What is considered a "good salary" in the DMV?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's all relative. We make 500k and don't feel wealthy at all. We have a large chunk of that. When we were making 250k, we lived a fine life, just didn't save as much. Now at 475-500k we save close to 200k a year. Essentially, 250k was the point where we could live comfortably, the amount over than is purely savings at this point.

So to answer, I would say 250k is a "good salary"

sorry *we SAVE a large chunk of that*

Wow, quite some savings....what’s your NW and how old are you. I will be getting a promotion and hoping to up savings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:350K - with no childcare cost, low mortgage, no private school cost, no physical-mental-behavioral-legal-educational issues remediation costs, no divorce, SAHM household, no pets, no eldercare costs, no college debt, a good pension plan, secure job, lots of benefits --- its fantastic. Its us.

500K - with expensive childcare, expensive house, private school costs, any therapy or treatment, any legal costs, pets, eldercare, divorce, college debt - you are drowning and you are no longer well off.

See, only Bezos or Gates do well even when they divorce.

This is so dumb. If you make 350k there is no reason to worry about childcare cost or mortgage. Childcare cost is temporary and on 350k it's easy to buy a million dollar house an still take vacations, eat out, etc. I don't know why therapy is so front and center in your post - sounds like you must hang around with some crazy people

Why is it dumb? With $350K and not having the costs listed above, we actually have a great lifestyle - foreign vacations, maids twice a week, entertaining, eating out, tutors, coaches, well maintained house and yard, kids can go to any college, great retirement etc. 350K should give you a lot of options to live well and to also build wealth. But, people in DMV struggle even with high HHI because they have these other costs.

Why is therapy and treatments up front and center in my post? I have heard people in our circle say that fertility treatments cost them a lot of money, or their SN kids need a lot of expensive therapy, or their teen drug rehab cost them a lot of money. I am assuming that if you had the misfortune to need any of these kinds of treatments or therapy, you will also bleed money.

Also, every friend who went through divorce spent huge amounts of money in the attorney costs, and of course they became poorer overall because the marital assets got divided. I am assuming that they needed some counselling too at some point and unless it was covered by insurance it also cost you a lot of money??

The above are not situations that people want to be in but it happens that life deals them that kind of a hand. Surely you understand that it is very easy to spend a lot money on lots of things and not all of it is frivolous spending? Getting therapy for your SN kid or IVF etc is not mindless spending. Getting marital counseling or a divorce is not being irresponsible with your money, these misfortunes can happen. But the end result is that it costly.

[Anonymous]

A good salary would be $500k. Cost of living is so high. I don't see how you can live comfortably on less than that.
This is the average income on this board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A good salary would be $500k. Cost of living is so high. I don't see how you can live comfortably on less than that.
This is the average income on this board.

Define comfortably PP?

[Anonymous]

Right now my house costs $3,600 a month
Credit card bills 3k a month.
I liked to do $2k a month 401k
My family health plan through work is $1.5k a month
I like to do 2k a month 529 as three kids need to find it
Car insurance, hone insurance $350 a month

Now I just need to never have any break or ever have fun or kids need clothes

So no 120k won’t work

[Anonymous]

I think 200k is a good salary. Two working parents making that is a lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think 200k is a good salary. Two working parents making that is a lot.

For each parent? It’s definitely not good for total and you are paying for childcare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think 100k is a good salary. I make a little less, DH makes a little more. 200k is a fine income for a family in DC.

+1.

My husband makes $120. I used to make $145 but lost my work due to the pandemic. We live in downtown dc, an expensive neighborhood but bought our house a long t8me ago so have a Loy mortgage payment. We are dipping into savings now but I should be back to work soon. If we make $250 combined we’ll be more than comfortable . We have personal inherited money and had good savings before that. Two kids in public school. With housing costs being as they are, living outside the city in a lower cost area $200k would be a great hhi.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:350K - with no childcare cost, low mortgage, no private school cost, no physical-mental-behavioral-legal-educational issues remediation costs, no divorce, SAHM household, no pets, no eldercare costs, no college debt, a good pension plan, secure job, lots of benefits --- its fantastic. Its us.

