What is you Mortgage Payment and Gross Salary?

[Anonymous]

$60K-my part-time salary-my husband has retired at age 45 (yeah!) He trades aggressively during the day.
mortgage-$1620-small home but in a great close in neighborhood
$1400 nanny share
dh drives a 03 honda and I drive an 07 honda-both paid for
no debt

We sold several rentals and invested/saved most of it. I sold a condo-what I made went towards our house (200K). My husband dislikes any sort of debt-we pay cash for almost everything. We take nice vacations-every 3 years go abroad. I know for a fact that a lot of our neighbors live paycheck to paycheck for the BIG house and many vehicles-we have the smallest house in our neighborhood.

I appreciate what we have-and really don't wish for more. I love my family and home! I wouldn't trade my life for anyone in the world!

[Anonymous]

You know, I don't think this is one-up-manship at all. It would be if everyone was posting about how they have great salaries, no debt, great savings and could splurge on every whim they had. What I see instead are many people stating that it's okay not to have new cars, fancy clothes or the largest house. That there are many, many of us out there who don't have those things, but we aren't poor either. But in the D.C. area, if you don't have the latest and greatest new thing, sometimes you are meant to feel like you have nothing. I don't care if someone makes 600K a year and has their every little whim fulfilled, nor do I care if someone has a large home and great car with no savings. But I do understand how the OP feels sometimes. Materials goods aren't the only measure of wealth, but many people like to pretend they are.

[Anonymous]

PP-Yep! $$$ doesn't make you happy! It helps If you're struggling to keep up with your neighbors-or think that the big house and big new car are going to impress someone-then you're going to be very unhappy. I'm more impressed with a nice, large savings acct. or investments than a 6 bedroom home!

Seems like most the posts are from responsible people.

[Anonymous]

Knowing someone with 600K (yeah, that's 10% more than half a million) household income (or 10 times of the avg) is posting on the same board I'm posting makes me dizzy....

[Anonymous]

Income $85K (I sah)
Mortgage $2800
$500K invested/saved from an inheritance/wealthy parents
Student loans are paid (parents)
Cars are paid (but would like new ones)
DC's colleges fully funded
no credit card debt

My DH refs a youth sport and make a small bit out of that as well (maybe $2000 every 4 months but getting the check is nice).

We have a modest house, eat organic, shop at nice stores and vacation twice a year in the US. Usually at MIL's time share so the only real expenses are food and travel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You know, I don't think this is one-up-manship at all. It would be if everyone was posting about how they have great salaries, no debt, great savings and could splurge on every whim they had. What I see instead are many people stating that it's okay not to have new cars, fancy clothes or the largest house. That there are many, many of us out there who don't have those things, but we aren't poor either. But in the D.C. area, if you don't have the latest and greatest new thing, sometimes you are meant to feel like you have nothing. I don't care if someone makes 600K a year and has their every little whim fulfilled, nor do I care if someone has a large home and great car with no savings. But I do understand how the OP feels sometimes. Materials goods aren't the only measure of wealth, but many people like to pretend they are.

As one of the PP, one of the things that helped me is seeing people in a similar financial situation saving a decent amount towards the kids college tuition. I've put my head in the sand because I thought - gosh what is college going to cost 15 years from now - some crazy amount of money that I can't possibly save for. Now I am thinking - maybe I need to really take a closer look at what I am spending and saving - that even while the kids are in daycare/preschool maybe we can save a little per month right now. When people are talking about lifestyles, I don't think it is one-up-manship as much as balance and choices. It's actually inspiring seeing that people are driving older cars and making me wonder if I could squeeze an extra year or two out of my car (maybe keeping a car 9 years instead of 7) what that would mean in terms of financial goals. If there is any self congratulations it is from avoiding the all to real temptations of debt. I used to hate the "I pay off my credit card every month" people. I'd want to stick up my tongue and say "good for you". Now that I know from family and hearing other stories just how easy it is to rack up debt and how crippling it can be to pay it off once you tack on the crazy compounding interest etc. I realize I was very lucky that when I carried credit card debt it wasn't a large amount relatively speaking and more importantly the economy was good enough that I stayed employed and could pay it off. There was so much I didn't know how any of this worked in college - who was thinking about FICO scores, first mortgage, that credit scores may be used in the rates for auto insurance, that credit scores/financial issues could come in to play with a job etc. when being offered a free t-shirt or some other incentive for signing up for a credit card and getting that $500 limit credit card that would of course only be used for books and emergencies. So I guess being debt free other than the mortgage is something of a point of pride because it wasn't always so and while I had to make some mistakes to learn - I am just grateful the mistakes weren't so huge that I couldn't recover from them to be where I am at this point.

