Family of Four on 90k - An Upper Middle Class Existence

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Some of it is that we have a low mortgage payment ($1600). We also paid cash for our car (and don't use it a lot because we live downtown) so no car payment (it's 4 years old now, but was new when we bought it from savings). We use frequent flyer miles for flights (or some of them), which are accrued primarily though putting all expenditure on credit cards (which are then paid off each month). We stay with family when we travel overseas (I realize this isn't an option for everyone) and get great deals on Priceline for local trips (e.g. 4 star hotels for $50-70 a night and we only stay one night) or use Airbnb if longer so that we can have a separate bedroom for the kids and a kitchen so that we don't have to eat out every night.

When we eat out we eat at lower cost places and pay $40-50 for the family. We use Groupons or other coupons where possible and we just eat out a handful of times a month. Our grocery and eating out budget combined is about $8-900 a month. When I cut back on eating out our grocery bills just go up, so it tends to be similar regardless. (We eat vegetarian and I cook everything from scratch at home) My husband and I almost never buy clothes for ourselves. Or shoes. The kids clothes ALL come from Value Village (we also donate a lot of clothes and toys to goodwill), though I buy their clothes new. We don't have cable and have a low phone plan. We don't ever pay for childcare (we do babysitting exchanges with friends and neighbors - no local family). I pack lunches for myself and my kindergartener.

We put $15k a year into my 401k. We already have a robust emergency fund so I tend to put at least $100 into savings per pay period and then use that to fund bigger expenses like car insurance payment (every six months) or a vacation. Despite occasional use of savings our net worth is growing steadily.

How is your mortgage so low for a rowhouse?

I bought my house when I was single and earning about $70k in 2004. It was a foreclosure in a part of town that you couldn't get cab drivers to take you to and where you couldn't get pizza delivered. People were dealing drugs in front of my house and we heard gunshots every weekend. The house was a state -- the kitchen and bathroom were barely functioning, the roof leaked etc-- but it cost less than $300k. At first I had no idea what I was doing and was in way over my head, but I've learned. Since then we've refinanced several times and fully renovated (bit by bit). We have probably spent another $150k all told, but it's been 10 years now and we've paid off the HELOC and a substantial sum of the mortgage. Now owe about $180k.

And before you slam me because this isn't helpful for you because you don't have a time machine. IT IS. You can STILL buy rowhouses (or even SFH) in the DC area, in close in locations for less than $300k. If you buy wisely you will even see similarly huge increases in your investments. You need to earn that sweat equity. (I'd recommend: Hyattsville or Mount Rainier -- you can even get a SFH)

My house now has more than $500k in equity. It's a beautiful house with lots of original Victorian features. And the neighborhood is now extremely hot. When I moved here we had no amenities beyond fast food and check cashing. Now we have restaurants and bars and artist studios, coffee shops and yoga.

How is your rowhouse both downtown AND in a place where cab drivers wouldn't take you in 2004?

It's very close to downtown. About .75 mile from both Chinatown and Union Station, about 1 mile from Dupont Circle, for example. Yep, cab drivers wouldn't go there and no-one would deliver pizza or other takeout either. So much has changed.

OMG, you are ridiculous. We looked places in Shaw in 2004, and we took a cab there. And that's 1.2 miles away, you might have even been in Logan Circle.

Cab's won't go there...

Yep, it's ridiculous, it's also true and I and all my (longer term) neighbors knew only too well. Sure, I didn't always have problems but more often than not I would. I learned to get in the cab before I told them the destination.

Also, I'm not identifying where, other than to say NOT Shaw. (Where is Shaw 1.2 miles from exactly?)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Some of it is that we have a low mortgage payment ($1600). We also paid cash for our car (and don't use it a lot because we live downtown) so no car payment (it's 4 years old now, but was new when we bought it from savings). We use frequent flyer miles for flights (or some of them), which are accrued primarily though putting all expenditure on credit cards (which are then paid off each month). We stay with family when we travel overseas (I realize this isn't an option for everyone) and get great deals on Priceline for local trips (e.g. 4 star hotels for $50-70 a night and we only stay one night) or use Airbnb if longer so that we can have a separate bedroom for the kids and a kitchen so that we don't have to eat out every night.

