Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hey op, you surprised to see the predictable bs replies ?

The only BS replies are ones like yours. Others are actually replying to the OP's question. 20M here, OP. No inheritance or high income. A lifetime of investment, that's all.

These are what shock me the most.

I can buy that certain careers lead to $20M by say, 50 ($5-10M HHI a year = hedge fund, private equity).

I get that certain careers lead to $8-10M by 50 ($2-3M HHI = very successful in BigLaw, consulting, executives at large companies, maybe FAANG SWE).

But what surprises me is when people are not high income, didn't have an inheritance and get to $20M. Even someone making $2-3M (like the big law lawyer) is still going to struggle to get to that $20M figure. What exactly are you investing in?!

Anonymous wrote:OP here - would be interested in more lifestyle details at this level. I love that everyone probably has $15 M but livesin a 2- bedroom condowith their 4 kids, but there must be something that you spend money on? Asian travel, Hermes, family help, golf, going to see Taylor Swift in Portugal? Or really you’re just taking 3 days at Rehoboth off-season, share a car and watch Netflix?

Our NW is around 50 M. We live in a nice house in an area with nice houses and ours is at the high end for the neighborhood, but definitely not high end for this area. When my Ford was on its last legs, I bought a luxury car (in cash). We splurge a little on travel, so probably 15K-25K for a family of 3, although we only fly business on long international trips. As for what we do spend money on, it's mostly convenience stuff. House cleaning, landscaping, pool maintenance, etc. are outsourced. We don't really look at expenses when we eat out, and it's not a splurge, something we do whenever we need to.

We're pretty simple people, and our passion projects are not expensive ones. I'm big into native plants, and that's what I buy. I love to bird watch, so I spend money on making the yard attractive to birds. I enjoy playing in the dirt, and it's my happy place. DH is big into technology, and that's what he spends money on. He enjoys building things though, so again, it's more DIY stuff. This is also probably why our NW is as high as it is (it's all earned; no inheritance). We don't really spend anywhere close to our means, and our money just keeps making more money.

Do very many high income people put a lot of money in Municipal Bond funds?

Anonymous wrote:OP here - would be interested in more lifestyle details at this level. I love that everyone probably has $15 M but livesin a 2- bedroom condowith their 4 kids, but there must be something that you spend money on? Asian travel, Hermes, family help, golf, going to see Taylor Swift in Portugal? Or really you’re just taking 3 days at Rehoboth off-season, share a car and watch Netflix?

I'm one of the PPs in that range. We do actually live frugally on a daily basis, because our annual income is not high. We use the dividends for our expenses and we want to preserve the capital to pass down to our kids. We live in a small house in an expensive neighborhood with great public schools, and we clean it ourselves and do our own yardwork; we pay for all sorts of extra-curriculars for our children, including horse back riding; we spent a fortune on a collectible musical instrument that sounds divine (why would our kid slum it on a normal one that sounds worse, if he's going to be practicing every day, for years, and within earshot of the rest of us?), and our kids can pick any university they want. But we do watch what we spend in general and importantly, we are not the sort of people who wish to keep up with anyone else. We don't care about cars, for instance: our cars are old and beat-up. My husband doesn't care about clothes. He goes sailing looking like a homeless guy. We still fly economy plus because planes are inherently uncomfortable anyway and first class isn't going to make me sleep any better on the red-eye to Europe. We have relatives in Asia but don't see them very often, because every time we do, it's 30K.

We all have our proclivities, OP. The main thing is to not "waste" money trying to impress others. And yes, I love Netflix.

Hopeful $15M poster here (the one in the Rockville townhome). We take fun family vacations (Hawaii recently, $8100), go to concerts and shows with good seats, don’t fuss about things like HVAC and roof replacements, buy whatever groceries we want, and host family dinners to bring people together. Kid went to a full price private college and we will likely pay for her graduate degree in full. We would like to help with grandchild college and maybe Montessori preschool. We intend to gift cash annually to pass our wealth on before we die. We are not interested in eating out, a big house, expensive hotels, or other traditionally rich people things.

OP here - would be interested in more lifestyle details at this level. I love that everyone probably has $15 M but livesin a 2- bedroom condowith their 4 kids, but there must be something that you spend money on? Asian travel, Hermes, family help, golf, going to see Taylor Swift in Portugal? Or really you’re just taking 3 days at Rehoboth off-season, share a car and watch Netflix?

People on dcum always talk about the same “luxury” spending like all anyone can ever think of to spend on is airplane tickets, cars and houses.

Most rich people I know who have an off base spending category, it’s for a passion. A sailboat. A weekend house they love tinkering on. They built a pottery studio in the backyard. They have a business that’s not profitable and they keep pouring money in. A nonprofit that’s…not profitable. A weird collection. Stuff like that.

Anonymous wrote:Hey op, you surprised to see the predictable bs replies ?

The only BS replies are ones like yours. Others are actually replying to the OP's question. 20M here, OP. No inheritance or high income. A lifetime of investment, that's all.

I am early 60s and at $16m. No inheritance yet, but have been saving for a long time. Compounding works. We also lived well below our means for a long time.

Definitely not flashy. We fly business internationally only with upgrades. I fly a lot for work so have status that makes that easier.

More recently have been comfortable spending more but still pretty mundane by luxury standards.

Hey op, you surprised to see the predictable bs replies ?

Our NW is around $50m and doesn’t include real estate, irrevocable trusts, multiple 529s and charitable trust. We don’t fly private (except during Covid) or drive luxury cars but we are members of three clubs. We made $ the old fashioned way - 40 years of hard work, saving a big % of our income and investing wisely. I doubt that any of our friends would guess our NW is what it is because we are far from flashy. We like it that way!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some posts make it seem very rare (which I’d expect), and others make it seem like every attorney in DC has twice this by age 40. We are 60 and our NW at this level is from a combo of inheritance and recent market growth. Not quite sure how we fit in. Country club members seem like they’re all regularly flying private to mansions Aspen, which doesn’t seem prudent even at this NW.

My old CEO had a network of 100 million and a 10 million income and felt poor, he did lose his job at 52 and never worked again. You need at least one billion to be rich.

The bolded quote might be the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever read.

$30m - pretty much all family money.

I recently inherited $7.3 million. I was lucky to be born into the right family and in a country that doesn't really tax inheritance.

Anonymous wrote:Some posts make it seem very rare (which I’d expect), and others make it seem like every attorney in DC has twice this by age 40. We are 60 and our NW at this level is from a combo of inheritance and recent market growth. Not quite sure how we fit in. Country club members seem like they’re all regularly flying private to mansions Aspen, which doesn’t seem prudent even at this NW.

My old CEO had a network of 100 million and a 10 million income and felt poor, he did lose his job at 52 and never worked again. You need at least one billion to be rich.