How Millionaires ACTUALLY Spend Their Money 

I don’t use a budget and have a 7 figure net worth. We below our means. The funny thing is I can afford to buy wants but there’s not many things that I actually want as I’ve gotten older. Spending time with family and friends brings me more happiness than things and costs very little to nothing.

Whew... we spend ALOT. LIKE $1000 a month 😂 I dont care for clothes, cars,etc. But good food brings me joy ❤. And yes we save alot (we are 100% debt free millionaires).

Another good one Erin. I think you know I like to tell stories and I'm going to tell you one now. My mother died in 2018 at 86 years of age and my father passed away about four months ago. My father was always frugal, but during this last five years without my mother, he was extremely so. He would not spend on anything even though his income was a lot more than his expenses. He kept telling me about different things he wanted, like a new truck, but he would not spend. One day about a month before he passed, he told me he looked at the pork chops at Walmart and he would really like to have some but they were almost $8 a pound and he wasn't going to spend that much. Instead he was buying boxes of frozen sausage patties and eating them three meals a day. I tried my best to get him to buy the pork chops, but he couldn't make himself spend the money. Sometimes I would cook a meal and take it to him so he would have variety in his diet. He became ill in February and ended up in Hospice Care in March. He passed away March 21 at 91 years old. As I sat there in the Hospice facility, watching my father die, all I could think about was he should have eaten the damn pork chops. I am 65 years old and my wife and I have done pretty well. We are not extravagant in our spending but we do eat out every Friday night and then again for breakfast Saturday morning. Our total for dining out each month is around $600. We now have five different streams of income and are still putting money in investments each month. I run a budget every month and I hate when we go over budget, but for us it just means we put less in our investment accounts that month. We are beginning to plan more vacations that don't center around seeing grandkids. We just got home from celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary in Saint Thomas and it was an expensive and extravagant trip. I paid for both daughters and their families to go with us. I have to sheepishly admit that during our interview Erin, I told you I would never fly first class; well, I have to eat those words. I flew first class to and from Saint Thomas and I liked it. It probably won't be my last first class experience. As I said, the trip was extremely expensive compared to our normal vacations but the memories and experiences are priceless. I have been reading Bill Perkins book, Die With Zero, and even though I don't agree with everything he says, I do believe there comes a time when it's okay to spend and I believe I am at that threshold. I probably only have twenty good years left if I am lucky and I AM GOING TO EAT THE DAMN PORK CHOPS!!!! Thanks Erin. Keep up the good work. I look forward to your videos each week.

Even though its true I've always wondered if "Did you inherit anything?" is the wrong question to be asking high net worth people. I think asking "Did you get any assets from your family while they were still alive?" would be a better question. Receiving ~10k worth of stocks at age 2 from your still living grandparents isn't an inheritance, nor is having your parents pay for your entire college education out of pocket. The same is true for your parents funding your Roth IRA for you every year from age 18 to 30. Yet all of these make a huge difference in your net worth at age 35. Generational wealth isn't about inheritance. By the time you inherit anything its probably too late for it to make any difference. Non inheritance advantages given earlier are far more valuable.

Having a private chef counts as eating in, right?

Almost all my money were tied to stocks and real estate, left very little cash in the bank just to pay some bills and credit card. Being single is so easy and comfortable because I know women are hard to deal with and could even turn into a nightmare and decided not to get married.

Wow! This is exactly who you are describing. Im a t shirt and jeans guy and I blend right in with the crowd. If you gave me another 1M, my lifestyle wouldn't change a bit. Im still frugal . Thank you for the video.

Agreed. We track our spending with Quicken, but don't adhere to a budget. We simply evaluate carefully and deliberately before deciding to buy things, and the more expensive it is, the more deliberate the decision process. We are disciplined, so this approach works for us. I realize some people can really benefit from using a budget, especially early on.

Spend literally nothing. Maybe from points from credit card like you.

100%. I have to say apps like true bill goes over my head every time I see the advertisement. I can understand how it can be helpful to people, but I can’t wrap my head every how you don’t know where you money is going every month. Specifically if it’s a recurring bill, that you just forgot about. I understand that it happens but it’s like a foreign language when I hear it.

