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

[Anonymous]

Housing housing housing.

[Anonymous]

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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.

No, you started your post with WTF. You were being incredulous and braggy.

[Anonymous]

Well yeah, when I was single I took home about ~60k and it was fine for just me. Lived (and worked) in the burbs, paid off my car and student loans. But I can’t imagine trying to support a family or even one child on that. Maybe back in my hometown, but not here.

[Anonymous]

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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.

And having kids may lead to pressure to live in expensive areas with better schools, and to spend on good experiences for the child.

Parents also may want to think about paying for college.

We make 100k and have two kids and also have more money than we need.. It's all perspective.

That's about $8600 a month, gross. I would love to see what your budget is. Are you saving at all for those two kids to go to college? How much are you saving annually for retirement? My property taxes alone are $10,000 and I live in a DC suburb in a 25 year old house. I don't see how you have more money than you need unless you don't own a home, plan to work until you die and don't plan to fund college for your kids.

Well, my property taxes are $2200 a year (and that's a deduction on my schedule A). We have about $50k saved at this point in college savings for 5 and 8 year olds, however expect our kids to get scholarships for some or all of college. Our child care bill is zero, our kids both started school at age three here in DC - we paid only for one year of preschool at $200 a week. Mortgage, PITI is $1400 a month (house is worth just shy of a million in downtown DC), we spend about $4k a year on vacations, about $1000 a month on food (split between eating out and groceries), car is paid for and we don't drive much, so perhaps $50 a month on gas, $500 a year on insurance and very little on maintenance, utilities are maybe $200 a month total? We do a lot of free activities in the DC area -- because there are tons of them. Our local pool is free. Don't spend a lot on clothes -- maybe $400 a year for all of us (outlets are our friends). Max out retirement for one (spouse does not have 401k) plus company match, plus two max Roth IRAs - we have very healthy retirement balances at this point, and if it weren't for health insurance costs I'd consider retiring in the next five years. We also donate at least $2k a year to charities we support. We have a networth of $1.7m so we have a safety net if we need it, but we live off my salary and our savings/investments just grow each year.

You sound really pleased with yourself. Good for you for living frugally but this whole message was just patting yourself on the back, filled with unnecessary detail just to brag anonymously.

I didn't read it that way at all. PP was defending themselves from a poster who indicated that they couldn't possibly live well on 8600 gross monthly.

But frankly pp's explanation didn't change anything. They landed in a gentrifying neighborhood many years ago. Yes, I'm sure they did a lot of hard work and gained plenty of sweat equity, but this is not realistic for everyone, and hardly means it's easy to live in the DC area on 100k with 2 kids and have plenty of money leftover.

You are conveniently ignoring the several links to houses you could by TODAY in DC that would put you in the same position as me. I know it's because you are too much of a snob to live in an area that is not already affluent. That's the problem you want everything and you want it immediately. (Remember I worked hard for 15 years after buying my house). That's fine, but you don't also get to turn around and say that it's not possible to live on $100k in DC. It is.

I'm not a snob because I don't want to move into a 2bd 1ba house with 2 kids. I'm not a snob because I didn't move to this area until I was already married with two kids. I'm all for living below your means and making do with what you can afford, and I credit you for making the sacrifices you did, but no, sorry, your path to successful home ownership for a family on 100k is not realistic for most people not is it easily duplicated.

Did you look at the links I sent? There were three and four bedroom houses there. Yes, you can do what I did today. No you can not magically live in a house that is today worth nearly a million without working for it. You need to work for it for fifteen years like I did.

And if you don't like any of the options I shared that are directly comparable to my home then find something in MD or VA that's further out. They exist. And stop sending you infant to a downtown daycare that charges $2400 a month then complain g about the cost of daycare.

I mean, we might have considered something like that pre-kids, especially if we were both handy and could do a lot of the renovations ourselves. But buying a total fixer upper in an area with low-performing schools when you already have kids is just not realistic for most people. You get that, right? FWIW, we bought a $400k 3-BR cape cod in Silver Soring that still needed some work, and spend ~1500 on infant daycare. My parents think this an astronomical amount to spend on housing and childcare. In their town, our house would probably sell for a third of that. We are doing fine, but this is a expensive area, period.