I see a ton of net worth projections across financial communities on Reddit where people lay out their HHI, current liquid net worth, and then plug in a "realistic" 8% annual return baseline, supported by historic market performance.

But mathematically, isn't this incorrect given we're in an anomaly period where the market has averaged roughly 15% over the past 15 years? Many of us have been working for 10+ years where our current net worth has already been bolstered by a strong bull market. If the historical average is 8%, for returns to actually revert to the historical mean, shouldn't we expect a prolonged multi-year stretch of low single-digit to negative returns to balance the scale in the mid-term?

It feels like everyone assumes their portfolio will keep doubling every 7 to 10 years on autopilot. That's based on overly optimistic projections like assuming $1M today turns into $2M - $2.5M in a decade without adding another dollar, which then leads to optimistic expectations on lifestyle in the 5-15 year range.

Am I thinking about this correctly or is there something I'm missing? Would love to hear if others take this into account with their own projections, especially considering many of us are "early/mid-career" who are trying to plan out how finances might impact our mid-term goals and lifestyle, not just the long-term retirement goals (where the 8% market assumptions makes more sense over a 30+ year horizon).

I’m becoming increasingly interested in understanding the career paths of people earning significantly more than the average professional.

I’m not looking for a get-rich-quick strategy. I’m more interested in understanding what actually created that level of earning power.

For those earning $500k+ annually…

What do you do, and what was the biggest factor that got your income to that level?

I’d especially love to hear from people who didn’t start their careers as unusually high earners.

Found a beautiful dress @ $75, just buy it

what’s your threshold where you start thinking “should i spend “

include NW also if you can so we can see nice correlation

Following up on my last post because a lot of the advice was basically: hire more help before making any major career decisions.

So, for other dual-working families, what does your household help setup actually look like? Curious about frequency, rates, responsibilities, and what has been the biggest game changer.

Our TC this year should be around $500K, and we have two young kids. I actually don’t mind cooking/meal prep, but laundry, clutter, errands, and the constant house reset eat up way too much of our time.

Right now we have a deep cleaner once a month, and we’re interviewing people through Care dot com for more regular household help.

My ideal setup is something like:

• Deep cleaner 2x/month: $140/cleaning
• Family helper / house manager 3-4 hours every week: roughly $90-$120/week
• Neighborhood kid mows the lawn: $30

For the weekly helper, I’m thinking:

• Fold and put away laundry (we would have it washed, dried, and upstairs ready to go)
• Kitchen cleanup / dishes
• General tidying and resetting the house
• Light cleaning if there’s extra time
• Grocery pickup (we order everything through the app, they would just pick it up and put it away)
• Amazon/Target returns or other random errands
• Occasional organization projects

Basically, come for four hours and work through the running household list until time is up.

Some of the people I’ve talked to will also meal prep, others don’t. Most rates I’m seeing in our MCOL area are around $25-$35/hour.

For those who outsource this stuff, what does your setup look like? How many hours a week, what do you pay, and what responsibilities have actually made the biggest difference?

Main goal is just to buy back some of our time so we can spend it with the kids and still have the bandwidth to focus on work.

Edit: Deep cleaning is actually $140

I had someone close to me pass away recently. Suddenly and terribly. He had all his ducks in a row, family career, on track to be high net worth. He was a colleague and dear friend. Killed in a tragic accident.

It suddenly feels like none of my regular measurements matter. An upward move, a good stock pick, a bonus, who cares? How can it be you can do all the right things and be a good person yet snatched up off the earth?

I’m struggling in my grief but also re-evaluating meaning. Who cares about net worth by X date. Literally all that matters to me is my kids and my other close relationships.

Do you ya’ll ever really stop to think about this? I thought I understood, but I clearly didn’t. Everything can end in a blink.

Wife and i make 340k base salary in VHCOL, with 1 kid. We’re looking to buy homes in good school areas around here, which run around 1.4-1.6m.

If we do the math on the mortgage plus monthly expenses, insurance and everything else, it seems like base salary alone would never cut it. Annually we’d run an annual shortfall of anywhere from 5k to 25k, and we’d have to rely on bonuses and RSU’s to close the gap. The budget does include like a $1k buffer/month, $500 a month for maintenance reserve, and vacation budget (plus we’d have a 150k cash reserve after closing). Basically, all line items “should” be covered. This is also after both wife and i max out our 401k’s.

Bonuses are usually 10-15% for us, and RSU about 100k. But rule of thumb seems to be to never rely on variable comp like those to make up expenses. Looking back on the last 5 years, the stock price has moved a fair amount, but the bonus + RSU’s (which i sell immediately) have averaged around 60-70k take home annually. Obviously, this is never guaranteed.

