Your income, HHI, and spending on “luxuries”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our income ranges from $350-$550k. We don’t make any luxury purchases. None. We can’t afford it. Our normal expenses are too high, and college about to hit, plus retirement. I don’t even have a house cleaner.

Wtf is your money going?

[Anonymous]

This is an interesting thread!

HHI $1.1M. We belong to a country club whose dues are around $1,500/mo + whatever we spend on carts, food, lessons.

I don't buy any designer bags, never buy jewelry and rarely wear any. Don't buy luxury clothes except for my little girl...I splurge on her; maybe $500/mo between clothes and shoes. And for the rest of us...maybe another $300/mo?

Never fly first class - ever in my life. Often fly budget airlines. Spend about $40k - $50k/year on travel. We take 4-5 trips a year; usually one to Europe, one to Caribbean and then some driveable beach trips, maybe a waterpark, a national park. I don't ever see us flying first class but maybe I'll change my mind when I'm old. I'm not young though - mid-40s. We flew to Europe in the fall on an overnight flight and as I walked past first class I did think man, would be nice to be able to lie flat and sleep like these rich people. But no freaking way am I spending 3x-5x as much times FIVE TICKETS just to sit in a different section of the plane. So I tried to sleep slumped over.

Nice cars but not luxury I wouldn't say. A good minivan for me and a 10 year old Mercedes for DH.

I get my hair, nails and lashes done regularly. Before we hit a high HHI (I'd say before $500k) I never did this stuff - only for very special occasions, like before our annual vacation, would I ever get my nails done. Now I can't live without that stuff. To me this is a big luxury.

No fancy shoes; I get most shoes at TJ Maxx or the clearance rack at Macy's. I would love some Christian Louboutins - those red bottoms get me - but I can't bring myself to buy them. We have three kids and spend a lot on them for all of their activities. Love to eat out and experience things together (shows, other attractions). We take our kids out for a fancy meal about once a month; probably costs about $400.

We save a good amount; that is a non-negotiable for me. I don't feel comfortable with any luxuries before knowing I've fully funded retirement, college, brokerage account, and stashed away some cash.

[Anonymous]

HHI varies but 500K on average. Drive old cars and don’t spend much on clothes, handbags, shoes or jewelry. Do spend a lot on eating out and travel, probably 50K a year combined. Also spend significant amounts to own/maintain a second home and on elder care for our parents.

[Anonymous]

We are retired with a very high net worth so what others might consider luxury (second home, travel, country clubs) is now normal for us. On the other hand we spend very little on jewelry, clothes and cars because it’s stuff we don’t really care about. My ten year old SUV is fine and my husband has been buying nice used cars for many years.

[Anonymous]

I guess I’ll be the lowest HHI of this thread. Divorced, youngest should graduate college in May. HHI $120k- salary, I never got alimony or child support but my XH did pay for half of college.

I’m very frugal. I think I would be even if I didn’t have a lower income for this area. My income really doesn’t allow for a lot of splurges. I buy myself a coach purse (not luxury, I know) for $40 every other year at a thrift store. No designer anything that isn’t used, newest car is 8 years old. Only debt is my mortgage at 2.875%. Net worth is around $2 million but that includes retirement and real estate equity.

I do travel a lot. I probably spend $2k a year traveling but the trips I take are spectacular. I probably take $15k-$20k worth of trips on that $2k because almost all of my travel is on points and miles. I churn the credit card bonuses. It’s almost a part time job but it’s extremely fruitful. That’s my splurge.

[Anonymous]

All of us patting ourselves on the back for driving old cars don’t get it, it’s still luxurious because a) we could afford to maintain them and b) if and when they become unreliable, we’ll replace them

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All of us patting ourselves on the back for driving old cars don’t get it, it’s still luxurious because a) we could afford to maintain them and b) if and when they become unreliable, we’ll replace them

Yes we get it. Privilege is being able to afford basic things. Not the point of this thread….

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All of us patting ourselves on the back for driving old cars don’t get it, it’s still luxurious because a) we could afford to maintain them and b) if and when they become unreliable, we’ll replace them

You only think people are patting themselves on the back, but all they’re doing is answering the OP’s questions.

[Anonymous]

Jewelry ~$0
Designer clothing ~$0
Handbags ~$0
Cars $2k (we rarely drive, why spend money on this when ubers work for the odd rainy day)
Vacations $30k/year on average.

HHI $250k

[Anonymous]

If the answer is none, I don’t under why people are bothering with this thread. Obviously a lot of people in DC make other choices, but the luxury shops are still open.

[Anonymous]

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!

We are in our 30s with HHI $680K (lots of growth potential over next 4-5 years) and $5 million trust we hopefully won’t touch. NW is around $7 million. We have 3 kids under 5, oldest turning 5 in a few months. $0 spending on purses, jewelry, or cars. We drive Toyotas and plan to replace after 10-11 years and will pay cash. My husband works at an investment bank and spent about $1K this year on office clothes . I am remote so don’t dress to impress. I replace clothing when needed and mostly use gift cards I receive for holidays. Our luxuries are having three children, paying for a nanny for our three children (45 hours/week), affording small group tennis and swim classes as well as other sports offerings for our kids, house cleaning twice a month, outsourcing yard maintenance, and providing our kids with a great education (grandparents are paying for college, so we are covering private and good preschool starting at 2).

We are not spending much on vacation right now but in the next few years it will be a line item and I would estimate it will be about $6K (flights to FL and week-long rental car to stay at family vacation home and house rental for 5 days in coastal New England).

Our goals in the next decade are to save to do large (luxury) renovations on our house, invest as much as we can ($150K+), and cover great childcare, education, and enrichment for our kids. Hopefully in the two decades after that we will be able to invest even more and take a few bigger international vacations with our kids.

I might get a luxury handbag or car when my kids are out of school but I would much rather channel that money to support philanthropic causes that are close to my heart.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Thanks! We love to spend time with them and their friends and teammates and it is our pleasure to treat them to a tailgate or dinners!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

It’s terrifying that you don’t know how to buy healthy food at Harris Teeter and Giant. There is little about WF that’s special except the prices unless you need a special ingredient for a recipe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many people don't seem to splurge much and are high income but not as high net worth as I'd expect based on the answers. What do people spend their money on if they are not splurging in these categories (but aren't saving massive amounts to add to NW either)?

Mortgage
Health insurance
Kids activities
College savings
Utilities are up, groceries are up, gas is high where I live.

We do try to take a vacation once a year

[Anonymous]

Someone in my family makes 3 million a year: they don’t buy this stuff. They drive a Prius and a Subaru both 8 years old. Their house is not that great. The one luxury purchase I saw were authentic Persian rugs. I stepped on one that was 15k. They have several.