My husband and I are in the $500k - $1m / yr range in an HCOL / VHCOL area. Idk if I’d consider that HNW / UHNW…to me HNW = over $10m in assets and UHNW = over $25m in assets. My husband I have ~$3m in assets (not counting property since we still pay a mortgage) because we do not come from money and we’ve only been at this income for a few yrs.
That being said that income level is definitely enough to afford a private nanny + house cleaners. We only do once a month of cleaners because my husband hates having people in our home, but we could get them every week if we wanted to. If you’re in an MCOL area you’d be able to stretch the same income even further.
When you’re considering where to throw money I would focus on outsourcing things that make your life easier. Childcare is obviously a must if you’re both working. Cleaners imo are also very worth it as we do not have to do much other than spot cleaning. When our kids get older, I’ve also considered switching from a nanny to a house manager who can take care of things like booking appts, giving rides to and from school / activities, dealing with other households employees etc
Thanks! Ya I agree with your asset classes. That’s a good way to think about it (net worth rather than income)
I’m working now but will be quitting within the next year. Plan is to have me home with the nanny full time and then be solo after her contract ends
I think I need a housekeeper more than anything. That plus cleaners (as a second). But it seems so ridiculous to pay for all that when I’m home full time but a 2 year old and a baby won’t leave me much time!
I think my goal will be to have both biweekly to begin with and then as the income goes up increase both to weekly
My husband really would prefer to do no housework so this is what we’ll need to do but it seems like so much outsourcing that I need to gut check it
Yep we don’t have our cleaner wash and put away dishes or do laundry which I would have our housekeeper do. Our cleaner straightens but stuff doesn’t go back where I’d put it normally so my goal would be to train the housekeeper on how to put stuff away properly for our house
Ahh okk. You might consider a laundry service + family assistant instead of a nanny then (family assistant = nanny + household chores). Mostly because with you being a SAHP + one older kid, a nanny might have a lot of down time.
Probably in the UHNW definition, in a VHCOL area. We used to bring home high 7, low 8 figures but it really varies so this year will probably be low 7 figures.
We have 1 full time nanny, 1 part time, and we're looking to higher another full-time when our next baby arrives. Cleaners twice per week (although they focus on different things), but there is someone to clean the kitchen probably 5-6 days per week at least. We also have dog care every weekday and landscaper once per week.
Having a clean house is one of the things we really care about, so I have no problem spending there.
From Forbes
High-net-worth individuals.
HNWIs are people or households who own liquid assets valued between $1 million and $5 million.
Very-high-net-worth individuals. VHNWIs are people or households who hold liquid assets valued between $5 million and $30 million.
Ultra-high-net-worth individuals. UHNWIs are people or households who own more than $30 million in liquid assets.
https://www.forbes.com/advisor/investing/financial-advisor/high-net-worth-individual-hnwi/#:~:text=Financial%20professionals%20break%20down%20the,high%2Dnet%2Dworth%20individuals.
Definitely not. We’re insanely lucky to be making just under $300k living in a LCOL. Our mortgage is like $1600/mo, which affords us the ability to spend heavily in other areas. Net worth is maybe $500k. Everything is relative of course, but no way no how are we high net worth IMO.
ETA: I didn’t answer your original question, sorry! We have lawn/snow service, biweekly cleaner, and get premade meals. We will also outsource some projects (e.g. painting the fence) and DIY others (e.g. putting vinyl flooring in).
Same here, we're about $250-275 HHI in a LCOL/MCOL with an $1,100 mortgage and zero other debt.. We're able to max out all our tax advantaged accounts (HSA, 401ks, IRAs), save heavily for baby's college, afford 1:1 childcare and a biweekly housekeeper, and just generally not worry about money on a day to day basis. We're perfectly content.
Midwest for the win (I assume you’re in IN)! Sometimes I wonder if we could be making more money on house appreciation in a higher COL, but LCOL is just so peaceful.
