If you are SAH in McLean what is your HHI?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You mean his income, not HHI.

yawn

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Could Care Less" poster sounds like an obtuse bitch.

Usually it's the ones who consider themselves at the top of the HHI scale talking about how "it doesn't matter" and they don't care about keeping up with the Joneses. Of course you don't, sweetie.

I never cared much to glorify myself, and will happily wear the same jeans and sneakers for the rest of my life, even if our income goes up. However, as someone whose already modest HHI was cut in half so that DH could follow his career aspirations (I had to quit my job due to the relocation) IT TOTALLY SUCKS. We can't afford any vacations or trips at all. We can't eat out, ever- that would be fine if DH cooked or I wanted to cook all the time. I spent about 50 on kid presents for Christmas. My son wants to do (normal) activities with his friends that we simply can't afford to do at all. We've had to decline invitations.

OPs situation isn't anything like that. There are places in McLean that are actually pretty normal, although expensive. If vacationing in Florida instead of Hawaii is the kind of change she'll have to make, that doesn't sound too bad to me.

LOL - this is PP who you are talking about and actually we are at the bottom. We are happy without a bunch of material shit.

Well, good. I wasn't really talking about material things. Out of curiosity, do you live in a place where there many others are similar SES?

The area live in has a broad array of incomes (I say this basically speaking of our elem school boundaries because those are the families we interact with). We are probably lower to the bottom but not the very bottom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How the hell do you know *how* your neighbors do? They could be riding around in a Tesla on fucking credit? You people are absurd!

you know, when families go skiing to colorado over winter break or belize/costa rica for spring break or send kids to europe for summer before college, or by the cars and jewelry and clothes and eating out in Gilberts all the time.

not sure why someone is arguing, it is much easier to be on the same level as others when raising kids. People that are different get excluded.

Peopl with no experience can be so optimistic.
I was on the low end of family income at a private with lots of rich/weathy/affluent kids. I got excluded from activities such as ski trips (abroad too) and some activities, my SAH mom got excluded from their regular shopping trips/socials. Kids knew what others' parents did for a living. There was mean girls cattiness/cliques/snubbing. It was real. It affected me so much in my life choices thereafter (where I live, who I hang out with, choice of spouse).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How the hell do you know *how* your neighbors do? They could be riding around in a Tesla on fucking credit? You people are absurd!

you know, when families go skiing to colorado over winter break or belize/costa rica for spring break or send kids to europe for summer before college, or by the cars and jewelry and clothes and eating out in Gilberts all the time.

not sure why someone is arguing, it is much easier to be on the same level as others when raising kids. People that are different get excluded.

Peopl with no experience can be so optimistic.
I was on the low end of family income at a private with lots of rich/weathy/affluent kids. I got excluded from activities such as ski trips (abroad too) and some activities, my SAH mom got excluded from their regular shopping trips/socials. Kids knew what others' parents did for a living. There was mean girls cattiness/cliques/snubbing. It was real. It affected me so much in my life choices thereafter (where I live, who I hang out with, choice of spouse).

Private schools are their own ecosystems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you can work out a budget that makes it work for you, with your particular HHI and your particular expenses at your particular standard of living... why does it matter what is typical for your neighbors? If it's something you want to do and you can afford to do it, just do it. It's really that simple.

It does matter because you typically want to fit in or else it will either be uncomfortable or awkward. We don't subscribe to being the poorest on the block and struggling.

I promise you, your neighbors are not anywhere as concerned about fitting in with you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How the hell do you know *how* your neighbors do? They could be riding around in a Tesla on fucking credit? You people are absurd!

you know, when families go skiing to colorado over winter break or belize/costa rica for spring break or send kids to europe for summer before college, or by the cars and jewelry and clothes and eating out in Gilberts all the time.

not sure why someone is arguing, it is much easier to be on the same level as others when raising kids. People that are different get excluded.

Peopl with no experience can be so optimistic.
I was on the low end of family income at a private with lots of rich/weathy/affluent kids. I got excluded from activities such as ski trips (abroad too) and some activities, my SAH mom got excluded from their regular shopping trips/socials. Kids knew what others' parents did for a living. There was mean girls cattiness/cliques/snubbing. It was real. It affected me so much in my life choices thereafter (where I live, who I hang out with, choice of spouse).

I know you didn't have any choice as a kid, but I don't get why your parents would subject you or themselves to that.

[Anonymous]

We are "poor" at $250k but happy. SAH in McLean (house paid off).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

you know, when families go skiing to colorado over winter break or belize/costa rica for spring break or send kids to europe for summer before college, or by the cars and jewelry and clothes and eating out in Gilberts all the time.

Outside looking in. My neighbors have no idea how much money we have. While they display the gaudiness of new money, I think they'd be shocked to know we paid off our home in 5 years.

You can also put all those activities on credit card and have negative net worth and live off a HELOC. How would you tell the difference ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are "poor" at $250k but happy. SAH in McLean (house paid off).

So get a job.

[Anonymous]

Almost anyone can do it. We have just over $100k HHI and I SAH. We don't go out a lot, but honestly, we don't have the time with all the sports DCs are involved in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are thinking about doing this when DH transitions into a new level of work.

What is the typical HHI for those that SAH in McLean?

We have 2 elementary kids in public and a new house and our current income is 350K.

$350K is plenty of money, even in McLean. There's not really a "typical" and $350K is well over the median in any zip code in the DC area.

Some of the McLean neighborhoods have a median of 550K.

Not many. And some are below $100 k...like South McLean.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agreed PP. There are households with two govt workers in McLean, HHI of sub 200k with family money, households at 1M as well. You will find a wide variance. 350k is totally possible in McLean but your mortgage, opting for private vs public, etc are the biggest factors.

Most two income government households in McLean are more like 260-315k (GS-15s)....they tend to be 40+

[Anonymous]

http://www.city-data.com/income/income-McLean-Virginia.html

Maybe this will help you get some prospective.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:http://www.city-data.com/income/income-McLean-Virginia.html

Maybe this will help you get some prospective.

I've always wanted to know how they account for income of the international organizations' tax-exempt employees. For example, my husband's salary is over $100K net, he doesn't have gross and doesn't report his salary on the tax return because it's exempt. So do they count only my income as our HHI? And when I was a SAHM, they assumed our HHI is zero? There are a lot of families in this situation in McLean and DC area in general.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are thinking about doing this when DH transitions into a new level of work.

What is the typical HHI for those that SAH in McLean?

We have 2 elementary kids in public and a new house

and our current income is 350K.

"Our current income"? Or his?