Living on $280K a Year- Millennial Money.

[purbeast0]

I just spent like around $2k total the past few months for all of my SCUBA gear (including wetsuit, computer, carry-on luggage for all of it) and it's something I will use a handful of times a year only on vacation most likely.

It would probably take me like 30-40 days worth of diving to "break even" but that's not really all I'm concerned about. I'm going to know my gear intimately and won't have to rely on random stuff, and I will know how well it's been taken care of. And I customized the hell out of it too.

A lot of people would think that is dumb too lol.

 

[ultimatebob]

I just spent like around $2k total the past few months for all of my SCUBA gear (including wetsuit, computer, carry-on luggage for all of it) and it's something I will use a handful of times a year only on vacation most likely.

It would probably take me like 30-40 days worth of diving to "break even" but that's not really all I'm concerned about. I'm going to know my gear intimately and won't have to rely on random stuff, and I will know how well it's been taken care of. And I customized the hell out of it too.

A lot of people would think that is dumb too lol.

Well... I've heard that drowning isn't a good way to make income, unless you have a really good life insurance policy on you

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

I just spent like around $2k total the past few months for all of my SCUBA gear (including wetsuit, computer, carry-on luggage for all of it) and it's something I will use a handful of times a year only on vacation most likely.

It would probably take me like 30-40 days worth of diving to "break even" but that's not really all I'm concerned about. I'm going to know my gear intimately and won't have to rely on random stuff, and I will know how well it's been taken care of. And I customized the hell out of it too.

A lot of people would think that is dumb too lol.

Who cares? There's a difference between having a hobby and just spending money to spend money.

I would say it seems worth it, but damn that's gotta be a pain in the ass to haul all that gear when you fly?

 

[Red Squirrel]

Yeah I'd say spending on a hobby is fine since it's something you enjoy as long as you're still keeping some money to save etc and otherwise doing fine financially. Same goes with cars if you spend a lot on cars because it's a hobby it's different then just spending 30k+ on a brand new car just to get you to places when a 5k used could do the same thing. TBH if I buy land, one thing I do want to do is build a nice big shop and maybe start to work on cars. Going into a hobby not knowing what I'm really doing could actually be kinda fun. Give me that same feeling I got the first time I opened a computer, or the first time I reinstalled windows etc. I sometimes watch car youtube channels and it's cool to see people do engine swaps and stuff.

 

[purbeast0]

Who cares? There's a difference between having a hobby and just spending money to spend money.

I would say it seems worth it, but damn that's gotta be a pain in the ass to haul all that gear when you fly?

Other than my fins, everything fits into my rolling carry-on. Fins are too long and I've been packing them in my checked in luggage for a decade anyways.

 

[Red Squirrel]

You should just dress up in the gear and get on the plane that way! Flippers and all.

 

[snoopy7548]

You should just dress up in the gear and get on the plane that way! Flippers and all.

No need to put on the oxygen mask if he has a tank of it!

 

[Red Squirrel]

No need to put on the oxygen mask if he has a tank of it!

Lol I can just see it, all the masks come down at some point. "Nah I'm good" *PSSSST*

 

[repoman0]

Yeah I'd say spending on a hobby is fine since it's something you enjoy as long as you're still keeping some money to save etc and otherwise doing fine financially. Same goes with cars if you spend a lot on cars because it's a hobby it's different then just spending 30k+ on a brand new car just to get you to places when a 5k used could do the same thing. TBH if I buy land, one thing I do want to do is build a nice big shop and maybe start to work on cars. Going into a hobby not knowing what I'm really doing could actually be kinda fun. Give me that same feeling I got the first time I opened a computer, or the first time I reinstalled windows etc. I sometimes watch car youtube channels and it's cool to see people do engine swaps and stuff.

The car forum I frequent has a ton of crossover with engineering and computer types. People on there have reverse engineered the ECU codebase for this particular vehicle to find all the fueling and ignition maps, control system parameters, figure out what the control algorithms are trying to do by examining the assembly ... it's pretty cool. And then for people not into that part of it there's the mechanical aspect to perfect as well -- calculating optimal spring rates and sway bars, brake biases, exhaust and intake manifold design. It doesn't surprise me that the types of people who build computers end up interested in modifying and maintaining cool cars because there's so much more to explore. Computers you basically slap together off the shelf parts with maybe some custom watercooling if you're particularly hardcore but autos you get to actually customize and defeat the manufacturer's original cost constraints, or rebuild and restore an old classic, etc.

