Anyone live below their means?

[Anonymous]

We save about 20% of our gross salaries even with 2 in daycare, so I’d say we live beneath our means. HHI recently bumped to $350k. We never traded up houses from the one we bought when we were making half what we make now, or developed expensive clothing tastes or travel habits. Right now our biggest expense is daycare for 2. I wish we could save more, but I like being able to give my kids lessons in the things that interest them, drive reliable cars, and eat out as a family once a week. It’s also nice to be able to help out family and give generously at weddings.

[Anonymous]

OP here - Blast from the past - this is my thread from 9.5 yrs ago! Barely ready here a few times per yr anymore and happened to click on this thread.

So I did end up leaving the city and buying a car (not luxury, more like a reliable Japanese car). Still living below my means a decade later - IRS max in retirement + saving about 1/3rd of take home yearly with that number being much higher in 2020-21 with no place to go in the pandemic.

I have a feeling that's about to come to an end as a splurge on a pricey house is around the corner. But feel WAY more ready for it as the NW differential between a decade ago and now is really significant - and this house is part of our retirement planning in a way. Glad I kept at it for the last 10 yrs - stepped back into an easier/lower paid job but kept living in less than that.

[Anonymous]

We have always made very significant income which in the last number of years has grown to obscene to very obscene. It is almost impossible to spend what we make.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Keep doing what you are doing. Your savings and investments are your key to freedom and happiness. Don't become yoked to a crappy, high paying job just so you can pay for unnecessary things to impress people who don't really like you for who you are.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, this is great! We make about 400,000 and save about 130,000. It's a great feeling knowing we have no debt, have 6X our gross income saved, and can retire in our early 60s if we choose. Having said that, we vacation every year, have relatively new cars ('09 and '10, but Japanese lol) and don't skimp on the kids. Life should be a balance.

You consider a 13 year old car relatively new?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, this is great! We make about 400,000 and save about 130,000. It's a great feeling knowing we have no debt, have 6X our gross income saved, and can retire in our early 60s if we choose. Having said that, we vacation every year, have relatively new cars ('09 and '10, but Japanese lol) and don't skimp on the kids. Life should be a balance.

You consider a 13 year old car relatively new?

When that PP posted in 2012, their cars were 2-3 yrs old. I assume they’ve bought new ones in the past decade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have a high HHI (I make 180k and DH makes close to 600k). We live on my salary alone and save the rest. We have occasionally splurged but we manage to save and invest above 300k a year. We still clean our own house, renovate and fix things around the house as needed (including major renovations like entire bathrooms), keep kids in public schools, and do our own finances (including DH's business taxes). We both love learning new things so doing things like researching tax laws have been fun hobbies.

Very impressive. You guys can retire early fifties or sooner. Nice.

Our combined is 240k, we spend around 1000 for food per month with two young kids, 5000 property taxes annual, no mortgage, no vacations since covid. Dont go out to restaurants because of high food costs since covid, but get take out once a week. 1 kid in preschool. Public schools only starting in K. 2 sports per kid annually. So i guess our total spend is around 30-40k annual and will be for the foreseeable future.

[Anonymous]

I got married late and we were both earning around $175k at the time. I was a big saver/investor, he spent his money on showing his ego off. We now live on one income, he doesn’t do the ego thing anymore, we stayed in my house with the $1,600 mortgage, I took over all investing/savings/retirement, etc. I imagine we will start living at our means if we have a kid. Until then, this is the time to catch up and get ahead.

[Anonymous]

This is like asking in the "Beauty and Fashion" forum if anyone cares about their appearance.