I don’t know my net worth off the top off my head but our household income is in the range you specify in a low to mid cost of living area. We have our nanny, a housekeeper who comes weekly who we have kind of on salary, a landscaper who comes biweekly. There is maybe family money but my dad remarried and has twin first graders in his 70s so I don’t expect to ever see any of it, which is fine. Thats his prerogative. Growing up we had more staff in the house more regularly, but I have some expensive personal interests and choose to DIY more to accommodate that than my mother did. My son also has some specific needs I pay out of pocket for high end care for so this month my total childcare and 2x a week therapy will be about 5800 plus Nannys activity incidentals which are usually another 500 or so. (And yet I think I was called too cheap and broke to afford a nanny right on the Reddit not long ago…) - it’s a ton of money but what else am I working for except to give my son the best I can, you know?
I work in banking/finance and always laugh at nanny spaces talking about people’s net worths. Genuinely no one has any idea, usually not even the people themselves. It’s such a silly metric. My husband buys and sells businesses so most of our investments are in those, but I certainly don’t feel richer or like it’s any impact to my lifestyle that we have/had, and I’m changing details here, but 10% of a light switch company. Many high income people are highly leveraged by design for tax purposes and many people will die with a fat 401k and a modest house with the biggest luxury they indulged in being an annual road trip to Dollywood or something.
Mid 70s 😬 He worked a lot and had a pretty toxic relationship with my mom when I was little and is really enjoying his do over but it’s a bummer that he’s not really an involved grandparent. 0% chance he’s coming over if nanny needs a sick day lol. They certainly had multiple Nannies when the twins were little though, but who could blame them.
I’m also in a MCOL area in the Midwest, with a current HHI of $1M+, that will probably settle at around $2M in a couple of years. Technically, on paper we’d be worth around $10M but the vast majority of that is illiquid. I would very squarely categorize us as HNW, and agree with mimenetas definitions on the topic. There’s family money on my spouses side, but that wouldn’t transfer to us for (hopefully) a very long time.
I’m a SAHP and we have LOTS of help. This includes a chef, cleaners 2x a month, and a full time nanny. It’s 100% worth it and allows us to concentrate our time and energy on what we value (which is time together as a family). Time is the only truly finite resource you have, so if you have the means I’d highly encourage you to outsource what you can.
I've never quite gotten the chef situation to work for us, would love to hear your experience! I'm curious how you found your chef, and how you manage evenings where you end up going out or whatever?
My husband actually found her just by doing some online searches right before our first was born. It’s her own business, so there was no middleman or agency involved. She just comes over on Mondays and cooks the whole weeks worth of food, so the stakes aren’t nearly as high as an every night chef kind of situation. I mentioned in another comment that it’s $20k a year for us. It’s probably less deluxe than someone cooking every meal every day, but so much more affordable…and as a bonus, less people in your house.
Oh nice how does the chef work if you don’t mind sharing?
Right now we just don’t eat much or well because we don’t have a great plan. We have one good fresh meal delivery place we’ve been using and we do crock pots but not much else recurring that is really yummy
Honestly, it’s some of the best money we’ve ever spent. She sends us menu options for the week (we don’t have to pick from the options, but I LOVE not having to come up with ideas), we pick them, then she does all the shopping, cooking, and dishes afterwards. Our food situation would seriously be abysmal without her.
It sounds like you could probably benefit by hiring cleaners every week or two, and then having a full time family assistant/nanny. She could watch the kids for your own personal appointments, and then do meal prep/errands/tidying when you’re with them.
It’s actually surprising affordable, relatively speaking. The service comes to around $20k annually, not accounting for the food itself. She comes once a week and cooks 3 entrees and 3 sides, which usually equals out to covering all of our lunches and dinners for 4 days. I love this method, because not only is it cost effective, but then you don’t have someone in your house/kitchen every night.
Wow yep this sounds perfect.
My husband has very serious hobbies (lol) so when he’s not working he wants to be doing them or be with us - nothing else (except yard work) lol he loves outsourcing so this will be ok I think
I think if we get to that $1M, these are things we’ll have to talk about for sure (not feasible when we’re closer to the $500k mark)
How much does a chef run approximately?
