Reddit user lokhtar and his wife earn $500,000 per year. He earns $350,000 as a doctor, and his wife earns $150,000 in education. He recently shared exactly how they spend it. Here's a breakdown of that high-income lifestyle, shared here with his permission.
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Taxes
The biggest chunk goes to taxes. He pays $110,000 in taxes each year. After deductions, he states he is in the 32% tax bracket. But remember, that doesn't mean that his entire income is taxed at that rate, only the amount above $394,600 (for income earned in 2025). Here's more on how tax brackets work.
He says, “Taxable income is about 420k. I paid about 27% of that total in income taxes [including state taxes]. I don’t use any fancy or shady accounting techniques or take any weird or rare deductions. I file myself – we file married, have two dependents, and the only major tax breaks we take are the mortgage interest deduction and the salt deduction. And of course, I save for retirement and pay for healthcare through my employer using pre tax money.”
Retirement
Retirement is the next biggest chunk. As a couple, they saved $75,000 of their income into retirement, or 15%. Then their employers contributed an additional $25,000, which is a pretty sizable employer match. Here's how it lays out.
- $22k to his wife’s 401k
- $22k to his 403b
- $22k to a 457
- $10k to his“pension”. He explains that this is “basically just a pre-tax mutual fund that I give the max $380 per paycheck (eg $10k/yr) and my employer matches that contribution 1:1.”
Experts often say you should be saving 15% of your income for retirement, so they are meeting this threshold. But with such a high income, they could likely save more without much sacrifice. Saving more would let them either retire sooner or retire with a larger balance, allowing for more spending in retirement. It would also give them some cushion if the market fails to deliver the expected returns.
If they are aiming to retire early, they may want to add in some taxable investments. This will give them money to spend before they can withdraw from retirement accounts. They could also add in either traditional IRAs or Roth IRAs for additional tax-advantaged savings.
Housing
Housing is the third largest expense at $78,500. This includes:
- $46,000 mortgage
- $12,000 property taxes
- $8,000 home maintenance
- $6,500 utilities
- $6,000 weekly housecleaning
At first glance, $78,500 on housing feels like a lot. It's more than most people's annual income. But this Redditor isn't most people. He's spending about 22% of his net income (after taxes and retirement savings) on his mortgage and property taxes. That's less than experts normally recommend at 25%. So he's actually in line with standard recommendations. He has $600,000 left on the mortgage.
Home maintenance at $8,000 works out to $667 per month and includes lawn and pool care.
He said, “Also, to be clear, lawn, pool and maintenance on house. E.g dishwasher needs replacing, or deck needs some work, or the AC system is broken, or I need a new toilet etc. It's for all maintenance costs, not just like a pristine lawn.”
Utilities are $6,500, which works out to $541 per month.
Housecleaning is $6,000 or about $500 per month, which if he's getting it done weekly is about $115 per week, not a lot when you break it down. Is housecleaning a necessity? Probably not for most people, but he and his wife probably both work long hours, so why not get some help in this area if you can afford it?
When questioned, he said, “We both despise house cleaning, which led to a lot of arguments prior to housekeeping. I could/should probably do the lawn stuff myself.”
He also broke cable, internet, and phone into it's own category.
He said, “Well cable is $120/mo, internet is $80/mo, phone is $110/mo and we have payments on two phones at $30 each so that’s $60. And then about $60 in subscriptions (nfl Sunday ticket, disney, Hulu, etc). So that’s about $410/mo, which is approx $5k/year.”
Food
He spends $50,000 per year. $20K on groceries and $30K on restaurants. This is the area where his fellow Redditors gave him the most grief, and he himself said, “Some of the stuff I spend money on is very stupid indeed. $50k on food is diabolical, and we gotta do better than that.”
He said, “About $1k is like a couple expensive date nights out per month. About $1500 is honestly grubhub a couple nights a week and bad lunches at work, plus Starbucks that we should cut out since it’s waste of money and bad for our health. Rest is legitimate groceries and stuff we actually need.”
He knows this is an area where he could easily funnel some money into either debt reduction or long-term savings. This is money that could be used to reach other goals.
Kids
Kids tie with food at $50,000 per year. He has two toddlers who are both in daycare, costing $36,000 per year. They also contribute $11,000 per year to 529s and then spend $3,000 on activities.
Student Loans
Becoming a doctor isn't cheap, and $40,000 per year goes towards paying off his student loans. He owes $350,000 and plans to aggressively tackle this.
He said, “Once I get spending under control, the surplus will go to car and student loans. Student loans will take years, even with that, but it will be a glorious day when that happens.”
Vacations
He spends $35,000 per year on vacations.
When asked if this is an area he would cut he said, “Yes, although I would say aside from savings, that's the last thing I would want to cut. Like we would rather drive beaters and cut out fat from everything else (and there's plenty to cut out, I admit), before cutting out our travel since that's our number one love.
“We try to take one to two international and two domestic trips and a few smaller (long weekend) trips every year. And we have two toddlers and we want them to grow up travelling everywhere.”
This spending aligns with his priorities and values. If you are meeting your long-term financial goals, it's ok to spend freely on things you value. He says it's his and his wife's number one love, so I say “spend away!”
Cars
He spends $30,000 a year on cars and has $35,000 left on car notes.
Spending money on cars is a question of values. If the car you drive is important to you, and I mean truly important and not in an effort to impress others, then spending money here makes sense if you can afford it.
However, if a car is just a tool to you and nothing more, spend what it takes for a safe, reliable car and redirect those dollars to something you value more, like savings or travel.
Savings
The last major category is savings of $15,000 per year.
He doesn't go into exactly what this means. It could be building up an emergency fund or saving up for larger expenses. But in general, you should have an emergency fund that equals six months of expenses. So in this case, he'd want about $100,000 in savings.
Final Thoughts
He admits that they have seen a lot of lifestyle inflation over the years.
He says, “Not to make excuses, but lifestyle bloat is real. When my wife and I got engaged and combined finances about twelve years ago, our combined income was about $70k, and it has gone up since then – and our spending has as well without us making a conscious decision – it happened “naturally”. By that I mean, we didn’t pay attention as it was happening and before you know it, we look at our fixed monthly costs and we are like what the [heck] happened?
And with that, I'll leave you with his last piece of advice, “So moral of the story is: pay attention kids. It’s easier than I would have believed was possible if you had told me a decade ago.”
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