r/NoStupidQuestions • u/Forsaken-Tomorrow240 • 2d ago
I feel like some people are living the life, always travelling, always visiting fancy restaurants. How do you all afford it?
On Instagram, I always see the same people always on holidays, going to fancy restaurant etc. It's always the same people in the past, travelling, going to fancy restaurants even on work days. How do you all afford it? I wish I could be travelling but unfortunately I cannot.
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u/re_nub 2d ago
Instagram isn't reality. And they have more money than you.
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u/Retiree-2023 2d ago
Or they are up to their eyeballs in debt trying to look like they have more money
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u/spute2 2d ago
Living at home or in a shared squat. Renting clothes. Or flipping them fast. Only staying in a trendy place for 1 day because of the cost but making it seem like they've been there a month. Many are paid to promote those very places too.
Invest in your future now rather than spend what you don't have. Aim for financial independence that allows you to retire early. Avs shun the fake vacuous vain "influencers" who's some aim is to make you enjoys of them but still keep in watching so they get paid.
if you aren’t a better person, smarter, kinder, more knowledgeable after watching anyone on social media, you need to rethink your watching priorities.
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u/Apart-One4133 2d ago
Or they manage their money differently. They could be poorer, but if they manage their budget around traveling, they could still make it.
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u/Niet_de_AIVD Please be kind, I've got redditism. 2d ago
Yeah that 200 bucks they saved could easily afford them plane tickets and a luxury hotel on the other side of the world.
Definitely not generational wealth.
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u/Laptopdog78 2d ago
You would be surprised at how many people are upto their eyeballs in debt on credit cards while looking like they are living the high life, and also lots of those people don’t give a flying shit about the debt….. but also sometimes as a previous post said, double income couples with decent wages, no kids, or just one, or kids that have left home. Things can get a lot easier as you get older if you are one of these couples.
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u/yabs 2d ago
My SO and I travel, frequently eat out, etc.
We don't have kids. That wasn't specifically the reason why we chose not to but that's a benefit.
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u/Apart-One4133 2d ago
This teacher on YouTube travels constantly. He has 3 kids and by his own admission doesn’t make much money. His channel is « Wolter’s World ». He educates people about traveling.
All this to say, having kids changes nothing in whether you can travel or not. Your financial literacy, organization and budgetting skills is the key factor in whether you can travel or not.
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u/Mouse_On_Drum1188 2d ago edited 2d ago
The Wolter's World guy's ability to travel with kids is more than good planning. He is a professor in the college of business at U of I. Business schools pay good middle class money, plus as a professor he has flexibility to travel during breaks, for research, and for conferences, without getting fired. Add to that the money he earns from youtube, he explained this on his show recently. A generous foundation of money and time allows good planning to go very far.
Sure you can travel with kids, just as you can travel with an angry raccoon in a grocery bag. But to enjoy yourself you may need to have money and time to spend that most people don't have.
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u/Immagonnapayforthis 2d ago
Comparison is the thief of joy. Get off Social Media entirely and just live your life. Your happiness will return.
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u/Agile_Analysis123 2d ago
This is exactly what I was going to write. I don’t use any social media besides reddit and I have no regrets.
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u/catdaddy54321 2d ago
My friend who was always complaining about having no money was constantly traveling, going out, taking $50 fitness classes, and that’s when I realized some people are a lot more comfortable with credit card debt than I am.
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u/Gullible-Sun-9288 2d ago
In my case: No kids, double income, moved to Switzerland to work only part time (and pay very little taxes) + living in a humble home, driving a second hand car, having no other expensive hobbies
= enough money & time for traveling and going out on week days
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u/tulki123 2d ago
I think it’s a bit unfair for people in the comments here to just blame credit cards. Personally I go on a holiday every 6-8 weeks or so and a lot of it ends on my insta making me look busy.
It doesn’t have to be expensive, I usually spend about £400 on a weekend trip although I did stretch that to £700 on a week long trip to Berlin recently. You can get really good accommodation if you know where to look especially travelling out of school holidays. Also remember many countries have a lower cost than UK too, Morocco etc is dirt cheap but looks fancy and novel on insta.
For me personally it’s just working a good job, making low cost life choices (eg: buying a 2 bed apartment instead of a house, older car etc), I eat cheaply at home and away and my work gives me flexibility to book time off whenever is cheapest for flights etc. I also put all my spend through a British airways card so my next three holidays flights only cost me £3 cash just using up points. I’m planning to go to USA next year business class with BA on points and it’s just paying the taxes so a fraction of the price.