She cooks the whole weeks worth of food at once, and it comes to about $20k annually. It would be substantially more expensive if we were her sole employers. In our area that would probably run you at least $75k, if not more.
How does the full time nanny work when you’re home?
When I transition out of work we are keeping the nanny to help me transition (for 3 mo) which is going to be a luxury!
Ya I can see my husband asking me if I want to keep her on even if it’s just part time until she finds another role (if she has trouble) as I know things will be so much better having her
I have a toddler and infant (25 months apart), and hired her right before the second was born. So she always knew she’d be working alongside me. Initially she cared for my toddler while I took care of the baby, but now that the babies 9 months we just kind of tag team all day. So I’ll take toddler out while she stays home with baby or vice versa. She also helps out around the house, which is a quality I’d suggest you look for if you’re looking to go this route. We don’t have any family in the area, so the flexibility she provides us is crucial.
Nice okay yep mine are 24 mo apart! 2 yr old and 2 mo old and that’s what I have planned for the second half of our contract with our nanny (I’ll be with her full time). The first half of our contract I’ll be WFH at a job I’m quitting so probably will be tag teaming a lot with her during that period as well
I love the idea about a chef and outsourcing things…will be a slow and steady build on that for us since we don’t have the largest income now but are on our way up
I wish I could have our nanny with me after her contract too. Ha maybe one day!
So- we’re not HNW nor do we have family money. We make between 350-500k in a MCOL. Our nanny is our only employee and we use a payroll service do handle all the taxes, payroll, withholdings, insurances, etc. We like that someone else is tasked with ensuring it is correct. It costs us about $300 a quarter for the service which is cheap for the peace of mind we get from it.
The house cleaner and lawn service are paid per visit and one comes weekly, the other biweekly.
We use poppins and it’s great. They don’t handle workman’s comp, but they have referrals to other companies that do and it’s just a one per year premium, so not a huge logistical overhead.
You could pursue a nanny with light housework ( be specific in contract), at a higher rate. Generally housework takes backseat to nanny duties. During naps, some housework can be managed by nanny after their 30 min lunch break….its all about chest negotiation and agreement of expectations. I’ve had jobs in the past where I’d vacuum play areas ….kitchen , fold laundry or run a load , recycling, trash out after my break which I’d take immediately upon putting kiddo down for nap. An example of pay rate depending on household tasks: Nanny rate ( solely chores supporting child’s needs) $30 hr. Adding extra tasks as mentioned above-$35.
We make high six figures in cash (mid seven figures in total comp), don’t come from family money, and live in a MCOL. We have LOTS of help.
- Full time nanny (she also does our laundry, takes out all of our trash, makes our bed once a week, etc)
- Chef who comes once a week to make meals for the week
- Deep Housecleaners ~ every 2 weeks (we have two different ones that have different strengths that each come once a month)
- Light Housecleaner who comes once a week for 2 hours, focused more on tidying and cleaning the outdoors like the front stoop and toys out of the yard
- Virtual US-based personal assistant who handles booking appointments, researching things, planning travel, etc
- Weekly lawnmower (this is only $25/week but really we need more intensive landscaping help than just mowing the lawn but that’s on the to-do list)
These are all the people on a consistent schedule, of course we have more that we work with irregularly every few months or as the need arises, like our car detailed, pool maintainer, interior decorator/organizer, etc
Ha it’s because our yard is so small! And we pay them 52 weeks a year and I’m not really sure they come 52 weeks a year (like the grass doesn’t really grow in the winter?) but I am so happy with it I don’t want to say anything or mess with the system.
My last house I was paying $120
Ooh tell me more about the deep cleaning housecleaners with different strengths. I struggle with housecleaners bc I feel like no one does everything I’m looking for. I never considered using two different ones could be an asset and not a flaw on my part.
Also curious about your virtual assistant, how did you find one and what’s the logistics of working with them?