When we eat out we eat at lower cost places and pay $40-50 for the family. We use Groupons or other coupons where possible and we just eat out a handful of times a month. Our grocery and eating out budget combined is about $8-900 a month. When I cut back on eating out our grocery bills just go up, so it tends to be similar regardless. (We eat vegetarian and I cook everything from scratch at home) My husband and I almost never buy clothes for ourselves. Or shoes. The kids clothes ALL come from Value Village (we also donate a lot of clothes and toys to goodwill), though I buy their clothes new. We don't have cable and have a low phone plan. We don't ever pay for childcare (we do babysitting exchanges with friends and neighbors - no local family). I pack lunches for myself and my kindergartener.

We put $15k a year into my 401k. We already have a robust emergency fund so I tend to put at least $100 into savings per pay period and then use that to fund bigger expenses like car insurance payment (every six months) or a vacation. Despite occasional use of savings our net worth is growing steadily.

How is your mortgage so low for a rowhouse?

I bought my house when I was single and earning about $70k in 2004. It was a foreclosure in a part of town that you couldn't get cab drivers to take you to and where you couldn't get pizza delivered. People were dealing drugs in front of my house and we heard gunshots every weekend. The house was a state -- the kitchen and bathroom were barely functioning, the roof leaked etc-- but it cost less than $300k. At first I had no idea what I was doing and was in way over my head, but I've learned. Since then we've refinanced several times and fully renovated (bit by bit). We have probably spent another $150k all told, but it's been 10 years now and we've paid off the HELOC and a substantial sum of the mortgage. Now owe about $180k.

And before you slam me because this isn't helpful for you because you don't have a time machine. IT IS. You can STILL buy rowhouses (or even SFH) in the DC area, in close in locations for less than $300k. If you buy wisely you will even see similarly huge increases in your investments. You need to earn that sweat equity. (I'd recommend: Hyattsville or Mount Rainier -- you can even get a SFH)

My house now has more than $500k in equity. It's a beautiful house with lots of original Victorian features. And the neighborhood is now extremely hot. When I moved here we had no amenities beyond fast food and check cashing. Now we have restaurants and bars and artist studios, coffee shops and yoga.

How is your rowhouse both downtown AND in a place where cab drivers wouldn't take you in 2004?

It's very close to downtown. About .75 mile from both Chinatown and Union Station, about 1 mile from Dupont Circle, for example. Yep, cab drivers wouldn't go there and no-one would deliver pizza or other takeout either. So much has changed.

OMG, you are ridiculous. We looked places in Shaw in 2004, and we took a cab there. And that's 1.2 miles away, you might have even been in Logan Circle.

Cab's won't go there...

Yep, it's ridiculous, it's also true and I and all my (longer term) neighbors knew only too well. Sure, I didn't always have problems but more often than not I would. I learned to get in the cab before I told them the destination.

Also, I'm not identifying where, other than to say NOT Shaw. (Where is Shaw 1.2 miles from exactly?)

Likely Truxton Circle or Southern Bloomingdale, where I can confirm that cab drivers indeed sometimes refused to go a decade or so ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Some of it is that we have a low mortgage payment ($1600). We also paid cash for our car (and don't use it a lot because we live downtown) so no car payment (it's 4 years old now, but was new when we bought it from savings). We use frequent flyer miles for flights (or some of them), which are accrued primarily though putting all expenditure on credit cards (which are then paid off each month). We stay with family when we travel overseas (I realize this isn't an option for everyone) and get great deals on Priceline for local trips (e.g. 4 star hotels for $50-70 a night and we only stay one night) or use Airbnb if longer so that we can have a separate bedroom for the kids and a kitchen so that we don't have to eat out every night.

When we eat out we eat at lower cost places and pay $40-50 for the family. We use Groupons or other coupons where possible and we just eat out a handful of times a month. Our grocery and eating out budget combined is about $8-900 a month. When I cut back on eating out our grocery bills just go up, so it tends to be similar regardless. (We eat vegetarian and I cook everything from scratch at home) My husband and I almost never buy clothes for ourselves. Or shoes. The kids clothes ALL come from Value Village (we also donate a lot of clothes and toys to goodwill), though I buy their clothes new. We don't have cable and have a low phone plan. We don't ever pay for childcare (we do babysitting exchanges with friends and neighbors - no local family). I pack lunches for myself and my kindergartener.

We put $15k a year into my 401k. We already have a robust emergency fund so I tend to put at least $100 into savings per pay period and then use that to fund bigger expenses like car insurance payment (every six months) or a vacation. Despite occasional use of savings our net worth is growing steadily.

