I think many people here at HN can admit to spending that much on their hobbies, even the ones without summer houses. It just sounds like fashion might not be one of yours?
3.9k USD annually is a lot for a hobby. I'm not going to argue whether it's "just a bit much" or "ridiculous", but I think it's strange to imply that it's somehow not a lot.
It's more than I spend, but you're on a tech forum full of nerdy engineers -- gaming rigs and their upgrades, hot new phones and laptops, travel, collectibles, legos, shop tools and materials, music gear, sporting and camping gear, etc each burn through that kind of budget real quick.
And nobody would call out that kind of spend were it for one of those.
Yes I would, anyone spending this kind of money regularly is a rube. Most of the shit you mentioned are up front one time costs with a minimal maintenance requirement. Anyone who is paying several grand to upkeep this stuff is an idiot and deserves to be parted with their money.
It would me more of someone gaming a lot, traveling a lot, building legos a lot at the same time, crafting by weekends too, playing music to the extend they need to buy gear regularly, doing multiple sports on to of it all and also going camping.
On itself, neither of these hobbies cost that much money yearly unless you consciously decided you want to spend a lot of money.
Is it? Lots of big-city gyms have memberships of $200/month or more. That's $2400 right there before you get into equipment, clothing, 1:1 coaching, sports massage, perhaps competitions, potentially travel.
(And I'm not even talking about big-ticket sports like golf, horse-riding, racing cars, etc.)
BJJ is a notoriously expensive martial art, and Gracie franchises especially so. For something like Taekwondo, Judo, or Karate you're looking at more like £80-100 per month for 2-3x weekly classes. And for a lot of team sports it'll be considerably less. I competed both in Taekwondo sparring and ultimate frisbee as a student, and both were easy to do on the cheap.
Also I think OP was confused by what you meant by "gym". In the UK that normally refers just to a place with weights and cardio machines. One of the most popular chains is Pure Gym which is typically around £30 per month: https://www.puregym.com/city/central-london/
We've just signed up to a more expensive gym with a pool, spa, sauna, etc..., but it's still around £160 per month for us as a family in South-West London.
> 3.9k USD annually is a lot for a hobby. I'm not going to argue whether it's "just a bit much" or "ridiculous", but I think it's strange to imply that it's somehow not a lot.
It adds up fast.
Last year a single 2 week roadtrip on my motorcycle easily racked up around $5000 in total cost between needing new touring gear, new set of tyres, motels, etc. I have worn the touring gear once or twice since then but haven’t had a chance for any more big trips. The tyres I keep using of course.
This year a single maintenance visit came out to $2k. Just parking for my bike costs $1200/year.
Until recently when I started commuting again, my bike was purely a hobby. You could argue it’s still a hobby because I could totally BART/CalTrain to work if I hated myself enough. (it’s 60% faster by bike)
I think a lot of people on HN either aren’t honest with themselves how much hobbies cost, live in low COL areas, or both.
If you’re into an individual sport and you have private lessons, which are more common than you’d think, you’ll easily blow thousands of dollars per year just for half an hour or an hour per week. Almost anyone who is beyond a fairly recreational level in tennis, martial arts or fencing will be spending thousands per year.
On the other hand, 3.9k per year is a massive amount of money to spend on cheaper hobbies like hiking or painting.
It also depends a lot where you live, HN is very US centric and is full of people who are earning big money at tech companies there.
Painting can be quite an expensive hobby. Maybe not 3.9k per year expensive, but still, I'm sure I've spent more than $1k in the last 12 months. It starts cheap, but the cheap materials tend to be shite. There's always savings to be made, but they often cost time over money.
The awkward question is how many hours would you have to work to make $325. Because at minimum wage, that's 20. For others, that's ten, and for others, that's one. For a billionaire, they're making that much, passively, in minutes. $325/month for a hobby which gives joy, and meaning, and makes life worth living, vs rent?
I pretty much only have shorts and tshirts that could all be replaced on amazon for $100
1 pair of jeans and 1 nice shirt, neither that I have worn yet this year. I do have a nice suite but even to a wedding or funeral I would probably just wear the jacket, shirt and jeans.
Beyond that I just don't care. There is such freedom that comes with being able to replace my entire wardrobe that I actually wear on amazon in the next 5 minutes for $150.
In the same regard, I don't notice people's clothes either. Not only do I not notice if someone is wearing something expensive vs cheap but the thought wouldn't even cross my mind to try to do some kind of wardrobe valuation.
I would suspect people really into fashion highly overestimate the degree the average person is into fashion.
This is a pretty extreme form of neutral stance. Yes, it's subjective. One man's day out is another man's salary. But it's not so utterly boundless that it's noteworthy to point out that most people probably consider thousands every year on a hobby to be an "expensive hobby".
It's pretty incredible that several grand a year per year is not considered absolutely insane amounts of spend on fucking FASHION. I guess I'm not the audience for HN since everyone here seems to be insanely rich.
You hardly have to be rich to spend $300 a month on fashion, you just have to be not poor, and have it as a priority. Just because fashion isn't a priority to you doesn't mean it's the same for everyone. The same people that spend $500 a month on clothes might think buying a TV for more than $300 is unthinkable. Priorities differ.
