Your income, HHI, and spending on “luxuries”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Divorced, HHI 170k, grown children,

Jewelry: I might splurge on $500 earrings once or twice every few years.
Handbags: One expensive bag, $1500-2000, every year-- usually in the fall
Cars: Cash purchase 2015 Acura TLX; going strong at 120k miles with no plans to buy another vehicle anytime soon.
Clothing/coats/shoes: I spend about 15k on clothing yearly.
Eating out: Not often (I don't count trips to Dunkin or Starbucks as eating out since the cost is nominal).
Vacations: 2k yearly
Hair salon: 2,400 yearly

10% of gross income on clothes and handbags?!

[Anonymous]

Our only real luxury is travel and it’s just two of us and we probably spend $25-40,000. We spend very little on clothes, jewelry or cars. We do have two homes and are members of three clubs so that overhead is very high and they are luxuries. We are retired but our taxable income is over $1 million.

[Anonymous]

HHI is a little above 400K. 1 child in public HS.

We probably spend $12 K on travel a year between one bigger trip, a smaller trip, and visiting relatives. This year we might not do the big trip because we took two last year.

I spend about $1,200 a year on botox.

DH and I buy pretty much all the clothes and shoes we want but our tastes are Nike and Vuori and JCrew and the very occasional 1K suit, not designer bags. Same for our child.

We are conscious of money spent on food when we start eating out too much but don't really restrict as a rule. We cook at home 90% of the time and don't eat a lot of meat and shop at Giant and TJs so our grocery bills are not huge. That's a big luxury to me, to be able to buy whatever I want and create meals and cook creatively. There was a time of all generics and no berries and lots of beans and rice when we were younger. I appreciate the freedom very much.

Our mortgage is $4700 a month. Other than that no debt.

[Anonymous]

Net worth is $10M and we don’t spend on any luxuries. I have one pearl necklace and DH has an old bmw. We spend a lot on education, some on travel, and are socking away the rest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious about how much folks spend on things like jewelry, designer clothing, bags, cars and the like. If you want throw in travel, too. Curious in relation to your own personal income as well as HHI.

Realize everyone’s priorities are different, but I’m very curious about how much folks who, say, spend $10K on a piece of non-engagement jewelry are making.

Personally I make $280K, with a HHI around $400 and I still feel anxious about a $1K purchase let alone more than that!

Well, things like jewelry, designer clothing, bags, cars and the like are utter waste of money to impress others so your anxiety is absolutely justified.

I dunno, at some level there’s an appreciation for craftsmanship, design, and engineering (in the case of cars) that’s part of it. I personally don’t spend much on these things but I’m glad we don’t live in a blocky grey utilitarian hellscape of ugliness

[Anonymous]

I’m a little surprised by all the HNW people on here classifying their children’s education in the “luxury spending” category.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our income is around $2.5M-$3M on a net worth of about $38-40M. I am recently retired, albeit very young. We earned all of our money and I earned the vast majority of it.

Anything that costs less than $100 will never matter ever. It doesn’t matter how many of anything we buy at that amount or how often.

Between $100-$1k I mentally acknowledge the expenditure. But I notice that in all sorts of circumstances something is pricier than it should be but it doesn’t stop me buying it and rarely would have me spend the time looking for a cheaper alternative as my time is worth more than this amount.

$1K- 10K is an amount I would spend without planning. At this amount it is objectively real money, but subjectively still doesn’t matter. I would, spend this much on a car repair, book a spontaneous vacation, buy a piece of art or make a donation commitment without feeling the need to check with DH or that it would matter. I would notice it on my credit card bill though and confirm that it is legit.

Above $10K is real money to me.

That said, the irony of money is that if you have a lot, there isn’t much you actually want. We spend on vacations, our house (although that is nearly done) and experiences. We hardly if ever buy stuff (like jewelry, hand bags, designer clothing). We do buy a car every 5-10 years, but nothing particularly fancy. We just aren’t car people. And while I’d like to be we aren’t really art people either. There are surprising few tangible things that we actually want.

HORSES you need horses. They’re the most fun and you can spend all of your money. Enjoy!

+1

And thanks for sharing, PP! V interesting

[Anonymous]

HHI $350k. Virtually no spending in the categories listed. Clothing is J Crew or equivalent for adults, Hanna and Tea for kids, usually purchased on sale. I stopped buying nice purses when I had infants and toddlers and never resumed because displays of wealth are frowned upon in my industry - federal contracting. We drive moderately priced cars, like a Subaru with a medium-high trim level, bought in cash every 6-10 years.
Our main luxury is living in the DMV in a close-in suburb in a single family home. Our other main luxury is that we’ll be able to retire by 65 and our kids can go to any university that accepts them, debt free.
The things we spend money on that others may find frivolous are my monthly Rent the Runway subscription ($140), house cleaners every 2 weeks, private sports lessons for kids who don’t even play travel, an overpriced item or two at the PTA auction every year, and generally just saying yes to all the little things Little things - Class needs craft supplies? Yes. Coach gift? Here’s $50. Kids want to go to the overpriced Lego place in Springfield, yes + a friend. Takeout because we feel lazy? Yes. New $50 swimsuits every summer even if my kids don’t swim A meets, sure. Your kid wants to sell me GS cookies? I buy 2 boxes from every kid that asks me and dump them at work. We’re at the mall and my kid wants a $$$ smoothie, fine as an occasional treat.

