My family's income stayed in the 200-300K for about 5-7 years in the earlier 2000. I think your assessment is fairly accurate. It is basically in line with our experiences.
Here are two points that is not the case for us.
1) 1/3 time eating out is not realistic for a working family with kids. When you making 250K a year and has two kids in school, there is no time to eating out except weekend. We normally bring some work to do at home in the evening. Our kids also have home work for the next day. Eating out wastes too much time for a working family. We sometimes order some take-out. But we have to cook real food most of time to keep the kids healthy. We make more now. But we can only afford to eat out once a week. The problem is not the money, it is the time.
2) you didn't count the cost of cars. When you making 250K a year, you probably don't want to drive a $18K car to work to show you co-works how poor or how stingy you are. You don't have the time to fix a old used car either. The two vehicles we own cost about $40k each when new. The depreciation is about $9-10 k each year.
We never felt rich during that time. One way to change that is to have you own business. $250K earned from own business will make you feel much richer.
I wanna be a billionaire so fricking bad Buy all of the things I never had Uh, I wanna be on the cover of Forbes magazine Smiling next to Oprah and the Queen 。。。
One more point --- Rich people usually know how to save, while look-like rich people tend to brag about luxury spending.
If you look at the people with $2-10M assets, who may be your colleagues or next-door neighbors, these people mainly spend their money where the upper middle-class do and at a similar scale.
Your calculation is kind of rough. Here are several areas in which less spending is possible without degrading the quality of life:
(1) 房贷：50000（70万贷款，其中40000可以减税） --- with current rate of 5% for 30-yr fixed, the monthly mortgage is about $4,400/mo. This translates into a saving of $6,000 per year. (2) 吃饭：36000(每月3000，其中外出吃饭每月三分之一左右） This number is too high. In California, foods and grocery at a reasonably luxury level (67% home cooking; 33% eating out) is about $10-15 for one person per day. Thus, the costs of foods for a family four is normally under $2,000 per month, or $24,000 annually. This means a saving of $12,000 from your original budget. (3) 捐赠：5000（给孩子学校等的捐款） The donations are normally in the range of $200 to $500 per each school (for upper-middle class), unless you send your kids to private schools. This means a saving of $2,000 at least. (4) 其他：12000（每月1000元左右的其他杂费，网线、电视、其他娱乐） a. Nowadays, tv-internet-digital phone combo for a house cost $100-$150 per month, which on average is about $1,500 per year. b. Cell phone service for family plan (4 people, new phones, unlimited texting msg and data plans) is about $150 per month or $1,800 per year. c. Movies (25 time per year, 4 tickets each time, @$12.5 per tickets) cost $1,250 d. Magazines and papers, $250 per year e. Others costs $2,200 ($50 per week) Thus, (a) + (b) + …+ (e) = $7,000, which means a saving of $5,000.
my husband and i make $100,000 a year.After all taxes and 401K,we have 65000 left.we spend as below per month: groceries $300 gas/power $60 2 cars (gas/maitaness/insurense/dmv fee) $300 property tax/hoa $650 ( house is paid off) meals (eat out) $150 cable/cell phone $150 entertainment $150 travel $4000 ( per year) so our total expenses per year is about $25120 and we can save $40000. we live in Los Angels and life is not bad. i don't think with an income of 250k,they can save only less than $20000. of course if they have a lot of kids and spend like water, that will be different story.but you should spend smart. you might drove a BMW and i drive a Honda Accord,but anyway a car is to used to take you around.You don't need to live in a manson, my 3bed/2.5 bath house is good enough.
I have about 400K/YR income but I put away about 100K a year for 401K and SEP , incl. my spouse's, which is tax deferred. Dine-out meals are company expense, but we still shop at Target/ Macy's level. in My city, family income has to be over $1.6 million to be classified as "rich". We are just "comfortable".
Jiao qing. You live in a million dollar house and spent $3000 0n meals every month, you call that not rich? Rich or not is so relative, but it is always how much you have to spend, not how much you have in your saving account. Otherwise we should call almost all the Chinese rich people who barely spend on anything but save almost every pennies they earned for so many worries and uncertainties in their life. Would you please eat your big pie quietly.
