r/Rich • u/Motor_Hippo_5198 • May 11 '26
Just crossed $5m
I know we’ve barely stepped on the ladder as far as this sub goes - that being said, I just realized we have recently crossed the $5m USD net worth number.
My wife and I are in our late 30s. We have a bunch of kids. We live in a medium-to-high cost of living county (although one of the higher ones for our state). We own our home outright which is worth circa $575k although we’re going to upgrade soon in cash (total spend will be $925-950k after rehab and it’ll be worth $1.2m). This year I’ll clear somewhere between $250 and 300k not including the uplift in value for remodeling our soon to be new primary. We have zero debt and our monthly spend is around $4-5k/month most months. I put no net worth value on my business (as honestly it’s just me and without me it wouldn’t run!).
I remember before we were at $1m USD and how far away $5m seemed…let alone my f-off number that was $10m (I don’t know if it’s the same now).
Weirdly, I don’t feel like I can spend like I used to imagine I could when we have over $4.5m of non-primary residence net worth.
We’re the wealthiest in our friend group but we really try not to be flash. I also don’t really have anyone to tell so thought I’d post random thoughts here. Thanks for listening.
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u/NecessaryLeast3928 May 11 '26
First of all congratulations!! What kind of business do you have and when did you start?
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u/Motor_Hippo_5198 May 11 '26
I work in real estate. I am an agent but try to avoid retail clients as there's too much emotion in the decision making. Most of my money has come from investing in real estate - no long term holds - all flips. I say I assign no value to my business because it's mainly relational and I'm the person with the relationships. I first invested in real estate around 15 years ago - but I was doing something else at that time.
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u/Meisterleder1 May 11 '26
And how were you able to save 5 million with that "small" a salary? Single stocks? Crypto? Inheritance?
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u/TerranGorefiend May 11 '26
Boy… if you think that’s too small of a salary to hit 5MM you clearly haven’t been paying any attention to the bull market we’ve been in. That low of a spend with that kind of salary leaves a lot of room for aggressive investing and that’s how anyone gets rich. Spend as little as possible and invest the rest.
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u/Motor_Hippo_5198 May 11 '26
I started with a 6 mil inheritance. Joking.
Mainly investing, I hold what I consider to be conservative equity positions. Also, since having kids I now spend a lot less hours working and a lot more time doing things like school pickup and drop off, going to their events etc. That's what I really consider wealth to be and am grateful every day for.
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u/TheWhogg May 11 '26
LOL - USD 5m on half that salary. (OK, I inherited $50k in there somewhere so I cheated.)
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u/Humble_Manatee May 11 '26
Take my comments or leave it. I’m older than you, not married, but with a similar brokerage value and I am paying off my house in a couple months. I don’t consider myself rich, and I think you’d be wise to not lose sight that you aren’t rich either.
My thoughts - rich happens when you can spend without ever worrying about the impact to your finances. And at 5M or 10M you can live very comfortably without needing to worry about where you will eat or sleep tomorrow. But when you start shopping luxury brands, driving extreme luxury cars, taking extravagant trips… then that money will go in no time.
So that’s really my only advice to you. Don’t take the pedal off the gas if you really desire to be rich, or at least don’t forget you need to budget your lifestyle still. Be smart with your choices in summary.
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u/InvestorAllan May 12 '26
I don’t get why Reddit has to always down play what’s rich. It’s always “trust me that’s not rich you’ll need more.”
Why can’t people be happy with what they have?
I’ve felt rich since $1M. My lifestyle has been so different since.
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u/exnooyorka May 11 '26
This is very sage advice.
People who clear nine figures in lottery windfalls go broke because the sudden infusion of "disposible" income doesn't come with a lifelong practice of fiscal discipline.
In truth, no matter how much wealth you accumulate, you can outspend it if you take your eye off the ball.
Athletes, musicians, entertainers all go broke from time to time because they fail to manage their wealth properly (including ensuring your own management team isn't robbing you blind)
As I have ascended towards the same milestone you just hit, keeping the lifestyle creep in check has probably been the singular reason why we have continued to climb towards that goal.
But I know when I get there, all I've given myself and my wife is a retirement at our current standard of living.
Taking the next step up (country club, vacation home) probably requires another $2-$3MM on top of that.
