Anonymous
Post 02/16/2026 16:13     Subject: S/O American Dream. Would $500-750k HHI be enough for this lifestyle?
At $1M you’re looking at $550K take-home after taxes which feels like the starting point for this exact lifestyle
Anonymous
Post 02/16/2026 15:26     Subject: S/O American Dream. Would $500-750k HHI be enough for this lifestyle?
Anonymous wrote:You all are hilarious. In state college is like $130k now, it's not going to be 10X more expensive in 20 years.

The biggest fantasy in OPs dream on that income is the week of adult only vacation. Who's watching your kids while that's going on?


UVA is over 50k a year for engineering and like 45k year for liberal arts. In state.
Anonymous
Post 02/16/2026 15:22     Subject: S/O American Dream. Would $500-750k HHI be enough for this lifestyle?
You all are hilarious. In state college is like $130k now, it's not going to be 10X more expensive in 20 years.

The biggest fantasy in OPs dream on that income is the week of adult only vacation. Who's watching your kids while that's going on?
Anonymous
Post 02/16/2026 15:08     Subject: S/O American Dream. Would $500-750k HHI be enough for this lifestyle?
Anonymous wrote:this is not the american dream. this sounds like princess level living. all i want of everything i want ...

you need to take a step back in to reality.


Totally agree
Anonymous
Post 02/16/2026 14:42     Subject: Re:S/O American Dream. Would $500-750k HHI be enough for this lifestyle?
We have this lifestyle on ~750k.

Here’s our cost savings: single income so no childcare costs and no mortgage (we were tiny shareholders during an ipo so we used that money to buy our house outright). We live outside of NYC so property taxes are very high, however.

I think we save responsibly even while spending 10% of income on travel.
Anonymous
Post 02/16/2026 14:17     Subject: S/O American Dream. Would $500-750k HHI be enough for this lifestyle?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:This seems like some lala land weird idea of what family life should look like. We have an 8 figure hhi yet don’t take that many vacations, and it’s nothing to do with money. You seem to have an idealized version of life and want to slot kids into it, but that’s not how it works. Maybe when the kids are very young, but if your kids do serious sports or school activities, a lot of your schedule will revolve around that. For vacations, it depends what level of nice you want, but we have 4 kids, and a ski week alone is well over half your travel budget. You also seem to be ignoring sleep away camps, sport camps, etc. I think you want some instagram version of parenting.


Where do you ski if you spend 40K on a sling trip??? We've done a lavish skiing trip in Canadian Rockies at $10K for the whole week and fantastic nordic spas this year


For 5 people? No you haven't.


Different poster but I regularly ski in Vail and Beaver Creek maybe 3x a year and I’m usually able to get walkable rooms to the slopes for about 4k for the week. Epic passes are 1k per person. But they are spread over several trips. Flights are maybe 500 each max. I don’t think their estimate is crazy.

Now, once you need two rooms or a much larger suite yes you are up maybe 7k for rooms. But I also sometimes stay off slope and drive to the garages. That is a great way to massively save funds.


Yea. If anyone is spending $40k per ski trip in the US they’ll be better off flying yo Switzerland and getting personalized treatment for that kind of $$$$
Anonymous
Post 02/16/2026 14:13     Subject: S/O American Dream. Would $500-750k HHI be enough for this lifestyle?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:This seems like some lala land weird idea of what family life should look like. We have an 8 figure hhi yet don’t take that many vacations, and it’s nothing to do with money. You seem to have an idealized version of life and want to slot kids into it, but that’s not how it works. Maybe when the kids are very young, but if your kids do serious sports or school activities, a lot of your schedule will revolve around that. For vacations, it depends what level of nice you want, but we have 4 kids, and a ski week alone is well over half your travel budget. You also seem to be ignoring sleep away camps, sport camps, etc. I think you want some instagram version of parenting.


Where do you ski if you spend 40K on a sling trip??? We've done a lavish skiing trip in Canadian Rockies at $10K for the whole week and fantastic nordic spas this year


For 5 people? No you haven't.


For 3. It was actually $8k flights are cheap and we stayed for homeexchange points at a resort style townhouse with hot tub. Icon Pass is also cheaper than in the US. Food 30% less . It would cost us 40% more to ski in the US for similar professional quality advanced slopes
Anonymous
Post 02/16/2026 14:01     Subject: S/O American Dream. Would $500-750k HHI be enough for this lifestyle?
this is not the american dream. this sounds like princess level living. all i want of everything i want ...

you need to take a step back in to reality.
Anonymous
Post 02/16/2026 13:51     Subject: S/O American Dream. Would $500-750k HHI be enough for this lifestyle?
Anonymous wrote:We have this life but only make $500k and one child. You have champagne tastes on a beer budget and too many kids.


