Day dreaming about $1 million a year salary

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s not income you want, it’s assets. If you have assets of $5m you don’t need the kind of job that pays a million. You can choose not to work or to work part time or for pleasure. Total freedom!

Yes, this. Why daydream about working?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

We have that HHI and I think the worst thing that’s happened so far is that family members know you’re rich and try to take advantage of you and expect you to just give them free money.

This can happen well before the million mark. Especially if you have kids.

Why especially if you have kids?

[Anonymous]

I know a very normal couple, and the wife makes $1 million + per year, and the husband makes about $300-400k. She owns her own business, he is a consultant. They do both travel some, but otherwise usually work out of their house. It's a big house, but it's not astronomical and they don't have a butler or a maid answering the door, etc. They drive normal cars, but also have a sports car or two in the garage. They own several investment properties, but this only recently became a hobby so they haven't reaped the full reward on those by any means. Not sure about family members hitting them up for money - the husband's mother also has a lot of money, but she is stingy and does not give it away, so maybe his family is used to not receiving anything. I also don't know them well enough to know if they're truly a happy, fulfilled couple but they at least appear that way. And their 2 kids are normal and successful so far (one college, one high school.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know a very normal couple, and the wife makes $1 million + per year, and the husband makes about $300-400k. She owns her own business, he is a consultant. They do both travel some, but otherwise usually work out of their house. It's a big house, but it's not astronomical and they don't have a butler or a maid answering the door, etc. They drive normal cars, but also have a sports car or two in the garage. They own several investment properties, but this only recently became a hobby so they haven't reaped the full reward on those by any means. Not sure about family members hitting them up for money - the husband's mother also has a lot of money, but she is stingy and does not give it away, so maybe his family is used to not receiving anything. I also don't know them well enough to know if they're truly a happy, fulfilled couple but they at least appear that way. And their 2 kids are normal and successful so far (one college, one high school.)

DP. Forgot to say - because their income is so substantial, their primary home has a small mortgage but their investment properties are paid for with cash, so any rental income is immediately "extra", after expenses. They do pay for college and private school, but since their income has been at these levels, they tend to save up the cash and use it for other properties. They were able to invest a large portion recently as well, once they accumulated too much cash. So I think your "budget mindset" shifts a little - instead of saying "we need to save $x for college each month and $y for retirement", all that stuff is easily taken care of, often times in a lump sum. So you are working with much larger amounts, and you have to identify what you want to do with that cash - property, investments, business, etc. You probably have enough already, but you always want your money to work for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know a very normal couple, and the wife makes $1 million + per year, and the husband makes about $300-400k. She owns her own business, he is a consultant. They do both travel some, but otherwise usually work out of their house. It's a big house, but it's not astronomical and they don't have a butler or a maid answering the door, etc. They drive normal cars, but also have a sports car or two in the garage. They own several investment properties, but this only recently became a hobby so they haven't reaped the full reward on those by any means. Not sure about family members hitting them up for money - the husband's mother also has a lot of money, but she is stingy and does not give it away, so maybe his family is used to not receiving anything. I also don't know them well enough to know if they're truly a happy, fulfilled couple but they at least appear that way. And their 2 kids are normal and successful so far (one college, one high school.)

What kind of business does she own?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DH made that kind of money for a lot of years before retiring. But our lifestyle was really established when he was making about $300,000 a year and it never really changed even though he was making a lot more money. The big spend above that was paying cash for college and graduate schools. What really changed was our net worth and his ability to retire at 60. We are spending more in retirement (travel, vacation home, charity, gifts to kids) then we use to because you can't take it with you.

Even in my imagination this is what it's like: have plenty for day-to-day, save aggressively, be able to retire early and well, and pay for the important stuff like college without stressing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DH made that kind of money for a lot of years before retiring. But our lifestyle was really established when he was making about $300,000 a year and it never really changed even though he was making a lot more money. The big spend above that was paying cash for college and graduate schools. What really changed was our net worth and his ability to retire at 60. We are spending more in retirement (travel, vacation home, charity, gifts to kids) then we use to because you can't take it with you.

Even in my imagination this is what it's like: have plenty for day-to-day, save aggressively, be able to retire early and well, and pay for the important stuff like college without stressing.

Agree - I know a lot of people who make a lot of money but spend a lot of money and don't have a lot of net worth. To sustain that life style sounds pretty stressful.

[Anonymous]

DH makes that. He earned $2m in 2017. We don't live much differently than when we earned 400-500k. We have no debt. Live off ~300k and invest the rest. Same house. Kids attend public school. Fly coach. Still go to the local swim club.