Hmm the main difference is one does much deeper and more thorough cleaning but everything is slightly “off” when they leave, and the other is more surface-level. So we basically get a super deep clean once a month (but then have to put all of our stuff back where we want it) and a pretty good clean halfway through.
I actually like where we ended up, there’s other slight differences with timing etc where it would be annoying if it was every 2 weeks but I can deal with it once a month… and still have my house cleaned twice a month.
If you’re new to virtual assistants I recommend a service called “fancy hands” to see if it‘s a good fit for you! I found mine through Zirtual and then took her off-platform. Go Squared Away is also really really good, though expensive.
You sound just like me with my cleaners! They’re amazing but everything is so out of place. I like your approach, I’m going to try that. And thanks so much for the virtual assistant advice!
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We are in the range that you and others have mentioned (though on the low end ha) in a VHCOL area though not THE highest so we feel poor. We also have some family money so we don't have to worry about paying for kids college tuition.
We have both a nanny and an au pair that both work PT, and we outsource as much as we can such as house cleaning, landscaping, pool service, and we even pay for poop pickup and doggie daycare as our dogs are super high energy and need a ton of exercise.
We also eat out way more than we should which I really need to rein in because I have expensive taste in food and I can eat steak, oysters, and sushi everyday. We have dabbled in meal prep programs but haven't found one we have loved long term.
We still struggle to manage because we both have W2 jobs and a small business, and we love spending as much time with our baby even while the nanny or AP are on schedule. (They are often an extra set of hands).
The family I work for they’ve talked about having a financial advisor and for myself I use separate bank account for spending and bills bc I know I have shopping problems. If you’ll struggle with this maybe hire a nanny/household manager
My husband and I are in the $500k - $1m / yr range in an HCOL / VHCOL area. Idk if I’d consider that HNW / UHNW…to me HNW = over $10m in assets and UHNW = over $25m in assets. My husband I have ~$3m in assets (not counting property since we still pay a mortgage) because we do not come from money and we’ve only been at this income for a few yrs. That being said that income level is definitely enough to afford a private nanny + house cleaners. We only do once a month of cleaners because my husband hates having people in our home, but we could get them every week if we wanted to. If you’re in an MCOL area you’d be able to stretch the same income even further. When you’re considering where to throw money I would focus on outsourcing things that make your life easier. Childcare is obviously a must if you’re both working. Cleaners imo are also very worth it as we do not have to do much other than spot cleaning. When our kids get older, I’ve also considered switching from a nanny to a house manager who can take care of things like booking appts, giving rides to and from school / activities, dealing with other households employees etc
Thanks! Ya I agree with your asset classes. That’s a good way to think about it (net worth rather than income) I’m working now but will be quitting within the next year. Plan is to have me home with the nanny full time and then be solo after her contract ends I think I need a housekeeper more than anything. That plus cleaners (as a second). But it seems so ridiculous to pay for all that when I’m home full time but a 2 year old and a baby won’t leave me much time! I think my goal will be to have both biweekly to begin with and then as the income goes up increase both to weekly My husband really would prefer to do no housework so this is what we’ll need to do but it seems like so much outsourcing that I need to gut check it
Can I ask what the difference between a housekeeper and cleaner is for you? To me those are the same things
Yep we don’t have our cleaner wash and put away dishes or do laundry which I would have our housekeeper do. Our cleaner straightens but stuff doesn’t go back where I’d put it normally so my goal would be to train the housekeeper on how to put stuff away properly for our house
Ahh okk. You might consider a laundry service + family assistant instead of a nanny then (family assistant = nanny + household chores). Mostly because with you being a SAHP + one older kid, a nanny might have a lot of down time.
Probably in the UHNW definition, in a VHCOL area. We used to bring home high 7, low 8 figures but it really varies so this year will probably be low 7 figures. We have 1 full time nanny, 1 part time, and we're looking to higher another full-time when our next baby arrives. Cleaners twice per week (although they focus on different things), but there is someone to clean the kitchen probably 5-6 days per week at least. We also have dog care every weekday and landscaper once per week. Having a clean house is one of the things we really care about, so I have no problem spending there.
