Middle class professionals: tell me about your finances

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:all of you can 'feel middle class' and say this area is 'expensive' and all the other things you wring your hands with but you are not middle class. You are earning more than 96% of the American population.

Get over yourselves and acknowledge your priviledge.

NP here. Gross HHI $220k, paying $500 a month toward student loans, no consumer debt. No inherited assets or infusions of cash from family. I am indeed privileged and thankful every day that we have a steady income, a comfortable home, and plenty of food and clothing. But I also acknowledge that DH and I are far behind our peers who make less money in other areas. Many markers of middle-class American life are out of our reach. Home ownership would wipe out every penny of emergency savings. Yes, this is a choice. We could buy a home and hope no misfortune befalls us. We own one ten-year-old car. Hell, we can't afford a second child. I don't want or expect anyone to feel sorry for us. It's just a fact of living in this area, hence the discussion here on DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:all of you can 'feel middle class' and say this area is 'expensive' and all the other things you wring your hands with but you are not middle class. You are earning more than 96% of the American population.

Get over yourselves and acknowledge your priviledge.

NP here. Gross HHI $220k, paying $500 a month toward student loans, no consumer debt. No inherited assets or infusions of cash from family. I am indeed privileged and thankful every day that we have a steady income, a comfortable home, and plenty of food and clothing. But I also acknowledge that DH and I are far behind our peers who make less money in other areas. Many markers of middle-class American life are out of our reach. Home ownership would wipe out every penny of emergency savings. Yes, this is a choice. We could buy a home and hope no misfortune befalls us. We own one ten-year-old car. Hell, we can't afford a second child. I don't want or expect anyone to feel sorry for us. It's just a fact of living in this area, hence the discussion here on DCUM.

I don’t understand. I own a home on 95k and also have that level of student loan payment. It IS about choices. Why can’t you save on 220k?

[Anonymous]

Our data points:

Both 46, in NYC, with a 4 year old and a 6 year old. It's taken us a while getting it together.

My retirement = $310K (403b, 457, Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, two pensions)
DH's retirement = $300K (annuity, Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, pension)
529s = $30K
Cash = $30K
Equity = $1.1M (we have $235K mortgage left; we bought at the bottom of the last housing bubble)

The one thing making me sleep at night is our pensions. They total $91K/yr.

[Anonymous]

I'm the "01/04/2018 20:06" poster. I forgot to add we are a two income family that makes $190/yr ($16200 of that is rental income).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:all of you can 'feel middle class' and say this area is 'expensive' and all the other things you wring your hands with but you are not middle class. You are earning more than 96% of the American population.

Get over yourselves and acknowledge your priviledge.

NP here. Gross HHI $220k, paying $500 a month toward student loans, no consumer debt. No inherited assets or infusions of cash from family. I am indeed privileged and thankful every day that we have a steady income, a comfortable home, and plenty of food and clothing. But I also acknowledge that DH and I are far behind our peers who make less money in other areas. Many markers of middle-class American life are out of our reach. Home ownership would wipe out every penny of emergency savings. Yes, this is a choice. We could buy a home and hope no misfortune befalls us. We own one ten-year-old car. Hell, we can't afford a second child. I don't want or expect anyone to feel sorry for us. It's just a fact of living in this area, hence the discussion here on DCUM.

I don’t understand. I own a home on 95k and also have that level of student loan payment. It IS about choices. Why can’t you save on 220k?

We married late. Our finances have only been combined for 3 years. We have $80k in liquid savings. Our incomes are topped out in our fields. We aren't comfortable putting nearly all of our savings down on a house and having nothing left over for an emergency. Also, our child care payments are lower because we live close in and DD is in care fewer hours each day. We cannot telework.

[Anonymous]

We are 45/53 and now make 255k/combined--- we broke 200k about 5 years ago when DH got a new job and went from 85 to 130,which allowed us to start saving more aggressively.

we have a 650k mortgage (ouch) and 30-35k/year child care costs (includes DH's oldest child's tuition).


