Middle class professionals: tell me about your finances
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Anonymous
Excellent question! DCUM iis made up of highly educated and affluent liberals with little sense of reality. According to this study, which gives the middle-class range in all 50 states and DC, the middle class in DC is......drum roll.... ...between $49,000 and $149,000 (HH of three) This does sound a bit low to me, though, but certainly....$400k is in the upper 2 or 3% and is far from middle class. I earn slightly less than $100,000 and am quite comfortable. https://nypost.com/2017/12/29/mayor-tragic-fire-likely-sparked-by-child-playing-with-stove/ |
Anonymous
| OP here. Thanks for the replies. I do agree that middle class for purposes of this discussion on this board should be around $170k-$220k for a family of 4. |
Anonymous
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Single, just started earning.
Monthly salary after taxes and maxing 401k: $7000 Rent: $2800 Loans: $2000 Living expenses: $1000 Savings: $1200 Basically, I Expect to save roughly $15k/year in addition to the 401k. Comfortable, but saving for a down payment will take a while. |
Anonymous
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42 yo, 3 dc, HHI of 165k, our retirement savings is pitiful (less than 100k). Our mortgage is relatively low (2100 all in) but we spend @ $1000 on therapies for our SN dc that aren't covered by insurance and I can't work b/c of his issues so no way to really boost our income/savings right now. I honestly try not to think about it. Probably not the recommended strategy.
We save around $1200 each month in theory outside the 401k but in reality there are a lot of expenses that just pop up (appliance or car repairs etc) so it comes out as less than that or even in the hole for the month. |
Anonymous
How did you save so much money?!?!?! |
Anonymous
| Well I feel behind now. Both 30, HHI 145k. 1 kid in daycare and 1 on the way. 70k in 401k, 15k emergency fund, no college savings. No student loans or cc debt, small car loan on a used car, own a 2 br condo. How do you all do it? |
Anonymous
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This tread makes me feel better
We're 41/42, HHI ~$210K 401k - ~$400k, no college savings, emergency fund ~$20k we don't max it out as of yet - 3 kids, 1 in college (we paying in-state tuition out of pocket). No debts other than mortgage. Started our careers later in life, earning at this level only for the last couple of years. |
Anonymous
I posted earlier with an HHI of $230k. We are 38/40; here is a comparison of where we were then v. now: Stats: then/now HHI: $120k/$230k(ish) 401ks: 27k/510k IRAs: 11k/46k Taxable: 0/50k 529s: $10k/130k Homes: TH w. 30k equity/SFH w. $265k equity |
Anonymous
Found the legit middle class family! |
Anonymous
So your salary is around $150-160k as a single person? I don't think people here would consider you middle class based on the previous posts. Most likely they will consider you UMC or even wealthy. 
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Anonymous
But she has $2000/month in student loans. I doubt she'll actually be able to save $1200/month because stuff comes up and living expenses of only $1000 seems low (if it includes utilities, phone bill, along with groceries, clothes and going out) |
Anonymous
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Married, 35 and 36, HHI just hit 190.
Combined 401k Savings: $250,000 Other Savings: About 3-5k (depending on what emergencies crop up that month) Home Equity: Around $120,000 Debt: (Some CC, Mostly Student Loans): 60k Outstanding Mortgage:$480,000 I go between being confident with our 401k savings rate and thinking we are not doing great... based on our debt and small amount of available savings. This year our goal is to Save More/Spend Less and to beef up the Debt payments. Fortunately, I just got a promotion so we have a bit more to throw at these things. Mostly.. I just think we are ok. We could be better... but we could be worse. |
Anonymous
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Both 31, HHI 190k. Saved like crazy in our 20s (lived off of one salary for years). 1 infant, 1 toddler, live in VA.
401k- 210k (I max it out, DH doesn't) House- 650k, we owe 300k (flipped and sold our previous house for a lot and rolled lots of equity in. This is our insurance policy in case one of us loses our jobs. Either of us can afford the mortgage on one salary- it's $1600 a month) No debt, paid off old cars, 160k cash in our money market as we plan on buying a rental this spring. |
Anonymous
Before kids, we lived off one salary and saved the other (still had plenty of money to travel the world). We’ve also made money in real estate and “flipped” our primary residences over 5+ moves. We would buy in transitional neighborhoods near public transportation, contract out renovations (DH not handy) and would make $75-$140k after taxes, renovations, etc. I’ve also had great employers who allowed me to work remotely as we’ve moved—most military spouses are not so lucky. We’ve been very fortunate as most military families are unable to build wealth. |
Anonymous
Seriously. These threads always fill me with anxiety because my husband and I were both pretty feckless people in our younger days. We are in our mid-40s and finally have about $150k in retirement savings between us - but we both only started saving maybe seven years ago. We have about $5k in emergency savings - but that'll likely get eaten up by taxes this year. I still owe nearly $50k in student loans. And yet we still are feeling like we are doing better than a lot of people out there. I expect there's plenty of people who were even more feckless than we were, who just aren't posting here. Anyway, we feel very grateful that between the two of us we're climbing into responsibility, even later than might be ideal. We had fun youths, anyway! |