Here’s How Neil Patel Spends $180,000/Month on Personal Expenses

Is it easy for you to keep your burn rate down? Because like, uh, I was telling Sam this, I spend like, I don't know, $25,000 a month now, just like, and I'm not, I don't even feel like I'm, dude, I think Sean, you might, I think you might spend more than that now.

If I bet you add it up, because I know what, how you spend, I bet you it's more than 25.

It might be, it might be a little more, uh, but it's not more than 30, I would say. I don't think it's more than 30. So I, but like, yeah, I got two little kids, but I got two little kids, but they're like babies. Like, like, you know, like they didn't, they didn't need food. Yeah. So, so, you know, there's diapers, sure. But like, it's not them, it's me.

So I would take 30.

You said it's a steep burn rate or it's a good burn rate.

I would take it. I'll trade with you.

Okay. Gotcha. So when you say you don't spend much, what, what do you say is your monthly burn rate? Cause I think for most people listening, right, they're like, Most people don't talk about how much they make or how much they spend.

All right.

How much you make, sometimes that's sensitive. How much you spend?

How much I burn?

Well, but, but Neil, you actually wrote this in a blog post. You said, uh, you said, I spend, this was, I don't know if you're actually, I have no idea if you're single or if you have a family and you can avoid that. If you remember my burn rate right now, but you used to say in your blog post that you go $15,000 a month is all I need. I'm happy. That was like 10 years ago, I think. But, uh, that's— but you used to say $15,000.

Single and no kids, it was easy. Right now, if I had to guess on my burn rate, $120,000 to $180,000 a month. What?

That's insane. So what is— how does that break down? So what's the, like, what's the bulk of it?

Whether—

so house probably is the biggest one.

No, I have no mortgage.

Okay. So you're spending $120,000 to $180,000 without spending anything on your home.

Property tax, property tax for both my homes and HOA dues is probably close to $200 a year. Okay, great.

So we've got $12,000 of the way there.

All right. Yeah. Yeah. So there's— okay.

Life insurance is $25,000 a month. What? My whole life policy. Yeah, that's $25,000 to $300,000 a year.

Uh, no, no, wait, wait. What the hell is a $25,000 a month life insurance policy? What can you explain?

That is just a benefit. Like if I die, my wife and kids get money, like a life insurance policy.

Yeah. Well, I get that, but is that normal? I've never heard, uh, like either I'm dumb or you're dumb. Who's dumb here? Am I dumb because I've never heard of anybody spending that much on their life insurance policy?

It's like an investment account. It builds over time. So it's not like it goes away, right? Most life insurance policies are for, call it 10 years, and then you buy another one. Mine just keep going and you can borrow against it. Just think of it as like an investment vehicle. So that's $2,500 a month. Okay.

I see.

I see.

I see.

Now I understand.

Staff, cleaners, nannies, driver. We have a full-time driver. I think that ends up being around $57,000 a month.

Um, $5,700, $57,000.

$1,000.

Uh, you know, a driver, Uber.

What? Why?

Uber would be more affordable.

So I optimize for convenience. In Vegas, I go through this company, they charge a hefty premium. I go through this company and I have decals on my car. So if I do a meeting in front of a casino, the car can just stay in front of the casino and doesn't have to move. If I'm going to the airport, you can straight up pull up into the plane or whatever you want to do, and you don't have to go through terminals or anything. Like that. So that makes like—

so part of your strategy, as I'm picking this up, is that you live the best lifestyle you want and it's all expensible the way you do it?

Uh, I don't know if it's all expensible.

Is that what you meant with the decal? Like it's a company, it's like marketing, it's like a, like a marketing vehicle for you?

So there, there's a limo company. If I have their decal on my windows, I pay them I can end up parking wherever I want in theory, not literally wherever I want, but in most cases I can park wherever I want and the car can just sit there and wait for me.

So. All right. So what else? Anything else? You fly private?

He's like, I buy a daily Disneyland FastPass just in case I decide to go that day.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

For convenience of time.

What's been the— what's been the number one, like, kind of like where you feel like most people don't— most people think this is too expensive and not worth it. But for me, I get way more value. I'll give you an example in my life, right? So I thought I had burned right till we started talking. So this is great. I'm feeling so much better about myself. But the one thing I did was I hired a private chef. So I was like, all right, that— I think I always thought that's the lifestyle of the rich and famous. And I thought, wow, that's cool because you eat healthy and it tastes great. You don't have to fuss with time and, you know, cooking and dishes and groceries and all that stuff. And so to me, it's like a no-brainer. I'm like, dude, anybody with any kind of money, you should be like— that should be one of the first, like, Fancy car later, private chef now. Like, cuz I'm like, to me, the value, the reward way outweighed the cost. And I think most people don't typically make that trade. Sounds like you've experimented with many ways of spending money. What has been a good reward for cost, uh, trade that you're like, this one is great that most people don't do?

I don't know. I mean, I'm in a bubble cuz I have a lot of friends who are like me, sadly. In which we spend a lot and we don't know what's reality. I know that sounds bad to say, but it's true, right? Cook is not bad. Housekeeper isn't bad so you don't have to do your own dishes and stuff. Although funny enough, I enjoy doing that and ironing because it's kind of like meditative for me. It's relaxing. I don't know why watching TV and ironing. Nannies help so you get the freedom and you can watch your kids when you want to, but you can also do meetings and stuff like that. Probably the best expense I ever spend on is private planes. Not because I like it, it's, I don't mind flying commercial, not really any difference for me, but it helps me optimize for time so that way I can see my kids more. Because I have to sometimes do a lot of meetings for work and just going and then coming back the same day, just really in and out really quickly. Like sometimes I'll be home quick enough, like go from Vegas to Utah for a conference, speak, come back, and I'll be home quick enough to pick up my kid from school. And like to me, that's really well valuable. That's worth the money.

So are you saving any money then? Or are you just taking a fat draw from the agency in order to pay for this? Or are you able to expense a lot of it to the agency? How's that work?

I don't expense any of it to my company. I just personally pay for it.

So you're just, the agency's just that profitable of a business. It's doing that well.

Or investments or savings. I've done well enough in life where I'm okay. Can we turn the ship around? We need to circle back. Business term.