If you want to travel ultimately up your income and cut your costs - I don’t have any Netflix and very few monthly outgoings above minimum. Also get smart with using loyalty schemes, points and where to find offers.
Work smarter not harder so they say!
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u/Appropriate_Copy8285 2d ago
Credit....credit....and, finally, one more maxed out credit card.
We ain't her for a ling time, but just for a good time.
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u/royert73 2d ago
Debt or influencer sponsorships
A local influencer promoted a restaurant recently. It looked like a place I'd enjoy, so I asked my mom and brother if they wanted to go with me. They obviously waaaaay upped their game for the influencer's visit because it was a total shithole. (It was like they even hired other diners to be "extras" in the background.) It was so disappointing.
So when you see them at a "fancy restaurant", just know that it could be all for show & they're pretending to have a great time at some shit box restaurant who paid them to be there.
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u/ladeedah1988 2d ago
My husband and I both got a Ph.D. and worked very, very hard for 40 years. Now we have a good life. We sacrificed a lot when we were young and never kept up with the Jones's as far as houses or new cars, fashion, etc. Many people look wealthy, but they have extreme debt.
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u/LuCuriously 2d ago
Credit cards. Everyone that I know (I'm not wealthy lol) and has those insta moments say they charge it all. Do they pay off their credit cards? Idk. They make ok money, double incomes, etc, but I think they use their money for their living expenses (can you pay a mortgage with a credit card?) and charge the rest.
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u/MDKrouzer 2d ago
Firstly does it really need to be said that what you see on social media is heavily curated by the people posting their content at best and at worst extremely misleading / false representation of their lifestyle.
Secondly, there are people who do in fact have more money than you and can have more time off than you.
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u/_shadysand_ 2d ago
I can afford it and I do travel quite a bit for leisure. How I got there: invested in my education and jobs, living a healthy lifestyle, not having kids, balancing incomes, investments and spending rationally. I have to admit that I was very lucky of being in right places at the right times, I had some support from my family in the very beginning so I could study in a top-tier uni in my country and live with my parents and finally being a good-looking educated white male did also help in the professional environment, on top of just my qualifications.
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u/KaleRevolutionary795 2d ago
I found out AN answer. Some people live a middle class lifestyle OUTSIDE of europe.. where the middle class has been squeezed by taxes. Unlike their european middle class in for example South America, due to low taxes, can afford whatever restaurants, travel, tickets to events they want. They have "spending money" instead of living paycheck to paycheck. And if they don't have children (childfee) or live without a girlfriend (MGTOW) .. MY GOD.. they live better than any royalty has ever lived
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u/uncle_sjohie 2d ago
You know there are studios you can rent, to make it look like you're taking selfies in a private jet or high end penthouse?
Some people can and do afford it, but they tend to shy away from social media. The ones on those platforms, are faking at least part of it, and/or use that to generate income.
We sometimes dine in Michelin starred restaurants, because that's one of our hobbies and we save money for it. It's not where we go when we don't feel like cooking, then we order a pizza. Depending on what I were to put on the socials, you could get a right or wrong impression of us.
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u/Salt_Description_973 2d ago
The fact of the matter is people are privileged. We all have different lifestyles. I have no debt, work a good job and can afford to travel and eat out whenever I feel like it.
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u/StructureUpstairs699 2d ago
I prioritize travel over other things like cars or expensive devices and I travel cheap.
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u/ocelot08 2d ago
Some are rich. Some are going into insane debt. Some (but maybe fewer) are budgeting like hell to spend on the things they want.
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u/Longjumping-Wash-610 2d ago
Maybe, they aren't saving any money. If you have a decent job and no children you could definitely do that.
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u/carolmusenhour 2d ago
I only drink filtered tap water & black coffee from home. I don't by convenience store anything & don't go to fast food restaurants. I always took lunch to work, even when my salary was great. I rarely buy new clothes and shop in thrift stores. Rarely pay list price. Contribute to a savings account AND 401k (if offered) every payday. Dont incur debt and pay bills on time. I don't have cable or expensive streaming apps - there is plenty of free entertainment on the internet. I work out at home to free videos on YouTube, no gym membership. There's more, just find all the nickel & dime drains on your funds & stop them. These small changes add up!
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u/Pleasant-Caramel-384 2d ago
Maybe debt, maybe they have a better job or more money than you, maybe they spend their money on different things. Doesn’t really matter.