I have 250k in retirement; 125k in investment account. DH has 350k in retirement and we jointly have 175k in investment from sale of home. We have about another 200k in equity in our current home.

Kids (elementary) have college funds, which get a combined 18k/year (12k each from grandparents and 6k from us). by the time they get to college, should have around 300k/each, I guess--unless grandparents kick the bucket or change their tune.

I have no idea if this is good, bad or okay for us the future.

I feel like we are behind on retirement. I started my first living wage job at almost 30 (when I finished a phd program and then post doc). DH started late because he was financially irresponsible before we met and barely saved for retirement. Once married, I insisted that he max out his retirement....and when our salaries rose, I then maxed mine. We continue to max ours and will do so until retirement.

Given our salaries, I think we could do a *much* better job of saving--we travel, eat out, spend $ on things we don't need. I feel like we need some financial discipline. DH grew up with no money, his parents are old and broke (we support them partially) and he makes grand gestures0=--insists on taking everyone (if we go out with others) to dinner and paying 400$ for example. I grew up wealthier, but we were pretty frugal.



Judge Good Sense in on your side. Your hubby's wrong. Dead wrong.

You should save a lot more. A lot. Your concern is totally valid.



Not sure if you want advice, but I agree your retirement of 600k is about half of the recommended amount for your salaries/age. (50 years: 255k salary x factor of 6.6 = 1.28 million recommended to maintain standard of living after retiring at 65). But if you reduce your expenses, you'll not only save more but also need less. And you've got a great income and the added bonus of ample grandparent gifting for college. Your college savings sound great! 300k investments outside of retirement, great! (Do these include savings/emergency fund? Are you considering these as investments?) Your home equity so-so for your age -- you've got 450k more to pay off with one person likely to retire in 12 years. I would recommend automating more of your savings - yes maxing retirement--but also perhaps a 'pay-off the mortgage at retirement fund' so there's less available funds for for grand gestures.

Yes! I totally welcome advice. I feel like I really don't know what I"m doing re: finances but I know more than DH does. Also, he grew up differently--worked his way through college, supported himself, his parents live extremely frugally, but both on excellent state pensions so they only need a little help. He doesn't realize in a major way that our future, and our kids futures will be different--you can't work your way through college easily anymore, grad degrees are necessary in many fields, and our health care costs are going to be much higher than our parents.

So, to answer your questions: our 300k investments do include savings/e fund (75k in a savings account, so not really an investment but a small yield, I consider that our emergency fund). I agree about automating the savings. I think I might just start putting away another 200.00/month toward the mortgage and up it from there to see what happens--or would it be better to put it in investments? the stock market is gangbusters at the moment, but I feel the confidence is not necessarily fully justified.... DH works for the govt now and will have a pension at retirement, not huge, but not tiny--more important is that his job has some stability (though you never know).

One thing that is in our future is likely a move for my job. Part of me desperately wants to move to a low COL city for a while and stock away an extra 50k/year. The good news is that aside from our mortgage, we have no other ongoing debt-just paid off the last car, no loans, etc. Still, I am so envious of people who are mortgage free or nearly there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for the replies. I do agree that middle class for purposes of this discussion on this board should be around $170k-$220k for a family of 4.

Ok, we make $225k as a family of 4, so I guess I'll chime in, particularly since as dual feds we pretty much will not make much more going forward.

35/37, 2 kids. One in school, one in $2k/month daycare.

We max 2 TSPs and have since 2011. I once had a manager early on tell me to absolutely put in the minimum to get the full match and to increase my contribution with every step, COL, and promotion until I hit the max. That took 5 years for me and 6 for H to do. But I came in as a lawyer so earned more. We have just over $600k combined in TSPs.

We have $50k in liquid cash.

Another $30k invested in stocks.

We put $4k/year/child in 529s. Balances are about $30k for our oldest, $14k for our toddler.

Roughly $400k in equity in our house, but we owe quite a bit on it.

