Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some crazy lifestyles here. 30-50k a month is insane.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey shows that families spend about 25% of pre-tax income on housing. Suppose housing costs around 6% of value. Then your family income would be around 24% of house value. If you make a good income, then you want to live in a nice neighborhood with good schools for your kids. The DCUM Real Estate subforum has endless threads about houses in McLean, Great Falls, Potomac, and Chevy Chase costing $2MM or more. That buys a "nice" house in the best neighborhoods, but not a McMansion. A $2MM house requires a $480K pre-tax income to be comfortable and not "house poor". That is a pre-tax income of $40K per month and paycheck of $24K per month. But the mortgage payment is $10K. The remaining $14K per month covers cars, food, college and retirement savings, and vacations.

Posters with children pay for nannies, schools, camps, and college. I haven't even added a second home or anything exotic. Go to Realtor.com and look for areas with houses above $2MM near good public schools. That is where families make "insane" money while living pretty modest lifestyles.

NP. Yeah, it's their money and they can do what they want with it. But to most people with above average incomes (not insane money) think it's ridiculous because you can have a lifestyle that is a minor downgrade on less than half the spending (30-50k) referenced by the pp. I know mid level feds, teachers, cops, etc., who can pull it off. You just have to live a little further out and not be wasteful with your spending.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looks like a lot of ballers on dcum will be retiring awfully late in life due to ridiculous spending habits.

Why do you assume that? I’m not going to retire at 5 million, but I had that a decade ago. I’ll retire in my mid 50s with 40 million or so. Seems like a good fit for me.

Based on comments on this thread. Good for you, but it would be extremely rare for someone to increase their net worth by 8X in 10 years.

Depends on your current debt and spending habits.

Anonymous wrote:Some crazy lifestyles here. 30-50k a month is insane.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey shows that families spend about 25% of pre-tax income on housing. Suppose housing costs around 6% of value. Then your family income would be around 24% of house value. If you make a good income, then you want to live in a nice neighborhood with good schools for your kids. The DCUM Real Estate subforum has endless threads about houses in McLean, Great Falls, Potomac, and Chevy Chase costing $2MM or more. That buys a "nice" house in the best neighborhoods, but not a McMansion. A $2MM house requires a $480K pre-tax income to be comfortable and not "house poor". That is a pre-tax income of $40K per month and paycheck of $24K per month. But the mortgage payment is $10K. The remaining $14K per month covers cars, food, college and retirement savings, and vacations.

Posters with children pay for nannies, schools, camps, and college. I haven't even added a second home or anything exotic. Go to Realtor.com and look for areas with houses above $2MM near good public schools. That is where families make "insane" money while living pretty modest lifestyles.

Anonymous wrote:Looks like a lot of ballers on dcum will be retiring awfully late in life due to ridiculous spending habits.

Why do you assume that? I’m not going to retire at 5 million, but I had that a decade ago. I’ll retire in my mid 50s with 40 million or so. Seems like a good fit for me.

Regardless of age, having young, dependent school-age kids at home limits what you can do in retirement. You might as well keep working. Once you've enough money, you can set boundaries and start working on your terms, and it stops feeling like drudgery.

Looks like a lot of ballers on dcum will be retiring awfully late in life due to ridiculous spending habits.

Anonymous wrote:Some crazy lifestyles here. 30-50k a month is insane. Did you guys grow up rich and this is “normal” to you, or did your lifestyle inflate the more you earned?

I did not grow up like that, quite frugal parents actually who never bought new cars, didn't vacation or update the house. They still don't. I didn't like living like that so I don't.

Because $10k a month wouldn't pay my credit card bill off each month, forget about mortgage, cars, insurance, food, clothing, etc.

Anonymous wrote:The average family — even in DC— did not finish having kids at 46/43

true. that's when we started!

Few people are having kids at 46. That is the exception, not the rule.

The average family — even in DC— did not finish having kids at 46/43

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids are in school and play sports, so it's not like I could use the free time to travel. Also, I like to pay for a regular housekeeper and part-time chef (who makes meals for us weekly), and I'm not sure I could justify those if I retired. Knowing I have enough to retire is nice because I say no more often when things come up at work that I don't want to do. And I know I won't lose my job because I'm still profitable, but if I do, so what.

I agree. I was out of work in Covid for almost a year. There was just me getting in the way. Three kids at home, a dog, SAH wife all had routines last 25 years and did not need me around or have time for me.

if last kid out of house and wife home and we could do stuff sure. But today the average 58 year old man with a 55 year old wife may have a 12, 16 and 18 years old and 12 years of college to pay for still and a busy house. This is not your Dad's 58.

.

This is pretty savvy. 58 now is like what 48 was for our parents. For our kids their 58 will be like our 40.

Anonymous wrote:My kids are in school and play sports, so it's not like I could use the free time to travel. Also, I like to pay for a regular housekeeper and part-time chef (who makes meals for us weekly), and I'm not sure I could justify those if I retired. Knowing I have enough to retire is nice because I say no more often when things come up at work that I don't want to do. And I know I won't lose my job because I'm still profitable, but if I do, so what.

I agree. I was out of work in Covid for almost a year. There was just me getting in the way. Three kids at home, a dog, SAH wife all had routines last 25 years and did not need me around or have time for me.

if last kid out of house and wife home and we could do stuff sure. But today the average 58 year old man with a 55 year old wife may have a 12, 16 and 18 years old and 12 years of college to pay for still and a busy house. This is not your Dad's 58.

I could have retired at 51 with way more than $5m but none of my friends were retired and I didn’t want to hang around with guys 10-20 years older. I kept working because I enjoyed it and I was very well paid. Then at 60 the work was tiring and the business travel was miserable so I retired. I more than doubled my net worth over that time period. If you enjoy work keep doing it and continue to build your NW. When you don’t enjoy the work, retire.