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u/WigglyAirMan 2d ago
debt like crazy
sponsored content
double income no kids with 100k+ jobs (top 0.5% at least)
marketing
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u/Horizontal_Bob 2d ago
Pretending to spend money for instagram is really fairly easy
You can stay in a Holiday Inn and then just show up to a fancy beach resort, pretend you are a guest, take a bunch of photos…then leave and go back to your Holiday Inn
Most of what you see on social media is as real as reality television
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u/NoMap2339 2d ago
For the younger women who seem to be traveling solo and staying at fancy places, a lot of them are involved in sugar dating and accompanying older or richer men who are traveling for business or pleasure, I didn't know how big of a thing this was until just a few years ago..
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u/Hugh_Jampton 2d ago
Crime. A lot of people make money illegally.
You might not see it but those books are being doctored
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u/Chainz4Dayz 2d ago
I have cousins with trust funds who are almost 50. They travel to concerts, trips around the world etc. they will never need to work and every day is basically a Friday or Saturday night to them. My dad's brother made a lot of fucking money. My dad not so much. So that's how some people afford it
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u/Lemonio 2d ago edited 2d ago
If no one could afford it then you wouldn’t see it much. I think most who can afford it have good paying jobs like me, just google high paying jobs if you want to know what they are, some people might just get money from rich parents. some can travel on a surprisingly small budget if they make their goal doing a cheap trip when it’s cheap, rather than going where they want when it’s peak demand.
but also you might know lots of people who can’t afford it and for this reason you don’t see them post that on instagram
Your main takeaway should be, if as for many people, comparing yourself to others on instagram makes you sad, I recommend you delete it
It is possible to do enjoyable things that don’t cost a lot of money, take walks, ideally spending time with friends or family if you have them, if you don’t then joining a free local activity is a good idea because everyone needs some human interaction
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u/andthrewaway1 2d ago
also don't believe what you see on instagram people can fudge timing and all sorts of stuff....
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u/aslfingerspell 2d ago
It's all about what people prioritize in life. You can have a $10 fast food lunch every day of the work week, or get a $50 steak once each weekend.
You can have a $10 fast food lunch every day, or get a $300 a plate dining experience once a month.
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u/shyprof 1d ago
For most of them, probably generational wealth. Their parents/families give them money or set them up with investments or something so they have passive income, or other big expenses are covered (housing, for example—much easier to save and splurge when you're living in a house that's already paid off).
Some may be covering their life expenses but have family gift them the trips, give them money to go on holiday, stuff like that.
Some could just be saving. It can look like someone is "always" traveling or splurging, but it could be that this is their one big expense for the year and they're treating themselves after a year of overtime and pinching pennies, but you only see what they choose to put on IG, which is where people go to show off.
Some of them may be making money from the videos themselves and writing off the expenses on their taxes because it's work for them to create content, and some are given those things (comped food, hotel rooms, trips) in exchange for making positive glowing videos about it. This is rarer and rarer these days, but it happens.
Others are in debt. You can borrow a frankly ridiculous, life-ruining amount of money from a very young age, and it's easy for your brain to say "Oh, I'll pay that back later!" You get a few years of easy, fun living, and then you declare bankruptcy or spend the rest of your life paying off the interest.
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u/LegalTrade5765 1d ago
Contractor jobs Temp jobs that pay a butt load. Pay up my rent take time off and repeat the cycle
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u/JustGenericName 1d ago
Duel income, no kids. Neither of us have student loans. Bought our first super shitty starter house when the market was still low. Sorry, but not everyone is drowning in debt.
But also the more you travel, the cheaper it gets. We go to Hawaii once or twice a year, the flights are always free because we have miles. We have status with a hotel so usually the hotel is cheaper, if not completely free. So when several vacations are cheap, we can afford to splurge on another one.
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u/mwatwe01 1d ago
I have some friends like this. Granted, they're legitimately wealthy business owners in their 50's, so only a few of these apply to them.
- You only see the highlights, not the time they're working.
- Still playing with daddy's money.
- Massive amounts of debt.
- No kids
- Some of the trips are actually work related, and so they aren't footing the full bill.
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u/urbantechgoods 2d ago
I quite my job age 29, software engineer, and been traveling for over a year now. I have more money now than when I left. Just saved up and put it in Robinhood
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u/king_mahalo 2d ago
Double income no kids