Would you spend $200,000 to join an exclusive golf club? After a recent price increase, that’s the now going rate to join Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in south Florida. And before you get too worked up, that’s actually a pretty modest fee as far as elite country clubs go.
If you can even get an invitation, places like Augusta National where they hold they hold the Masters, will set you back $300,000 to $500,000 just to join. And don’t forget, you’ll also be spending $15,000 to $30,000 in annual membership fees for many of these exclusive clubs as well.
We’re actually big fans of south Florida. We’ve been going there for years and have talked about moving there permanently after the kids graduate. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a high-end exclusive golf club to spend our days? I hear they have private pools.
Well, it just so happens, I’ve been hoarding a little cash recently. My intention was to use that money to buy a small business or maybe pay my children’s tuition but now I’m thinking about all the fun stuff I could spend money on instead.
If I’m willing to spend $200,000 on a golf membership, here’s a few other ideas that I should consider as well:
Matching Teslas
At a list price of $108,000 for the 2016 Tesla Model S 4dr Sdn AWD P90D, we could get a matched pair to park side-by-side in the garage.
Private Charter Aircraft
For $160,000, we could charter a private Dassault Falcon 900 to fly 18 of our close friends from New York to Europe and back.
Summer in Napa
For $120,000, we could spend two months at a two bedroom residence in Calistoga Ranch (Napa Valley).
A Suite at Super Bowl 50
For $200,000, we could rent a suite at Super Bowl 50 in Houston. We get 14 tickets, food, drink, and a 50 yard-line view. But without the Cowboys in the Super Bowl, why would we want to do that?
Back to Reality
No, we won’t be buying a golf membership or matching Teslas or any of the other things.
Instead, we will save our money. If there’s an opportunity to buy a business, we may pull the trigger. Otherwise, we will continue along the path we have set for ourselves – earning, saving, investing.
So boring!
The idea of matched Tesla’s appeals to me. Skrew FIRE, matched Tesla’s here we go!
OR, I could just keep investing like we did…
Boring is good!
We could getting matching license plates to go with the matching Teslas.
I agree, boring is good.
I think that it’s important to realise be happy living your own reality rather than someone else’s. We all know people who try to live above their means by wanting to live a life that they think is better than their own. Sure, $200k golf club membership is a huge and stupid amount to pay for such a thing but if your earned millions of $$ a year, it’s pretty cheap. In the same way that a dinner out each week may be achievable for middle income earners but appears to be a luxury to someone struggling to make ends meet. Once an individual becomes comfortable understanding that, good karma can resume.
One of my first recollections of people living above their means was when I was a kid. Our neighbors moved out of their home in the middle of the night when they could no longer afford the mortgage. And I remember, they were both driving fancy new cars at the time.