Reply to Family of Four on 90k - An Upper Middle Class Existence

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP,

There are many people who won the housing lottery and own wonderful homes on low HHI, that they could not be able to afford on today's prices.  We have also lived an upper class life on our HHI because of = winning house lottery, kids going in magnets, no student debt, no childcare costs - and of course by being aggressive savers.

Many people are upset in this thread because housing costs are crazy in this area and that is eating into people's finances. When your HHI is above 100K in other parts of the country, eating out frequently does not make you poor - in DMV, it does.

Childcare costs, private school costs, housing cost, student debts - these are big expenses that many families are facing here, and even though they make 300 K or more - they are feeling the pinch.

I believe you when you say that you live well on 90K.  I also understand that why this irks people.  Your good fortune came because of some great choices in buying housing (and other financial situations - no student debt, no childcare cost, homeschooling), however, it is not something most people can replicate and come out ahead on 90K in this region.

Op, you were lucky. Not necessarily financially savvy - but just very lucky.[/quote]

You think there are not other families living on 90-100k that didn't win the real estate lottery?  There are.  OP may not be a great example but we are out here and it's hard to hear that a family making three times as much complaining. That is all. [/quote]

+1.  And it's not a &quot;lottery&quot;.  Some of it is timing, some of it is about making wise decisions and some of it is just a reflection of the passage of time and its impact on paying down debts as well as appreciation.[/quote]

I think it is luck. We were young parents who moved from an apartment to a SFH because our  toddler needed room, 18 years ago. The &lt;300K price tag on the SFH was a HUGE amount for us 18 years ago and we did feel the pinch for some time, until we were able to refinance at a lower rate after a few years. However, it was the bottom of the housing market. If our child would have been born, just 2 years later, we would NOT have been able to buy that house.  The timing was a matter of luck - we were not particularly wise in financial matters.

We were clueless in all aspects of financial management except we knew to max out our retirement savings so that we could get the company match.  We also paid off our credit card debts every month. We knew nothing of stocks and bonds so our instrument of savings was index funds.  We did not have anything in our names (immigrants) when we came here, but thankfully it also meant that we did not have student debts.  We also did not have childcare costs because of help from family.  We realized that the schools were not particularly good very late in the game, but it did not impact us because kids were going to magnets after 3rd grade.  So, a lot of this was luck because we were pretty oblivious about a lot of things. (fingers crossed)

To claim that we are very smart financially would be incorrect and I would imagine that majority of people would not be able to have our exact lifestyle (very balanced) on our salary.  So, we are lucky, but we are not a recipe for financial success for most people.  It is like those people who have trust funds and low paying jobs and live in posh neighborhoods.

My point is that OP is talking of her own fortunate situation of being able to live well on 90K - but it is not attainable for everyone who is making 90K and have two kids.

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