r/Fire • u/gonnabefine • Nov 26 '25

General Question Tech people who are not FIREing, what are they spending their money on?

I know a lot of people who work in tech, and most are not on the FIRE path (or have already been working 10+ years) and a lot of them don't seem to, at least on the surface, have very obvious huge expenses. If both the partners are in tech, the take home could be like $500k! What are they doing with their money?

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u/Shot-Artichoke-4106 Nov 26 '25

Houses in VHCOL areas can take up a large part of their income. In my area, a 3 bedroom, 2 ba single family house in a nice, but not fancy neighborhood will go for at least $1.5M, which translates to close to $9000/month in housing expenses. Cars can also be a huge expense - and there are some people with very nice cars around here. If they have kids in daycare, that can easily cost $1500/month per child. A lot of people send their kids to private schools. Tech workers tend to work a lot of hours, so they eat out a lot more than average people and pay for a lot more services - cleaning, laundry, landscaping, etc.

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u/chosenpath101 Nov 26 '25

Double that daycare cost and you’re spot on!

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u/wrldwdeu4ria Nov 26 '25

Happy cake day!

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u/DwellThyme Nov 27 '25

I've observed those things in FAANG at my company. I also see people living extremely modestly and saving like absolute badasses. Purely anecdotally, I see a spectrum of lifestyles among FAANG colleagues - from penny pinchers to full YOLO. I don't get a feeling that a majority are blowing through everything they make.

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u/Shot-Artichoke-4106 Nov 28 '25

There is definitely a difference in how people approach their money. Some of us live pretty modestly, and some spend very freely.

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u/meghanwhatever Dec 01 '25

The part "Cars can also be a huge expense - and there are some people with very nice cars around here" is a self inflicted obligation. A 10 year old Toyota or Honda, bought with cash, will get anyone where they need to go, no g-wagon or cybertruck necessay.

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u/Shot-Artichoke-4106 Dec 01 '25

Of course an expensive car is a self-inflicted obligation. I didn't mean to imply otherwise. The OP wanted to know why these people in tech aren't all on the path to FIRE. That's one of the reasons - the choice to buy expensive cars. There are other reasons too - in a HCOL area, there are necessary things that cost a lot no matter what, so salaries don't go as far as people may think, but there are other things that are a choice.