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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

And yes, I paid off my car loan years ago. (I just need one, since I'm single.) Plus, because I am in a 3-person carpool, I spend very little on gas.

What will you do when your car needs repair/replacement? I don't see a line item for saving to replace or repair.

I'm planning to take a Home Equity loan. Or, I could take from my regular savings, but I'd rather keep that invested.)

So once that day comes around, your annual expenses will go up by at least 5%. Just saying, you're leaving a lot out when you break it down monthly like this without a long-term view.

A $30,000 car loan on home equity will be less than $200/month.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here are some other expenses I don't see listed that many people have:
- Student loans -- this is a HUGE killer for most people
- Gifts (maybe this comes out of entertainment/eating out, but our Christmas budget is at least $800)
- Life and/or Disability Insurance (assume you don't need it since you're single or your employer provides a small policy that is enough, but many married/parents need more life insurance)
- Gym Membership or other physical fitness expenses (maybe work provides, you don't work out, or you have a home routine with no cost)

- I transferred from CC, and won an 1/2 tuition academic scholarship to the four-year university. I also worked part-time. Parents made up the small difference (for which I am grateful).
- Yes, gifts come out of the entertainment line,
- Employer provides life/disability
- Great clubhouse at my condo community, with pool and work-out room. They give yoga classes there, too.

I'm not claiming you have these expenses and are leaving them out -- I'm pointing out that lots of other people have these reasonable expenses that you don't have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How on earth are you vacationing for $250 a year? I can't even get a plane ticket to visit my parents for less than $500 each, and there are 4 of us. A hotel is a minimum of $100 a night, and that's not even a vacation.

Kids are expensive. They need all new clothes each season for many years. Diapers and wipes are expensive. Childcare is expensive. It all adds up.

No, the $250 is a monthly rate - I'm allocating $3000 for a vacation. Also, I do not have dependent children. As I said, I recognize there's a big difference in spending needs between single and young families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here are some other expenses I don't see listed that many people have:
- Student loans -- this is a HUGE killer for most people
- Gifts (maybe this comes out of entertainment/eating out, but our Christmas budget is at least $800)
- Life and/or Disability Insurance (assume you don't need it since you're single or your employer provides a small policy that is enough, but many married/parents need more life insurance)
- Gym Membership or other physical fitness expenses (maybe work provides, you don't work out, or you have a home routine with no cost)

- I transferred from CC, and won an 1/2 tuition academic scholarship to the four-year university. I also worked part-time. Parents made up the small difference (for which I am grateful).
- Yes, gifts come out of the entertainment line,
- Employer provides life/disability
- Great clubhouse at my condo community, with pool and work-out room. They give yoga classes there, too.

OK. I see. That's certainly a valid point.

I'm not claiming you have these expenses and are leaving them out -- I'm pointing out that lots of other people have these reasonable expenses that you don't have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here are some other expenses I don't see listed that many people have:
- Student loans -- this is a HUGE killer for most people
- Gifts (maybe this comes out of entertainment/eating out, but our Christmas budget is at least $800)
- Life and/or Disability Insurance (assume you don't need it since you're single or your employer provides a small policy that is enough, but many married/parents need more life insurance)
- Gym Membership or other physical fitness expenses (maybe work provides, you don't work out, or you have a home routine with no cost)

- I transferred from CC, and won an 1/2 tuition academic scholarship to the four-year university. I also worked part-time. Parents made up the small difference (for which I am grateful).
- Yes, gifts come out of the entertainment line,
- Employer provides life/disability
- Great clubhouse at my condo community, with pool and work-out room. They give yoga classes there, too.

I'm not claiming you have these expenses and are leaving them out -- I'm pointing out that lots of other people have these reasonable expenses that you don't have.

OK, I see. That's a valid point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The people screaming "YOU"D BE POOR IF YOU HAD KIDS!" are still wrong. The median HHI in DC is 75k, which by definition includes 2 children. Once again, it's really just a question of most people on this forum not wanting to live the way most people are actually living in the area.

I agree with this (OMG it's a sh*tshack! Tear it down and rebuild a McMansion".

