MMR game -- how much a dream life costs

[carfar]

Mine was crazy expensive, but I wasn't realistic at all, and the housing options weren't close to what to expect in our area.

[Deleted]

$95/k- I picked basically my life--$600k house, mountain cabin, SUV, 4 kids, work part time & no college savings (MIL is providing that)...and we make right around that a year--lol. I have no desire for "more" really.

[luvmagoldn]

$188,000. Which means I need to move the hell away from here. I can't get that moderately priced home for $200,000.

[WOT?*]

I came in at $185K. We could undoubtedly live off that but would be hard-pressed to come up with the $7M+ it says we will require. I went off numbers rather than descriptions and probably my saving grace is not buying cars every year and not taking care of the kids because I'm a greedy Boomer who wants to spend it all on myself.

Off to buy PowerBall tickets. =)

[Deleted]

$170,650 a year. Unlikely in a professor/librarian household, lol.

[jene]

$179k/year. Seems high considering I didn't pick that many "expensive" options

[sarabi]

Yeah. Mine came out less than what we make right now, and I don't feel like I'm living the "dream" right now. I have calculated this on my own though while I was in school. I took a really weird class during my MBA where we read books and talked about things. It was supposed to teach us how to think. (Great Class) Anyway, one of the articles we read said that there was a happiness curve as it relates to income. Basically that there is a point when more money makes you less happy. So we were supposed to figure out what the point would be for us when we thought we would reach our maximum happiness. I came up with a number a little over 350.

[pumpkin]

Wow! My current lifestyle costs me ~$156K/yr. Um, I don't make even half that!

[hamster]

172k, but I voted no kids.

I want a house on the water, but it's not 1.2 million in this area so it's skewed high for my COL.

[pitterwoo]

Aug 15, 2012 14:36:10 GMT -5 @mrschicken said:

76K per year. I'm surprised. I guess I don't dream big. .

this was pretty much me too

[momof2boys]

I was pretty realistic in my choices, but did put a vacation home in there and two vacations a year (we currently take 0 and have no vacation home). It came out to less then we make now currently. So what am I doing wrong! I want my vacation house! ha

[sugarbear]

$68,342
Which is less than we make, and I am far from living the dream.

[kadams767]

Um, it gave me less than half what we make now. Guess I don't have big aspirations.

[Deleted]

Aug 15, 2012 15:19:04 GMT -5 L said:

$95/k- I picked basically my life--$600k house, mountain cabin, SUV, 4 kids, work part time & no college savings (MIL is providing that)...and we make right around that a year--lol. I have no desire for "more" really.

I call BS. DH and I make twice that, have no kids and no second house and thre is no way we would buy a 600k house.

[aspentosh]

$169k a year for a fairly realistic future. We'll pay for college (up to a certain amount), would love to have a condo on the beach but otherwise we're low key and not big spenders.

[dulcemariamar]

57,000. I guess I am a cheap person or I am still in denial about retirement.

[rubytue]

I am shocked. Ours came in within $5k of our annual income. Second to top vacations, house in the burbs, and mountain vacation home. No kids probably helped a lot. But I want my vacation home now!

Although, I plan to have waterfront property, just not a million dollar one.

[hannamaren]

I only got $67k per year. I must have made a huge mistake. I didnt pick a second home and I only chose a small car for a long time. But still....I make a lot more than that and I dont feel prepared to retire ever.

[Deleted]

270k

[LoveTrains]

YOUR LIFE WILL COST:

$7,245,000
YOUR AVERAGE ANNUAL HOUSEHOLD INCOME WILL NEED TO BE:

$181,125

Eh, that's probably not that unrealistic and we are almost there.

[Deleted]

Aug 15, 2012 14:14:16 GMT -5 liveintheville said:

Aug 15, 2012 14:08:52 GMT -5 @redbellpeppers said:

I voted based on a good but realistic version of our future: a vacation home, mix of high- and low-end clothing, etc. and it came out to $218K/year.

I came out at 218k, too! That's paying for both kids to attend college, which is a pipe dream.

Mine was $178k with no parental care and kids on their own for college. Likely we need our kids to pay for some, we'll pay for some, g&g will pay for some and I'm going to drill in the word SCHOLARSHIP.

[karinothing]

204K which umm..we make close to that. And I do not live the lifestyle I requested. Perhaps I do not spend my money wisely?

[kadams767]

I think the game assumes that you make that salary for years and years, on average, in order to have all the things you want eventually. Even if you currently make what it says you need to, chances are that you've only been at that level for a small percentage of the years you actually need to be there in order to attain the second home, etc.

As an example, in order to have a $300,000 house and some other modest things, it said I needed an average salary of $67k or something. While I am over that now, I have only been over it for a few years since I've been out of school. So right now, I have the house. As I continue on, I will be able to direct my money towards the additional things, like a vacation home in the mountains. Kind of like a milestone would be added every few years. At least, this is the way I look at it.

[Deleted]

I tried a couple of things and got everywhere from $55k-$179k. Working part time in retirement or not seemed to be the big difference. I don't have any idea how long I'll be able to work full-time or part-time.

I do know that the $55k won't cut it though--that's what I got when I said to live like we do except add a kid. We more than double that and I'm not sure how we would afford a kid.

It didn't even ask about SLs. That isn't big for us but I assume a lot of people.