Hey All We are a couple(both 31 years old), working since the age of 24/25. And we did a detailed analysis of our financial performance over the years. What we are looking for is feedback from couples at the same age or who are a few years ahead of us. Any constructive feedback would be appreciated. Here are the details: Total W2 income so far: 1.1M Effective annual income tax: ~27%, so total taxes paid in 6 years ~ 304K Expenses in the last 6 years : ~194K (around 33k per year) Total Investment income after capital gains tax: 203k (380K invested in individual stocks, 30K in index fund, 70K vested RSUs, 65k investment in a private business that is profitable but not high growth and some cash) NW: ~805K (we don't count 401k in our NW because it's not liquid and far off in the future. I know it's conservative) We are a bit frugal with our lifestyle w.r.t fixed costs or where there are monthly bills: simple car, average android phones, not many subscriptions, not very expensive apartments. We have not invested in any real estate or bought a personal home because I am too conservative with my approach. We are on work visa and also in HCOL since last 3 years, so I don't think a house is worth at such inflated prices. We don't have kids yet(I know it will change things financially once we do have kids) But we also feel that we are not missing out on things that we want to do. We don't have expensive hobbies. In the last 6 years, we have: Travelled to a foreign country 6 times (but always a cheaper location than the USA). And about 13 vacation trips within the USA. We don't book very expensive hotels. We also eat out around 7-8 times a month but mostly average or cheaper places. And my wife shops a lot but she is not brand savvy and very strategic with her shopping lol. Our goals/things we want to do in life: 1. One or maybe two kids 2. Travel - at least one foreign trip and 2-3 local trips. 3. Send kids to private middle/high school 4. One home/condo that is not too big. Just enough for a family of 3-4. We won't buy unless we can really afford it. We come from a family that hates loans( I know it is not very financially rational, but improves our sleep quality 😉) 5. Just one car that fits our family. 6. Financially free as soon as possible. For me the definition of financial & life freedom is mobility - able to live wherever I want, time - able to decide what to do & when I want to do it, money - able to afford my lifestyle without being stuck to a cube) What do you guys think ? - Am I aggressive enough with my investments? - Will we be able to afford our future goals with two kids at this level of income ? - how did your life (career, money, happiness) change after having kids? - Are we missing something? Anything else that would help us. -Anything that you would do differently if you were in my shoes? PS: I have made the mistake of not learning from seniors in the past. And that's the reason for this first money related blind post. Looking forward to some good tips and feedback. #personalfinance #investments
Are you in Bay Area? Downpayment will cost you half of your NW
Yes but I am never going to pay an enormous amount % our NW as a downpayment. We would probably move to a cheaper city where there is more buying power. And we are not in a rush.
Yeah I’m 33 and my net worth is like 50k. I’ve been working since I was 22. So you guys are doing really well. Can you teach me what you guys have done?
Get a high paying job (or two as a couple), save a large portion of income, ride up on one of the best bull markets in history. Not really rocket science, but there's a bit of luck involved.
So you both made an average of 90k each for 6 years?
Keep up the good work. Your expenses are shockingly low and at this rate you can probably fatFIRE in a couple of years.
Thanks. Those were our average expenses. Now our expenses are higher - around 45K after we moved to HCOL
45k in HCOL? Do you have any hobbies? Do you enjoy eating out or vacationing? $3750 a month for all expenses in HCOL means you must be living in your car
Its so weird how little children you’ll have. Also yall aren’t even enjoying life. Spend more money. One car is silly. Get two. Build real estate. Most rich people are in debt and they have built hundreds of thousands of equity in their properties. 1 foreign trip + 2-3 local trips per year is reasonable. I suggest doing more though. You only have one life. Maybe 2 foreign trips, 5-6 local trips (1 every 2 months). Idk make your life more flavorful. It’s a little dull
I totally agree. The last few years of covid was an eye opener and we are trying to live a little more.
Yeah just gotta make sure you plan things… as you already. Highly suggest more local trips. Do you have the amex platinum. Get the 150k sign on bonus and then travel more that way. Then ask for a retention offer to knock off the annual fee
Buy access to all the OnlyFans accounts
How can you spend 33k/year? Not including rent/mortgage?
That's average per year. Now we spend much more after we moved to HCOL. Before that we were in a cheaper city and spent Justin 1K per month in rent and around $800 in other expenses. So not more than 20K in a year. Unfortunately after covid and moving to HCOL our expenses are much higher. Rent itself takes away 30K per year but other expenses are on the lower side.
Being so risk averse but half of your NW in individual stocks seems conflicting to me.
That's a good point. But maybe I didn't give enough details: I come from a business family. I am the first in our family to ever do a job. I feel businesses over all will preserve more buying power and too much diversification can probably damage it. And individual stocks are not speculative picks. Their PE ratios are lower than the S&P 500 PE ratio and I don't pick companies with debt higher than their cash position. I am too risk averse with my stock picks too 😅
> Their PE ratios are lower than the S&P 500 PE ratio and I don't pick companies with debt higher than their cash position. So you somehow managed to get yourself both lower expected returns (i.e. safe stocks) and lack of diversification (picking individual stocks). Seriously, sell all your individual stocks and RSUs and invest them 100% in index funds.
Using averages is going to distort everything. You need to look at YoY expenditures and incomes or it’s pointless. You have a solid base. 800k at 31 is good. Now you need to look at the recent year or two and decide if you have areas you want to cut expenses, or that are important to you and should have increased time/energy/money invested. No one on here can tell you that, but I can tell you the way you’re representing data here is not going to help make your decision. If I could give two pieces of advice: - Stop stock picking, buy indexes and stop wasting time on stocks that can lose you money. If you’re a professional then ignore this, but most people don’t need to do this. - Plan out some of those things on the list you have that you want to do. How expensive is school, how much are family trips, how much will you need to support if your spouse stays home instead of working (or if you do). That will answer your questions.
Thanks a lot EmptyStr for your feedback. I agree. I do put some emphasis on lifestyle inflation and yoy growth in expenses. But not a lot. Thanks !
Tech Industry
8h
571
What makes so many Southeast Asians have an inferiority complex towards East Asians?
Tech Industry
13h
1622
Amazon is Sh****t
India
7h
471
Raveena Tandon and peaceful community mob
India
Yesterday
1805
Finally I give up, going back to India.
Personal Finance
9h
2748
Child chose 2nd-most expensive college
I feel like this is a flex rather than asking for feedback, tbh. You're doing ok
I knew someone would say this. But dude there is nothing to flex. Average income per person is 90k and I work in an extremely STUPID company.