Most of the posts here are from those with debt, learning to clear it, just making it, but where are those who are well off?

I may delete this post later to not have it in my post history....

I recently paid $32,000 cash for a new Mazda CX-5 (loaded, the $32K includes taxes, title, etc..... don't need no one telling me I got hosed). How did I manage that? I don't think it is really that amazing of a process.

I'm 48, my wife is 44. I work in finance and make around $100,000/yr. It has ranged from $80-$120k over the past 10 years or so. That seems like a nice salary - and it is. But my wife doesn't work. So a $100K household income isn't uncommon.

I put the max in my 401k every year, so that's a little over 15%. We have a $300K house with a $100K mortgage. Payments are around $1,800 each month, but we pay extra so I think our actual payment is closer to $2,300.

But after the mortgage payment, our cable/internet/phone bill of around $160 is our next biggest monthly expense. Our only other recurring monthly bills are utilities and cell phones - we're both on a T-Mobile prepaid plan with unlimited data that is $30/mo ($60 for the two of us). We have no debt.

We violate a few rules: We don't budget. My wife is pretty much 100% in charge of finances. My check gets deposited, she pays all the bills. We put everything on credit cards for points and pay it off at the end of the month.

One thing that has helped my wife budget expenses is that, from her perspective, I've never gotten a pay raise. I split my direct deposit and $2,800 goes into the "family fund" every 2 weeks and the balance of my check (if any) goes into "the account that is there but we don't think about it". It just accumulates and if we need cash for something, it's there. If it gets too big, we move some into investments (usually to do an IRA contribution for her each year).

We don't have any expensive hobbies. We typically eat out once per week - lunch on Saturday (because lunch out is cheaper than dinner out) and it typically runs us under $40. We have one child, so that keeps expenses down.

We'll take short weekend trips from time-to-time, flights to visit family out of state, and occasionally a more extravagant overseas trip (maybe every 3-5 years). But those typically aren't overly expensive because we're able to use our credit card points to pay them.

Here's a big one. Prior to buying the 2015 Mazda, we had 3 cars: A 1995 Ford, a 1998 Honda and a 2002 Ford. The 95 & the 98 were brought into the marriage. The 2002 was bought with, I think, a 3 year loan. So we have had a car payment in a decade.

When my wife decided she wanted a new car (I think she could have continued to drive the 2002, but whatever), I put my 401k contributions on hold for a year and threw it into a car fund. I started my 401k back up, but continued to let my excess pay check go into the car fund. She couldn't decide what she wanted and the Ford was working, so it was another 2 years before we actually ended up buying the car. By that point, there was close to $40,000 in the car fund; we spend $32,000.

Having a stay at home spouse saves some money (work clothes, able to shop cheaper rather than more efficiently, less miles on cars, etc.), but certainly not as much as could be made if she was working. Living frugally is the key. My '98 Honda is fine and only has 182,000 miles on it. As far as I'm concerned, I can drive it another 10 years. I just put $1,000 into it to fix the A/C.

So that's how we did it. There are various ways. The TL;DR is age old advice: Live on less than you make. Do that long enough, and the money starts to accumulate.

/r/personalfinance Thread