Do you spend more than $100k a year?

[ponyo]

$100k is total expenses including mortgage, car payment, CC, insurance, travel, food, hobbies, etc. Everyone here talks about making over $100k a year. But do you spend more than $100k a year as well? Plenty of past threads here on yearly income but I don't remember conversation on yearly expenses. So let's hear your humble and not so humble brags!

 

[Zeze]

Yes, i have kids.

 

[repoman0]

Yes, I don’t have kids.

(Yet)

 

[ponyo]

Yes for me but it's not the norm. I have large one time expenses like $50k for my mom's dental expense and $20k for my daughter's college this year which adds $70k to my yearly spend this year. Next couple years, I'll probably have to spend extra $20-30k a year for my daughter's college so I might be borderline with $100k depending on my food/travel expenses. Normal years, I'm under the $100k spend threshold. But I don't have any debt. I own my house, cars, and everything free and clear and have for many years. All my expenses are normal living expenses like utility, food, travel, insurance, hobbies, etc. Big part is discretionary, and I can cut back if needed.

Remember, pretax $100k income doesn't equal $100k aftertax. You might make $100k but after tax is like $72k. Meanwhile, $100k expense is aftertax so if you spend $100k while making only $100k, you'll be negative in the hole and in debt of about $28k a year. In order to spend $100k aftertax money, you need to make around $150k pretax. That equals about $100k aftertax in most states.

 

[Red Squirrel]

3rd option for me. I make 80k which is actually a lot for here, and that's before taxes and other deductions, so it's maybe around 36k going into the bank give or take (average pay is around $1500 but they can vary as I work shifts). Once all bills are paid there is not much left over.

I actually had to reduce my mortgage payment recently just to have a bit more breathing room as costs of living keep going up. Was paying 650 biweekly but brought it down to $400. Trying to pay off my credit line from when I bought my truck. I had it down to 8k but back to 10k now. Ended up hiring a job I was too lazy to do myself. Removing a ton of tree branches and grinding like 40 or so stumps. I did save money by cutting all the trees myself, so there's that.

As far as actually spending money and not accounting for costs of living, I probably spend well under 10k per year tbh.

I used to spend a bit more back when I first moved into my house, building servers/computers etc and just doing home projects and stuff, but that's greatly slowed down.

 

[IronWing]

Not since Highland cut me off from the golden spigot.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

Yes for me but it's not the norm. I have large one time expenses like $50k for my mom's dental expense and $20k for my daughter's college this year which adds $70k to my yearly spend this year. Next couple years, I'll probably have to spend extra $20-30k a year for my daughter's college so I might be borderline with $100k depending on my food/travel expenses. Normal years, I'm under the $100k spend threshold. But I don't have any debt. I own my house, cars, and everything free and clear and have for many years. All my expenses are normal living expenses like utility, food, travel, insurance, hobbies, etc. Big part is discretionary, and I can cut back if needed.

Remember, pretax $100k income doesn't equal $100k aftertax. You might make $100k but after tax is like $72k. Meanwhile, $100k expense is aftertax so if you spend $100k while making only $100k, you'll be negative in the hole and in debt of about $28k a year. In order to spend $100k aftertax money, you need to make around $150k pretax. That equals about $100k aftertax in most states.

Still gotta be more specific. Mortgage payments + car payments - aside from the interest + property taxes - are essentially the accounting equivalent of moving dollars from one account to another. Thus things like overpaying on your mortgage you could classify as an "expense" - but really it's just just transferring cash from one account to another. If I pay an extra $1,000 in principle I "lost" $1000 in cash, but gained $1,000 in net worth.


Anyhow, took a look back,
2018 - $126k
2019 - $134k
2020 - $112k
2021 already poised to easily hit $100k due to big money into home improvements (New ACs)


Also, obvious advantage to married folks since most are probably on 2-income households.

