what is a good income to be a SAHM in NOVA?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We live in N Arlington and make $150K. I stay home with our 2 kids currently. We have plenty of money including for modest travel and savings.

When did you buy your house? That makes ALL the difference. No one making $150K who didn't have significant savings for a downpayment on a $600K + house could make it on $150 and own a nice house.

+1
How the hell are you living comfortably in Arlington on 150K, having enough for travel and savings?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We lived here with one kid and $100k in Ashburn and that shit was tight, Ashburn isn't some other state. A decent townhouse is still $2300 a month. At $185k with two it's comfortable.

op here: He accepted a job for 95k . We will rent an apartment instead of buying, so that we have flexibility to make adjustments in case his job changes. I think we will just have one car and I will drop him off to work. He found a job in Reston so it's perfect

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We lived here with one kid and $100k in Ashburn and that shit was tight, Ashburn isn't some other state. A decent townhouse is still $2300 a month. At $185k with two it's comfortable.

op here: He accepted a job for 95k . We will rent an apartment instead of buying, so that we have flexibility to make adjustments in case his job changes. I think we will just have one car and I will drop him off to work. He found a job in Reston so it's perfect

It will be VERY VERY tight but doable. He'll either need a raise or you'll need to work if you ever want to buy a place and/or take vacations/save for retirement, etc.

When I first started SAH, DH made $165k and our mortgage was about $1700/month for a 3 br townhouse. It was totally comfortable but not much left over. We couldn't buy a SFH or ramp up college savings until he broke $250k.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you or your husband have student loans? That makes all the difference in the world, IMO. Needless to say, we do, make almost $300K combined with equivalent loans, and struggle (not put-food-on-the-table struggle obviously, but my commute is 1.5 hrs for a very long-hours job because we can't afford to live closer, I don't buy clothes/shoes basically ever, shop consignment for my 20 mo, etc).

Is this real? What kind of debt are we talking about?

Pp says "with equivalent loans" so I'd guess around $259-300k. I'm not that pp, but my DH had $200k in grad debt. If we'd both had that kind of debt load, we'd have been in the same position as pp. We got lucky with an opportunity that let us pay down the debt and sock away a big downpayment. If that hadn't happened, our circumstances would be dramatically different and I wouldn't be a SAHM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We lived here with one kid and $100k in Ashburn and that shit was tight, Ashburn isn't some other state. A decent townhouse is still $2300 a month. At $185k with two it's comfortable.

op here: He accepted a job for 95k . We will rent an apartment instead of buying, so that we have flexibility to make adjustments in case his job changes. I think we will just have one car and I will drop him off to work. He found a job in Reston so it's perfect

It will be VERY VERY tight but doable. He'll either need a raise or you'll need to work if you ever want to buy a place and/or take vacations/save for retirement, etc.

When I first started SAH, DH made $165k and our mortgage was about $1700/month for a 3 br townhouse. It was totally comfortable but not much left over. We couldn't buy a SFH or ramp up college savings until he broke $250k.

op: why will is be VERY VERY tight?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We live in N Arlington and make $150K. I stay home with our 2 kids currently. We have plenty of money including for modest travel and savings.

When did you buy your house? That makes ALL the difference. No one making $150K who didn't have significant savings for a downpayment on a $600K + house could make it on $150 and own a nice house.

Ah, that's the key. We don't own a house; we rent one. We have no debt, though. And we have used to make more until a couple of years ago (so we have a lot saved up). Still, we make more than we spend currently.

[Anonymous]

We live in a trendy neighborhood in Alexandria city. We live in a very modest townhouse. We make about $200k combined and have two DDs full time day care/preschool. It is HARD and we don't have a lot of debt. Based on that, if one person would stay home with the kids and the other was making $150k+, I'd say it's doable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We lived here with one kid and $100k in Ashburn and that shit was tight, Ashburn isn't some other state. A decent townhouse is still $2300 a month. At $185k with two it's comfortable.

op here: He accepted a job for 95k . We will rent an apartment instead of buying, so that we have flexibility to make adjustments in case his job changes. I think we will just have one car and I will drop him off to work. He found a job in Reston so it's perfect

It will be VERY VERY tight but doable. He'll either need a raise or you'll need to work if you ever want to buy a place and/or take vacations/save for retirement, etc.

When I first started SAH, DH made $165k and our mortgage was about $1700/month for a 3 br townhouse. It was totally comfortable but not much left over. We couldn't buy a SFH r ramp up college savings until he broke $250k.

op here: I don't understand how it will be VERY VERY tight. We have no debt and our is car paid off (2012 Prius ) . Rent would be $1600/month for a 1 bedroom condo in Reston. I guess we are unique in that we have our car paid off and no debt. Those expenses would eat a lot of money . I also didn't mention that I have a very PT work from home marketing job. I make around $500/month and we use this for eating out and clothes. I know expenses will go up if we want to buy though.

[Anonymous]

It won't be very very tight. People in this area get so used to what others would consider luxuries that they cannot imagine anyone living on less.

[Anonymous]

op here: I don't understand how it will be VERY VERY tight. We have no debt and our is car paid off (2012 Prius ) . Rent would be $1600/month for a 1 bedroom condo in Reston. I guess we are unique in that we have our car paid off and no debt. Those expenses would eat a lot of money . I also didn't mention that I have a very PT work from home marketing job. I make around $500/month and we use this for eating out and clothes. I know expenses will go up if we want to buy though.

Are you sure that you want a one bedroom when you have a baby on the way?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many thanks to all of you. I'm feeling a little bit better now, knowing that it's do-able at around 100k, provided we rent far out.

Yea, well also consider the high cost of commute to DC from Ashburn. I live in Ashburn and DH and I would rather be burned at the stake rather than commute further east than Reston. 100k would be tight. Rent in Ashburn will run you 2k (I own a few rentals in Loudoun County). On 100k you are bringing home $5,800 and that's not even including health insurance and 401k. I think that's living paycheck to paycheck and pretty wreckless for such educated people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It won't be very very tight. People in this area get so used to what others would consider luxuries that they cannot imagine anyone living on less.

Because she will be living on the margins and the outside of her education levels. She will start to feel resentful that her DH can't provide the kind of life that MOST people in this area have that are educated and not immigrants working crap jobs. People here who aren't cleaning homes and running dishwashers in area restaurants are living high on the hog here. OP will be looking in, completely unable to participate.

Flame away, but there are countless threads on this very topic full of people bitter that they have so much less.

[Anonymous]

200-300K to afford a home in a good school district. Your stats PhD husband can't make that.

-PhD that switched fields and "only" makes 150K.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

op here: I don't understand how it will be VERY VERY tight. We have no debt and our is car paid off (2012 Prius ) . Rent would be $1600/month for a 1 bedroom condo in Reston. I guess we are unique in that we have our car paid off and no debt. Those expenses would eat a lot of money . I also didn't mention that I have a very PT work from home marketing job. I make around $500/month and we use this for eating out and clothes. I know expenses will go up if we want to buy though.

Are you sure that you want a one bedroom when you have a baby on the way?

+1 2 bedrooms start at $2200 a month. Then once our oldest is 4-5 you will want outdoor space.

[Anonymous]

One bedroom + SAH +infant=misery.