Living paycheck to paycheck

[Anonymous]

Interested in your thoughts on this - we have a solid 12 months worth of liquid savings, max out retirement, save for college. Our take home pay after all savings have been accounted for just meets our expenses - we are able to pay off our credit card bill in full, but rarely have more than 200 bucks leftover after all f the bills are covered. We have been really careful about our expenses, but I feel like we are still cutting it too close, but my husband thinks we are doing a good job of living within our means. Any bonuses go into brokerage accounts or home repairs if we need them. Would you consider us as living paycheck to paycheck? HHI of 165k not including bonuses.

[Anonymous]

Humblebrag.

[Anonymous]

No, you are not living paycheck to paycheck.

[Anonymous]

No. If you have 12 months of liquid assets, you are not living paycheck to paycheck.

[Anonymous]

I usually think of living paycheck to paycheck as people who can't pay their credit card in full and have to carry over a balance. If something happened (like your roof started leaking) you could stop paying your credit card in full, or take out money from the college fun and fix the roof. And then return to putting money in it once it has been taken care of. People who live paycheck to paycheck would either have to go into further credit card debt, live with the leaking roof, or cut into some other essential bill in order to cover it.

So no, I don't think you are living paycheck to paycheck at all.

[Anonymous]

To think that with a household income of $165K is living paycheck to paycheck is ridiculous. You should be ashamed. Please, go to some of the other threads where people are trying to figure out what bills to pay because they can't cover them all, or they don't have enough food to put on the table for their family. You're disgusting.

[Anonymous]

God, you are a real jerk. I feel for the people who are truly living paycheck to paycheck who click on this thread and will feel even worse.

[Anonymous]

Having a year's worth of liquid assets is the complete opposite of living paycheck to paycheck. You already know this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Having a year's worth of liquid assets is the complete opposite of living paycheck to paycheck. You already know this.

Of course OP knows this. She/he is just one of those asshole humblebrag posters. I hope they never know what it is like to live paycheck to paycheck. I did at one point in my life and am so incredibly thankful that I am out of that hell.

[Anonymous]

Are you kidding?

[Anonymous]

How did you save 12 months of expenses with only $200 leftover each month. That's $2400/year. Let's say your expenses are 50% of your income - so $80k. It would have taken you 33 years to save the cushion? Despite the brag, there's something you aren't telling us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To think that with a household income of $165K is living paycheck to paycheck is ridiculous. You should be ashamed. Please, go to some of the other threads where people are trying to figure out what bills to pay because they can't cover them all, or they don't have enough food to put on the table for their family. You're disgusting.

I agree that the question is ridiculous - anyone who has 12 months expenses saved, and also maxes our retirement and saved for college is absolutely not living paycheck-to-paycheck - but there are plenty of people who make $165,000 who DO live paycheck to paycheck. The amount you make isn't determinative - it's your expenses compared to your income. So there are people (idiots) who make $300,000 who live paycheck to paycheck, one misstep ahead of financial ruin - they're the ones whose friends scratch their heads and wonder how they pay for everything - and there are people who make $75,000 who don't, because they live within their means.

[Anonymous]

Clearly you are not loving paycheck to paycheck but in can understand why you want to cut back and save more

[Anonymous]

I would say that you are living to pay check to paycheck without the 12 mo. liquid savings. Since you have this 12 mo. savings as your cushion I do not think that you are living paycheck to paycheck.

[Anonymous]

OP--you have been reading too much DCUM and the poor "woe is me" posters who claim that they are middle class on their $300K HHI. Even in the DC area, median income is between $75-90K HHI. You are around the 75th percentile in income in the DC metro area (probably about 80th-85th percentile nationwide). If you were living paycheck to paycheck, which means that you have no savings or less than one paycheck of savings and you need each paycheck to pay all of your debts and payments for the month, then you would be living beyond your means. But you are clearly living within your means on your above average salary, have a good cushion set up and are doing well. Please don't insult those less fortunate than you to suggest that you might be living paycheck to paycheck because you are so far from their reality. Whether your are comfortable with your current level of savings or not, it up to you, but it isn't because you are in any financial danger.