Find your diamond
Find your jewelry
shape
carat
color
clarity

If you work for a living, what percentage of *your own* annual pre-tax income do you spend on jewelry?

What percentage of *your own* annual *pre-tax* income do you spend on jewelry?

  • < 1%

  • < 5%

  • < 10%

  • < 15%

  • < 20%

  • < 25%

  • < 30%

  • < 40%

  • < 50%

  • Greater than 50%

Results are only viewable after voting.
Lovey Lace

Lovey Lace

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jan 22, 2023
Messages
39
There are a few prior threads based on % of net worth or a dedicated bling budget. I think net worth is broad, harder to define, and fluctuates, and not everyone sets aside a dedicated budget. So I'm approaching it a different way. I'm curious about what people spend as a percentage of their annual pre-tax income on jewelry. Jewelry can include loose stones as well as stones that are set in jewelry. For this survey, I'm hoping to narrow to:
  1. Only those who are actively working and need to work for a living. So excluding those who are retired, those who can subsist solely on passive income, and those who are only working for fun but don't actually need the money from the job to live. Also excluding those who are living in a household with net worth over $10 million USD.
  2. Only count your own pre-tax annual income, for example, your own w2, notincluding your spouse or partner's or your overall household income.
    • If you do not work for a job, but your partner must work for a living, please use your partner's annual pre-tax income then.
 
Last edited:
Excludes those with households worth over $10 million...I guess I cant participate :lol:

The only thing she forgot is to put all this in 4-point font! I feel like I'm reading one of those contracts and fixing
to sign my life away!o_O
 
I just want to give a big shout out to those that work purely for fun and don’t actually need the money. Feel free to send that money to me, you can find me on LT. Peace and Love!
 
No clue, and I don't really want to know!

DK :lol-2:
 
tyty333 said:
Excludes those with households worth over $10 million...I guess I cant participate :lol:

The only thing she forgot is to put all this in 4-point font! I feel like I'm reading one of those contracts and fixing
to sign my life away!o_O
Click to expand...

Hey, you gotta be detail oriented when it comes to surveys, otherwise the results may be skewed.
 
telephone89 said:
Do people with a net worth of $9M "need" to work? Since only households over $10M are excluded?!
Click to expand...

I had to draw the line somewhere....10 seems like a nice clean number. Or a milestone people want to reach before FIRE
 
tyty333 said:
Excludes those with households worth over $10 million...I guess I cant participate :lol:

The only thing she forgot is to put all this in 4-point font! I feel like I'm reading one of those contracts and fixing
to sign my life away!o_O
Click to expand...

The point of this post is, I just want to use some survey data to crowdsource a benchmark to see if I'm way off from norm.
 
monarch64 said:
What in the AI happened here?
Click to expand...

Dying :lol-2:

Sadly my odds of resurrection into such wealth as would exclude me from this poll aren’t high :boohoo:
 
Last edited:
@Lovey Lace I was just looking at another of your posts a couple of hours ago - you seem like a very analytically-minded person. So I think I understand where your specificity is coming from.

I don’t think you’re going to get any genuine answers to your question, though, *because* this forum is so public and we’ve got such diversity of contribution. If I said I spend 95% of my salary on bling - it would be easy for someone else to go through my threads and see what I’ve bought and suddenly get an uncomfortably-clear picture of what my financial situation probably is!

If you’re curious about how people budget for luxuries the forum that specializes in purses has a section called Money Talks that you might find interesting! There are some great budgeting tips and tricks there too.
 
I’m not sure how many people actually sit down and think ’I’m going to spend x% of my income on bling”, or do they? Not me, that’s for sure.
 
Tricky since I try to make myself sell pieces I'm not wearing to free up funds to buy new pieces...I do my best to not spend "new" money and just keep things flowing from what I already own. Trading happens too.
 
yssie said:
@Lovey Lace I was just looking at another of your posts a couple of hours ago - you seem like a very analytically-minded person. So I think I understand where your specificity is coming from.

I don’t think you’re going to get any genuine answers to your question, though, *because* this forum is so public and we’ve got such diversity of contribution. If I said I spend 95% of my salary on bling - it would be easy for someone else to go through my threads and see what I’ve bought and suddenly get an uncomfortably-clear picture of what my financial situation probably is!

If you’re curious about how people budget for luxuries the forum that specializes in purses has a section called Money Talks that you might find interesting! There are some great budgeting tips and tricks there too.
Click to expand...

That's why it's a poll. Is the poll not anon? I figured people wouldn't want to actually comment, so i made the poll. isnt that how it works on reddit?

You mean PurseForums? That thing is still alive?! I thought they only talked about handbags and designer fashion which i have 0 interest in, so I've never truly visited. You mean they talk about jewelry on there too? thanks! I'll have to check it out.
 
Last edited:
Austina said:
I’m not sure how many people actually sit down and think ’I’m going to spend x% of my income on bling”, or do they? Not me, that’s for sure.
Click to expand...

Like, calculate it after the fact. I have a spreadsheet with the total I've spent per year on jewelry, then I divided that by my w2 income.
 
Last edited:
canuk-gal said:
HI:

I won't participate cuz I'd hate to send off elitist vibes.

cheers--Sharon
Click to expand...

Isnt the poll anon? Or you can see who voted which option?
 
lala646 said:
I know, as I track my spending closely, but I certainly don't want to talk about such things in polite society.
Click to expand...

Isnt the poll anon? I created a poll because i figured people wouldn't actually want to comment. i assumed you cant see who voted for what
 
MamaBear said:
I bet you use an electric toothbrush, too! :lol-2::lol-2: IYKYK
Click to expand...

Are you talking about the thread about this privileged group?
Are there people who do not use electric toothbrushes??? that'd be against dentist recommendations.
 
PSA: As far as i can tell, the poll is anonymous. i am not able to see which user voted for what option. so i dont get the concern about outing one self. but maybe there's a way to see who voted for what that I'm not aware of.
 
telephone89 said:
Do people with a net worth of $9M "need" to work? Since only households over $10M are excluded?!
Click to expand...

believe it or not, yes, people with 9m or even 90m or 900m net worth still need to work, because they just bought that ocean front estate in maui, need to get another bugatti, need to buy another yacht. humans desires are endless
 
Last edited:
Lovey Lace said:
Like, calculate it after the fact. I have a spreadsheet with the total I've spent per year on jewelry, then I divided that by my w2 income.
Click to expand...

I don't track what I spend on jewelry each year. It would never cross my mind to do that.
 
I don't think it will give you the answer you need for benchmarking your own behavior. I don't know who would gauge their jewelry/gem spending as a function of their annual income as opposed to their net worth or their annual investment income in a happily up-market or their on-the-horizon major expenses (roof, car, education -- we need all three, for example), etc. To me, it's money I'm comfortable wasting, while knowing there is some residual value (more than with fancy food or a car) and, hopefully, plenty of joy along the way.

The fact that you specify only the purchaser's income is a bit of an eyebrow-raiser. As a couple, we make most of our wise (and foolish) spending decisions together -- or at least tell each other what we are about to pull the trigger on. None of my purchases are mine alone. Even though spouse recently retired, the process is still the same.

And all your choices but one could truthfully be answered as "less than 50%."
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
GET 3 FREE HCA RESULTS JOIN THE FORUM. ASK FOR HELP
Jewelry Blog
PriceScope-Concierge-Ad
Find prime cuts.
Top