My wife and I make okay money in a middle class area, but, due to a combination of good luck, and contrived to circumstances, we recently got to watch a college football game in the stadium’s super executive corporate sponsor level suite. It was awesome. Open bar, amazing catered food, and people networking all around me who are clearly in the c-suite of their respective companies. I had a list of crazy things I was going to say if someone asked me what I did, but it never came up.
My older brother is a Tony Award winning producer and I took a trip to NYC ten years ago. His business partner is a former schoolteacher who became friends with a celebrity and got rich producing her stage plays.
Before going to NYC, I called them up and told them “Hey, I’m going to go see the Yankees while I’m there. There are $15 tickets in the outfield. Wanna go?” It was Jeter’s last year and I wanted to see him play live at Yankee Stadium. Their response was “Don’t worry, we’ll handle it.”
Handling it meant lunch at the stadium club, with Peyton Manning and a bunch of celebrities in the dining room and lobster piled higher than my head, literally. The most luxurious lunch I’ve had in my life. Then we rode the escalator down to our seats, through a tunnel lined with every free candy you can think of on both sides, to the second row behind the Yankee dugout, with our own dedicated server, who kept bringing us wonderful drinks. (TEN FEET AWAY FROM DEREK JETER) Then, in the third inning, another surprise: someone taps me on my shoulder holding one of the bases from batting practice, which my brother’s business partner purchased and had framed for me with my ticket and a photo.
That was too overwhelming. I couldn’t help but cry.
We went for another meal in the 7th inning. The food was still fresh and amazing.
The Yankees lost that day, but it’s okay.
I call it my ‘Make a Wish’ Day.
That’s hilarious, that you had to pretend you were dying of cancer for such extravagance to make sense in your life.
It was the most overwhelming gift I have ever received.
And the thing is, his business partner does similar things for a lot of people. She never lost touch with being a wage earner and her understanding of being a non-wealthy person, and she loves spoiling people because of it. Just awesome.
This is kinda lame but i feel like i would have zero apettite in that situation. I would just feel vaguely disgusted at the gluttony surrounding me thinking about all food that would be thrown away afterwards.
Food waste is bad. In the US composting is becoming more popular. Even those a holes in Vegas are turning food waste into methane based fuel production. Covid started up a bunch of organizations doing second chance food distribution for food pantries. It’s hard in the US due to strict rules on food safety and lawsuit risk.
Imagine you change the script a little and it’s you getting a once in a lifetime unexpected VIP experience at your favorite venue to see your favorite celebrity/person. I think food waste might not be at the top of your concerns.
It’s been a long time since I read The Catcher in the Rye. A modern version of it would have Holden Caulfied somehow have this experience and be tormented by both sides of it, including your point of view. I’m not sure what he would do with the framed base and ticket afterwards.
Growing up poor, and eventually working my way into a tech job dealt me a long stream of culture shocks. Just socialising with people earning over 100k is wild. The vacations, hobbies, and even anecdotes, are all so different than what I imagined. I feel I betray my roots a thousand times a day.
I know this is just basic working class petit bourgeois stuff (that I’m part of), but the carefree attitude is so alien to me. I can’t imagine feeling so entitled to luxury.
Im not so sure 100k will give folks super vacations and hobbies anymore. I mean if it just crests it.
I’ve never actually been on a vacation, so maybe my view of what constitutes luxury isn’t the norm… Yeah without context I get that 100k+ is just a really good livable income.
So I suppose it depends how long they’ve had it and if they have generational wealth. Like I’ve earned 100k but I’m the only one in my family to do so, so I spend most of it working down debt, and supporting family.
I get that there are richer people. But of my personal experience, it seems like people that don’t have that kind of reverse inheritance of poor roots get to live such carefree lives.
While still being working class ofc
Im single income with a wife with many medical issues. Im currently unemployed and Im trying to figure out how low I can take. 80k and we have to draw from savings. A bit over 2k a month medical costs, 2k for housing, 2k for everything else every month. Then figured out taxes on that. so I net it. Im also getting older with not enough retirement savings. Granted its way cheaper for one person who is healthy. I can’t imagine if we had kids how bad this would be. Certainly would easily make 100k inadequate. now granted two people making 60k is one person makeing 120k.
I feel like those who end up in your position end up one of two ways.
You know that you don’t have a safety net, so you don’t spend money more than you need to. Also, since it sounds like you support your family significantly, a lot of money that would go to vacations instead goes to them.
For others, money was an on/off switch; you either have it or you don’t. These kinds of people will spend at or above their means because they can and there aren’t any hard limits due to a lot of credit options.
Yup, I feel that. My “new” car purchase this year was a used 2015 Nissan leaf that was like 6k. It baffles me how my colleagues budget their money. A rivian?? Son, that’s the cost of a new roof.
EDIT: I don’t know new car prices so I had to look it up. It’s actually almost the cost of two new roofs! The high end model is a down payment for a nice house in my market!
Yep, I have no idea how people are able to afford stuff like that! Some of our friends have these crazy hobbies and go out to eat all the time, multiple cruises a year, etc. Meanwhile a ‘date night’ for us is Chipotle and DVDs of whatever show we are watching that we borrowed from the Library. That is the only way we can afford our modest one side of a duplex. And I feel like I make ok money but I guess everyone we know just makes so much more, or we are just very strict with our budgeting and credit usage.
I’m with you. I make mid-100s myself and as a single homeowner with no children I still can’t afford to go on funky vacations.
My take home after 401k and taxes is like $7,600 a month and my mortgage, heloc, car and student loans eat about $5,000 of that.