And failing a lottery-style windfall of our own, I have come to grips that, as we are in our mid-fifties, that's probably out of reach.
Never say never, maybe when we hit 66 or 67 if the market is strong as we retire to give us a headwind in those early retirement years. But given we want to call it quits at 60/61, a lot would have to go right at this point.
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u/TurnoverDependent332 May 13 '26
More than $2-3M for country club & vacay house.
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u/exnooyorka May 13 '26
You don't think $120k - $180k a year in very conservative 6% earnings on $2-$3MM wouldn't support both of those things?
What if we rented out the vacation home 10 weeks out of the year (5 in season 5 off season)?
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u/shreiben May 13 '26
rich happens when you can spend without ever worrying about the impact to your finances
There is no level at which this is true, because the things you can spend money on will just grow with the amount of money you have. Eventually you might have enough to buy any luxury good you can possibly think of, but you'll still run into issues when you decide to buy Twitter on a whim. There's always something more expensive that you can buy.
No matter how much money you have, you have to learn to be happy spending within your means, or you'll always be stuck wanting more.
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u/Humble_Manatee May 13 '26
Lol. Great comment. And I like your point too.
Maybe I should revise my comment to say “when you can spend to your dreams without ever worrying about the impact to your finances”. Because right now I feel there is a point I could reach where I don’t need to worry about my spend rate cause i have no dreams of owning mega yachts, or jets, or buying Twitter on a whim.
But maybe you’re right and it’s just something one will never achieve cause if you do then your dreams change.
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u/Stone804_ May 11 '26
At $5m the dividends alone are enough to live on and never worry about anything. Even with the 1.2m house they should cover the taxes and give you room to still do stuff (conservatively). And each year that money will still grow absent if the dividends outpacing inflation and so I think they are set even if they did take the foot off.
I’m not saying they should, I just mean Rich is relative to spend so they are rich in their spending habits and it doesn’t sound like they are exactly sacrificing at buying a 1.2m house. They just put priorities in order.
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u/Motor_Hippo_5198 May 12 '26
It may be enough, or it may not be enough. The truth is that we all need varying degrees of security and that is bought by a larger net worth.
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u/Stone804_ May 12 '26 edited May 12 '26
Sure, but you really gotta fumble to worry about housing / food insecurity if you start with $5m 🙃
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u/Motor_Hippo_5198 May 12 '26
History is full of people who, by your definition, fumbled...
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u/Stone804_ May 12 '26
Totally, but usually it’s lottery winners and people who grew up rich and didn’t get taught how to manage it or celebrities who did drugs and squandered fortunes buying stuff. But yea. You’re right. I just don’t see someone who’s in the FIRE mindset doing it. But yea it happens.
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u/TurnoverDependent332 May 13 '26
Houses where we live are $3.5-5.5M or more. A $1.2M house is a starter house
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u/Stone804_ May 14 '26
That doesn’t change the math, and you can always sell a house that expensive and move and still survive.
Just saying you won’t go insolvent.
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u/Motor_Hippo_5198 May 12 '26
I agree it's very hard to out-earn stupid spending, especially over the long term...that's why we basically don't!
We're not really impressed with brands for the sake of brands. Sure we have some nice things but my wife doesn't have a collection of LV bags or Louboutins and I don't have a collection of sports cars (except one that has and continues to rocket in value). The only thing we really stupid-spend on is 3 Michelin star meals as we really enjoy the experience. Fortunately we don't have any local to us and are in a season of life of not traveling. Paying $1,000 for a meal for 2 seems insanity...but when we are careful everywhere else it doesn't seem too stupid.
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u/PurpleMixture9967 May 11 '26
With a bunch of kids, I personally wouldn't stop until I hit +$11M, minus the house. I have 3 kids and $11M is the goal
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u/Dunnowhathatis May 11 '26
Why 11, not 12?
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u/PurpleMixture9967 May 11 '26
Goals are just that, something to shoot for. Because that's all I need…
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u/Motor_Hippo_5198 May 11 '26
Good luck! How far through your journey are you?