Of course it all costs like 10+ times as much as playing around with computers, so there's that.

 

[purbeast0]

I'm definitely going to be stopped at security because of the big metal plate in my bag. But once they open it up and see it's SCUBA crap it will be good to go. I'll probably give them the heads up before it goes through though.

 

[JM Aggie08]

Was adding millennial necessary? You old, bitter fuck.

 

[nakedfrog]

Was adding millennial necessary? You old, bitter fuck.

I'm pretty sure he's a millenial or younger himself.

 

[zinfamous]

Houston, TX - one of the biggest job markets in the US.

It was no shack either - freshly built 3bdr 2.5bath 2 story that was $140k.

Sold it for $215k ~8 years later.


I can honestly never connect with paying high dollar for a heavily depreciating asset.

uh, real estate, on average, is never considered a "heavily depreciating asset." It just isn't.

Perhaps your experience in dealing directly with it is exclusive to ~2007-2013 when it was? Still, some places were golden.

My buddy bought in Austin ~2012, I think, then sold 4 years later at about 150% above purchase price. I wonder what their perspective is on the quality of real estate as an asset?

obviously, YMMV and it depends on many things, but historically, real estate on average has a pretty solid long-term behavior of increasing in value at a pretty decent clip.

 

[nakedfrog]

uh, real estate, on average, is never considered a "heavily depreciating asset." It just isn't.

Perhaps your experience in dealing directly with it is exclusive to ~2007-2013 when it was? Still, some places were golden.

My buddy bought in Austin ~2012, I think, then sold 4 years later at about 150% above purchase price. I wonder what their perspective is on the quality of real estate as an asset?

obviously, YMMV and it depends on many things, but historically, real estate on average has a pretty solid long-term behavior of increasing in value at a pretty decent clip.

I think he was talking about the car, regarding the $700/mo payment.

I also think he had a healthy downpayment, my house was under $100k, property taxes are under $2k, and mortgage/escrow is over $700.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

I think he was talking about the car, regarding the $700/mo payment.

I also think he had a healthy downpayment, my house was under $100k, property taxes are under $2k, and mortgage/escrow is over $700.

You're correct that I was referring to a car payment in my last sentence.

Didn't have much of a down payment on the home, but I did clarify that the monthly payment was without escrow (without insurance and property tax)

 

[nakedfrog]

Ah, yeah, I'm only at $450 by those guidelines

 

[dainthomas]

My buddy is leasing a new Audi A4 and got it like a year ago. He said the other day that he's going to get a new car soon and is either looking at a brand new Jeep or upgrading to a higher end Audi.

OT a little, but my girlfriend's ex has an Audi S5 and that thing is a piece of junk. Always in the shop for some thing or another (under warranty at least). One time it was leaking some weird fluid onto the pedals (not even sure what that would be).

 

[Kaido]

He's financing a Mercedes G Wagon at over $2K a month, and then has an Electric BMW to go with that.

That's the thing - it's not just endless money frittered away, it's also the bubbles of money that takes chunks of out of your monthly income. $3,500/mo for a $1-million-dollar home, $2,000/mo for a G-wagon, etc. It's the same expenses that everyone else has, just super-sized! I know plenty of people making in excess of $100k/yr who are literally living paycheck to paycheck, simply because they have no financial plan & no management system setup, even if it's just a mental one to spend below their means. The system itself doesn't matter, as long as it's getting you what you want - but many people will do anything to avoid that type of outcome-focused thinking & then feel trapped, like they're constantly behind the curve on things.

But it's also mindlessly frittering money away. I still remember my first job working hourly at the pizza shop. It was sooooo hard to earn money because all we made was minimum wage, which didn't amount to much after taxes...and every day, half my coworkers would go out to eat for lunch, get a pack of cigarettes, get snacks, etc. and their whole paycheck for the day would just be gone. If living in the moment is your goal, then great, but man, that was a big financial lesson for me at the time, because I didn't have any kind of real personal finance system in place & was frittering away my money too, haha!

