In your opinion, how much salary would a person need to make per year to life comfortably in DC?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can live on $200k. I'd love 300k because I have a mental goal of saving $100,000 a year and 300,000 would enable that.

You do realize that 30-40% goes to taxes so you wouldnt be making 100k

Yes. We save $60,000 a year now - so we'd easily hit $100k total if we had the extra income.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well under 8 or 900k would be tough for us because we couldn't afford our cc membership, our cars, our European vacations, frequent meals at fine restaurants, 3 private school tuitions, and our vacation house on the eastern shore, among other things

this

[Anonymous]

$250K for NW DC
-3 kids
-single income so minimal child care ($15K for preschool and camps combined)
-public school
-$500K mortgage on a 1 million dollar home (we save a LONG time for a down payment)
-2 vacations per year, about $3-4K each
-retirement savings
-college savings
-decent day-to-day lifestyle. Nothing high end but never pinching pennies and able to eat out several times per month, buy clothing as needed/wanted, pay for household repairs, take a long weekend once or twice a year, pay for our children's extracurricular activities, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Trust me, DCUM is not the best place to ask this question. Most of the people on here think you're poor if you make less than $100k. And that isn't true.

Agreed. DCUM is about 90% rich elitists who insist that they are middle class on $300K, when in reality, the middle class of the DC metro area is about $75-90K, which is about 150% of the national income of the middle class (roughly $50-65K). Since they consider themselves middle class with 400% of the income of the true middle class, you can expect to get a truly distorted view of the world and the answer to this question from this demographic.

You forget about taxes, my democratic friend. A person making $300k gets taxed down to $150k take home pay. The person making $90k is taxed down to about $65k. The differences in income are not that great between these two hypothetical ppl.

Also, keeping. $300k job sometimes requires you to participate in some social activities that the less well off don't worry about.

Envy is a great evil.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:with 1 toddler

200K

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have a HHI of $150K and things are okay, although childcare for two is killing us right now and we're not saving much. No fancy vacations, limited eating out, etc. but all in all we have a good life and can pay all our bills. I wish we made a bit more so I could do things like sign up for a county rec class without worrying about the $80 fee, but I bet I would still feel that way about things even if we made slightly more.

I have a baby now. These are comments which lead me to beleive I can't afford a second child comfortably in DC, so sad. DH makes $85k, even with me working, it's HHI of $185k gross and before childcare costs.

[Anonymous]

Have lived in DC with 35,000 up to 150,000. Have been very comfortable in all ranges. I couldn't afford my current home at 35,000, but I was single and enjoying life. Now with kids we make it work and are very happy. One of my family members makes 20,000 a year with a child and is struggling. It's all relative. Define comfortable... it's impossible because the definition is different for everyone.

[Anonymous]

I think it really depends on how much space you want. Its reslly a different amount for every situation. As a single person, wanting 2 BR's in a popular neighborhood (DuPont, Logan, etc) I'd say the number is $200k.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Family of 4, living close in, owning a home, feel like you're saving for retirement, and enjoying life in a modest fashion....I'd say 250K.

nope

[Anonymous]

Family of four, modest debt, I'd say 150-200k.

Single person, modest debt, more like 100k.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a HHI of $150K and things are okay, although childcare for two is killing us right now and we're not saving much. No fancy vacations, limited eating out, etc. but all in all we have a good life and can pay all our bills. I wish we made a bit more so I could do things like sign up for a county rec class without worrying about the $80 fee, but I bet I would still feel that way about things even if we made slightly more.

I have a baby now. These are comments which lead me to beleive I can't afford a second child comfortably in DC, so sad. DH makes $85k, even with me working, it's HHI of $185k gross and before childcare costs.

Keep in mind the expensive child care years are relatively short. Once they are in public school at 4 or 5 you get big relief.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Family of 4, living close in, owning a home, feel like you're saving for retirement, and enjoying life in a modest fashion....I'd say 250K.

nope

Are you a "I have everything and it's easy at $80k HHI" or a "we sooo squeezed on $400k HHI and we drive old cars and never eat out" person?

[Anonymous]

Upper middle close in about 400K.

[Anonymous]

in the $400k range if you have 2 kids in private

[Anonymous]

I agree. At least 400k.