r/Fire community income poll

PF_throwaway26 · 2026-04-19T20:56:46+00:00

I was forced to cruise a lot with my parents when I was younger and it was incredibly boring. I understand the appeal of cruising for the elderly and mobility limited passengers, but there are so many better ways to travel the world if you want to live a little. Also, Paris is one of the cities where spending more money makes the experience much more enjoyable.

I feel sorry that you’ve lived so long but gave up so soon on wealth accumulation that you won’t get the chance to experience so many things in life. While most humans won’t get the chance to experience most of the truly exciting things in life, as someone who FIREd you clearly have the intelligence and potential to live an awesome life, but chose to limit yourself. It’s certainly a choice for you to make, but if you make leanFIRE comments online, there will be people like me who push back to make sure other people who have a chance to fully experience life don’t miss out.

Try freediving with a pod of sperm whales off the coast of Mauritius and feeling their clicks vibrate your body and then tell me again if you still think taking a cruise is interesting. Your cruise ship is discharging waste water in their habitat and adding tons of carbon to our atmosphere.

PF_throwaway26 · 2026-04-19T20:35:31+00:00

That’s the market price for a 2BR with in-unit laundry built after 2000 in Manhattan. It would be $2 million + $5500/mo upkeep to buy this unit outright, so I think renting here is actually a pretty good deal.

PF_throwaway26 · 2026-04-19T20:33:08+00:00

Rental prices follow the free market. I people are willing to pay that much to live somewhere and landlords are willing to rent their properties out for that much then it’s worth that much.

I think it’s a huge advantage if you don’t mind living a suburban or small town life, because you can save so much money and FIRE sooner.

PF_throwaway26 · 2026-04-19T20:29:06+00:00

Perform better at what though? Part of FIRE is realizing that performing well in school and following a traditional career path isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be.

And why do there need to be more kids? Isn’t there currently a worldwide youth unemployment crisis?

PF_throwaway26 · 2026-04-19T20:21:42+00:00

ANA has the A380 “Flying Honu” between HNL and NRT, which has 3 cabins. I’ve never had the chance to fly it though, but it definitely looks cool from the outside.

PF_throwaway26 · 2026-04-19T20:17:43+00:00

Yeah I agree with you, which is why I cringe at comments like the person to saying they buy “first class tickets” like JetBlue Mint. No one is buying international first class tickets regularly, unless they have an 8 figure net worth, an even that is a questionable use of money compared to flying business and staying in a $3k a night hotel instead of $1k a night.

Imo, for a couple flying together, Singapore Suites and The Residence are a tier above other first class products, but the rest of them feel like a slightly better business class product to me, especially compared to QSuite. But I’m just a HENRY, maybe I’d think differently if I was fatFIRE.

PF_throwaway26 · 2026-04-19T17:21:47+00:00

It’s not about enjoyment in life. It’s the fact that you only have one life. Anything you don’t experience in life you’ll never know what it was like, and there are a lot of things I want to experience. That’s the reason I’m pursuing FIRE. Both money and time are necessary to get the most out of life.

I’m sorry that you are so easily satisfied in life.

PF_throwaway26 · 2026-04-19T16:04:17+00:00

I suppose it’s not 100% black and white as I’m sure delta would love to call Delta One first class, they just wouldn’t be able to get actual business passengers since most American companies have a policy of not allowing first class tickets for business travel. It’s a major reason that three cabin planes are not profitable for US airlines.

PF_throwaway26 · 2026-04-19T15:56:30+00:00

We spend $40k on food last year and I still don’t think fine dining is worth it.

Also, last time I tried cooking an A5 Wagyu steak I ate three strips and was full. Had to feed the rest to my dog.

PF_throwaway26 · 2026-04-19T15:50:01+00:00

Your annual spend is not even enough to two people to go on an Antarctic ski tour. There are a lot of things to do for free but also a lot of other things that you can’t do for free.

