Life is Easy in NW DC on $300k, AMA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is your DW from a wealthy family? Who helped with your down payment?

No, DW is not from a wealthy family (her parents were both teachers) and nobody helped us with a downpayment.

Did your DW have student loans?

No, I mentioned this upthread, but she graduated without student loans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You make $300k now, but did you perhaps make more before (for instance big law)?

I did start out in biglaw, but my wife was making much less at that time. I'm a Fed making 160, and my wife makes 140k now. I think the most we've ever made combined was about $325 in my last year of biglaw.

So this is it. You made upwards of $300k for 13 years or so, is that right?

[Anonymous]

Just for S&G, I looked up 4 bedroom houses in au park. The cheapest is $1.15 and they need a lot of work. Most are around $1.5. That's not doable on $300k now unless you have a big downpaymemt. You're lucky you bought early.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You make $300k now, but did you perhaps make more before (for instance big law)?

I did start out in biglaw, but my wife was making much less at that time. I'm a Fed making 160, and my wife makes 140k now. I think the most we've ever made combined was about $325 in my last year of biglaw.

So this is it. You made upwards of $300k for 13 years or so, is that right?

Not exactly, no. A little more up and down than that.

When I graduated from law school in 04, I made $115k in a DC law firm. My wife (then girlfriend) was making like $30k at that time. I stayed at that firm for almost 6 years. By 2010, we were making around $325 combined, but I don't think we even maintained that salary for a full calendar year. I then took a paycut to work in the government just as my wife's income increases, and we made around $240k when I made the switch in 2010. That's grown to $300k by 2016.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just for S&G, I looked up 4 bedroom houses in au park. The cheapest is $1.15 and they need a lot of work. Most are around $1.5. That's not doable on $300k now unless you have a big downpaymemt. You're lucky you bought early.

Yes, property values have definitely gone up since 2012. But, I still see 4BR houses in our neighborhood go for $900k-ish (we're not in AU park technically, but in the Tenleytown/AU Park/Friendship Heights area).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just for S&G, I looked up 4 bedroom houses in au park. The cheapest is $1.15 and they need a lot of work. Most are around $1.5. That's not doable on $300k now unless you have a big downpaymemt. You're lucky you bought early.

Yeah, this is huge. Now you're looking at NE DC for low $800's (and then you have the school concerns). And I'm saying this as someone that bought into the real estate market on the early side as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just for S&G, I looked up 4 bedroom houses in au park. The cheapest is $1.15 and they need a lot of work. Most are around $1.5. That's not doable on $300k now unless you have a big downpaymemt. You're lucky you bought early.

Yeah, this is huge. Now you're looking at NE DC for low $800's (and then you have the school concerns). And I'm saying this as someone that bought into the real estate market on the early side as well.

OP here. I agree, you can't get 2012 prices anymore. But, it's not as bad as PP makes it sound. If I could sell my home for $1.5M I'd do it in a second! Homes comparable to mine sell for $950ish in upper NW. It's like a lot of these:

https://www.redfin.com/school/30194/DC/Washington-DC/Wilson-High-School/filter/property-type=house,max-price=1M,min-beds=4,include=sold-6mo,viewport=38.96895:38.91288:-77.03829:-77.14592

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think $5K per year to charity on an income of $300K is the least bit generous.

We have a similar income and two kids but we give around $15K which I also don't consider enough or particularly generous.

We are so privileged and fortunate. $5K? Good grief.

She paid $70k in taxes. Suffice to say, the OP is carrying not just his/her own weight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are doing it right.

I think many people think they should be swimming in money Scrooge McDuck style and if they are not, well, they are poor.

Obviously you have a nice life. Good job.

Wait, $15K to charity - what charities specifically? Your public school? Your church?

$15k donor PP here: Mostly to charities recommended by Givewell.org, which tries to find the most cost-effective charities: that is, where a given donation would do the most to relieve human suffering. That means programs that help people in developing countries, through cash transfers, providing malaria nets, and similar efforts.

We also give smaller amounts to local (DC) human service charities and our children's schools.

[Anonymous]

It sounds like you've made good choices and have financial peace.

We live near you in a similar house. Although our HHI is closer to $400,000, we have made the financially problematic decision to send 2 of our 3 kids to private school. It's made things very tight for us because tuition takes up so much of our income (way more than our mortgage).

I think that, when people say it's hard to live in DC in a HHI of $300,000, they either (a) have at least one child in private school; or (b) bought a nicer house than you or I did.