How is your mortgage so low for a rowhouse?

I bought my house when I was single and earning about $70k in 2004. It was a foreclosure in a part of town that you couldn't get cab drivers to take you to and where you couldn't get pizza delivered. People were dealing drugs in front of my house and we heard gunshots every weekend. The house was a state -- the kitchen and bathroom were barely functioning, the roof leaked etc-- but it cost less than $300k. At first I had no idea what I was doing and was in way over my head, but I've learned. Since then we've refinanced several times and fully renovated (bit by bit). We have probably spent another $150k all told, but it's been 10 years now and we've paid off the HELOC and a substantial sum of the mortgage. Now owe about $180k.

And before you slam me because this isn't helpful for you because you don't have a time machine. IT IS. You can STILL buy rowhouses (or even SFH) in the DC area, in close in locations for less than $300k. If you buy wisely you will even see similarly huge increases in your investments. You need to earn that sweat equity. (I'd recommend: Hyattsville or Mount Rainier -- you can even get a SFH)

My house now has more than $500k in equity. It's a beautiful house with lots of original Victorian features. And the neighborhood is now extremely hot. When I moved here we had no amenities beyond fast food and check cashing. Now we have restaurants and bars and artist studios, coffee shops and yoga.

How is your rowhouse both downtown AND in a place where cab drivers wouldn't take you in 2004?

It's very close to downtown. About .75 mile from both Chinatown and Union Station, about 1 mile from Dupont Circle, for example. Yep, cab drivers wouldn't go there and no-one would deliver pizza or other takeout either. So much has changed.

OMG, you are ridiculous. We looked places in Shaw in 2004, and we took a cab there. And that's 1.2 miles away, you might have even been in Logan Circle.

Cab's won't go there...

Yep, it's ridiculous, it's also true and I and all my (longer term) neighbors knew only too well. Sure, I didn't always have problems but more often than not I would. I learned to get in the cab before I told them the destination.

Also, I'm not identifying where, other than to say NOT Shaw. (Where is Shaw 1.2 miles from exactly?)

You said 1 mile from DuPont. There hasn't been anything sketchy 1 mile from DuPont in decades.

As for cabs, I would actually assume it's because they would rather have a big tipper heading to Georgetown or Adams Morgan than a local. Might also be racial profiling that was a big problem then?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Some of it is that we have a low mortgage payment ($1600). We also paid cash for our car (and don't use it a lot because we live downtown) so no car payment (it's 4 years old now, but was new when we bought it from savings). We use frequent flyer miles for flights (or some of them), which are accrued primarily though putting all expenditure on credit cards (which are then paid off each month). We stay with family when we travel overseas (I realize this isn't an option for everyone) and get great deals on Priceline for local trips (e.g. 4 star hotels for $50-70 a night and we only stay one night) or use Airbnb if longer so that we can have a separate bedroom for the kids and a kitchen so that we don't have to eat out every night.

When we eat out we eat at lower cost places and pay $40-50 for the family. We use Groupons or other coupons where possible and we just eat out a handful of times a month. Our grocery and eating out budget combined is about $8-900 a month. When I cut back on eating out our grocery bills just go up, so it tends to be similar regardless. (We eat vegetarian and I cook everything from scratch at home) My husband and I almost never buy clothes for ourselves. Or shoes. The kids clothes ALL come from Value Village (we also donate a lot of clothes and toys to goodwill), though I buy their clothes new. We don't have cable and have a low phone plan. We don't ever pay for childcare (we do babysitting exchanges with friends and neighbors - no local family). I pack lunches for myself and my kindergartener.

We put $15k a year into my 401k. We already have a robust emergency fund so I tend to put at least $100 into savings per pay period and then use that to fund bigger expenses like car insurance payment (every six months) or a vacation. Despite occasional use of savings our net worth is growing steadily.

How is your mortgage so low for a rowhouse?

I bought my house when I was single and earning about $70k in 2004. It was a foreclosure in a part of town that you couldn't get cab drivers to take you to and where you couldn't get pizza delivered. People were dealing drugs in front of my house and we heard gunshots every weekend. The house was a state -- the kitchen and bathroom were barely functioning, the roof leaked etc-- but it cost less than $300k. At first I had no idea what I was doing and was in way over my head, but I've learned. Since then we've refinanced several times and fully renovated (bit by bit). We have probably spent another $150k all told, but it's been 10 years now and we've paid off the HELOC and a substantial sum of the mortgage. Now owe about $180k.