I spend about $300 a week at restaurants.... and I tip large even for carryout. And I do not budget! Retired at 59 with a couple million. Grew up poor so I earned it all in corporate strategy work... and invested aggressively. Stay away from bonds. The BS of "portfolio balance" will keep you poor. Never carried a credit card balance in my life. Use to pay cash for my cars, but now I plan to use the banks' money and leave my assets invested in ETFs.

My net worth is over a million. I got there by being thrifty and working long hours. The long hours mean I dont have much time to cook. So I would say eating out is one of my vices. I don't eat poorly at fast food joints but I don't eat fancy. I also never order alcohol, appetizers, dessert,. and even the 3-4 dollars sodas that many restaurants now charge.

I spend ~$30 a month eating out. Only doing so once or twice in a typical month. Yes its fast food. No its not great for me. I would much rather cook at home. Not only is it much cheaper (generally under $4 per meal) but its better for my health. I was shocked at the $200 a month number from the video, I thought it would be much lower. I guess I am an edge case.

This is a more realistic explanation of money. Even Warren Buffett made most of his money after the age of fifty, he said it helps to live to your 90's.

The average millionaire lives in a modest home, drives older cars, and works an ordinary job. They simply save and invest at a higher rate than most people who just look wealthy. They are not boastful, flashy or greedy. Hollywood, over the years, has portrayed millionaires in a negative light.

It depends. I know many millionaires. The ones that earned it are generous with their money. The ones that inherited or born with into wealth are stingy, stiff waitresses, and never pickup the tab....

Intriguing topic and information. Thought I’d finally weigh in after having found and watched you for maybe a year-ish. My wife and I are 68 and have a total current net worth of 9.3 million… most of it is split in 3 Schwab accounts. One is a college fund with 140K in it for our granddaughter (she’s 7)… One with 3M that we don’t touch… One with 1.5M that we only use to pay taxes on our investment income. I love the company I co-founded and am still working. Not as much as I was 5 years ago, but I probably will continue to do so because I love what I do, the clients I serve, and my 550-ish teammates whom I do do it with. I earn 71K per month, most of which is now funding the Schwab account with 1.5M in it. I should also add that we have ZERO debt. We do use 2 credit cards, but we never carry a balance. We hit millionaire status by the time we were 45, but left most of it in the companies we own until we were 65 and began to sell shares to our other partners… who are among our best friends. We’ve been partners for 33 years without a single argument… and we never borrowed to build wealth, but used our profits instead. As far as spending is concerned, we keep between 100K and 150K in our primary checking and we use it however we choose. Home renovations we’ve been waiting to do are about completed, so we’ll be adding more and more to the account until I more fully “repurpose” (I don’t accept retirement as an option) on my 72nd birthday. We own one home and have been married (to each other) for 42 years. We drive paid for BMW X7’s and have hung on to our cars (which were mostly Toyotas until we were in our 60’s) for 9 to 11 years. We’re, as Ramsey would say, outrageously generous with our giving. Besides the occasional trip (just back from France), we mostly stay home and try to get as much time with adult kids and grandkids as possible. We love to take friends out to dinner and some would argue we spend too much on those… but we are just grateful to be financially independent enough to do as we please. Just thought I’d throw that out there for your consideration about how millionaires spend their money. God bless!

I have 3 adult aged children that still live at home. What do you think the avg meal cost out? My eating out budget would make you 🤮. McD’s is almost $50. My grocery budget is also a kick in the pants. The good part is, I’m debt-free and working on mortgage. 🎉retirement is only four years away.

Budget 600/mo, that includes Fine Dining Fridays. We love the treats, can afford

Ordering carryout food three days a week for lunch is my vice. We are frugal and live below our means but since my house is paid off and we are debt free we spend more on food.

Dang !! Thank you Erin !! A want and a need ....the majority of people I know don't understand, don't care, or can't grasp this most basic idea.

We recently had an HVAC tech come out to our home and quote us on a new HVAC system. Our home is 15 years old and the system was installed when the house was built. The home is a two story, 2800 sq feet, 4 bedroom/3 bath home, i. e. It’s not a mansion. The quotes ranged from a minimum of $17K all the way up to $28K for a top of the line system! The tech was fully expecting us to just pick a system right then and there and order it, and when we told him we never spend that much money without careful consideration, he offered us a 10 year payment plan and was actually a mixture of disappointed and angry when we refused to just drop thousands on a whim. Unbelievable.

