Humble roots and struggles to have it all with a 7 figure income. No words.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We recently made 7 figures, it's so much money. We're both immigrants too so no family money. We'll be able to retire in less than 10 years while maintaining our current lifestyle indefinitely, own a $2M house @ 6%, pay for daycare, travel extensively, fully funded a child's college fund in one year (5 years of gifts from both parents). You definitely don't need this kind of money to achieve the American dream. With this money you can have the American dream and retire in 20 years.

Say what now?

I know! Is OP AI generated.or what?

My parents were non immigrants and didn't have family money, which meant that my grandparents donated zero to my college education.

They are the parents. They mean they funded their own kids’ 529s. Not that the kids’ grandparents funded them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When you compare a middle-class lifestyle today to 50 or even 25 years ago, we eat out a lot more, have a lot more technology, have better car, travel a lot more, and have bigger houses.

See e.g., The 90s Weren't that Great: https://www.slowboring.com/p/the-90s-werent-that-great

If you travel more, have fancier cars and electronics and eat out a lot more, that’s not the same comparison.

But that is what is largely happening when people say "we cannot afford it". Along with not eating out/taking lunches to school and work, we also took one vacation per year, for 2 weeks at most. It was always a driving vacation, with the popup trailer in back. We stayed in campgrounds and used the public facilities and grilled/used the very basic kitchen to cook meals. So the main cost of the trip was Gas. It would be like only spending $750-800 for your yearly vacation at most. We might get pizza or go out 1-2 times during the trip. Otherwise, we stopped at a store, got food and cooked a basic dinner.

oh and those vacations ended when the oldest kid was about 12/13, as my parents cut back even more and tried to start saving some for college. So after age 10 for me, I never got a vacation---we didn't take them. And previously it was driving, camper and campfire cooking.

Most people I hear complaining are spending much more comparably on vacations alone, way more.
Add in dining and all the entertainment extras, and it simply is not Apples to apples

Anonymous wrote:

Owning a single family home (and all the upkeep that entails)
Sending kids to college
Saving enough so we can have a (hopefully) financially secure retirement one day
Family vacations
Two cars
Making sure parents are taken care of

The American dream is that everyone can access a middle class lifestyle.

A home of your own in a middle class community -- could be town house, or condo, or single family home depending on the cost of living and the make up of the community you live in.

State college, maybe after 2 years of community college, probably living at home.

A modest retirement

One vacation a year, probably visiting grandparents, or maybe camping.

A car, shared between the parents

Parents living with you

That's the "American Dream", and yes people are having trouble accessing it in today's economy, but you are not. You are coveting a rich lifestyle, which even the people who believe in the American Dream recognize is not accessible to everyone.

Anonymous wrote:When you compare a middle-class lifestyle today to 50 or even 25 years ago, we eat out a lot more, have a lot more technology, have better car, travel a lot more, and have bigger houses.

See e.g., The 90s Weren't that Great: https://www.slowboring.com/p/the-90s-werent-that-great

If you travel more, have fancier cars and electronics and eat out a lot more, that’s not the same comparison.

Op has a very expensive idea of the American Dream.

Of course, you will need a million if you organized your life to need a million.

It’s up to you. You could spend less and retire earlier or spend a lot and work longer. Choice is yours.

Anonymous wrote:When you compare a middle-class lifestyle today to 50 or even 25 years ago, we eat out a lot more, have a lot more technology, have better car, travel a lot more, and have bigger houses.

See e.g., The 90s Weren't that Great: https://www.slowboring.com/p/the-90s-werent-that-great

When many of us state that, we get called "boomers" (despite not being a boomer at all)

Yes things cost more now. But yes, also, we now (majority of people) spend way more on things that either didn't exist 30+ years ago or simply was not done much then. Growing up, we had one rotary dial phone in our house (my parents were too cheap/too poor to have a touch tone and pay extra), we got to eat out 1-3 times per month. And "eating out" was often simply takeout pizza for the family. There was no getting coffee, lunch out at work, ubereats or takeout. My parents took lunches to work and any drinks they wanted went with them in a thermos. I had to take my own lunch for school or use my bday/xmas/allowance/chore money to pay if I wanted to eat lunch at school.
We had one B&W TV (it was 1994 before my parents owned a Color TV). We had rabbit ears/antenna, no Cable, no streaming, etc.

