slice the "3 vacations a year" down to 2, stop donating to your alma mater, and bang —> your savings are already up to $20K a year. now, with your 401K, you're saving $56K a year in total, which is...uh, better than a lot of people, especially if you invest it.

@lxeagle17 can we talk about spending >2000 per person per year on clothes

@upzone_CA I don't think I've spent 2000 total in clothes since I graduated years ago

@lxeagle17 I see it as you can make $500K a year, but it really doesn’t go that far when you have 2 kids, decent tastes, and live in a high COL area. Life is still going to be stressful and you still have to choose between living life now or retiring early — need another $150-200K for both

@JDubwub Even going with that angle, who asked them to do things like donate to their college alumni foundation? If you take that off and save an extra ~10K a year, you're saving 17K a year *after* your 401K. If they invest properly, they'd have ~2M in retirement funds before turning 60.

@lxeagle17 People take 3 vacations a year? I’m lucky if I get one every 3-5 years.

@lxeagle17 The point is that making 500k used to be considered rich. Now they’re just upper middle class.

@lxeagle17 Hey let’s abolish the income tax. I just increased their take home by $185,000. Problem solved. Awesome

@lxeagle17 The “childcare” expense is wild. They must have a nanny that works 30+ hours a week.

@lxeagle17 They spent $9.5k on clothes! I get that kids are growing, but it still feels like a lot. "Fancy" means different things to different people. Based on their lifestyle, they could easily be talking about J Crew/Macys prices. Not designer, but far from cheap. Also quantity?

@lxeagle17 They’re living what they perceive to be middle class. It’s not an extravagant life by American standards.

@lxeagle17 NO one making 500k a year is donating 18k to their Alma Mater. That money is being used to buy a 2M house vs. 1.5M / better vacations or furnishings the house.

@lxeagle17 Donating a max 401k contribution and getting mad about it

@lxeagle17 They still have $7,300 a year left over.

@lxeagle17 Help me budget this my family is mildly inconvinenced

@lxeagle17 It's also just so funny, you live in a $1.5 million house, you're not average. And how do you even spend $9500/yr on clothes without anything fancy? $10k misc? That's 20% of the median workers pay. It's good bait.

@lxeagle17 1.5 million dollar house but you feel average???

@lxeagle17 I’m pretty sure there are a good number of working single moms that would be happy to teach them how to get childcare for less than $42k a year.

@lxeagle17 $10,000 "something always comes up"

@lxeagle17 To be clear, if you as an individual are contributing $18,000 to your 401k every year, you are not "living paycheck to paycheck." That phrase implies you are not building up savings.