What is the lifestyle difference of 400-500k/yr and 800-1M/yr

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We were at 900HHI for a two years and through some career blowup with spouse, we're right now at 500. At 900, I didn't flinch to take United's upgrade offers. We ate out readily. We didn't flinch at the kid's private school tuition. We saved a lot of $ for a renovation. We were about to buy a second car to replace an older model. We were about to pay a lot of $ for business class to NZealand. Dropping to 500HHI means we stretch the travel dollars, I cook and don't order takeout just because I'm busy, the margin for cushion on the renovation is much tighter (we accumulated the funds but of course we'll go over the budget/savings), etc. etc. I flinch a lot more when I pay things. But 500HHI ain't poor, I'm under no illusions. But it's a lot less than 900 in ways that I feel everyday.

Yeah because after taxes it's about $200-220K less per year.

[Anonymous]

is private school really better than top public plus 1:1 tutoring?
Im pretty sure the latter gives better outcomes, unless your looking for your kids to start networking in school for life...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:is private school really better than top public plus 1:1 tutoring?
Im pretty sure the latter gives better outcomes, unless your looking for your kids to start networking in school for life...

Private schools give 15-16 kids in a classroom vs 30-40 in public. Overall a very different learning environment. And wouldn't it be nice if your kid didn't have to spend 6-7 hours in school and another hour or two in tutoring daily?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:is private school really better than top public plus 1:1 tutoring?
Im pretty sure the latter gives better outcomes, unless your looking for your kids to start networking in school for life...

Private schools give 15-16 kids in a classroom vs 30-40 in public. Overall a very different learning environment. And wouldn't it be nice if your kid didn't have to spend 6-7 hours in school and another hour or two in tutoring daily?

Where are public classes 40 kids? Arlington's max ES class size is around 24. We're at one of the option schools so the classes are always at that max. I don't know that the environment would be hugely different if were were 9 fewer kids (class of 15) like the private's apparently have, certainly not worth the $$$. Some are more than college will cost!

[Anonymous]

We normally make about 450 and made 950 last year. We invested all of the extra money so as to avoid lifestyle creep as this year our income will be about 330.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does your life change going from half a mil to a mil a year?

That works out to about 21-23k each month in cash, depending on your state tax rate.

Take your current life and imagine spending over 20k extra every month! Unless you go crazy on real estate, or want to just save it all to retire early, I couldn’t even imagine spending that.

Your vacations could be super luxury, front row tickets to anything you are into, always drive new luxury cars etc. You could do all of that and still have lots left over.

This. Only real estate and wanting to retire earlier can eat up that type of increase. If you don’t spend more on those, then everything else can go from nice to luxurious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:is private school really better than top public plus 1:1 tutoring?
Im pretty sure the latter gives better outcomes, unless your looking for your kids to start networking in school for life...

Private schools give 15-16 kids in a classroom vs 30-40 in public. Overall a very different learning environment. And wouldn't it be nice if your kid didn't have to spend 6-7 hours in school and another hour or two in tutoring daily?

Where are public classes 40 kids? Arlington's max ES class size is around 24. We're at one of the option schools so the classes are always at that max. I don't know that the environment would be hugely different if were were 9 fewer kids (class of 15) like the private's apparently have, certainly not worth the $$$. Some are more than college will cost!

My kids were in a Top public in our area (not DCUM). Their HS was built for 1800, but had 2600 students. majority of their classes were 30+ students, some were closer to 40 (think AP Calc BC, we have 37 students and that's not enough to justify 2 sections so we will just cram them all into a single class)
Our ES are using 28-30 kids.

However, locally to you, it's happening in Howard county and has been for 15+ years. My now in college kid had 30 in their 1st grade class, because there were not enough kids to justify another section until end of October. Then, after getting the extra 5 kids registered, they added a teacher and broke up 1st graders 2 months into the year and put some into the new class. But HoCo has been increasing class sizes for years, every year with budget cuts. So it does happen and its not the best for most kids. Sure my kids did okay, but I'm 100% certain they would have done better with only 20 kids in their classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:is private school really better than top public plus 1:1 tutoring?
Im pretty sure the latter gives better outcomes, unless your looking for your kids to start networking in school for life...

Private schools give 15-16 kids in a classroom vs 30-40 in public. Overall a very different learning environment. And wouldn't it be nice if your kid didn't have to spend 6-7 hours in school and another hour or two in tutoring daily?

There are around 20-24 kids in classes at the public my kids attend, from what I understand private kid schools do as much or moe tutoring...now do you want your kid learning with 15 other kids or have 1:1 time to be able to address strengths and weakness in said subject.
I only see the social aspect of getting into certain circles-and maybe that is enough for some, im not going to value judge that...but educationally nope....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I stopped working when DH hit 800k. He now earns over $2m. I would probably still be working if he earned only 500k.

OMG this is hilarious. I make 200K and my husband retired (albeit with a pension). LOLOL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love how so many threads about private school on DCUM have everyone saying that it's not worth it and good publics are better, then if you ask people what they do with extra money half of them immediately say private school.

