100k HHI in suburban envirnoment, and we live like kings. AMA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:why are you posting on DCUM if you're in Delaware? I totally get that people can live easily on 100K/year in certain parts of the country, but in the metro DC area, you're not going to find a house, or even an apartment for 100K in a safe area with reasonable schools.

Suit yourself. Running a COLA calculator gives us an HHI of ~154k if we lived in DC metro. Also, most people who work in DC don't actually live there (like 75% or so).

http://money.cnn.com/calculator/pf/cost-of-living/index.html

[Anonymous]

Ok--ignoring the fact that you are in Deleware suburbs--is $300-400 on food and a $100K home really "living like Kings"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We obviously have very different needs.

OP here - most likely. But the more you can trim those needs, the more freedom you'll have. It's worked wonders for us.

[Anonymous]

Do you think your 100k house in the DE suburbs is going to be big enough for the family of 6 you're planning? How much do you save each month for college?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Inspired by the previous AMA and in further efforts to bring some reality into the DCUM financial fora, here's an AMA. We're in our early 30s, 2 kids with plans for 2 more, a paid off home, 2 cars, 3 pets, and a roughly 100k HHI of which 12k a year goes to charity.

We have everything we need, and the things we want but don't have are primarily related to how our society is structured (we'd like universal health care, etc).

Any questions?

Are you in the DC metro area?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you think your 100k house in the DE suburbs is going to be big enough for the family of 6 you're planning? How much do you save each month for college?

Yup. It's got 3 bedrooms and the kids will share bedrooms the way kids do all over the world, including in the US.

We don't budget separately for college; we simply save most of our money and we'll divide things up when the kids reach college age.

[Anonymous]

So lucky! We make 3x that but I'd trade you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you think your 100k house in the DE suburbs is going to be big enough for the family of 6 you're planning? How much do you save each month for college?

Yup. It's got 3 bedrooms and the kids will share bedrooms the way kids do all over the world, including in the US.

We don't budget separately for college; we simply save most of our money and we'll divide things up when the kids reach college age.

So when you say you live like kings, what you mean is you live cheaply and compare your situation favorably to the third world.

That's not what "live like kings" means, but I'm glad that you're happy in your life.

[Anonymous]

Delaware? Seriously???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ok--ignoring the fact that you are in Deleware suburbs--is $300-400 on food and a $100K home really "living like Kings"?

I suppose it depends on what you consider to be a good life. We have unlimited access to healthy food, we love our home, and have all of our needs met and then some.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:where do you live? how did you pay off your house in early 30s?

Without entering into too many details, we're in Delaware. We paid off the house in our mid 20s within 4 years of purchase by making sure it didn't cost more than 2x our income; at the time, we made 50k, so we bought a 100k house on a 15-year mortgage. Made extra payments from the start, salaries went up, killed it off.

Are you living in a bad neighborhood in Wilmington?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok--ignoring the fact that you are in Deleware suburbs--is $300-400 on food and a $100K home really "living like Kings"?

I suppose it depends on what you consider to be a good life. We have unlimited access to healthy food, we love our home, and have all of our needs met and then some.

good for you OP-I'm impressed at the amount you are donating to charity

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We obviously have very different needs.

OP here - most likely. But the more you can trim those needs, the more freedom you'll have. It's worked wonders for us.

I'm happy in my urban environment in the nation's capital. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We obviously have very different needs.

NP here. I actually doubt it. OP was able to buy a 100k house. It would be easy to live in the DC suburbs on 100k/yr if housing was that cheap. It’s not. OP is clueless about COL in the DC are.

[Anonymous]

We are aware that there are many cities/suburbs outside of D.C. Metro where one can have a comfortable life on 100k. The problem is trying to have a comfortable life in DC metro. We live in Montgomery County, MD, a decent apartment in a good school district costs 300K +. Your post and comparison is unfair.