Singel parent on $228K income
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Anonymous
To be fair, as a working parent of two: Where are you finding sports for kids for $16/month? Haircuts for kids start at $20-$25-ish in DC School needs: We have two kids in public and cannot work from home, aftercare for us is $800 a month for two kids at the same school (we can at least get by without beforecare with would be additional $ but some people require both). |
Anonymous
$1k a month budget for summer camp + travel amounts to $12k a year. I know camps are expensive (just sorting out earmarking $4k for two kids for this summer), but travel doesn't need to be that excessive. Stack all expenses on a travel credit card that you pay off so that you can use points toward flights and hotel stays. |
Anonymous
| Car is paid off with only 52M miles I will have it for a while even though it’s 5y old already. Loans are at a fixed 2.75% so it doesn’t make sense to skip retirement to pay them down faster and also I’m eligible for PSLF so the slower I pay them off the better, maybe 3-4 years left. |
Anonymous
+1, I was going to say the same thing. All my pharmacy costs are necessary and I probably spend more than that. One prescription alone is about $20 copay per month. A bottle of generic ibuprofen is $10. Etc. It doesn't take much to get to $100. |
Anonymous
| Thanks I already pay for everything with a credit card I pay off, for the points. |
Anonymous
OP, we have a similar income, and also find it difficult to save with two kids (aftercare, out of school activities, summer camp for two kids is ridiculous, and every month something comes up. In the last few months, that included a roof leak that was a few grand to repair, a fridge leak that was a few hundred to repair including the floor it warped, two major healthcare bills that were $1k each after insurance, and on and on). Even at a decent income, it's really tough in the DC area, and extra so if you have loans. |
Anonymous
Given where you are at, this should be a "maybe" -- sit down and figure out what is happening with your loans and exactly how long you have left. If you are PSLF I'm assuming you are a fed. You are honestly in great shape for a single parent household on a fed salary. Yes, these are the years that pinch, trying to save for retirement and college and also support growing kids at home. It's tough. In a few years though, you will be done with your loans, kids will be off to college, you can downsize your home, and you've got plenty saved for retirement. View this as a phase of life, and look forward to what happens in a few years when a lot of these expenses disappear or come down quite a bit. |
Anonymous
I'm guesstimating $200/year per kid per sport. So if your kid plays 4 sports a year it'd be $800/year on average so I'd budget $66/month. Obviously if it is an expensive sport it would have to be higher, but that's about what I spend on my kids sports run by the town, county or school. If you pay more, you'd need to budget more per month. Haircuts for kids are $20-25 in DC, you say, and you get them every ...two months so? that's $10-$13/month right? I suggested $10/month. That's just my guesstimate again. My kids get haircuts every three months. School needs - aftercare is definitely a big expense! That would go under Child Care for me. If OP's $2000 needs to cover child care, that's a lot less to play with. I was thinking of school needs as: school photos, class publishing a book, field trip $$, science fair poster board, another field trip, end of year school roller skating party -- all the expenses seem to happen in MAY for some reason BTW. |
Anonymous
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I feel your pain OP. People are so out of touch with reality. 228K for a single parent is not that much.
I can relate because I'm a single parent as well. I'm making 350k and it's very tight. Everything is so expensive. |
Anonymous
Oh I know how long *I* think I have left. But until the government updates my payment count I’m not counting my chickens. I can apply to get $6K/year after tax forgiven and also if the Biden loan forgiveness comes through I would get $10K. Both big ifs. |
Anonymous
| I think the point is someone making $228K should not be living paycheck to paycheck and OP basically is, just bc of the housing timing, student loans, and inflation. |
Anonymous
| If she remarried to someone like her she would be in a much better spot. |
Anonymous
I don't think its appropriate to blame "housing timing" to OP, who is 50 years old. He or she has had years to buy a place of her own when hosing prices and interest rates were much lower. |
Anonymous
Not sure what housing has to do with it. Her rent is 3K. That's what her mortgage would be if she owned a house. Owning a home wouldn't increase her cash flow. She would build equity, yes. But that's not her problem right now. |
Anonymous
| OP- you are super fortunate. 228K is a ton of money. And for the most part, it seems like you are doing really well. Car thats paid off, 30K to retirement. I would get rid of the disability insurance and put it in to savings bonds if you are risk averse or a brokerage account if you are not. I assume at your age, you have a fair amount in your retirement account. I also think you could/should cut down on gas. Seems like you are driving a lot. |