And before you slam me because this isn't helpful for you because you don't have a time machine. IT IS. You can STILL buy rowhouses (or even SFH) in the DC area, in close in locations for less than $300k. If you buy wisely you will even see similarly huge increases in your investments. You need to earn that sweat equity. (I'd recommend: Hyattsville or Mount Rainier -- you can even get a SFH)

My house now has more than $500k in equity. It's a beautiful house with lots of original Victorian features. And the neighborhood is now extremely hot. When I moved here we had no amenities beyond fast food and check cashing. Now we have restaurants and bars and artist studios, coffee shops and yoga.

How is your rowhouse both downtown AND in a place where cab drivers wouldn't take you in 2004?

It's very close to downtown. About .75 mile from both Chinatown and Union Station, about 1 mile from Dupont Circle, for example. Yep, cab drivers wouldn't go there and no-one would deliver pizza or other takeout either. So much has changed.

OMG, you are ridiculous. We looked places in Shaw in 2004, and we took a cab there. And that's 1.2 miles away, you might have even been in Logan Circle.

Cab's won't go there...

Yep, it's ridiculous, it's also true and I and all my (longer term) neighbors knew only too well. Sure, I didn't always have problems but more often than not I would. I learned to get in the cab before I told them the destination.

Also, I'm not identifying where, other than to say NOT Shaw. (Where is Shaw 1.2 miles from exactly?)

You said 1 mile from DuPont. There hasn't been anything sketchy 1 mile from DuPont in decades.

As for cabs, I would actually assume it's because they would rather have a big tipper heading to Georgetown or Adams Morgan than a local. Might also be racial profiling that was a big problem then?

I suggest you look at a map and look at at a one mile radius from the area considered to be Dupont (not necessarily the circle, but the full scope of the area that is typically considered to be Dupont). Because you are wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Some of it is that we have a low mortgage payment ($1600). We also paid cash for our car (and don't use it a lot because we live downtown) so no car payment (it's 4 years old now, but was new when we bought it from savings). We use frequent flyer miles for flights (or some of them), which are accrued primarily though putting all expenditure on credit cards (which are then paid off each month). We stay with family when we travel overseas (I realize this isn't an option for everyone) and get great deals on Priceline for local trips (e.g. 4 star hotels for $50-70 a night and we only stay one night) or use Airbnb if longer so that we can have a separate bedroom for the kids and a kitchen so that we don't have to eat out every night.

When we eat out we eat at lower cost places and pay $40-50 for the family. We use Groupons or other coupons where possible and we just eat out a handful of times a month. Our grocery and eating out budget combined is about $8-900 a month. When I cut back on eating out our grocery bills just go up, so it tends to be similar regardless. (We eat vegetarian and I cook everything from scratch at home) My husband and I almost never buy clothes for ourselves. Or shoes. The kids clothes ALL come from Value Village (we also donate a lot of clothes and toys to goodwill), though I buy their clothes new. We don't have cable and have a low phone plan. We don't ever pay for childcare (we do babysitting exchanges with friends and neighbors - no local family). I pack lunches for myself and my kindergartener.

We put $15k a year into my 401k. We already have a robust emergency fund so I tend to put at least $100 into savings per pay period and then use that to fund bigger expenses like car insurance payment (every six months) or a vacation. Despite occasional use of savings our net worth is growing steadily.

How is your mortgage so low for a rowhouse?

I bought my house when I was single and earning about $70k in 2004. It was a foreclosure in a part of town that you couldn't get cab drivers to take you to and where you couldn't get pizza delivered. People were dealing drugs in front of my house and we heard gunshots every weekend. The house was a state -- the kitchen and bathroom were barely functioning, the roof leaked etc-- but it cost less than $300k. At first I had no idea what I was doing and was in way over my head, but I've learned. Since then we've refinanced several times and fully renovated (bit by bit). We have probably spent another $150k all told, but it's been 10 years now and we've paid off the HELOC and a substantial sum of the mortgage. Now owe about $180k.

And before you slam me because this isn't helpful for you because you don't have a time machine. IT IS. You can STILL buy rowhouses (or even SFH) in the DC area, in close in locations for less than $300k. If you buy wisely you will even see similarly huge increases in your investments. You need to earn that sweat equity. (I'd recommend: Hyattsville or Mount Rainier -- you can even get a SFH)

My house now has more than $500k in equity. It's a beautiful house with lots of original Victorian features. And the neighborhood is now extremely hot. When I moved here we had no amenities beyond fast food and check cashing. Now we have restaurants and bars and artist studios, coffee shops and yoga.

