there was an earlier thread about TC and happiness and what I’m interested in is what people do with excessive TC once they have the upper middle class basics: house and cars paid off; money set aside for 3 kids’ college; 1 year emergency fund. my wife and i are savers by nature (having started out poor) but with small kids we dont spend hige amounts on trips or cars or stuff. what little (or big) things do you do with your excess earnings? the main luxuries i afford myself is a morning latte at starbucks ($30 per week) and a massage ($16 per week after insurance reimbursement). overall im pretty happy; i’m just curious what others do. YoE: 16 TC: 200k Location: in US, but not CA
FIRE
You think you'll save for retirement and then do what you want, but reality is that you'll neither have a capability nor the strength to enjoy. Save enough, but Live today. Do something for yourself.
💯 this. Don't push it off until your retirement.
What’s insurance reimbursement for massage?
At Amazon you need a prescription and then it’s covered at 90% for up to 16 or 18 visits a year.
How do you get prescription ? I have back pain many times
start with a mistress or 2
The Bezos way
We take vacations. Growing up, my wife and I both had no vacations because our parents were too poor. So we go on vacations. Disney, Hawaii, Europe, whatever. We want our kids to have what we never had, and we are in a position to give that to them. They’ll have great memories of growing up and going on vacation to fun and beautiful places. Memories last a lifetime.
I'm expecting and curious if you waited to take vacations till they were 6 when they retain memories, do started earlier than that?
Yes and no. One kid is that old, the other is younger. But we couldn’t wait until both were old enough or that would “punish” the older one by having to wait.
Start an expensive hobby, become a pilot, do mountain biking, motorcycle racing, hire a personal cross-fit trainer, try strip clubs, hire a “guru”, invest in startups, remodel your house, open a franchise.
Travel is our single largest discretionary expense.
Excess tc ? There is never excess. Right now it's so pricey to live where I am there is barely any savings after mortgage and car payments. Hopefully it gets better soon, but this area sucks as it just gets more expensive every week as more people move here.
Travel as much as possible. Not waiting until I’m retired to then spend my time staring at a pile of cash.