Middle class professionals: tell me about your finances

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

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.

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)

And paying a ton in rent. That's a choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lots of responsible people here.

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!

I also think that a lot of people posting got married in their 20s and were able to do better because of that. There’s no denying that it’s much more profitable to have someone sharing in all of the expense and if you can live off one salary you are golden. I feel behind my peers because of this, but I’m still very proud to be a single woman homeowner before 30.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

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.

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)

And paying a ton in rent. That's a choice.

Right. I'd like to see this $2800 apartment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

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.

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)

And paying a ton in rent. That's a choice.

And honestly I'm surprised others here haven't jumped on this PP while jumping on families with a $300k HHI and two kids.

[Anonymous]

Combined salary about 100K

40s, two kids

Assets 3 million, most of it saved and earned by DH through stock market, the rest saved by myself.
Thanks to those, we were able to buy into a great school district, and DH has been able to continue cancer research at NIH, which does not pay well for an MD/PhD, to say the least

[Anonymous]

I'm 34, husband is a professor and I also have a doctorate but work in management. HHI ~165. One toddler in daycare. About 3 months ago, we paid off the last credit card bill and have steadily increased our net worth from about 1000 to 50K thanks to our home value increasing and saving instead of paying off debt.

Otherwise... not much liquid cash! 10K in accessible savings, around 70K in retirement accounts, and about 350K left on our mortgage (car is paid off in a few months). Tons and tons of student loans; about 60K.

Basically... if 2017 is any indication, 2018 will be good for us despite adding another kid (who won't start daycare until the end of the year, and the lack of car payment + decrease in the other kid's payment due to moving rooms will almost make up for that). We still budget carefully and I feel like I'll probably be doing so forever.

[Anonymous]

We 32/37 with $199K HHI. $160K in retirement+ $30k in an investment property. No college debt. Our retirement could be better but husband is also 11 years into military career so hopefully we will see a pension from that. Paying for Before and After school care plus daycare for other.

[Anonymous]

Im 31, DH is 32. We make combined 180k but this is pretty recent.

We have about 60k in 401k

we have a baby and pay $1500/ daycare
$1500 mortgage

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

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.

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)

And paying a ton in rent. That's a choice.

It's a 400 square foot studio. You wouldn't be impressed. It's not a choice since my job requires 70 hour weeks. The SAHMs here seem to forget what it's like to work a demanding job real fast.
Right. I'd like to see this $2800 apartment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

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.

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)

And paying a ton in rent. That's a choice.

Right. I'd like to see this $2800 apartment.

It's a 400 square foot studio. You wouldn't be impressed. It's not a choice since my job requires 70 hour weeks. The SAHMs here seem to forget what it's like to work a demanding job real fast.

[Anonymous]

Middle class= 57K-91K a year.

None of you are middle class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Middle class= 57K-91K a year.

None of you are middle class.

What two income family of "professionals" (to me, meaning having a college degree and working in a job that is not working class/blue collar) in the DC area make this?

There is a flaw in the question. In this pricey area where professionals are paid more and many families have two earners, 91K is going to exclude a lot of people. OP should have put the HHI in the subject, but as we are seeing, HHI is useless if you have 700-1 million in assets which a few posters do.

[Anonymous]

Current HHI wavers around 100-110k (currently one earner due to parent staying home with child with medical issues, but really only a few years where there were two earners due to grad school etc. and our HHI was never above 140k). 46/49 y.o. 1.2 million in retirement funds, 90k for college for 2 kids, about 60k in assorted other savings/investments. About 200k equity in home. We started saving early and never fully got out of 'student' mode and were lucky with some investments hence the amassed savings despite modest (for DC) incomes. We currently are only saving about 10% for retirement, and maybe 10% for college.

[Anonymous]

47 year I old single parent. HHI 98,000 a year. Daycare killed me but I kept maxing out 401k. $700,000 401k; $8,000 529; $17,000 savings, $360,000 home equity. Slow and steady is my plan. Hope to contribute more to 529 and savings now that I am no longer paying daycare.

[Anonymous]

Single, 34, 1 Kid, 85K HHI. 210K in retirement, owe about 180K on mortgage, 16K in CC debt and $1400 remaining in student loans.