 

[purbeast0]

Making $100k/yr isn't even a lot in most high COL areas. So just stating you know people who live on $100k/yr living paycheck to paycheck without even giving their location is kind of pointless.

 

[child of wonder]

What really matters is the quality of life someone enjoys with the income they have.

My parents retired 3 years ago and my dad was so proud in his final year of work he finally made $100k. My mom was a part time real estate agent and likely made $30k-$60k per year. They are not "rich" but you'd think they were better off than that based on outward appearances because they lived so frugally their entire lives. They never took on much debt, seldom spent money frivolously, and saved money like their lives depended on it.

In retirement they have no mortgage payment or debt of any kind, they dropped $65,000 on a new fifth wheel travel trailer because they love camping, and now 3 years into retirement brag that their retirement balance now is higher than when they first retired (though I think with the coming recession that will change).

 

[Red Squirrel]

Making $100k/yr isn't even a lot in most high COL areas. So just stating you know people who live on $100k/yr living paycheck to paycheck without even giving their location is kind of pointless.

I find the more money people make the less smart they are with their money as well. If they get any kind of raise or make more money they immediately spend it by buying a bigger house or new car etc instead of just continuing to live the same way.

It's even worse with lotto winners they go all out and lot of them end up bankrupt.

 

[Scarpozzi]

I find the more money people make the less smart they are with their money as well. If they get any kind of raise or make more money they immediately spend it by buying a bigger house or new car etc instead of just continuing to live the same way.

It's even worse with lotto winners they go all out and lot of them end up bankrupt.

Lotto winners and professional athletes....anyone who doesn't know HOW to manage their money typically find a bunch of people willing to rob them blind in one manner or another. The world is pretty cutthroat out there.

Most people are finance things based on how much the monthly payments come out to be and don't look at the actual cost of the loan. If you combine all of the interest payments and think about lost opportunity in the stock market, you start to realize why the gap between the haves and have nots widens every year.

On the insurance topic....Term life insurance is a great bargain because it's cheap and you're getting security when you need it most. Disability insurance is also a pretty good investment. Having said that, I have neither.

You'd be better off getting a financial advisor if you want to invest money for your golden years...or just buy some rental property and double your returns.

 

[purbeast0]

I find the more money people make the less smart they are with their money as well. If they get any kind of raise or make more money they immediately spend it by buying a bigger house or new car etc instead of just continuing to live the same way.

It's even worse with lotto winners they go all out and lot of them end up bankrupt.

Eh I have no problem with that. I mean what is the point of making more money if you aren't going to enjoy it?

Most of my savings personally is in my 401k. So when I get a raise, that means my 401k also gets a raise since it's all percentage based anyways, although I'm pretty much maxing it out.

As long as one is financially responsible and saving I see nothing wrong with spending more on a bigger house or nicer car, etc.

You only live once.

 

[JEDI]

Not really. It's incredibly easy to guess these things because the statistical probability of it being otherwise is little. Possible? Sure. Probable? Not so much.

People that are stupid with money are the type that say "Whelp, I'm done paying off my 5 year car loan, that means it's time to ditch this car and get another one"

It's a good thing I run the finances at home and not the wife or that type of shit would happen. She complains about driving my car because *OH NOEZ* it doesn't have a rear view camera when reversing. The horror!

get a new wife.. prettier.. younger..

 

[KentState]

Eh I have no problem with that. I mean what is the point of making more money if you aren't going to enjoy it?

Most of my savings personally is in my 401k. So when I get a raise, that means my 401k also gets a raise since it's all percentage based anyways, although I'm pretty much maxing it out.

As long as one is financially responsible and saving I see nothing wrong with spending more on a bigger house or nicer car, etc.

You only live once.

The thing that makes me question making more is the thought that you have to match that in retirement. Everywhere I look, the suggested replacement percentage doesn't change.

Replacement ratio findings
Pre-retirement income Percent need in retirement
$20,000 94%
$30,000 90%
$40,000 85%
$50,000 81%
$60,000 78%
$70,000 77%
$80,000 77%
$90,000 78%
$150,000 84%
$200,000 86%
$250,000 88%

Source: Aon Consulting’s 2008 Replacement Ratio Study: A Measurement Tool for Retirement Planning. Assumptions: Family with one wage earner who retires at age 65 with a spouse age 62.

I'm about ready to give up on the notion of ever retiring.