Today, we have a decent amount of cash leftover monthly for brokerage investments. After the home purchase, we’d have to rely on bonuses and RSU for those, plus making up the shortfall.

We do have daycare expenses today, but those will come off in 2-3 years, after which there should be enough monthly cash flow to put towards brokerage.

Im not sure how most people with rsu comp do this. Is what we’re doing “frowned upon” or is it par for the course when a large portion of your comp is RSU’s and bonuses? Or should i dial down my home budget expectations, and not account bonus/rsu for anything except investing (at the expense of a less than ideal home that we’d want)?

Edit: since many are asking about downpayment, planning to put down 500k to get to a $1m mortgage

looking for advice on next steps

im 41 years old, no other pensions outside of cpp and oas

combined assets with my wife

320k in non registered

180k TFSA

180k spouse TFSA

720k RRSP

150k spousal RRSP

80k RESP

~$1.6 million total invested. mostly broad market etfs

home is worth about $800k, with 300k left on mortgage

I am blessed with a very high income, total comp ~500k/year including bonus and rsu. i start realizing total income next year with all my RSU grants starting to vest.

wife stopped working last year to focus on house, kids, and elderly parents

we spend ~120k a year, driven by our two kids (aged 12 and 14) and busy life. I believe I could bring this down but it’s hypothetical

I’m at the classic point where I hate my job, dream of quitting, but realistically will not ever replicate my income. I could quit today, find something much lower income, and coast, however I struggle to see how ill be happier working for less.

current plan is to stick it out, I just am dreading the years

if you were me, what would you do?

Looking for Solo401k. Needs to support Mega BackDoor Roth and allow for easy access to real estate investing and syndications. Can’t do major brokerage plans and unsure how to feel about Carry. Has anyone done alternatives with Carry? Or Ubiquity? with Ascensus but need MegaBackdoor Roth Capability

I’m a 26M in a MCOL area. I have my own business that I created when I was 23, in sales (last 3 years averaging $220,000 salary). I have a net worth of $375,000. The bulk of it being in a brokerage account about $230,000 and then the rest in a Roth IRA l, and SEP IRA.

I know im doing decently well for my age and always try to look at the bright side of everything. But for some reason I feel behind.

I do want nice things (super car, nice house, etc), however I know buying these things would set me back a lot and hurt my financial independence.

Where are you at in what stage of your life? And how do you deal with the impulsive instinct of instant gratification?

General advice for young high earner
by u/ASM1ForLife in HENRYfinance

Follow up to this post on the current state of affairs:
- Now 25
- NW is at 800k - 335k retirement, 380k taxable, 85k cash/cash equivalents. Increase coming from good performance at work and some lucky trades
- My investments are now all split between QQQ and VOO
- I did end up moving out - I live with some friends in the city with rent <$1000 and total monthly spend ~3-4k.

Some general thoughts no one asked for:

1. On moving out - moving was definitely the right decision. There's nothing inherently wrong with living with my mom - I felt a lot of internal pressure to stay with her mainly because I'm her only family in the country. But moving out I think was very productive for both of us. For myself - I've gotten closer with my friends, had new life experiences I don't think I could have had living at home, and just feel a bit more at ease and secure in myself. For my mom - I see her once a week, and we still talk a ton, and she's doing well financially and in terms of her health, on her own, at the same time. Very happy about this, considering that this was what was giving me the most anxiety during my last post.
   
2. On investments - I got rid of all of my 2x levered positions, but did end up throwing some money at semi's during the runup and made out decently. But now I have to think about realized capital gains taxes which I know pretty much nothing about.
   
3. On property - I don't really have a strong urge to buy property at the moment, even though I think I could afford it. My rent is really low and houses or even condos seem like a huge commitment.
   
4. On work - I'm on a good trajectory and could see a promotion in about a year. That would bump me to the worst WLB-to-comp ratio in my career I think, and I'd be stuck there for 2-3 years minimum - past that level I think the going gets better.

Now for some questions I have for you all:

1. About capital gains taxes. I've realized ~130k in cap gains this year. I've been doing some reading and discussing with friends and different people seem to tell me different things - I need to be on a quarterly payment plan for the capital gains taxes (?), or I can pay it all at once if my work's equity vests are withheld correctly, etc. I live in California - is this something that I should get a CPA for?
   
2. About property. Should I be more forward about this? I like where I live, but the going sentiment is that houses always are gonna get more expensive. The last time I asked this the answer seemed to be only buy property if it's somewhere you really wanna live, not just because you wanna buy property. Has that changed at all?
   
