If you have much more income than what you would normally spend, you can go for fancy vacations, live in a McMansion and drive the latest model of supercar, or you can save a good chunk of your salary, while still living comfortably, and retire early. I did the latter and retired at 50. Best decision ever.
I never made $300K/year while working, but I always had my eye on how much I needed to save to be able to do "basically whatever we want," forever. So I would suggest to young people to focus less on annual income and more on your life trajectory. Is your income stable? When do you want to retire? Then save and spend accordingly, hopefully with the luxury of an abundance mindset and generosity with others.
By the time I semi-retired in my early 50s, I could count on $300K/year of passive income from conservative investments.
Assume you live somewhere that is NOT super expensive (SF, NYC, San Diego, etc). Is an annual income of $300,000 (as an individual) enough to do basically whatever you want, within reason? Seems like it would be. I currently make around $100,000 and feel like I live very comfortably, though I feel like I wouldn't be able to pay for big family vacations abroad each year and stuff like that. I'm single, so it's a moot point right now, but I'm thinking about the future, goals, etc, and $300k/year seems like it would be enough to do just about anything a normal person would want to do.
Anyone here have experience with this kind of income?
Yes. If I understand your question. You can mostly not worry about how much your car costs, vacations are not an issue, you certainly dont have to worry about stuff like packing your lunch and shopping around for a phone carrier to save 20$ a month.
But, no 300k nowadays will not buy you a second home/cottage + a boat while having 2 kids with richer taste than you at their age. Having kids knocks that 300K (150K take home) down to about 100K take home. It disappears fast. Your kids are "rich", you still go to work 50+ hours a week and come home, work out and as Jackson Brown said, do it again.
I bring in closer to 400 than 300 but it wasn't long ago I was at 300. Married with 2 kids, spouse works part time for fun earning ~15k. I do pack a lunch to work most days mostly to save time (time is more valuable than money to me these days). I work under 40 hours/week on average (though some weeks are 50+). We are comfortable but not exactly rich. Many vacations (2025: Europe, NYC, Florida 4x, Texas, Midwest 2x, a beach trip, a ski trip, and many trips to our vacation home). Only debt is mortgage on primary residence and a small mortgage on our vacation home. We drive used cars and have not had auto loans in the last 20 years (I'm in my mid 40s). Live in a medium cost of living suburb of a major city with phenomenal public schools. Net worth roughly $2M (started late due to the nature of my work). Yes, my kids have waaaay richer taste than I did at their ages.
So to answer the question, sure, I think we do just about anything a normal person would want to do. It's not as if money is no object, but we have everything we need and more.
The household income of my spouse and I is around $1 million. We're in our early 30s and live in the bay area, so it's not very cheap. We've been diligent about saving because we're planning to try for kids this year, I imagine our expenses will go up a lot with kids. Any suggestions on what we can do / buy to make having kids easier?
The household income of my spouse and I is around $1 million. We're in our early 30s and live in the bay area, so it's not very cheap. We've been diligent about saving because we're planning to try for kids this year, I imagine our expenses will go up a lot with kids. Any suggestions on what we can do / buy to make having kids easier?
Spend the 75-100k/yr to get a nanny, someone who they will grow up with like family. Before school starts it is far better than daycare. My kids left the house for a park or museum or library every day. After ~13 years now she picks them up from school and usually makes dinner so both of us can work. I still do all the sports stuff but don't have to worry when there are schedule overlaps.
The household income of my spouse and I is around $1 million. We're in our early 30s and live in the bay area, so it's not very cheap. We've been diligent about saving because we're planning to try for kids this year, I imagine our expenses will go up a lot with kids. Any suggestions on what we can do / buy to make having kids easier?
Spend the 75-100k/yr to get a nanny, someone who they will grow up with like family. Before school starts it is far better than daycare. My kids left the house for a park or museum or library every day. After ~13 years now she picks them up from school and usually makes dinner so both of us can work. I still do all the sports stuff but don't have to worry when there are schedule overlaps.
Spend the 75-100k/yr to get a nanny, someone who they will grow up with like family. Before school starts it is far better than daycare. My kids left the house for a park or museum or library every day. After ~13 years now she picks them up from school and usually makes dinner so both of us can work. I still do all the sports stuff but don't have to worry when there are schedule overlaps.
Nannies also make great side pieces.
Second this. If you’re not banging the help, you’re doing it wrong.
The thing about focusing on income is that the money stops coming in immediately if you stop working. So people might have a few good years making money at that level but if they stop working then it’s all gone.
So to me the goal for financial freedom is to build a very strong passive money machine via passive index funds. Somebody that makes less but invests a much higher percentage of their income (I’ve invested 70-80% for a decade now) will ultimately be the one who is much more financially free than the one who happens to have a higher paycheck at this particular moment in time.
Tony Robbins’ MONEY book talks about the different levels of financial freedom, all of which are dependent on passive investment income, and it goes from 1) basic needs are met, 2) that plus some typical daily desires, 3) all basic needs and standard desires, 4) those plus some luxuries, 5) those and any and all luxuries. None of those levels can be taken for granted if you pay for them strictly from a paycheck—no matter how large that paycheck is—so you’re not really financially free.
Household income is $250,000 off of jobs. Also make between $5,000 and $50,000 on average playing poker. It is within reason however, expensive hobbies can have you spending more than you should. After bills we have roughly $12,000 after bills and can easily go through it if we are not paying attention.
If you are single in a LCOLA or MCOLA, yes 300K is rich. If you have 3 kids and 300K is combined income with your spouse (so you need childcare) and live in a HCOLA, it's barely upper middle class. You're going to have a hard time affording a house in a good school district and you're going to be shopping at Safeway and flying coach and not eating out very often. We make more than that and are very careful with our budget.
Yearly income is a little under over or over $1M every year. My job guarantees this for the rest of my career. I have everything I want but it is not ludicrous wealth and it is not entirely easy. Wife does not work. Kids are in private school and love every second of their day. Nice house but not a mansion. Reasonable cars. Country club. Nice vacations. That said, we still have months where all that makes the margins feel slim. We scale back at times with a little stress, other times we feel invincible. But I would have thought this level of income would be entirely care-free and it is not. However, I have consciously made a decision to enjoy life. Don't wait until later to start living, but don't be stupid along the way. I'm entirely happy, but it's not "whatever you want".