[kangnkodos]

Here is a detailed list of the missing $103.5 K, from another article with more details on this couple:

Childcare (Two Children)- $42K

Food for four (includes date night every two weeks) - $23K

Home Maintenance - $5K

Property Insurance $2.5K

Gas - $5K

Car insurance - $2K

Life Insurance ($3 million term) $2.5K

Clothes for four people (no fancy bags, shoes or threads) $9.5K

Childrens Lessons (sports, piano, violin, academics) $12K

Total - $103.5 K

https://www.financialsamurai.com/scraping-by-on-500000-a-yea...

[Konnstann]

I can't say anything for most of those but clothes for 4 people should not come out to 10k a year, especially since they said nothing fancy. Even buying high-quality name brand clothing, how do you go through enough in a year to need to buy more? All of the >$20 clothes I have have lasted years, and will continue to be usable for the next few. I would be surprised if most of them don't get donated, in close to perfect condition.

I get that they have kids and so must buy new clothes more often, but if you buy designer brands for your kid that's the problem.

[dagw]

especially since they said nothing fancy

Fancy is relative. A lot of people would consider a $1k suit as a cheap baseline suit.

[RyanCavanaugh]

It's instructive to take the "What's left over" amount ($7,300) and add back all the things which are actually savings (401k, ~half of the mortgage, student loans): $47,600. This couple has a national household median income (pre-tax!) worth of money left over after their already ridiculous expenditures.

They should just stick the $7,300 into an "Other savings" line item and proclaim themselves to be living literally paycheck-to-paycheck.