First, when some of these $600K HHI purchased their homes, they might have only been at $250/300K. So they may have bought in a good area, but not spectacular schools. Now that they have the $$ for better schools they like their neighborhood and it may not make financial sense to sell, ditch a 3% mortgage for a 7% mortgage. So the solution is to do private schools.

I don't know, more than half of my neighbors in the Whitman district send their kids to private schools. It's not that the publics here aren't the best in the state.

If they have the money, don't see why they wouldn't. Advantages of private schools: class size of only 15 vs our "excellent public schools"----my kids had 30-35 kids crammed into classrooms designed only for 25-30 kids (10 year old building). The school was built for 1800 students, and we had 2600 students. My kid's AP Calc BC course had 40 students---becuase that was cheaper than having the teacher teach 2 courses (needed another 3-4 kids to require a 2nd section)---great teacher and my kid learned, but I have to believe my kid would learn better in a class with only 15-20 kids consistently.

That alone can make it worthwhile if you can afford it without scrimping on retirement and college savings.

We did K in private for our oldest, simply because public was only 2.5 hours and my kid was already in preschool MWF from 9-3, so backtracking to 9-11:30 was not beneficial. They had 16 in a classroom and the experience was amazing. My youngest went to public (it was then all day). They had 28 in the K classroom with 1 teacher and an "aide" shared across 3 K classrooms. Teacher was amazing, but my older kid got the better actual learning experience with only 16 kids and 1 teacher.

I’ll be interested in hearing where these “excellent” public schools are, because in my experience, when a school in an “excellent” district gets overcrowded they add teachers. They don’t increase class sizes to 35 or 40. The building may be bursting at the seams with students, but the size of individual classes doesn’t materially change. My public school kids never had classes that big, ever, kindergarten through senior year of high school, and they attended schools where there were and continue to be constant overcrowding issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:is private school really better than top public plus 1:1 tutoring?
Im pretty sure the latter gives better outcomes, unless your looking for your kids to start networking in school for life...

Private schools give 15-16 kids in a classroom vs 30-40 in public. Overall a very different learning environment. And wouldn't it be nice if your kid didn't have to spend 6-7 hours in school and another hour or two in tutoring daily?

Where are public classes 40 kids? Arlington's max ES class size is around 24. We're at one of the option schools so the classes are always at that max. I don't know that the environment would be hugely different if were were 9 fewer kids (class of 15) like the private's apparently have, certainly not worth the $$$. Some are more than college will cost!

My kids were in a Top public in our area (not DCUM). Their HS was built for 1800, but had 2600 students. majority of their classes were 30+ students, some were closer to 40 (think AP Calc BC, we have 37 students and that's not enough to justify 2 sections so we will just cram them all into a single class)
Our ES are using 28-30 kids.

However, locally to you, it's happening in Howard county and has been for 15+ years. My now in college kid had 30 in their 1st grade class, because there were not enough kids to justify another section until end of October. Then, after getting the extra 5 kids registered, they added a teacher and broke up 1st graders 2 months into the year and put some into the new class. But HoCo has been increasing class sizes for years, every year with budget cuts. So it does happen and its not the best for most kids. Sure my kids did okay, but I'm 100% certain they would have done better with only 20 kids in their classes.

See, this is when the national reach of this website becomes unhelpful. It just isn’t the norm in the DMV school systems where there are 35 or 40 students at a class.

If I were making $1 million a year but living outside of the DMV in a lower cost of living area with public schools with 35 or 40 kids in the class, sure, I’d think about private schools. But that is not the DMV equation.

[Anonymous]

More savings, more travel and all 1st class now, more expensive jewelry for me. Otherwise, still the same.

[Anonymous]

We grew from ~500k to $1000m over a five year period. Three kids in private, nanny, tons of enrichment classes for kids. We work a lot so outsource a lot.
Had our income not grown, we wouldn't have done public school, and let nanny go.
Biggest win is no stress about $. Unfortunately plenty of other stressors in our life.
May buy a vacation retirement/home earlier

[Anonymous]

The lusting for lifestyle creep here is amazing. We make about $450k a year and are extremely grateful and do not want for more. Our lifestyle is not much different than when we made $300k. The only difference is that we save more. And if we suddenly made $1m per year, we would just save more and be free of the corporate world earlier. I can't think of anything more we need or want other than to retire. Earning a lot of money is hard work and a high paying job in corporate American can evaporate in an instant, thus I don't really understand why someone would want to work so hard/put up with so much BS just to spend more instead of using the money to contribute to financial security and freedom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:is private school really better than top public plus 1:1 tutoring?
Im pretty sure the latter gives better outcomes, unless your looking for your kids to start networking in school for life...

Private schools give 15-16 kids in a classroom vs 30-40 in public. Overall a very different learning environment. And wouldn't it be nice if your kid didn't have to spend 6-7 hours in school and another hour or two in tutoring daily?

Not us. Our public elementary was 20-22 per class. Totally manageable and very happy. There are enough rich snots at our public, no way I would ever move to private.