Not rich but unapologetic

Anonymous wrote:Alright, since the debate on who constitutes "Upper Middle Class" is hotly debated on here, and people can't see to agree on whether 250-500K is rich or just barely making it as middle class, who on here lives a "rich" lifestyle and what is your HHI? Since people with 500K apparently budget carefully, drive 10 year Hondas, go to public school, and have modest vacations at the beach, who are all these people in the area that people complain about on the private schools forum who are in a bubble of wealth jetting off on fancy vacations and letting their 7th graders wear designer clothes? If you can afford to do several of the following, what is your HHI?

--Drive luxury vehicles (BMW, Acura, Audi, Mercedes, etc.) Drive Pruis.
--Live in a 1 million or more house in a nice neighborhood (NW DC, Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Arlington, McLean, or even Capitol Hill).
--Fully fund retirement
--Fully fund 529s so your kid can go to the best college they can get into, even private school This is silly, fully funded for state school and have other savings if they go out of state or to a private college/University.
--Send your kids to private schools like Sidwell, NCS, GDS, etc.no need with public as good as it is in McLean.
--Have elaborate vacations that frequently involve international travel, like most spring or Christmas breaks the Caribbean or Hawaii along with more occasional big trips to Europe, Africa, or Asia no
--Afford music lessons, travel sports, tutors, and other enrichment, including expensive camps yes, except no to travel sports
--Allow your kids to wear designer labels, like a freshman in high school wearing $150 dollar jeans (7s, Diesel, etc.) they wear what they want to wear.
--Buy handbags that are 1000+ on occasion no need
--Invest some money in taxable investments after maxing out 401K and IRA yes
--Have the occasional date night at a high end restaurant where you can blow $250 dollars on food and wine on a nice tasting menu yes, but, generally don't go for the wine, prefer a nice cocktail

I'm curious, because there seems to be many neighborhoods filled with luxury vehicles, many people living in 1 million + houses, and many people in the DC area who enjoy travel, and many who complain about expensive clothes being worn in schools (both public and private)

We also donate 7-10% of our gross income. Rich by my standards, but not by DCUM's.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We work for our money, not the other way around.

Yeah, you should never money for your work.

lmao

We are. HHI is typically between 500-850k. DH has an Audi S6 and a Porshe 911. Live in Bethesda. Kids are too young for school so we do nanny plus preschool. The only thing we don't do on your list is buy 1k handbags. Just not my thing.

Anonymous wrote:We work for our money, not the other way around.

Yeah, you should never money for your work.

Yes to all except 4 kids in Catholic schools (not $30k), I don't buy designer bags and kids don't wear $100 jeans (but NorthFace, Patagonia, FreePeople but also cheap brands, etc, drive their own hand-me-down cars and work summers). DH earns >$1M.

Anonymous wrote:

You don't need to be truly rich to do those things, but you do need to be comfortable. Truly rich means you can hire a private jet for your vacations and could have multiple houses around the world, etc.

I see. So privileged beyond belief compared to the rest of the world, developed or not is not considered rich on this forum. You need to be Koch Brothers/Bill Gates rich to be truly rich. Or at least movie star rich. Got it.

+1
Only obscenely rich (net worth over 100 mil) is truly rich here.

You don't need to be truly rich to do those things, but you do need to be comfortable. Truly rich means you can hire a private jet for your vacations and could have multiple houses around the world, etc.

I see. So privileged beyond belief compared to the rest of the world, developed or not is not considered rich on this forum. You need to be Koch Brothers/Bill Gates rich to be truly rich. Or at least movie star rich. Got it.

Anonymous wrote:You don't need to be truly rich to do those things, but you do need to be comfortable. Truly rich means you can hire a private jet for your vacations and could have multiple houses around the world, etc.

+1
I can do all of these on my 300k HHI.
But it won't be much left after these.

You don't need to be truly rich to do those things, but you do need to be comfortable. Truly rich means you can hire a private jet for your vacations and could have multiple houses around the world, etc.

