re: 100k Club

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I have gotten zero financial benefit from having kids since I was 26 yo.

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FIFY

It will feel the same, you will just have more shite that you don't need.

The challenge will always be to keep your 75K bills the same when you take home more money. But, that isn't realistic.

Even if you were to keep the exact same house, car payment, etc ...which they won't, you will upgrade something. The extra monies that you are actually pocketing are going to be utilized by something: things you have denied yourself in the past, vacations, more savings, etc. Otherwise, what else are you going to do with the extra money, simply bank it?

I have found that inevitably as your income goes up, the cost of your "Basics" go up as well, the taxes get cumbersome, you are always going to want more to provide more for your family than you do today.

Kids never get cheaper as they grow up, I have 3 and still find myself helping them in some manner or another.

Lifestyle drift is definitely a real concern hell the wife and I take home almost double what we did 15 years ago but seem to have less discretionary income to spend. Savings rate has also decreased. Granted we have three children now so that plays a huge part.

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200k seems like the new 100k.


yep

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When comparing $100k in 1994, yes sure. When looking at it in 2005, no. It all depends on your timeframe and what is your baseline for wages/costs. To me this makes the most sense to compare it to when you started working and paying all your own bills. You obviously have a concept of money well before that but don't truly understand the whole picture until you are receiving steady wages and paying all your bills.

For my time period, it is probably closer to $140k is the new $100k.

It becomes easier to justify to yourself buying a new car, eating out more, etc.

I’ve bought 2 new cars in the last year and no telling what I’ve spent eating out. Wouldn’t have dreamed of doing it 5 years ago.

Still increasing my cash reserves and gave less debt. But I could have done a lot better if I’d been more frugal. Might bite me in the arse in a few years.

Wife and I always find a way to spend it and life doesn't feel much different

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As others said, keeping up with the Jones is a real peril

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Get out of the burbs and into the country. It's amazing what happens when you get away from the cookie cutter housing blocks and neighbors with new cars, etc.

Get a couple horses/cows and chickens.

Once you're secluded out on some land, the kids are become more free and responsible once they have "farm duties" and you get away from all the sociopolitical BS.

You probably make more at 75k than you do at 100k. Like the tax rate goes up to 80% vs like 10% and you don’t get any free shite from the government

Basically the richest guys in America besides bezos and Elon are guys who get food stamps, don’t pay taxes and work for cash

You’ll get there.

When I started I earned $55,000 and my employer only paid one check per month. I sweated the bills sometimes when we had to make big purchases like tires or a home repair. Buying my wife a stripped down Honda Accord ($19,000) to replace her unreliable old Ford Focus was a huge deal for us.

Then in 2014 I changed jobs and took a huge bump in pay to a whopping $100,000. That’s when we felt rich even though we weren’t. But that’s when we occasionally went out to nice restaurants and took vacations to the beach every now and then. Things we would not be able to comfortably do when we were earning less than 75K together.