$200K. What is your lifestyle like?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your HHI gross income is $200-250K, what does your lifestyle look like?

Two incomes or one SAH or part time?
Kids or DINC?
SFH, townhome, or condo? Cars? Vacations?
What do you feel like you can afford and what feels out of reach for you.

This is specific to the DMV. $200K is rich in West Virginia or Ohio or Iowa, and poor in Manhattan or San Francisco, so DC metro only please.

Living in Iowa City, trust me, $200K does not equal rich.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$225k here in DC.

Two incomes, two kids with a third on the way.
We're in Columbia Heights in a 2000 sq ft 3 bdrm/3 full bath row house that we bought when rates were low in 2020. It's our forever home and we love it. PITI is $4k a month all in.
We do not have a car, which we're quite happy about.
We've splurged on childcare. Our younger child is in a nanny share so that costs a lot. There was a time when both our kids were too young for school and for about a year and a half we paid full freight for our own nanny, about $5k a month. We'll never have to do that again, thank god (middle kid starts school next year). That was a tight time!

We currently only travel to see people we love, and we stay with them (grandparents, siblings, the occasional close friend). We do two weeks at the beach each summer, one with each side of the family. We handle transportation (rent a car) and expenses, but the grandparents on each side rent the house for everyone to stay in, which we are very grateful for. We have no interest in real travel right now with the kids so little anyway.

We have decent retirement funds (though not contributing a ton at this moment, maybe 6% of our income), a solid emergency fund, and no debt besides our mortgage. We also give about 3% of our take home pay to charitable causes right now. We hope to get both our retirement contributions and our charitable donations up to 10% each once we're done with the nanny years, and the rest of the money will go to college savings (basically non-existent at this point, a few gifts in their only, but our oldest is still in PK.)

Besides the year of our own nanny (that was tight!), we feel very comfortable. Basically - we can have anything we want, we just can't have everything we want. So, we splurge on housing, living in the city, number of children, and childcare, and we go cheap on the other stuff - we don't eat out, we don't have a car, we don't travel, we get all the kids clothes from thrift stores, etc.

We could easily commute out and live in a bigger house and travel. Or we could have one or two kids and eat out and buy lots of nice stuff. Or we could use daycare instead of a nanny and own a car. With $225k, you have choices, you just have to see them that way. Perspective is huge at this income. If you want to feel comfortable, you can. If you want to feel like you never have any money, you can.

Why are you making charitable contributions before saving for college? Will the grandparents pay? Not snarking, just curious.

PP here. The median household income in the US is $75k, and the worldwide median household income is $12k. At $225k, we have dramatically more than most, and it's important to us to give back. Honestly, I hate that it's only 3%, but it's where we are right now. Until we had to start paying for childcare, I had always given 10% of my money to charity. Bottom line, I guess it's important to me.

The funny thing is that none of the other people care about you and wouldn't lift a finger to help you. But it is important for you to buy away your self-imposed guilt.

DP. Go away with your cynical assumptions based on nothing.

Agreed, a ridiculous thing to say. I thought I had seen it all here, but apparently "giving to charity" is horrible to someone.

[Anonymous]

DH and I hit $270k this past year. We save a lot for retirement (probably $50-$60k not including the employer matches) We live in eastern MoCo, one kid in daycare (no other kids). We are late 30s. We were lucky to have bought our home in 2021 so got a sub 3% rate. PITI is around $2500?

Honestly I don't worry too much about money. I feel very privileged in that way and do try to give back (not 10% of income - that is a laudable goal though). We're not the type to blow a bunch of money on super expensive hotels but we do go on decent vacations. We buy whatever we need, and pay off the credit cards at the end of the.month..But I don't have expensive tastes (Costco jean ftw) and DH is good at finding good deals.

It was hard when we were closer to $200k, saving the same amount for retirement and DD needed very expensive weekly therapy that wasn't covered by insurance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your HHI gross income is $200-250K, what does your lifestyle look like?

Two incomes or one SAH or part time?
Kids or DINC?
SFH, townhome, or condo? Cars? Vacations?
What do you feel like you can afford and what feels out of reach for you.

This is specific to the DMV. $200K is rich in West Virginia or Ohio or Iowa, and poor in Manhattan or San Francisco, so DC metro only please.

2 incomes
2 kids
SFH
2 cars (2020 and a 2010)
1-2 vacations per year (domestic)

It’s ok. No real complaints but looking forward to being $300k in the near future (within 5-10 years). I think $300-350k would be especially comfortable and we could renovate and still save a bit more than we are currently and better fund 529s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$225k here in DC.

Two incomes, two kids with a third on the way.
We're in Columbia Heights in a 2000 sq ft 3 bdrm/3 full bath row house that we bought when rates were low in 2020. It's our forever home and we love it. PITI is $4k a month all in.
We do not have a car, which we're quite happy about.
We've splurged on childcare. Our younger child is in a nanny share so that costs a lot. There was a time when both our kids were too young for school and for about a year and a half we paid full freight for our own nanny, about $5k a month. We'll never have to do that again, thank god (middle kid starts school next year). That was a tight time!

We currently only travel to see people we love, and we stay with them (grandparents, siblings, the occasional close friend). We do two weeks at the beach each summer, one with each side of the family. We handle transportation (rent a car) and expenses, but the grandparents on each side rent the house for everyone to stay in, which we are very grateful for. We have no interest in real travel right now with the kids so little anyway.

We have decent retirement funds (though not contributing a ton at this moment, maybe 6% of our income), a solid emergency fund, and no debt besides our mortgage. We also give about 3% of our take home pay to charitable causes right now. We hope to get both our retirement contributions and our charitable donations up to 10% each once we're done with the nanny years, and the rest of the money will go to college savings (basically non-existent at this point, a few gifts in their only, but our oldest is still in PK.)

Besides the year of our own nanny (that was tight!), we feel very comfortable. Basically - we can have anything we want, we just can't have everything we want. So, we splurge on housing, living in the city, number of children, and childcare, and we go cheap on the other stuff - we don't eat out, we don't have a car, we don't travel, we get all the kids clothes from thrift stores, etc.

We could easily commute out and live in a bigger house and travel. Or we could have one or two kids and eat out and buy lots of nice stuff. Or we could use daycare instead of a nanny and own a car. With $225k, you have choices, you just have to see them that way. Perspective is huge at this income. If you want to feel comfortable, you can. If you want to feel like you never have any money, you can.

Why are you making charitable contributions before saving for college? Will the grandparents pay? Not snarking, just curious.

PP here. The median household income in the US is $75k, and the worldwide median household income is $12k. At $225k, we have dramatically more than most, and it's important to us to give back. Honestly, I hate that it's only 3%, but it's where we are right now. Until we had to start paying for childcare, I had always given 10% of my money to charity. Bottom line, I guess it's important to me.

The funny thing is that none of the other people care about you and wouldn't lift a finger to help you. But it is important for you to buy away your self-imposed guilt.

DP. Go away with your cynical assumptions based on nothing.

Eh. There's truth to it. It's like "citizens of the world" mindsets when it really means nothing and no other country will do anything for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your HHI gross income is $200-250K, what does your lifestyle look like?

Two incomes or one SAH or part time?
Kids or DINC?
SFH, townhome, or condo? Cars? Vacations?
What do you feel like you can afford and what feels out of reach for you.

This is specific to the DMV. $200K is rich in West Virginia or Ohio or Iowa, and poor in Manhattan or San Francisco, so DC metro only please.

Living in Iowa City, trust me, $200K does not equal rich.

LOL, I thought the same thing (grew up in WI). OP is more clueless than she could begin to realize

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$225k here in DC.

Two incomes, two kids with a third on the way.
We're in Columbia Heights in a 2000 sq ft 3 bdrm/3 full bath row house that we bought when rates were low in 2020. It's our forever home and we love it. PITI is $4k a month all in.
We do not have a car, which we're quite happy about.
We've splurged on childcare. Our younger child is in a nanny share so that costs a lot. There was a time when both our kids were too young for school and for about a year and a half we paid full freight for our own nanny, about $5k a month. We'll never have to do that again, thank god (middle kid starts school next year). That was a tight time!

We currently only travel to see people we love, and we stay with them (grandparents, siblings, the occasional close friend). We do two weeks at the beach each summer, one with each side of the family. We handle transportation (rent a car) and expenses, but the grandparents on each side rent the house for everyone to stay in, which we are very grateful for. We have no interest in real travel right now with the kids so little anyway.

We have decent retirement funds (though not contributing a ton at this moment, maybe 6% of our income), a solid emergency fund, and no debt besides our mortgage. We also give about 3% of our take home pay to charitable causes right now. We hope to get both our retirement contributions and our charitable donations up to 10% each once we're done with the nanny years, and the rest of the money will go to college savings (basically non-existent at this point, a few gifts in their only, but our oldest is still in PK.)

Besides the year of our own nanny (that was tight!), we feel very comfortable. Basically - we can have anything we want, we just can't have everything we want. So, we splurge on housing, living in the city, number of children, and childcare, and we go cheap on the other stuff - we don't eat out, we don't have a car, we don't travel, we get all the kids clothes from thrift stores, etc.

