Why is $275k hhi now so poor?

[Anonymous]

I brought your story up during family gettogether, and the consensus is "nobody is that dumb."

There you have it, OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I brought your story up during family gettogether, and the consensus is "nobody is that dumb."

There you have it, OP.

You must have fed your family lead paintchips then at that dinner.

$275k is pedestrian and barely middle class. Your kids have probably never paid a mortgage, recent insurance bill or thought about buying a new car because the one you have is getting old. Wait until they get out on their own and have to pay a modern rent.

You sound lowly educated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What are you rambling about, we have kids, lots of expenses in terms of activities, make far less and are doing well. You have a spending issue.

This. We have one kid, make slightly more (like just over 300). OP has a spending issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are you rambling about, we have kids, lots of expenses in terms of activities, make far less and are doing well. You have a spending issue.

This. We have one kid, make slightly more (like just over 300). OP has a spending issue.

+1. And the troll (maybe OP?) who claims she is barely middle class is not fooling anyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you're a DINK, I'm assuming that you guys are young so you haven't built any wealth yet (which takes time) and you guys either just spent a lot of money or will need to spend a lot of money very soon (wedding, buying your house, future down payment for a bigger house when you have kids in the future). If you just bought a house, maybe you're in the 8% interest rates.

There are many reasons why you're suffering compared to other couples with similar HHI but who are older. For example, maybe they bought their home when it was only worth 500K, refinanced, and now they're coasting on their 2K/month mortgage and additional 500k equity.

It's okay, OP. Just carry on for 10 more years and you'll get some raises, refinance to lower mortgage rates, and see your savings compound. And then you'll feel like you've made it and be able to brag about your retirement savings like everyone else in DCUM.

Eggxactly. So many delusional boomers and gen x jens who probably bought properties 45 years ago when it was $120k and refinanced into a 2.5% interest loan. They have no concept that a nonPOS 1 br apartment now runs $2500 per mo, and a $550k POS fixer upper home with 7% interest translates to almost $4k per mo. Delusional old people think it is still 1994.

All that overpaying 1, 2 and 300,000 over ask started with Millennial Michelle and them. Jen got everything 10% off of moved on. Now you crying about inflation? You’re in a bed of your own making

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Post your monthly expenses

Yes post your take home, spouse’s take home and where that all goes

Better not be daily Starbucks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop blowing smoke up my arse trying to claim $275k hhi is just fine and dandy these days. It is not. We are friggin dinks with virtually no debt except our mortgage on a very modest $625k home. We rake in $275k and are super middle class, it’s insane. Right now driving an 8 year old cheap Mazda 3 bought for $20k snd is paid off. I dread the day we need a new car, because a new car payment will place huge strain on our finances. I think we can only afford a Toyota sedan next. You’d think dinks making almost $300k could afford an Audi these days, but nope. Car insurance, home insurance, taxes, groceries……all of it demolishes you. We only take 1 vacation too per year.

Ok, we might tread water, I’ll give you that. But we aren’t THRIVING. I feel like you’ll only thrive on a $500k income these days. And that’s only from a DINK perspective! I dunno how everyone else who is poorer AND has kids survives. You all survive on malk and beans? Who knew the American dream for family people meant a life of brittle bones and cutting coupons, lol. Prices are so outta control. It is bonkers.

Try rolling up your sleeves and doing some actual work instead of outsourcing everything. No doubt you have a housecleaning service, lawn service, and pay contractors for even the simplest of home improvement tasks (e.g., putting on a new roof).

DH and I both work, have two kids, have an HHI of $250K, and have no issues saving 30% of our gross HHI while also setting aside $1K net per month for college savings. We just added a new 1000sqft composite deck, 300sqft screened porch, and 2000sqft of hardscaping and water features in NOVA for only $60K. Contractors wanted $250K for the same.

Don’t be so useless and lazy and you’ll find that $275K is plenty.

Sure Susan. Let me just go replace my roof after watching some YouTube videos, lol. Absolutely nothing could go wrong working on a home repair like that with a bad spine and multiple tons of shingles to haul up 20 feet. And all alone.