How is your rowhouse both downtown AND in a place where cab drivers wouldn't take you in 2004?

It's very close to downtown. About .75 mile from both Chinatown and Union Station, about 1 mile from Dupont Circle, for example. Yep, cab drivers wouldn't go there and no-one would deliver pizza or other takeout either. So much has changed.

OMG, you are ridiculous. We looked places in Shaw in 2004, and we took a cab there. And that's 1.2 miles away, you might have even been in Logan Circle.

Cab's won't go there...

Yep, it's ridiculous, it's also true and I and all my (longer term) neighbors knew only too well. Sure, I didn't always have problems but more often than not I would. I learned to get in the cab before I told them the destination.

Also, I'm not identifying where, other than to say NOT Shaw. (Where is Shaw 1.2 miles from exactly?)

You said 1 mile from DuPont. There hasn't been anything sketchy 1 mile from DuPont in decades.

As for cabs, I would actually assume it's because they would rather have a big tipper heading to Georgetown or Adams Morgan than a local. Might also be racial profiling that was a big problem then?

Back in the late 1990s, 14th street was decidedly sketchy. In fact, most folks tended to avoid going east of 16th. When Saint Ex opened in about 2002 things started to change. All within a short distance from Dupont so your statement is definitely not accurate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Some of it is that we have a low mortgage payment ($1600). We also paid cash for our car (and don't use it a lot because we live downtown) so no car payment (it's 4 years old now, but was new when we bought it from savings). We use frequent flyer miles for flights (or some of them), which are accrued primarily though putting all expenditure on credit cards (which are then paid off each month). We stay with family when we travel overseas (I realize this isn't an option for everyone) and get great deals on Priceline for local trips (e.g. 4 star hotels for $50-70 a night and we only stay one night) or use Airbnb if longer so that we can have a separate bedroom for the kids and a kitchen so that we don't have to eat out every night.

When we eat out we eat at lower cost places and pay $40-50 for the family. We use Groupons or other coupons where possible and we just eat out a handful of times a month. Our grocery and eating out budget combined is about $8-900 a month. When I cut back on eating out our grocery bills just go up, so it tends to be similar regardless. (We eat vegetarian and I cook everything from scratch at home) My husband and I almost never buy clothes for ourselves. Or shoes. The kids clothes ALL come from Value Village (we also donate a lot of clothes and toys to goodwill), though I buy their clothes new. We don't have cable and have a low phone plan. We don't ever pay for childcare (we do babysitting exchanges with friends and neighbors - no local family). I pack lunches for myself and my kindergartener.

We put $15k a year into my 401k. We already have a robust emergency fund so I tend to put at least $100 into savings per pay period and then use that to fund bigger expenses like car insurance payment (every six months) or a vacation. Despite occasional use of savings our net worth is growing steadily.

How is your mortgage so low for a rowhouse?

I bought my house when I was single and earning about $70k in 2004. It was a foreclosure in a part of town that you couldn't get cab drivers to take you to and where you couldn't get pizza delivered. People were dealing drugs in front of my house and we heard gunshots every weekend. The house was a state -- the kitchen and bathroom were barely functioning, the roof leaked etc-- but it cost less than $300k. At first I had no idea what I was doing and was in way over my head, but I've learned. Since then we've refinanced several times and fully renovated (bit by bit). We have probably spent another $150k all told, but it's been 10 years now and we've paid off the HELOC and a substantial sum of the mortgage. Now owe about $180k.

And before you slam me because this isn't helpful for you because you don't have a time machine. IT IS. You can STILL buy rowhouses (or even SFH) in the DC area, in close in locations for less than $300k. If you buy wisely you will even see similarly huge increases in your investments. You need to earn that sweat equity. (I'd recommend: Hyattsville or Mount Rainier -- you can even get a SFH)

My house now has more than $500k in equity. It's a beautiful house with lots of original Victorian features. And the neighborhood is now extremely hot. When I moved here we had no amenities beyond fast food and check cashing. Now we have restaurants and bars and artist studios, coffee shops and yoga.

How is your rowhouse both downtown AND in a place where cab drivers wouldn't take you in 2004?

