Can you live a luxury lifestyle as a nurse?

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My question is towards nurses that have been in the field for couple of years. I was wondering can you life a nice luxury lifestyle as a nurse? My definition of luxury would perhaps revolve around the ability to own a large 5 bedroom house, the ability to drive a luxury vehicle like BMW or Mercedes Benz, and the ability to take vacations every year perhaps to a different country. Is this too much to ask for as nurse or this beyond the dreams of most nurses and would single nurses be able to achieve this over married with kids nurses?

Specializes in Infection Control, Med/Surg, LTC.

LOL, silly wabbit!

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I basically live that way now as a nursing student...thanks to a husband who earns the big bucks. :)

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Luxury....hhaaahahahahahahHAHAHAHAHAA!!! Whew, that was a good one....LOL LOL LOL!

Seriously, although this thread is FOUR years old, I suppose the question could be asked any time and still be just as ....well....off ;)

Anything is possible. More often than not, the scenario painted by the OP is improbable. And with children in the mix...? Little buggers eat me out of house and home! :D

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

YEP indeed!!!!

If you want that, two words for you:

SUGAR DADDY.

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

I feel I DO live in luxury. Compared to so many others,that is. I live in a decent sized 2500sq foot 3 bedroom home, drive a decent car and have plenty for necessities. I will NOT buy a home that is that large, (5 bedrooms are NOT needed for most of us)---- nor a BMW or Mercedes----- cause those are out of my price range.

But I live in relative luxury and comfort as a nurse because I LIVE WITHIN MY MEANS and I want what I have, not just going after what I "want".

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^ I hear that! ^

I feel the same way, actually. It's just the idea of "luxury" (especially as the OP described it) is not realistic for most nurses. My own DH suffers quite a bit from the "I Don't Have" disorder; I remind him that we HAVE so much more than so many others, he just needs to get a GRIP and put that into perspective ;)

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This thread also reminds me of a relative who will on occasion "go on an austerity budget". When *I* went on an austerity budget, I cancelled Netflix and reduced cable to the bottom rung, stopped getting lunches out and so on. HER idea of austerity means taking only TWO vacations that year instead of three, and ONE of them HAS GOT to be domestic, can ya believe it?! Yep, forced to travel within the Continental US for one of the family's THREE vacations each year. Austerity for this relative means reducing clothing expenses for the month from $500 (yes, you read that right) to only $200. Of course, "austerity" usually only lasts for a month or two.

The horror of it!

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Specializes in Emergency, Trauma, Critical Care.

In Sacramento you probably could. But dont have kids. ...or student loans. These are preventing my luxury cars and vacations. Oh and my house is only a 4 bedroom.

But I'm content.

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Specializes in ICU, psych, corrections.

We don't live in luxury but we are very comfortable. We no longer live paycheck to paycheck with my new job and we pay cash for everything. I just purchased my first new car ever (all the others were pre-owned) as a little "gift" to myself for landing this correctional supervisor job and I consider it a luxury for me - it's Jeep Cherokee Limited and I'm just over the moon with excitement about it. To me, it's just as fancy as a Lexus or some other $50-60k car.

When I was making $60,000 a year, we could pay all our bills, eat well, clothe our children, pay our $2000/month mortgage (property values are a bit higher where I live than in much of the country - or they were when we bought our house...lol) but we didn't have a lot of extra disposable income and there were some days I put off paying that bill to pay this one. I took this new job, which came with a $30,000 pay raise and now, I am actually a wee bit scared of the extra cash we have because I know how easy it is to blow money when you have "enough". We are going back to the Dave Ramsey way of living and I know that by using that system, we will be set in our later years to enjoy actual luxury. So right now, we live pretty comfortably and don't want for anything. But as we save and invest by putting off what we "want" now, we will have a wonderful retirement (which will be in about 15 years for me and 7 years for the old man - we both work for the state which comes with a nice pension).

Luxury is in the eye of the beholder as many have already mentioned. I could make three times what I am now but if it left me little time to enjoy my family, all that money would not be worth it at all. I make $90k now and get to enjoy my kids 4 days a week, see them every morning as I'm heading off to bed on my work days and have plenty of time for myself as well. Would I give all that up for a much bigger paycheck? Not on your life. No Mercedes or huge house would make up for the lost time with my family and/or the ability to practive self care in the form of exercise, reading, hobbies, etc. I have no urge to work a million hours a week just to afford expensive cars and big houses. In fact, there are many days I shake my head and wonder how I fell into this position and why they pay me as well as they do :-)

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I live in a four bedroom house (a water closet is bigger than the bedrooms). haha I have a LV handbag I bought second hand. I bought three Buick cars this year. Two of them have high mileage but they are for our ungrateful college kids. The new one is mine. While I'm not living high on the "hog" nursing has certainly been good to me. I will say this, I work OT every.single.week.

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I don't live what I'd call a luxury lifestyle but as a single parent I have a newer home on horse property, horses (not showing or anything), new compact car and ability to help my kids with college expenses. There's enough left over if I budget for a larger vacation or a few small vacations.

Two partnered nurses in Ca can easily earn over 200K with benefits combined and in my area that really ups the lifestyle.

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The questions is, are you in the nursing field for the money? To help people? Or both. I would be very content if I earn the money I need to pay my bills, invest money for the future, and to be able to provide for the family I will have one day. And if I can do all that doing something I love, helping people, and be happy everyday, then that's what I actually call luxury! But if you are gonna get yourself into something just for the money...then think twice because you won't be happy....good luck!

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