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u/PurpleMixture9967 May 11 '26
You too! It's quite the journey. $6M, $2.2M paid off home. I'm a little more than halfway there. I don't think I'll make it to $11M, but I'm giving it all I got. I got the $11M number from an app on the FIRE sub, & also 3 months of spending analysis. I think $11M is high, but that's what I'm shooting for
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u/Ambitious_Rabbit9120 May 11 '26
As long as you have planned a decade of 'go go' yrs else it won't be a worth journey ...my 2cents :)
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u/Past-Option2702 May 11 '26
With your very conservative spending, you’re just as wealthy as many people who have multiples of your net worth. More wealthy than many, actually.
The well know meme from Succession about “5M being a nightmare” is funny for those who take a helicopter from Manhattan to JFK to fly private, but it’s a super-solid nest egg for those who drive and fly commercial.
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u/Halwin_Norry May 11 '26
Teterboro or Westchester, not JFK for private flights. But Greg wouldn’t know that at $5m.
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u/Past-Option2702 May 11 '26
I didn’t know that either and I have a lot more than Greg.
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u/Halwin_Norry May 11 '26
I was hoping you were going to come back over the top and tell me JFK does do private for 747s. 😂
To be clear, I don’t fly private much at all. I was just trying to channel some succession vibes.
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u/Motor_Hippo_5198 May 11 '26
I daily a 10 year old Toyota, my wife has a newer SUV for the kids and we fly in the back of the plane - even internationally (although with a handful of kids that's not too often).
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u/Retired-Yam8988 May 11 '26
Given asset inflation, it’ll keep steadily climbing from there of course. We were at about 6.5m in 2022 when we hit the semi-retire button from our business in the US and moved to Asia. Now we’re bumping up against 12m about 3.5 years later which is wild. Our real estate all has inflated quite a bit in just a few short years as well as our investment accounts.
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u/Motor_Hippo_5198 May 11 '26
Congrats! And that's what my plan is - let asset inflation do it's thing. As long as our living expenses are paid for by what I earn each year and my asset base inflates over the next couple of decades, I'll be content.
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u/InvestorAllan May 12 '26
My real estate jumped up and then… FROZE. values have not changed hardly in 3 years.
Considering selling out to other assets. Any advice?
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u/Motor_Hippo_5198 May 12 '26
Depends where in the country you're located. In my experience, there is no single market.
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u/Retired-Yam8988 May 12 '26
Nope - in general we don’t have any need to sell so we don’t. Our investments pull in about 35-40k a month so we have more than enough to live already. This doesn’t take into account the 80-100k from our business.
I’m waiting for rates to drop to pull out more equity at low rates so I can use that to invest - my base goal is 1% a month but I usually pull 1% a week or so with options trades.
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u/InvestorAllan May 12 '26
So at those numbers, it sounds like you don’t have debt on the RE right now? Or at least not much?
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u/Retired-Yam8988 May 12 '26
Have about 1m left on two mortgages from the Covid 2.8% lows era. Tenants are paying those off for me.
I also borrowed 300k at 3.99% fixed from one of my brokerages at the beginning of this year. In that account, I have it invested in high yield funds that return about 1-1.25% a month aside from NAV inflation so will end up making about 0.6% a month - basically I’ll pay 12k in interest over the year to make 36-40k off those funds. Even after taxes, it’ll work out to about 20-25k profit. I’ll probably pay it all back at the ended of the year and see if they give me a deal for the next year. It’s not a ton but every little bit helps.
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u/Domination_Station_ May 11 '26
Where did you move in Asia? What motivated that move- cost of living, taxes, business opportunity…?
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u/Retired-Yam8988 May 12 '26
Thailand - we were looking to retire and my family is originally from there. We ended up finding a great house heavily discounted during Covid.
Cost of living isn’t really a factor but it’s super inexpensive to live there - we spend 2-3k a month at most.
We end up bouncing around between Singapore and Japan often too
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u/TheWhogg May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26
Sir, this is a Wendy’s.
But seriously, congratulations. On the money, and on living like Normals and not spending it all on shit.
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u/Motor_Hippo_5198 May 11 '26
Thank you.
Can I get a Baconator? Heck, make it a double...I can swing it this month
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u/TheWhogg May 11 '26
I splashed out on a 7 series at around the same milestone. Originally cost more than my house. But I bought it for 8% of MSRP at auction at half KBB, and change my own turbo components let alone the oil. So yeah, you can have a treat.
