S/O American Dream. Would $500-750k HHI be enough for this lifestyle?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I’ve been reading all the replies and people seem to be really stuck on the 6 weeks of vacation thing.

My H and I both work remotely right now and are digital nomads moving from AirBnB to AirBnB. We really like to see different parts of the country and world and I don’t want that to change too much when we have kids, though I know we’ll have to pick a place to live to give them stability. To answer some questions, my in laws are gifting us a large down payment and my mom is planning to move near us when we have a baby to be our nanny. She’s very excited about this, it’s not something I asked for.

On the subject of vacations, do you think 4 trips would be doable on 500-750k?

Not with your other expenses. We have two kids and do, on average, a long ski weekend, a week or two weeks in Europe/similar, and two in Maine every year. Our europe trips, which are not budget but are not at all high-spend, are at least $17k each. Skiing is another several thousand, and Maine is also several thousand. Add in another kid and even more travel, I think this is at least $100k in travel alone.

I really question how people are finding an income of 750k tight. I posted earlier in the thread about how we are pretty sloppy spenders (we don’t budget, we don’t look at grocery prices, we eat lunch out frequently or get takeout for dinner, our kids do costly activities, and we take really bougie trips for a little of probably ~ 75k. My husband has a porche which he pays to store in the winter. We belong to an expensive golf club etc. I can keep going on here).

And yet even with all of this spending, we still managed to save up 6 mil for retirement in the last 10 years. Could it be more without all of the above? Sure. But you also have to enjoy life. We might get cancer and die young.

What are ya’ll spending your money on aside from mortgage?

Yeah your kids are in public school. Most people at this income have kids in private. Sounds like you’d rather burn money on pointless things than give your kids a lifelong gift of solid education.

You would be wrong about most using private school. There are plenty of families where I am that have family incomes over $1 million and their kids are in public schools. The stay at home mothers are there for the kids. The ones who do use private school it’s sometimes because their kid is a promising athlete or they have a troubled kid.

BS . No wealthy family that is concerned about their kids education would send them to public. My friends on West Cuast did it - transferred their child to public in high school. The child had a major educational and social crisis. There were no regular classes during Covid and teachers are never responding to emails. No mentoring whatsoever and impossible even get reference for college application. Nobody cares.
And that’s one of the best public schools on West Coast !

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I’ve been reading all the replies and people seem to be really stuck on the 6 weeks of vacation thing.

My H and I both work remotely right now and are digital nomads moving from AirBnB to AirBnB. We really like to see different parts of the country and world and I don’t want that to change too much when we have kids, though I know we’ll have to pick a place to live to give them stability. To answer some questions, my in laws are gifting us a large down payment and my mom is planning to move near us when we have a baby to be our nanny. She’s very excited about this, it’s not something I asked for.

On the subject of vacations, do you think 4 trips would be doable on 500-750k?

Not with your other expenses. We have two kids and do, on average, a long ski weekend, a week or two weeks in Europe/similar, and two in Maine every year. Our europe trips, which are not budget but are not at all high-spend, are at least $17k each. Skiing is another several thousand, and Maine is also several thousand. Add in another kid and even more travel, I think this is at least $100k in travel alone.

How do you spend $17K on 1-2 weeks in Europe? Are you staying on Lake Como or in Capri? Flying business? Spending $1K / night for lodging? We go all the time and I struggle to find luxury experiences to take my $ outside of Paris, London, Lake Como, etc. Even supposedly luxury places have a very low ceiling. Idk how I’d spend $17K lol.

PP here who posted on the $17k for Europe.
- Flights are about $1200 - $1500 each as we typically have to travel at spring break/summer break/winter break times due to school schedule. Also aim for direct flights. $6k
- Lodging is a big mix - with four, most places in europe require you to get suites or two connecting rooms as the usual occupancy limit is 3 for any sort of regular room. Either option runs you a minimum of $500 a night ($500/night for a suite or $250/room x2 rooms) and usually more in a city center. We've tried VRBOs and sometimes can get a little cheaper, but not always. 10 nights x $500 night = $5k (low end)
- Transit: often taking a train to a second city/location over the course of the trip, plus local transit: $1k
- Food for Four: A mix of decent lunches and good dinners, with one or two standout meals. We do eat in the hotel or lounge when we can for breakfast to bring down the cost. Sometimes it's less, but this is my guess for averaging out for a family of four including two tween boys: $75 breakfast/coffees/snacks, $125 lunch, $200 dinner per day: ~$400/day x 10 days= $4000
- Activities: we are already at $16k and haven't even spent anything on museums, boat/river tours, a private guide here or there, etc etc.

