I Live Comfortably on Less than $70K After-Tax in DC Area

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:if I had a child, I'd also have a husband, and our income would be double.

Yeah, don't count on that.

He could develop an addiction and his earnings go up his nose, into the casino, or toward Pampers for some webcam girl's twin toddlers.

He could lose his job and struggle to find one that pays as well.

He could get seriously injured or ill and never work again. Disability (if you're lucky to get it is a pittance)

He could leave you and purposely suppress or hide his income to avoid paying decent CS.

All of these have happened to millions of married mothers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We all have children. Because we are on a site called DC Urbanmoms.

Plenty of people here with grown children, my dear.

Yes, because college is super cheap...

One thing is that paying for college isn't a requirement when your kid turns 18. That's a choice many parents make but it's not a law.

+ 1 OP here. Plus, there are cheap ways to graduate from college. I started at community college and then transferred to the four-year university. The first two years were cheap, and I got a 1/2 tuition academic scholarship for the remaining two years for earning my A.A. with a 3.5 GPA. That path is available to anyone with a smart, hard-working kid (which would be all you DCUM parents, right?), but it is a choice many make to go straight to four-year.

I went that route largely so I would not end up with student loans. I admit I was jealous when my high school friends were headed straight to the four-year, but I knew I'd end up there eventually. The benefit of not being burdened by student loans was worth it. But despite my mature financial decision (made in concert with my parents) to start at CC, I now have people criticizing me by saying....yeah, but you don't have any student loans! But it was my decision to go the CC route that has put me in that position.

[Anonymous]

Plus, continuing from above....your kid will not suffer any damage to his career by starting at CC. You don't even have to list the CC A.A. degree on your resume. All I have listed is the university I graduated from with my B.A. (Nobody at work has a clue that I didn't go all four years there.)

And, many top-tier schools are very welcoming to transfer students, if they have a high GPA. (Of course, you'll still need to take the SAT.) Since many of you have advised me that I'm not saving enough for retirement, I will return the favor and advise those of you for whom college seems unaffordable to consider the CC route. It is easy to get great grades there and then transfer to a fine university.

P.S. The hardest part was coming in as a junior to friendships already formed. But within a week, I had new friends and was just fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:After reading some of this hread, I've come to realize that OP is a younger women(but not too young either) who spends way too much money monthly and has mortgage for a townhome, in Fairfax?, right?, that is more than my two story single family mortgage in MoCo in a good school district, because I had a huge down payment. Spends too much on nonsense and vacations, and must be the one of the last unmarried people in her social circle, hence resentful that her former friends with kids aren't having enough money to spend on frivolous vacations to keep her company and even if they have they tell her they don't because they would rather not spend it going out with her. She is also not that bright either, first her vacation fund is $250 monthly, then she spends $1250 monthly on vacations also, then $600 monthly on vacation and other fun expenses. And with all that fun fund can't even fund her ski trip. Can't even keep her own story straight from one post to the other. I suppose she is what one OP wrote about, young people who just have to have that fancy expensive "knife set" because they saw in on Food network and buy anything shown on HGTV.

Your overuse of the word "hence" gives away that your posts belong to you. First you call her smug, now "not that bright", you should stop reading and posting if this thread bothers you so much.

[Anonymous]

OP, I am guessing you don't have kids. In the past two days, I have spent $4900 on two items: glasses and a year's supply of contacts, and removal of four wisdom teeth. I have vision and dental insurance, I expect to get about $1500 of the $4900 reimbursed eventually.

This is for just one of my two kids, and this is just one week. This isn't pediatrician copays or routine dental visits.

My kids, knock wood, are healthy and without unusual expenses like orthodontia and dental surgery, still run me more than $5,000 a year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've never understood it either OP. We make $200K and have more money than we know what do with.

How much is your mortgage? Childcare? Insurance? Medical/dental/vision expenses after insurance?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, you're ridiculous- living on $70k post-tax should be easy for someone who doesn't have children. Heck I lived comfortably on a lot less here when I was single.

I still don't understand everyone else crying poor, though. We have a HHI of $200k with two kids and are still comfortable.

What are the amounts of your major fixed expenses?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've never understood it either OP. We make $200K and have more money than we know what do with.

