S/O American Dream. Would $500-750k HHI be enough for this lifestyle?

[Anonymous]

Short answer: no. It's not possible.

Longer answer: What you're describing is essentially our lifestyle for years, although two kids (but in private, so feels like more lol). We were able to do it fine at $1.5M. Now we make closer to $3M and we don't worry about money. We couldn't have done it on $500-$750K.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m surprised by all the vacation naysayers. Where I live, it is very common for families to travel this much. Over every school break basically. Maybe not 6 weeks total but 3-4 for sure.

And yeah, the skiing out West, Caribbean spring break, east coast beach vacay schedule is very very common ime.

Anyway, we do this and we still managed to save up 5-6 million in the last 10 years despite facing kids. So idk why you’re all saying it is impossible.

This is very normal in the DC suburbs too. This is what we do, though not skiing, but somewhere warm at Christmas. Christmas, Spring Break and Summer are the only weeks when all kids have no sports and we can travel.

+1

Not sure why so many in here are hating on vacations 😭

I love vacations! But there isn’t a way to do 5 weeks of high end vacations with 3 kids, have no money worries, save enough for college and retirement, and have fresh flowers every where on $500-750k/year unless you live in a small town in the middle of nowhere.

You can get fresh flowers at the grocery store or a farm stand for $20 or less. I don’t think that alone is going to break the bank. I pick up a bouquet every time I go to Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s or Wegmans. NBD.

As for the time off. My husband gets a full 6 weeks off plus federal holidays. We don’t leave town for every single one of those weeks because he’d be exhausted but we could if he wanted to, if that was something he wanted to do. Some people consider traveling to be a hobby, sounds like OP and her DH are like that.

If you have a good job, they’re going to ply you with perks so you stay.

Does he actually take 6 weeks off? Does he ever take time off for children’s appointments, activities, or sicknesses?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Short answer: no. It's not possible.

Longer answer: What you're describing is essentially our lifestyle for years, although two kids (but in private, so feels like more lol). We were able to do it fine at $1.5M. Now we make closer to $3M and we don't worry about money. We couldn't have done it on $500-$750K.

Wow. What do you do to jump from $1.5M to $3M - big law?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're there but we're 54 and 57. 4 bedroom house in Rockville is paid off; 4 kids--2 done with college, 1 still in college and 1 left in HS. We do a lot of travel each year--my definition of "going to the beach" is heading to the carribean.

We have an HHI of about 1.2M now. 25 years ago when we starting out, we made 140K combined. What's hard about your scenario is that you want all the good stuff at a time before your career (and salary) take off.

For the 2 kids at home (college +HS), we easily afford whatever they need. Vacations have gotten more expensive as the older kids are starting to date significant others.

As for vacation time, I recently left my old company that I had been with for 20 years--I had 12 weeks of PTO. With my new company I only got 6 weeks.

$1.2m is a lot more than $500-750k)! And you have a paid off house. Plus no childcare expenses. I would expect you to be feeling like you can spend on a lot of things.

We can. But my point is that it didn't come until later. As you pointed out, income has gone up and the big expenses are over. There is a lot of discretionary income now.

Ok! We agree

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Short answer: no. It's not possible.

Longer answer: What you're describing is essentially our lifestyle for years, although two kids (but in private, so feels like more lol). We were able to do it fine at $1.5M. Now we make closer to $3M and we don't worry about money. We couldn't have done it on $500-$750K.

How do people make $3M per year and I only make $125k. I am a civil engineer with 15 years work experience.

What kind of job do you have? At my firm I think the highest paid engineer barely makes $200k.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m surprised by all the vacation naysayers. Where I live, it is very common for families to travel this much. Over every school break basically. Maybe not 6 weeks total but 3-4 for sure.

And yeah, the skiing out West, Caribbean spring break, east coast beach vacay schedule is very very common ime.

Anyway, we do this and we still managed to save up 5-6 million in the last 10 years despite facing kids. So idk why you’re all saying it is impossible.

You already acknowledged why it isn’t possible. No one is taking 6 weeks. You just said 3-4 weeks. How in sufferable you are. You just wanted a chance to brag about your lifestyle. Listen, most people responding have as much as you or more. I’m not impressed by any of the travel you just listed. We have a beach house and then do Europe, other people I know have a ski house and do the other vacations. You aren’t special nd you should know that 500-750k is a laughable number to live te described lifestyle anywhere but flyover country and cheap vacays.