None of this is luxury in the least - it is convenient and we focus in on good locations and good food. We could easily spend a lot more.

Which European city is this?
I ask because your hotel stay seems to be on the high end.
As for your food budget, you definitely eat out a lot.
Breakfast should not be $25 per person.
Have you tried visiting a local grocery store.
Yogurt for breakfast is a great alternative. Buy some rolls and cream cheese, cucumbers and tomato and you will be fine.
Some hotel rooms used to have a coffee machine. If there is a microwave you could heat up water for hot tea.
Occasionally do a McDonalds dinner instead of a restaurant.
I once had the nicest lunch at a gas station. It was a nice sandwich. Never needed more, it was plenty of food

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I’ve been reading all the replies and people seem to be really stuck on the 6 weeks of vacation thing.

My H and I both work remotely right now and are digital nomads moving from AirBnB to AirBnB. We really like to see different parts of the country and world and I don’t want that to change too much when we have kids, though I know we’ll have to pick a place to live to give them stability. To answer some questions, my in laws are gifting us a large down payment and my mom is planning to move near us when we have a baby to be our nanny. She’s very excited about this, it’s not something I asked for.

On the subject of vacations, do you think 4 trips would be doable on 500-750k?

Not with your other expenses. We have two kids and do, on average, a long ski weekend, a week or two weeks in Europe/similar, and two in Maine every year. Our europe trips, which are not budget but are not at all high-spend, are at least $17k each. Skiing is another several thousand, and Maine is also several thousand. Add in another kid and even more travel, I think this is at least $100k in travel alone.

How do you spend $17K on 1-2 weeks in Europe? Are you staying on Lake Como or in Capri? Flying business? Spending $1K / night for lodging? We go all the time and I struggle to find luxury experiences to take my $ outside of Paris, London, Lake Como, etc. Even supposedly luxury places have a very low ceiling. Idk how I’d spend $17K lol.

PP here who posted on the $17k for Europe.
- Flights are about $1200 - $1500 each as we typically have to travel at spring break/summer break/winter break times due to school schedule. Also aim for direct flights. $6k
- Lodging is a big mix - with four, most places in europe require you to get suites or two connecting rooms as the usual occupancy limit is 3 for any sort of regular room. Either option runs you a minimum of $500 a night ($500/night for a suite or $250/room x2 rooms) and usually more in a city center. We've tried VRBOs and sometimes can get a little cheaper, but not always. 10 nights x $500 night = $5k (low end)
- Transit: often taking a train to a second city/location over the course of the trip, plus local transit: $1k
- Food for Four: A mix of decent lunches and good dinners, with one or two standout meals. We do eat in the hotel or lounge when we can for breakfast to bring down the cost. Sometimes it's less, but this is my guess for averaging out for a family of four including two tween boys: $75 breakfast/coffees/snacks, $125 lunch, $200 dinner per day: ~$400/day x 10 days= $4000
- Activities: we are already at $16k and haven't even spent anything on museums, boat/river tours, a private guide here or there, etc etc.

None of this is luxury in the least - it is convenient and we focus in on good locations and good food. We could easily spend a lot more.

Which European city is this?
I ask because your hotel stay seems to be on the high end.
As for your food budget, you definitely eat out a lot.
Breakfast should not be $25 per person.
Have you tried visiting a local grocery store.
Yogurt for breakfast is a great alternative. Buy some rolls and cream cheese, cucumbers and tomato and you will be fine.
Some hotel rooms used to have a coffee machine. If there is a microwave you could heat up water for hot tea.
Occasionally do a McDonalds dinner instead of a restaurant.
I once had the nicest lunch at a gas station. It was a nice sandwich. Never needed more, it was plenty of food

I'll answer your questions, but my post wasn't saying that this kind of vacation has to cost this much - I know there are ways to do it more cheaply. The PP had challenged how it is possible to spend $17k so I was addressing that question - it's quite easy and honestly not fancy. While we aren't looking to splurge on these vacations, I also want it to FEEL like a vacation and I don't want to be cooking and if you're staying at a hotel, you do generally dine out every meal.