I owe $50k in student loans still at $350/month, 2.1% interest. I will pay this off in 16 more years, ha. Likely after my first child is already done with college.

How much do you owe on it?

Around $650k.

Good Lord.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:all of you can 'feel middle class' and say this area is 'expensive' and all the other things you wring your hands with but you are not middle class. You are earning more than 96% of the American population.

Get over yourselves and acknowledge your priviledge.

+1. i think a majority of posters here are in the top 5% if not the top 1-3%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

So, to answer your questions: our 300k investments do include savings/e fund (75k in a savings account, so not really an investment but a small yield, I consider that our emergency fund). I agree about automating the savings. I think I might just start putting away another 200.00/month toward the mortgage and up it from there to see what happens--or would it be better to put it in investments? the stock market is gangbusters at the moment, but I feel the confidence is not necessarily fully justified....

If you're already maximizing retirement (including any catch-up extras your husband is now allowed since he's over 50), I would probably split the difference between contributing to the mortgage and investing. JMO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We’re 36 with 1 in daycare and 1 on the way. We don’t have a lot of income growth possible as feds from this point; we’re at a combined $265k. Retirements at about $450k.

We certainly don’t come from wealthy backgrounds, but were able to get out of grad school with a combine $25k in loans. I think that’s a huge difference between us and some peers.

We make things work with one car.

We started a 529 for our 2 year old with a large lump sum, but won’t be able to do that for #2 without hurting retirement. So the elder has about $18k and the younger might just have monthly deposits of $300. That’s become our real concern...how do normal people do it all?

Their kids graduate college with massive debt. Thats how.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hhi $270k. 49 and 51 both professionals. Kids just finished college...one private, the other public. Did not do 529 so paid full out of pocket for both. 401k savings about $400k but both have nice defined benefit plans (hence the low 401k balance). Currently both now maxing out at $24500 401k. Have about $800k “net” in RE and stock portfolio. Home equity about $1.5m (we like nice homes) on track to pay off mortgage in 10 years. Defined benefit for both kicks in next 5-8 years, total est $150k per year.

Wow ! Congratulations. You are very well set up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:all of you can 'feel middle class' and say this area is 'expensive' and all the other things you wring your hands with but you are not middle class. You are earning more than 96% of the American population.

Get over yourselves and acknowledge your priviledge.

Get over yourself and acknowledge your bitterness. I've seen very little hand wringing on this thread from high earners. You have no right to tell people what they are allowed to be concerned about any way.

I'm a teacher who married a teacher so firmly in the middle class and will stay there but not bitter about it. If you can't deal with reading about people with high incomes or who have saved more, than get off the forum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’re 36 with 1 in daycare and 1 on the way. We don’t have a lot of income growth possible as feds from this point; we’re at a combined $265k. Retirements at about $450k.

We certainly don’t come from wealthy backgrounds, but were able to get out of grad school with a combine $25k in loans. I think that’s a huge difference between us and some peers.

We make things work with one car.

We started a 529 for our 2 year old with a large lump sum, but won’t be able to do that for #2 without hurting retirement. So the elder has about $18k and the younger might just have monthly deposits of $300. That’s become our real concern...how do normal people do it all?

Their kids graduate college with massive debt. Thats how.

PP, with that HHI, why can't you save more than $300/month for DC2?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:30, federal contractor. Recent raise to 95k HHI. I recently purchased a townhouse that doesn’t yet have much equity, probably about 20k, but looking forward to seeing that grow. I don’t have much in retirement, only about 10k (I know), but hoping to max out contributions this coming year once I can afford to after making some progress on car, student loans and a little credit card debt.

PP., This is where I was at, at your age. Now 44, HHI is $120k but we have $1.7m, including $1m in retirement and investments and the bulk of the rest in home equity. Just max out your retirement and live below your means.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Middle class= 57K-91K a year.

None of you are middle class.

You are not from around here?
60K is firmly in the free lunch territory.