Middle class people how do you raise a family here?

[Anonymous]

Most of the incomes listed here are UMC. Really.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous

The reality is that it is hard to make it in this area with kids. Increasingly, the metro DC area is for Biglaw partners and lobbyists.

Correction: the area is for the children of the top 5%. We make it on $160k a year for a family of four, but bought in ‘90s. No grad school loans. Still drive 10-year-old cars and few luxuries. There are plenty of families like us in NW DC and just over the line in Chevy Chase, Bethesda, etc. Kids get a warped sense of reality from their classmates. Sorry, no ski trips or exotic vacations here.

12:27 here. It’s the out of network medical that kills us. $5k for out of network hospitalisation while out of town; 1k a month in therapies that are out of network. In DC or close-in, many of the best doctors are not in network. After our mortgage, medical care is our top cost.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most of the incomes listed here are UMC. Really.

12:27 - It’s not the income you need to look at, it’s the expense - daycare, medical, even gas is higher close-in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a Fed and often see announcements in DC for higher grades often. While it is tempting at times, I’ll gladly keep my GS 13 Step 8 in a much lower COL area.

Together we made $150k for a very long time. We’re now at $170k but I’ll tell ya what kind of lifestyle $150-170k gets us here (FL).

4K sq ft house with a pool, kids in highly ranked public school system, we pay $2k per year for summer care only-max we ever paid, when they were in diapers, was $1,200/mo. We have a boat with no note, newly remodeled kitchen, paid off vehicle for me, and spouse’s vehicle is within $5k of being paid off. We have a housekeeper that cleans twice per month. We spend about $300/mo on kids extracurricular activities. The kids college accounts are 100% funded (FL Prepaid). There are no state taxes here either. We’re in the Disney Vacation Club and go to Disney World 1-2xs per year. We stay in deluxe resorts every visit. We vacation other places, sometimes we do staycations too. We take either a vacation or mini vacation once every 3-4 months.

There is a FL Bright Futures Scholarship, thanks to FL lottery, which is extremely easy to earn and can cover most of tuition. I know of many people who had FL Prepaid and Bright Futures, never worked in college, and earned an undergraduate degree with no debt.

My point is that $150k may be peanuts there but it affords a great lifestyle in other areas. If I were you, I’d consider moving to somewhere that a $150k HHI isn’t struggling.

Oh and there are non-tangibles, such as tomorrow my kids and I will be bike riding at the beach when it is 65 degrees and sunny.

Jobs in Florida are too big a pay cut. I own my house in DC so no mortgage and a SAHM no child care expenses I own my cars. It is a 200k paycut to save a few bucks on taxes and restaurants

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of the incomes listed here are UMC. Really.

12:27 - It’s not the income you need to look at, it’s the expense - daycare, medical, even gas is higher close-in.

And families who don’t bring in six figures have these expenses as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DH makes 100k and I make 50k. We feel so poor and like we can't afford a life here.We're in our early thirties.

What do other people do?

Live in apartment. Drive old cars into the ground. We concentrate on education, medical, and international travel. The other trappings of middle class life are less appealing to us.

Boom! This is my goal. Boyfriend and I are both in our mid 30s. We plan to get married soon and have 2 kids only. Our total income will be in the 160’s when we get married and will mostly like increase since we are both very ambitious. I have no desire to buy a house. I would rather live in a very nice apartment, with great amenities. I don’t care to have a luxury car but I’ll spend money on experiences. We enjoy traveling locally and internationally. Good education for my future kids and medical care are my priorities .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a Fed and often see announcements in DC for higher grades often. While it is tempting at times, I’ll gladly keep my GS 13 Step 8 in a much lower COL area.

Together we made $150k for a very long time. We’re now at $170k but I’ll tell ya what kind of lifestyle $150-170k gets us here (FL).

4K sq ft house with a pool, kids in highly ranked public school system, we pay $2k per year for summer care only-max we ever paid, when they were in diapers, was $1,200/mo. We have a boat with no note, newly remodeled kitchen, paid off vehicle for me, and spouse’s vehicle is within $5k of being paid off. We have a housekeeper that cleans twice per month. We spend about $300/mo on kids extracurricular activities. The kids college accounts are 100% funded (FL Prepaid). There are no state taxes here either. We’re in the Disney Vacation Club and go to Disney World 1-2xs per year. We stay in deluxe resorts every visit. We vacation other places, sometimes we do staycations too. We take either a vacation or mini vacation once every 3-4 months.

There is a FL Bright Futures Scholarship, thanks to FL lottery, which is extremely easy to earn and can cover most of tuition. I know of many people who had FL Prepaid and Bright Futures, never worked in college, and earned an undergraduate degree with no debt.

My point is that $150k may be peanuts there but it affords a great lifestyle in other areas. If I were you, I’d consider moving to somewhere that a $150k HHI isn’t struggling.

Oh and there are non-tangibles, such as tomorrow my kids and I will be bike riding at the beach when it is 65 degrees and sunny.

Right, but it's still Florida...

[Anonymous]

Hhi of 150-200. 4 kids. one in private. We have credit card debt, but it’s managable and allows us to do some of the “extras” like going to a show, buying quality clothes(quality not premier designer or anything like that).

We live in a 1800 sqft house that way too small which is the biggest con of this area. Not being able to easily move to a bigger house when you make 200k is insane to me (despite DCUMs standards.

And I don’t think we qualify as upper class. Middle or lower bc of how many kids we have.

[Anonymous]

What a stupid question by a fuking SNOB jerk