It's very close to downtown. About .75 mile from both Chinatown and Union Station, about 1 mile from Dupont Circle, for example. Yep, cab drivers wouldn't go there and no-one would deliver pizza or other takeout either. So much has changed.

OMG, you are ridiculous. We looked places in Shaw in 2004, and we took a cab there. And that's 1.2 miles away, you might have even been in Logan Circle.

Cab's won't go there...

Yep, it's ridiculous, it's also true and I and all my (longer term) neighbors knew only too well. Sure, I didn't always have problems but more often than not I would. I learned to get in the cab before I told them the destination.

Also, I'm not identifying where, other than to say NOT Shaw. (Where is Shaw 1.2 miles from exactly?)

You said 1 mile from DuPont. There hasn't been anything sketchy 1 mile from DuPont in decades.

As for cabs, I would actually assume it's because they would rather have a big tipper heading to Georgetown or Adams Morgan than a local. Might also be racial profiling that was a big problem then?

Back in the late 1990s, 14th street was decidedly sketchy. In fact, most folks tended to avoid going east of 16th. When Saint Ex opened in about 2002 things started to change. All within a short distance from Dupont so your statement is definitely not accurate.

Sketchy, sure whatever. I work in SE so you can call it what you like. Cabs refuse to go there, not in 2004. PP maybe victim of profiling but not b/c of address safety.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Some of it is that we have a low mortgage payment ($1600). We also paid cash for our car (and don't use it a lot because we live downtown) so no car payment (it's 4 years old now, but was new when we bought it from savings). We use frequent flyer miles for flights (or some of them), which are accrued primarily though putting all expenditure on credit cards (which are then paid off each month). We stay with family when we travel overseas (I realize this isn't an option for everyone) and get great deals on Priceline for local trips (e.g. 4 star hotels for $50-70 a night and we only stay one night) or use Airbnb if longer so that we can have a separate bedroom for the kids and a kitchen so that we don't have to eat out every night.

When we eat out we eat at lower cost places and pay $40-50 for the family. We use Groupons or other coupons where possible and we just eat out a handful of times a month. Our grocery and eating out budget combined is about $8-900 a month. When I cut back on eating out our grocery bills just go up, so it tends to be similar regardless. (We eat vegetarian and I cook everything from scratch at home) My husband and I almost never buy clothes for ourselves. Or shoes. The kids clothes ALL come from Value Village (we also donate a lot of clothes and toys to goodwill), though I buy their clothes new. We don't have cable and have a low phone plan. We don't ever pay for childcare (we do babysitting exchanges with friends and neighbors - no local family). I pack lunches for myself and my kindergartener.

We put $15k a year into my 401k. We already have a robust emergency fund so I tend to put at least $100 into savings per pay period and then use that to fund bigger expenses like car insurance payment (every six months) or a vacation. Despite occasional use of savings our net worth is growing steadily.

How is your mortgage so low for a rowhouse?

I bought my house when I was single and earning about $70k in 2004. It was a foreclosure in a part of town that you couldn't get cab drivers to take you to and where you couldn't get pizza delivered. People were dealing drugs in front of my house and we heard gunshots every weekend. The house was a state -- the kitchen and bathroom were barely functioning, the roof leaked etc-- but it cost less than $300k. At first I had no idea what I was doing and was in way over my head, but I've learned. Since then we've refinanced several times and fully renovated (bit by bit). We have probably spent another $150k all told, but it's been 10 years now and we've paid off the HELOC and a substantial sum of the mortgage. Now owe about $180k.

And before you slam me because this isn't helpful for you because you don't have a time machine. IT IS. You can STILL buy rowhouses (or even SFH) in the DC area, in close in locations for less than $300k. If you buy wisely you will even see similarly huge increases in your investments. You need to earn that sweat equity. (I'd recommend: Hyattsville or Mount Rainier -- you can even get a SFH)

My house now has more than $500k in equity. It's a beautiful house with lots of original Victorian features. And the neighborhood is now extremely hot. When I moved here we had no amenities beyond fast food and check cashing. Now we have restaurants and bars and artist studios, coffee shops and yoga.

How is your rowhouse both downtown AND in a place where cab drivers wouldn't take you in 2004?

It's very close to downtown. About .75 mile from both Chinatown and Union Station, about 1 mile from Dupont Circle, for example. Yep, cab drivers wouldn't go there and no-one would deliver pizza or other takeout either. So much has changed.

