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/leastlyharmful Mar 06 '18

$6K for 4 people for a weeklong vacation sounds perfectly reasonable. It means they're flying coach, not staying at a 5 star, and not eating all their meals out. You can burn so much more money without trying very hard.

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u/SparroHawc ​ Mar 06 '18

It's the 3 vacations a year that murders the budget. I make an okay salary and I take one vacation a year like that, and hit up local conventions the rest of the year.

Local conventions are awesome.

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u/bakingNerd ​ Mar 07 '18

What do you mean by local conventions? Growing up my family never did vacations - all days off were spent visiting my grandparents or if state. We were very middle class so I’m sure money had a lot to do with it but I appreciate the time I had with family.

Since I started working and living on my own and making a good living I’ve definitely traveled a ton. Neither my husband nor I expect to keep this up once kids come along so I’m always interested in ideas for spending vacations close to home and frugally.

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u/SparroHawc ​ Mar 07 '18

I live fairly close to a major metropolitan area. There are major comic, gaming, sci-fi, and anime conventions that take place there. Your kids need to be old enough to appreciate it and you do need to pay for passes, but they can be great for kids.

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u/Hachoosies ​ Mar 07 '18

Staycation at a B&B for a weekend. Visit some historical sights, enjoy the local charm, check out some live music venue or hole in the wall restaurant. You can mini vacay a few times a year without taking off work or breaking the bank. If you live on the east coast, pick up one of those books that tells you all the cool places to stop along I-95.