by blahaj on 6/2/25, 12:45 PM with 102 comments
If you don't mind telling for context, how much income do you have?
by throwaway-money on 6/2/25, 2:48 PM
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.
by doix on 6/2/25, 2:04 PM
Every 2-4 months, I spend some money to go to the next country, could be anywhere from $20 for a bus to $700 for long distance flights.
I don't really buy things anymore, I have everything "I need" for a comfortable life, anything more at this point would just be annoying, I only buy to replace. I buy new shoes every 1-2 years and usually for $200+. I think nice shoes are worth it.
> What things would you like to do or have but can't because you don't have the money?
I think I would need an insane amount of money to make meaningful differences in my life. My partner has a "weak" passport, so being rich enough to "buy" one for her would be nice. Other than that, being able to buy a house or getting a pilots license would be nice.
by DougN7 on 6/2/25, 1:58 PM
by jebarker on 6/2/25, 2:14 PM
I think saying "money doesn't buy happiness" is too reductive. The crap from Amazon certainly makes no meaningful difference and actually I feel slightly embarrassed when I see a new package arrive. But the relief from stress of having no debt, living in a good area for schools, having a large runway and not worrying about the cost of groceries is a real life improvement that I would be sad to give up. Having said that, none of the great memories from life so far involve spending huge amounts of money.
by JohnFen on 6/2/25, 1:48 PM
So, for example, I drive a cheap used car because a nice expensive car doesn't actually make my life better, but I won't think twice about buying an expensive tool that I'll use every day, or going out for a lavish meal every so often, etc. There is nothing I want to do but I can't because of a lack of funds.
I make six figures, and I'm not in SV or NY, so that can provide a very comfortable standard of living. I actually spend about 25% of that and put the rest into charitable donations, savings, investments, etc.
by chasd00 on 6/2/25, 2:06 PM
I don’t really spend a lot of money on “things” per se. Mostly tools, materials, and other consumables for my hobbies.
by setgree on 6/2/25, 1:46 PM
IMHO, income is logarithmic [0], so in terms of things I might like to have but don't (an apartment with a shared pool?) it would probably be a big jump up in income to get them. If I got a $10K raise tomorrow, it wouldn't really make a difference.
If I ever have kids, I'll either have to give some things up or climb the income ladder.
[0] https://ofdollarsanddata.com/climbing-the-wealth-ladder/
by rcarmo on 6/3/25, 6:32 AM
Would love to buy some top-of-the-line compute for my homelab and a few machines that just don’t exist yet and a house in a country town to retire to. None of that is ever going to happen.
Am in South Europe so my income is way less than it should be considering what I do for a living, have somewhat made my peace with that by just enjoying my free time.
by ttul on 6/2/25, 2:09 PM
In recent years, I have had just a little bit extra, and I found satisfaction in paying off debts and contributing to a retirement fund for the first time. I also bought ski passes for myself and my kids and we had many enjoyable days on the mountain.
I have rich friends who own three houses and make over a million a year just from investments. They’re quite content, but the extra money doesn’t seem to buy them much extra satisfaction.
by dijit on 6/2/25, 2:04 PM
Housing is stupidly expensive if you want to live comfortably, and even more so if you want to actually own the place you live.
I earn something like €95,000-€100,000/y in Prague. (varies due to Czech Koruna)
by scarface_74 on 6/2/25, 1:49 PM
We are 51/49, grown kids, and I work remotely
I make in the low $200s in cloud consulting and another $7500 in rental income offsets to pay our mortgage + expenses when we aren’t there
by throwstock on 6/2/25, 3:02 PM
Started buying some items for them in 2020 when the pandemic hit and they lost what little income they had. Slowly it grew into large-scale support, and I'm committed to help to get the folks to adulthood.
The impact: I've learned to let go and become less stingy. Donate much more frequently these days because I realized I have more than enough. Much happier this way.
by chc4 on 6/2/25, 2:43 PM
I make ~$190k/yr. I work 32hrs/wk instead of 40hrs though, and I like it a lot more for my mental health - which I'm able to do because my salary is high enough to support my lifestyle with the trade-off of earning less per week.
by throw0101b on 6/2/25, 4:26 PM
> The first tip is what I call “The 2x Rule.” The 2x Rule works like this: Anytime I want to splurge on something, I have to take the same amount of money and invest it as well. So if I wanted to buy a $400 pair of dress shoes, I would also have to buy $400 worth of equities. This makes me re-evaluate how much I really want something because if I am not willing to save 2x for it, then I don’t buy it.
[…]
> And you don’t have to invest the money for The 2x Rule to work effectively either. For example, you could donate the other half to a charity and have the same guilt-free effect. Every “extravagant” dollar you spend on yourself could be matched with a “charity” dollar that goes to a worthy cause. Not only does this allow you to help others, but you won’t feel bad when you spoil yourself.