I bet allmof the quality of your DIY projects are trash, and you probably violated multiple building codes that will make it difficult to unload your garbage house. Have fun!

Perhaps we’re in a different league, but we possess both the intellect and physical strength and stamina needed to take on any project. Everything always inspected and passes with flying colors. In fact, inspectors are totally blown away by the flawlessness of our work. Just installed a new 80A subpanel in our garage to run dual electric vehicle charging stations…plus a whole house surge protector while we were at it. A mere $1500 in supplies (including the $1000 needed for a couple of JuiceBox chargers). Electricians wanted $5000+ and most only wanted to install outlets running from the main panel. Idiots.

Next up is some new porcelain tile flooring with sequentially connected WiFi- and timer-controlled radiant mesh heating.

Basic stuff, people!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m guessing you eat out all the time and constantly getting Starbucks and boba without even thinking. You have multiple streaming accounts and order from Amazon whenever you need or want something without thinking.
You get your hair and nails done every 6 weeks and buy expensive clothes. It doesnt matter how your house and car is, this
kind of spending adds up fast!

But if you're arguing that someone making 275K shouldn't be getting their hair done, then it does suggest that they are no longer middle class. Certainly in previous generations, middle class people got haircuts and didn't consider them a luxury.

Precisely! This poster gets it.

Wow, you struggle with money because you go out to restaurants, you take a vacation, you get your hair done, and you drink boba? How dare you live a middle class lifestyle. The fact that living a middle class life style is now extraordinarily difficult on $275k means the middle class is ruined and prices are out of control.

$275k barely affords you access to middle class life anymore.

I grew up thinking I was middle class and we almost never went out to restaurants, rarely took vacations, did not regularly get our hair done, did not constantly buy drinks outside the home.

We did live in a decent neighborhood, never worried about missing meals, had clothes, and went to doctors when we needed to, had a car. We also got some presents for birthdays and Christmas. Nothing over the top.

Apparently the definition of middle class has shifted over the decades.

Given that the median HHI in DC is around $100,000, I guess these posters are saying that way more than half of DC's population is poor because they make below $275.

[Anonymous]

That is our HHI and we have no debt except for 390k on our mortgage. We travel a ton, have hobbies, have a kid and still save.

You are doing something wrong if you’re a DINK on that salary and feel like it’s not enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We live in a crappy house inside the beltway with two kids and have never gotten close to $150k HHI. We don't max out retirement, save enough for college nor have a comfortable emergency fund. Medical bills derail our financial situation for years at a time.

But, it's OK. We're not poor and our kids have never gone hungry. I devalue most of what the OP says when they use words like "so poor" to describe their situation.

I could’ve written this. But I’ve started pulling all my 401Ks together from various jobs rollled them all into IRAs and quadrupled money that sat stagnant for years because someone on this site said to do that. We are at $140HHI in an inner beltway $400K MoCo s*hole with no renovations but tons of equity. we drive hybrids/EVs. I don’t feel “poor” but I don’t buy luxury items and expensive name brand food. Also our vacation budget is $3000 or less which is 1 trip per year

[Anonymous]

OP share your breakdown of monthly expenses, and we can tell you where you went wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop blowing smoke up my arse trying to claim $275k hhi is just fine and dandy these days. It is not. We are friggin dinks with virtually no debt except our mortgage on a very modest $625k home. We rake in $275k and are super middle class, it’s insane. Right now driving an 8 year old cheap Mazda 3 bought for $20k snd is paid off. I dread the day we need a new car, because a new car payment will place huge strain on our finances. I think we can only afford a Toyota sedan next. You’d think dinks making almost $300k could afford an Audi these days, but nope. Car insurance, home insurance, taxes, groceries……all of it demolishes you. We only take 1 vacation too per year.

Ok, we might tread water, I’ll give you that. But we aren’t THRIVING. I feel like you’ll only thrive on a $500k income these days. And that’s only from a DINK perspective! I dunno how everyone else who is poorer AND has kids survives. You all survive on malk and beans? Who knew the American dream for family people meant a life of brittle bones and cutting coupons, lol. Prices are so outta control. It is bonkers.

