so who actually shops at Bloomingdales? Stays at 4/5 star resorts for $1000/night?
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Anonymous
| We are in the 400k bracket and so stay at the 1k resorts for big trips. For smaller trips, we spend much less. We fly business generally using points. We are all about the points. We save and both grew up comfortably. Our kids are in charters. We basically shop all over but rarely pay full price. That is the key. |
Anonymous
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I don't. I prefer to spend the money on international travel, and as you said, as a family of 4, it gets expensive. |
Anonymous
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i guess the moral of the story is that you can't under estimate how expensive kids really are. When I was in my 20's I went to Europe a lot and stayed in low end hotels or hostels. Now a trip to Europe is a giant expense because airfare alone for 5 people is $5K. Instead of buying fish and chips for one, we're feeding 5. It's remarkable how you can earn what by standard is a great income ($400K) and still be no where near being able to afford luxury goods (aside from an occasional anniversary-type splurge). Sure, i could buy the $3K handbag. I have the money in the bank. but it will stress me out because I have 3 looming college tutions, and then there is grad school...... Kids just suck up an unbelievable amount of money. My oldest son is turning out to be a great soccer player who is crazy obsessed with the game (4th grade). He plays travel soccer. Our local program just cost us $3500 (all fees, tournaments, required winter training, required week of summer camp etc) for this year. And we didn't go looking for the most expensive, high end program. He just tried out for the travel team of our rec league and suddenly we're paying $3500 over the course of the next 12 months. Our youngest loves the piano. So we're paying weekly lessons. At $36/week plus recital that's another $2K/year. It just all adds up and so our baseline lifestyle remains unchanged from what it was 10 years ago. We're making a very respectable income (which I and the government and just about everyone on the planet would actually say is a HIGH income) and splurges are few and very far between. |
Anonymous
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I just booked a 4.5 star hotel in NYC for a weekend trip on Hotwire for $250/night.
Anyway, I spent a lot on certain things and not others. My dresses are cheap, my scarves, bags, and jewelry are high end. Came from a pretty rich family and make a lot of money, and I can be sort of eccentric in my spending as a result. |
Anonymous
ppl who don't have 3 kids... |
Anonymous
You know you can spend $250-300 night and not have to cook on vacation either? |
Anonymous
Bingo! thats is where your money is going. Those of us that thoughtfully stopped at one child happily can afford to enjoy DC and beyond -- not every other year but every year. DH and I stopped complaining once we hit 100k and we kept growing financially. You are beyond blessed. Stop and smell the roses. |
Anonymous
I hope when the college tuition bubble crashes so does this idea that parents have to fund every cent of their children's education. You would seriously pay for grad school on top of college? Sorry. Not happening in my house. At a certain point I'm done bleeding out because you want 3 degrees. Perhaps covering one makes sense but funding advanced education for Masters and PhD's as parents seems nuts. |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
We make what you make, but paid off our mortgage, have only 2 kids and are undoubtedly older. We have disposable income now, even with maxing our 401(k)s and kids' college funds. |
Anonymous
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The costs associated with 'family' travel are high and climbing. As PP mentioned, Disney isn't real luxury but during spring break it's $800/night for the Polynesian. But, we want to stay on the monorail and don't like taking the kids out of school to travel.
We also take a romantic couples trip around our anniversary every year. We splurge on the oceanfront rooms, couples massages, nice dinners, etc. for this annual trip. Life is short. My Dad died in his mid-60s. Kids will have flown the nest within a decade. I'm maximizing the family travel while they can't opt out! |
Anonymous
| Don't forget those who bought houses before the boom and have much smaller mortgages. I can't afford my parents house but they bought in 99 when they made less than I make now. |
Anonymous
| There are a lot of people. 1 percent of 300 million is 3 million. Then there are the new upper classes from China and other recently developed economies. New wealth likes to spend. And as a number of posters have pointed out, those in the top quartile can easily afford luxuries if they don't have kids and/or aren't spending too much on housing. When I was single I shopped at Saks, traveled internationally, and stayed at five star hotels. Now that I have a house and kids, I shop at Joseph Bank and vacation at moderately-price nearby resorts, even though I make 2 to 3x as much. |
Anonymous
| Why is this confusing? 1% of the population is still more than 3 million people |
Anonymous
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To the OP, what I've observed is that a lot of people buy expensive but consume less on the whole. They may life in a small house, drive a older car, but they'll spend $2k on a purse or treat themselves to an expensive vacation by staying at an expensive $1k/night hotel because "they are worth it" and YOLO.
The successful types are separated into two camps: those who work for others, and those who work for themselves. The ones that work for others tend to be a mixed bag when it comes to money and spending habits. Some of them will spend heavily as allowed by their "successful" income. Those who work for themselves tend to be more disciplined, since they had to make good decisions in order for their business to be successful. |