* https://ofdollarsanddata.com/how-to-spend-money/
And if you get a raise, if you're wondering how much of your extra income can you spend without succumbing to "lifestyle creep", about half is a good rule of thumb:
by thinkingtoilet on 6/2/25, 1:55 PM
- Concerts. My wife and I love going to see music so it's maybe $100 bucks for a concert or two per month.
- Once or twice a year I'll buy myself a new guitar pedal. They tend to be higher quality ones so that will run you $300 - $400 easy.
- Pokemon cards. My son got into and I got hooked. It's a deep strategy game and it's tons of fun. We probably spend ~$50 a month on this. We go to a game store to play on the weekends so we always buy a pack or two to help support the store.
- The usual drugs. Alcohol. Weed. The less usual but still good drugs, mushrooms and molly (pure MDMA) a few times a year.
If I had a billion dollars I would probably have things like a personal driver and chef, and maybe a few nicer guitars and some sweet-ass pokemon cards, but overall I want for nothing. As you can see, I tend to spend money on experiences instead of things. The physical things I do buy, pedals and cards, are for things I do with other people. My biggest restriction is having two kids, 4 and 7. I would love to travel more but it's not a money issue.
by Apreche on 6/2/25, 1:56 PM
This applies for small purchases like a tempting snack at the grocery store. Am I going to eat it? Will I really enjoy this? If so, ok. If it will sit in the cabinet and be passed over for other snacks, no.
It applies to large purchases as well. Should I buy this very expensive bicycle? Yes, I will ride it. And as it turns out, I did. It’s almost 10 years old, and I still ride it a lot.
I’m also regularly going through my belongings and donating, selling, and trashing things I don’t use. This helps me to learn over time and make better purchasing decisions. It also helps me reduce the amount of crap I have. Best of all it’s really nice when I can give something to someone who appreciates it much more and will make better use of it.
The result is that other than the regular essential things to maintain life such as food, household goods, etc. I buy things extremely rarely. The thing I spend the most disposable income on is probably tickets to shows, sports, and other experiences. If you ask me if I’ll use them and enjoy them, the answer is almost always yes.
The only thing I want, but can’t afford, is real estate. I could afford real estate in a place with lower property value, but I only want NYC real estate. It’s not happening.
by Kostic on 6/2/25, 1:47 PM
[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novi_Sad_railway_station_can...
by acureau on 6/2/25, 1:47 PM
I am fairly lucky in that I can do most things I want to. I can buy things that I want with a little saving. I can eat out with the family. I can't travel too much, though I'd like to. The only "normal life" expense I can't afford is buying a home. It seems a long way off.
I think the path forward will be moving states or working remote, as there are few jobs in software near me. At least at my experience level. For now I cannot complain. My quality of life is higher than most I know. Off topic, but I think about this a lot.
by 7thaccount on 6/2/25, 2:10 PM
It's prob over $200/month on group and private lessons when put together for me (I skate for 3-6 hours a week). Skates vary in cost from $150 for beginner skates (both boot and blades) to $400 for intermediate. At the upper end, boots are $1k by themselves and blades are $500+. Your skates last a good while though assuming you're not an Olympian. Hockey has similar costs, but you also have to spend ~$1500 on gear as an adult.
by HPsquared on 6/2/25, 2:15 PM
by D13Fd on 6/2/25, 3:23 PM
by bromuk on 6/2/25, 2:27 PM
Impact of life; is that I'm not miserable. (I was obsessive about not spending early on in my career and got really bad depression, i.e. working really hard, not allowing myself to enjoy the fruits of my labor)
Things I'd like todo if I had more money are: - Travel to see family abroad - Tidy up the nitpicky things in my house that bother me - A car with more doors (3 door at the moment)
My philosophy is to have enough saved for a rainy day, then excess goes to pension / investments and then provide myself with a small amount of ££ for myself (And research the hell out of the thing I'm buying)
by KronisLV on 6/2/25, 2:31 PM
That said, I was pretty lucky in that I don't have debts: I got my Master's degree mostly for govt. funds due to good grades + started working in development during my 2nd year in Bachelor's. I am also pretty lucky that I don't have many expenses: I live in my dad's old city apartment and look after it (swapped out fridge and stove some time ago, new lightbulbs, lots of cleaning etc.), so day to day only have to cover utilities (~300 EUR) and no rent to speak of.
I try to save and invest a decent chunk of whatever I earn, sometimes funds managed by my bank, sometimes specific company stocks, a relatively small amount in crypto as well. At the same time I spend some of my money helping my friends that are less fortunate than me, like with medical expenses or getting food near payday etc., since while I feel comfortable with a bit of a spartan lifestyle, them not being able to afford necessities sucks and it'd feel bad to do nothing.
