Making $500k and not feeling wealthy in NW

[Anonymous]

OP's post is exactly why my husband refuses to let our child attend a private school.

We think we do okay (within the top 4 or 5%), but make no where near what OP makes and we consider ourselves very lucky. We have a great retirement savings, a good emergency fund, have one car not paid off ($270 a month) and one 12-year old car. The only debt we have is our mortgage, and it is reasonable. We both paid off our school loans in our early 30s. And they were substantial...no parents to help us with our education costs.

Another member of our family makes 4x what we make (and probably makes more than you)...and they live exactly the same way we do, except they have one car the ability to pay off their entire mortgage tomorrow (they don't be cause they can earn more from investments that the mortgage interest rate on their house). They don't surround themselves with people who place value around materialistic things. Almost all of their money is in the bank. They don't act "rich" but they are.

OP- you seriously need an attitude adjustment. My advice: 1. move, 2. send your kid to a public school or a more modest private school that doesn't breed senses of entitlement. And if you don't work, get a job so you can learn the value of earning money and see how it is for most people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, you should read "The Millionaire Next Door." An excellent read. You are a classic case of Big Hat/No Cattle. Your assets/savings should equal your age times your income divided by 10. So say you are 40 and income is $500k. You should have at least $2M in assets/equity. If you do, you are doing alright.

Excellent suggestion! PP here...I read this several years ago. Great book.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you should read "The Millionaire Next Door." An excellent read. You are a classic case of Big Hat/No Cattle. Your assets/savings should equal your age times your income divided by 10. So say you are 40 and income is $500k. You should have at least $2M in assets/equity. If you do, you are doing alright.

Excellent suggestion! PP here...I read this several years ago. Great book.

This is a terrible suggestion. OP is all cattle and no hat ie the exact opposite. but she doesn't enjoy it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you should read "The Millionaire Next Door." An excellent read. You are a classic case of Big Hat/No Cattle. Your assets/savings should equal your age times your income divided by 10. So say you are 40 and income is $500k. You should have at least $2M in assets/equity. If you do, you are doing alright.

Excellent suggestion! PP here...I read this several years ago. Great book.

This is a terrible suggestion. OP is all cattle and no hat ie the exact opposite. but she doesn't enjoy it.

Right, so wouldn't OP benefit from reading the book?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you should read "The Millionaire Next Door." An excellent read. You are a classic case of Big Hat/No Cattle. Your assets/savings should equal your age times your income divided by 10. So say you are 40 and income is $500k. You should have at least $2M in assets/equity. If you do, you are doing alright.

Excellent suggestion! PP here...I read this several years ago. Great book.

This is a terrible suggestion. OP is all cattle and no hat ie the exact opposite. but she doesn't enjoy it.

Right, so wouldn't OP benefit from reading the book?

No OP would not. You are dense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you should read "The Millionaire Next Door." An excellent read. You are a classic case of Big Hat/No Cattle. Your assets/savings should equal your age times your income divided by 10. So say you are 40 and income is $500k. You should have at least $2M in assets/equity. If you do, you are doing alright.

Excellent suggestion! PP here...I read this several years ago. Great book.

This is a terrible suggestion. OP is all cattle and no hat ie the exact opposite. but she doesn't enjoy it.

Right, so wouldn't OP benefit from reading the book?

No OP would not. You are dense.

I read the book. Every word. Do you think people cannot change? Maybe she has never thought of savings goals in this way before?

[Anonymous]

Are you kidding me, OP? You have two kids and $500 K isn't enough? This makes me want to puke! What I wouldn't do to have as much of an income as you. I would be sailing with that kind of money, and I have many more children! You need to get a grip on your finances. Just because you make a lot doesn't mean you should spend a lot. You have NO excuse for feeling like you can't afford things. NONE!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you should read "The Millionaire Next Door." An excellent read. You are a classic case of Big Hat/No Cattle. Your assets/savings should equal your age times your income divided by 10. So say you are 40 and income is $500k. You should have at least $2M in assets/equity. If you do, you are doing alright.

Excellent suggestion! PP here...I read this several years ago. Great book.

This is a terrible suggestion. OP is all cattle and no hat ie the exact opposite. but she doesn't enjoy it.

Right, so wouldn't OP benefit from reading the book?

No OP would not. You are dense.

I read the book. Every word. Do you think people cannot change? Maybe she has never thought of savings goals in this way before?

I think what you are missing is that OP doesn't feel rich because she is saving a lot of the money. She thinks rich people spend money much more lavishly. She doesn't need a book to tell her how to save. She already does that. She needs a book to tell her either to spend some of the money or quit bitching.