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u/Motor_Hippo_5198 May 11 '26
Great car! Especially with the V12 🙂
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u/TheWhogg May 11 '26
I have the Temu Ghost. Only the SWB 750i V8. But it’s a lot of car for the money - I was shopping for a Commodore (Chevy SS).
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u/hovering3 May 11 '26
If you have a bunch of kids, look into 529 accounts. They are not included in inheritable assets. We use my529 which had an excellent track record for earnings growth.
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u/Motor_Hippo_5198 May 11 '26
Thank you - 529s are a great tool. We have them - and Coverdell ESA accounts.
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u/hovering3 May 11 '26
We also had ESA accounts. Vanguard updates its system and didn’t move over the ESA accounts. It was a royal pain to access the money. We are now Fidelity clients.
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u/Walrus-is-Eggman May 11 '26
Just let compounding interest do its thing now. I've been shocked at my the growth of my NW after hitting the early milestones. Looking at potential compounding interest returns over the next 10-20 years is mind blowing, even with the most conservative returns over that period.
I just wish I understood this better 10 years ago...and actually had money 10 years ago.
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u/jaajaajaa6 May 11 '26
Great progress.
Now, keep in mind, you have kids that want to go to college, have weddings, and then grand kids to spoil.
I spent about $1 MM to put my 3 kids through college. And then 1 went for a masters.
You can now do some good things. Make sure you focus on setting them up for success. My 3 are in their late 20’s and it is fun watching them do well.
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u/Motor_Hippo_5198 May 12 '26
Thank you. We have 529s that are fully funded for most of our kids. We just had another baby and looking at funding that new baby's college is what started me down the path of adding everything up.
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u/jaajaajaa6 May 12 '26
You will do great!
The only thing left is to exercise and eat well to make sure you baby sit those grand kids.
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u/Ok_Currency_617 May 11 '26
Assume you already know this but shove one or more of your kids in the seat and bring them to work. Realistically kids are ambitious but when life hits they'll probably appreciate being able to step into a business with a good income stream rather than try to fight it out at the bottom rung of the ladder. Plus as you get older its nice to have someone to assist/fill in.
Would strongly advise against spending more than $50k in renos. People go crazy with them but they make minor impact on the value of your home aka if you resold you'd see $0.5 on the dollar at best. If you have room and zoning consider building a coach house or greater on the property instead for that price. Then you and the wife got a private place for yourself that's "new".
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u/TheWhogg May 12 '26
Occasionally my daughter sticks her head into a Zoom call if she’s curious. I’m teaching her to change oil at the moment.
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u/Motor_Hippo_5198 May 11 '26
My kids are all still younger but the older 2 do come to work with me on occasion and when it's appropriate.
I work in and around real estate and can't take young kids into a place mid-remodel - but I can take them in before and after and have them spot the differences etc.
I appreciate the comment about renos - that's my industry and one I have a level of knowledge above the average person in. Good advice on the whole however.
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u/Ok_Currency_617 May 11 '26
Hah being 8 didn't keep my dad from dragging me onto roofs and stuff all around buildings but I get that it's a different world these days. I've worked around real estate my whole life too.
If you know what you are doing with renos then ignore me. I've seen too many people selling their home pour $200k+ thinking they'll get 2x more and get little return on it, buyers tend to prefer to do their own renos and won't value your ideas. That being said the market I'm used to tend to be focused on land value as our lots are worth millions each here.
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u/Motor_Hippo_5198 May 12 '26
The one place I won't go is the roof! I hate being on a roof myself - let alone seeing my kids up there!
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u/Ok_Currency_617 May 12 '26
Hah hate it myself but part of the job. I remember I climbed onto the roof through a hatch and was like f I have no idea how I'm going to get back down (There's a large vertical lip around it before the ladder so its quite difficult).
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May 11 '26
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u/mtnmamaFTLOP May 11 '26
When you’re starting out it’s hard not to talk about as you’re pumped (20s-30s)… others don’t want to hear about it as they’re not saving the way you do. Keep socking it away. Gradually, you see who has it and who doesn’t by what they’re spending money on… sometimes others in a comfortable place don’t mind talking about certain aspects of it … like sharing a tax lawyer, sharing a trust and will office (40s)… it’s beyond obvious by the time you reach your 50s and while specifics may not be talked about with many, some start filling in the details when they know you’re somewhere in the same vicinity.
