I have spending habits that will probably make a good chunk of HN feel a little sick. I offer as a counterweight to all the frugality that inevitably accrues in these sorts of threads. Sorry, Financial Independence, Retire Early folks. Read at your own risk. Judge if you will.
Income is $450k / yr, engineer, 39 years old, no kids and no plans to have them. I have a chronic illness and retirement seems a distant and not very pleasant prospect. I like working and like to enjoy life.
* $5k / month on rent. (Nice apartment in a high cost of living city).
* At least $7k month goes into savings (I’m not totally financially irresponsible!)
* One pretty ordinary car, expect to drive it for 10 yrs, usual costs.
* $5k / month average on travel. My biggest luxury. I fly international business class sometimes but only when it’s “cheap”.
* $2k / month on groceries, wine, dining out. I enjoy fine dining.
* $3k / month on clothes and accessories. I’m a woman and I have a weakness for nice things, worst of all for designer bags. Yes I know it’s frivolous but the marginal utility is there for me.
* $1k / month on a personal trainer. Could I have the same level of fitness without it? In theory yes, in practice no.
The thing I wish I had more of is time, not in the sense of “retire and don’t work” but in the sense of “it would be nice to take a slight pay cut and work only 9 months of the year and travel more and spend the rest of the time reading, studying math again, and doing interesting projects.” Unfortunately that option isn’t really open to me, outside of consulting which I have no appetite for.
I didn’t get into engineering for the money, but out of love. I’d have done it anyway. But the money is nice, for sure. I save some and don’t feel the need to be unnecessarily frugal with the rest. I know I’m incredibly fortunate. Your mileage may vary, and especially if you have kids. Make your own choices according to your values.
One hand, I used my time at BigTech starting at 46 to pay off debt, decontent my life, move to a tax free state (worked remotely) and be in a position where I didn’t need the stress of having to chase BigTech income and to put it on my resume. I had a game plan going in to only stay for the four year initial offer.
My wife and I are both short so business class is not a big deal for us. But we do spend $2000 a year for lounge access to airport lounges via 2 credit cards and we are both Platinum Medallion on Delta which gives us automatic C+ regional upgrades.
But I just can’t care enough about First class flights. I’ll take regional free upgrades but that’s about it. While we travel a lot domestically as a hobby post Covud and post kids. We don’t look forward to long international flights and are doing our first 10 hour+ non stop flight in a couple of weeks and we aren’t looking forward to being in a metal tube that long.
We are at most going to do two or three long flights a year.
As far as the personal trainer, my commitment device use to be teaching fitness classes as a hobby and running races with friends. Then it was having a home gym with cardio equipment and a big screen TV on the wall.
Now at 50 it’s I never want to be tired running through the airport with a 50 pound book bag on my back and walking around a city when I travel. I bought my current condo purposefully to be right above the gym.
But as far retirement? It scares me more than I look forward to it. With my working remotely, work is not the gating factor for anything in my life.
But on the other hand, while my wife travels a lot domestically by herself, I don’t think she would ever want to fly economy as a single woman internationally. I get it.
No one would ever call us frugal when it comes to travel, lounge access, month long stays in different cities. But I’m very frugal when it comes to fixed expenses.
Income is $450k / yr, engineer, 39 years old, no kids and no plans to have them. I have a chronic illness and retirement seems a distant and not very pleasant prospect. I like working and like to enjoy life.
* $5k / month on rent. (Nice apartment in a high cost of living city).
* At least $7k month goes into savings (I’m not totally financially irresponsible!)
* One pretty ordinary car, expect to drive it for 10 yrs, usual costs.
* $5k / month average on travel. My biggest luxury. I fly international business class sometimes but only when it’s “cheap”.
* $2k / month on groceries, wine, dining out. I enjoy fine dining.
* $3k / month on clothes and accessories. I’m a woman and I have a weakness for nice things, worst of all for designer bags. Yes I know it’s frivolous but the marginal utility is there for me.
* $1k / month on a personal trainer. Could I have the same level of fitness without it? In theory yes, in practice no.
The thing I wish I had more of is time, not in the sense of “retire and don’t work” but in the sense of “it would be nice to take a slight pay cut and work only 9 months of the year and travel more and spend the rest of the time reading, studying math again, and doing interesting projects.” Unfortunately that option isn’t really open to me, outside of consulting which I have no appetite for.
I didn’t get into engineering for the money, but out of love. I’d have done it anyway. But the money is nice, for sure. I save some and don’t feel the need to be unnecessarily frugal with the rest. I know I’m incredibly fortunate. Your mileage may vary, and especially if you have kids. Make your own choices according to your values.