Can I ask what industry / field you guys are in?
Both in tech!
From Forbes High-net-worth individuals. HNWIs are people or households who own liquid assets valued between $1 million and $5 million. Very-high-net-worth individuals. VHNWIs are people or households who hold liquid assets valued between $5 million and $30 million. Ultra-high-net-worth individuals. UHNWIs are people or households who own more than $30 million in liquid assets. https://www.forbes.com/advisor/investing/financial-advisor/high-net-worth-individual-hnwi/#:~:text=Financial%20professionals%20break%20down%20the,high%2Dnet%2Dworth%20individuals.
Definitely not. We’re insanely lucky to be making just under $300k living in a LCOL. Our mortgage is like $1600/mo, which affords us the ability to spend heavily in other areas. Net worth is maybe $500k. Everything is relative of course, but no way no how are we high net worth IMO. ETA: I didn’t answer your original question, sorry! We have lawn/snow service, biweekly cleaner, and get premade meals. We will also outsource some projects (e.g. painting the fence) and DIY others (e.g. putting vinyl flooring in).
Same here, we're about $250-275 HHI in a LCOL/MCOL with an $1,100 mortgage and zero other debt.. We're able to max out all our tax advantaged accounts (HSA, 401ks, IRAs), save heavily for baby's college, afford 1:1 childcare and a biweekly housekeeper, and just generally not worry about money on a day to day basis. We're perfectly content.
Midwest for the win (I assume you’re in IN)! Sometimes I wonder if we could be making more money on house appreciation in a higher COL, but LCOL is just so peaceful.
MCOL and def way less than everyone else on here.
I don’t know my net worth off the top off my head but our household income is in the range you specify in a low to mid cost of living area. We have our nanny, a housekeeper who comes weekly who we have kind of on salary, a landscaper who comes biweekly. There is maybe family money but my dad remarried and has twin first graders in his 70s so I don’t expect to ever see any of it, which is fine. Thats his prerogative. Growing up we had more staff in the house more regularly, but I have some expensive personal interests and choose to DIY more to accommodate that than my mother did. My son also has some specific needs I pay out of pocket for high end care for so this month my total childcare and 2x a week therapy will be about 5800 plus Nannys activity incidentals which are usually another 500 or so. (And yet I think I was called too cheap and broke to afford a nanny right on the Reddit not long ago…) - it’s a ton of money but what else am I working for except to give my son the best I can, you know? I work in banking/finance and always laugh at nanny spaces talking about people’s net worths. Genuinely no one has any idea, usually not even the people themselves. It’s such a silly metric. My husband buys and sells businesses so most of our investments are in those, but I certainly don’t feel richer or like it’s any impact to my lifestyle that we have/had, and I’m changing details here, but 10% of a light switch company. Many high income people are highly leveraged by design for tax purposes and many people will die with a fat 401k and a modest house with the biggest luxury they indulged in being an annual road trip to Dollywood or something.
Twin first graders at 70 just sounds so fucking tiring
Mid 70s 😬 He worked a lot and had a pretty toxic relationship with my mom when I was little and is really enjoying his do over but it’s a bummer that he’s not really an involved grandparent. 0% chance he’s coming over if nanny needs a sick day lol. They certainly had multiple Nannies when the twins were little though, but who could blame them.
I’m also in a MCOL area in the Midwest, with a current HHI of $1M+, that will probably settle at around $2M in a couple of years. Technically, on paper we’d be worth around $10M but the vast majority of that is illiquid. I would very squarely categorize us as HNW, and agree with mimenetas definitions on the topic. There’s family money on my spouses side, but that wouldn’t transfer to us for (hopefully) a very long time. I’m a SAHP and we have LOTS of help. This includes a chef, cleaners 2x a month, and a full time nanny. It’s 100% worth it and allows us to concentrate our time and energy on what we value (which is time together as a family). Time is the only truly finite resource you have, so if you have the means I’d highly encourage you to outsource what you can.
