Can you survive with 7,000 monthly income after taxes ?

[Anonymous]

My fixed expenses would eat up most of that. That wouldn't be sustainable for long, and we would eventually need to use savings for things like home repairs.

[Anonymous]

Our take home is 6k after maxing retirement savings. We have 2 kids but don’t need to pay for daycare. We have a tiny old house that we purchased 20 years ago and our mortgage is only $1300/month. We drive old cars and don’t have a car payment. I honestly don’t feel poor. We have all our needs and some of our wants met. There are so many people with so much less than us. People on these boards truly lack perspective.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It costs me $5,100 per month to run the house. That includes mortgage (PITI), food, utilities, car insurance, house cleaners, and lawn service. This also includes $500 into my car fund for when I'll need to buy something. That leaves me with $1,900 for play money.

You mention after taxes---just taxes or all the other stuff that comes out of your paycheck like 401K contributions and insurance premiums. If the $7,000 is after taxes but not including other contributions, then it gets tougher. I'm 50 so I put away 2500 into my 401K so I would have 4,500 and then another $300 for insurance so now I have $4,200. I could take away the car savings and run the house on $4,600. But I'm still short $400 so I would have to scale back my retirement contributions.

Are you really that tone death?


You'd live in a house that costs far less. You don't have lawn service or house cleaners or a car fund.

+1. It’s not that difficult to vacuum, clean a toilet, or scrub a tub.

[Anonymous]

I could live comfortably on a 3rd of that.

[Anonymous]

I have a great life on about $2700 after taxes. Single, retired, no debt, no car payment, pay $300 per month for medicare and supplemental policy and part d policy. I live frugally but have everything I need. I very fortunately bought a 2/2 condo in a beautiful area and wonderful community before prices started to rise and at a 2.8% interest rate. I don't think I could be happier even with more money.

[Anonymous]

All depends on whether you can obtain cash to put down on a home and have a low mortgage. Or else rent an apartment or buy a cheap condo.

[Anonymous]

So the answer is absolutely yes. Lots of people live on 1 income of 7k after taxes if they had a large cash down-payment for a home.

[Anonymous]

No you cannot survive. How are you going to send you kid to private school? How are you going to afford a home in Arlington?
What a poor life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No you cannot survive. How are you going to send you kid to private school? How are you going to afford a home in Arlington?
What a poor life.

This. Once you give up the horses, country club, weekend ski trips, and can only travel domestically, life is just so tough.

[Anonymous]

I would need twice that to cover my maid services and 3 daily meals of grub hub for the family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How would your family survive if you combine income was 7,000 monthly after taxes ..

We did it for years, before my wife went back to work. AMA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No you cannot survive. How are you going to send you kid to private school? How are you going to afford a home in Arlington?
What a poor life.

This. Once you give up the horses, country club, weekend ski trips, and can only travel domestically, life is just so tough.

Yep, it’s off to the glue factory for my horses!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No you cannot survive. How are you going to send you kid to private school? How are you going to afford a home in Arlington?
What a poor life.

This. Once you give up the horses, country club, weekend ski trips, and can only travel domestically, life is just so tough.

What, and live like animals?

[Anonymous]

We would survive, as our PITI is $1900/mo. However we would be quite uncomfortable. We have one headed off to college and only saved for instate, but he’s going OOS so we have to pay an extra 25k more per year.

I would not find that pleasant.

[Anonymous]

This is me! My take home pay is $3,500 twice a month of $7,000 per month. 2 school-age kids. Each does one sport per season and each is in an at least one other activity (band, Girl Scouts, etc.) that are typically lower cost. No debt other than mortgage. As a PP said, where it mostly comes into play are the irregular, big ticket items like vacations and appliance replacement.