Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People say HHI, that’s not salary. If you have a high enough salary and/or inherited wealth your HHI should be way more than your w2s.

or investments. I hoard so much money, it's not all tax protected so I pay taxes on gains annually. See, I'm formally poor so have no idea on how to avoid taxes.

Just buy a mutual fund or buy and hold individual stocks. Or even a long term CD. Incurring substantial taxes takes work (active trading).

It’s all about ego and bragging.

Anonymous wrote:On most forums about money, you see very few people make more than 250k individually or even HHI, yet here every thread has someone making 750k or higher at just one job. Also many people here with 8 figure NW’s or act like 5-10M is “barely enough”. According to this calculator 300k/yr at age 40 is 97th percentile https://dqydj.com/income-percentile-by-age-calculator/, I guess that doesn’t account for location but still.

Makes me feel like I’m doing something wrong with wanting to have a SAHM on my single 300k income.

This explains it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Internet,_nobody_knows_you%27re_a_dog

1. Never assume people are lying, unless it's short, tongue-in-cheek reply. They have no incentive to lie on an anonymous message board. But there is self-selecting reporting. Wealthy people will tend to answer questions about wealth.

2. You can live well on 300K HHI in this area. I live on less than half of that, with a stay at home spouse, and we've raised two kids in Bethesda, one of which is now in college.

3. Most people here are dependent on income to power their lifestyle. There is a difference between high income and high-value assets. This is not a generational wealth area for the most part. However, some people do have family help in the form of downpayments for their homes, private school tuition for their kids, travel, inheritance, etc. Others are self-made business or tech people, or savvy/lucky investors. We are in that latter category.

Anonymous wrote:People say HHI, that’s not salary. If you have a high enough salary and/or inherited wealth your HHI should be way more than your w2s.

or investments. I hoard so much money, it's not all tax protected so I pay taxes on gains annually. See, I'm formally poor so have no idea on how to avoid taxes.

Anonymous wrote:I just assume everyone is lying

I'm not lying. I was born poor and can't believe my income and NW. I'm a money hoarder and if you met me, you'd assume I was not very wealthy because I don't project it. I am also over-educated but that's obvious.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What was the question? Go ahead have a SAHM. I made $20k according to my last paycheck of the year and live very well in NWDC.
You'll be fine, just make sure you SAHM uses the money as if you make $600k. I can come back from a store having spent $50, but it looks like I got $200 worth of food. No, I didn't steal any.

This is a good point. Bring a careful shopper is important at the HHI range that OP is talking about. Of course OP can have a SAHM wife and live well. Just stay within your budget and don't give in to spending that isn't a priority. You can have great vacations etc. but it takes planning and careful shopping.

I disagree, I think careful shopping takes a ton of time and adds up to very little. I think you might come out ahead using all the careful shopping time to drive for Uber or something.

I'm not talking about driving around town to save 17 cents on bananas. More like buying only what you need, learning to cook on a budget so you're eating well without spending as much on restaurants, avoiding impulse purchases, planning vacations in advance so they cost less, etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What was the question? Go ahead have a SAHM. I made $20k according to my last paycheck of the year and live very well in NWDC.
You'll be fine, just make sure you SAHM uses the money as if you make $600k. I can come back from a store having spent $50, but it looks like I got $200 worth of food. No, I didn't steal any.

This is a good point. Bring a careful shopper is important at the HHI range that OP is talking about. Of course OP can have a SAHM wife and live well. Just stay within your budget and don't give in to spending that isn't a priority. You can have great vacations etc. but it takes planning and careful shopping.

I disagree, I think careful shopping takes a ton of time and adds up to very little. I think you might come out ahead using all the careful shopping time to drive for Uber or something.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Probably just how the board developed. Once it started that way it stayed, people with high incomes now respond.

Rich have to find places to talk rich too 🤑

+1
Other message boards have sob stories and grifters. Every other thread was a plea for money. No thanks.

I have not found this true of Bogleheads. Or maybe the mods delete them if they come up.

Average HHI seems lower on the whole on BH than on DCUM, but BH is national whereas DCUM is centered on some of the richest countries in the US.

Anonymous wrote:What was the question? Go ahead have a SAHM. I made $20k according to my last paycheck of the year and live very well in NWDC.
You'll be fine, just make sure you SAHM uses the money as if you make $600k. I can come back from a store having spent $50, but it looks like I got $200 worth of food. No, I didn't steal any.

This is a good point. Bring a careful shopper is important at the HHI range that OP is talking about. Of course OP can have a SAHM wife and live well. Just stay within your budget and don't give in to spending that isn't a priority. You can have great vacations etc. but it takes planning and careful shopping.

What was the question? Go ahead have a SAHM. I made $20k according to my last paycheck of the year and live very well in NWDC.
You'll be fine, just make sure you SAHM uses the money as if you make $600k. I can come back from a store having spent $50, but it looks like I got $200 worth of food. No, I didn't steal any.

Anonymous wrote:Voluntary response bias.

High earners are far more likely to share what they make than low earners. $300k is way more than enough to raise a family so long as you are a reasonable person.

+1

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Makes me feel like I’m doing something wrong with wanting to have a SAHM on my single 300k income.

We have a HHI of $300k and my wife is a SAHM.

We intentionally bought in a neighborhood that didn’t stretch our budget. I can say we are probably the highest earning family in our neighborhood and it feels great.

You did it right. DH makes about $350k now. I SAH a long time and work very PT now. We feel below average for our area and it sucks.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Makes me feel like I’m doing something wrong with wanting to have a SAHM on my single 300k income.

We have a HHI of $300k and my wife is a SAHM.

We intentionally bought in a neighborhood that didn’t stretch our budget. I can say we are probably the highest earning family in our neighborhood and it feels great.

Yeah there are actually way more SAHMs on lower incomes imo, even “dcum-style” SAHMs which I would describe as a SAHM with considerable support and hallmarks of wealth like home ownership, etc. The sweet spot for that is Hyattsville/Cheverly and there’s often a lot of religion associated.

Anonymous wrote:

Makes me feel like I’m doing something wrong with wanting to have a SAHM on my single 300k income.

We have a HHI of $300k and my wife is a SAHM.

We intentionally bought in a neighborhood that didn’t stretch our budget. I can say we are probably the highest earning family in our neighborhood and it feels great.