Does anyone here live very well on very little?

[Anonymous]

If you make it your rule to socialize only with people who make less than 75% of your income, you'll feel you are living well, whatever you make.

The easiest way to feel you are not living well is to spend any time at all with those richer than you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

A lot of people on this forum simply lie about their incomes.

I'd say 99% lie.

+1. Very easy to show up to an anonymous forum and say you are barely getting by on 400k and you don't know how your neighbors making 200k aren't on food stamps. Especially when you know it'll stir up a reaction and make others feel bad.

Or the top 1% of income folks (making 350k+) have nothing better to do than to spend all their time on DCUM; you know -- maybe they've eschewed the country club, yacht, international travel, or anything else fun and instead prefer to have a phone in their face responding to every DCUM post.

I've wondered about this too. The limited number of wealthy people I know include some close family members, my boss and his peers. In the limited downtime they have I can't picture them on anonymous forums like this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Low fixed expenses = low stress
Discretionary expenses are such an individual preference. I like to allow for, what I call, the luxury of forgiveness. Forgiving myself for not being perfect, for the occasional bad decision or mishap.

Low fixed expenses is the secret to happiness. We have a modest mortgage of $2,500 a month, taxes included. No other debt. That's the key.

Where do you live, if I may ask, and do you have children?

Au park. 2 kids. We bought a $900K house and put down $500.

Seems like your secret to "live well on very little" is to have plenty of wealth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We live well on 110 a year. Family of 3, living in the city to keep commute costs down in a neighborhood that many would not have considered when we bought, but is now gaining in popularity. This is what makes our mortgage low enough to manage, but we had no way of knowing this would happen when we bought. We swing private school, and max the one 401k we have access to (I work part time, from home) and college savings are ok. We do all the typical things to keep expenses low, but can still chose the costo organic chicken and whole foods organic broccoli, while using Giant for everything else. One small economical car and three "vacations" a year. 2 are to visit family, so, you know, but one is just us, for fun. When we travel internationally, we only visit family once. There are trade offs, but we feel remarkably fortunate every day and know others struggle to make it on much less.

Do you get significant financial aid at the private school? Otherwise, how do you swing that with three vacations and maxing 401k, and presumably some liquid saving? TIA!

This is not possible. Net monthly pay on that salary is $4800..00 ( after maxing retirement). You can't have three vacations and pay for a private school and save for college on that take home pay. I am not saying this to be mean, I am saying this because the math doesn't add up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
The bottom line is, you prioritize what you really want out of life, and you go frugal on the rest. Then you can live very happily on a middle-class budget. The middle class has to make financial choices, unlike the wealthy.

Family of 4 on 100K.

Organic food.
Tiny house, in an expensive neighborhood with good schools and a 5 minute commute to work.
No impulse purchases and no spending on consumables, like eating out and cinema, etc.
International vacation once a year.
Expensive extra-curriculars for the kids.

Not possible. All these 100k posters claiming to be living 5 min from their jobs, organic food and international vacation need to provide a breakdown if their budget because all this isn't happening on 100k.

[Anonymous]

You cant live VERY well on VERY little.
You can live decently on little but lets not exaggerate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

A lot of people on this forum simply lie about their incomes.

I'd say 99% lie.

I don't know. There are a little over 215,000 people in Arlington, and 20% of households have incomes over $200,000. The percentage may be lower but the numbers much higher in Fairfax and MoCo. And I think Loudoun actually has the highest median income around. There are a lot of people with money around here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You cant live VERY well on VERY little.
You can live decently on little but lets not exaggerate.

I do live very well on very little. Income is a bit less than $100,000. We are retired. We own a 4 bdrm house in an upper middle class neighborhood in another part of the country. I have a good sense of design, so the house is expertly decorated. We have a 3 bdrm apt in Chevy Chase. We commute back and forth between the 2 homes. We have a reverse mortgage on the house, and dh is a 100% disabled vet, so we pay no property taxes. We drive 2 luxury cars. I'm culinary school trained, so I cook and bake almost everything from scratch. I do my own hair manis and pedis. We shop at the commissary and PX, this lowers our purchases about 30%. Several times a month we do Whole Foods takeout. I am presently taking 4 college classes for free through the Va, and we do not pay for health insurance. I buy designer purses such as Chloe, Gucci and Ferragamo on EBay or Fashionphile, greatly discounted. I like expensive face creams such as La Mer and LifeCell. Nice perfumes such as Chanel No 5 and Burbeery Brit. I get these on EBay. I am very frugal.