We could easily commute out and live in a bigger house and travel. Or we could have one or two kids and eat out and buy lots of nice stuff. Or we could use daycare instead of a nanny and own a car. With $225k, you have choices, you just have to see them that way. Perspective is huge at this income. If you want to feel comfortable, you can. If you want to feel like you never have any money, you can.

Why are you making charitable contributions before saving for college? Will the grandparents pay? Not snarking, just curious.

PP here. The median household income in the US is $75k, and the worldwide median household income is $12k. At $225k, we have dramatically more than most, and it's important to us to give back. Honestly, I hate that it's only 3%, but it's where we are right now. Until we had to start paying for childcare, I had always given 10% of my money to charity. Bottom line, I guess it's important to me.

The funny thing is that none of the other people care about you and wouldn't lift a finger to help you. But it is important for you to buy away your self-imposed guilt.

DP. Go away with your cynical assumptions based on nothing.

Eh. There's truth to it. It's like "citizens of the world" mindsets when it really means nothing and no other country will do anything for you.

I don’t give to charities because I hope to one day get a return on my investment. I don’t think anyone does.

[Anonymous]

A little higher at 300k here with two working parents and two elementary school kids in public school in an exburb.

Biggest expense (and luxury) is our house ($3700 mo) with 3500 sq ft, drive two older cars (2012 and 2013), domestic, driveable vacations, nice summer camps for kiddos and plenty of activities, buy freely at the grocery store, about 1 meal a week take out and saving 28% of gross.

This income level is still relatively new to us so trying to catch up on savings and finally finish grad school loans. In a year or two, we hope to take bigger vacations. Life is very comfortable.

[Anonymous]

This thread is a refreshing change from all the $500k+ “middle-class” complainers usually seen here.

[Anonymous]

I think we are just under $250k and we are in our early 40s.
2 full-time incomes, we save for retirement and in 529s (but not crazy amounts) and will have 3 pension sources upon retirement so I'm not too concerned there.
2 elementary age kids, after school care is about $900 a month, and they are not in any expensive activities
SFH- PITI just under $3000, mortgage is under $500k
2 newer cars paid off

We do several shorter weekend/day trips such as to amusement parks or sightseeing. Maybe a driving vacation in the summer and an additional trip such as to Disney or to a national park. I think we're very comfortable at our income. We haven't done any overseas trips yet with the kids but hope to now that they are older. I keep track of our monthly expenses and income, but don't have to nitpick our expenses like I did when we made $100k total. We probably will be saving up next for some home improvements. Our parents didn't have much money when we were growing up, so we count ourselves as extremely fortunate.

[Anonymous]

If your HHI gross income is $200-250K, what does your lifestyle look like?

Two incomes or one SAH or part time?
Kids or DINC?
SFH, townhome, or condo? Cars? Vacations?
What do you feel like you can afford and what feels out of reach for you.

Two incomes, recently to $200 in the last couple years. Two non-profit jobs.
Two kids.
Townhome in close-in suburb.
One car (good transportation nearby)
Vacation is usually domestic or visiting family across the country - international with the whole family maybe every 3-5 years.
Just started to try to max out our retirement but feels difficult to do that plus save for college and achieve other financial goals.

[Anonymous]

We make $260k after a few slim years of one not working. we received a significant but not dcum sized inheritance in recent years and feel very grateful if not lucky because it came to us due to the death of my parents.

Typically now that kids are older (hs and ms), we aim to take one international and a few domestic trip (often driving). We saved a lot by not traveling during the pandemic. About $350k remaining on our mortgage, which we refi’ed at a low rate. No other debt. We own one new car outright. Compared to other umc families, we dont spend much on kid activities. Music lessons, and sleepaway camp (not full summer).

We are thinking of buying a new house, but cant afford much thats nicer or bigger than our current home.

We eat out/get takeout too often. Suze orman would not approve.

[Anonymous]

Income is usually around $230-250K. One earner. Three kids. We have $500k on a mortgage for a older house that we love but have and still plan to put a ton of work and updates into. Modest travel and drive one older car and one with a low payment. Never had student debt and have healthy savings. We treat ourselves to high quality food and experiences (music, theater, etc). We grew up a with a lot less income and feel extremely comfortable and want for nothing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Struggle bus

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your HHI gross income is $200-250K, what does your lifestyle look like?

Two incomes or one SAH or part time?
Kids or DINC?
SFH, townhome, or condo? Cars? Vacations?
What do you feel like you can afford and what feels out of reach for you.

This is specific to the DMV. $200K is rich in West Virginia or Ohio or Iowa, and poor in Manhattan or San Francisco, so DC metro only please.

Living in Iowa City, trust me, $200K does not equal rich.

LOL, of course it is.