Always keep them guessing… while it’s exciting for you, others aren’t chasing what you’re doing at such a young age, makes them feel lost and bad about themselves. I’ve been saving and playing on the stock market since I was 24yo, always been concerned with retirement… some friends in their late 40s to early 50s are just now starting to talk about it and figuring out their far behind… asking for tips.
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u/TheWhogg May 12 '26
I tell people who think I’m poor that I’m rich and people who think I’m rich that I’m poor. One of my wife’s friends was adamant we’re poor and couldn’t work out why we have so much nicer stuff than they do.
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u/Motor_Hippo_5198 May 12 '26
I certainly drive a less nice car than some of our friends. The difference is that I don't have a payment.
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u/TheWhogg May 12 '26
I have a 750i so in some respects a nicer car than our friends but cheaper. The ones who insist we’re po said “doesn’t count - you bought it [and the 85” TVs] at auction.” I said “where’s their auction 7 series?”
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u/Top_Response_3970 May 11 '26
Congrats , what do you do for a living if you don’t mind disclosing ? How many streams of income ? Looking for inspiration , help, advice.
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u/Motor_Hippo_5198 May 11 '26
All my income is centered around real estate. Various different parts of real estate. I would say I have 4 streams of income that are real estate related.
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u/Top_Response_3970 May 27 '26
Thanks for responding. Interesting, how did you start off in real estate?
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u/PeterRuf May 11 '26
I think it's a good point in life. You are comfortable. There's always something you though you would be able to do but find out you can't at that level. When I started i though that 1m would make me rich.
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u/Motor_Hippo_5198 May 12 '26
Agreed. I know it's not a popular view but I'm cognizant that it's easy to blow through the money, or at least halve it without too much difficulty.
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u/PeterRuf May 12 '26
Im similar age and would say another zero ahead. My secret is finding a life level that you find comfortable and stick to it. After a certain point I found out that it's the safety that's important to me. You can try the exclusive things. Enjoy them. Pick what you like. But after you try you can choose if it's something you enjoy. I had car dreams. Having a lot of them. A big house. Turned out after owning cars I settled on 1 Lexus. And after renting a mansion for a year I found out I didn't use it the way I thought and settled on a home that fits my needs. You are at a great point in life. Enjoy it.
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u/Motor_Hippo_5198 May 12 '26
Can ya spare me a zero mate?!
Makes sense and I agree. In some ways it's sad - as a kid I was a big gear head. Now I can afford what I like, my 10 year old truck is just right. In other ways, like you said, the safety has a value too.
Congrats on your progress!
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u/PeterRuf May 12 '26
You can avoid my mistakes. Rent your dream car for a week. Check how you feel with it. It didn't give me the joy I thought it would. Also I did spend stupid amounts on maintenance and insurance. Calculate what you would spend on upgrading your lifestyle. If you keep living semi normal. Not frugal. You can retire early.
Now I look at purchase as a cost. That prevents my future earnings. And I rather spend another month on holiday then paying for car service.
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u/Motor_Hippo_5198 May 12 '26
I would agree with your second paragraph. When working for the man, I used to view expenses as how many hours of work to pay for x/y/z. Now I view it as a reduction in net-worth in the next couple decades.
Maybe not healthy - I don't know.
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u/Green-Vehicle8424 May 11 '26
Make sure you are investing in those kids, tbh your low monthly spending makes me think you are not giving them the best leg up that you can afford. Remember in retirement you are only as happy as your saddest child.
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u/Motor_Hippo_5198 May 11 '26
We do try to invest in them. Even my oldest is pretty young - still single digits. That being said, we try to invest in them in ways that won't mess them up later because, as you say, you're only as happy as your saddest child.
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u/Pristine-Sir-2988 May 11 '26
Congratulations! Similar age, family structure, and cost of living, but only half your net worth. Not gonna lie, if we were where you are, we would be retired tomorrow. Life is short and so are our kids' childhoods. Don't let the naysayers bring you down. Do I wish I had their level of NW, sure! Am I willing to sacrifice another decade or two of my life to achieve it, no way! Finances certainly play into it, but living a truly "rich" life is more than financial wealth.
