Day dreaming about $1 million a year salary

[Anonymous]

OP . . . this might put "daydreaming" into perspective. Be grateful.

https://www.facebook.com/hollybutcher90/posts/10213711745460694

[Anonymous]

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/27-year-old-woman-dying-cancer-pens-heartbreaking-eye-opening-letter-224708485.html

Same woman as above

[Anonymous]

We're early 40s and have $1mln HHI. I (DH) own a business and DW works a "normal" job because she enjoys it. Since I own the business, I can set my hours so I work 45-50 hours/week, but split my schedule so I'm at home once our kids are home from school until they go to bed, then I work again once everyone is asleep. Our house is probably worth about $3mln and our mortgage payment all in is $9k/month (though I pay an extra $100-200k a year on it to get it down).

The main benefit is you don't have to think much before you spend. Neither of us spend extravagantly. I fly first or business class for business always, but as a family we'll fly premium economy when we travel abroad. We don't own a vacation house as we just wouldn't have the time to go there to enjoy it. We have a nanny and then a cleaning service twice a month.

Looking at us, you'd never guess it. We don't dress fancy, and neither of us likes jewelry. I bought our wedding rings back when my business was just starting, so the one piece of jewelry we do wear is not fancy either -- my wedding band was $300 and DW's engagement ring and wedding ring was under $3k as I recall.

We give a lot to charity and always request to be listed anonymously if they list their donors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Last year we made just under $3M taxable income, just under $2M the year before.

I own a primary business that I started literally from scratch about 15-20 years ago. My spouse has a normal job. I made a high Hhi early only, $200k net first year. I spent a lot of time at work, but really like what I do. After about 5 years I realized that my business could not just be me and a few employees. I needed others to bring in business too. I have tried a lot of things. Most fail and cost me money. The ones that succeed, I adopt grow and repeat. Boring business strategy, but that is the recipe for success. That business has a few dozen employees and netted me seven figures last year.

We always made way more than friends and we invested the excess. We bought rental properties slowly and then faster. These days I usually only buy if it will cost me minimal cash out of pocket and cash flow is positive. I will cash out refinance or put second mortgages in existing properties. Recently we have been selling residential properties and 1031 exchanging into commercial properties (predominantly strip malls). Cash flow from those properties are shielded by depreciation and don't reflect in my taxable income, but net cash flow is around $250-350k per year. Mortgage pay down of principal is another $$150k or so.

I took those profits and started a third business (financial related) that also nets seven figures annually.

Lastly I invest in other good opportunities as a minority passive partner when opportunities arise. I also have partnered on house flips a number of times.

As for lifestyle. We have kids preschool and elementary age (I cut back hours after they were born, but do often work again after they go to bed). While I am sure this is subjective, we live in an A+ location, in a mansion with guest house. We have a second home at the beach, substantially smaller, but still with 4 bedrooms and a guest house, also in an A+ location. We recently looked at a third residence, which we loved and would have been a wonderful lifestyle to show our kids, but realistically we wouldnt use it much and decided to pass.

We have both a nanny and housekeeper, plus a slew of part time people. There is very little that we cannot afford, but don't want very many material things ( kids excepted, but we put the same restraints in them as most dcum parents would). We have taken a few excessively nice vacations ($25K+). We both think the amounts spent are absurd, but we can afford it and frankly I don't know what else to spend it on. We stay in multi bedroom suites and bring the nanny (although we would never tell people that we brought the nanny, as it would seem gauche). Btw, we call her a nanny, but she has multiple advanced degrees in childcare and education and is technically qualified as a governess and we pay her accordingly.

We maintain what most would consider very large mortgages on our residences (monthly payments are $20K/ month, Piti). We could pay them off, but our rate is 3.5% and I can consistently earn 30% return. Our largest expenses are new investments and then taxes (over $1M/ yr federal and state). Nearly everything is invested, so we rarely have true cash of more than $25-50k at a time, but I could get ahold of a few hundred thousand within a few days and a few million within a few months without any fire sales.

Overall assets are around $40M. Debt has been slowly decreasing as a percentage of assets, currently below 50%, but increasing in amount as the assets increase.

We use a financial advisor for stocks, but I think it is probably a waste of money. The returns they make are far inferior to our own and I think a target fund with semi annual readjusting we be just as good with a lower expense ratio. Retirement funds are all in Roths.

