How do households live on less than 100k a year?

[Anonymous]

My sibling earns 40k a year. It all goes to rent. They get welfare. They have a few kids, none in private school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
We're a family of four living on 100K a year in close-in DC burbs. Kids go/went to public school. One is in college.

This board is a bubble.

When did you buy your house? Did you have student loans to pay off? How much? How much was daycare when your kids were little, 20 years ago?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don't have to live on that, OP. You can be a government employee - I know many that make at least $150k each and they are not that qualified. Look up the salaries, it is all public information.

Their household makes over $300k, and they both work from home!

People don’t get more clueless than this.

[Anonymous]

Gotta think it would be tough with 2 x $50K incomes and two kids in daycare. Say $1.5K per month each on the low end you're spending $36K per year of post tax monies on childcare alone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
We're a family of four living on 100K a year in close-in DC burbs. Kids go/went to public school. One is in college.

This board is a bubble.

Boomers and gen-x live in a bubble. You have no idea how much costs have skyrocketed since you were starting out decades ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don't have to live on that, OP. You can be a government employee - I know many that make at least $150k each and they are not that qualified. Look up the salaries, it is all public information.

Their household makes over $300k, and they both work from home!

Wow low paid people who don't go work for the government must be real stupid to turn that down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don't have to live on that, OP. You can be a government employee - I know many that make at least $150k each and they are not that qualified. Look up the salaries, it is all public information.

Their household makes over $300k, and they both work from home!

Right? And if OP doesn't like the idea of working for the government they can always increase their income by becoming a neurosurgeon or a CEO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
We're a family of four living on 100K a year in close-in DC burbs. Kids go/went to public school. One is in college.

This board is a bubble.

Boomers and gen-x live in a bubble. You have no idea how much costs have skyrocketed since you were starting out decades ago.

Yeah we used to say that too. Every gen feels the same (I.e., we are so fked and it’s your fault!)

-boomer

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
We're a family of four living on 100K a year in close-in DC burbs. Kids go/went to public school. One is in college.

This board is a bubble.

Boomers and gen-x live in a bubble. You have no idea how much costs have skyrocketed since you were starting out decades ago.

Yeah we used to say that too. Every gen feels the same (I.e., we are so fked and it’s your fault!)

-boomer

Hahaha oh really? Boomers used to blame who? The greatest generation? When they inherited the strongest economy the world has ever seen? Please tell me about how you struggled.

[Anonymous]

We did it when we first got married and had our first kid. I stayed home, so no child care costs. Lived in a smaller house right outside the beltway, and had one car payment. DH was still able to contribute a good bit to his $401k. We didn’t travel much (stayed at family member’s beach house once a summer) and I bought most kid items/clothes secondhand.

Friend had 4 kids in an older townhouse in our same area, one salary under $100k, and they managed just fine, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
We're a family of four living on 100K a year in close-in DC burbs. Kids go/went to public school. One is in college.

This board is a bubble.

Boomers and gen-x live in a bubble. You have no idea how much costs have skyrocketed since you were starting out decades ago.

Stop making sweeping generalizations about entire generations. I’m a late Gen Xer and you are living in a bubble if you buy the idea that boomers and Gen-Xers are all well off. And we have all experienced the cost of living increases in this country. We bought a small house in 2009. We def consider ourselves lucky. But it’s a 2200 sq ft house that most DCUMers would call a sh$t shack. Our cars are all over (or close to )10 years old. My kids have been to like 1/10 of the places most DCUMers claim to have taken their kids to on this board. Save your contempt for the cooperations and lawmakers who don’t give a F about the middle class and are more concerned about quarterly profits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Gotta think it would be tough with 2 x $50K incomes and two kids in daycare. Say $1.5K per month each on the low end you're spending $36K per year of post tax monies on childcare alone.

That’s why one person stays home with kids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don't have to live on that, OP. You can be a government employee - I know many that make at least $150k each and they are not that qualified. Look up the salaries, it is all public information.

Their household makes over $300k, and they both work from home!

Huh, news to me. I'm a federal employee with a master's degree and I make 80k.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
We're a family of four living on 100K a year in close-in DC burbs. Kids go/went to public school. One is in college.

This board is a bubble.

Boomers and gen-x live in a bubble. You have no idea how much costs have skyrocketed since you were starting out decades ago.

Stop making sweeping generalizations about entire generations. I’m a late Gen Xer and you are living in a bubble if you buy the idea that boomers and Gen-Xers are all well off. And we have all experienced the cost of living increases in this country. We bought a small house in 2009. We def consider ourselves lucky. But it’s a 2200 sq ft house that most DCUMers would call a sh$t shack. Our cars are all over (or close to )10 years old. My kids have been to like 1/10 of the places most DCUMers claim to have taken their kids to on this board. Save your contempt for the cooperations and lawmakers who don’t give a F about the middle class and are more concerned about quarterly profits.

Exactly. I am a 50+ gen xer who lives in a sh*t shack on the eastern side of MoCo and who also makes under 100k a year as a federal employee. We could afford the house because we bought at the bottom of the last recession.

[Anonymous]

Gen Z has the lowest birthrate in US history, around the birthrate of the great depression.

They are affording to live by having fewer children.