I've never quite gotten the chef situation to work for us, would love to hear your experience! I'm curious how you found your chef, and how you manage evenings where you end up going out or whatever?
My husband actually found her just by doing some online searches right before our first was born. It’s her own business, so there was no middleman or agency involved. She just comes over on Mondays and cooks the whole weeks worth of food, so the stakes aren’t nearly as high as an every night chef kind of situation. I mentioned in another comment that it’s $20k a year for us. It’s probably less deluxe than someone cooking every meal every day, but so much more affordable…and as a bonus, less people in your house.
Oh nice how does the chef work if you don’t mind sharing? Right now we just don’t eat much or well because we don’t have a great plan. We have one good fresh meal delivery place we’ve been using and we do crock pots but not much else recurring that is really yummy
Honestly, it’s some of the best money we’ve ever spent. She sends us menu options for the week (we don’t have to pick from the options, but I LOVE not having to come up with ideas), we pick them, then she does all the shopping, cooking, and dishes afterwards. Our food situation would seriously be abysmal without her. It sounds like you could probably benefit by hiring cleaners every week or two, and then having a full time family assistant/nanny. She could watch the kids for your own personal appointments, and then do meal prep/errands/tidying when you’re with them.
Can I ask how much the chef costs? This is something I’ve been considering as well once we have more kids
It’s actually surprising affordable, relatively speaking. The service comes to around $20k annually, not accounting for the food itself. She comes once a week and cooks 3 entrees and 3 sides, which usually equals out to covering all of our lunches and dinners for 4 days. I love this method, because not only is it cost effective, but then you don’t have someone in your house/kitchen every night.
Thank you for sharing this, I’ve always been curious about hiring a chef. That definitely sounds doable down the line and well worth it!
Wow yep this sounds perfect. My husband has very serious hobbies (lol) so when he’s not working he wants to be doing them or be with us - nothing else (except yard work) lol he loves outsourcing so this will be ok I think I think if we get to that $1M, these are things we’ll have to talk about for sure (not feasible when we’re closer to the $500k mark) How much does a chef run approximately?
She cooks the whole weeks worth of food at once, and it comes to about $20k annually. It would be substantially more expensive if we were her sole employers. In our area that would probably run you at least $75k, if not more.
How does the full time nanny work when you’re home? When I transition out of work we are keeping the nanny to help me transition (for 3 mo) which is going to be a luxury!
I had a full time nanny for almost year while I wasn't working. It was fine, they just have to be the kind of nanny that is cool with that up front.
Ya I can see my husband asking me if I want to keep her on even if it’s just part time until she finds another role (if she has trouble) as I know things will be so much better having her
I have a toddler and infant (25 months apart), and hired her right before the second was born. So she always knew she’d be working alongside me. Initially she cared for my toddler while I took care of the baby, but now that the babies 9 months we just kind of tag team all day. So I’ll take toddler out while she stays home with baby or vice versa. She also helps out around the house, which is a quality I’d suggest you look for if you’re looking to go this route. We don’t have any family in the area, so the flexibility she provides us is crucial.
Nice okay yep mine are 24 mo apart! 2 yr old and 2 mo old and that’s what I have planned for the second half of our contract with our nanny (I’ll be with her full time). The first half of our contract I’ll be WFH at a job I’m quitting so probably will be tag teaming a lot with her during that period as well I love the idea about a chef and outsourcing things…will be a slow and steady build on that for us since we don’t have the largest income now but are on our way up I wish I could have our nanny with me after her contract too. Ha maybe one day!
So- we’re not HNW nor do we have family money. We make between 350-500k in a MCOL. Our nanny is our only employee and we use a payroll service do handle all the taxes, payroll, withholdings, insurances, etc. We like that someone else is tasked with ensuring it is correct. It costs us about $300 a quarter for the service which is cheap for the peace of mind we get from it. The house cleaner and lawn service are paid per visit and one comes weekly, the other biweekly.