500K - with expensive childcare, expensive house, private school costs, any therapy or treatment, any legal costs, pets, eldercare, divorce, college debt - you are drowning and you are no longer well off.

See, only Bezos or Gates do well even when they divorce.

This is so dumb. If you make 350k there is no reason to worry about childcare cost or mortgage. Childcare cost is temporary and on 350k it's easy to buy a million dollar house an still take vacations, eat out, etc. I don't know why therapy is so front and center in your post - sounds like you must hang around with some crazy people

Why is it dumb? With $350K and not having the costs listed above, we actually have a great lifestyle - foreign vacations, maids twice a week, entertaining, eating out, tutors, coaches, well maintained house and yard, kids can go to any college, great retirement etc. 350K should give you a lot of options to live well and to also build wealth. But, people in DMV struggle even with high HHI because they have these other costs.

Why is therapy and treatments up front and center in my post? I have heard people in our circle say that fertility treatments cost them a lot of money, or their SN kids need a lot of expensive therapy, or their teen drug rehab cost them a lot of money. I am assuming that if you had the misfortune to need any of these kinds of treatments or therapy, you will also bleed money.

Also, every friend who went through divorce spent huge amounts of money in the attorney costs, and of course they became poorer overall because the marital assets got divided. I am assuming that they needed some counselling too at some point and unless it was covered by insurance it also cost you a lot of money??

The above are not situations that people want to be in but it happens that life deals them that kind of a hand. Surely you understand that it is very easy to spend a lot money on lots of things and not all of it is frivolous spending? Getting therapy for your SN kid or IVF etc is not mindless spending. Getting marital counseling or a divorce is not being irresponsible with your money, these misfortunes can happen. But the end result is that it costly.

Nobody is paying for child care, special needs therapy, divorce counseling, private school, etc. etc. all at the same time. You're describing the life of someone who is a total wreck.

[Anonymous]

For $250HHI, you can live very nicely in this area, assuming you’re living an average UMC life, including public schools in a desirable neighborhood (in-state for college), domestic resort vacations, maxing 401k but not trying to save even more, own (not lease) $30-40k cars, etc. If you start adding private schools, foreign vacations, aggressive savings, multiple luxury car leases, etc., your wealthy (not UMC) lifestyle will be more, possibly much more, depending on your taste, number of kids, etc. However, unless you can make the extra money without a lot of stress, frustration, and family care, we don’t believe the extras are worth it. Of course, you may think differently.

[Anonymous]

We live very very well on 250-300k (which is the median family income in our neighborhood - this is different from HHI - which includes AU students with 0 income; the census publishes both). We can afford a 1M house, travel abroad yearly and pay for an au pair; while still fully funding retirement. We’re well beyond need and into only wants/desires territory. And as we know, that is limitless.

[Anonymous]

I make 210K my DH makes 253K. Together we make good money but not individually.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We make a combined $250 and feel quite wealthy in the northern Virginia burbs.

Same, but we never had many college loans, and our kids go to public schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's all relative. We make 500k and don't feel wealthy at all. We have a large chunk of that. When we were making 250k, we lived a fine life, just didn't save as much. Now at 475-500k we save close to 200k a year. Essentially, 250k was the point where we could live comfortably, the amount over than is purely savings at this point.

So to answer, I would say 250k is a "good salary"

sorry *we SAVE a large chunk of that*

Wow, quite some savings....what’s your NW and how old are you. I will be getting a promotion and hoping to up savings.

I think they're full of sh*t unless they're making 500k AFTER taxes. There's no way they're making 500k before taxes and saving 200k a year unless they're saving more than half of what they bring home. Which they're not.

[Anonymous]

DH and I make $250k in the DMV with 2 young kids and a mortgage and we struggle to save anything right now. Daycare is a killer, two more years until we are out of the woods.