Dual income families, what is your HHI?

[Anonymous]

10:06, are you saying you lost $100,000 a year in gross income and don't notice it????? I don't understand - were you saving more than $5,000 each month before, or spending a lot?

[Anonymous]

Me (35): 103k - consulting company
DH (30): 80ish (took 20% cut this year) - construction

Daycare = $2115 for 2 kids. 3rd one on the way

Mortgage = $2300 for old townhouse in the boondocks that we bought at height of boom. Currently rented for $1800. We own our other house outright. But in process of taking out small mortgage to pay off some of the townhouse so it won't be under water. This will allow us to take advantage of lower rates and get rid of that house sooner.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:bethesda mortgage: 4700/month

me: 125,000
hub: 160,000

one dear boy

painful.

I'm the $4,800/month from above. so glad to see we have some company. Our incomes are pretty close. Way I look at it, it will be painful for a few years, but sooner or later inflation will kick in and/or our incomes will rise.

Wow, both of your households are big risk takers. We have an HHI of almost $400,000 and our mortgage payment is only $2,800 (though we pay extra). Even at our income level, there's no way I'd feel comfortable spending almost $5K a month on just PITI. I must be very risk averse.

We too have a higher income and lower mortgage, due to the fact that we were lucky and purchased a home pre-bubble, but I don't see these posters are risky at all. If they bring home 65% of their income, they still are bringing home $15,430/mo, back out mortgage and they have over 10K left. Who can't live on 10K/mo??? This is WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY better off that the majority of Americans.

Poster-I'd hate to see what you think of the general populace, considering the average Dual HHI is 67k and the average mortgage is $1,400/mo. The average american family only has around $2,700 left over after they pay their mortgage. You think having 10K left over is risky?

I haven't done the calculations, but I don't think there's that much left over at that gross income, after 401(k) contributions, childcare, college savings, food, household utilities and repair, clothing, activities, etc.

Again, conservativly if you NET 10K a month after mortgage, is would somehow be difficult to live and handsomly fund these things? In my world 10K is a LOT of income after mortgage. You people live in a bubble.

[Anonymous]

Me (29) - new to fed: 55k
DH (30)- non-profit: 50K
HHI: 105K

We rent in Alexandria ($1400) and have a baby on the way (daycare - $800). I thought we were doing OK but clearly there is more money...I just hope we get there one day.

[Anonymous]

Me 110-120 depending on bonus
DH 106 (weird number I know)
Childcare 2550 for 2 for 19 more months but who's counting?

3400 mortage for POS SFH in Alexandria purchased in 2007. Woops. We do close to max for 401k, have other retirement investments and college savings for the 2. Ain't much left to play with after that . . . we just call em the "lean years."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:10:06, are you saying you lost $100,000 a year in gross income and don't notice it????? I don't understand - were you saving more than $5,000 each month before, or spending a lot?

I was a senior associate in commercial real estate and that market pretty much died, at least in my specialty (securitized financing). So I got shit canned and took about a $100K hit. (and to be honest, I was damned lucky to get the job I did. Most of my coworkers who were laid off, there were dozens of us, fared much worse.) First thing I did was refinanced my first mortgage and paid off my 2nd mortgage while I still had the high income (and luckily the appraisal for our house came in fine), and those two moves alone saved me about $2K/month. Soon my car was paid for, saving another $550/month. I lowered the cable channels, dropped the housekeeper to every other week, eat out a little less, less extravagant on holidays and christmas, etc. So no, other than the moves above which were not too drastic, I really haven't noticed too much of a change. I think we spent a lot more before. Right now (new job) I don't yet contribute to my 401K, so when I start doing that things will get a little more tight, so we might have to tighten our belts a bit more. But like the poster above said, we still have 7K or so left over after housing expenses, so its not like we are destitute.

I'd consider moving, but the relocation costs and real estate commissions would be huge. Rather stay where we are and hope the market recovers. Besides, about $1K or so of the housing payment goes to principal, so that in a way is forced savings, and hopefully sooner or later the housing market will recover and the house will start to appreciate again. We have an acre lot in Vienna, so pretty good spot and I'm confident enough in our careers that our incomes should rise back to where they were in a year or two. If not, we will just not have as extravagant as lifestyles. That is fine too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:


Again, conservativly if you NET 10K a month after mortgage, is would somehow be difficult to live and handsomly fund these things? In my world 10K is a LOT of income after mortgage. You people live in a bubble.

"You people"!? That sounds RACIST!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:bethesda mortgage: 4700/month

me: 125,000
hub: 160,000

one dear boy

painful.

I'm the $4,800/month from above. so glad to see we have some company. Our incomes are pretty close. Way I look at it, it will be painful for a few years, but sooner or later inflation will kick in and/or our incomes will rise.

Wow, both of your households are big risk takers. We have an HHI of almost $400,000 and our mortgage payment is only $2,800 (though we pay extra). Even at our income level, there's no way I'd feel comfortable spending almost $5K a month on just PITI. I must be very risk averse.

We too have a higher income and lower mortgage, due to the fact that we were lucky and purchased a home pre-bubble, but I don't see these posters are risky at all. If they bring home 65% of their income, they still are bringing home $15,430/mo, back out mortgage and they have over 10K left. Who can't live on 10K/mo??? This is WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY better off that the majority of Americans.

Poster-I'd hate to see what you think of the general populace, considering the average Dual HHI is 67k and the average mortgage is $1,400/mo. The average american family only has around $2,700 left over after they pay their mortgage. You think having 10K left over is risky?

I haven't done the calculations, but I don't think there's that much left over at that gross income, after 401(k) contributions, childcare, college savings, food, household utilities and repair, clothing, activities, etc.

