Anonymous
02/16/2026 22:12
Subject: S/O American Dream. Would $500-750k HHI be enough for this lifestyle?
Anonymous wrote:š
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Anonymous
02/16/2026 21:50
Subject: S/O American Dream. Would $500-750k HHI be enough for this lifestyle?
Anonymous wrote: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 donāt 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 weād take our 3 kids on the first 4 trips with 1 couple trip. Tbh, Iām 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 āAmerican Dreamā 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?
OP, youāve forgotten taxes. Even should you hit $750k, you are in the 37% tax bracket so $230k goes right out the door.
I think your five vacation plan would be a multiple of $20k.
Anonymous
02/16/2026 21:49
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 donāt 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 weād take our 3 kids on the first 4 trips with 1 couple trip. Tbh, Iām 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 āAmerican Dreamā 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?
OP, youāve forgotten taxes. Even should you hit $750k, you are in the 37% tax bracket so $230k goes right out the door.
Anonymous
02/16/2026 21:39
Subject: S/O American Dream. Would $500-750k HHI be enough for this lifestyle?
Anonymous wrote: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?
Um, grandparents?
Your parents will watch 3 kids for a whole week while you travel? Lucky! Ours love the kids, but 3 of them for an extended period is a lot.
Anonymous
02/16/2026 21:30
Subject: Re:S/O American Dream. Would $500-750k HHI be enough for this lifestyle?
My main concern for you is this: Of all the places there are to experience incredible skiing and mountain towns, you choose Breckenridge, which is nothing more than a strip mall off of I-70.
Anonymous
02/16/2026 19:38
Subject: S/O American Dream. Would $500-750k HHI be enough for this lifestyle?
Only if you donāt want to save much. Do you already have a big nest egg?
Anonymous
02/16/2026 19:19
Subject: S/O American Dream. Would $500-750k HHI be enough for this lifestyle?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:You should be putting at least 20% into savings, and you should not be spending more than 10% of your gross income on travel.
Where are you getting this 10% travel limit? People spend money on different hobbies, if travel is yours then budget for it. There's no arbitrary limits.
I've got family that buys a new car every few years. Other family keeps the same car until it falls apart, but travels all the time. It probably costs about the same.
DP but OP doesn't want an expensive travel hobby and frugal anything else. They want an OTT travel budget *and* unlimited dining out *and* no guardrails on kid activity spending *and* no upper limit on college costs. There's no part of their list that says "here's where we'll cut back to make this work" unless that's how you read reasonable retirement spending, and that's . . . not the right place to cut.
Anonymous
02/16/2026 18:39
Subject: S/O American Dream. Would $500-750k HHI be enough for this lifestyle?
Anonymous wrote:What kind of colleges are we talking about? Because for even UVA in state, COA is conservatively projected to be 100k per kid per year in 18 years.
Wow. When you see it in actual numbers like you did PP that's scary high. I wonder who will afford college in 18 years especially since the 10+% per year gain in the market is unrealistic to expect
Anonymous
02/16/2026 18:15
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 donāt 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 weād take our 3 kids on the first 4 trips with 1 couple trip. Tbh, Iām 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 āAmerican Dreamā 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?
This easily reflects a monthly spend (plus monthly savings) of $34,000. Back of the envelope, you need $610,000 pretax to make this work. And this doesn't include saving for a down payment, paying off debt, saving up for fancy cars, private school, or saving for an emergency/job loss. It also estimates only $60,000/yr in monthly travel, which seems really low given the number of trips you anticipate. And it spreads the up-front costs of childcare over a lifetime, which underestimates the costs of things in the early years.
PITI: $8,500
Home maintenance: $1,250
Utilities: $600
Medical: $500
Groceries: $2,000
Dining Out: $1,500
Clothing: $500
College savings: $5,000 (if starting at birth)
Childcare (camps, daycare, ECs, averaged over lifetime): $1,500
Car insurance: $300
Car maintenance: $400
401k contributions: $4,000
Backdoor Roth contributions: $1,100
Gas: $350
Gifts: $600
Fun: $1,000
Travel: $5,000
Anonymous
02/16/2026 17:56
Subject: S/O American Dream. Would $500-750k HHI be enough for this lifestyle?
$800K DINKs planning to start a family soon and this would be tight (impossible?) on $800K. Spouseās bosses who have this lifestyle make $2M+ annually (w the caveat they vacation for 2-3 weeks total / year max). This much vacation time (5-6 weeks) indicates you arenāt working for your $ and make it via family $ or investments or a business that runs itself and casts off big money every year.
Anonymous
02/16/2026 17:45
Subject: S/O American Dream. Would $500-750k HHI be enough for this lifestyle?
We are a 500K family and we live in a 1.1 3br house, full pay private college next year, nice vacations but certainly not that much or many, and do camps/food/treats/etc... as we want to (nothing crazy). We are also planning a 100K renovation and did a 70K one a few years back.
One kid who attended public school.
I don't think you can come close to what you want on 500 or 600K.
One kid who attended public school.
I don't think you can come close to what you want on 500 or 600K.
Anonymous
02/16/2026 17:44
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 donāt 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 weād take our 3 kids on the first 4 trips with 1 couple trip. Tbh, Iām 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 āAmerican Dreamā 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?
we make this (400k & 350k) and no way in hell with our demanding jobs are we taking that much vacation. we also have teens and donāt buy them what they want. Thatās a fast track to raising kids who will eventually fail to launch. They need to learn a little material hunger. My oldest kid also chose a public college (virginia tech) and we have way way way over saved for college. Our youngest seeing our oldest now wants to attend VT.
Anonymous
02/16/2026 17:41
Subject: S/O American Dream. Would $500-750k HHI be enough for this lifestyle?
500K no way.
How are you funding retirement?
First, the vacations are too much.
The college is feasible, but if all the kids go to private schools you're looking at more like 1.5m.
How old are the kids? I ask because day care is expensive and you don't see to be factoring this in, or activities.
Are you thinking about things like home renovations, car insurance, and new cars for you?
This to me sounds more like a 1.5m lifestyle.
At, say, 600K I'd be looking at a 1.2-ish house, public colleges and/or scholarships, 2 vacations a year (nice ones are fine), and everything you need and a lot of what you want provided your tastes aren't ultra expensive. That means no unlimited takeout or cosmetics, etc....
How are you funding retirement?
First, the vacations are too much.
The college is feasible, but if all the kids go to private schools you're looking at more like 1.5m.
How old are the kids? I ask because day care is expensive and you don't see to be factoring this in, or activities.
Are you thinking about things like home renovations, car insurance, and new cars for you?
This to me sounds more like a 1.5m lifestyle.
At, say, 600K I'd be looking at a 1.2-ish house, public colleges and/or scholarships, 2 vacations a year (nice ones are fine), and everything you need and a lot of what you want provided your tastes aren't ultra expensive. That means no unlimited takeout or cosmetics, etc....
Anonymous
02/16/2026 17:36
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?
Um, grandparents?
Anonymous
02/16/2026 17:26
Subject: S/O American Dream. Would $500-750k HHI be enough for this lifestyle?
Anonymous wrote:This seems like some lala land weird idea of what family life should look like. We have an 8 figure hhi yet donāt take that many vacations, and itās nothing to do with money. You seem to have an idealized version of life and want to slot kids into it, but thatās 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.
This. We are very wealthy. In order to be wealthy, spouse doesnāt take six weeks off a year. I mean reallyā¦Also, kids activities, etc. This person is delusional and itās hilarious that they think traveling with three kids is so easy. Come back and report on this once you have one kid.