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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]No. No regrets that I spent time with my kids and they have done well in life.  And I am a frugal person, living in a nice house in an average neighborhood and my kids went to public schools and state flagships - so I do not need a whole lot of money.   I have a happy marriage and my DH makes a decent amount of money upwards of $400K.

I have enough for our needs and some wants too.

BUT if I won the lottery, I would fly everywhere in business and first class. I hate travelling in cattle class, especially flying for 20 hours in cattle class.  I am too old for this crap!!![/quote]

Your post seemed sane until you mentioned that your husband makes over 400 goddam thousand dollars a year and you can’t figure out how to fly business or first class.

DCUM posters, a serious question: what in the actual hell do you guys do with all your money?[/quote]
Np
At 3x that income we would not consider first or business class either. I also dream of having enough to buy those tickets. Maybe we should cut back on housekeeping but that wouldn't make a dent in paying so much for flights. We travel far and often but those seats would equal a vehicle for our family of four. We've over splurged on hotels though.[/quote]

At 400K we would rarely pay for a business class.  It is simply not in the budget at that income level, unless you live in a VLCOL area and your house is only $150K[/quote]

Unless you are completely mismanaging your money (which I suspect many of you are), or you are flying overseas with the entire family on a monthly basis, there is absolutely zero reason why you cannot afford business class tickets for your family vacation at an income of 400K, and it should not even make you bat an eye.

I would love to see some of your budgets because many of you clearly need a lot of help.  [/quote]

That’s about our income:

$260,000 after tax

- $40,000 per year home payment

- $35,000 private school tuition for one of our three children who was struggling in public school (which happens to be the reason I took a high paying but very stressful job I’d rather not have…. Not to fly first class lol)

- $35,000 contributions to retirement savings

- $30,000 contributions to college savings

- $25,000 groceries, household necessities, and eating out

- $6,000 utilities including cell phone, internet, and streaming services

- $12,000 health insurance, premiums including for mental health which one kids requires, medications, braces

- $2000 clothes for whole family and sports equipment for kids

- $10,000 work parking, private school shuttle, ez pass, and gas

- $5,000+ total fees for seasonal sports for each of three kids (it’s about $200+ for rec where we live, so if they do fall soccer and winter basketball and spring baseball and summer swim it adds up to about $2500 per year) plus at least an equal amount for other activities, such as weekly swim lessons, weekly gymnastics, or private pitching lessons for my older son who is a baseball pitcher.  Those things tend to run over $100 per month.

- $3500 music lessons plus instrument rentals for two kids

- $6000 life and car insurance premiums

- $1000 pool membership

- $8000 house cleaning devices plus grocery delivery fees

- $2000 misc items such as haircuts, school supplies and supply donations to the classrooms, dry cleaning, and weekend outings like parking at the zoo or going ice skating

- $4000 car and home repair such as annual tree trimming because we have a lot of big old trees, frequent repairs on a 15-year old car we have, and other unexpected things that always come up

- $4,000 gifts for each other for birthdays and holidays, for family, for kids’ friends birthdays, for weddings or similar, etc, hosting holiday dinners, other holiday expenses like a Christmas tree

- $10,000 vacations such as a week at the beach and flying to visit our parents

- $10,000 full time summer camp (for childcare) for three kids

Of course there are areas where we could cut back such as kids’ sports or eating more frugally, but those are expenses we’ve prioritized for the good of our health and quality of life.  [b]But really it’s just super expensive to raise kids in this region.[/b]  I used to work less and we spent less on house cleaning and summer camps, as well as commuting costs, but I make a good deal more than the difference, and we need those things to make it feel sustainable.  We live in an old moderately sized house, drive old cars, don’t do travel sports, don’t travel overseas, don’t eat out much or buy high end clothes/furniture, etc.

[/quote]

It's really super expensive to raise kids the way you choose to do in this region (especially if you have three!).  I'm a developmental psychologist--there are many thriving, resourceful, curious kids who do not have 10k summer camps and lots of private lessons and three seasons of sports.  I think you've made fine, reasonable choices about how you spend your money, but they are choices not requirements.  Many parents say choose 1 sport, do school or church based summer camps, or select sport or private lesson, or if a child needs private school opt for less of everything else.  
And if your kid is high school age they get a summer job not a summer camp!  Their kids are thriving just the same.[/quote]

Umm no $10k for 3 kids for the entire summer (ie exciting childcare) is not that expensive.  That’s typically 10-12 weeks of camp.  So it’s about 300 or leas per week per kid.    Park and rec camps for 5-6 hours per day ran me $200-250/week 15 years ago [/quote]

Have you heard of inflation?[/quote]

Obviously I Have.  Did you read what I wrote?  I stated $10K is NOT expensive because I was paying nearly that for P&R camps 15 years ago, so that implies that it would cost a lot more now. 
[/quote]

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