re: WSJ: “They are in the top 10% of earners; but they don’t feel rich”

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250k to 300k was probably a really good living 10 years ago.

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It’s still objectively a really good living, it’s just not “rich”.

Yea if you feel broke
Making that much, you’re an idiot with money.

In the South at least…. Not SF,NYC, etc.

Earnings are not the most important path to “feeling rich”. What you have beats what you make most everytime. Wealth building behaviors more important than income.

Psychology of Money (book) should be mandatory reading.

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I'd be very interested in the board's take on what it means to "feel rich."

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My wife and I both go about our daily lives and buy what we want, eat out whenever the mood hits, don't really think about the money we spend......UNTIL the bill comes every month.

I always get frustrated by the amt of money we spend: daily, weekly, monthly, but I stfu and pay the bill, entirely every month.

So, like I said we are very comfortable, but if I were rich, i wouldn't care when the bill comes, yet I do.

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My wife and I both go about our daily lives and buy what we want, eat out whenever the mood hits, don't really think about the money we spend......UNTIL the bill comes every month.

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How important is wealth-building to you and your wife? eg, Income - Savings = expenses

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How important is wealth-building to you and your wife? eg, Income - Savings = expenses

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I’m 44 and I have no kids.

With that being said I want to make sure I have enough to last me my life and leave some to my younger siblings and nieces and nephews.

The article is frustrating. I know it goes fast especially with kids. But $250k plus should enable a comfortable living and decent contributions to savings unless you have more than a couple of kids or if you live in a HCOL area. $300k or more and it should be fairly easy.

My wife and I moved from Chicago to the Baton Rouge area in 2022. Our income doubled that same year while we moved to a much lower costs of living area (except insurance….thats where Louisiana is expensive).

We are at/near 40 years old and our total household earnings was about $489,000 last year. We both max our 401k by late November/December every year. We no longer qualify for direct Roth contributions but we have a Roth account that’s slowly growing. We put away about $1,000 per month between the two 529 plans for our kids. Beyond that we’ve put away about $28,500 so far this year in a taxable brokerage account that we will eventually use to buy another rental house but for now it’s going to sit there and hopefully grow. I want to save more than we are saving, but I’m not going to complain about it.

We own normal cars, Wal Mart clothes, and live in a normal but comfortable house. We absolutely do feel rich compared to where we came from and where most of our friends are. We remember the coupon cutting days of not being able to have a protein with dinner or wondering how to get my wife’s car fixed. Those days sucked but they were a big part of how we got here.

Unlike the subjects in that article, I would never openly complain about the costs of things to people who know us. Certainly not where our friends or family would read it - even though we do feel the inflationary pressure. Times have been challenging for a lot of Americans in the past few years. So as frustrated as I get with having to spend more than I want on insurance, utilities, groceries, etc….I would not complain about it behind the anonymity of the money talk board.

Pretty good perspective.

I'm 36 and wife and I cleared about the same last year and will do the same this year thanks to some fortunate equity boosts from my company.

We live in Dallas where we're exposed to a lot of the ridiculousness and its simply about fighting those urges and understanding once you make some of those purchases, they're very empty within 1-2 months.

I drive a 2015 paid off SUV that ill drive until it dies, wife has a 2022 SUV that will be paid by the end of the year and drive for 5 more years. We just up sized our house but feel like we were responsible in buying a larger house for about the same price as the smaller house we're about to sell, although in a slightly less desirable area with a much higher interest rate.

My goal is to retire by 55-60, have about 5M-7M in retirement if the market doesn't implode and be able to split time between the mountains and the Southeast in reasonable lodgings after sending my kids to college. I had to pay for most of my own college while working and with loans. I'm committed to not having my kids carry that burden, at least the loan portion. I'm also very passionate about passing along some semblance of nest egg to my kids so they don't have to scrape and claw the way I did for their first home etc.

Our only real splurge is our golf club which makes me very happy/reduces stress and has a lot of activities for our family. We take 1-2 reasonable vacations/year either to the mountains or the beach, usually places we don't have to pay for lodging because of family and friends.

We're in a great spot but we absolutely have to remain responsible around spending and saving. There's nothing "glamorous" about $500k per year living in Dallas but we're incredibly fortunate compared to most.

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I have two Rolexes. Both passed down from my dad. Still don’t feel rich. Maybe I should but my mindset is saving, not spending.

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I’m not sure I’ll ever buy one. I’m a redneck and would rather buy a new thermal or another sxs.

It would be nice to not have to trailer my sxs around and have one for each property

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We live in Dallas where we're exposed to a lot of the ridiculousness

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I have a hard time wrapping my head around how many really wealthy people there are in North Texas these days. It’s not just Dallas and the park cities anymore. Crazy homes being built in lots of towns.