150k household of 1 is barely making it
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
I have a family of four and this is how much I spend per week on groceries for our entire family, also from Whole Foods. Mostly meat, produce, and bread, and we cook --- on the rare occasion that I buy their prepared foods or a bunch of snacks or something, the total goes WAY up. |
Anonymous
|
Let's just say you have a $150k salary in DC: - After taxes, your net pay is $98,826 - After rent ($2k p/month) you're at $74,826 - After Utility (~$110) & Wifi ($54.99) you're at $72,826 - After car & health insurance you're at $60,826 - After car payments, you're at $57,226 - after food $800 a month $47,626 - after ordering out $300 a month $44206 - after eating out(2x week) $240 a month $41326 - buying new clothes $200 a month $38926 - Nexflix, Hulu etc… $200 a month $36526 - vacation twice a year $3000. $33526 - gambling and entertainment. 6000yr $27526z - miscellaneous. 500 month 6000 year.$21000 Hahah, we lived on $100k for a family of four in the DMV for ten years. You are wasting so much money. Wow. |
Anonymous
|
My family of 5 spends like $1400/month on food (maybe a bit more if we go out to eat a couple times). We make double what you make and aren’t spending as much on gambling, entertainment, and take out. And no way are any of us individually spending $2,400 PER YEAR on clothes. That would be an over 10k wardrobe in less than 5 years.
You’re living a fairly extravagant lifestyle. |
Anonymous
| This is a joke, right? You spend $20,000+ a year on fun stuff and still have an extra $21,000 left over and you feel like you're barely making it? |
Anonymous
I think this is a common scenario when one is single and younger in this area. It seems like a great salary and suddenly you think you are rich and you should be able to buy whatever you want without budgeting or denying yourself. And I think on some other areas of the country that would be true. But in this area the cost of stuff means you quickly but. through money. I bet you would say you don’t even buy that much at the grocery store or go out that often and buy clothes on sale. But even on sale companies too full advantage of inflation to jack prices up even higher than other places bc they knew people would continue paying and we all did. So basically you have to accept your not rich and you have to budget and you can’t go out as often and you do have to our attention to costs at the grocery store and buy clothing less often. |
Anonymous
|
Most jobs that pay 150k will cover your health insurance premiums at least partially. I make 320k and my company covers 100% of my health insurance, I get 0 taken from my paycheck
I only pay about 1500 a year for car insurance. Barely buy new clothes, maybe $300 a year. Vacations I spend a bit more, 5-10k. Food only costs me about $550 in total including groceries and restaurants. Gambling and entertainment $6000??? Ridiculous. |
Anonymous
Stop at the 47,626. That is your money. You get to decide what to do with that one. Be happy with it. Why are you going around spending 47k per year on stuff that doesn’t make you happy? |
Anonymous
This. Everything in bold is way too much and way too excessive. You have a major spending problem. Major. Most people with families don’t waste this much money. You could cut down your food bill almost in half if you cut back on the eating out. You spent way too much on vacation. Way too much on entertainment and $500 a month of some thing going nowhere is kind of ridiculous as well. You also should not be spending that much money on streaming services…pick one. Honestly, you should really go on a no spend month and spend nothing except it’s necessities and see how much money you have then start investing that money. Maybe you can figure out that you’re actually very well off: you’re just spending every penny you have. This income and no children? You are loaded. |
Anonymous
This. Before we had kids, we had an HHI of 200k on 2 incomes (both making around 100k). We didn’t feel rich, but we had enough money to take a couple nice vacations a year, go out to eat whenever we wanted, go to concerts, etc., and still save money. Then we had a baby. I wanted to stay home with her and my work has a 2-yr sabbatical option so I could take two years off and still be guaranteed my job at current salary afterwards. I took it. So for 2 years we lived off 100k in the DMV. I thought it would be much harder than it was! I mean, we saved nothing those years. But it wasn’t that hard to cut out a bunch of excess spending. We had a baby so we were tired and focused on her, it was easy to give up concerts and a lot of travel that wouldn’t have been fun with a baby/toddler anyway. I was home all day so we met from eating out 3-4 days a week to like twice a month. We didn’t buy new clothes really at all. We got most baby stuff second hand from friends and on buy nothing groups. We went to the library instead of buying books. We didn’t upgrade phones or computers unless absolutely necessary. We got rid of cable and instead of paying fir a bunch of streaming services, we paid for two at a time and rotated when we felt we’d exhausted the content on one. No house cleaners since I was home and could clean. The year I returned to work, we had to pay for childcare so we kept up that frugal lifestyle that year. Then DD started public preschool. We still have to pay for aftercare and summer camp, but it winds up being about the same amount that DH’s income has increased since she was born, so it’s a wash. We now make 240k as a family if three and I feel RICH. Like I feel like we save so much money. We never worry about paying for things. Very healthy emergency fund. We’ve kept a bunch of our frugal habits that turned out to be no problem— cook at home 6 days a week, get a lot of stuff 2nd hand, wait to upgrade tech and cars until absolutely necessary. We do have a house cleaner again, and DH and I do go out on dates a couple times a month to nicer restaurants and hire sitters, which feels extravagant. We go to concerts a few times a year. We take real vacations again. But we still manage to save over 50k a year on top of 401k contributions. We are going to use some to do some long postponed renovations on our house, but the rest goes into a college fund, I-bonds, cds, high-interest savings, or gets invested. I feel great about our finances. OP and others need an attitude adjustment and some perspective. Go on a financial diet for a year and see what you learn. You are probably wasting a TON of money. |
Anonymous
|
$1340 a month for food? I thought $800 was a lot and that was before I got to the eating and ordering out lines.
$200 a month on clothes is crazy. I maybe spend that in a year. |
Anonymous
That’s great you good about your finances but you’re in no way even close to rich. Saving 50k/yr on top of 401k is very little nowadays and won’t get you through college expenses and comfortable retirement. That’s why OP is worried about only having 21k left over. Unless they do some creative investing to turn that 21k into 400k every year, they’re always going to feel behind. So you can spare OP the lecture on attitude adjustment. You’re doing the most you can with the little you have but the fact is 150k is almost paycheck to paycheck pretty much anywhere now. |
Anonymous
Agreed. I make about $130k as a single person and I own a house, which sounds amazing until I realize how much of my money goes into the house. I’m not “barely scraping by” by any means, but I’m far from rich and don’t have a ton of discretionary income after retirement savings and all of my monthly expenses. But I realize I’m way better off than a whole lot of people in this country, and I don’t have to scrimp and save to worry about where my groceries are coming from. I get to do a lot of what I want (within reason) and that in itself is wealth. |
Anonymous
oh boohoo. I make $90K and have 2 kids and an unemployed husband. You can make it work if you let go of crap you don't need. 
|
Anonymous
Different PP but you are crazy. I had less than the PP who stayed at home when my kid was in kindergarten and just hit $250k two years ago. But we faithfully saved and have the following (my kids are 18 and 21): 1. One 529 with $70k left over st graduation and can go to grad school. 2. One 529 worth $188k at the start of college (which will be $166k total). 3. A combined 1.8M in retirement. 4. $700k in home equity. 5. $400K in other savings. 6. Save $104k/year with 13 years left to retirement. PP will be fine. And I also feel rich, especially with the kids out of the house and college covered. But I don’t blow my money on crap (though I do love to travel). |
Anonymous
Lol get outta here, 50k + maxing 401k + employer match is 72k or more in savings per year… that will make you quite rich if you do that for 20-30 years investing it in the SP500 |