I don’t mind sitting in economy to fly to visit west coast family. No one I socialize would notice or care about the difference between $50 and $250 jeans or a $250 purse vs a $2500 one. No one besides my husband knows or cares that my diamond earrings are real. No one cares if I drive a Volvo or a Mazda.

I grew up in a middle class family where I had all of my needs and many of my wants, but I still watched my parents do mental math to figure out if we got takeout on Wednesday if we could still go to the movies on Friday - or ask me to choose between music lessons and dance lessons because we could only afford to do one. The biggest luxury to me is not sweating the little stuff and still living below our means and having savings for emergencies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:HHI $350k. Virtually no spending in the categories listed. Clothing is J Crew or equivalent for adults, Hanna and Tea for kids, usually purchased on sale. I stopped buying nice purses when I had infants and toddlers and never resumed because displays of wealth are frowned upon in my industry - federal contracting. We drive moderately priced cars, like a Subaru with a medium-high trim level, bought in cash every 6-10 years.
Our main luxury is living in the DMV in a close-in suburb in a single family home. Our other main luxury is that we’ll be able to retire by 65 and our kids can go to any university that accepts them, debt free.
The things we spend money on that others may find frivolous are my monthly Rent the Runway subscription ($140), house cleaners every 2 weeks, private sports lessons for kids who don’t even play travel, an overpriced item or two at the PTA auction every year, and generally just saying yes to all the little things Little things - Class needs craft supplies? Yes. Coach gift? Here’s $50. Kids want to go to the overpriced Lego place in Springfield, yes + a friend. Takeout because we feel lazy? Yes. New $50 swimsuits every summer even if my kids don’t swim A meets, sure. Your kid wants to sell me GS cookies? I buy 2 boxes from every kid that asks me and dump them at work. We’re at the mall and my kid wants a $$$ smoothie, fine as an occasional treat.

I don’t mind sitting in economy to fly to visit west coast family. No one I socialize would notice or care about the difference between $50 and $250 jeans or a $250 purse vs a $2500 one. No one besides my husband knows or cares that my diamond earrings are real. No one cares if I drive a Volvo or a Mazda.

I grew up in a middle class family where I had all of my needs and many of my wants, but I still watched my parents do mental math to figure out if we got takeout on Wednesday if we could still go to the movies on Friday - or ask me to choose between music lessons and dance lessons because we could only afford to do one. The biggest luxury to me is not sweating the little stuff and still living below our means and having savings for emergencies.

We live quite similarly and this is also my mindset.

[Anonymous]

HHI 440k. None of that crap.
Only luxury is Whole Foods

[Anonymous]

HHI- $450K we both work remotely and don’t spend much on clothes (lots of athleisure) or dining out. We have two in college and we have enough saved to pay for their schooling. We spend a lot to see our college athlete compete in their sport (lacrosse) and we bought season football tickets at our non-athletes school to tailgate and spend time together (about 15K per year). This year we also spent 10K to spend February in a rental in Florida for a change of season. We don’t really spend much on other things and have about $3.5M in investments and no mortgage on our home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a little surprised by all the HNW people on here classifying their children’s education in the “luxury spending” category.

Because they are new money, went to state colleges and are the first generation college educated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a little surprised by all the HNW people on here classifying their children’s education in the “luxury spending” category.

Because they are new money, went to state colleges and are the first generation college educated.

Odd response. I can me from inherited wealth and I have a UMC income. The cost of some privates and colleges are luxury spending. There are a lot great state schools and public schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:HHI 440k. None of that crap.
Only luxury is Whole Foods

It's terrifying that health food is considered a luxury, hence why Americans are so huge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:HHI- $450K we both work remotely and don’t spend much on clothes (lots of athleisure) or dining out. We have two in college and we have enough saved to pay for their schooling. We spend a lot to see our college athlete compete in their sport (lacrosse) and we bought season football tickets at our non-athletes school to tailgate and spend time together (about 15K per year). This year we also spent 10K to spend February in a rental in Florida for a change of season. We don’t really spend much on other things and have about $3.5M in investments and no mortgage on our home.

My kid is a toddler right now but this sounds like you’ve raised great kids, and I’d love to be able to spend this amount of time with them.