As to your questions:
Which European city is this? We've done Paris, Rome, Venice, Copenhagen, Stockholm, London, and Vienna - so expensive major cities so far.
I ask because your hotel stay seems to be on the high end. I don't think they are highend - you can find a lot more expensive. But we prefer to be in the city center especially with younger kids to make it more manageable.
As for your food budget, you definitely eat out a lot. Yes, we find trying local restaurants and new/local food to be one of the most fun parts of travel.
Breakfast should not be $25 per person. I said that was breakfast/snacks/coffee - $5 per coffee while out and about, perhaps gelato in the afternoon, and that leaves you about $10 -15 per person for actual breakfast, which isn't unreasonable.
Have you tried visiting a local grocery store. Yes, sometimes we do for snacks.
Yogurt for breakfast is a great alternative. Buy some rolls and cream cheese, cucumbers and tomato and you will be fine. If I'm staying in a hotel, where am I going to store that? Cut up the stuff? It's totally possible and we've done but but it's not super convenient. Again, I'm not trying to save a couple of hundred dollars necessarily.
Some hotel rooms used to have a coffee machine. If there is a microwave you could heat up water for hot tea. We do this in the morning but often want more while out.
Occasionally do a McDonalds dinner instead of a restaurant. Sorry, this is a hard no. Again, we aren't aiming to spend a ton of money but we do want to enjoy the trip, try new or local places, etc.
I once had the nicest lunch at a gas station. It was a nice sandwich. Never needed more, it was plenty of food. We've done some local spots like this before on recommendations and it was great. definitely can be fun. Add in a few really nice restaurants and it evens out to about the rates I listed.

[Anonymous]

Couple weeks trip to Middle East for 3 as $15k back in 2023. So I do think $17k for 5 persons is actually pretty reasonable

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I’ve been reading all the replies and people seem to be really stuck on the 6 weeks of vacation thing.

My H and I both work remotely right now and are digital nomads moving from AirBnB to AirBnB. We really like to see different parts of the country and world and I don’t want that to change too much when we have kids, though I know we’ll have to pick a place to live to give them stability. To answer some questions, my in laws are gifting us a large down payment and my mom is planning to move near us when we have a baby to be our nanny. She’s very excited about this, it’s not something I asked for.

On the subject of vacations, do you think 4 trips would be doable on 500-750k?

Not with your other expenses. We have two kids and do, on average, a long ski weekend, a week or two weeks in Europe/similar, and two in Maine every year. Our europe trips, which are not budget but are not at all high-spend, are at least $17k each. Skiing is another several thousand, and Maine is also several thousand. Add in another kid and even more travel, I think this is at least $100k in travel alone.

I really question how people are finding an income of 750k tight. I posted earlier in the thread about how we are pretty sloppy spenders (we don’t budget, we don’t look at grocery prices, we eat lunch out frequently or get takeout for dinner, our kids do costly activities, and we take really bougie trips for a little of probably ~ 75k. My husband has a porche which he pays to store in the winter. We belong to an expensive golf club etc. I can keep going on here).

And yet even with all of this spending, we still managed to save up 6 mil for retirement in the last 10 years. Could it be more without all of the above? Sure. But you also have to enjoy life. We might get cancer and die young.

What are ya’ll spending your money on aside from mortgage?

Yeah your kids are in public school. Most people at this income have kids in private. Sounds like you’d rather burn money on pointless things than give your kids a lifelong gift of solid education.

You would be wrong about most using private school. There are plenty of families where I am that have family incomes over $1 million and their kids are in public schools. The stay at home mothers are there for the kids. The ones who do use private school it’s sometimes because their kid is a promising athlete or they have a troubled kid.

BS . No wealthy family that is concerned about their kids education would send them to public. My friends on West Cuast did it - transferred their child to public in high school. The child had a major educational and social crisis. There were no regular classes during Covid and teachers are never responding to emails. No mentoring whatsoever and impossible even get reference for college application. Nobody cares.
And that’s one of the best public schools on West Coast !

We make over 1 million and our kids go to public school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I’ve been reading all the replies and people seem to be really stuck on the 6 weeks of vacation thing.

My H and I both work remotely right now and are digital nomads moving from AirBnB to AirBnB. We really like to see different parts of the country and world and I don’t want that to change too much when we have kids, though I know we’ll have to pick a place to live to give them stability. To answer some questions, my in laws are gifting us a large down payment and my mom is planning to move near us when we have a baby to be our nanny. She’s very excited about this, it’s not something I asked for.

