Spending Analysis - Spending $500k and not feeling rich
First time contributor. I've been here a long time and am grateful for the discussion. I also want to start off by saying I know we're very fortunate and try to keep everything in perspective. Many of our friends and certainly our family do not have it as good as us so we're very, very fortunate.
I wanted to throw out a post about spending. I've seen people comment that $250k is "more than enough". Am I just delusional?
I just finished a very high level spend analysis for the past 12 months. Just wanted to show people how "easy" it is to spend mid six figures and not really even feel "rich". Some of the stuff below is "one time" or "temporary" but it seems like there's always another "one time" expense that pops up!
Why it's relevant to FF:
I think too many people here think spending $500k per year means you're flying private or maintaining multiple houses. I'm hoping to illustrate how money can go quick without the "upper class" feel. Or perhaps get perspective about my own spending from you all?
Some about us:
HH income around $3m last year
NW around $10m. This is excluding principal res but including remaining mortgage balance.
Couple in early 40s, 1 small child
MCOL city
We have one house, two cars
We do support three other family members (two parents and one aunt) via owning the homes they live in and paying for a lot of their expenses. I tried to separate that out below but it's hard to track exactly.
My very high level spending last 12 months:
- Country club: $35k
- Dining, trips, flights, yard, insurance (home/auto/etc), pretty much everything on credit card :$190k. This is obviously a big number and where I'm focusing to see if there's slack. I estimate about $75k of this is two international trips. Flew economy but stayed in nice hotels (FS, Ritz).
- Health costs: $10k
- Lawyers (will, etc): $10k
- Shopping other than on credit card: $10k
- Home repair/mortgage/prop tax/utilities: $160k
- Nanny $65k
- Family member support :$50k
Total around $530k. Obviously doesn't include any income taxes.
*Edited to clarify that my house/mortgage isn't $10m lol. My house is around $2 with morgage around $1.5m