We probably appear to live above our means. What you don’t know-
Our parents bought us a new car for our wedding which set up a cycle where we now buy cars cash.
They also pay for daycare and made a big lump sum deposit into each child’s 529 on their first BD
We don’t have any student loans
I lived in a very low COL area in my 20s and saved a lot of money
I worked my ass off in my 20s and travelled for work. We’re still milking those hotel points / lifetime platinum = free concierge lounge/breakfast perks 10+ years later
I don’t buy new clothes except some basics on sale. 80% of what I wear is Le Tote or Rent the Runway unlimited.
My kids have cousins that hand down clothes. Not buying pricey items like winter coats saves us tons
I purchase my company’s stock at a discount and my company has done very well. We sold stock at a huge profit to pay our down payment on our house

Maybe the house was purchased with gift money.

My parents saved diligently for my college education, but I earned a full ride academic scholarship. They saved it for grad school, but I ended up getting that partially funded as well and didn't need all of it. They also saved for my wedding, but we opted for a very low-key affair. My parents gifted us my college and wedding savings for our first house. His parents gifted us money as well. We had well over $130k for our down-payment.

Our stats are similar, but our kids are younger so we are sending most of our money to daycare currently.

As a PP noted, we are not maxing our retirement.

And I will say we are in as good a position as we are because we have had some family help. Neither of our families are super wealthy so you'd never know that, but my parents are both on the down-low very well off and are very generous.

Anonymous wrote:I actually wonder what people are spending their money on if they can't afford a vacation? 550k is a very reasonable house amount for a 210k income.

Agree. We aren’t taking two international vacations per year because we are paying for private school for on kid, but we do ok with similar stats. We also don’t have any debts except for our mortgage.

Oh goodness.

We earn about $125k (up from $95k last year) and live in a $850k home, go on multiple vacations and weekends away and eat out several times a week. Two elementary age kids.

How do we do it? We don't have any childcare payments, or student loans and we bought our house 15 years ago when it cost $200k. We have plenty of disposable income, even after saving for retirement and college.

Our HHI is $240k and our home is worth $525k. We take on average 3 vacations a year (2 weeks at the beach, 1 week at Disney, another week somewhere else or two long weekends). We actively save for our vacations and budget accordingly. While many of our vacations right now are domestic once the house renovations are finished (another 2ish years) our vaca budget will double.

We live very comfortably below our means, max retirement, and have a healthy vacation budget, because it's important to us. If we overspend somewhere else though sometimes we need to pull from vacations to cover (which is why we're only doing Disney and the beach this year).

Anonymous wrote:I'm a single parent who makes just over $100K and has no family help. I own a home worth probably $750k and while I don't take lavish vacations, I do eat out several days a week.

I bought a small, cheap home 20 years ago and rode the real estate wave up. I bought the next (bigger, not as cheap) home using equity from that home plus a low interest rate on a mortgage. That house has appreciated. I max out my 401K and should have at least $100k saved for my kid's college when she's ready to go. I keep my cars a long time, don't overspend on home decorating and clothing and such.

College will soon be 100k a year.

Have family money
They have no savings,credit cards maxxed out.

None of your business

Sounds perfectly normal to me.

We have two kids, make much less and can afford one vacation a year and eat out less. Same thing.

My best friend makes 80k has 2 kids in daycare and a 210k mortgage. She has no retirement or college savings for her 3 kids. They travel a lot . They go to tons of concerts, music festivals, plays. Weekend trips, winery's . She spends every paycheck until it is gone.

They bought 5 years ago when the $550,000 house was $350,000. Check price history on the house.

See the post I just made in the budget for new home thread. They are probably using credit card / hotel / airline points.

Anonymous wrote:I have these friends. 2 kids in middle school, he makes max 150k she probably makes 60k. Have 550k home, have at least 2 vacations a year: one in Mexico and one in Europe. Eat out constantly.
How?

What's confusing about this? Do you have a higher income and feel like you can't do this? Do you want to post your budget and ask for help?

Our home's a little cheaper but we earn a little less so I think it's a wash. We take at least two vacations a year, and while we don't eat out constantly, we could afford to do it a lot more than we do. Depending on what you mean by "eat out constantly" and how luxurious their vacations are, they might not be saving as much for retirement as they should be-- or they might be saving plenty and splurging on obvious things and being more frugal on things that are less visible to you.

myob