OMG, you are ridiculous. We looked places in Shaw in 2004, and we took a cab there. And that's 1.2 miles away, you might have even been in Logan Circle.

Cab's won't go there...

Yep, it's ridiculous, it's also true and I and all my (longer term) neighbors knew only too well. Sure, I didn't always have problems but more often than not I would. I learned to get in the cab before I told them the destination.

Also, I'm not identifying where, other than to say NOT Shaw. (Where is Shaw 1.2 miles from exactly?)

You said 1 mile from DuPont. There hasn't been anything sketchy 1 mile from DuPont in decades.

As for cabs, I would actually assume it's because they would rather have a big tipper heading to Georgetown or Adams Morgan than a local. Might also be racial profiling that was a big problem then?

Back in the late 1990s, 14th street was decidedly sketchy. In fact, most folks tended to avoid going east of 16th. When Saint Ex opened in about 2002 things started to change. All within a short distance from Dupont so your statement is definitely not accurate.

Sketchy, sure whatever. I work in SE so you can call it what you like. Cabs refuse to go there, not in 2004. PP maybe victim of profiling but not b/c of address safety.

Look you can say what you want, but I can tell you that until about, probably, 2010 I regularly had difficulty getting cab drivers to take me home (not to Dupont Circle). So did ALL of my neighbors. Now perhaps some were being profiled, but as a white woman I doubt that was the case with me. PP has already confirmed that this was the case so quit arguing. All the neighbors shared notes on the two takeout places who were rumored to deliver to the neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Sketchy, sure whatever. I work in SE so you can call it what you like. Cabs refuse to go there, not in 2004. PP maybe victim of profiling but not b/c of address safety.

How the heck would you know PP unless you were in the other PP's shoes???

[Anonymous]

PP who thinks it's been "decades" since areas within a mile of Dupont were sketchy is mistaken. Not sure what credibililty working in a different quadrant is supposed to give you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Look you can say what you want, but I can tell you that until about, probably, 2010 I regularly had difficulty getting cab drivers to take me home (not to Dupont Circle). So did ALL of my neighbors. Now perhaps some were being profiled, but as a white woman I doubt that was the case with me. PP has already confirmed that this was the case so quit arguing. All the neighbors shared notes on the two takeout places who were rumored to deliver to the neighborhood.

Without knowing where you live and where she lives, this information is meaningless. You two may as well be in Watts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Sketchy, sure whatever. I work in SE so you can call it what you like. Cabs refuse to go there, not in 2004. PP maybe victim of profiling but not b/c of address safety.

How the heck would you know PP unless you were in the other PP's shoes???

Yeah, I get the the PP you quoted has an obsessive need to get the last word/be right. Because her experience differed, the other PP can't possibly be correct about not being able to get a cab, etc.

Areas within a mile of the DuPont neighborhood have certainly changed even within the last decade. Heck, I remember going to the Black Cat in the early 2000s and feeling a bit sketched out- the area was otherwise dark and deserted at night. Contrast that with 14th st today!

[Anonymous]

This thread has been derailed by real estate trolls. Reality is that many on dcum want to deny that they are upper class privileged folks with a terrible case of woe is me syndrome.

Being top 1% in history, which anyone with 100k or more is, makes you upper middle class and then some. So many petulant school children on these threads - wake up and smell reality!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread has been derailed by real estate trolls. Reality is that many on dcum want to deny that they are upper class privileged folks with a terrible case of woe is me syndrome.

Being top 1% in history, which anyone with 100k or more is, makes you upper middle class and then some. So many petulant school children on these threads - wake up and smell reality!!

Yes I'm top 1% in history alright, whatever that means!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread has been derailed by real estate trolls. Reality is that many on dcum want to deny that they are upper class privileged folks with a terrible case of woe is me syndrome.

Being top 1% in history, which anyone with 100k or more is, makes you upper middle class and then some. So many petulant school children on these threads - wake up and smell reality!!

People like you vote, what scares me is not your opinion, but your ignorance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Yes, tuition costs are higher now in absolute terms but it's the rate of increase that is most indicative of "who had it worst". Take a look:

http://trends.collegeboard.org/college-pricing/figures-tables/average-rates-growth-published-charges-decade

Sorry. This post is pages old, but this was never addressed. I hope nobody took this seriously, because it is ridiculous. Rate of change is in no way indicative of "who had it worst." I mean, completely abstracting this away from context and just looking at basic calculus, the basic idea is just wrong.