I always look forward to your ending lines. "I post new videos EVERY single week". For some reason I find it comforting how you repeat those same lines, the same way, every time. About the video, budgeting is probably the most importing, imo. Once you list out your monthly bills, debt payments, and a savings amount, you only need to track your disposable spending, which is a much smaller amount you may be able to track in your head. Also, if you're married ... be in agreement on your finances - it could literally save your marriage.

We spend less. I'm a good cook, learned in high school and that became my job my junior and senior years. The drawback is my poor wife gets stuck cleaning up the dishes.

I'm still on track for FIRE (about 50% savings rate), and for awhile I tried to keep restaurants to once per week with friends, which meant packing my lunch for work. I've started reincorporating going out to lunch with coworkers because I find the value I get from connecting in an informal way with colleagues far outweighs the monetary cost. I think this means I spend close to $250 - $300 a month on restauraunts. So, a net increase in food costs of about $170 - $220. But, I actually think me coming to the conclusion to spend more on restauraunts is actually a sign of good financial habits. I'm not just impulsively buying something, but being mindful of the value a purchase brings to me and then planning for it.

My approach to daily money management follows from a habit of underconsuming and oversaving. I keep my overhead very low -- no car, paid-off mortgage, simple tastes -- and now am saving 50% of my income. I'm thoroughly middle-class, being salaried and with a defined benefit pension at retirement, and that identity comes with a high floor -- meaning here a decent income, health insurance, and that pension -- and a low ceiling, as it's more difficult to become wealthy without a business' income flow, an executive job, or the salary paid to your typical legal or medical professional. So underconsuming and oversaving over decades is my path forward. While those are routine, even ritual practices with me, I've given them information and perspective through reading widely about personal finance, and managing my own retirement accounts as a DIY investor. And of course, watching excellent channels on finance like Erin Talks Money. Thanks again for another video where you mix personal examples -- your modest restaurant spending -- and quality information on a topic of interest to us all. While we may not all become millionaires, learning from them is a proven way to better our financial situations, no matter our income or net worth.

Nice - I spend like a millionaire!! (We spend about $150/month)

I have a pretty old car, but it’s extremely low mileage, and it works just fine. I would like a newer one, but I delay it constantly. Every month I’m not paying 700 a month for a toy I’m gaining thousands in retiremen. My wife’s car is new-ish, the kids don’t need two pick-ups. So I drive my “beater”, knowing that the sacrifice of a review backup camera is small compared to my kids not having the college debt I had.

( YES ) Poverty was my biggest concern and fear - with only grade 8 - knocking on doors and looking for work at 17 years of age - but I overcame poverty - and became self taught - and at 68 years old - I’ve learnt a few things from life… money was my best friend 😅

First thought takes m back to a previous video you did. Are you a millionaire with or without your home. Big difference as to how much you could spend! As for dining out, I'd say we probably spend at least twice what we did before covid. We didn't eat out a lot before, but once restaurants opened back up, we felt bad for the many people we knew working in restaurants, so we went more, and we got used to it! Probably $200 - $250 a month. We rarely eat at really expensive places!

Hilarious, while your talking about color-coded spreadsheet, I'm working on my color coded spreadsheet!

I started working in my parents restaurant (and others) when I was 14, until i finished college. I think this is the reason I am never "excited" of going out to restaurants. My wife likes it, so I tolerated I guess and we probably average 4 times a month and spend on average 400 dollars (she likes her wine). I never had a strict budget, except two things. Maxing out our 401Ks and putting 1,000 per month in our regular trading account, which by the time of retirement it had grown to over 5K per month. Yes, our salaries combine were over 325K but I know of two people that are making over 500K and basically, after a couple of divorces, driving BMWs and spending everything they make barely have 200K as a net worth, are still working and they are in their 60s. What also helped us tremendously, I picked some nice stocks over the years plus my wife and I both had started saving in our late teens, way before we met. Another thing that has helped us we didn't have kids for 7 years so by the time our two girls came we were basically millionaires. We also have had zero debt for the past 29 years since our first house, a little one bedroom one bath in NVA. Our current net worth is a little under 7 million, and again the key was starting early and never having debt. Now, I make a concentrated effort to spend money (going from a savers mode to spenders mode), because in the end you don't take anything with you.

