At what HHI did you stop feeling like more money = better life?

Anonymous
It was around $200k, but it wasn't so much the income as it was the $1200/month SL's getting paid off and then having all that extra income at once. That made it feel like we were swimming in it, and ever since we've directed raises to investments and savings. Currently at $450k. Lifestyle is pretty nice but also deliberately set around the $150k-200k level. We don't have a second house or nanny or private school, but we have everything we need and 95% of what we want.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:All of these numbers are meaningless to compare without knowing inheritances, parental help, etc. life becomes a lot more comfortable if grandma funded jr.’s college for example.


Also makes a difference when you were able to get on the property ladder. When you bought and how much appreciation you’ve gotten can be a game changer, especially for those with HHI under 150k. While that HHI might’ve afforded you a few kids and a mortgage payment 5-10 years ago, that same HHI is no longer sufficient given the recent spike in housing costs and childcare.
Anonymous
We went from 175k HHI to 450-500 HHI over the course of five years. We live in a lower COL area than DC now, and we bought our house based on the 175K HHI. We also paid off student loans during that time period. I think we are currently at the point that the OP asked about. There’s not really much we could do to really make massive quality of life changes other than buy a bigger house, which we don’t feel particularly motivated to do right now because we like our house and it’s in the “best” neighborhood. We already pay for a lot of outsourcing, have a nanny for our toddler with our older child in private school, take nice trips, etc.
Anonymous
The answer is always about $100k more than whatever we’re making now!
Anonymous
$1 billion
Anonymous
We were at 150K, with a new house worth 300K and a baby, when I quit to stay home. Income dropped to 100K, but still felt pretty good because we had saved and put in a big down-payment. We felt pretty comfortable. House was bought at the bottom of the housing crash. + we were saving on childcare costs of 12K.

DH kept making jumps in income and is now at 350K. Same house. Same locality. Two kids. We became extremely comfortable at around $200K because of low cost of housing, no childcare cost, no private school cost. We have a very balanced life and we are comfortable. We actually feel pretty well off and my DH really enjoys his work.
Anonymous
$200k feels like plenty with 1 child in $20k private school. We have a lovely house, 2 cars, can take a $10k vacation in normal years, and fully fund retirement and 529s. Anything above this would just increase the quality of what we already have, but not provide more than we have. We could stay in nice hotels instead of air bnbs, or buy the audi instead of the ford, but it would not significantly change anything.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:$200k feels like plenty with 1 child in $20k private school. We have a lovely house, 2 cars, can take a $10k vacation in normal years, and fully fund retirement and 529s. Anything above this would just increase the quality of what we already have, but not provide more than we have. We could stay in nice hotels instead of air bnbs, or buy the audi instead of the ford, but it would not significantly change anything.


How much is your mortgage?
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:300k. But our houses are paid off, retirement and colleges are set


We could hang out.
Anonymous
OP, what a naive question on so many fronts. At a minimum ask for age and NW as the bare minimum.

How many kids and how many years away from projected retirement would be good info too.
Anonymous
$600k but with living in DC and three little kids and high childcare costs and piano/tennis/violin/tutoring/lacrosse/soccer we are not living a lavish life. But we are definitely comfortable.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Once we reached $300k we were living a very comfortable UMC life and we were not worried about money. As the years went by we were making multiples of that but we lived in the same home, drove the same cars, took the same vacations. The UMC life was perfect for us. But our savings grew! Now we are retired and we are spending it.


Same.
Anonymous
Right around $400K. We have 3 kids who are in a bunch of activities and we like to travel.

I can't think of anything that we would do with more money if we had it.
Anonymous
I’m a life long public employee who has happens to be a millionaire after saving and investing for years. Life is no better now than when I started saving/investing at age 24. Financial security is about the best perk, toys and stuff are just that.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:$200k feels like plenty with 1 child in $20k private school. We have a lovely house, 2 cars, can take a $10k vacation in normal years, and fully fund retirement and 529s. Anything above this would just increase the quality of what we already have, but not provide more than we have. We could stay in nice hotels instead of air bnbs, or buy the audi instead of the ford, but it would not significantly change anything.


How much is your mortgage?


New poster: This is me almost exactly and I feel the strain at his HHI. Are you putting away an accrual for home repairs? What do you mean by "fully fund" a 529?
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