On the subject of vacations, do you think 4 trips would be doable on 500-750k?

Not with your other expenses. We have two kids and do, on average, a long ski weekend, a week or two weeks in Europe/similar, and two in Maine every year. Our europe trips, which are not budget but are not at all high-spend, are at least $17k each. Skiing is another several thousand, and Maine is also several thousand. Add in another kid and even more travel, I think this is at least $100k in travel alone.

I really question how people are finding an income of 750k tight. I posted earlier in the thread about how we are pretty sloppy spenders (we don’t budget, we don’t look at grocery prices, we eat lunch out frequently or get takeout for dinner, our kids do costly activities, and we take really bougie trips for a little of probably ~ 75k. My husband has a porche which he pays to store in the winter. We belong to an expensive golf club etc. I can keep going on here).

And yet even with all of this spending, we still managed to save up 6 mil for retirement in the last 10 years. Could it be more without all of the above? Sure. But you also have to enjoy life. We might get cancer and die young.

What are ya’ll spending your money on aside from mortgage?

Yeah your kids are in public school. Most people at this income have kids in private. Sounds like you’d rather burn money on pointless things than give your kids a lifelong gift of solid education.

You would be wrong about most using private school. There are plenty of families where I am that have family incomes over $1 million and their kids are in public schools. The stay at home mothers are there for the kids. The ones who do use private school it’s sometimes because their kid is a promising athlete or they have a troubled kid.

BS . No wealthy family that is concerned about their kids education would send them to public. My friends on West Cuast did it - transferred their child to public in high school. The child had a major educational and social crisis. There were no regular classes during Covid and teachers are never responding to emails. No mentoring whatsoever and impossible even get reference for college application. Nobody cares.
And that’s one of the best public schools on West Coast !

We make over 1 million and our kids go to public school

I guess if they end up having liberal arts degrees that won’t matter for them

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I’ve been reading all the replies and people seem to be really stuck on the 6 weeks of vacation thing.

My H and I both work remotely right now and are digital nomads moving from AirBnB to AirBnB. We really like to see different parts of the country and world and I don’t want that to change too much when we have kids, though I know we’ll have to pick a place to live to give them stability. To answer some questions, my in laws are gifting us a large down payment and my mom is planning to move near us when we have a baby to be our nanny. She’s very excited about this, it’s not something I asked for.

On the subject of vacations, do you think 4 trips would be doable on 500-750k?

Not with your other expenses. We have two kids and do, on average, a long ski weekend, a week or two weeks in Europe/similar, and two in Maine every year. Our europe trips, which are not budget but are not at all high-spend, are at least $17k each. Skiing is another several thousand, and Maine is also several thousand. Add in another kid and even more travel, I think this is at least $100k in travel alone.

I really question how people are finding an income of 750k tight. I posted earlier in the thread about how we are pretty sloppy spenders (we don’t budget, we don’t look at grocery prices, we eat lunch out frequently or get takeout for dinner, our kids do costly activities, and we take really bougie trips for a little of probably ~ 75k. My husband has a porche which he pays to store in the winter. We belong to an expensive golf club etc. I can keep going on here).

And yet even with all of this spending, we still managed to save up 6 mil for retirement in the last 10 years. Could it be more without all of the above? Sure. But you also have to enjoy life. We might get cancer and die young.

What are ya’ll spending your money on aside from mortgage?

Yeah your kids are in public school. Most people at this income have kids in private. Sounds like you’d rather burn money on pointless things than give your kids a lifelong gift of solid education.

You would be wrong about most using private school. There are plenty of families where I am that have family incomes over $1 million and their kids are in public schools. The stay at home mothers are there for the kids. The ones who do use private school it’s sometimes because their kid is a promising athlete or they have a troubled kid.

BS . No wealthy family that is concerned about their kids education would send them to public. My friends on West Cuast did it - transferred their child to public in high school. The child had a major educational and social crisis. There were no regular classes during Covid and teachers are never responding to emails. No mentoring whatsoever and impossible even get reference for college application. Nobody cares.
And that’s one of the best public schools on West Coast !

We make over 1 million and our kids go to public school

I guess if they end up having liberal arts degrees that won’t matter for them

Trying to figure out this comment…tons of private school kids end up getting liberal arts degrees.