I'll play....and I fall into the "but I'm not rich" category. We work for our money, not the other way around. HHI is $500k.

Drive luxury vehicles (BMW, Acura, Audi, Mercedes, etc.) Yes: Audi, BMW. I don't think Acura qualifies personnally, but YMMV--Live in a 1 million or more house in a nice neighborhood (NW DC, Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Arlington, McLean, or even Capitol Hill). McLean, Langley Oaks.
--Fully fund retirement Yes, but everyone's definition of 'fully fund' will be different, I suspect.
--Fully fund 529s so your kid can go to the best college they can get into, even private school Don't do 529s, but do put aside $$ for this.
--Send your kids to private schools like Sidwell, NCS, GDS, etc. Yes, private, but not one of those.
--Have elaborate vacations that frequently involve international travel, like most spring or Christmas breaks the Caribbean or Hawaii along with more occasional big trips to Europe, Africa, or Asia Yes, frequently. But I do a lot of international travel for work, so most of it is funded by mileage and hotel points. (2 Annual trips to Europe, 1 annual to Carribean)
--Afford music lessons, travel sports, tutors, and other enrichment, including expensive camps Travel teams + camps in the summer
--Allow your kids to wear designer labels, like a freshman in high school wearing $150 dollar jeans (7s, Diesel, etc.) I would allow it, but they don't care--so mostly A&F, Ralph Lauren.--Buy handbags that are 1000+ on occasion No, not really my thing.
--Invest some money in taxable investments after maxing out 401K and IRA Yes
--Have the occasional date night at a high end restaurant where you can blow $250 dollars on food and wine on a nice tasting menu Yes


Like most people, we're willing to spend a lot of money on things that are of interest to us, and not much on others. We don't have a lot of gadgets (multiple big screen TVs, iPads, etc). We don't go out to eat very often, I prefer to cook. I like nice expensive clothing, but the good thing about that is that if you take care of it, it lasts years. We also lucked out regarding real estate, so that supplemented the HHI in terms of house/mortgage.

Hah, yeah, but it IS an anonymous forum

Me!

My HHI is 90K.

I'm rich!

LOL, no one admits they are actually rich. Everyone is struggling to get by and is just an "average joe."

Yeah, right.

Alright, since the debate on who constitutes "Upper Middle Class" is hotly debated on here, and people can't see to agree on whether 250-500K is rich or just barely making it as middle class, who on here lives a "rich" lifestyle and what is your HHI? Since people with 500K apparently budget carefully, drive 10 year Hondas, go to public school, and have modest vacations at the beach, who are all these people in the area that people complain about on the private schools forum who are in a bubble of wealth jetting off on fancy vacations and letting their 7th graders wear designer clothes? If you can afford to do several of the following, what is your HHI?

--Drive luxury vehicles (BMW, Acura, Audi, Mercedes, etc.)
--Live in a 1 million or more house in a nice neighborhood (NW DC, Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Arlington, McLean, or even Capitol Hill).
--Fully fund retirement
--Fully fund 529s so your kid can go to the best college they can get into, even private school
--Send your kids to private schools like Sidwell, NCS, GDS, etc.
--Have elaborate vacations that frequently involve international travel, like most spring or Christmas breaks the Caribbean or Hawaii along with more occasional big trips to Europe, Africa, or Asia
--Afford music lessons, travel sports, tutors, and other enrichment, including expensive camps
--Allow your kids to wear designer labels, like a freshman in high school wearing $150 dollar jeans (7s, Diesel, etc.)
--Buy handbags that are 1000+ on occasion
--Invest some money in taxable investments after maxing out 401K and IRA
--Have the occasional date night at a high end restaurant where you can blow $250 dollars on food and wine on a nice tasting menu

I'm curious, because there seems to be many neighborhoods filled with luxury vehicles, many people living in 1 million + houses, and many people in the DC area who enjoy travel, and many who complain about expensive clothes being worn in schools (both public and private)