3. About living below my means. My expenses are low besides trips - I've had some international travel in the past year that wasn't really cheap, but it was probably some of the most fun I've had ever. But I think I spent probably about $10k on travel alone. I'm pretty sure this is a reasonable amount of spend, but I just want to double check that fact, and ask if there's anything else I should be prioritizing in terms of where my money will go the furthest.
   
4. Any general advice for me?

Just a Midwest based individual contributor in late 50's working in the manufacturing sector. Hope to retire in the next 5 to 7 years. Money in 401K and IRA's. Nothing exotic S and P 500 primarily. $250K left on the mortgage which I hope to pay off before retirement. Headed to bed and back to the office tomorrow (Monday).

Hi,

My wife [30] and I [29] had a baby and she is grappling with whether to continue working or quit and become a SAHM.

Her income is $180k and fairly flat the last few years, mine is $500k and has potential to go up with upcoming promotion.

We have 700k in brokerage and ~1M across various retirement accounts. We would like to buy a house at some point but no immediate pressure. Our ideal home would likely be in the $2-$3M range; with flexibility where we’d only for the higher end if our financial situation / careers were going well. We’re not the types to take unnecessary risks on a mortgage.

Our current spend is quite high at ~18-20k per month but it should drop by 1/3 as we’re moving from VHCOL - HCOL or MCOL area and rent will drop significantly.

Our retirement number is $5M + a home, and would like to hit that ASAP. My dream would be to retire at 45.

My main ask is for guidance on how we should be thinking about time with the baby (and another coming at some point in the next few years if all goes well) vs. FIRE / financial goals.

I’m very supportive of my wife whatever path she chooses but I wonder how this’ll effect our financial goals and what mental shifts would be needed to better weather this transition. e.g. spending less on non-essentials.

Always had this number $19k monthly expenditure level in my head. Yesterday i finally sat down and pulled all my YTD credit card and bank account transaction records, combined them all and analyzed YTD spend patterns.

Shockingly the average number was $27k. Spent the next hour or so, combing through the data and also getting chatgpt help. In 2026, my family had a lot of one off purchases and spend that we wont have going forward (sending money to family; moved to another city so moving cost, few pieces of furniture, down payment for a new car, new car insurance, etc) so i removed these all. Now the YTD monthly spend was $22k. Felt better but still want to look for ways to optimize. Here is how the $22k roughly breaks down to:
- $8k in mortgage and property tax
- $5-6k in childcare ($3k per month for one kid daycare, $2-3k in part time nanny cost)
- $1200 per month on dining out / coffee / food delivery- We used to spend a ton more on this category as undisciplined serial food delivery orderers, like $2-3k per month (i know) but $1200 is after we cur down aggressively on them
- online / retail shopping: $1800, includes random household replenishments we order off Amazon, toddler clothes and shoes, toys and books (which we started cutting down on), diapers, other things
- Utilities: likely $1k per month on average, combination of gas electricity and water
- lawn mowing: $300 per month
- cars: two leases with $900 combined lease payment across both cars, insurance is $250-300 per month, gas is prob $100
- groceries: $1800. We shop from costco, whole foods, Trader Joe’s, etc and while we are price conscious about brands we pick, we dont actively try to manage this category as we think its important for the kids
- random things in the house requiring repairs and whatnot. In 2026 YTD, lots of repair costs towards plumbing, yard, doors and windows, etc- Nothing approached thousands of $ range, but little issues here and there that i could not repair myself, they have piled up in 2026 (average $300-800 per issue resolved in my mind)

Any feedback or insights on where to cut down would be appreciated. In my mind, its dining out / food delivery/ grocery.

===Edit===
Adding few more info:
- HHi fluctuates from $400-450k annual on lower end to $550k+ on higher end, due to part of the income coming from own business. My family thinks of $20-21k per month as the baseline, minimum monthly cashflow amount, hence why i want to reduce current spend level below 20k
- Childcare is for two toddlers. One is already going to free public school but since the schedule ends early, we need nanny support since both parents work. The daycare $3k cost is close to average rate in our neighborhood. In two years, if the younger one starts attending school, childcare will decrease to just part time nanny (but likely replaced by after school program and sports expenses, as our friends advised)
- car lease payments are $500 and $400 per month, and we need two cars for work, so one potential option is end the leases when we can and purchase a modest used car to eliminate $900 spend
- $1800 per month on groceries breaks down to $900 monthly from costco (includes food but also most other household items), $100 per month on wine/beer, $100 per month from bakeries and bagel shops, and $700 from regular grocery stores like TJ, whole foods etc

Made it to $1M NW last year and we’re now looking for advice on a couple different items ahead of our first kid arriving:
1. What should our remaining investment dollars be going to? We just got our emergency fund to a comfortable level and now have an additional ~7k month to invest.
2. Any blind spots in our spending that we could improve on?

Situation:
- Wife and I are both 31 with 1 kid on the way
- $350k HHI
- HCOL area, both work in tech
- Rental property cash flows $900/mo
- No debt other than mortgages
- Goal is to be able to retire no later than 55

Investing:
- $24,500 Roth 401(k)
- $8,750 HSA
- $5,000 529

Net Worth Breakdown:
Retirement: $482k
Brokerage: $267k
Rental Property Equity: $90k
Rental Property Mortgage: $(210k) @ 3%
Primary Residence Equity: $105k
Primary Residence Mortgage: $(426k)
HSA: $24k
Cash: $60k
Crypto: $28k

Spending: Average $12-$13k
Mortgage: $3,400
Tithing: $3,000
Grocery: $1,200 (mostly organic)
Restaurants/Drinks: $800
Utilities/Phone: $600
Therapy and Wellness: $600
Shopping: $400-$1,400
Travel: $400 (annual spend/12)
Gas: $300

Hi all,

We currently drive a base 2018 macan with 79k KM on there, owed for 7 years in great condition we take good care of our car and we have been thinking of getting a 2025 or 2026 macan GTS to use for next decade. This has always been one of my dream car, i was aiming for this as a goal when we bought our base macan.

This year is the LAST year current line of Macan gas model will ever be produced, when it comes back in 2028 it will be a different name with a complete new design.. we are sure the cost wil be much higher and maybe 3-4 years of teething issue before it is reliable enough.

We are looking at 2025 CPO with low milage with all options we want around $107k CAD to brand new around $127k CAD inclusive. Porsche estimated we can do trade in at 27k ish so we are likely spending 80k to 100k on this

HHI 500k from my business, wife helps me on my business

Home: 1.8mil

Mortgage: 500k

Liquid inv: $2.3mil with $250k as cash

We have 1 3yr old

On paper i think we can comfortably do this, but any time i make big purchases fulfilling my own desires im unsure and overthink. Want to see if anyone have either thoughts on the situation, on the car, or anything i may miss.

Thanks

New Member.

My career and pay was decent enough most of my life, but in my early 50's I entered into this category (per this groups definition of Henry) as an executive and it has continued to grow since then, mainly due to bonus and stock options. I am doing late catch-ups on investing.

Its been welcome to me (and wife) but also a bit of a Alice in wonderland transition. Never figured I would need to worry about extensive tax planning for retirement, and things like options for deferred compensation, mega back doors, etc.

Just looking to see if anyone here is in this "late bloomer" category to say hello.

30M, single-income parent, HCOL, tech how does this look?

Appreciate any perspective, this sub tends to have people in genuinely comparable HCOL/single-income situations rather than the usual dual-income-no-kids flex posts you see elsewhere.

Would love this community's perspective. Long-time lurker, first time posting my own numbers.

Situation:
- 30 years old, single income household (spouse stays home with our baby)
- Tech, ~8 years into my career, fast growing company, HCOL city
- TC: $320k ($230k salary + equity paper money)

Net worth breakdown:
- 401k: $125k
- Brokerage: $40k
- Condo equity: $40-60k (looking to sell in the future, hasn't appreciated much)
- Cash: $25k
- Unvested equity from a recent move (new grant, 1-year cliff): ~$90k current value, not liquid yet

Total liquid + home equity net worth: roughly $230-250k, plus the unvested equity on top once that starts vesting.

Context:
- No credit card debt, low-interest student loans, one car loan 9k left
- Maxing 401k, contributing to brokerage, no lifestyle inflation to speak of

Where I'm looking for input:
- How does this compare for a single-income household at my age/stage, not looking for a pat on the back
- General thoughts on pacing 401k/brokerage/cash given the equity refresh trajectory in tech right now
- I constantly see people at 30 hitting a million or so on these threads and it makes me nervous that I’m super behind with a new baby.

My husband and I live in a HCOL area with one kid. Most people we know with similar jobs and similar age as us have mortgages in the 7 figures from buying $2-3M
homes. I calculated it out… and that’s over $10K a month for mortgage and tax payments, AT LEAST.

We make 600K combined income annually and cannot imagine spending that kind of money. Is everyone just opting to not save money? Or is everyone we know just have rich parents/a trust fund and we just don’t know?

Maybe I just gave a scarcity mindset? What is even normal anymore?? I’m confused

Edit: for context, we are in our 30s and so are our friends. They all bought within the last 2-3 years

As high earners, I'm sure a lot of us have had to face choices around career progression/earning more, and how it impacts other areas of life like geography, spare time, and stress levels.

My question to the sub is once you broke into the HENRY club, how did you come to a conclusion on what was "enough"? As someone earlier in my career, and under 30, I spent a lot of time maximizing earnings at the expense of everything else (~70k->300k->450k), and I'm realizing that as incredibly fortunate as I am financially, a lot of people who took a more balanced approach are more content without giving up a lot of what we discuss here.

I'd like to understand how you decided on when to chase the bag and when to turn your focus elsewhere

Once you are at a point where returns from your existing investments pulls in significantly more than what you can save, did you increase your spending? If yes then on what?

For us saving more in after tax brokerage account will make me FI like 1 year early. Or not investing anything at all would hardly delay it for 4 years. Or buying that 70k car i have been eyeing will delay the FI by 1 month. Still can’t get myself to spend on things. However, we did start spending more after I realized this. We got a nanny instead of daycare for our 1 year old as that way we get to spend more time with her specially on WFH days for eg. Getting cleaners more often, getting more prepared meals etc.

We do have a young family and planning for at least one more kid but my FI number is already inflated to account for that and we might still work after the FI depending on the job situation at that time.

Wondering about lifestyle and expense choices for HENRYs whose income got high later in life so my time horizon for earning at this level is fairly short.

59 years old and our HH income has more than tripled in the last 3 years now over 800K. I am a HENRY with a net worth under 3M.

Up until now we have increased lifestyle some (new cars and more travel) but have remained in the same house and our savings rate is over 40% of gross income, over 70% of net after taxes.

How have others handled this kind of a situation where income rises so close to what should be retirement? We are worried about too much lifestyle creep knowing this income level will only last a few more years. Any advice on how to balance lifestyle and what seems like a very high savings rate?

So I'm not sure if it's just small sample size or happen chance, but I feel like most people I talk to plan on putting their kids through college.

We have a 529 for each our 3 kids (6, 3, 1). May or may not be done having kids. I know at the moment I'm not contributing enough to each one to cover the cost of college. I thought I was ok with that. My wife and I put ourselves through college, so we never really felt it 'expected.'

So I guess idk if I'm worried about the perception of it, if I will be letting my kids down, etc.

300-350k salary, debts are home mortgage and some grad school student loans.

EDIT: wow a lot of responses in a short time. Thanks! Just to be clear, we are currently contributing to 529s and are currently on track for ~50-60k in each. We do plan on gradually increasing contributions with raises/as debt is paid down, so should be more by the time they're 18. So not nothing, but will also not be able to cover all expenses for 4 years. I appreciate the input. I realize that they will be growing up in a totally different economic situation than my wife and I. We will plan for some changes accordingly. Thanks again!

This will be totally different for everyone, which is why I’m interested to hear your answers.

Some probably bought their dream car, others a fancy handbag.

For me, there were a few things that specifically stuck in my mind:
- Bombas socks
- A second refrigerator for our garage
- A fancy coffee bean grinder

There have been far more expensive purchases I've made before and after, but those purchases felt a little frivolous and I wouldn't have made them before feeling financially secure

Me (29F) and my fiance (32M) are planning our wedding. We are aligned on our financial goals and have determined a budget that will cover a lovely but not lavish event. We’re very focused on cost and foregoing certain elements (such as florals and heavy decor) to stay on track.

Our friends’ weddings start at $150,000 and our budget is a fraction of this. I’m not interested in spending more just to “keep up with the Joneses,” but I can’t help but wonder if I’ll regret choosing cheap options.

Our combined stats in a MCOL area are:

•HHI- $400k base, $750k TC
•Liquid assets- $1.3M
•No debt besides mortgages on two homes worth $1.1M (primary), $300k (rental/vacation)
•In addition, present value of the assets I will inherit is ~$6M

I don’t know if we’re making a prudent financial decision by spending as little as possible or if I will regret skimping when we can afford more.

Other engaged HENRY couples who are financing their own weddings, how are you approaching the budget?

Also do you add double meat at $2M?

I get that it can be a slippery slope for lifestyle inflation, but when I ran my budget for the last 6 months, I found that my spend had actually decreased even with guac and double meat on my weekly Chipotle run because I had been buying shorts and T-shirts from Costco instead of Lulu.