Excellent as always. All you can do is show them the way, you can't force folks to do what they don't want to. We got the finances under control, now we need to work on eating and exercise so we can enjoy the finances better for longer...🙂 Keep up the good work Erin.

I do have multiple bank accounts that I keep track of. I don't have a definitive budget, but I check my checking, savings, investment, and retirement accounts on a weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis. I bought a used 2016 Ford Focus for about $14,000. It's not extravagant, but it gets me from Point A to Point B on a daily or weekly basis.

OMG. My “restaurant expenses” - food prepared by others outside my home - is only the Costco rotisserie chicken for $4.99 plus tax every two or three months. Guilty of being frugal!

I spend $0 going out and ordering delivery. But, I do consulting work and expense about $100 to $500 per month (no out of pocket cost to me). Without this, we would spend $50 or less going out as "millionaires."

At a NW of $4M we spend $50 to $100/month. No inheritance and we know how hard we had to work so we never have to work again! We don't have a budget but we keep an eye on what we spend, my tee shirts still come from Walmart...:)

I've never really focused on this one item (restaurants), but Quicken reliably tells me that over a 12 month period, we spend $640 / month! Kind of shocked me. We only eat out like every two weeks though, but we have one kid at home and two adult kids that often come with, so I guess that goes with the territory.

When you can afford all your “wants”, a different set of questions emerge… How often will I really use this thing? Where will I store it? What will the upkeep cost (feeding, maintenance)? Do I actually want a fancy meal? Self-discipline is an essential skill to become wealthy, but then it’s the gatekeeper once you get there. It’s the reason so many millionaires drive modest cars - and lack of discipline is the reason most lottery winners go bankrupt.

Great video. erin - which card gives you restaurant credit?.

What I really wanted is to live a low stress lifestyle where I could do just about anything within reason ( home, vacation, etc ) while not having to worry about money. In other words, investment lifestyle actually places me in the upper middle class!

Do you have a video talking about what you mean (and how to start) making your investments automatic? My IRA and 401K are set up for automatic... is there something else you do on top of those?

Erin not all of us make savings a second job. 32 years in a 401, live below our means, a handful of maintenance bills, only debt is mortgage, splurge on our hobbies. Blessed life😊!

You have to understand a few hundred dollars to someone who is wealthy is a small amount of cash. Still, $200 is not tremendous amount to them.

These days, you go out for dinner (at a decent restaurant) one time, and you're half way into that $200/month eating at restaurants

Don't judge me or the 20 different colors on my spreadsheets.

Does this budget include my 4 kids? If so, I spend $200 in one meal. 😁

Hi Erin. I enjoy your videos. This was one of my favorites. I have two suggestions for possible future videos. I retired at 54 and two things are critical to figure out ahead of time. Healthcare seems to be an excuse used by many preventing early retire and I have seen many go into retirement without a tax plan. If one can manage their taxable income, good healthcare is extremely low cost through ACA. Healthcare should not prevent someone from retiring early if they planned to minimize their taxable income. Having a tax plan and getting to a low bracket like 12% can also be done and save thousands annually. Leveraging things like Roths are critical to both low cost healthcare and minimizing taxes. Just a couple of areas to consider but might be outside the scope of your channel. Thanks again for the great information that you provide.

Erin, great video overall! There is no truer statement in your video than when it was said that the vast majority of millionaires build their wealth through investing. Since not all of us can be doctors, professional athletes, or movie stars, we have to build our wealth through investing. You're right, there absolutely needs to be more education on this subject. The mindset is very similar to having a percentage of your paycheck go towards your 401k. Meaning, once it's happening every month, you won't miss it. The same holds true with regular investing. If you set aside/allocate money for it each month, you won't miss it. On a side note, being a millionaire does not always equate to being wealthy. For instance, individuals in places like San Diego or Los Angeles may be a millionaire simply by the fact that the own a home in an area where the real estate is extremely expensive. While they may be a millionaire in terms of net worth, it doesn't necessarily mean they're wealthy. I thought it was important to make that distinction.

