Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So many little things. The big one was when we started wanting to make sure we were enjoying our money vs just saving it. Dh went for his dream car and we paid cash easily. Just pulled it from checking. No big emergency could derail our lives. We need a 12k roof? Okay. New hvac? Sure- let’s get the energy efficient one, not necessarily the cheapest.

People who have a “dream car” are pathetic. Sorry.

Huh? How is a dream car any different than your ambitions? If that's what brings him joy, let him go for it. Please tell us what your 'non-pathetic' dreams are..

Crickets, of course.

Not anything as pathetic as a friggin' car. That's for sure.

Not as pathetic as your collection of porcelain cats. Cars and dogs are about the only thing worth caring about.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So many little things. The big one was when we started wanting to make sure we were enjoying our money vs just saving it. Dh went for his dream car and we paid cash easily. Just pulled it from checking. No big emergency could derail our lives. We need a 12k roof? Okay. New hvac? Sure- let’s get the energy efficient one, not necessarily the cheapest.

People who have a “dream car” are pathetic. Sorry.

Huh? How is a dream car any different than your ambitions? If that's what brings him joy, let him go for it. Please tell us what your 'non-pathetic' dreams are..

Crickets, of course.

Not anything as pathetic as a friggin' car. That's for sure.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think for me it happened when we crossed above 5 mil in net worth. I remember eating a meal for 200 dollars for the four of us and not caring. That was a clear "before/after" event. I understand that there are many experience-focused people for whom a $50/person meal is perfectly normal even with far less net worth. This was just an example, I am sure everyone has their own examples.

Everyone is different OP. We are over 5mil and still don't feel like this PP.

We are way under that an feel like that, PP. Our net worth is about 1.5mil and I’d have no problem dropping $500 on dinner. But we don’t usually spend much and don’t have expensive tastes. Once I paid off my school loans I felt like I had plenty.

Maybe one explains the other.

Yes. The fact that they have 1.5M net worth explains they can afford a fancy dinner.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So many little things. The big one was when we started wanting to make sure we were enjoying our money vs just saving it. Dh went for his dream car and we paid cash easily. Just pulled it from checking. No big emergency could derail our lives. We need a 12k roof? Okay. New hvac? Sure- let’s get the energy efficient one, not necessarily the cheapest.

People who have a “dream car” are pathetic. Sorry.

I’d guess more people have dream cars than think having a dream car is pathetic. I have two dream cars.

Anonymous wrote:Is it smart to have $150k in your checking account? Shouldn't it at least be in a money market account or something?

I assume if someone has that much money in a checking account that’s basically their monthly pay. They must have tens of millions. No normal upper middle class person would keep more than a month or two expenses in a simple checking account.

Once we had 5 million

This happened for me in the last year or so, around 2M NW. Rare expensive meals with friends used to stress me out even though I knew we could afford it, now just a little for like a minute. Also any expense under 1k doesn’t really bother me anymore, they used to stress me and I would do so much research to save a few bucks. Now I just pay, don’t even bother with multiple estimates on most of those anymore.

One of mine was not sweating spending $80 on a nice meal for two while out with friends. A long time ago, I felt the realization while spending 500 on an iPad.

The old and careful ways with money are still there, though.

Around $20M but even more so around $30M.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So many little things. The big one was when we started wanting to make sure we were enjoying our money vs just saving it. Dh went for his dream car and we paid cash easily. Just pulled it from checking. No big emergency could derail our lives. We need a 12k roof? Okay. New hvac? Sure- let’s get the energy efficient one, not necessarily the cheapest.

People who have a “dream car” are pathetic. Sorry.

Huh? How is a dream car any different than your ambitions? If that's what brings him joy, let him go for it. Please tell us what your 'non-pathetic' dreams are..

Crickets, of course.

I first thought “wow we have money!” When our net worth crossed $1m. Now we are approaching $1m in investments (retirement and brokerage, not counting 529). I still track what we spend but no longer allocate x amount of money for x category. We mostly buy what we want and travel several times a year. We still give pause before large purchases.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you including retirement funds in net worth?

Yes for 401k/TSP but pension is a bit tricky - no easy way to calculate $ value of pension. I think some people do and some don't include in NW estimate.

Calculating fed pension value isn't that hard. Below is taken from another site:

This is how I calculated it. I think the term is present value of future benefits. Feedback is welcome.

The gov basically wants you to take your pension starting at age 62. Let’s say you’re a fed for 20 years by the time you hit 62 (either immediate or deferred retirement).

And let’s assume your high 3 average is $200k (this is obviously for high GS/SL/SES).

That’ll give you about $44k/year in pension income, more or less.

Now, let’s assume you live another 25 years after that. Your question is basically “How much money would you need to give you $44k/year for 25 years?” In other words, what kind of investment do you need to have at retirement in order to match what the pension will give you?

Using a retirement calculator (google “how long will my retirement fund last”), you’d need about $950k.

So now you calculate what you need to save monthly for the next 20 years in order to accumulate $950k. At a 5% rate of return, I need to save $2300/month (after tax).

Now, if you’re a recent hire, you are contributing 4.4% of your pre-tax salary to the pension – about $7k/year (again, assuming DC-local GS-15), or probably something like $4k after taxes you’ll be missing.

So the delta in after-tax savings between pension and non-pension is about $23,600. And $23,600 after taxes equals probably about $35,000 in salary per year in today’s dollars.

So, a lot of variables you’ll need to fill out for yourself. At what age will be begin to draw a pension, how many years of service will you have, what will be your high 3, and what’s your pension contribution rate? Let alone rate of return and how long you’ll live after you retire. And this doesn’t factor for surviving spouse.

But if you follow this logic, you should be able to get a rough estimate on how much salary you’d need to make up for the value of a pension.

I am older and have a high net worth through a combination of 401K, real estate investments, and a relatively small taxable account.

I have always lived well below my means, even at a low income level, and have always had enough money saved to take care of emergencies without panic. I don't shop higher than Safeway and have never stopped looking at price per unit in the grocery store. We drive used cars and very seldom eat out or travel.

Things have changed, however, as I am now supporting an adult child in another state who has developed significant health problems, with a fair amount of medications etc. not covered by insurance. I feel stressed every month when the credit card bill is due; after paying in full, there is so little left and my once healthy emergency fund has dwindled into a mere ghost of its former self.

I am old enough to withdraw from my 401K without penalty, so that has become my emergency fund. I have a colleague in the same position due to adult child medical problems. The first and, thank goodness so far only, time I had to withdraw I consulted with him on how he handled the tax aspect.

Here we go again...answer $10k to $10m. Satisfied Op?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So many little things. The big one was when we started wanting to make sure we were enjoying our money vs just saving it. Dh went for his dream car and we paid cash easily. Just pulled it from checking. No big emergency could derail our lives. We need a 12k roof? Okay. New hvac? Sure- let’s get the energy efficient one, not necessarily the cheapest.

People who have a “dream car” are pathetic. Sorry.

PP here to clarify- he was going to get a cheaper car because he didn't think he should get the car he wanted. I told him why not? And no, it's not a muscle car, but it is a fun car. Sorry you weren't interested in any car you ever bought. I only have an Odyssey, but I love everything about it. It's definitely my dream car.

You don't have to defend yourself against people like the obnoxious PP, just ignore them. My wife also encouraged me to buy my dream car back in 2006 - this was roughly at the time that we had that $200 meal for four whereby I realized I didn't care about it anymore. Since then she has indulged me many more times on my automotive proclivity for fancy/fast cars. We also have an Odyssey as a family van. Enjoy your day!