Aside from that, I do get some knickknacks sometimes, like how I'm getting an Aigo AIO for my PC (~60 EUR, not strictly necessary, but might help with the Ryzen 7 5800X, ~150 EUR, throwing a hissy fit whenever I make it compile things) and a new Modecom PSU (~50 EUR, the old one rattles a bit, might be bad bearings on its fan, probably a good idea to replace it and not risk it frying things at some point), some new clothes (~150 EUR) and the usual boring stuff (e.g. groceries are around 250-300 EUR a month over here). Also visiting Germany later this year (~1000 EUR) for a programming event and to hang out with some lovely people.
Probably won't have: a fancy gaming PC, or flagship phones/laptops, a car in the near future, my own apartment in a newly built building even in the more far future, or any sort of living in luxury. At the same time, I much prefer either being able to help others and also having some financial stability over having the latest shiny thing.
Unfortunately, despite not living in excess, it very much feels like I'm one financial crisis away from financial ruin. Fun times.
by typesarecool on 6/2/25, 1:33 PM
Those are my regular monthly bills outside of house, food, etc...
Won't say salary but in a high percentile of income in EU country.
If I had no job and unlimited money (and no responsibilities) I'd go to Phuket and train Muay Thai for a year, then go to the Wudang mountains and train Kung Fu at some probably quite Westernised temple for another year. Afterwards I'd start a company in the defence or space sector.
by RajT88 on 6/2/25, 6:33 PM
Rewind 1 year: I was buying retro gaming consoles to mod (the exquisitely beautiful, but unreliable Sony PSX). I also bought a mid-engine Japanese sports car to soup up (one of the cheap ones you can get for less than 20k with low miles).
Rewind a little further - paid off the house.
Purchases that fill not a hole, but my time. Hobby-type purchases which create learning opportunities. Or - investments in financial security of some sort.
by snow_mac on 6/2/25, 3:29 PM
Mortgage - $3800
Groceries - ~$1000
Eating out - ~$1000
TV / Internet - $250
Utilities (Water, electric, sewer, gas, trash) - $400 average
Car insurance - $280
Phones - $170
Life insurance - $106
Health insurance - $700
Audible - $40
Personal Trainer - $300
Panera Sip Club x2 - $26
Pharmacy - $100 / average
~$8200 a month on regular purchases.
What do I want that we don't have the money for? A paid off house. My mortgage is 40% of our monthly expenses and I'd like it to be half what it currently is.
I want to buy a nice new truck or car, but can't justify adding another payment of $500 to our bill sheet for the next 6 years. I also don't want to blow up savings to buy a car with some cash.
by mikesabat on 6/2/25, 1:38 PM
Then I wanted to capture my parents life story. I thought it might be a good little project and others might find it valuable. So I built viography.co
The problem is that I'm not really promoting it and not getting customers. So I'm spending a few hundred dollars a month to record videos, save them for later and of course fix bugs that I find.
by dhosek on 6/2/25, 2:40 PM
by rglullis on 6/2/25, 2:02 PM
by uslic001 on 6/4/25, 8:10 PM
by bionsystem on 6/2/25, 2:00 PM
by peer2pay on 6/2/25, 1:57 PM
Currently on the third $10k+ trip with my wife in 18 months but don’t have a car and am still using my laptop from 2014. Main reason is that I feel like I have my whole life to buy X or Y but only have the time and energy to travel long distances while young.
by andelink on 6/2/25, 2:30 PM
by lostmsu on 6/2/25, 5:12 PM
$6k apt in a very nice area
$4.5k for preschool and daycare
$4k for household help (kids, cleaning, some cooking)
$1.5-2k for eating out
$400 for utilities
$1.5k on travel (smoothed out)
$500 boat club
$400 hobbies
by jsbg on 6/2/25, 2:21 PM
by hkchad on 6/2/25, 3:59 PM
by RhysU on 6/2/25, 3:39 PM
I would put more into savings/investments and charitable giving if the taxes came down.
by nkg on 6/2/25, 2:45 PM
by nyarlathotep_ on 6/2/25, 1:44 PM
by apwell23 on 6/2/25, 1:51 PM
by steele on 6/2/25, 1:41 PM
by georgehaake on 6/2/25, 2:05 PM
by chistev on 6/2/25, 3:36 PM
by nritchie on 6/2/25, 1:49 PM
by TZubiri on 6/2/25, 1:38 PM
by ProfessorZoom on 6/2/25, 1:42 PM
by abhaynayar on 6/2/25, 1:49 PM