How much needs to be left over, and for what, if you have already paid for all the things you need, saved for retirement and college, and have enough for extras, i.e. activities? FWIW, we make 1/2 this amount ($150K total) and our rent is $2800 and we have childcare for 2 kids at $2000 a month.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:bethesda mortgage: 4700/month

me: 125,000
hub: 160,000

one dear boy

painful.

I'm the $4,800/month from above. so glad to see we have some company. Our incomes are pretty close. Way I look at it, it will be painful for a few years, but sooner or later inflation will kick in and/or our incomes will rise.

Wow, both of your households are big risk takers. We have an HHI of almost $400,000 and our mortgage payment is only $2,800 (though we pay extra). Even at our income level, there's no way I'd feel comfortable spending almost $5K a month on just PITI. I must be very risk averse.

do you realize that you are likely saving more money per 6 months then most Americans make in a year? But saving less is "RISKY"? 95% of Americans would be in 7th heaven to be living in your definition of "risky".
I'm banging my head on my desk. How can you be so out of touch with your common man?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:10:06, are you saying you lost $100,000 a year in gross income and don't notice it????? I don't understand - were you saving more than $5,000 each month before, or spending a lot?

I was a senior associate in commercial real estate and that market pretty much died, at least in my specialty (securitized financing). So I got shit canned and took about a $100K hit. (and to be honest, I was damned lucky to get the job I did. Most of my coworkers who were laid off, there were dozens of us, fared much worse.) First thing I did was refinanced my first mortgage and paid off my 2nd mortgage while I still had the high income (and luckily the appraisal for our house came in fine), and those two moves alone saved me about $2K/month. Soon my car was paid for, saving another $550/month. I lowered the cable channels, dropped the housekeeper to every other week, eat out a little less, less extravagant on holidays and christmas, etc. So no, other than the moves above which were not too drastic, I really haven't noticed too much of a change. I think we spent a lot more before. Right now (new job) I don't yet contribute to my 401K, so when I start doing that things will get a little more tight, so we might have to tighten our belts a bit more. But like the poster above said, we still have 7K or so left over after housing expenses, so its not like we are destitute.

I'd consider moving, but the relocation costs and real estate commissions would be huge. Rather stay where we are and hope the market recovers. Besides, about $1K or so of the housing payment goes to principal, so that in a way is forced savings, and hopefully sooner or later the housing market will recover and the house will start to appreciate again. We have an acre lot in Vienna, so pretty good spot and I'm confident enough in our careers that our incomes should rise back to where they were in a year or two. If not, we will just not have as extravagant as lifestyles. That is fine too.

Sorry about the layoff. Amazing that it took a layoff though to get you to save all that money each month.

[Anonymous]

"How can you be so out of touch with your common man?"

Because "the common man" isn't trying to put away $4 million in order to retire and at least $300,000 to put his kids through college. The common man will retire only when he has to physically, and will subsist on Social Security. His kids will get grants and loans to go to college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:10:06, are you saying you lost $100,000 a year in gross income and don't notice it????? I don't understand - were you saving more than $5,000 each month before, or spending a lot?

I was a senior associate in commercial real estate and that market pretty much died, at least in my specialty (securitized financing). So I got shit canned and took about a $100K hit. (and to be honest, I was damned lucky to get the job I did. Most of my coworkers who were laid off, there were dozens of us, fared much worse.) First thing I did was refinanced my first mortgage and paid off my 2nd mortgage while I still had the high income (and luckily the appraisal for our house came in fine), and those two moves alone saved me about $2K/month. Soon my car was paid for, saving another $550/month. I lowered the cable channels, dropped the housekeeper to every other week, eat out a little less, less extravagant on holidays and christmas, etc. So no, other than the moves above which were not too drastic, I really haven't noticed too much of a change. I think we spent a lot more before. Right now (new job) I don't yet contribute to my 401K, so when I start doing that things will get a little more tight, so we might have to tighten our belts a bit more. But like the poster above said, we still have 7K or so left over after housing expenses, so its not like we are destitute.

I'd consider moving, but the relocation costs and real estate commissions would be huge. Rather stay where we are and hope the market recovers. Besides, about $1K or so of the housing payment goes to principal, so that in a way is forced savings, and hopefully sooner or later the housing market will recover and the house will start to appreciate again. We have an acre lot in Vienna, so pretty good spot and I'm confident enough in our careers that our incomes should rise back to where they were in a year or two. If not, we will just not have as extravagant as lifestyles. That is fine too.

Sorry about the layoff. Amazing that it took a layoff though to get you to save all that money each month.

layoff had little to do with it. the rates dropped so I refinanced, and I borrowed money from my father to pay off the 2nd mortgage. the car loan was up. the only "sacrifices" are eating out a little less per month and having the housekeeper come every other week. Again, not that big a deal. I agree with the PP that people don't realize how good they have it - and while I wish I still had my big fat paycheck, I don't miss the job and in all honesty don't miss the money.

[Anonymous]

PP, that's because you weren't cutting costs like you could have been. If you had an annual plan to increase your net worth, and it had been based on the previous income level, you'd be missing the cash.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP, that's because you weren't cutting costs like you could have been. If you had an annual plan to increase your net worth, and it had been based on the previous income level, you'd be missing the cash.

well I guess I don't have that plan. my plan is to be happy and enjoy life, and always save for retirement.

[Anonymous]

can we please stop attacking the poster who took a 100K paycut and doesn't miss it? she's clearly not playing the "woe is me" card so i just don't understand the judging over her previous lifestyle. so she spent money. BFD!! she had plenty, and we were all spending money back then.