Try rolling up your sleeves and doing some actual work instead of outsourcing everything. No doubt you have a housecleaning service, lawn service, and pay contractors for even the simplest of home improvement tasks (e.g., putting on a new roof).

DH and I both work, have two kids, have an HHI of $250K, and have no issues saving 30% of our gross HHI while also setting aside $1K net per month for college savings. We just added a new 1000sqft composite deck, 300sqft screened porch, and 2000sqft of hardscaping and water features in NOVA for only $60K. Contractors wanted $250K for the same.

Don’t be so useless and lazy and you’ll find that $275K is plenty.

Sure Susan. Let me just go replace my roof after watching some YouTube videos, lol. Absolutely nothing could go wrong working on a home repair like that with a bad spine and multiple tons of shingles to haul up 20 feet. And all alone.

I bet allmof the quality of your DIY projects are trash, and you probably violated multiple building codes that will make it difficult to unload your garbage house. Have fun!

+1. Who DIY’s replacing a roof? Her house is probably a patchwork of one crap project after the other.

A person who wants a solar roof installed for the price of a typical, trashy asphalt shingle roof? DH and I only hire contractors for low-level, low-impact projects when we’ve run out of available time. Only so many hours in the day after all. There’s no such thing in our household as hiring a contractor to do something simply because we lack the skill or capability ourselves. Is this even a thing?!? Totally surprised to think this might be true. People can’t just read a book and figure stuff out?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I brought your story up during family gettogether, and the consensus is "nobody is that dumb."

There you have it, OP.

You must have fed your family lead paintchips then at that dinner.

$275k is pedestrian and barely middle class. Your kids have probably never paid a mortgage, recent insurance bill or thought about buying a new car because the one you have is getting old. Wait until they get out on their own and have to pay a modern rent.

You sound lowly educated.

Are you willing to go to a neighborhood in SE where the median income is below $50k and tell the neighbors there that $275k is barely middle class and that a family of 4 would struggle with that income?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m guessing you eat out all the time and constantly getting Starbucks and boba without even thinking. You have multiple streaming accounts and order from Amazon whenever you need or want something without thinking.
You get your hair and nails done every 6 weeks and buy expensive clothes. It doesnt matter how your house and car is, this
kind of spending adds up fast!

But if you're arguing that someone making 275K shouldn't be getting their hair done, then it does suggest that they are no longer middle class. Certainly in previous generations, middle class people got haircuts and didn't consider them a luxury.

Precisely! This poster gets it.

Wow, you struggle with money because you go out to restaurants, you take a vacation, you get your hair done, and you drink boba? How dare you live a middle class lifestyle. The fact that living a middle class life style is now extraordinarily difficult on $275k means the middle class is ruined and prices are out of control.

$275k barely affords you access to middle class life anymore.

I grew up thinking I was middle class and we almost never went out to restaurants, rarely took vacations, did not regularly get our hair done, did not constantly buy drinks outside the home.

We did live in a decent neighborhood, never worried about missing meals, had clothes, and went to doctors when we needed to, had a car. We also got some presents for birthdays and Christmas. Nothing over the top.

Apparently the definition of middle class has shifted over the decades.[b]

Given that the median HHI in DC is around $100,000, I guess these posters are saying that way more than half of DC's population is poor because they make below $275.

This

[Anonymous]

How on earth are you able to put money into a Roth at this income?? Not unless you are doing a backdoor!!

Anonymous wrote:I can’t tell if this is a troll post or someone really is this delusional.

$275k for 2 people is fantastic income. It’s what we make with an elementary kid and I feel extremely well off. We contribute $20k each to 401k/403b, $6k each to Roth IRA, put $10k a year into a college fund, and just bought a brand new car (admittedly a Honda sedan, but I don’t know why that’s a shameful thing). We are able to go on regular vacations, do the hobbies we enjoy, and I don’t have to budget for groceries. We do not have any student loans and our mortgage is only $3k so that helps a lot!

I understand being underwhelmed by what $275k gets you, but implying you are anything other than well off is silly.