 

[biostud]

Last year I spend around $55k in total. But lots of what you US citizen are paying for is paid through taxes, of which I paid $31k, so a total of $86k. I live in a house with my wife and three children, who are all in daycare.

 

[nOOky]

I don't, I don't make 100k a year. I won't say what I make, but the wife makes about 4 times what I do. Personally we don't spend anywhere near 100k a year combined on non-business expenses. The business is another story.

 

[Torn Mind]

I can't even spend a tenth of that....

 

[Captante]

Everyone here talks about making over $100k a year.

Of course talking points and cold hard reality are often two very different things!

 

[brianmanahan]

i've never managed to spend more than 40$k

 

[sdifox]

Pretty sure I have posted this before Lol. This doesn't include regular stuff like household bills, mortgage and daycare stuff.

 

[njdevilsfan87]

Our base monthly expenses are around $8K/month. Half of that is housing alone related, so some of it does come back in tax deductions. But if I didn't put 50% down on our home last year, we'd be over $10K/month. My older brother is at $14k/month (also bought a home last year) with his 2-child family, and they are by no means living large down in San Diego.

 

[Toastedlightly]

Our expenses are roughly 10k a month, so ~120k/yr. This includes everything (housing (3k), daycare (3k), food/fun/hobbies (1.5k), college savings, vacation savings, food, etc.).

 

[highland145]

Not since Highland cut me off from the golden spigot.

Every now and again, you do need to give the tap a rest.

 

[purbeast0]

I probably do. I don't see an easy way with Capital One to get an annual report though.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Yes. You're right....taxes can really cut into available cash to spend.

We spend over $100k easy, but we'll be able to shrink that once we get the house paid off. Anything we spend starting next year will be taxes + food + living expenses. It's gonna be fun having access to more of the money we bring home instead of seeing so much of it go out the window.

 

[Ajay]

No, not even when the Mrs and I took home $100K/yr (excluding savings and investments).

 

[Captante]

I believe we need a more precise definition of "spend" for ATOT bragging rights/purposes!




I was thinking about purely discretionary spending beyond living indoors and eating on a regular basis. (for me at least this would also include all vehicle-related costs for a primary auto/truck)


EDIT: And fully on-topic, when I was married and owned a house the mortgage alone was in the area of $140k per year. These days I spend far less and even back then spent nowhere near 100k on just "fun" stuff.

 

[Ajay]

I believe we need a more precise definition of "spend" for ATOT bragging rights/purposes!




I was thinking about purely discretionary spending beyond living indoors and eating on a regular basis. (for me at least this would also include all vehicle-related costs for a primary auto/truck)

Well in that case, skip the primary vehicle, we all have those. Let's out those cruising around in Bugatti Veyron or Porsche 911 Turbo S, etc.

 

[ponyo]

Our expenses are roughly 10k a month, so ~120k/yr. This includes everything (housing (3k), daycare (3k), food/fun/hobbies (1.5k), college savings, vacation savings, food, etc.).

You can't include college savings, vacation savings, and investment contributions like 401k and IRA. Those are savings and not spending. We're talking about expenses.

 

[purbeast0]

You can't include college savings, vacation savings, and investment contributions like 401k and IRA. Those are savings and not spending. We're talking about expenses.

I'd count vacations "savings" since you spend it that year on the vacation.

I do agree with the other points though.

 

[ponyo]

I believe we need a more precise definition of "spend" for ATOT bragging rights/purposes!




I was thinking about purely discretionary spending beyond living indoors and eating on a regular basis. (for me at least this would also include all vehicle-related costs for a primary auto/truck)


EDIT: And fully on-topic, when I was married and owned a house the mortgage alone was in the area of $140k per year. These days I spend far less and even back then spent nowhere near 100k on just "fun" stuff.

Not too many of us are madoka level here with $100k a year spending on Legos, guns, and cars. We're ATOT pleasant here.

 

[lxskllr]

No idea what I spend, but it's nowhere near $100k. I don't even make that. I'm pretty cheap. I almost have to force myself to spend money.