actually make and frequently complain about how stretched they are financially and how it “keeps them up at night.” You learn a lot about people and money when you live below your means and people assume in conversation you make less than them.

How do you know what your friends make? I would never tell anyone what I make. I bet they think the same thing if you.

They tell us. Pretty straightforward.

They’re lying to you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yea I do not understand people, this year it looks like we will hit about 800K (two incomes). Between us we will have put 47k into 401K before employer contribution and another 40K of after tax mega roth money. We then do direct deposit of 30% of our net income into our brokerage account at every pay cycle. Even after forking over ~222,000 each year to retirement and taxable investments, we still are left to blow 23,000/mo on life. The key for us is we do all of this out of payroll deductions so there is no lifestyle creep, we never see that money.. And yes, we do have a 2nd home and do drive expensive cars and do take ski trips out to the rockies. At this point our investments are like having 3rd full time wage earner in the house. Our growth last quarter was around 250K...not bad for 3 months of work! And yes at age 48 if we both lost our jobs we could get by on taking a low wage job just for the health insurance. We would not lose our home, our kids would still have college paid for and we still would live a good life.

If you make our income and are strapped and not reaching your short and long term financial goals you are a complete and total moron.

Curious, what’s your net worth? We are 44/43 and very similar financials.

to be honest i don’t really know. My spouse handles all of the finances and we just do a “state of the union” twice a year. All I know is what we contribute and that we have never pulled money out. We also have rentals that i pay exactly zero attention to which factor into NW. Probably 8M? he just makes grand announcements when we have a particularly good quarter.

Similar here but I’m retired. I don’t do ski trips to the Rockies. That’s so UMC. Ski every year in the Alps either Switzerland or Austria. We make over $800K/yr tax free.

Can’t roll my eyes hard enough at “UMC.” The skiing in the west has been much, much better than the Alps in recent years. Snow just hasn’t been as good in the Alps. We go to both every year.

Who cares about the snow. It’s all about the apre’ ski. When we do ski in the US, we usually ski at the Yellowstone Club near Big Sky.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yea I do not understand people, this year it looks like we will hit about 800K (two incomes). Between us we will have put 47k into 401K before employer contribution and another 40K of after tax mega roth money. We then do direct deposit of 30% of our net income into our brokerage account at every pay cycle. Even after forking over ~222,000 each year to retirement and taxable investments, we still are left to blow 23,000/mo on life. The key for us is we do all of this out of payroll deductions so there is no lifestyle creep, we never see that money.. And yes, we do have a 2nd home and do drive expensive cars and do take ski trips out to the rockies. At this point our investments are like having 3rd full time wage earner in the house. Our growth last quarter was around 250K...not bad for 3 months of work! And yes at age 48 if we both lost our jobs we could get by on taking a low wage job just for the health insurance. We would not lose our home, our kids would still have college paid for and we still would live a good life.

If you make our income and are strapped and not reaching your short and long term financial goals you are a complete and total moron.

Curious, what’s your net worth? We are 44/43 and very similar financials.

to be honest i don’t really know. My spouse handles all of the finances and we just do a “state of the union” twice a year. All I know is what we contribute and that we have never pulled money out. We also have rentals that i pay exactly zero attention to which factor into NW. Probably 8M? he just makes grand announcements when we have a particularly good quarter.

Similar here but I’m retired. I don’t do ski trips to the Rockies. That’s so UMC. Ski every year in the Alps either Switzerland or Austria. We make over $800K/yr tax free.

Can’t roll my eyes hard enough at “UMC.” The skiing in the west has been much, much better than the Alps in recent years. Snow just hasn’t been as good in the Alps. We go to both every year.

Colorado is so overplayed, filled with pothead dorks from Denver and rich people from Texas. Telluride & Wolf Creek are great because they are in the middle of nowhere and not filled with those crowds. But yeah, I’ll take the Alps 9 out of 10 times compared to the U.S. and I’ve pretty much been everywhere.

Check out Revelstoke, BC, Canada. 5600’ vertical. Not a lot of people.