Reply to Poverty level is $140,000 for a family. Really.

Forum Index » Money and Finances

Reply to "Poverty level is $140,000 for a family. Really."

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I live in the Midwest and that number sounds crazy high for the poverty line. We live in a wealthy town. We have neighbors with SAHPs who make about that much. They’re not remotely close to the poverty line with their big families, big houses in good school districts. [/quote]

[b]You have to make a lot more with two working parents to have the same quality of life.[/b] In metro areas, you probably need another $30-45k if you both work with two kids. In rural areas, it is probably more like needing another $20-30k.

At lower income levels, you need even more, since the income of the other parent would also need to offset the loss of government programs.[/quote]

This why they have one working parent instead of two.

We’re dual income with each of us making more than them. Yet they live next door and have nicer cars. No family money. I’d hate to see their retirement accounts though.

The point is that $140k isn’t poverty level throughout the country. Only in HCOL spots and only for certain stages in life.

[/quote]

It isn't really poverty-level anywhere. You can get by on that in the DMV, at least assuming no student loans.

The point is, as you noted, circumstance matters. COL and SAHP vs no-SAHP being two big ones. And it wouldn't be that hard to adjust for them. But as a society we choose not to, probably in part because there's a sizable number of people that think mothers should stay home (in addition to the large number that just don't care about anyone else).[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics