What HHI does a family of 5 need to feel comfortable: NW DC or close-in Bethesda/Nova

[Anonymous]

If comfortable means saving for retirement and college while not stressing over utilities and groceries, then 500k for the areas you named. 750k if you want to do private school.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Everyone's definition of comfortable is different. Some people are comfortable driving a Subaru or Ford. I would shoot myself. Some people think 4000 sqft house is needed to be comfortable. That's way too big for me. Op, your question is unanswerable

I can’t begin to understand your car comment. You’d shoot yourself if you drove a Subaru?

NP

You really can’t understand that comment? I totally can. A boring car, especially if you have a long commute, is god awful. I like luxury when I drive far.
I’m not really sure what’s so hard to understand about that. Different strokes for different folks and all that.

PP is just overly dramatic. Shoot yourself for driving a Subaru? Tell us that you're privileged without telling us that you're privileged. Please.

For PP, it's a status thing. Many people convey their car as a symbol of status and wealth, or something that they can easily show off to neighbors. If you're secure in where you're at, it's not that big of a deal. To each his own.

Not everything in life is about status sweetie. If I was the last person on earth I still wouldn't wear walmart clothes and drive a subaru. Besides, that wasn't the point of the post. The point of the post was that different people have different preferences and there is absolutely no remotely agreed upon definition of "comfortable." Hence this entire thread is pointless.

Do Subarus and Walmart really belong in the same category? I would've lumped Kia or Chevy and Walmart together, and Subaru with Patagonia or LL Bean? I'm truly starting to feel self conscious about driving a Subaru now if that's what people think about me.

I wouldn't worry about it. My husband, partner at white shoe law firm, drives an old Honda Civic and intends to do so until it literally doesn't drive anymore (at which point I really think he'll just buy another Honda Civic). I think some people are just car people and others aren't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone's definition of comfortable is different. Some people are comfortable driving a Subaru or Ford. I would shoot myself. Some people think 4000 sqft house is needed to be comfortable. That's way too big for me. Op, your question is unanswerable

I can’t begin to understand your car comment. You’d shoot yourself if you drove a Subaru?

NP

You really can’t understand that comment? I totally can. A boring car, especially if you have a long commute, is god awful. I like luxury when I drive far.
I’m not really sure what’s so hard to understand about that. Different strokes for different folks and all that.

PP is just overly dramatic. Shoot yourself for driving a Subaru? Tell us that you're privileged without telling us that you're privileged. Please.

For PP, it's a status thing. Many people convey their car as a symbol of status and wealth, or something that they can easily show off to neighbors. If you're secure in where you're at, it's not that big of a deal. To each his own.

Not everything in life is about status sweetie. If I was the last person on earth I still wouldn't wear walmart clothes and drive a subaru. Besides, that wasn't the point of the post. The point of the post was that different people have different preferences and there is absolutely no remotely agreed upon definition of "comfortable." Hence this entire thread is pointless.

Do Subarus and Walmart really belong in the same category? I would've lumped Kia or Chevy and Walmart together, and Subaru with Patagonia or LL Bean? I'm truly starting to feel self conscious about driving a Subaru now if that's what people think about me.

I wouldn't worry about it. My husband, partner at white shoe law firm, drives an old Honda Civic and intends to do so until it literally doesn't drive anymore (at which point I really think he'll just buy another Honda Civic). I think some people are just car people and others aren't.

Yeah, I was the first pp to disbelieve the shooting-yourself-for-a-Subaru thing. I never assumed people always or even usually buy luxury cars for status. I’m just SO not a car person that I’d never say my “comfort” was dependent on having a pricey car. For me, cars are conveyances. I want to be safe and relatively comfortable when I drive, but I want to drive as little as possible and I ask mostly that my car be reliable. Whereas I totally understand someone wanting a nice house!

[Anonymous]

It’s definitely possible to be comfortable at $320k with three kids in a house/townhouse that’s around 800-900k. I have three kids and we are fine. We have to make choices but we can still do all what the OP said.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:600k? That is idiotic. 350k HHI, 1.5M house with 2 bedrooms per person, private school for 1, vacation whenever and where ever we feel like it, and feel plenty comfortable.

Where are you spending/wasting all your money OP?

when did you buy your home? Given the size you mentioned there is no way it's close-in Bethesda if purchased recently.

People don't get it is irrelevant what your home is worth as you could have purchased it for 500k. Sure, if i am making 350k with a 200k mortgage because I bought 20 years ago, then great.

For a young couple (late 20s/early 30s) even with our high income (500-600k), it's difficult to find a reasonable home to support a growing family

2020

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
For a young couple (late 20s/early 30s) even with our high income (500-600k), it's difficult to find a reasonable home to support a growing family

Whats difficult is thinking its reasonable to have everything you want at that age. Its young to already have that many kids, and you haven't been making money long enough to have everything - the 3 kids, the close in house... a lot of people compromise for a while... If you keep those jobs, you'll have everything you want at 40.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If comfortable means saving for retirement and college while not stressing over utilities and groceries, then 500k for the areas you named. 750k if you want to do private school.

I’d agree with this. We make 600k combined, own two homes, two cars, max out 401ks, 529s, kid in private, etc… so we are very comfortable… BUT we only have one kid. If we had three, we’d have to make changes.

[Anonymous]

We are a family of 4, so this may not apply, but our HHI is 575 and we feel more than comfortable. Sadly it's easy to get to the point where you always want more (more retirement! more for college! more vacations! maybe private school really is the way to go!), but this is plenty.

Our main expenses are the mortgage on our 1M house, kids activities, retirement, and college savings (if those count as expenses). We have no plans for a nice car (our two are worth a combined 15K), private school, more than one vacation a year, or expensive home updates.

(FWIW, we don't care where our clothes come from or what kind of cars we drive. So what if my pants come from target and I drive a Honda Fit? Somebody might disapprove? So? Why would I that bother me?) (But it's possible it's easier to not be bothered because our income is high)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are a family of 4, so this may not apply, but our HHI is 575 and we feel more than comfortable. Sadly it's easy to get to the point where you always want more (more retirement! more for college! more vacations! maybe private school really is the way to go!), but this is plenty.

Our main expenses are the mortgage on our 1M house, kids activities, retirement, and college savings (if those count as expenses). We have no plans for a nice car (our two are worth a combined 15K), private school, more than one vacation a year, or expensive home updates.

(FWIW, we don't care where our clothes come from or what kind of cars we drive. So what if my pants come from target and I drive a Honda Fit? Somebody might disapprove? So? Why would I that bother me?) (But it's possible it's easier to not be bothered because our income is high)

We have your exact lifestyle in Au park on $375k. Where is the rest of your money going? I am truly puzzled by posts like this.

[Anonymous]

The comment about Subarus is idiotic. Subarus are not inexpensive cars. Years ago, we test drive an Outback and an Acura SUV. We ended up with the Acura bc it was more affordable than a new Outback.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are a family of 4, so this may not apply, but our HHI is 575 and we feel more than comfortable. Sadly it's easy to get to the point where you always want more (more retirement! more for college! more vacations! maybe private school really is the way to go!), but this is plenty.

Our main expenses are the mortgage on our 1M house, kids activities, retirement, and college savings (if those count as expenses). We have no plans for a nice car (our two are worth a combined 15K), private school, more than one vacation a year, or expensive home updates.

(FWIW, we don't care where our clothes come from or what kind of cars we drive. So what if my pants come from target and I drive a Honda Fit? Somebody might disapprove? So? Why would I that bother me?) (But it's possible it's easier to not be bothered because our income is high)

We have your exact lifestyle in Au park on $375k. Where is the rest of your money going? I am truly puzzled by posts like this.

+1. Same here. I honestly don’t understand what people blow their money on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are a family of 4, so this may not apply, but our HHI is 575 and we feel more than comfortable. Sadly it's easy to get to the point where you always want more (more retirement! more for college! more vacations! maybe private school really is the way to go!), but this is plenty.

Our main expenses are the mortgage on our 1M house, kids activities, retirement, and college savings (if those count as expenses). We have no plans for a nice car (our two are worth a combined 15K), private school, more than one vacation a year, or expensive home updates.

(FWIW, we don't care where our clothes come from or what kind of cars we drive. So what if my pants come from target and I drive a Honda Fit? Somebody might disapprove? So? Why would I that bother me?) (But it's possible it's easier to not be bothered because our income is high)

We have your exact lifestyle in Au park on $375k. Where is the rest of your money going? I am truly puzzled by posts like this.

You mean 575? What's Au park?

Assuming you meant to respond to my post, I don't really know what to tell you. You don't know how much we are saving for retirement, how much we're saving for college, how much our kids' activities cost, or how much our vacations are. You don't know how much our health insurance costs (it's over 3K a month, in case you're curious), how much we spend on orthodontia, eating out, groceries, hobbies, etc. Why would you be surprised that somebody who has my HHI doesn't do expensive home updates or a nice car?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are a family of 4, so this may not apply, but our HHI is 575 and we feel more than comfortable. Sadly it's easy to get to the point where you always want more (more retirement! more for college! more vacations! maybe private school really is the way to go!), but this is plenty.

Our main expenses are the mortgage on our 1M house, kids activities, retirement, and college savings (if those count as expenses). We have no plans for a nice car (our two are worth a combined 15K), private school, more than one vacation a year, or expensive home updates.

(FWIW, we don't care where our clothes come from or what kind of cars we drive. So what if my pants come from target and I drive a Honda Fit? Somebody might disapprove? So? Why would I that bother me?) (But it's possible it's easier to not be bothered because our income is high)

We have your exact lifestyle in Au park on $375k. Where is the rest of your money going? I am truly puzzled by posts like this.

You mean 575? What's Au park?

Assuming you meant to respond to my post, I don't really know what to tell you. You don't know how much we are saving for retirement, how much we're saving for college, how much our kids' activities cost, or how much our vacations are. You don't know how much our health insurance costs (it's over 3K a month, in case you're curious), how much we spend on orthodontia, eating out, groceries, hobbies, etc. Why would you be surprised that somebody who has my HHI doesn't do expensive home updates or a nice car?

Sorry, I missread your question.

[Anonymous]

What do people spend their money on? I have a HHI of $250k, just finished paying off student loans, three kids (2 in public, 1 in daycare) and live comfortably. Vacation a few times a year, max out retirement and put money in 529s. We don’t have a ton left over after all that, but feel comfortable.

Our mortgage is $3500/month.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What do people spend their money on? I have a HHI of $250k, just finished paying off student loans, three kids (2 in public, 1 in daycare) and live comfortably. Vacation a few times a year, max out retirement and put money in 529s. We don’t have a ton left over after all that, but feel comfortable.

Our mortgage is $3500/month.

That’s a pretty low mortgage for a house in NW DC (Or close in Bethesda/nova) for a family of 5.