I purchased my house while single years ago. I left the DC area, because I could not afford the high prices. I settled in a lower cost area where I could afford to buy. Shortly after, I married my first dh. Five years after he passed away, I married my second dh. But even with my first dh, we were able to live well on very little. I was a corporate traveler, and so was my late husband. We racked up a lot of airline and hotel points, and were able to vacation in places like Hawaii for free. I don't travel as much now, because my present dh is on dialysis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought OP meant below 50k, even by dcum standards six figure income is not "very little".

Right? I'm the one with the t-shirt from sixth grade, and I earn $73k. I don't feel miserable or pinched or anything. I grew up cutting out coupons every Sunday, and stocking up on non-perishables when they go on sale, and checking to see if the dress I liked had gone on sale yet, so this is all second nature to me.

I bought a new car once (Hyundai) before realizing how much of a waste it was and I've only bought used since. I feel zero need for a fancy car. Zero. I feel zero need for a Gucci purse or whatever rich people have. That's not what makes me feel good. A huge part of why I "live well" is my perspective. Yesterday I took a long walk along the water and took pictures for an hour. It was tons of fun! To me, THAT is living well. I don't want for spas or manicures or whatever. I want to cook with my daughter, and spend time outside, and spend time with family and friends. To me, that is living well. I save 25% of my take-home pay, at least. So I feel like I have plenty.

This is nice. But I walk along the water and take pics and have fun (I love to take pictures of architecture) and carry a nice purse and drive a nice car and spend time with my family and cook meals and eat out too. It doesn't have to be all or nothing.

Agree it doesn't have to be all or nothing for sure. Thing is, I think my purse IS nice, even though it was under $40 at Ross. I am completely happy without owning a car. The name brands don't do anything for me. I'm not judging you if they make you happy but I don't get the same happiness if I had them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You cant live VERY well on VERY little.
You can live decently on little but lets not exaggerate.

I do live very well on very little. Income is a bit less than $100,000. We are retired. We own a 4 bdrm house in an upper middle class neighborhood in another part of the country. I have a good sense of design, so the house is expertly decorated. We have a 3 bdrm apt in Chevy Chase. We commute back and forth between the 2 homes. We have a reverse mortgage on the house, and dh is a 100% disabled vet, so we pay no property taxes. We drive 2 luxury cars. I'm culinary school trained, so I cook and bake almost everything from scratch. I do my own hair manis and pedis. We shop at the commissary and PX, this lowers our purchases about 30%. Several times a month we do Whole Foods takeout. I am presently taking 4 college classes for free through the Va, and we do not pay for health insurance. I buy designer purses such as Chloe, Gucci and Ferragamo on EBay or Fashionphile, greatly discounted. I like expensive face creams such as La Mer and LifeCell. Nice perfumes such as Chanel No 5 and Burbeery Brit. I get these on EBay. I am very frugal.

I purchased my house while single years ago. I left the DC area, because I could not afford the high prices. I settled in a lower cost area where I could afford to buy. Shortly after, I married my first dh. Five years after he passed away, I married my second dh. But even with my first dh, we were able to live well on very little. I was a corporate traveler, and so was my late husband. We racked up a lot of airline and hotel points, and were able to vacation in places like Hawaii for free. I don't travel as much now, because my present dh is on dialysis.

That is not "a little" income, no matter what people here on DCUM try to tell you.

[Anonymous]

As OP clarified in their second post, they want to know how to look like they have a lot of money.

This is the problem with DC. Everyone wants to look like they are a big deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The bottom line is, you prioritize what you really want out of life, and you go frugal on the rest. Then you can live very happily on a middle-class budget. The middle class has to make financial choices, unlike the wealthy.

Family of 4 on 100K.

Organic food.
Tiny house, in an expensive neighborhood with good schools and a 5 minute commute to work.
No impulse purchases and no spending on consumables, like eating out and cinema, etc.
International vacation once a year.
Expensive extra-curriculars for the kids.

Not possible. All these 100k posters claiming to be living 5 min from their jobs, organic food and international vacation need to provide a breakdown if their budget because all this isn't happening on 100k.

Different poster, but most of the above applies to us.