This is so true. We have one kid and net annual salary is about $135,000 (this does not include about $35k a year in automatic retirement withholdings), so about $11,300 a month. This is so much more then we need to live comfortably that I don't bother budgeting for individual expenses, but as a general breakdown:

1. $3,300 a month mortgage/PITI.
2. $600 a month childcare.
3. $3,000 a month for everything else. Basically, pretty much everything goes on the credit card, and the monthly bill averages to around $3,000 a month.

So that's $6,900 a month in expenses, I'll round that up to $7,000. That gives us about $4,300 a month extra, which I add to "the pile".

I don't understand your $3,000 a month for everything else. That's utilities, groceries, gifts, automobile related care, travel, entertainment...your kids must be very little. Also includes college savings?

[Anonymous]

I actually somewhat agree with OP.

Single Mom here, I need about 80-90K to break even (no savings) that said I get child support so maybe that comes out to more like 110K. I take several trips a year to see family or go on vacation but I try to be frugal. If I didn't vacation I could save a few thousand a year.

BUT I could afford a condo NOT at home with that income.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We do the same and we have kids! We are very comfortable living inside the beltway. We live in a good school district so we don't pay tuition, we don't have a lot of debt, we don't have a maid or lawn service either. But we eat out a lot and go on nice vacations. I don't get why people are struggling.

We spent $20,000 on two vacations this year. That's hard to do on $80K gross income.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've never understood it either OP. We make $200K and have more money than we know what do with.

This is so true. We have one kid and net annual salary is about $135,000 (this does not include about $35k a year in automatic retirement withholdings), so about $11,300 a month. This is so much more then we need to live comfortably that I don't bother budgeting for individual expenses, but as a general breakdown:

1. $3,300 a month mortgage/PITI.
2. $600 a month childcare.
3. $3,000 a month for everything else. Basically, pretty much everything goes on the credit card, and the monthly bill averages to around $3,000 a month.

So that's $6,900 a month in expenses, I'll round that up to $7,000. That gives us about $4,300 a month extra, which I add to "the pile".

I don't understand your $3,000 a month for everything else. That's utilities, groceries, gifts, automobile related care, travel, entertainment...your kids must be very little. Also includes college savings?

Not to mention insurance, house maintenance, and health & dental expenses, . . .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We do the same and we have kids! We are very comfortable living inside the beltway. We live in a good school district so we don't pay tuition, we don't have a lot of debt, we don't have a maid or lawn service either. But we eat out a lot and go on nice vacations. I don't get why people are struggling.

We spent $20,000 on two vacations this year. That's hard to do on $80K gross income.

News flash. Very, very, very few people spend $20,000 on vacations. That's a "rich persons budget." You're not claiming that not being able to go on two luxury five-figure vacations is a sign of "struggling," are you? But people on $80k do go to the beach for a week, or take a trip to Disney World, or whatever. (And if you say that doesn't count as a "nice vacation" you'll be proving the OP's point.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You all should go check out the relationship thread where a woman is being excoriated for not spending money on a vacation w/ friends. She's prioritizing her mortgage, childcare, and family ahead of an expensive island vacation and people are reaming her.

People just love to sling stones OP. You won't win - just go home and sleep well knowing you're spared of the financial nightmares plaguing others.

OP here.....just catching up all these posts.

Thanks for your encouraging remarks. I'm really perplexed as to how many people are giving me a hard time. I read somewhere that half the people in this country don't even have $25,000 by the time they're in their 50s. If people would put more away for retirement (and skip the island vacation, as you mention), we wouldn't have a disaster waiting to happen. What do people do when they retire and don't even have $25,000 saved? (But that's another topic altogether.)

Live with their kids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In your position you are absolutely not saving enough for retirement. You may be living fine, but you are shorting your retirement. Also, you should assume 4% for long term growth. At your age I wouldn't include SS either.

OP here. I am saving 18% of my income, which is more than the 15% that advisors recommend. And once I increase my contribution, I will be putting away 20%. I've been doing that since the first year after college, and I'm sure I'll be fine. The main thing is that I started early.

Fine, but you are not maxing out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We all have children. Because we are on a site called DC Urbanmoms.

Plenty of people here with grown children, my dear.

Yes, because college is super cheap...

One thing is that paying for college isn't a requirement when your kid turns 18. That's a choice many parents make but it's not a law.

UMC people contribute or pay fully for their childrens' education. Please.