I Live Comfortably on Less than $70K After-Tax in DC Area

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here, and my carpool just honked. I'll catch up later.

How far do you live from work? You're not getting picked up for carpool until 8:45?

Sounds like the life. What time do you come home?

I don't think you recognize your privilege. Making $80K+ as a single person isn't the norm either.

OP here.....if you MUST know, we work from 10 to 6 (flextime), but this morning one of us had a 9:30 meeting so we left earlier.

Also, as far as my "privilege," I do recognize it. I said I live very comfortably, which is why I posted - is counter to all these people saying &80k is poor. (And they're saying that for a single person.)

I earn less than 80k. Gross. I'm not "poor", but I'm not as comfortable as I'd like to be, mostly because I'm a single parent. Don't go bragging about how 80k is plenty and you're rolling in it, when that's your NET compared to other people's GROSS.

OP, you make 6 figures. Of COURSE you have enough money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here, and my carpool just honked. I'll catch up later.

How far do you live from work? You're not getting picked up for carpool until 8:45?

Sounds like the life. What time do you come home?

I don't think you recognize your privilege. Making $80K+ as a single person isn't the norm either.

OP here.....if you MUST know, we work from 10 to 6 (flextime), but this morning one of us had a 9:30 meeting so we left earlier.

Also, as far as my "privilege," I do recognize it. I said I live very comfortably, which is why I posted - is counter to all these people saying &80k is poor. (And they're saying that for a single person.)

But you don't make $80K. You make more, which gives you a buffer even if you aren't spending it. And you're not trying to support a family on it, which most people are. You're not countering anything.

10 - 6, nice schedule for someone making $100K+. Lunch break?

OP here. In the 90s. And yes, I take about 45 minutes for lunch. But I do bring some work home with me about twice a week.

And true, I do have a buffer, but the point is I am living on less than $70k. It's a good amount for a single person.

Right, and when you get married and have a spouse who also makes $90K a year and a kid, who costs you $1500/month in daycare/food alone (not to mention health care and 529K), and you have to move to a bigger house that is $3000/mo PITI, then yes you will be just like most of us here-- making a little less than $200,000 and feeling like you can't do it all (no more vacations to Europe and Bahamas in the same year, and flights to visit family add up for a family of 3), but you'll be doing OK. Yet you'll still complain mercilessly about how you're "poor."

Nope, you don't "have" to move to a bigger house for $3K a month. You choose to do so. Quit trying to justify your crappy financial choices because they are just that--choices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:well yeah, but most of us would blow our brains out living in a Townhouse in Fairfax County. So take that and convert it into a 4K a month mortgage (or more) and then add another 2-4K on top for child care and your 70K budget doesn't look so good anymore does it?

Dude - that's your problem.

huh? Of course it is. I never said it was anyone elses problem that I would rather live in the middle of everything than way the F out there. And I never complain about feeling poor because I make that choice.

you said "most of us".

Yup. There's that DCUM snobbiness. They don't only demean flyover country, they act like living in one of the wealthiest counties in the country 30 minutes from the city is a fate worse than death.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do you earn to get $70K net?

I earn a fair bit more, and my net is actually more. The point is that all I'm spending is $70k, including retirement savings. But if I have to guess, I'd think that's a salary of around $85k.

So you're basically a troll because the amount you said you made is not actually what you make.

Not a troll. She was upfront that she earns more, but was showing how it only takes $70k for her lifestyle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here, and my carpool just honked. I'll catch up later.

How far do you live from work? You're not getting picked up for carpool until 8:45?

Sounds like the life. What time do you come home?

I don't think you recognize your privilege. Making $80K+ as a single person isn't the norm either.

OP here.....if you MUST know, we work from 10 to 6 (flextime), but this morning one of us had a 9:30 meeting so we left earlier.

Also, as far as my "privilege," I do recognize it. I said I live very comfortably, which is why I posted - is counter to all these people saying &80k is poor. (And they're saying that for a single person.)

I earn less than 80k. Gross. I'm not "poor", but I'm not as comfortable as I'd like to be, mostly because I'm a single parent. Don't go bragging about how 80k is plenty and you're rolling in it, when that's your NET compared to other people's GROSS.

OP, you make 6 figures. Of COURSE you have enough money.

She said she earns in the 90s, but only spends $70ish. Of course, she doesn't have a kid, which makes all the difference.

I don't think she was bragging, though. She (or he?) was just showing that it's not all the awful for a single with that income. Lots of people on DCUM were calling single people with that income poor, and she was snowing a different picture.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here, and my carpool just honked. I'll catch up later.

How far do you live from work? You're not getting picked up for carpool until 8:45?

Sounds like the life. What time do you come home?

I don't think you recognize your privilege. Making $80K+ as a single person isn't the norm either.

OP here.....if you MUST know, we work from 10 to 6 (flextime), but this morning one of us had a 9:30 meeting so we left earlier.

Also, as far as my "privilege," I do recognize it. I said I live very comfortably, which is why I posted - is counter to all these people saying &80k is poor. (And they're saying that for a single person.)

But you don't make $80K. You make more, which gives you a buffer even if you aren't spending it. And you're not trying to support a family on it, which most people are. You're not countering anything.

