How much do you need for a baller lifestyle?

Google
0btuse

Go to company page Google

0btuse
Apr 23 19 Comments

A few of us were having drinks at a bar with a patio last evening when a Lamborghini pulls up. A fun debate started with someone saying they will never have the $100M that’s needed to afford that car and a rich lifestyle. So it got me thinking what you really need to afford a wealthy lifestyle, either in net worth or income.

First, let’s calculate how much you need:

-Lamborghini lease incl insurance is $5k/month
- Range Rover daily driver is $2k/month
-$3M house with prop taxes is 15k/month
- Renting a boat couple times a year $1k/month
- trip for 4 in biz class with top hotels is $30k. Say 4 trips a year. Averages out to $10k/month
- $5k for grocery, gas, miscellaneous stuff
-Avg $2k/month for kids stuff
-$5k/month for shopping, gifts, celebrations
-$5k/month for services (cleaners, cooks etc)

So far we’re at $50k/month. Or $600k annual. Which equals $1M/yr in pre-tax W2 income or $750k/yr in passive income with long term capital gains. If that house is paid off, you need only $500k/yr pre tax to fund it all.

So income wise, if you want to save half and spend half and still live a baller lifestyle, you need $2M/yr. That’s an M2/L7 couple in tech.

Passive income and net worth wise, you need $12M invested and a paid off home. That’s it. All these numbers have inflation buffer built in. Most of you Sr SWEs will get there by age 45-50.

Awesome awesome time to be in tech. Hope the gravy train lasts another 10 years at least.

Some of you will argue $3M doesn’t buy a baller house. Well, it does where I live. $5M buys a baller home anywhere (it’s all relative). Just add another $2M to your number.

TC > $1M YoE 17

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TOP 19 Comments
  • Amazon / Eng
    De5i

    Go to company page Amazon Eng

    BIO
    5 YoE, 270 TC
    De5i
    Wrong crowd to ask, bhai. Blind-style baller is 10 crappy rentals, 600k+ TC, 10 year old Camry (or bare bones Tesla 3 tops) instead of Lambo and 50 lbs rice bags from Lakshmi Bazaar instead or fine dining. Not judging though.
    Apr 23 1
  • Microsoft / Eng
    blows2beme

    Go to company page Microsoft Eng

    PRE
    Microsoft
    BIO
    Architect / Full stack software engineer(ing manager) with 20+yr of industry experience. Managing a team of 15 engineers. I specialize in v1 product creation.
    blows2beme
    I had u until u said >>

    Most of you Sr SWEs will get there by age 45-50.
    Apr 23 4
  • Stripe / Eng
    vvXyC3t

    Go to company page Stripe Eng

    vvXyC3t
    Thats nice but realistically if you wanted to be big baller you have multiple other better aligned careers to choose from, like being a quant or CEO, founding a company etc. Let's cut some of these and you can still do these things, just not as bombastically

    Nice car (i.e. BMW i8) - $1K/mo
    $750k mansion in midwest - $4K/mo
    Renting boats - $1K/mo
    Trip for 4 in economy, to EU, 10 times a year - $4K/mo avg
    Groceries, uber eats, food delivery for 4 - $2K/mo
    Toys, games, clothes etc for kids - $500/mo
    Gifts, celebrations - $200/mo
    Do your own dishes - $0/mo

    So we're at $12K/mo, or $140K annual, meaning $200K/yr in pre-tax income, for a more reasonable but clearly low upper class/upper middle class lifestyle. Double for saving you need $400k/yr which you can get easily from L6, some L5 jobs. You can still take that first class trip to Tokyo once a year or better once every 2 years.

    Most SWEs (in FAANG) can get this lifestyle by mid-late 20s, and they likely won't have kids, so those flights go to first class and costs get cut to only $20K/roundtrip flight. Definitely achievable for most on Blind if you LC grind and get those jobs. This also don't factor in buying expensive clothing or dinners, you can get it for $50K more in TC, 2 expensive dinners/mo and some good clothes shopping every couple months

    Just goes to show we are not far off from living high class life, but only thing left is to find a job that doesn't crush your soul
    Apr 23 0
  • That’s got to be a shitty boat.

    You also forgot to include the other homes and flying first class between them.
    Apr 23 2
  • Uber
    UberFellow

    Go to company page Uber

    UberFellow
    Except you got one thing wrong. Kids cost more than 2k.
    Nursing nanny is 8k+tips.
    Daycare is 3k or up.
    Private school is 3k or up
    After school tutor / activity maybe another 1k

    Now Multiplier that with # of kids. You need another 200-300k w2 income
    Apr 23 2
    • Google
      0btuse

      Go to company page Google

      0btuse
      OP
      Partially agree. You’re not going to need a nursing nanny and a private school and a daycare at the same time. Add another $5k a month average I think. Still, the $50-$100M number people float for a lifestyle like this is 3x to 6x of what it actually takes.
      Apr 23
    • Uber
      UberFellow

      Go to company page Uber

      UberFellow
      My calculation assumes either of them.
      Also people want to be conservative, ie if I’m laid off I still want to afford the lifestyle for a while. So having 3-10x of your projected number makes practical sense.
      Apr 23