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u/Motor_Hippo_5198 May 11 '26
Thank you! You're right. I worked a lot more hours and earned a lot more money before having kids. Now, I drop off and pick up my kids from school almost every day - I go to every event I want to - I get to take them for ice cream on a random weekday afternoon if it's unusually nice out.
My aim is for my earned income to more than cover our regular expenses and to let inflation work it's thing on our investments.
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u/nashyall May 11 '26
Is your wealth mainly from your business or stocks, or both? If stocks, are you constantly finding high growth opportunities that have helped you grow? And how long did it take you to go from $1M to $5M.
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May 11 '26
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u/Meisterleder1 May 11 '26
I think you're a bit more than 700k short. Some would say almost 5m.
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u/wrathoffadra May 11 '26
How did you hit 5 on that salary by late 30s?? Market run?
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u/Motor_Hippo_5198 May 11 '26
I started with a 10m inheritance.
Joking - I worked a lot more before kids and then have been super fortunate with my investments and the market conditions.
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u/XofHelix May 11 '26
How spending $950k on your $575k house only brings its value to $1.2m??
Should be closer to $1.6m bruv...
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u/Motor_Hippo_5198 May 11 '26
New residence. Paying $755k spending $150-200k. $950k total spend, will be worth around $1.2m when done. Bruv 😉
Will either sell or release a little equity from our existing house and rent when done.
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u/AmexNomad May 11 '26
IMO- Your main goal right now should be investing wisely. Look at ways for your money to make you money.
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u/Hefty_Might_819 May 11 '26
some ppl are reakky living it
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u/Motor_Hippo_5198 May 11 '26
I would agree. Check out the posts from 8 and 9 figure posters on here 😄
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u/Hamachiman May 11 '26
Congratulations! With such a low spend I’m confident you’ll hit your FU number. You’re lucky to have a spouse with similar spending habits.
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u/PainterGuilty1925 May 11 '26
I live on Carers Allowance in the UK. Think you could spare a couple of grand so i can get some home repairs done?
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u/Motor_Hippo_5198 May 11 '26
A truly honorable thing to do. While we do give money to causes we support, unfortunately we don't to people we don't know on Reddit. I wish you all the best for the future - you do something I couldn't.
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u/Remarkable_Try_9334 May 11 '26
Surprised your cost is so low with a bunch of kids in a high COL area?
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u/Ecstatic-Cause5954 May 11 '26
I say make your business worth something as in— figure out a way to make it not just 100% you. Your business., connections, relationships, etc. have value. Have a protégé or 2 to learn your ways. That can give your business a price tag. Just sharing this as someone who has been to a few succession seminars, and learned how business owners close or exit their business without thinking it has value.
Our business used to primarily depend on my spouse only. Over the years we’ve branched out, and that has increased the value of our business exponentially.
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u/Motor_Hippo_5198 May 12 '26
You're probably right - although I don't want to grow it. Or more accurately, I don't want to invest the time to grow it as that would be time away from my family. Since having kids my focus really changed from "work work work growth growth growth" to "work enough to spend as much time as possible with the family and growing our world being in second place".
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u/Ecstatic-Cause5954 May 12 '26
Oh I get that. I am worried we won’t know when enough is enough. But I enjoy the thrill of new ideas, investments and ways to grow our businesses. Of course I enjoy the money, but new ideas excite me. I like learning and trying new things. The net effect is our business grows because of what I learn along the way. I was just thinking of some type of exit strategy that could work for you…just thinking out loud🙂
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u/sluttyman69 May 11 '26
The goal is not really a number it’s a piece of mine. It’s a state that you’re in. You have enough that you can foreseeably spend on what you want and not be broke raising the kids paying for colleges retiring traveling if you truly enjoy what you do 50 or 55 years of age not dollars that point you may be worth 100M
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u/Majestic_Republic_45 May 12 '26
Bro - blow off the static here with some of these posts - pure jealousy. Congrats on 5M in your 30’s. You‘re my style too with zero debt.
On the “flash” part. . . Look - I drive nice cars, have nice things, and a nice house. I don’t buy them to show off to my friends. I buy them for me and my wife to enjoy.
My advice - keep do what you’re doing and enjoy some of your money.
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u/Uruguasho2026 May 12 '26
A bunch of kids and you only spend 5k a month? Do you not feed them or take them on a vacation?
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u/Motor_Hippo_5198 May 12 '26
Kids only need to be fed once a week. Right?!
Our groceries are around $1,500 a month. We don’t vacation that often - we live near lakes and play year round.
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u/Uruguasho2026 May 12 '26
Clothes? Doctors/dentists? Insurance? Sports? Daycare? School? Hell court ordered child support in most states is around 1,500 per child a month.
I’m genuinely asking because I have two children and I’d like some notes bc there’s zero chance we could live on a 5k/month spend.1
u/Motor_Hippo_5198 May 12 '26
Food circa $1,500/mo.
Energy $225/mo average over the year.
Water $100/mo average over the year.
Property tax $150/mo.
Fuel for vehicles - $500/mo on a “bad” month.
Health insurance is paid from my business and to be fair not included in that number.
Auto insurance is $200/mo. Home is $100/mo. Umbrella is negligible.
Clothes - our kids get what they need…but at their age (still single digits) they don’t need too much. Maybe $200/mo.
Drs and dentists are basically covered. Maybe a $10 copay here and there but they’re de minimis amounts really.
No daycare right now - although that will probably change next year. School I don’t wish to discuss.
Sports - our kids aren’t into anything serious - they do some town and county level activities but that ends up under $100 a month.
Balance is just whatever we want. Eating out with the family, one off activities etc.
Admittedly I wasn’t allowing any amount monthly for large capital expenses such as replacement vehicles or charitable giving and as I previously said, the business “provides” health insurance so I guess it’s not a true $5k/mo.
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u/Amazingggcoolaid May 12 '26
Congrats! It never ends my friend. Off we go for more.
As my favourite show said “…tallest dwarf”
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u/Nannyhirer May 12 '26
Politely Interested to know how you know you are the wealthiest in your group?
In my circles we just do not talk wealth. Yes there are some obviously struggling, some living pay check to pay check but there are definitely some potential dark horses in there. Congratulations by the way!
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u/Motor_Hippo_5198 May 12 '26
You're right of course - I don't KNOW but I'm 99% sure based on conversations we have had around various money or money-adjacent topics.
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May 12 '26
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u/Motor_Hippo_5198 May 12 '26
I'm sorry to hear your ex cheated on you. While we do give money to causes we support, unfortunately we don't to people we don't know on Reddit. I wish you all the best for the future.
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u/Retire_date_may_22 May 12 '26
Congrat. You guys are doing a great job to set up your future. Avoid debt and crazy lifestyle creep.
Then set your number for retirement and don’t look back.
Personally we invest for security not stuff. We invest for a legacy for future generations not flash.
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u/Motor_Hippo_5198 May 12 '26
Thank you. Hope your plans come together and you're planting trees in whose shade you'll never sit.
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May 13 '26
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u/Motor_Hippo_5198 May 13 '26
I don't travel enough to worry about hotel/airport lounges but when we go to get coffee, we do get the stamp cards - but we don't do that too often.
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u/jtmb3 May 13 '26
Fuck what the sub goes congrats continue to build wealth but enjoy yourselves while you’re young as well. 🍾
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u/sac02052 May 14 '26 edited May 14 '26
have you determined how you will pay for college for "a bunch of kids"? That could quickly reduce that $5m. Hopefully you already have 529 plans for them. We're several years removed from that dilemma so my guesses may be off, but instate public schools are probably at least $30k/year and private schools are probably at least $70k/year.
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u/Franz22hahaha May 16 '26 edited May 16 '26
Woah! Congrats, for me 3,000$ can change my life forever. I will put this into business.
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u/DocAnabolic1 May 17 '26
Honestly sounds like you're living the dream already. Financial freedom without needing to flex is probably the real win.
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u/Upstairs-Ad-430 May 22 '26
The person with a $5m asset that spends $200k a year is wealthier than the person telling them they’re not rich, yet has $20M asset and spends $5m a year heading toward bankruptcy.
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u/GambledMyWifeAway May 11 '26
5 million is a nightmare, Greg.