10 - 6, nice schedule for someone making $100K+. Lunch break?

OP here. In the 90s. And yes, I take about 45 minutes for lunch. But I do bring some work home with me about twice a week.

And true, I do have a buffer, but the point is I am living on less than $70k. It's a good amount for a single person.

Right, and when you get married and have a spouse who also makes $90K a year and a kid, who costs you $1500/month in daycare/food alone (not to mention health care and 529K), and you have to move to a bigger house that is $3000/mo PITI, then yes you will be just like most of us here-- making a little less than $200,000 and feeling like you can't do it all (no more vacations to Europe and Bahamas in the same year, and flights to visit family add up for a family of 3), but you'll be doing OK. Yet you'll still complain mercilessly about how you're "poor."

Nope, you don't "have" to move to a bigger house for $3K a month. You choose to do so. Quit trying to justify your crappy financial choices because they are just that--choices.

PP here, I'm not disagreeing that they're choices, I'm just pointing out that there are many of us who combined income make double of what she does and have a mortgage that is double her's also live the same amount of "comfortably" as she does.

[Anonymous]

I lived comfortably on 30K a year when I was single. Now I earn a LOT more, but money is a lot tighter, because I have to pay childcare for 3 kids, student loans, non-subsidized health insurance, preschool, a safe and large enough car (3 kids in carseats won't fit in a cheap two-door like I had back then), health care, the list goes on and on.

Now back when I was earning 30k, single and had enough left over to travel internationally, I could have been super-smug and claimed that I didn't understand how families making twice or three times my salary weren't rich. But I wasn't a jerk, and wasn't so arrogant as to assume that I knew other people's situations, or that I had a right to judge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fairfax County. Bleh. Enough said.

Yes, it's cheaper here because we don't need rat exterminators and home security systems.

NP. I don't have either because I have no rats and in the 15 years I have owned my house in DC I have been the victim of zero crime. Try again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I lived comfortably on 30K a year when I was single. Now I earn a LOT more, but money is a lot tighter, because I have to pay childcare for 3 kids, student loans, non-subsidized health insurance, preschool, a safe and large enough car (3 kids in carseats won't fit in a cheap two-door like I had back then), health care, the list goes on and on.

Now back when I was earning 30k, single and had enough left over to travel internationally, I could have been super-smug and claimed that I didn't understand how families making twice or three times my salary weren't rich. But I wasn't a jerk, and wasn't so arrogant as to assume that I knew other people's situations, or that I had a right to judge.

You chose to have three kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I lived comfortably on 30K a year when I was single. Now I earn a LOT more, but money is a lot tighter, because I have to pay childcare for 3 kids, student loans, non-subsidized health insurance, preschool, a safe and large enough car (3 kids in carseats won't fit in a cheap two-door like I had back then), health care, the list goes on and on.

Now back when I was earning 30k, single and had enough left over to travel internationally, I could have been super-smug and claimed that I didn't understand how families making twice or three times my salary weren't rich. But I wasn't a jerk, and wasn't so arrogant as to assume that I knew other people's situations, or that I had a right to judge.

OP here. I wasn't being smug. My comment was in response to DCUMers who keep saying that $80k is poor, even for a single w/o kids. I was showing how that isn't true, and how $70k after tax (which is around $85k gross) is a nice standard of living (if one doesn't insist on living in DC.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fairfax County. Bleh. Enough said.

Yes, it's cheaper here because we don't need rat exterminators and home security systems.

NP. I don't have either because I have no rats and in the 15 years I have owned my house in DC I have been the victim of zero crime. Try again.

Whoever said "blah" about Fairfax County is an elitist. If she sticks her nose up at those of us who can afford a home in one of the wealthiest counties in the country, I shudder to think how she must look down on America's lower-middle and working classes.

[Anonymous]

Good for you OP.

I lived the same way (before marriage and kids). Bought a small home in a near'ish neighborhood to DC, lived comfortably and travelled some on a salary of $75-90k (gross).

Now I'm in a two income family with two kids and we have a much higher combined income, though still nothing stratospheric. We own three homes (the ones we each owned prior to marriage and the one we bought together) and we live very comfortably.

My husband and I are both people who lived well within our means before we met, save money regularly, are careful w/ our money, etc... and we continue to do so now. We are blessed that we have solid, stable income obviously, but don't shoot for things that are out of our reach and we have minimal financial stress as a result.

[Anonymous]

But you live in Fairfax county. Why would you do that to yourself if you're single and without child?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But you live in Fairfax county. Why would you do that to yourself if you're single and without child?

OP here. I live in a Fairfax County suburb that has tons of young, educated professionals. Very high-tech area, which attracts IT staff. You make it sound as if living in Fairfax County is a punishment.

OTOH, a friend of mine is renting an English basement downtown for $2k a month. Very unappealing to me, but to each his own.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But you live in Fairfax county. Why would you do that to yourself if you're single and without child?

OP here. I live in a Fairfax County suburb that has tons of young, educated professionals. Very high-tech area, which attracts IT staff. You make it sound as if living in Fairfax County is a punishment.

OTOH, a friend of mine is renting an English basement downtown for $2k a month. Very unappealing to me, but to each his own.

It would be for me, but yeah, okay.