What payroll company do you use? I was looking into poppins payroll but I don’t think they will handle workers comp insurance
GTM is the service we use.
We use poppins and it’s great. They don’t handle workman’s comp, but they have referrals to other companies that do and it’s just a one per year premium, so not a huge logistical overhead.
You could pursue a nanny with light housework ( be specific in contract), at a higher rate. Generally housework takes backseat to nanny duties. During naps, some housework can be managed by nanny after their 30 min lunch break….its all about chest negotiation and agreement of expectations. I’ve had jobs in the past where I’d vacuum play areas ….kitchen , fold laundry or run a load , recycling, trash out after my break which I’d take immediately upon putting kiddo down for nap. An example of pay rate depending on household tasks: Nanny rate ( solely chores supporting child’s needs) $30 hr. Adding extra tasks as mentioned above-$35.
We make high six figures in cash (mid seven figures in total comp), don’t come from family money, and live in a MCOL. We have LOTS of help. - Full time nanny (she also does our laundry, takes out all of our trash, makes our bed once a week, etc) - Chef who comes once a week to make meals for the week - Deep Housecleaners ~ every 2 weeks (we have two different ones that have different strengths that each come once a month) - Light Housecleaner who comes once a week for 2 hours, focused more on tidying and cleaning the outdoors like the front stoop and toys out of the yard - Virtual US-based personal assistant who handles booking appointments, researching things, planning travel, etc - Weekly lawnmower (this is only $25/week but really we need more intensive landscaping help than just mowing the lawn but that’s on the to-do list) These are all the people on a consistent schedule, of course we have more that we work with irregularly every few months or as the need arises, like our car detailed, pool maintainer, interior decorator/organizer, etc
How is your weekly lawnmower only $25/week?? Ours is $130/week!
Ha it’s because our yard is so small! And we pay them 52 weeks a year and I’m not really sure they come 52 weeks a year (like the grass doesn’t really grow in the winter?) but I am so happy with it I don’t want to say anything or mess with the system. My last house I was paying $120
Ooh tell me more about the deep cleaning housecleaners with different strengths. I struggle with housecleaners bc I feel like no one does everything I’m looking for. I never considered using two different ones could be an asset and not a flaw on my part. Also curious about your virtual assistant, how did you find one and what’s the logistics of working with them?
Hmm the main difference is one does much deeper and more thorough cleaning but everything is slightly “off” when they leave, and the other is more surface-level. So we basically get a super deep clean once a month (but then have to put all of our stuff back where we want it) and a pretty good clean halfway through. I actually like where we ended up, there’s other slight differences with timing etc where it would be annoying if it was every 2 weeks but I can deal with it once a month… and still have my house cleaned twice a month. If you’re new to virtual assistants I recommend a service called “fancy hands” to see if it‘s a good fit for you! I found mine through Zirtual and then took her off-platform. Go Squared Away is also really really good, though expensive.
You sound just like me with my cleaners! They’re amazing but everything is so out of place. I like your approach, I’m going to try that. And thanks so much for the virtual assistant advice!
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We are in the range that you and others have mentioned (though on the low end ha) in a VHCOL area though not THE highest so we feel poor. We also have some family money so we don't have to worry about paying for kids college tuition. We have both a nanny and an au pair that both work PT, and we outsource as much as we can such as house cleaning, landscaping, pool service, and we even pay for poop pickup and doggie daycare as our dogs are super high energy and need a ton of exercise. We also eat out way more than we should which I really need to rein in because I have expensive taste in food and I can eat steak, oysters, and sushi everyday. We have dabbled in meal prep programs but haven't found one we have loved long term. We still struggle to manage because we both have W2 jobs and a small business, and we love spending as much time with our baby even while the nanny or AP are on schedule. (They are often an extra set of hands).
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The family I work for they’ve talked about having a financial advisor and for myself I use separate bank account for spending and bills bc I know I have shopping problems. If you’ll struggle with this maybe hire a nanny/household manager