I’m ashamed to say I spend probably $350 a week 😂.

I’m at the beginning of your video. Most if the entrees I order are between $50-70. You pay that between the two of you …. A month? You should just eat at home . That’s not dinning out in my life. That’s just not dinning in. Frugality to the nth degree. I wouldn’t waste that money since the food is not a great experience.

I LOVE your videos!!!! Do you have a podcast??

Well below $200.00 a month... about $50ish.

Being a savor all my life, I had to learn how to use my spending muscle. it wasn't easy... but I am happiest spending money on eperiences rather than material things. And I don't budget... it doesn't suite my lifestyle, so I really can't tell you how much I spend on restaurants, but I bet it's ridiculous. In retirement, it's so easy to keep track of finances - just don't spend more than your income.

I spend about $1,000 each month at restaurants and take outs.

Erin makes good videos!

Husband and I don’t go out to eat, I buy high quality prepared food from an amazing Italian market every week, costs about $160 per week.

Like hearing your content. Your content reinforces how I generally live my life. I don't follow a strict budget but live considerably below my means. You mentioned you had two credit cards which offer you a monthly dining and Uber credit. Can you share what credit cards those are? Do they have an annual fee?

It took me a lot of patience, discipline and sacrifice to reach wealth. But I am still the same person humble and frugal. I never cared about being really rich. I just never wanted to be poor again.

Not quite a millionaire. But I am retired. My dining budget is $342/month. I generally spend a little less. I don't deprive myself from going out to eat even though I am retired. I know my days on this here Earth is limited. I use Quicken and have so since the 80's (When were you born Erin? rhetorical question please don't answer). I've also had a budget for a similar timeframe. Helped me retire at 52. I can't stress this enough to folks. Live below you income level.

Erin, which cards offer those $25 credits?

We definitely spend more than $200/month eating out or ordering in. Just having a pizza delivered costs $40 after fees and tips. Nothing is cheap anymore.

Hi Erin, I'm a brand new subscriber and want you to know that I really appreciate your video's. The content is spot on and the delivery of the message makes them very relatable. Looking forward to continue to watch your new content each week.

We typically go out every Friday with wife’s sister we spend under 30$ so around $150 per month and because some restaurants are up charging for credit debit cards I pay cash

We go out about once per week. If it is just the 2 of us, we can get a meal for $30-40. If our college age son goes, the number goes up. We also do Saturday morning coffee. Would not say we are on a budget, but we do our investments automatically just like other monthly bills. Paying ourselves first for many years has worked out for us.

Erin you're a cutie. I have a crush.

Our eating out budget is $284/month according to Mint. We track our spending but we don’t live by a budget. We have always paid ourselves first and lived below our means. For the last 20 years we saved on averaged about 30% towards retirement. We have had a eye our our retirement every since my college personal finance class. When I learn the Rule of 72 and understood compounding interest. Today there is no money stress for us as we have hit financial freedom. Erin, todays video is so well done. You have mastered your craft and I look forward to each new video. Enjoy that next night out….and what credit card give you $25/month towards dinner? Your biggest fan in Toledo, Tony

Great video!!! The Millionaire Next Door had four books. Do a review of them!!!

One of my pleasures is to go out and have a nice dinner or lunch severely times a month. Probably spend close to 450 a month but we also don’t eat dinners too often. Got to enjoy life even if you’re saving

Excellent content! we've cut way back on eating out post Pandemic, we (my wife bless her heart) loves to grocery shop and stock the pantry, which is fine although when we would eat out frequently the perishable items would go to waste, and with the below average service and high cost of meals at most restaurants we choose to prepare our own food the majority of the time at home!

We have a net worth in the low 7 figures. We spend just under $300 per month at restaurants on average.

Good content thanks.

