Question: By the end of 2022, I will have made $350,000 before taxes as the sole breadwinner and head of household. This is a great starting point and I’m very aware how blessed we are to be in this position, but I’m always looking ahead on how to improve. I currently have $88K left in student loans (originally close to $150K) and very little credit card debt (less than $2K with more than $25K available). I have two auto loans totaling $170K for two electric vehicles at 5% interest.
I’ve recently been offered a $200K HELOC at 9%, which would help me bring down some of my monthly payments and do some small home repairs and improvements, but I want to make the right moves. And I’ve also been presented with a few long-term real estate investment opportunities that are rental properties out of state and are currently bringing it 10-12% ROI. But my biggest concern is that after taxes, 401(k) contributions, bills, savings and mortgage ($4,500), on paper I’m paycheck to paycheck. I’d like to use this HELOC to consolidate debt while also participating in some of these investment opportunities. I’m the first of my generation to own a home and the first to earn this much annually and don’t want to mess this up. How, specifically, can a financial adviser help me?
Dear Money Guy, should I borrow money (at a higher interest rate than my other debt) to spend more money?
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I’m so confused. He’s making $350k pre tax, assuming he lives in the hustle and bustle and maxes out the 401k for him and the spouse, he should be taking home at least $220k post tax. That’s like $18k/month. After mortgage that’s $13k/month. How much are his other “bills” that he’s living paycheck to paycheck?
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Life style creep is crazy tbh. Back when I was in my PhD program my wife and I were making a yearly amount around 70k, after I left and got a job and she got a huge promo we were making over 200k in a LCOL area.
We just dramatically increased our spending, realized we don’t need all this stiff, and cut back.
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Honestly, an r-slur of this magnitude is probably buying 100-bucks-plate steak dinners a couple times a week, plus a few expensive vacations a year, just because he thinks “that’s what other people do who make as much as I do”
then the money just trickles away
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But even that wouldn’t eat up $13k/month. I really want to know what this r-slur is spending on.
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Cocaine and Only Fans
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at least $3-4k a month on nose candy
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$150k in student loans is going to be roughly $1,600 a month. $180k of car loans on a 5 year are going to be $3600/m. So that's $9,700 a month right there. Head of household probably means kids, so let's say $2,000 on private school possibly even $4,000 (2 kids). Then just blowing the rest on stupid shit.
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Online simping.
I know someone who makes 100k and has to resort to eating cup noodles or at the office cafeteria for every meal because of his r-sluration.
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Sounds pretty poor, so not surprised about the cup noodles.
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He forgot to mention the $10k/mo Onlyfans bill.
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Head of household implies a household. Going to assume that the kids are part of it.
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No, the wife is a dependent. In either case kids aren’t chewing through 13k/month.
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Go read that "we're broke on 440k a year" article to see how r-slurred people like this can be.
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It’s the wife. She’s also living a “earns $350k a year” lifestyle but not bringing in shit but extra bills, subscriptions and new clothes. A voracious wife can turn a rich man into dust.
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Chances are he's paying a bit of capital gains tax as well since he's presumably a techcel whose TC is partially paid in equity and 2021 was a good year... the good news though is that W2 earnings will probably be much smaller in 2022!
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I'm with you. I've made well into six figures for a decade now, but I don't have kids, don't have weird hobbies, and don't take crazy vacations. So I've never thought about money, honestly. Oh no! A road trip to Lake placid! Oh no, four months later we're going to California or France for a week!
How do these people frick this kind of money up?
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3k/month on cars, probably 1k on random crap, 2k on restaurants, 3-4k on vacations, 2k on entertainment and another recouple grand on the kids/home improvement/etc and boom, it's all gone
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Great math skills lol
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