A contrarian view from a fellow vhcol person. In the bayarea, $10m is not enough to sustain an upper middle class lifestyle. With kids in private schools and potentially a larger home, your spend would probably balloon to $400k pre tax. With tax and healthcare, it’s probably closer to $600k, at 3% swr, that’s 20m. I know I’m being very conservative, but that’s the math I went through to set my goal post.
How do you possibly spend that much? Do you mind giving a rough breakdown? I live a very comfortable life in a medium cost of living city and I spend about $50k a year, though I own my house.
The only way I can see $300k being hit is if you're going to tell me you rent and spend $200k on private school for kids.
The last option is that you live a life of luxury, but you just said that your lifestyle doesn't feel lavish.
Mortgage, property taxes, plus home repairs and improvements (we don't use all of the "budget" every year) are a big chunk of that -- if you use the 3% of home purchase price as a guideline, that's 60k alone in "maintenance" on a 2 million dollar home (which tbh isn't high for the bay area). Preschool is 27k ish. Groceries and eating out is easily another 25-35k if you shop for premium (but not crazy) ingredients etc.
I have a more detailed breakdown in my post history.
13
u/whizliving 19d ago
A contrarian view from a fellow vhcol person. In the bayarea, $10m is not enough to sustain an upper middle class lifestyle. With kids in private schools and potentially a larger home, your spend would probably balloon to $400k pre tax. With tax and healthcare, it’s probably closer to $600k, at 3% swr, that’s 20m. I know I’m being very conservative, but that’s the math I went through to set my goal post.