[Anonymous]

$135k (I'm SHM)
$2100k mortgage + taxes
Small amount of student loans and paid cash for one new car and one clunker

We are by no means millionaires but I never forget that we are able to live comfortably because my DH's parents gave us the 20% down payment on our first home which in turn provided $200k profit to put down on our second home. There is no way we would be where we are today without that initial very generous gift. I think only one person on this thread so far has cited family money as one way they are able to live like they do and I bet more then one DCUM has benefited greatly from an inheritance, trust or gift.

[Anonymous]

I think only one person on this thread so far has cited family money as one way they are able to live like they do and I bet more then one DCUM has benefited greatly from an inheritance, trust or gift.

Yes, I've found this to be super common in this area as well. I know that many of our friends/neighbors received parental help with downpayments, etc.
We were given 200K by my inlaws to match the amount which we had saved ourselves. In any other area, we wouldn't have considered this type of gift (nor would the inlaws have offered).

[Anonymous]

Ladies, I just want to say, be very thankful you are married. Marriage appears to be the way to build wealth. I wonder where many woman would be financially without that institution. I know too many women who brought nothing financial into a marraige and now have huge homes, don't work, etc. There are days I am tempted to marry just for that reason and then I realize that marriage for stability is an outdated concept for me. I vasillate between being depressed at my 70's decor and slow to grow savings and being extremely proud of what I have accomplished. As for me..

Single older parent, no child support

$88,000 salary
$1000 daycare for one child
No car payment (my parents gave me $15,000 and I bought a very basic car even though I could have had a small car payment)
$1700 Mortgage on a $490K townhouse (house is 1/2 equity from the sale of my first home I bought in my 20's)
No debt, but sometime use savings for large purchases
No cable, no internet, and my house has kitchen and baths from the 70's still.
Try to save $10-$15K in retirement plans.

Thank God I had the guts and family support to purchase a home on my own rather than waiting for Mr right. That equity is the differnce between complete stress and relative peacefullness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow, you PPs sure love to post your 6 figure salaries

well the op asked

[Anonymous]

As a stats/math person, I just try and remember when I read these threads that these are not statistically valid test results of anything. The population is difficult to discern in this anonymous forum, and the sample size is too small to be meaningful of anything.

I usually think the OP of questions like these is trying to really comfort his or herself with statistics from a valid polling, but this forum is anything but. Remember, there are lies, damn lies, and "statistics" like these, to paraphrase.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a stats/math person, I just try and remember when I read these threads that these are not statistically valid test results of anything. The population is difficult to discern in this anonymous forum, and the sample size is too small to be meaningful of anything.

I usually think the OP of questions like these is trying to really comfort his or herself with statistics from a valid polling, but this forum is anything but. Remember, there are lies, damn lies, and "statistics" like these, to paraphrase.

I'm not OP. And I'm not about to speculate as to her motives for posting. I can only say that call it what you want, and I understand "statistics" is not a word you (or I) would use - but I find this interesting. So please DCUM community and lurkers - keep posting!

[Anonymous]

For those of you who received such chunks of gift like 200K from relatives- wasn't your family taxed on tha gift since it was over the 10K per person? I am trying to see if there is some trick of getting a gift..

[Anonymous]

you can give 10k per person without tax consequences, (or I think it's 11 or 12 k now) so it would be 20k (or more) for the couple.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:you can give 10k per person without tax consequences, (or I think it's 11 or 12 k now) so it would be 20k (or more) for the couple.

Some PPs were talking about *200K*- how can they get that gifted without some tax consequence? I really want to know..