[Anonymous]

She needs a book to correct her stupid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

It's funny that people think that those making 300K or more are just lazying around.

We are constantly working and because of that we have other expensese that need to be paid because we don't have time to do them.

1) Lawn care
2) Nanny
3) Childcare
4) Cleaning


etc...

Once you add all of those things up the lifestyle at 300k is not that comfortable. Maybe once we get into the 5-600k you start experience more disposable income, but at 300k you have to pay for a bunch of stuff you have to outsource.

Nice try. The single mother in a low-wage job is working those crazy hours and still has cleaning and childcare and various other life obligations. She has no choice but to just deal, whether it's from not sleeping or relying on an elderly parent, or whatever. You have the choice to outsource.

+100000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP's post is exactly why my husband refuses to let our child attend a private school.

We think we do okay (within the top 4 or 5%), but make no where near what OP makes and we consider ourselves very lucky. We have a great retirement savings, a good emergency fund, have one car not paid off ($270 a month) and one 12-year old car. The only debt we have is our mortgage, and it is reasonable. We both paid off our school loans in our early 30s. And they were substantial...no parents to help us with our education costs.

Another member of our family makes 4x what we make (and probably makes more than you)...and they live exactly the same way we do, except they have one car the ability to pay off their entire mortgage tomorrow (they don't be cause they can earn more from investments that the mortgage interest rate on their house). They don't surround themselves with people who place value around materialistic things. Almost all of their money is in the bank. They don't act "rich" but they are.

OP- you seriously need an attitude adjustment. My advice: 1. move, 2. send your kid to a public school or a more modest private school that doesn't breed senses of entitlement. And if you don't work, get a job so you can learn the value of earning money and see how it is for most people.

I totally agree. People in this area seem to think that if you can somehow just manage the cost of private school, you should do it. It's bonkers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you should read "The Millionaire Next Door." An excellent read. You are a classic case of Big Hat/No Cattle. Your assets/savings should equal your age times your income divided by 10. So say you are 40 and income is $500k. You should have at least $2M in assets/equity. If you do, you are doing alright.

Excellent suggestion! PP here...I read this several years ago. Great book.

This is a terrible suggestion. OP is all cattle and no hat ie the exact opposite. but she doesn't enjoy it.

Right, so wouldn't OP benefit from reading the book?

No OP would not. You are dense.

I read the book. Every word. Do you think people cannot change? Maybe she has never thought of savings goals in this way before?

I think what you are missing is that OP doesn't feel rich because she is saving a lot of the money. She thinks rich people spend money much more lavishly. She doesn't need a book to tell her how to save. She already does that. She needs a book to tell her either to spend some of the money or quit bitching.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:She needs a book to correct her stupid.

Why is it stupid? I read the book and there is nothing magical about it. It tells you that you can save a lot of money by living frugally. But she doesn't like living frugally.

Whatever problem people here have, this book is recommended. Sometimes (rarely) it's useful, but often, like here, it doesn't apply. Like, at all.

[Anonymous]

Well said, PP. OP: this is not Houston and never will be.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:After taxes (Fed and District), private school for 1 and second coming from local DCPS into private, saving for college, retirement, long term care, helping out family members etc. You feel really squeezed. Our brother inlaw in Houston get to take 3 or 4 vacations a year on about $300k a year, we can only take one real one and then have to huff it to Delaware for the weekend. It kind of is a rat race and we're stuck in this income zone for the foreseeable future (thanks biglaw profit slips).

So, there are luxuries that you're taking for granted. You live in NW. You pay for private school for not just one but TWO children. You are able to fully pay your bills and still save fully for college, retirement, LTC, insurance AND still help out family members.

You do realize that 90% of the population of the DC metro area have to compromise on two or more of the items on this list? Usually four or more. Most of the people I know live out in the suburbs because they can't afford to live in close. They do not pay for private school. And they pick and choose which of the above they can handle.

You have truly deceived yourself into believing that you have barely covered necessities when in fact you have made some very luxurious and expensive choices that most of the region cannot afford. It is definitely time for a reality check. You are going to find very few people sympathizing with you because you are in the top 0.4% of the income bracket even in this area (the top 1% makes in the mid $300K range).

[Anonymous]

OP, you are bringing in $500k a year. I'm curious if that has made you happier than when you were earning $100k? If the answer is "no", perhaps trying to make more, to have more will similarly not make you any happier. It might be time to consider what is missing, despite all this extra stuff. There are communities outside of the district where people live more modestly, and statistically, those people will typically rank themselves as being happier than those in your same tax bracket. It might be prudent to figure out what it is about the middle class that you seem to have lost, because making more money isn't likely to address the issue.