Is an annual income of $300,000 enough to do basically whatever you want, within reason?

"Quality of Life" is not the same as "Standard of living" or "cost of living".

depends on the state you live in.

Do u have kids?

Canadian so my ~300k is more like 220k USD. Additionally Taxes are higher so my marginal tax rate is 54% (and average rate is 37%).

Definitely don't feel like I can do everything and anything lol. For us it is enough that my wife doesn't have to work while the kids are young, we can max out tax sheltered accounts, pay a somewhat expensive mortgage, eat out when we want, and do 1-2 not-so-expensive vacations per year. It is enough that we don't think about money before spending it on things that are under $500. Running is my biggest hobby expense. Also we obviously save way more than the average person.

I think if I made 150k and my wife made 150k the story would be very different because of the tax savings.

tl;dr depends if you have dependents, and if you want to retire early.

Yes, as long as you don’t go cray cray with spending even less than that is plenty. Prenup if you do the marriage thing, I wouldn’t. $300,000 a year, heck $200,000 a year you can run thru just about anybody, at any age. Can’t be Fat. One more observation, $300,000 a year isn’t wealth. Rich AF, not wealthy.

Depends on how many dependents and your list of wants. I lived quite comfortably on $60k a year when I was single, as my list of wants was fairly small and I had a lot of low cost ways to do what I wanted. Now, with a wife and kids, it requires more, as they have different needs and wants.

In lower cost of living places but not in NYC, SF and other expensive CA towns/cities. $300K is poverty for living in Manhattan.

I know people who earn 450k in NYC who def don't feel like they can do whatever they want.

I assume that would be equivalent to 300k in some other states.

Elaborate on the tax savings part if you both made 150k? I'm not following you

Also, if you both worked you would have to pay for child care...

Seems weird that someone who complains about "the poors" all the time thinks 300k is rich af...

I hate these kind of false statements.

one income 300K is at a higher tax rate than two people filing separately at 150K. According to poster, the marginal tax rate in canada is 54% (combined is 37%). At 150K, the marginal is probably much lower. The combined tax rate is probably closer to 22% (just spit balling, no idea).

Thats a net income difference of $15,000. State sponsored child care (preschool or school), or hybrid work from home jobs, or family (grandparents) could eliminate child care costs.

I make $215k and my wife makes about $40k part time. We're barely scraping by. Feels like paycheck to paycheck at times.

I mean, couple things here. 1) You're at ~$220k USD, which is a lot less than $300k, 2) you have a higher tax rate than a person would in the US, and 3) you're essentially supporting several other people. Imagine if you were single, or your wife also made $85,000USD per year or more. You'd probably be very comfortable and free. Sounds like you're already living fairly well if you're fine with your wife not working and you say you have an expensive mortgage. Good info though. Thanks.

We make 300k, but we save like 85k per year. the rest is plenty to live on without ever having to stress about money. our overhead is pretty low, no fancy stupid sh-t, we drive used cars, our house is about 1.2 million but only owe 65k. lived in the same house for 20 years.

You're pretty spot-on... I make right at $500,000/year in my field, this year hit $472k. I don't think about money. Just booked my winter break vacation for a family of 5 and only filtered by 5-star resorts. Issue is I spend my money on racing (I'm competitive at 50), shoes, my kids, and wine/food. My wife pretends to be the CFO, but frankly, I'm not worried as all our four cars are paid off and we are making over 8% interest year on more than half a mil.

Prove it

If you're 50 and you only have 500k and you want 500k in income when you retire you better start saving fast. You will need 9.5 million more. 500k makes you 25 k per year when you retire. I would quit the 5 star hotel spending. You should be saving 100k per year.

I’m at $427k this year and don’t think about money etc. I also don’t want $500k in income when I retire that makes zero sense. We are a family of five and as empty nesters we can have a great life at $100k income in retirement. Don’t let people scam you thinking you need $2-3m in nest egg that’s completely false and you’ll end up figuring out creative way to get rid of your money. Right now my three kids will have a phenomenal inheritance.

I travel the world with my wife to races and fine dining, but other than that don’t splurge on much. I just love training and racing as a C-Suite and working hard. If I cleared $1m next year my life would not change. My kids already have college paid via athletic scholarships so we feel we’ve hit the lottery in a way/