There is no - strict - delineation between wants and needs. Elizabeth Warren herself is very clear about this in her book and in the various interviews she's given since it was published.A couple take-aways and questions for the group:
1. It is expensive to raise kids today. My wife and I both earn over 6 figures and we live in a LCOL area in rural Iowa.
2. Has anyone else done an analysis like this and what did you come up with for sending on needs/wants or the 50/30/20 budget rule?
3. Does it make sense to say that a 4 bedroom house is a need for a family with 3 kids?
4. Do you agree with my wife that I wasted 3 hours on a flight?
What matters is the 20% savings rate. Hit that and you'll likely do OK come retirement.
As far as your questions, yes, we did this same thought experiment several years ago. Even though we were already hitting the 20% savings target, we realized that our housing expenses were unreasonable for our stage in life. We adjusted, saved the difference, and with a couple of salary increases and other lifestyle changes we now have a comparatively healthy net worth for our age group (very good compared to our contemporaries, and still fairly reasonable by Boglehead standards).
Statistics: Posted by MH2 — Tue Jun 25, 2024 6:25 am — Replies 19 — Views 2001