Btw, I regularly post on dcum. Everyone on here thinks people with a lot of money would never post on here, but I don't know where else I would post.

I will tell you that our net worth at our ages gives us very few contemporaries (I get that we aren't mega rich- but if I wanted to work until 65 I could amass nine figures). We try not to talk about money. Our friends and others know we are rich, but probably not how rich. Since I run a business it would be nice to talk to some other successful business owners, but I know very few. It is actually quite lonely.

We could retire today comfortably, particularly if we downsized the house to something extremely nice, but not as insane as we have now. But I have no idea what I would do and we have young kids. We think it is important that they see us have jobs.

Speaking of kids, they know we have a lot of money, although not how much. I heard them discussing the other day whether we were rich (they were unsure and outright asked- I ducked the question, by asking if it mattered). I don't know how to hide the fact that we have money and at the same time not feel that we have to hide that we own rental properties or that we have dozens of employees in my businesses. They do know that just because you want something doesn't mean you buy it.

We are ardent proponents of public education. We voted for Hillary (although I was torn between her and Bernie in the primary) We think obamacare is good. We were against the tax reform bill (the loss of salt will affect us less than other benefits of the bill- so it was personally a good bill for us). We hate trump. We were both raised well off, but nothing like how we live now. And we will leave the vast majority of our money to charity, as we don't see any reason that our kids need it nor do we think it would be good for them.

Thank you for your post. DH just started earning seven figures and I’m a relatively new SAHM. We are late 30s and have three young children. Youngest is 10 Months old. My background is in finance and hope to build a small real estate portfolio like you one day. Right now I’m so exhausted even though we have plenty of help. I see there can be light at the end of the tunnel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:with that type of salary read salary except to be on-call working constantly. Divorce almost guaranteed at some point. Spouse and any kids will hate you. Trophy wife an option but that gets old fast. Get ready to die lonely but hey at least you have money to buy you happiness.

This is not my H’s experience. He makes high six figures, not quite 1 mil (though he has crossed that line twice before). He works 55 hour weeks and it’s very flexible meaning if he comes home at 4 to meet with a contractor or our kid’s therapist, he doesn’t go back afterwards.

It’s more about getting his shit done not putting in the face time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:with that type of salary read salary except to be on-call working constantly. Divorce almost guaranteed at some point. Spouse and any kids will hate you. Trophy wife an option but that gets old fast. Get ready to die lonely but hey at least you have money to buy you happiness.

This is not my H’s experience. He makes high six figures, not quite 1 mil (though he has crossed that line twice before). He works 55 hour weeks and it’s very flexible meaning if he comes home at 4 to meet with a contractor or our kid’s therapist, he doesn’t go back afterwards.

It’s more about getting his shit done not putting in the face time.

DH is a surgeon and works late 1-2 nights per week. Other nights he is home by 5. He helps kids with homework and puts our daughter to bed. He is on call 5-6 weeks per year. He takes off most school breaks and a week or two during summer vacation.

[Anonymous]

My DH makes about $2m per year. We live in a large house in a nice area, but not a mansion. Our kids do go to private school. We take a lot of vacations - nothing crazy lavish (we aren't flying kids first class), but nice. Our cars are paid off. We don't worry about money, and I don't have to work.

But, I still drive the same 10 year old car. I haven't gotten into fancy bags or jewelry or anything like that. I dress just like I used to. We haven't joined a country club. No second homes or investment properties. We do save a lot more than we used to.

I think the main thing that has changed is the level of stress - no arguments about money, no real worries about paying bills. It's nice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
OP . . . this might put "daydreaming" into perspective. Be grateful.

https://www.facebook.com/hollybutcher90/posts/10213711745460694

Seriously?

You can be happy and also daydream. I am generally happy with my life, but today, when i was walking to the bus stop i daydreamed about a vacation to Hawai'i. That's not ungrateful, it's a normal thing to do.

I love lots of things about my life, my job, and where I live. That doesn't mean that I can't daydream about what it would be like to tell my kid "Pick any college on the planet, I'll pay" or to never have to wait my turn in the shower in the morning because we had as many bathrooms as people. It also doesn't mean that I don't know how lucky I am that I can afford to send my kid to college at all, or that I have indoor plumbing.