You sound dumb. You know the money you spent on your beach house plus taxes and maintenance and upkeep can fund the 5-6 vacations the Op wants 🙄

Way to miss the point completely. Use your reading comprehension. I have no problem living the life OP describes - except I live in the real world and my teens and spouse can’t take 6 weeks of vacation. I also have 30+ million dollars. Not 750k pretax. But also, to respond to your rude comment- the maintenance and taxes on my beach house (no mortgage) doesn’t cover the kind of travel we do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Short answer: no. It's not possible.

Longer answer: What you're describing is essentially our lifestyle for years, although two kids (but in private, so feels like more lol). We were able to do it fine at $1.5M. Now we make closer to $3M and we don't worry about money. We couldn't have done it on $500-$750K.

How do people make $3M per year and I only make $125k. I am a civil engineer with 15 years work experience.

What kind of job do you have? At my firm I think the highest paid engineer barely makes $200k.

I am the PP. I am a lawyer by trade but now own my own business that is legal adjacent (think service provider for the legal profession but not actually practicing law). It's really hard to make more than $1M outside of law or finance without owning your own company.

[Anonymous]

We do this on a budget of 150k with 3 kids. We do houseswaps, which let's us stay in places all over the world. We first find low ticket prices and that's what drives our decision to go.

We grow our own flowers and have plenty of cut flowers. Even in the winter we have fresh evergreen and winter berries to use for decoration and that amazing smell.

My partner is an artist so we sit for beautiful family portraits, and trade with other artists for their works.

With our relatively lower income, I think we should get some FA but we also have 529 for the children. You don't have to work to buy the life you want when you can create it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Short answer: no. It's not possible.

Longer answer: What you're describing is essentially our lifestyle for years, although two kids (but in private, so feels like more lol). We were able to do it fine at $1.5M. Now we make closer to $3M and we don't worry about money. We couldn't have done it on $500-$750K.

How do people make $3M per year and I only make $125k. I am a civil engineer with 15 years work experience.

What kind of job do you have? At my firm I think the highest paid engineer barely makes $200k.

I am the PP. I am a lawyer by trade but now own my own business that is legal adjacent (think service provider for the legal profession but not actually practicing law). It's really hard to make more than $1M outside of law or finance without owning your own company.

Big tech (and equivalents like mag 7), successful business owners, big law, high finance can all crack 7 figures as the norm by mid-late 30s. Federal lobbyists too but that’s very DC specific.

[Anonymous]

Re the goal to travel six times a year- we actually go on about six trips each year with 3 kids and 600HHI in the midwest. Friends of ours who are dual doctor couples can travel even more frequently - DH is a doctor and I work for a University, so I get less PTO than he does. They are certainly not glamorous vacations like OP describes- we may go visit family on the East Coast and tack on a night or two of skiing in the Poconos, or rent a beach house in FL with all cousins (where we each take turns cooking). We spend lots of spring breaks renting an airbnb in NW Arkansas because my kids love mountain biking and there are lots of trails there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Short answer: no. It's not possible.

Longer answer: What you're describing is essentially our lifestyle for years, although two kids (but in private, so feels like more lol). We were able to do it fine at $1.5M. Now we make closer to $3M and we don't worry about money. We couldn't have done it on $500-$750K.

How do people make $3M per year and I only make $125k. I am a civil engineer with 15 years work experience.

What kind of job do you have? At my firm I think the highest paid engineer barely makes $200k.

I am the PP. I am a lawyer by trade but now own my own business that is legal adjacent (think service provider for the legal profession but not actually practicing law). It's really hard to make more than $1M outside of law or finance without owning your own company.

I asked the question. Thanks for responding. Awesome job. You are killing it!! I have no doubt this wasn't handed to you and you worked your tail off
.Good for you and your family 😊

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Short answer: no. It's not possible.

Longer answer: What you're describing is essentially our lifestyle for years, although two kids (but in private, so feels like more lol). We were able to do it fine at $1.5M. Now we make closer to $3M and we don't worry about money. We couldn't have done it on $500-$750K.

How do people make $3M per year and I only make $125k. I am a civil engineer with 15 years work experience.