[Anonymous]

OP-thanks for doing this thread. My spouse and I also make about $300K combined and feel like we want for nothing (and yes, we had student loans and bought a home recently with a downpayment we saved on our own with no family help). We don't have luxury cars or send our kids to private school, but we're able to eat out and travel regularly and give money to charity. I read these posters talking about how 300K is middle class and barely getting by and I just can't understand it. My kids have so many more luxuries than I did while growing up in a household with a total income of 45K, which was also considered middle class (and I never felt poor growing up!)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like you've made good choices and have financial peace.

We live near you in a similar house. Although our HHI is closer to $400,000, we have made the financially problematic decision to send 2 of our 3 kids to private school. It's made things very tight for us because tuition takes up so much of our income (way more than our mortgage).

I think that, when people say it's hard to live in DC in a HHI of $300,000, they either (a) have at least one child in private school; or (b) bought a nicer house than you or I did.

(OP here) Yes, private school tuition would make things tight. I'm curious, if you don't mind answering, how did you decide to send 2 kids to private and 1 kid to public? Our kids are really young (3 and 6), so we haven't had to grapple with a lot of that yet. Though we did consider the schools when we moved to this neighborhood, of course.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like you've made good choices and have financial peace.

We live near you in a similar house. Although our HHI is closer to $400,000, we have made the financially problematic decision to send 2 of our 3 kids to private school. It's made things very tight for us because tuition takes up so much of our income (way more than our mortgage).

I think that, when people say it's hard to live in DC in a HHI of $300,000, they either (a) have at least one child in private school; or (b) bought a nicer house than you or I did.

(OP here) Yes, private school tuition would make things tight. I'm curious, if you don't mind answering, how did you decide to send 2 kids to private and 1 kid to public? Our kids are really young (3 and 6), so we haven't had to grapple with a lot of that yet. Though we did consider the schools when we moved to this neighborhood, of course.

PP here. There are lots of people who send one child to private and another to public. There are lots of reasons for it, since the decision about private school is unique to each child. (If you check the Private School forum, you'll see this topic discussed with some frequency.) Sometimes one child is struggling in public and needs a smaller environment. Sometimes the parents propose switching to private in MS or HS after the child is already happily settled in public and the child asks not to switch. Sometimes the parents can only afford one tuition at a time.

In our case, our kids are 16, 14, and 8. So we have the older two in private (which they started in 6th grade). The younger one is still in elementary, and so he is in our neighborhood public school. We may or may not move him to private in 6th grade. The tuition is so much ($4000 per month per child for 10 months of the year) that we are hoping to have him just go all the way through public, which so far he really wants to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like you've made good choices and have financial peace.

We live near you in a similar house. Although our HHI is closer to $400,000, we have made the financially problematic decision to send 2 of our 3 kids to private school. It's made things very tight for us because tuition takes up so much of our income (way more than our mortgage).

I think that, when people say it's hard to live in DC in a HHI of $300,000, they either (a) have at least one child in private school; or (b) bought a nicer house than you or I did.

(OP here) Yes, private school tuition would make things tight. I'm curious, if you don't mind answering, how did you decide to send 2 kids to private and 1 kid to public? Our kids are really young (3 and 6), so we haven't had to grapple with a lot of that yet. Though we did consider the schools when we moved to this neighborhood, of course.

PP here. There are lots of people who send one child to private and another to public. There are lots of reasons for it, since the decision about private school is unique to each child. (If you check the Private School forum, you'll see this topic discussed with some frequency.) Sometimes one child is struggling in public and needs a smaller environment. Sometimes the parents propose switching to private in MS or HS after the child is already happily settled in public and the child asks not to switch. Sometimes the parents can only afford one tuition at a time.

In our case, our kids are 16, 14, and 8. So we have the older two in private (which they started in 6th grade). The younger one is still in elementary, and so he is in our neighborhood public school. We may or may not move him to private in 6th grade. The tuition is so much ($4000 per month per child for 10 months of the year) that we are hoping to have him just go all the way through public, which so far he really wants to do.

Thanks for the response. (OP here). The school planning is all just so unfamiliar to me, and the thought of making a wrong step with your kids' education is paralyzing! I grew up in a small town and attended the only middle school/high school in town, which was the public school system that everyone in town went to. Quaint, I know. My wife grew up in a large city (not DC) and attended catholic school from kindergarten through 12th grade, so she's more familiar with the idea of choosing your school (and paying for it). I believe in public schools and I hope to send my kids to our public school all the way through high school (Wilson), but I also want to provide my kids with all the opportunities that I can. I guess we'll have to take it year by year and just pay attention to how they are doing and keep our eyes open. But, like I said, the idea that we could choose "wrong" is just unnerving.

[Anonymous]

You only have two kids so of course it's easy.