In your opinion, how much salary would a person need to make per year to life comfortably in DC?

[Anonymous]

I'm a young nanny living in DC. I make $36k. My boyfriend and I have an $80k income combined. I think you all are completely out of touch as to what "comfortable" means. I have enough to pay my bills including student loans, I eat out occasionally, we take a yearly vacation, and we have some left over to save. There have been times in my life where I had to choose do I want groceries or heat? I feel pretty damn comfortable now!

[Anonymous]

I'm a mom of three, including one in college. Our HHI is just under 130k and we live just fine here in DC suburbs. People who think you need 250-300k to live comfortably are out of touch, pure and simple.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a young nanny living in DC. I make $36k. My boyfriend and I have an $80k income combined. I think you all are completely out of touch as to what "comfortable" means. I have enough to pay my bills including student loans, I eat out occasionally, we take a yearly vacation, and we have some left over to save. There have been times in my life where I had to choose do I want groceries or heat? I feel pretty damn comfortable now!

You can't save too much! Keep putting money away in case you want to have children one day. Children are expensive. Also, with children you won't want to make a "grocery or heat" choice. You'll want both for their sakes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a young nanny living in DC. I make $36k. My boyfriend and I have an $80k income combined. I think you all are completely out of touch as to what "comfortable" means. I have enough to pay my bills including student loans, I eat out occasionally, we take a yearly vacation, and we have some left over to save. There have been times in my life where I had to choose do I want groceries or heat? I feel pretty damn comfortable now!

You can't save too much! Keep putting money away in case you want to have children one day. Children are expensive. Also, with children you won't want to make a "grocery or heat" choice. You'll want both for their sakes.

Please ignore this person and continue to enjoy your life.

[Anonymous]

Clearly folks have different ideas on what it means to live comfortably.

[Anonymous]

The more money you make, the more you think you "need."

[Anonymous]

Anyone who thinks NW is the only acceptable place to live is too ignorant to seek advice from in the first place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

This is ridiculous and just insulting to people who really are scraping by, not to mention descendants of slaves.

$300K a year is nothing here. We make that as an annual bonus every year and after taxes its maybe $150K. Take out $100K for savings and all thats left is $50K. Its not that much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a mom of three, including one in college. Our HHI is just under 130k and we live just fine here in DC suburbs. People who think you need 250-300k to live comfortably are out of touch, pure and simple.

Are you planning to retire with income other than Social Security?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a young nanny living in DC. I make $36k. My boyfriend and I have an $80k income combined. I think you all are completely out of touch as to what "comfortable" means. I have enough to pay my bills including student loans, I eat out occasionally, we take a yearly vacation, and we have some left over to save. There have been times in my life where I had to choose do I want groceries or heat? I feel pretty damn comfortable now!

I think you are out of touch when it comes to savings. How much are you saving? How much are you paying in rent? I can't imagine you are saving enough for retirement. You must not have a car and no children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Trust me, DCUM is not the best place to ask this question. Most of the people on here think you're poor if you make less than $100k. And that isn't true.

Agreed. DCUM is about 90% rich elitists who insist that they are middle class on $300K, when in reality, the middle class of the DC metro area is about $75-90K, which is about 150% of the national income of the middle class (roughly $50-65K). Since they consider themselves middle class with 400% of the income of the true middle class, you can expect to get a truly distorted view of the world and the answer to this question from this demographic.

I am an independent voter that leans left. I am a liberal in most of my views. $300 in DC is ABSOLUTELY MIDDLE CLASS. Sure they might be able to save, but ISN'T THAT WHAT YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO DO!! If you are making the wages you are talking there is NO WAY...NOT A WAY IN HELL, that you are saving enough for retirement unless you have an employer paid pension or no mortgage. I make 100K it is like slave wages here. So the people that make $10 an hour...IMAGINE how they are living. $300K is just another slave in DC. The house slave.

This is ridiculous and just insulting to people who really are scraping by, not to mention descendants of slaves.

We are slaves. It is just in a different form from back in the day - We are new world slaves. Do you think we are free? It was just black people who were enslaved before. It isn't insulting or ridiculous. You just don't view yourself as a slave, but more than likely you are one. If we all realized just how enslaved we are...we might fight. Barak's entire campaign was based on the premise that YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE AND YOU NEED TO CHANGE THE WAY THE SYSTEM WORKS. No one is standing up because somehow we have been brainwashed to think we are free and have rights. The Richest of the rich are laughing at us. We are just worker bees. And for what? We work to make other people rich, buy consumer products and breed children who will only follow in our footsteps. We are being whipped. Not physically, but mentally. I am a field worker. I don't make enough to be free and I won't have enough saved to have a fun retirement. No more pensions. Social Security is a joke. Some people are just more fortunate to be a house slave.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a mom of three, including one in college. Our HHI is just under 130k and we live just fine here in DC suburbs. People who think you need 250-300k to live comfortably are out of touch, pure and simple.

Are you planning to retire with income other than Social Security?

She cannot be saving enough. No one saves and most people carry large amounts of debt. $130 is a joke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a young nanny living in DC. I make $36k. My boyfriend and I have an $80k income combined. I think you all are completely out of touch as to what "comfortable" means. I have enough to pay my bills including student loans, I eat out occasionally, we take a yearly vacation, and we have some left over to save. There have been times in my life where I had to choose do I want groceries or heat? I feel pretty damn comfortable now!

You can't save too much! Keep putting money away in case you want to have children one day. Children are expensive. Also, with children you won't want to make a "grocery or heat" choice. You'll want both for their sakes.

Please ignore this person and continue to enjoy your life.

Brainwashed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a young nanny living in DC. I make $36k. My boyfriend and I have an $80k income combined. I think you all are completely out of touch as to what "comfortable" means. I have enough to pay my bills including student loans, I eat out occasionally, we take a yearly vacation, and we have some left over to save. There have been times in my life where I had to choose do I want groceries or heat? I feel pretty damn comfortable now!

I think you are out of touch when it comes to savings. How much are you saving? How much are you paying in rent? I can't imagine you are saving enough for retirement. You must not have a car and no children.

We're 22. No I'm not saving a ton yet but it will come. I'm not out of touch. There are a lot of people who do just fine on less than $100k in this area I promise you. It's really very sad that so many of you have soooo much and still truly believe you need more to be happy/comfortable. To say that you need $300k or more is truly laughable. You're clearly doing it wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

This is ridiculous and just insulting to people who really are scraping by, not to mention descendants of slaves.

$300K a year is nothing here. We make that as an annual bonus every year and after taxes its maybe $150K. Take out $100K for savings and all thats left is $50K. Its not that much.

I have to laugh at this. We have an HHI around $500K. Once we pay taxes, the kids schools/daycare/camp, put away for retirement, come up with a home improvement project, figure out how much car repairs are going to be, it's really not that much. We constantly look at each dumbfounded how there isn't enough money when the reality is, $500K is a ridiculous HHI.

I no longer want to eat Ramen and Mac & Cheese. I no longer have the time or the energy to shop at the thrift stores. I spend too much time in my car for it not to be comfortable for me. I'm not giving up A/C in the car or buying a standard. I want to live close to work and school. Yes, we all can agree, those of us with high HHI could give up a lot and make due with less. But we've been there and done that and have no desire to go back. The issue is that the lifestyle that you expect that a $1M annual HHI will buy you doesn't happen in the DC area.