What kind of job do you have? At my firm I think the highest paid engineer barely makes $200k.

I am the PP. I am a lawyer by trade but now own my own business that is legal adjacent (think service provider for the legal profession but not actually practicing law). It's really hard to make more than $1M outside of law or finance without owning your own company.

Big tech (and equivalents like mag 7), successful business owners, big law, high finance can all crack 7 figures as the norm by mid-late 30s. Federal lobbyists too but that’s very DC specific.

We should also remind everyone that these people in these fields are still in the top 1% of their peers. These people have proven to add significant value. I know folks in these fields who are not even making $200k.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:4 bedroom house in a close in suburb of a US city. Is this possible with a 1.5 mil mil budget? We are willing to relocate to a cheaper city, if necessary.

3 kids - college 100% paid for, no worries about paying for activities or day camps. No worries about paying for the things teens want: nice clothes, sneakers, gadgets, sleep away camp, basic first car. So planning 1 mil for college savings alone.

4-5 vacations per year. This is my big ask, I know. I like to go on vacation and don’t want to have to give it up when we have kids. My ideal travel schedule would be: 1 week long winter ski trip out west (we love Breck), 1 week long spring break to the Caribbean or Central/South America, 2 week summer trip to Europe, 1 week trip to an East Coast beach town. 1 week couples only trip. This is what we do now. My idea is that we’d take our 3 kids on the first 4 trips with 1 couple trip. Tbh, I’m thinking this would be like 70k a year with 3 kids?

No worries about eating out at casual dining restaurants whenever we want, no worries about grocery prices, occasional fine dining experiences for anniversaries or celebrations

Responsible saving for retirement

I feel like this is the true “American Dream” as portrayed in the mainstream media we all consume endlessly. A nice suburban house where everyone has their own bedroom, there are lots of books, art, fresh flowers everywhere. The kids do lots of activities and go to camp in the summer. Frequent travel over every school break. Nice cars. No worries about things like grocery prices. College is paid for. It used to be possible on a lot less bit now 500-750k is needed? Or is even that amount too low?

Hahahaha!!!

I have the upper end of that income and I can tell you vacationing SUCKS with small children. We only went to visit family or Disney. Luckily my family has vacation homes is really nice places so it was kind of vacation(?) but more family trip. We LOVE skiing and have 2 condos in Breck. We bought the first when our oldest was a baby. We had more kids, needed more space, and bought the second. We have a 4400 sq ft home in the city. We bought it 15 years ago for 1.2 at low interest rates - worth 3M now. Forgot to mention we bought in Breck when the property tanked - first condo purchased for $220 and is now valued at $700. So lots of luck - no way that would happen today. And our 3 kids are in expensive private schools. 529s will pay for instate schools - I’m not in this college arms race - my kids will be going to grad school so undergrad is a check in the box.

In short - yes you can afford it - with lots of luck. Oh, and temper your vacation expectations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Short answer: no. It's not possible.

Longer answer: What you're describing is essentially our lifestyle for years, although two kids (but in private, so feels like more lol). We were able to do it fine at $1.5M. Now we make closer to $3M and we don't worry about money. We couldn't have done it on $500-$750K.

How do people make $3M per year and I only make $125k. I am a civil engineer with 15 years work experience.

What kind of job do you have? At my firm I think the highest paid engineer barely makes $200k.

What do the CEO and CFO make?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Short answer: no. It's not possible.

Longer answer: What you're describing is essentially our lifestyle for years, although two kids (but in private, so feels like more lol). We were able to do it fine at $1.5M. Now we make closer to $3M and we don't worry about money. We couldn't have done it on $500-$750K.

How do people make $3M per year and I only make $125k. I am a civil engineer with 15 years work experience.

What kind of job do you have? At my firm I think the highest paid engineer barely makes $200k.

I am the PP. I am a lawyer by trade but now own my own business that is legal adjacent (think service provider for the legal profession but not actually practicing law). It's really hard to make more than $1M outside of law or finance without owning your own company.

Big tech (and equivalents like mag 7), successful business owners, big law, high finance can all crack 7 figures as the norm by mid-late 30s. Federal lobbyists too but that’s very DC specific.

1.2M last year in finance - 36yrs old. all of our partners made between 1 -3M