Here's some general idea about how people spend their money, not that you couldn't figure this out on your own. Houses: 100k-1mm Cars: 15-80k (each) Vacation

Here's some general idea about how people spend their money, not that you couldn't figure this out on your own. Houses: 100k-1mm Cars: 15-80k (each) Vacations/Travel: 2-10k/year Expensive Clothing: $3-5k/year Jewelry: $0-5k/year Hobbies: $1-20k/year Entertainment/Dining/Drinks: $1-20k/year Retirement & Other Investments: $0 - 50k/year Repeat some of that stuff for their children, add college expenses, maybe private school. Those are just some examples that I largely based off of my sister. She is constantly expanding/improving her home (bathroom remodel and new pool in the past 18 months), she loves big expensive jewelry, she has designer purses and clothing, they have 4 cars which all have TVs and other fancy options in them, they have a class A RV, her husband builds cars & races at the track, they have young boys and everyone has a dirtbike, boys have modern toys/video games/etc. You might think "wow, that's ridiculous," but really they're just spending to their level of income. It's pretty common. You, on the other hand, seem to be more like me. Of my salary I'm required to spend 8.2% on my mortgage, so I don't default. I've started a homestead that I've been buying a lot of tools and equipment for. My utilities come out to another ~1.5% of my salary. Everything else is savings, and/or thrown on to the mortgage. I'm going to pay my mortgage off fully in ~18-24 months (total time). I have no other debts and after that I can save 100% of my salary. I'd like to maybe build a new home on this homestead someday, but I'm not going to go into debt to build it. In the meantime, the salary affords me the luxury of no financial concerns and the ability to help others when they need it. If I had no debts or ambitions to own property, and I didn't mind living in a small single bedroom apartment like your example, I would spend the $700/month on my living expenses and save the rest. I'd probably dip into savings to visit another country each year. I'd retire early. In the end, that's your real answer. Savings & retirement funds. You just haven't thought that far ahead because you're very young.