How do people live on 160k?

[Anonymous]

$6500 monthly take home
$2300 rent, phone, internet
$1000 medical insurance for 3 people
$800 food
$400 student loans
$700 car payment, insurance, gas
$1300 for all else
I spent only $500 in all else category in February. I need to lower food to $600 and the car will be paid off in 2025.

[Anonymous]

We live on 160k. I don't feel rich at all but it's not that hard?

When you say "all your bills are paid" what is included in that? You mean just essentials like utilities, mortgage, taxes, etc., or does that include all your discretionary spending that goes on a credit card? Because we make 160k and we still go on vacation, go out to eat and get take out, subscribe to streaming services and magazines, etc. Not like constantly and not more than we can afford but we do all that stuff.

So at the end of the month if we have $1k leftover after retirement savings and bills that include all our discretionary expenses, we just go "good job" and put it in a savings or investment account because turns out that even with living a pretty nice life we still have more money leftover.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:$6500 monthly take home
$2300 rent, phone, internet
$1000 medical insurance for 3 people
$800 food
$400 student loans
$700 car payment, insurance, gas
$1300 for all else
I spent only $500 in all else category in February. I need to lower food to $600 and the car will be paid off in 2025.

$2300 for rent/phone/internet is very cheap for the DC area. This is how ours breaks down:

$2700 mortgage
$200 phone/internet
$600 food
$220 student loans
$200 gas and car insurance
$1-2k everything else (varies based on time of year, we spend more around holidays and vacations)

We get insurance through work so it's subtracted pre-tax and doesn't count towards take home.

[Anonymous]

i live on half that pre-tax, so ... don't understand your question. Budget.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No idea. Just booked a hotel rooms for spring break that are $13,000.

Lovely person you must be

[Anonymous]

I mean, you pay your bills, save in your 401k and have $1000 a month to play with. That's EXACTLY what we do. And that's living on it!

[Anonymous]

We could do it if we weren't saving in a 401k, saving for college, paying any debt, paying for child care, and our mortgage was $2500 or less.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No idea. Just booked a hotel rooms for spring break that are $13,000.

I cannot tell if this is real or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:i live on half that pre-tax, so ... don't understand your question. Budget.

Yeah I've lived on way, way less than 160k/year. I remember how great it felt to get my first salary job making 70k/year. I was able to afford a new suit.

People really need to get a fresh dose of perspective.

[Anonymous]

I believe we could do it. We don't now (more like 200K) but we're preparing to live on less than that if our family's federal job gets cut.

We lived on 160K before. It's all about having lower fixed costs: low mortgage, no car payments, etch. Heck, I paid student loans when we made less than that.

I would be really grateful to be able to lock in 160K until we retired. But with all of the federal layoffs at the same time, I think we might end up lving on significantly less.

[Anonymous]

Is this a joke?

FFS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:After all bills are paid and 401k we’re left with 1k a month to play with and we have no debt.

Growing up my dad made around $10,000 a year. Mom made around $200 a month taking in laundry and selling tamales she made. And no I am not that old.

Life is easy now.

[Anonymous]

Easy, all about choices.

[Anonymous]

I had a 165K salary for two years and to be honest I was pulling money out of savings every month to survive. I felt like I was working for free as my savings would fall each month.

My break even is around 220K and I need 300K to enjoy life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No idea. Just booked a hotel rooms for spring break that are $13,000.

You are overpaid so you have money to piss. Enjoy it .