Thank you for your thoughtful shared experience and wisdom, Erin. I also learn from the viewer comments as well. As a couple, making money a regular, safe, non-emotional, non-judgmental, discussion topic was a vital milestone. I think "beginning with the END in mind" was a good way to start. The future (e.g., the date you want to retire) may be less emotional to discuss first and it also provides an answer to "why do we need a plan, budget, and savings." Our end was really to decide how much we wanted to spend annually in retirement, what nest egg will we need to support that, and then worked our way back to this month. We ultimately worked together as a team to develop a plan that was mentally "OURS", not just something we had others put together. We use tools like Mint (free - monthly spending) and New Retirement ($150 annually - annual planning) that really help. That plan ultimately became an annual/monthly spending and saving plan that we set time aside to review our performance against during the middle of the following month. Your $1 test really helps keep the casual spending in check (will you use the purchased item enough to get the cost per each use down to $1). We also like the Rule of 25 (aka the 4% Rule) mindset as well when thinking of spending. Every dollar you save (or don't spend) effectively adds $25 to your retirement nest egg. E.g., if you want to spend $50,000 a year on retirement from your invested savings, you need 25 times that amount saved, or $1,250,000. If you don't spend $1 and lower your annual budget to $49,999, you only need $1,249,975, or $25 less in nest egg (holding inflation, compounding, ROI, etc., constant).

Color coded. You caught me!

We use to spend more eating out before the pandemic. Now we spend $100 or less every month, and we mostly take out. And yes, my stocks, ibonds, liquid investments and cash is more than seven-figures so I'm in this category you talk about, and that excludes my house, cars and other assets. I make my own pizza to lower the carb by 70% than normal pizza (oh yeah KETO). I stay as healthy as I can. We air fry our chicken, pork, etc. - taste very good. Don't eat your retirement. I have a friend who got $150,000 in inheritance and he literally went to restaurants everyday and blew that dough until it was gone, and he passed away and died. Very sad. Lastly, I'm FIRED and enjoying life.

Generally, I spend $0 monthly at restaurants. I only go out for special occasions. As such, I order whatever I want and tip well. I have an Avid Armor chamber vacuum food sealer. I buy meat in bulk, vacuum seal and freeze. I cook gourmet meals at home for a fraction of restaurant cost, and I know what's in my food. Most importantly, I save a lot of money by not eating out. Fwiw... I'm far from broke. 😉

Spend about $500/month. Net worth about $6.2M at 59. That said I invest a minimum of 40% of gross income for the last 32 years.

Family of 3 we probably spend about $250 to $300 a week eating out. We have no budget for anything but we don't squander money.

Anytime we make it seem like spending 200 dollars on eating a month is going to stop you from being wealthy it makes cringe. Live with in your means. So if you make 300 dollars a day through income and you spend 400 dollars on food eating out a month you will be fine. If you have money invested you probably could make more than 400 dollars a month off investments at times. Great video but you should post a video on these millionaire incomes and what they bring in household income, their lowest income or by age their highest plus if they have two incomes or just one. And frankly how long they have had those incomes and how wealthy they were when they had an income of 50k a year. I think the results will be telling and honest for the most part. Increase you income people and erin you are right track the money you are spending. There also should be in these finance videos deep talks about hours at work and income. They spend a lot of time talking about passive income but what are these peoples professions and what aren't their professions. So much is to be said about finances.

Spend at least $650/month eating out per month, sometimes $800 - if on vacation, family of 3; 7 figure net worth, save over 30% of income; eating out is a treat we enjoy as a family but an area we could dial back if needed

Restaurants/take-out is definitely one place where we spend more than strictly necessary, and is a joy. Budget space up to $500 a month (couple) for eating out, has come out more like $350-400 except for vacation meals (and those I tend to lump in the vacation budget more than the eating-out budget). Typically one nice-ish $50-70 bill and one burrito/pizza/gyros level take out each week.

I am single, female, and include all food in my grocery budget. I am keeping track this year. I spend probably about $250 a month on food.

Well less than $200 per month. Typically about $75/ mo. However last month we blew that. Our Anniversary was last month and I took my wife out to lunch. We spent more in that one meal than we typically do for a month.

