When saving and investing for financial independence, many people try to avoid lifestyle creep, also known as lifestyle inflation. As incomes go up, so does spending. Many of the super wealthy and high-net-worth households in America became wealthy because they had high income and also a high savings rate.
But what if you’ve read Die With Zero by Bill Perkins and now you want to crank up your lifestyle a bit? What expensive lifestyle choices actually improves your life satisfaction?
The question was posed on Reddit’s FatFire forum and received over 300 comments. Here are some of the top spending categories that Redditors reported actually improved their life.
Private Tours and Excursions
No doubt, travel is one of the most frequently cited experiences that improves your happiness and well being. For many high-net-worth families, travel is their most expensive discretionary spending category.
Private excursions and tours were frequently upvoted and mentioned.
On vacations, I’ll shell out extra money for private excursions / tours. No waiting on other folks. No sharing space. No concern that someone else may negatively influence my experience. Adds up quickly but well worth it to me.
B_Hawk
For example, for about $1,000, you and 3 friends can book a private tour of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met) in New York City. On a day when the gallery is closed to the public, a art historian or museum curator will take you on a private tour for a few hours.
Even if you struggle to appreciate art, it’s amazing touring the museum without any other tourists there!
Business Class
Business and first class travel was upvoted over 500 times. Even though business class tickets can sometimes run thousands of dollars, the ability to lie flat and get actual restful sleep while flying international is a priceless perk for many FatFires.
Some people have a rule, such as lie flat on any overnight flight or first class on any flight over 3 hours.
In the United States on domestic flights, first class is usually just a seat at the front of the plane, and barely better than a seat in the back of the jet. The experience is vastly different when flying internationally.
Emirates, Etihad, and Singapore Air all offer completely private suites for their first class passengers. You can even shower during the flight on Emirates.
Food
Many Redditors mentioned high quality food as worth the splurge. Many commentors mentioned going to the grocery store and not looking at prices. Several commentors mentioned buying all organic or having groceries delivered, saving them time, gas, and stress of going to the grocery store.
Wirecutter Recommended
When I look at Wirecutter recommendations, I go straight to “Upgrade Pick”
nonprofitnews
High-net-worth and high-income individuals recognize the value of time. If you spend 10 hours researching what lawn mower to buy, that’s 10 hours of your life you’ll never get back.
Even if you save $1,000, that’s $100 per hour. Many high income earners earn a significant multiple of that hourly rate ($1,000s per hour, not $100s).
Rather than doing the research themselves, these Redditors recommend just going to Wirecutter.com and buying whatever the “upgrade pick” is. That saves hours of research, since the research has already been done by the Wirecutter staff.
If that option doesn’t work, then just return it and buy the next recommended option on the list. This is all about saving time and solving your problem fast, not saving money.
Fatfirers usually have an abundance mindset. They believe you can always make your money but you can’t make more time. Their happy to trade their time for money and convenience.
Consumer Reports was mentioned as another resource, but it was pointed out that Consumer Reports readers are very price conscious. Fatfirers just want to buy it for life and buy it once.
Outsourcing Manual Labor
Paying for tasks I used to loathe. Things like building furniture, movers, cleaners, car wash. Etc.
restarting_today
Outsourcing and hiring out jobs was a popular option. Housekeeping, gardening, landscaper, yard service, mobile car wash that comes to the house,
Things That Weren’t Mentioned
Interestingly, there were a few things that no one mentioned, were very rarely mentioned, or did not receive a lot of upvotes:
- No one mentioned luxury watches.
- Only a few mentions of fancy cars. No specific brands like Lamborghini, Bentley, Rolls-Royce, Ferrari.
- Mansions and penthouses never came up
- No mass market luxury branded goods like Prada, Gucci, or Rolex
- Membership in country clubs or private social clubs
