Is 200K enough
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Anonymous
| Family of 4 (parents and 2 kids) on 200K annual income (pre tax) with 3.5K mortgage, really struggling to make ends meet with credit card debt. Anyone else having the same issue? How much is “enough” to live in the DMV for a family of 4? |
Anonymous
| You have a decently low mortgage. But it's not quite enough in my experience with childcare and wanting to do fun stuff. $275 is a little easier. |
Anonymous
| Well, it’s true that all the other families of four make more than that. |
Anonymous
|
Your mortgage is low.
What exactly is eating up your budget? Daycare? Car payments? How much is the credit card debt and how much are you paying per month towards it? |
Anonymous
| Family of 5 here with lower income and higher mortgage in the DMV. I suspect your challenge is the debt. How much is it, what is the interest rate, and what is the monthly payment on that? it also makes a big difference is your $200K is single earner or dual earner income (so you have child care costs). |
Anonymous
|
On that income you’ll have to make choices. Yes, someone who is not on this board would cringe at that comment, but it’s true - especially in this area.
You make $16,666 a month. With a 5% 401k contribution and assuming a 30% tax burden, you bring home about $11,000 a month. After you pay your mortgage, you have $7500 left over. Yes, you can live off that but with kids and being in NOVA it will require sacrifice and budgeting. Maybe $200 a month to the kids 529s, keep car expenses low. We just bought a Toyota Corolla for $25000 out the door. That’s a perfect car for a family with 2 kids. You’ll need to think along those lines to make your money go further. Since you have a $3500 mortgage, have you lived in your house for awhile? Do you have a lot of equity? |
Anonymous
| Depends on where you are ok living. If you are ok living in pg county and using public schools, then it’s fine. If you want north Arlington or Bethesda, it’s poor. |
Anonymous
|
Budget: Car payment, childcare (including camp, before care, pre K), cell phone, gym, weekly groceries, electric, water bills, putting towards 401K, vanguard, etc.
15K in credit card bill |
Anonymous
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Take pen and paper and write donw what you buy. Do better next month.
Concentrate on investing, not spending.Take $1000 and start. All by yourself without any bank involved. I invested on very low income, like $20 a day for 30 years. Want ot guess how much it is now? No only did I survive on less, I have every penny I have ever made and then some. People underestimate the power of personal fiance. It's more powerful than your $200k. You pass the knowledge down to your kids and start them early. |
Anonymous
Gym: buy a treadmill and a weight set (or whatever you use.) we did that at the start of COVID and haven’t paid a gym fee in 5 years. Camp: choose wisely. Your kids don’t need camp, unless you both work. Cell phone: shop around. I have 5 lines through t-mobile for $170 a month. Car: discussed above. Get a smaller car - your family isn’t that big. 401k: reduce it if you’re over saving. Going in to debt for fund retirement isn’t a good idea. |
Anonymous
| Are you in the daycare stretch? We had to reduce retirement contributions to just get the employer match for several years. What kind of debt do you have and how much is it? |
Anonymous
|
It sounds like you need to go super-frugal for a few months, for starters. That will get your head above water and re-set your lifestyle. Be more of a homebody, see if you can sell anything you're not using, and just focus on controlling expenses and making extra payments on the debt.
Your debt is not that big and you'll probaby pay it off fine when your younger kid starts public school. If that's not the case, then you need to make some lifestyle changes. |
Anonymous
Is the credit card bill the monthly amount and you pay it off every month? Or is that the balance and you are getting charged interest? |
Anonymous
| I think it depends on what stage of life you are in. I have one teenager and make a hair under $200K. It feels like we have enough money for everything we need. He attends public school and does a school sport, but that was his choice (I advocated for Catholic high school, he did not want to do it, I would have continued paying for travel soccer, he wanted track with his school friends). We generally do one fun vacation per year in the US (California, Arizona, Washington state have been recent ones). We do share a car, which can be a pain. |
Anonymous
| It's the childcare and car payment. |