But, car will be paid off in the next few months, student loans should be done about 2 years after that, he lock will be done about 2 years after that so 5 years from now it’s only going to cost me like $2,500 a month to keep my home.
I have been told that I fit into the Henry class, “high earning, not rich yet”.
I just wonder if I can keep going for 5 years to accomplish that or if I should just finish up the house and sell it and pocket the 200k in value it’s accrued, pay off any other outstanding debt, and then go find an apartment or something or go travel.
Cheers to that. I’ve gone through the same thing. My tech work had me installing wireless equipment on highrise roofs in a major city. One time I went down from the roof to the top floor penthouse to set up the owner big wig dude with our service. It was an absolutely beautiful place, and I was just taking it in, and was admiring the view from the balcony. He started showing off the view and really went on about it, inviting me out to the balcony. I should have taken the hint that it was important to him, and just gone with it, but I mentioned I just came from a better view and pointed up half joking and it completely deflated the dude. He probably isn’t even allowed up there on the roof, and I had a 360 view up there. I tried to recover and fumbled out something like ‘but to wake up to it every morning, wow’ but the damage was done, I one upped the millionaire on accident.
Likewise, I grew up on a council estate in the north of England. Worked my way up to a good education and eventually created a $250k consulting business in London.
My experience of six figure earners in London was that many were also “new”, their parents had been working class, which I suppose points to some social mobility and meritocracy left in Britain.
For others it was totally normal. Not that they were from money, but in the more mundane sense that they’d grown up in London, they and all their friends had gotten tutor support by parents who both worked and for whom looking at the job opportunities on offer in London, a six figure salary was a realistic prospect after working some years. This is probably the category I aspire for my kids to be in
Then there are the kids from money. Not unpleasant people, Britain doesn’t quite have that competitiveness in the same way. Bragging about income is still crass. But they did seem genuinely clueless of the grief they’d been spared because bank of mum+dad bunged them a loan of 500k when they bought their first place, which they then paid back fairly effortlessly.
The most unpleasant people I ever dealt with were rich people from other countries. Maybe because in Britain money doesn’t buy you class or respect.
Also grew up poor. But, wow, I wish earning over $100k was enough for vacations and hobbies in Seattle… I make around $150k, have a tiny home, and have only had one vacation since before COVID. I mean owning a home at all is pretty significant here, I guess.
I could probably do better if I moved far enough out of the city, but I’d lose a lot of conveniences that would cost me lots of time and money mostly around transportation, parking, shopping, etc. I do have a few hobbies, but most of my hobby time is used in home maintenance because it’s a 118 year old home… These days it takes about $250k around here to really start to have extra money for nice vacations and hobbies.
Dunno why you got downvoted. Shit’s expensive. We’re doing pretty good, but live in a very plain, 60 year old home, no new cars, but we do manage a decent vacation once every other year or so. I don’t understand the “carefree” attitude being described with a $100k salary, we have to budget, plan expenses, and any big bills are still a surprise and an unhappy event.
We don’t live in major metro area, or even in the suburbs of one.
Also grew up poor. I know exactly how you feel. I don’t have a partner and kids to take care of and I make good money in tech. I’ve shoved enough back to retire early (theoretically, I guess we’ll see) and now I’m out here with no car payment, a mostly paid off mortgage, and I’m spending too much on hobbies.
It’s still wild to me.
I don’t want to like suck all the joy out of your life, but check out the cheap hobbies! Reading, writing, knitting, drawing, some sports, etc.
I briefly made the dumbass decision to take up cigars and cognac as “hobbies.” Ugh I don’t know what I was thinking. Anyway, quitting smoking and drinking has moved to much more reasonable substances, like tea and baking.
A friend invited me on vacation with her family. They are very wealthy compared to me. It was clear up front that lodging and meals were covered by them, but I was hazy on everything else. It stressed me out so bad.
Do I want to go with them to do some Expensive Activity? Of course, but am I paying for it? Can I afford it? Even if I can, do I want to spend my limited money on that? Do they see me as a freeloader? How are these other not-rich friends navigating this because no one ever seems to talk about money? Fortunately, my friend saw my stress and had a discrete conversation with me where we set some guidelines.
A few of us were invited out to dinner by our boss in my first corporate job. I ordered the cheapest sandwich on the menu because I had no idea if he was paying for me, and this wasn’t the sort of restaurant I could go to except for anniversaries. Everybody else got steaks and stuff, and the boss did pay. My chicken sandwich was good too, but I’ll never forget my anxiety looking at the prices on the menu!
A girl I dated was friends with the daughter of one of Microsoft’s founders and we got invited to their house to watch Seafair. I think it’d be safe to call it a small mansion right on the water with a dock. The kitchen was as big as my whole apartment. The technology was a bit dated but must’ve been state of the art when it was built. Switches for automated everything. On the water we had front row seats to the Blue Angels. They are incredibly loud up close.
The guy was super down to earth. Had a good conversation where he showed genuine interest in me and what I did.
9.9/10, the hot tub was broken
Though I wouldn’t suggest bringing up open source software around him. Unless it’s to bitch about people doing things for free when you want to charge lots of money for it.
I stayed a few nights at the St. Regis in NYC in the presidential suite. Pretty ridiculous, 3 bedrooms, 4 baths, private butler, full kitchen and dining room, use of a Bentley, 3,430 sq ft. (318 sqm) bigger than any house I ever lived in.
Through my old job I got to do lots of stupid shit, fly private internationally, use someone’s beach house for a week on their own island, etc.
While aspects of it were fun, I always felt like an outsider, and the waste really bothered me. I’m someone who bicycles or walks to the farmers market with a courier bag.
