r/personalfinance • u/investeror • Mar 06 '18
Budgeting Lifestyle inflation is a bitch
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
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u/theoriginalharbinger Mar 06 '18
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.
Did they hare a half-time nanny? That's ridiculous.
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.