Agreed. I would say maybe it's champagne tastes on a craft beer budget. But what OP describes is a fantasy- this vision has never been sold as the American Dream. We make 550-600 in the midwest and have an amazing life with 3 kids. But it's certainly not the life OP is looking for, which would be even more expensive on the coasts. I also agree with the poster who noted that kids won't just "slot in" to the picture.
Anonymous
Post 02/16/2026 13:50     Subject: S/O American Dream. Would $500-750k HHI be enough for this lifestyle?
Depends on so many factors - how old are you and how long have you been making this HHI? How much $ do you already have invested? How much in child care costs? What % can you put down as a down payment? Debt?
Anonymous
Post 02/16/2026 13:32     Subject: S/O American Dream. Would $500-750k HHI be enough for this lifestyle?
OP. I would have no problem doing what you ask on that income. But I think I’m much better than most of the other posters on this thread with respect to doing more with money, especially with respect to housing and travel. Also, not factored into this analysis, but higher education economics are in the early stages of collapse. The ever increasing costs are over.
Anonymous
Post 02/16/2026 13:24     Subject: S/O American Dream. Would $500-750k HHI be enough for this lifestyle?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:This seems like some lala land weird idea of what family life should look like. We have an 8 figure hhi yet don’t take that many vacations, and it’s nothing to do with money. You seem to have an idealized version of life and want to slot kids into it, but that’s not how it works. Maybe when the kids are very young, but if your kids do serious sports or school activities, a lot of your schedule will revolve around that. For vacations, it depends what level of nice you want, but we have 4 kids, and a ski week alone is well over half your travel budget. You also seem to be ignoring sleep away camps, sport camps, etc. I think you want some instagram version of parenting.


Where do you ski if you spend 40K on a sling trip??? We've done a lavish skiing trip in Canadian Rockies at $10K for the whole week and fantastic nordic spas this year


For 5 people? No you haven't.


Different poster but I regularly ski in Vail and Beaver Creek maybe 3x a year and I’m usually able to get walkable rooms to the slopes for about 4k for the week. Epic passes are 1k per person. But they are spread over several trips. Flights are maybe 500 each max. I don’t think their estimate is crazy.

Now, once you need two rooms or a much larger suite yes you are up maybe 7k for rooms. But I also sometimes stay off slope and drive to the garages. That is a great way to massively save funds.
Anonymous
Post 02/16/2026 13:24     Subject: S/O American Dream. Would $500-750k HHI be enough for this lifestyle?
We have this life but only make $500k and one child. You have champagne tastes on a beer budget and too many kids.
Anonymous
Post 02/16/2026 13:12     Subject: S/O American Dream. Would $500-750k HHI be enough for this lifestyle?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:This seems like some lala land weird idea of what family life should look like. We have an 8 figure hhi yet don’t take that many vacations, and it’s nothing to do with money. You seem to have an idealized version of life and want to slot kids into it, but that’s not how it works. Maybe when the kids are very young, but if your kids do serious sports or school activities, a lot of your schedule will revolve around that. For vacations, it depends what level of nice you want, but we have 4 kids, and a ski week alone is well over half your travel budget. You also seem to be ignoring sleep away camps, sport camps, etc. I think you want some instagram version of parenting.


Where do you ski if you spend 40K on a sling trip??? We've done a lavish skiing trip in Canadian Rockies at $10K for the whole week and fantastic nordic spas this year


For 5 people? No you haven't.
Anonymous
Post 02/16/2026 13:00     Subject: S/O American Dream. Would $500-750k HHI be enough for this lifestyle?
Anonymous wrote:4 bedroom house in a close in suburb of a US city. Is this possible with a 1.5 mil mil budget? We are willing to relocate to a cheaper city, if necessary.

3 kids - college 100% paid for, no worries about paying for activities or day camps. No worries about paying for the things teens want: nice clothes, sneakers, gadgets, sleep away camp, basic first car. So planning 1 mil for college savings alone.

4-5 vacations per year. This is my big ask, I know. I like to go on vacation and don’t want to have to give it up when we have kids. My ideal travel schedule would be: 1 week long winter ski trip out west (we love Breck), 1 week long spring break to the Caribbean or Central/South America, 2 week summer trip to Europe, 1 week trip to an East Coast beach town. 1 week couples only trip. This is what we do now. My idea is that we’d take our 3 kids on the first 4 trips with 1 couple trip. Tbh, I’m thinking this would be like 70k a year with 3 kids?

No worries about eating out at casual dining restaurants whenever we want, no worries about grocery prices, occasional fine dining experiences for anniversaries or celebrations

Responsible saving for retirement

I feel like this is the true “American Dream” as portrayed in the mainstream media we all consume endlessly. A nice suburban house where everyone has their own bedroom, there are lots of books, art, fresh flowers everywhere. The kids do lots of activities and go to camp in the summer. Frequent travel over every school break. Nice cars. No worries about things like grocery prices. College is paid for. It used to be possible on a lot less bit now 500-750k is needed? Or is even that amount too low?


If you mean $1m total savings for college, you're way, way too low. Your hypothetical kids will be in college in 18-20+ years. Unless something radically changes, on the current trajectory college will be at least $500k each, and that's nowhere near the most expensive school. We are planning $300k for our current HS senior.

Your $70k vacation budget is also a pipe dream. You will be confined to weeks where school is out, at least when the kids get older, which is the most expensive time to go. Five flights, five Epic passes, a 2-3 BR condo, rental car other transportation, and food - that is a minimum of $3k per person, and likely more. Same for your 2-week European trip - you really think that's going to be $2500 per person? You don't strike me as someone willing ot stay in cheap accommodations and eat frugally, OP.

All of your other assumptions are similarly underestimating how expensive things are.

I agree, this is a 7 figure lifestyle, and even then you're probably not saving enough.

- 1 Kid, HHI of ~$600k.