How many of us make under 100K?

[Anonymous]

Family of 3, HHI is $105K. We rent in Alexandria, $1k a month in daycare, have students loans, credit card debt - the works. It's TIGHT but we still save (modestly) for our DS college fund and our retirement accounts. We don't have much in savings but we feel VERY lucky that we can pay our bills and even have a little fun every now and then.

It's tough but it can be done.

And to the dumba$$ who asked - yes, we are BOTH college graduates with degrees in Business.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did you all who make less than $100,000/year go to college? Or, perhaps I should ask, graduate from college?

Talk about insulting. I make under 100K and went to law school AND am a lawyer for the government. What world are you living in?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Living on less that $100k is absolutely doable, even here! Sure, you will be making less than a lot of other people in this area, but you can still have a nice life. Our HHI is around $95k. We own a home in a nice neighborhood, I have one child in day care, have excellent medical / dental, we save for retirement, have a college savings plan for our DD, and still get to go out and do fun things on the weekend. We also take one nice vacation a year. The trick is that you have to live within your means. Forget about keeping up with the Jones. Just budget a little.

I was the pp that wrote how it seems impossible to live inside the beltway on less than $100k or even close to it. Where do you live if you do not mind me asking...I was not sure you posted and meant you lived inside the beltway?

[Anonymous]

We own a teeny condo that we rent, and rent a larger condo right next door. Our HHI is about 200k, but we have signficant student loan debt. We have two in daycare, which is the biggest money suck.

We would love to buy a house. We just need to get tighter about going out to eat, vacation, etc. I don't splurge on clothes and the like.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We own a teeny condo that we rent, and rent a larger condo right next door. Our HHI is about 200k, but we have signficant student loan debt. We have two in daycare, which is the biggest money suck.

We would love to buy a house. We just need to get tighter about going out to eat, vacation, etc. I don't splurge on clothes and the like.

Who cares?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Living on less that $100k is absolutely doable, even here! Sure, you will be making less than a lot of other people in this area, but you can still have a nice life. Our HHI is around $95k. We own a home in a nice neighborhood, I have one child in day care, have excellent medical / dental, we save for retirement, have a college savings plan for our DD, and still get to go out and do fun things on the weekend. We also take one nice vacation a year. The trick is that you have to live within your means. Forget about keeping up with the Jones. Just budget a little.

I was the pp that wrote how it seems impossible to live inside the beltway on less than $100k or even close to it. Where do you live if you do not mind me asking...I was not sure you posted and meant you lived inside the beltway?

We live in Rockville. It's not in the beltway, but it's really not that far away from the city. Very close to the metro and public transportation. It works well for us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Family of 3, HHI is $105K. We rent in Alexandria, $1k a month in daycare, have students loans, credit card debt - the works. It's TIGHT but we still save (modestly) for our DS college fund and our retirement accounts. We don't have much in savings but we feel VERY lucky that we can pay our bills and even have a little fun every now and then.

It's tough but it can be done.

And to the dumba$$ who asked - yes, we are BOTH college graduates with degrees in Business.

I thought conventional wisdom was to pay off credit card debt before saving for college and retirement (or maybe you do retirement first if you have an employer match).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think that a family of 4 living on less than $100k is do-able but you cannot live inside the beltway unless you rent a really cheap house/ condo or do not have a mortgage.

I am just posting from a house buying perspective and we are looking inside the beltway with a HHI of $165k and I am scared for the mortgage!

Doing it. Bought in 20910 in 2003 with <20% down. No private school for the kids (we're in the BCC cluster), old cars, driving vacations where we can stay with friends/family, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did you all who make less than $100,000/year go to college? Or, perhaps I should ask, graduate from college?

Talk about insulting. I make under 100K and went to law school AND am a lawyer for the government. What world are you living in?

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We own a teeny condo that we rent, and rent a larger condo right next door. Our HHI is about 200k, but we have signficant student loan debt. We have two in daycare, which is the biggest money suck.

We would love to buy a house. We just need to get tighter about going out to eat, vacation, etc. I don't splurge on clothes and the like.

Who cares?

Obviously you, since you took the time to respond to a perfectly reasonable contribution to this thread.

You seem unhappy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Family of 3, HHI is $105K. We rent in Alexandria, $1k a month in daycare, have students loans, credit card debt - the works. It's TIGHT but we still save (modestly) for our DS college fund and our retirement accounts. We don't have much in savings but we feel VERY lucky that we can pay our bills and even have a little fun every now and then.

It's tough but it can be done.

And to the dumba$$ who asked - yes, we are BOTH college graduates with degrees in Business.

I thought conventional wisdom was to pay off credit card debt before saving for college and retirement (or maybe you do retirement first if you have an employer match).

Yes -we contribute the bare minimum in order to get the employer match (i.e. FREE money ) Otherwise, we would definitely be throwing everything at the debt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Family of 3, HHI is $105K. We rent in Alexandria, $1k a month in daycare, have students loans, credit card debt - the works. It's TIGHT but we still save (modestly) for our DS college fund and our retirement accounts. We don't have much in savings but we feel VERY lucky that we can pay our bills and even have a little fun every now and then.

It's tough but it can be done.

And to the dumba$$ who asked - yes, we are BOTH college graduates with degrees in Business.

I thought conventional wisdom was to pay off credit card debt before saving for college and retirement (or maybe you do retirement first if you have an employer match).

Yes -we contribute the bare minimum in order to get the employer match (i.e. FREE money ) Otherwise, we would definitely be throwing everything at the debt.

what is the consensus on borrowing against the 401K? it is interest you pay yourself, but less than the average returns.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Living on less that $100k is absolutely doable, even here! Sure, you will be making less than a lot of other people in this area, but you can still have a nice life. Our HHI is around $95k. We own a home in a nice neighborhood, I have one child in day care, have excellent medical / dental, we save for retirement, have a college savings plan for our DD, and still get to go out and do fun things on the weekend. We also take one nice vacation a year. The trick is that you have to live within your means. Forget about keeping up with the Jones. Just budget a little.

I was the pp that wrote how it seems impossible to live inside the beltway on less than $100k or even close to it. Where do you live if you do not mind me asking...I was not sure you posted and meant you lived inside the beltway?

We live in Rockville. It's not in the beltway, but it's really not that far away from the city. Very close to the metro and public transportation. It works well for us.

Thats where we are also looking for houses (pp here). We live up by Strathmore for the time being. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

I didn't read through every page of this thread, so sorry if this has already been brought up.

According to the US Census:

DC median household income 2006-2010 $58,526
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/11000.html

MoCo Median household income 2006-2010 $93,373
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/24/24031.html

Arlington Median household income 2006-2010 $94,880
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/51/51013.html

PG Median household income 2006-2010 $71,260

As we all know, DCUM is skewed toward the higher income levels.

My family of 4 has HHI of 63K. I live a stones throw from the DC line in PG County. My little city has a median HHI of around 50K. Life is good for us here. We own our house and save some towards college and retirement. We eat well, have health insurance, and take a modest vacation each year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think that a family of 4 living on less than $100k is do-able but you cannot live inside the beltway unless you rent a really cheap house/ condo or do not have a mortgage.

I am just posting from a house buying perspective and we are looking inside the beltway with a HHI of $165k and I am scared for the mortgage!

Doing it. Bought in 20910 in 2003 with <20% down. No private school for the kids (we're in the BCC cluster), old cars, driving vacations where we can stay with friends/family, etc.

PP here. I thought 20910 would be by Einstein and the silver spring schools. What neighborhood are you in? Purely just asking because we are house hunting now and getting a sense of each neighborhood helps.