How rich do you have to be to afford a live in housekeeper?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The problem is that when I’m home, I don’t want someone else to be there. But if I worked out of the house, maybe.

Sorry your house is not big enough!

[Anonymous]

I think this is less about money and more about lifestyle and working status of parents.

We have a $2m+ HHI but I’m a sahm. I don’t want someone in the house all the time.

We have friends with similar, some higher, some lower with a ton of household help. Many of these households have dual incomes so they outsource as much as possible. Depending on the live in, the cost isn’t so high since housing can be deducted from pay. I know my friends who had live in Nannies and housekeepers often paid them less than a full time nanny.

I had a neighbor with twins who had a staff of 6. She always had at least 2 Nannie’s at a time. Dad was always traveling internationally and mom was an investment banker. They had separate people to do different duties. I don’t know how much they earned. I’m sure a lot.

People with demanding jobs need more than full time help so live in covers them. Having a full time nanny and housekeeper isn’t uncommon or having 2 Nannie’s. I wouldn’t find a live in housekeeper any more impressive than just having a full time housekeeper.

I used to have a full time housekeeper and nanny but I was working then. We had a HHI of $800k then. Now it is higher but we have less help. This is probably due to Covid but I got used to it and like it just fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem is that when I’m home, I don’t want someone else to be there. But if I worked out of the house, maybe.

Sorry your house is not big enough!

+1. Both DH and I wfh and our two young kids are home with their nanny. We barely notice (except when we take a break to spend time with them)

[Anonymous]

We make $500k and pay our nanny $50k, so maybe double that? $1m HHI?

[Anonymous]

Around here people pay legally so it costs more

[Anonymous]

Brady Bunch rich.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have an acquaintance who has a live in housekeeper, he bragged about paying her a 100k a year salary. This guy works in tech and lives in a 2.5m home in DC. She cooks all the meals and cleans daily. What sort of income/NW do folks have who can afford this?

The question is not how rich you have to be, but rather how stupid you have to be, to pay a housekeeper $100K per year. And that is with free housing?? The median salary nationally for *engineers* is $83K, for goodness' sake.

[Anonymous]

DH's grandmother has a live in housekeeper who she pays $30/hour for 20 hours a week of help plus room and board. I suspect her housekeeper does more than 20 hours of work -- they also enjoy each other's company (play mahjong together, celebrate birthdays and holidays together, etc.).

Grandmother is running out of liquid assets but lives in a paid off house in a very sought after area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have an acquaintance who has a live in housekeeper, he bragged about paying her a 100k a year salary. This guy works in tech and lives in a 2.5m home in DC. She cooks all the meals and cleans daily. What sort of income/NW do folks have who can afford this?

The question is not how rich you have to be, but rather how stupid you have to be, to pay a housekeeper $100K per year. And that is with free housing?? The median salary nationally for *engineers* is $83K, for goodness' sake.

If I had a ton of money (I don’t) I would happily pay $100k to someone who made my life so much easier and pleasanter. Why not redistribute some of my wealth to a person who is deserving AND personally important to me?

[Anonymous]

We paid that much for years on childcare for my three kids. Salary at the time was just shy of $300k. But it kept me in the workforce.

[Anonymous]

We have a housekeeper 25 hours / week (she works for another family for similar hours) and we pay about 35K a year. Being a live-in typically costs more, not less, because it’s an advantage to the employer to have the help 24/7 (even if she technically works specific hours). So 100K doesn’t seem totally crazy to me.

We hired our housekeeper when our HHI was around 1M. I SAH so I wasn’t sure about having someone around every day but the benefits are so great it’s totally worth it. Our housekeeper is actually not the best cleaner of those we interviewed but I like her personally and she’s sweet to our kids.

Also when our income went up we really thought about what changes we’d make to our lives, and I get way, way more joy from spending money on services and experiences than I do on stuff. Americans are so quick to buy goods but for some reason hesitant to spend money on household help!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We paid that much for years on childcare for my three kids. Salary at the time was just shy of $300k. But it kept me in the workforce.

Would’ve been a lot cheaper to have one parent stay home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The problem is that when I’m home, I don’t want someone else to be there. But if I worked out of the house, maybe.

This. We both work from home and have a HHI around 350K. I can't even deal with someone coming in once a week, though we totally need it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We paid that much for years on childcare for my three kids. Salary at the time was just shy of $300k. But it kept me in the workforce.

Would’ve been a lot cheaper to have one parent stay home.

No, obviously not. Plus that poster (probably she) is likely making more than 300k now or can demand that in the marketplace.

[Anonymous]

My DH grandparents are 91 and 93 and live in their home of 60 years. They pay a live-in nurse to take care of them, clean, shop, and cook - through an agency. This service is $950 a day. They do not need much medical care, and they are both mobile. I see it as a very expensive live-in housekeeper. We have no idea how much they are worth, they never talked about money, and grandpa has severe dementia so cannot really talk about assets.