How much income is enough?

LulzSect said:

Interesting thread. I'm reminded of a quote (paraphrased), "with money, you control life; without money, life controls you."

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Except for when you or a loved one have an illness that there's no cure for. I've learned I have very little control over life. It's going to be a combination of joy and pain no matter what I'm worth. Only there's less pain than not being able to pay your bills or eat. There will still be pain nonetheless.

wormie said:

I tell this mother fucker about overall human psychology and he jerks himself off with personal anecdotes of greatness. Cool? On average, relative income matters to everyone.

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You are a jackass. I've hung out with the ultra rich, and they are no happier than normal, middle class folk. A lot of them are popping pills/doing coke/drinking alcohol non-stop. They wake up trapped.

Comparing yourself to your neighbor only gets you in worse trouble. Things don't make you happier. You just think they do. But you'll just want to upgrade to the next level, and so on and so on. It never ends until you get off the ride everyone else is on and decide to live free.

I'm not speaking as some random Internet dude here. I'm speaking from experience.

I've mentioned it before, but I found Mr. Money Mustache about 2 years ago. Planning on retiring in under 7 years, before my 40th birthday.

My wife and I have never really had a high income. In our early 20s I was enlisted in the Army and so she never had steady employment. I got out in 2008 and went back to school where we lived off the GI Bill and her supporting me as a bank teller making about $12 an hour.

It wasn't until around the last 2 years or so where we finally started making money; we went from probably $60k combined (which was about 10k more than our best year) to about $100K. And since, we're now up to about $145k.

We've had a slight amount of lifestyle inflation (we bought a house, eat more produce) but otherwise we spend about what we used to; somewhere between $40k to 50k. All of the rest of it goes towards early retirement.

And the crazy part to me is that at $50k spending, we literally want for nothing. We buy tons of shit on Amazon and go on nice vacations. But at the same time, we drive olders cars because as long as they get us from point a to b, we're satisfied. Having a brand new car doesn't add any value to out lives. I don't know that being slightly more comfortable for my 10 minute commute is worth $30k.

Anyway, back to the first page, if we didn't have a mortgage or need to save for retirement, we'd be able to cut back to between $25k to 30k. And that's still without feeling deprived. I think we've really figured out what purchases bring value to our lives; something most people are unfortunately not even close to realizing.

We have about 63k in mandatory bills on about 210k income. Prob 3k a month in mortgages but over half is for the 2 rentals.

My friends all call me jewy but i feel like Mike Tyson here.

Shonuff needs to hire my ass so I don't have to grind away here in the shitty Middle East to get ahead!

If I have to put up with another year of this gov contracting bs, I am going to lose my damn mind. I need a new career, but feel trapped by my earnings. I honestly make 3-4x what I would in the US. Plus all the added benefits being able to max out a 401k and dabble in my own investments. The thought of leaving here and grinding out a meager existence with a mortgage is soul crushing. I honestly don't know how people do it.

Jysin said:

Shonuff needs to hire my ass so I don't have to grind away here in the shitty Middle East to get ahead!

If I have to put up with another year of this gov contracting bs, I am going to lose my damn mind. I need a new career, but feel trapped by my earnings. I honestly make 3-4x what I would in the US. Plus all the added benefits being able to max out a 401k and dabble in my own investments. The thought of leaving here and grinding out a meager existence with a mortgage is soul crushing. I honestly don't know how people do it.

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Well you should have been able to save up a lot of money right? Purchase a home with cash that you can actually afford and live the debt free dream.

Soygen said:

Thanks. I can retire in 7 years now?!

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Yes, but you have to grow your own string beans and eat nothing but rice.

You sell the string beans at a farmer's market.