My mom was a SAHM and the youngest kid was in 2nd grade before we had a 2nd car in the family. And we didn't live somewhere with public transport. It was we lived without a car or mom got up early and drove dad to work to have the car to run errands during the day. But you don't need to do that more than grocery shopping once per week, and you also then do your target type shopping if needed at same time, normally on Sat or Sunday after church.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We make a quarter of what you make. Probably less than that. We have everything on your list and live quite comfortably. We’re in the DC area with a kid in private school and another in college OOS.

What are you doing with all your money?

You must have bought your house 20 years ago for a fraction of the cost today and/or send your child to parochial school. This would not be possible for a family starting out today.

We bought the house 6 years ago.

It’s completely doable, and there are many of us living like this at this income level.

You don’t need 7 figures to feel comfortable and financially stable.

When you compare a middle-class lifestyle today to 50 or even 25 years ago, we eat out a lot more, have a lot more technology, have better car, travel a lot more, and have bigger houses.

See e.g., The 90s Weren't that Great: https://www.slowboring.com/p/the-90s-werent-that-great

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We recently made 7 figures, it's so much money. We're both immigrants too so no family money. We'll be able to retire in less than 10 years while maintaining our current lifestyle indefinitely, own a $2M house @ 6%, pay for daycare, travel extensively, fully funded a child's college fund in one year (5 years of gifts from both parents). You definitely don't need this kind of money to achieve the American dream. With this money you can have the American dream and retire in 20 years.

Say what now?

I know! Is OP AI generated.or what?

My parents were non immigrants and didn't have family money, which meant that my grandparents donated zero to my college education.

Anonymous wrote:We recently made 7 figures, it's so much money. We're both immigrants too so no family money. We'll be able to retire in less than 10 years while maintaining our current lifestyle indefinitely, own a $2M house @ 6%, pay for daycare, travel extensively, fully funded a child's college fund in one year (5 years of gifts from both parents). You definitely don't need this kind of money to achieve the American dream. With this money you can have the American dream and retire in 20 years.

Say what now?

Is there a question in your post or is this post all rhetorical, OP?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Newsflash: living in the United States suuuuuucks for 99.9% of people. The US is only good for the ultra rich.

Garbage healthcare unless rich
Garbage education unless rich
Garbage infrastructure
Garbage safety
Garbage housing affordability
Garbage childcare

It's honestly shocking how bad the US is now for the middle class and why so many people in the US roll over and take it because they let the millionaire and billionaire class tell them everything is fine.

Um...ever read any Megan McArdle articles on how the middle class lives in Europe and how small their houses are? How little outside help they can afford to pay for? Sure they get a lot of things from their taxes, but the average American who makes claims like you would be giving up many square feet and any housekeeping/lawn service they pay for to get it. Plus some other things. The European social safety net costs, and it costs the middle class there as well as the rich.

1000%!

Most europeans live in way smaller homes/row homes than US people expect. They eat most of their meals at home, walk to do most things or take the train. If they have a car (even if not in a large city), they have only 1, and walk/train/bus most places. They don't live in a 2000 sq ft home, it's closer to 900-1000---their laundry room is in their kitchen and it's a washing machine ONLY (they hang everything to dry), or if really lucky, it's a washer dryer combo. But really they minimize electricity usage, because it's 3-4times the cost we pay....they use fans in the summer heat, their gas is 4x what we pay (the prices are per liter, so about 4 L equal a gallon). They don't eat out alot---they actually cook most of their meals, etc.

By and large, life is still much better in the USA when you consider apples to apples.

Anonymous wrote:Somewhat recently making 7 figures, having started from humble roots. I am deeply grateful to feel secure financially, assuming I can keep my employment trajectory.

What's crazy is that it seems like you need to make this much around here to feel like you are set with the american dream:

Owning a single family home (and all the upkeep that entails)
Sending kids to college
Saving enough so we can have a (hopefully) financially secure retirement one day
Family vacations
Two cars
Making sure parents are taken care of

I think over time, we should be able to do all of the above relatively comfortably....but shouldn't most of the population? I feel we can only do all of this stuff because of a very high income. What does that say about the expected standard of living in America??

That's one area that most of us don't believe there is much of any responsibility. Perhaps because our own parents modeled this quite well for their own children (i.e., they saved and planned for their elderly years and didn't require any $$$s from their children).

I assume you will save enough to ensure your own kids don't need to "make sure parents are taken of".

PP, the tax bill is insane of course, but we can save well over 50% of our after tax income.