Does anyone have a HHI less than 100k?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How do you people survive, DH and I make almost 200k, and I feel like it's not enough, and we don't have kids.

Some of the things you see on DCUM as unthinkable are how people do it. We live in *gasp* PG county, and our kids go to *pearl clutch* public school, and we shop the sales and buy in bulk and that usually doesn't include organic this and fancy that. We go on vacation maybe once a year and I promise you that it can be done without spending thousands of dollars. Kids need a warm home, enough to eat, and people that will love and guide them. Raising a family gets expensive when you start buying into the idea that they need so much more than that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Was, until 2012.

Same here

Us too. And now we feel so fortunate now. We are definitely NOT those crazy people like "we r sooooo pooor! we only make $200k!!"
But - major choices we made include staying in the starter house so that we don't get ahead of ourselves financially with a big house payment. When we bought our house, the payment was half our income. Now we have a) paid off the smaller, second mortgage, and b) increased our salaries by 50% (we were young and hadn't been to grad school yet when we bought this place).

Anyway, my point is that I hate people who cry poor when they aren't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are most of you PPs in single-income or dual-income households? We make 160K but that's with two incomes, and we have to pay for daycare for three (surprise, twins!). So in the end I think we're not much better off for the time being than a one-income family that makes less than 100K. I don't think our situation compares at all to one-income families that make 160K. Though once they're all out of daycare things should improve.

$95k, 2 income. Stopped at one kid and it's doable. Daycare for three would be a killer.

[Anonymous]

We're at $160 with one kid in school. Three in day care would be doable, but eat up ALL of our monthly savings - retirement and cash.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We're at $160 with one kid in school. Three in day care would be doable, but eat up ALL of our monthly savings - retirement and cash.

Yeah, that's how it is. We do save some for retirement but nothing else. No college savings and no adding to our cash savings/emergency fund either.

[Anonymous]

How do you people survive, DH and I make almost 200k, and I feel like it's not enough, and we don't have kids.

We don't have kids either, and I don't see how you could make almost 200K and feel like it's not enough. Do you have huge student loans to pay off? I can see where once you start factoring in childcare, adding kids to your policy, extra food bills, camps, college savings, etc. it all starts to add up. But almost 200K for 2 adults?

[Anonymous]

HHI of $85,000 living in DC! It can be done!

Row-house in Shaw bought in 2000, so a reasonable mortgage payment. Kids in a good charter school. We eat mostly vegan, organic. Small monthly contributions to 401(k), IRA, and 529s. Reasonable vacation a few times a year. One very old car in good running condition. Happy family.

[Anonymous]

One income, 60k, now that I am a fulltime MBA student. I think people are out of touch with reality when they say they have trouble.

We have plenty of room in budget, live in dc and still contribute to retirement with 60k annually.

It is fools that think private schooling, maxing multiple retirement accounts and living beyond means is a requirement that feel poor.

[Anonymous]

Yep, under 50k, family of 3.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

How do you people survive, DH and I make almost 200k, and I feel like it's not enough, and we don't have kids.

We don't have kids either, and I don't see how you could make almost 200K and feel like it's not enough. Do you have huge student loans to pay off? I can see where once you start factoring in childcare, adding kids to your policy, extra food bills, camps, college savings, etc. it all starts to add up. But almost 200K for 2 adults?

Only about 20k remaining in student loans. We have a 3k a month mortgage, and we are renovating the house, so that sucks out a lot of income. We both max out on retirement savings, so it's not like we are just throwing money away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

How do you people survive, DH and I make almost 200k, and I feel like it's not enough, and we don't have kids.

We don't have kids either, and I don't see how you could make almost 200K and feel like it's not enough. Do you have huge student loans to pay off? I can see where once you start factoring in childcare, adding kids to your policy, extra food bills, camps, college savings, etc. it all starts to add up. But almost 200K for 2 adults?

Only about 20k remaining in student loans. We have a 3k a month mortgage, and we are renovating the house, so that sucks out a lot of income. We both max out on retirement savings, so it's not like we are just throwing money away.

Must be a troll (or someone incredibly incompetent with money).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:HHI of $85,000 living in DC! It can be done!

Row-house in Shaw bought in 2000, so a reasonable mortgage payment. Kids in a good charter school. We eat mostly vegan, organic. Small monthly contributions to 401(k), IRA, and 529s. Reasonable vacation a few times a year. One very old car in good running condition. Happy family.

This is us. 2 incomes, but only one kid. We rent a 2bd apartment. We pay for aftercare and use DPR camps in the summer. We eat mostly organic, but not vegan. Contribute to 401(k) and IRA, plus we're still paying student loans and some medical debt. We vacation a few times a year by visiting family in Florida, NYC and Maine. We're happy and what we have meets all of our needs plus most of our wants.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

How do you people survive, DH and I make almost 200k, and I feel like it's not enough, and we don't have kids.

We don't have kids either, and I don't see how you could make almost 200K and feel like it's not enough. Do you have huge student loans to pay off? I can see where once you start factoring in childcare, adding kids to your policy, extra food bills, camps, college savings, etc. it all starts to add up. But almost 200K for 2 adults?

Only about 20k remaining in student loans. We have a 3k a month mortgage, and we are renovating the house, so that sucks out a lot of income. We both max out on retirement savings, so it's not like we are just throwing money away.

Must be a troll (or someone incredibly incompetent with money).

Agree with the last statement. If they are for real then they are just stupid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do you people survive, DH and I make almost 200k, and I feel like it's not enough, and we don't have kids.

Some of the things you see on DCUM as unthinkable are how people do it. We live in *gasp* PG county, and our kids go to *pearl clutch* public school, and we shop the sales and buy in bulk and that usually doesn't include organic this and fancy that. We go on vacation maybe once a year and I promise you that it can be done without spending thousands of dollars. Kids need a warm home, enough to eat, and people that will love and guide them. Raising a family gets expensive when you start buying into the idea that they need so much more than that.

Amen.

[Anonymous]

Yes. Just finished our taxes. Our AGI was about $60k for 2013 and our taxable income was less than $20k.

That said we are thrifty and I feel as if we are very comfortable. We max out retirement savings and also save for college. We are lucky to have low housing costs, no student loans and no childcare costs.