However I will say that in addition to daycare expenses, kids are expensive in many other ways. I pay for life insurance on myself FBO my kids, college savings plans for both, increase those medical premiums, never mind out of network services such as mental health, braces (costs after insurance), vacations have to be multiplied by x number of people, you try to get housing in a good school district (my property taxes alone went up $100 a month this year), which is more expensive, never mind clothes, shoes and food which are not free.

Example, my kids rarely get to see my relatives who live far away. I spent about $2000 this summer transporting them back and forth (and I have to go with them) to Grandma's house. All this after tax. I'll tell you OP, it adds up. Now is visiting Grandma a necessity? Clearly not. But it's important.

Additionally now I am incurring expenses to visit my other aging parent who is ill. I'll fly there between 3 and 5 times this summer, plus car rental.

I'm just saying while I admire your budget, it doesn't reflect life with kids and/or parents in need.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The people screaming "YOU"D BE POOR IF YOU HAD KIDS!" are still wrong. The median HHI in DC is 75k, which by definition includes 2 children. Once again, it's really just a question of most people on this forum not wanting to live the way most people are actually living in the area.

I agree with this (OMG it's a sh*tshack! Tear it down and rebuild a McMansion".

However I will say that in addition to daycare expenses, kids are expensive in many other ways. I pay for life insurance on myself FBO my kids, college savings plans for both, increase those medical premiums, never mind out of network services such as mental health, braces (costs after insurance), vacations have to be multiplied by x number of people, you try to get housing in a good school district (my property taxes alone went up $100 a month this year), which is more expensive, never mind clothes, shoes and food which are not free.

Example, my kids rarely get to see my relatives who live far away. I spent about $2000 this summer transporting them back and forth (and I have to go with them) to Grandma's house. All this after tax. I'll tell you OP, it adds up. Now is visiting Grandma a necessity? Clearly not. But it's important.

Additionally now I am incurring expenses to visit my other aging parent who is ill. I'll fly there between 3 and 5 times this summer, plus car rental.

I'm just saying while I admire your budget, it doesn't reflect life with kids and/or parents in need.

Thanks. I guess my point is that when people keep saying that people earning $80k are poor, they are lumping in single people with families. Honestly, $80k in the suburbs, for a single person, is really quite comfortable.

[Anonymous]

OP here, and my carpool just honked. I'll catch up later.

[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.

Is this from two people working and do you have kids? Most people are strapped because of childcare and housing costs.

Yes, two people working. We have one child now. We also live in FFX county like the OP and daycare is considerably cheaper out here than the $2K per month I see mentioned on this board a lot. Housing is expensive for us ($3,400 PITI) but we still have plenty of money left over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here, and my carpool just honked. I'll catch up later.

How far do you live from work? You're not getting picked up for carpool until 8:45?

Sounds like the life. What time do you come home?

I don't think you recognize your privilege. Making $80K+ as a single person isn't the norm either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here, and my carpool just honked. I'll catch up later.

How far do you live from work? You're not getting picked up for carpool until 8:45?

Sounds like the life. What time do you come home?

I don't think you recognize your privilege. Making $80K+ as a single person isn't the norm either.

$80k NET. OP makes plenty for a young person. But when she is older and needs child costs (school housing) or medical issues she will be in edge.

[Anonymous]

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".

[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.

Is this from two people working and do you have kids? Most people are strapped because of childcare and housing costs.

Yes, two people working. We have one child now. We also live in FFX county like the OP and daycare is considerably cheaper out here than the $2K per month I see mentioned on this board a lot. Housing is expensive for us ($3,400 PITI) but we still have plenty of money left over.

Well you're clearly not Saving for college or enough. Because you should be putting at least 1k a month into a 529 per child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The people screaming "YOU"D BE POOR IF YOU HAD KIDS!" are still wrong. The median HHI in DC is 75k, which by definition includes 2 children. Once again, it's really just a question of most people on this forum not wanting to live the way most people are actually living in the area.

Absolutely true. I know a guy with a SAH wife and a small baby, and he earns around $80k. They're at the beach right now, in a rental, for the week.

Laughing at this. Is this something to OOOHHH AHHHH omg over?

[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".

Side eye at that