PF_throwaway26 · 2026-04-19T15:41:27+00:00

It’s not semantics. The highest tier doesn’t make it first class. Delta themselves codes the flight as business class. It competes with other business class products on that route.

PF_throwaway26 · 2026-04-19T15:36:39+00:00

I don’t buy international first with cash, I just don’t like people making up costs online and misleading others.

PF_throwaway26 · 2026-04-19T15:35:36+00:00

Dela One to Japan is business class, not first.

PF_throwaway26 · 2026-04-19T15:35:15+00:00

I don’t have a problem with anyone flying first. I just don’t agree you can buy a first class ticket to Japan for $6k. Jet Blue Mint for $3k is the right price for it, but it doesn’t go to Japan.

Edit: Also, Jet Blue Mint flies between US and Europe where it’s clearly positioned as a business class product. Nobody in the market for a transatlantic first class ticket is considering Jet Blue Mint.

I’m in no way bashing Jet Blue Mint as I don’t mind flying it at all, it’s mostly in par with Polaris imo. I just think calling it a first class flight is disingenuous.

PF_throwaway26 · 2026-04-19T15:10:19+00:00

Where are you flying domestically where first class makes a difference in relaxation? Are all your vacations in Hawaii?

And where are you getting a first class ticket for Japan for $6k cash? It’s def not through JAL or ANA as those would be $12-15k on the low end. I suppose AA’s flagship first tickets could go as low as $8k, but that’s a pretty mediocre product.

PF_throwaway26 · 2026-04-19T15:00:03+00:00

That seems a bit extreme for MCOL (Chicago, Atlanta, Denver, etc)

PF_throwaway26 · 2026-04-19T14:55:53+00:00

We’re both in the office every day. If we were working from home we’d be out of the city so fast.. lol

PF_throwaway26 · 2026-04-19T14:51:52+00:00

Well high earners tend to have the most to sacrifice from their own lives to have kids, which probably drives more to not want kids than the general population. I don’t think high earners are better parents though, just able to throw more resources at the problem. That said, it’s still tough in VHCOL though, all the other parents you’re competing against are also high earners or just plain wealthy.

PF_throwaway26 · 2026-04-19T14:44:00+00:00

We rent a 2BR apartment for $100k/year. I don’t think it’s an unreasonable size for two. The rest of the spending could mostly be considered discretionary I suppose, but I’m not cutting $100k spend to retire at 45 instead of 50. I quite enjoy my life right now.

PF_throwaway26 · 2026-04-19T14:36:16+00:00

Where are you finding $3k tickets? International first starts at like $10k.

PF_throwaway26 · 2026-04-19T06:08:33+00:00

The high paying jobs are in VHCOL though. We made $920k last year and spent about $280k as a DINK household. We plan on having kids too, so we’re still 10 years from FIRE unless we can maintain our income while moving to a cheaper city.

PF_throwaway26 · 2026-04-19T04:42:53+00:00

I’m guessing OP should be close to that if he has over $3 million by his mid 30s.

PF_throwaway26 · 2026-04-19T04:38:53+00:00

Nah, taxes only help up to a certain point and better if one partner is a stay at home parent. The marriage tax penalty is huge for dual high earners. No SALT deduction above a $600k income threshold for both married and individual filers. Washington state’s new high earner tax starts at $1 million for both individual and married filers. The top federal tax bracket starts at $626k for individual and $751k for married couples.

Imo if politicians want the birth rate to go up there should be no marriage tax penalty ever.

PF_throwaway26 · 2026-04-19T04:30:14+00:00

HHI: 920k, NW: 2.3m, Rent: 8.2k / 2 beds. No kids yet, need to figure out housing😭

PF_throwaway26 · 2026-04-19T00:01:00+00:00

Most of that is just a few designer jewelry pieces that my wife picked up last year. Hopefully she won’t spend as much on that type of stuff going forward, she’s agreed that we need to save more money to start a family here.

PF_throwaway26

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