Income: about 100k
Mortgage PITI: $1450 per month
Other bills: $300 (gas, electric, water, internet, phones)
Childcare (a couple of days aftercare per week, plus some camps): $130 per week, plus $2k in summer
Food/groceries/eating out: $800 per month
Vacation: not sure, about $3k, perhaps? We got a couple of tickets on FF miles for European trip this year, and stay with family, do international trip every other year, and 5-6 weekend trips per year (camping, or 4 star hotels at good prices on Priceline)
Gas: $40 a month? We don't drive much, walk to work, live close to downtown
Clothes/toys etc: we don't spend a lot, often buy from thrift stores

What have I missed? I max 401k, husband doesn't have access to one (we have about $400k in retirement between us so far). We save a couple of thousand to college savings per year but already have more than $50k for our two kids age 3 and 5. Kids don't do any organized activities, but we do a lot of activities together as a family, often low cost (though that's not a huge consideration). We have a good life. We definitely aren't struggling.

[Anonymous]

PP here, I should add we eat out frequently, unlike the PP above me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We live well on 110 a year. Family of 3, living in the city to keep commute costs down in a neighborhood that many would not have considered when we bought, but is now gaining in popularity. This is what makes our mortgage low enough to manage, but we had no way of knowing this would happen when we bought. We swing private school, and max the one 401k we have access to (I work part time, from home) and college savings are ok. We do all the typical things to keep expenses low, but can still chose the costo organic chicken and whole foods organic broccoli, while using Giant for everything else. One small economical car and three "vacations" a year. 2 are to visit family, so, you know, but one is just us, for fun. When we travel internationally, we only visit family once. There are trade offs, but we feel remarkably fortunate every day and know others struggle to make it on much less.

Do you get significant financial aid at the private school? Otherwise, how do you swing that with three vacations and maxing 401k, and presumably some liquid saving? TIA!

No financial aid, school is BY FAR the biggest line item in our budget. 3 vacations sounds like alot, but there isn't a lot of money going there, that's what I meant when I referenced family. Mostly car trips, staying with family (they live in pretty cool places though, and we reciprocate) and doing new things there. The one fun trip a year varies based on what other expenses have cropped up. One year it was skiing, sometimes it's camping. We leverage points and miles to make these things happen. We do alot of things outdoors that are mostly free.

Before we had kids we were diligent savers and built up our retirement funds and a solid cash cushion, which is what allows me to sleep at night because at the end of the year there is very little left over. We also started saving for college before we actually had a kid.

And, we are just fortunate. We both have job security, haven't had any major medical issues or large periods of unemployment, get solid benefits so our health care costs are moderate, our mortgage is low, especially for this area and we haven't yet had to support our parents, though they are also not able to help us. Also we both left college with manageable debt that was paid off quickly. We were able to work and do grad school at the same time, so no loss of income. Essentially, we had a good start, that many don't have. Sorry, long answer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You cant live VERY well on VERY little.
You can live decently on little but lets not exaggerate.

I do live very well on very little. Income is a bit less than $100,000. We are retired. We own a 4 bdrm house in an upper middle class neighborhood in another part of the country. I have a good sense of design, so the house is expertly decorated. We have a 3 bdrm apt in Chevy Chase. We commute back and forth between the 2 homes. We have a reverse mortgage on the house, and dh is a 100% disabled vet, so we pay no property taxes. We drive 2 luxury cars. I'm culinary school trained, so I cook and bake almost everything from scratch. I do my own hair manis and pedis. We shop at the commissary and PX, this lowers our purchases about 30%. Several times a month we do Whole Foods takeout. I am presently taking 4 college classes for free through the Va, and we do not pay for health insurance. I buy designer purses such as Chloe, Gucci and Ferragamo on EBay or Fashionphile, greatly discounted. I like expensive face creams such as La Mer and LifeCell. Nice perfumes such as Chanel No 5 and Burbeery Brit. I get these on EBay. I am very frugal.

I purchased my house while single years ago. I left the DC area, because I could not afford the high prices. I settled in a lower cost area where I could afford to buy. Shortly after, I married my first dh. Five years after he passed away, I married my second dh. But even with my first dh, we were able to live well on very little. I was a corporate traveler, and so was my late husband. We racked up a lot of airline and hotel points, and were able to vacation in places like Hawaii for free. I don't travel as much now, because my present dh is on dialysis.

How much do you soend on travel?
Sorry but cooking, doing your own mani and pedis sounds crappy.