Reply to 1.6MM home- how much would you want to be making?

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[quote=Anonymous]OP. not to pile on, but I also think you're probably underestimating the costs of kids as they grow a bit older, if you want them to live the typical suburban lifestyle.  We have 3 kids, so a bit more, but our expenses just for the clear itemizable things run like this:

Groceries -- about $1K a month.  We don't eat expensive stuff like steak, but fresh fruit, yogurt, veggies, etc. really add up and kids eat a TON of it.
Sports and scouting -- about $2K a year.  Karate is probably the most expensive one, and baseball the cheapest.  We don't do the expensive travel sports, but every time we turn around, we're dropping a few hundred on a sport.
Vacations -- about $15K a year.  Again, we don't do luxury -- we've never stayed at a 4 Seasons or an all-inclusive.  This is for one trip a year to someplace like Disney or a Carnival Cruise (not the expensive Disney cruise!) and a trip to visit Grandma.
Camps -- $10+K a year.  And that's not even for the expensive sleep away camps.  Day camps around here run from $250/wk for the cheapest YMCA camps to over $500/week for specialty camps in the kids' interest.  We do a mix of the cheaper and more expensive.

...and I haven't even tried to estimate clothes (shoes are killing me -- that's probably another $1K a year for 3 kids who run through them like mad), all the random PTA and room fees, etc., etc.

And what if public school doesn't work for one or more of your kids and you need to think about private?  Or if/when one of them needs a psychologist for anxiety/ADHD/depression?

Obviously, you can save a lot by clipping coupons, telling the kids no expensive camps or sports teams, take a camping summer vacation instead of hotels, etc....the question is really -- do you want that $1.6M house enough to make those sacrifices?  I would not.
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