Middle class professionals: tell me about your finances

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure what middle class means, but I want to get a sense of where i should be and not compare myself to the privileged elite of DCUM. We don't come from rich families and we have pretty average paying jobs.
These retirement posts have me really worried. We are otherwise in decent shape but at 38/40, only have a collective $375k in retirement accounts. Not sure we can afford to max both plans...
what are others doing?

[Anonymous]

I dunno.

We are 35 and have one kid in daycare

We make combined $180,000 gross income.
Unfortunately we each had a bit of a rocky start getting to savings- student loans, move after move for different jobs, getting laid off (me). 5 Years later we both finally have stable jobs, had a kid, and just bought a house in the burbs.

So now we have about $150,000 in our retirement Accts and an emergency fund of $30k. Working on saving more.

We can’t max out our retirement but we each put $400/ paycheck into our 401ks

[Anonymous]

We are 35, 2 kids in daycare. Making about $175k combined. Can't Max out anything at the moment. Just trying to survive with the big daycare bill. I pay $400/month student loan bill too. We have about $240k combined in 401k accounts and about 15k emergency fund. No cc debt and no car payments.

Hope to improve things a bit when our oldest starts kindergarten in 2019.

[Anonymous]

Thank you! This is comforting.
Daycare costs are really high for us too.

[Anonymous]

36/39 here. HHI 170k. 401k 400k and emergency savings 15k. HHI going up to 200k this year- hoping can keep building the emergency fund and up the 401ks. Daycare/living in this area is expensive.

[Anonymous]

Lots of responsible people here.

[Anonymous]

We’re 36 with 1 in daycare and 1 on the way. We don’t have a lot of income growth possible as feds from this point; we’re at a combined $265k. Retirements at about $450k.

We certainly don’t come from wealthy backgrounds, but were able to get out of grad school with a combine $25k in loans. I think that’s a huge difference between us and some peers.

We make things work with one car.

We started a 529 for our 2 year old with a large lump sum, but won’t be able to do that for #2 without hurting retirement. So the elder has about $18k and the younger might just have monthly deposits of $300. That’s become our real concern...how do normal people do it all?

[Anonymous]

39 year old Teacher/librarian couple making 210k with 2 kids under 6. We are slightly ahead of our peers because we were lucky to graduate with no student loans and frankly we are somewhat boring homebodies who don't like to travel and have simple taste. Our parents moved to the area and help out with watching ds#2, so we only pay part-time daycare. We have 725k in retirement and another 325k in home equity, savings, and college 529s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:39 year old Teacher/librarian couple making 210k with 2 kids under 6. We are slightly ahead of our peers because we were lucky to graduate with no student loans and frankly we are somewhat boring homebodies who don't like to travel and have simple taste. Our parents moved to the area and help out with watching ds#2, so we only pay part-time daycare. We have 725k in retirement and another 325k in home equity, savings, and college 529s.

Wow, I'm not sure I would have guessed that these (public-oriented) fields would command such strong salaries. Do you each make roughly the same?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:39 year old Teacher/librarian couple making 210k with 2 kids under 6. We are slightly ahead of our peers because we were lucky to graduate with no student loans and frankly we are somewhat boring homebodies who don't like to travel and have simple taste. Our parents moved to the area and help out with watching ds#2, so we only pay part-time daycare. We have 725k in retirement and another 325k in home equity, savings, and college 529s.

Wow, I'm not sure I would have guessed that these (public-oriented) fields would command such strong salaries. Do you each make roughly the same?

Yes, my husband makes about 8k more than me. Veteran teachers in the north east make more than most other areas of the country. My husband picked up a lot of tech skills on his own, which allowed him to get into the more technical side of library science....and makes more then most typical librarians as a result. If we lived in most other areas of the country, we'd probably make about 40-50 percent less than what we do

[Anonymous]

We are 37/35 and our HHI is close to 400k. We both have student loans, her more so than me, which sucks because I generate more than 3/4 of our income. We have about $250k in home equity, $350k combined in 401k assets, $85k in cash, and about another $100k in other investments. I also have some other liquid collectible stuff, like a vintage Porsche I could sell for probably $125-150k.

I agree with the PP that student loans are a gigantic difference. The other difference is my employer (a law firm) has never matched my 401k contributions, which has limited the growth of those accounts. Also, housing here is expensive, and we paid premium to have a decent sized house within close driving distance of downtown.

[Anonymous]

lol at 400k being middle class

We are 170 which feels pretty upper middle class to us.

My husband has a pension with an international org so his retirement is much more airtight than mine. I have a bit put in but not a ton as I stayed at home a bit for the past few years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are 37/35 and our HHI is close to 400k. We both have student loans, her more so than me, which sucks because I generate more than 3/4 of our income. We have about $250k in home equity, $350k combined in 401k assets, $85k in cash, and about another $100k in other investments. I also have some other liquid collectible stuff, like a vintage Porsche I could sell for probably $125-150k.

I agree with the PP that student loans are a gigantic difference. The other difference is my employer (a law firm) has never matched my 401k contributions, which has limited the growth of those accounts. Also, housing here is expensive, and we paid premium to have a decent sized house within close driving distance of downtown.

Thanks for your input but if you are a 400k HHI please don’t respond as “middle class”

[Anonymous]

We are 48 & 53 and make a combined 120k, which is poor here on DCUM. But I consider ourselves middle class - even upper middle class. DH started working at 18 full time and the best advice his older brother game him was to put the max possible into his 401K, which was easy since he was living at home and didn't really have any expenses. Fast forward and he's got $750K in his 401K. DH went to college part time - took him over 10 years to get his degree, and every class was paid for by his employer. He has worked in the IT field and has been in a "professional" position since he got his degree. I worked for the fed govt for 14 years, was a stay at home mom for 9 and now work very part time. I have $350K in my 401K - again maxing it out while I was with the govt and haven't contributed a dime since I left the workforce. We have managed to save $37,000 in 529's for our three children. Thanks to a wealthy aunt, the kids also have 529s that are funded enough for in-state tuition. We never had any student loans and we won't let our children take out student loans.

DH and I bought a modest home when we first got married - paid $200,000 in 1998 and its now worth $600,000 so we have significant equity. We keep our cars forever. We currently have a car payment - DH drives a 5 year old car and I just traded in our 12 year old minivan. DH will most likely not get a new car until a couple of years after my SUV is paid off. We don't take a vacation every year and we only eat out once or twice a month. We do live almost paycheck to paycheck but I don't regret not returning to my former career. We are healthy, happy, have a roof over our heads, food in our bellies, clothes on our backs. No we aren't jetting off to Europe and the Caribbean every year, but we are in much better shape than a significant portion of the country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are 37/35 and our HHI is close to 400k. We both have student loans, her more so than me, which sucks because I generate more than 3/4 of our income. We have about $250k in home equity, $350k combined in 401k assets, $85k in cash, and about another $100k in other investments. I also have some other liquid collectible stuff, like a vintage Porsche I could sell for probably $125-150k.

I agree with the PP that student loans are a gigantic difference. The other difference is my employer (a law firm) has never matched my 401k contributions, which has limited the growth of those accounts. Also, housing here is expensive, and we paid premium to have a decent sized house within close driving distance of downtown.

Thanks for your input but if you are a 400k HHI please don’t respond as “middle class”

Seriously clueless.