We have friends who definitely changed their lifestyle when they got into seven figure incomes. Bigger house. Private schools. Country club. Vacation home. Boat. Expensive cars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DH makes that. He earned $2m in 2017. We don't live much differently than when we earned 400-500k. We have no debt. Live off ~300k and invest the rest. Same house. Kids attend public school. Fly coach. Still go to the local swim club.

We have friends who definitely changed their lifestyle when they got into seven figure incomes. Bigger house. Private schools. Country club. Vacation home. Boat. Expensive cars.

Then you either already financially independent or will be soon. Cool.

[Anonymous]

I really think that some of you are unclear about how daydreaming works.

I am in control of my daydreams. So, even if statistically 99.9% of people with $1 million a year incomes, are cheating on their spouses (I doubt this statistic), or hate their jobs, or work 100 hours a week, I can dream about being part of the 0.1%. Because it's a daydream!

For example, I really love my job as a special ed teacher. I would not want to quit, and realistically this pretty much guarantees that my salary will never have 7 digits unless I move to Japan and get paid in Yen. But that doesn't stop me from fantasizing that one of the these things happens:

1) I win the lottery! A million dollars a year per life. I tell my boss I'll work for free! (note: I do not play the lottery)

2) Some unbelievably rich billionaire finds out how amazing I am and decides to pay me a million dollars a year to tutor his complex kid 6 hours a day!

See, how that works? It's a daydream.

[Anonymous]

^ How old are you?

[Anonymous]

I know 3 couples making that plus. 2 dentists, one a doctor.

One dentist had family money before becoming a dentist. His family owns 3 very large strip malls, a large car washing business, a housing development with upscale apartments, a medical plaza. Even a boulevard named after them. The dentist married a girl he met at dental school and together they own their own dental office. I can honestly say money has not changed them.

Another dentist let it go to his head. Little head mostly. He was humping anything that had a vagina. Wife got half of everything. He's on his third trophy wife. He looks like hell, no longer got that sexy anymore. He was so damn arrogant. Reality bit him hard. And mean. OMG he was mean. Some women will trade their souls for a luxury life.

Last is a Pediatrician. Married college sweethearts, he went on to open his own doctor's group, wife ran the business. She started going on girl trips then next thing you know she's leaving doc and running off with a man that brought his kid to the office. It was down right scandalous at the time. He fought her in court for child custody and made her pay child support. She did get a house to shack up in with her boyfriend. Boyfriend's wife left him broke.

Rich or poor, if you don't have a good sound solid foundation of love, money won't matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't want that kind of income. A lot of negative shit comes with that kind of money. Hell, that actually starts to happen around $500K income IMHO.

You tend to lose your sense of reality, you start to think you're smarter/better than everyone else, you expect others to treat you differently, spouses start to get bored and stray which becomes a lot easier when you have that kind of cash to throw around, and you ruin your kids futures because they start to think that 3 luxurious vacations a year is common-place and normal.

A family member of mine makes this kind of income. Not everyone is the way you describe. They live like they make about 150k. Nothing has changed.

[Anonymous]

We're well over $1m annually. We live very comfortably. We have a 7000 sf house in a country club neighborhood. We have four cars between the two of us. And an airplane.

We travel about three to four weeks a year. Any flight that is longer than two hours is first class. Price isn't really a consideration when deciding where to stay or what to do. That's pretty much true for most things we want. There are no conversations about whether or not to buy something. If we decide to get it, we just get it. I'm pretty sure we've never had a single argument about money in our 15 years together.

One of the things that's surprised me the most at this income level is the perks. We don't need free things, but we get more free things now than ever before. Our main credit card company just recently took us on an all expenses paid amazing weekend that we considered totally over the top. They easily spent $15-$20k on us for a three day weekend. It seems like we're always getting free dinners at restaurants, game/suite tickets, gifts, etc. Sure, everyone wants our business but there are also no hard sells. Certainly none like when we were at $100k.

He works long hours but it's something he really enjoys. He's home for dinner 20+ days a month. She doesn't need to, but she still works full time and enjoys what she does.

Life is easy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DH makes that. He earned $2m in 2017. We don't live much differently than when we earned 400-500k. We have no debt. Live off ~300k and invest the rest. Same house. Kids attend public school. Fly coach. Still go to the local swim club.

We have friends who definitely changed their lifestyle when they got into seven figure incomes. Bigger house. Private schools. Country club. Vacation home. Boat. Expensive cars.

That's what I would do if I had your HHI...retire much sooner with financial freedom. Sorry to be clear do you spend $300k a year or do you live off of a salary of $300k meaning you spend closer to $200k a year?