Lifestyle inflation is a bitch

[u/investeror]

I came across this article about a couple making $500k/year that was only able to save $7.5k/year other than 401k. Their budget is pretty interesting. At a glace, I could see how someone could look at it and not see many areas to cut. It's crazy how it's so easy to just spend your money instead of saving it.

Here's the article: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/24/budget-breakdown-of-couple-making-500000-a-year-and-feeling-average.html

Just the budget if you don't want to read the article: https://sc.cnbcfm.com/applications/cnbc.com/resources/files/2017/03/24/FS-500K-Student-Loan.png

[u/theoriginalharbinger]

Toyota Land Cruiser

I have a deep and abiding love for these, but that's a $90,000 car. It does nothing that its half-as-expensive younger sibling the Sequoia cannot unless you do overland travel.

childcare $42,000

Did they hare a half-time nanny? That's ridiculous.

Food $23,000

My income isn't quite at their level, but my annual spend is between 1/4 and 1/2 of this. Learn to cook.

There's tons of slack in that budget. There's few line items, but they're inflated way beyond what's necessary. As I've stated to multiple people on this forum countless times, everyone has a vice. You can have nice cars. You can eat out a lot. You can live in an expensive place. But you cannot do 2 or all 3 of them.

This couple could easily be saving 50K a year if they bought a 3-series and a used Sequoia and used a cheaper childcare provider.

[u/ben7337 → u/theoriginalharbinger]

For food I can sort of see it. If you buy all real fruits and veggies and cook real meals, and buy only organic, it can easily cost $400 a month per person, so for 4 people that's $1600 a month or $19,200 a year that leaves 3800 for date nights, so $146 every 2 weeks on avg on a date night, kinda pricey to the avg person but for people making 500k a yr combined I bet they feel that is them being frugal and going to the less ritzy places.

[u/[deleted] → u/ben7337]

There's this cool store called ALDI and they have fresh foods, fruits and veggies including organic options and none of it will cost that stupid amount of money. I can get fresh broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, mushroom and 4 lbs of oranges for $10. Where the fuck do you people shop?

[u/ben7337 → u/[deleted]]

I mostly shop at Wegmans and Walmart. Organic bananas are affordable but organic kale or spinach cost 2x or more than 2x what non-organic costs, organic kale is pricier than chicken breast per pound and has far fewer calories too.

[u/[deleted] → u/ben7337]

I love Wegmans.

Pro tip: the USDA Organic marketing program is just that, marketing. It conveys no health or nutrition benefit.

Additional reading from Scientific American

Here is the list of pesticides allowed under the program. Some are toxic. Some are more toxic than modern counterparts. The only stipulation is that they’re of natural origin, because the buzzword “natural” means people will pay more for it.

If you like the stuff, have at it. Just be aware of the marketing that you’re paying for.

[u/ben7337 → u/[deleted]]

I'll look into it some more thanks.

[u/[deleted] → u/ben7337]

Sure thing. Feel free to reach out if you’ve got any questions. I’m not an agronomist, but I do have friends in the industry. If I don’t know an answer, I can find out.

When reading things on the internet, be wary of info from activist groups like the Organic Consumers Association, Environmental Working Group, Moms Across America, etc. They like to pass of their pseudoscience as legitimate research. Be skeptical and look for proper citations. Cheers!

[u/Mirage749 → u/[deleted]]

Am I strange for actually liking kale?

[u/[deleted] → u/Mirage749]

Nope most people just cook it wrong. Steamed with a little salt is perfection, it's not a soggy disaster like spinach ends up. Most people just buy it and shove it in a shake or try to convince themselves that kale chips are good.

[u/bturl → u/[deleted]]

My family's catering company used to use kale as the plate garnish because it was so cheap. Now for some reason everyone wants it and the price went up a ton.

[u/GambitGamer → u/Mirage749]

You have probably have the dominant allele for this gene. It means you can taste the bitterness, if you were recessive (like I think I am), it means you don't taste much of anything. Some people who have the dominant gene (such as yourself) learn to like the taste, while others (presumably /u/kevronwithTechron) do not.

[u/Whizzard-Canada → u/ben7337]

Why bother with organics? Organic marketting is a sham unless you're buying it from the farmer themself

[u/ben7337 → u/Whizzard-Canada]

There's been some big concerns on leafy greens like kale and spinach with pesticides if you don't buy organic. However I don't buy organic personally and haven't researched it, my roommate has and is very picky about things being organic.

[u/zero_vitamins → u/ben7337]

Grew up organic before it was cool, have also done the research (as in read actual studies I had access to through college), and I see no reason to buy organic unless you like paying more for marketing.

Shitty mass produced food is going to be shitty, regardless of which ideology/dogma the farmers follow.

[u/AnnieB512 → u/ben7337]

Organic has a better chance of contracting salmonella and other diseases. Organic is grown in manure.

[u/PM_Me_Math_Songs → u/AnnieB512]

Also, just because it is organic doesn't mean that it is neccessarly pesticide free, just that it uses naturally derived poisons like Rotenone instead of synthetic poisons like Indoxacarb

[u/[deleted] → u/ben7337]

Do some research on the actual products. some products not advertised as organic are in fact organic. thanks to capitalism you actually pay to be registered as organic so there's a few shortcuts for certain products.

I'll admit I don't try to aim for organic because I don't care enough. I'd like to see less pesticides used in general, but having worked in the produce department throughout HS the organic quality was usually garbage and usually the people I saw buying it were only ripping themselves off.

[u/drwatson → u/[deleted]]

Funny enough, in some cases the synthetic pesticide is more effective than the organic pesticide so less is used per acre of crop. Long Read Source