Most people I know that are wealthy do not track expenditure closely if they make a reasonable amount of money. They have developed habits from years of working hard, saving, and most importantly spending wisely. And as they made more and more money, they kept the same relatively frugal spending because that is their lifestyle they are used to having and doing that lets them buy the $3M house. And some still have a mortgage on that house because tying up that much money in one asset would reduce the other opportunities to invest the money where it would grow. As an example, consider Mark Zuckerberg has a mortgage on his home.

Crossed the million dollar net worth threshold this last January 1. Most of it is illiquid in two successful businesses I own. Not so much in investments. So I guess you’re right. I look pretty normal and I look like me. I drive a 2008 pickup, I track my spending every month (my budget) and I spend very little beyond the basics and beer.

Zero! Honestly twice a year for food not prepared at home sounds about right. Our net worth was more than a million when I got a divorce I didn't want 9 years ago and now my half is over a million. It has nothing to do with being on a budget. I learned a lot of psychology post-divorce and part of that was finding psychologists that study happiness (yeah, I was surprised too). I'm long retired so I'm fortunate to have the time to cook for myself. It makes me "happy" to show myself I care enough to make that effort. Psychology is definitely not a one size fits all proposition but, the happiness scholars are fine with you taking part of what they share and passing on what isn't for you.

I’m a small multi millionaire in the 2.5 million range.. i feel like an average person at the age of 60….. me and my wife just eat mostly at regular chain resteraunts in our area.. when on vacation we do hit some of the high end yelp restaurants… but I will say the food is not that much better then regular chain resteraunts..

I spend $150 a month at restaurants. Growing up with limited money is what drives me to be careful. I got here by being smart with money - invest, buy what I need, and treat myself from time to time. LOL on the spreadsheet - I use colors to separate rungs on the t-bill ladder portion of the investments.

If you include take out, we spend about $250 - $300 per month on restaurant meals. On average, we dine out about twice a month at modestly priced restaurants and we also call in a pick up order on a few occasions. We never pay for food delivery, and we rarely pay for alcoholic drinks at restaurants unless we're on vacation. Our newest kitchen countertop appliance is a Ronco EZ-Store Rotisserie Oven. "Set It, and Forget It!". Makes delicious rotisserie meals without all the effort. Bonus - there's always leftovers for tomorrow.

I budget $500 a month for food for me alone---that includes dining out. I never exceed that amount because I enjoy cooking at home.

Most millionaires don't have millions of dollars in their savings account,they're have the money in real estate ,stocks /funds,etc

I have been drinking Folgers besides Starbucks for 3 years now and I am still not a billionaire...

Automate your finances to keep it simple. I have what I can blow set aside & everything else doesn’t require intervention, beyond strategic planning.

Good video as always. As someone that qualifies for the survey, and I get criticized if I provide a more accurate description of the size of my portfolio, I can attest that I do spend more than $200 a month at restaurants. But I can also tell you the amount is completely irrelevant to my net worth. In fact ,and I don’t, spend $2000 it wouldn’t be an issue. What is important is living below your means. I gave you my “rules” before so I won’t do that again. I whole heartily Agree with your comments on budget. To me it is like a map. It tells you where you have been and guides you where your going. Not something to fear or loathe, just a tool. How detailed it is depends on several factors, including how close you find it is guiding you to reach your goals. The less it is, the more detailed you need to make it. I am In the process of finishing my book for millennials on topics similar and other life lessons regarding money. Maybe some day it will make your list. If you placed a P.O. Box in your description I plan to send you a copy.

$0 = restaurants

Fantastic content

I have 2 teenagers, so eating out is way too expensive. I budget around $150 a month for restaurants so that’s only twice a month, lol. We used to eat out almost every day, but that was killing us.

I got a eating out budget close to that ($200) . For my partner it's similar. This budget is realistic for us, and let's us know when we need to cool it down to make up for some higher than average restaurant spending. It's kind of a relief, vs fearing the credit card statement like I used to 😅 Had to be really honest about myself tho

WOW.. Erin.. u need to get with youtube and eliminate that person who is erin-talks-money who responds to EVERYONE as a troll for some type of solicitation… most utubers nip that in the bud pretty quick.. hope u get on that soon… people drop off quick when that stuff happens often in a channel they like to watch and it does not stop..

We aim go out once a week as a reward for the hard work that week. It's an intentional spending and something we look forward to.