Reply to Advice Needed: parents who both work long hours

Forum Index » General Parenting Discussion

Reply to "Advice Needed: parents who both work long hours"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
OP DOES need her salary to keep up with the life she and her husband have created. You don't have to like that life, or want that life, but that's the life they have decided they want, ergo they need quite a bit of money to sustain it. I mean, you understand that you can't just buy a $2.5 million house and then tell the bank you wanted to quit your job so they'll just need to take 1/2 the mortgage payments that received before, right?

Also, the money doesn't go as far as you'd think because many (most?) people who comment on these types of threads are envisioning OP sitting on a pile of $750K every year and that's not how it works. [b]About half that will be gone for taxes[/b], and while $375/400K is still a lot of money, I bet OP wouldn't have nearly as many people jumping down her throat if she said that's what their combined salaries were.

Finally, people seem to have a hard time understanding how expensive some of the things OP is paying for really are. Private school at $55K per kid is $110K of after-tax money. That's about $220K of salary right there. I am not passing any judgment on OP's way of life, I am merely saying I can see how she sees the money flying out the window and feels somewhat trapped by the choices they have made. My husband and I were faced with a similar situation and we came to a different conclusion than OP and her husband did but that was our choice. OP is allowed to make hers. And I don't think she's asking for sympathy from anyone - she was asking people how they made it work and some people answered. Other people just couldn't keep their judgmental mouths shut. [/quote]

Sorry, I see this all the time and have to correct it. It is NOT true that "about half" of a 750k income goes to taxes. At that income, your effective federal tax rate is at worst 30-31%. FICA adds a couple percent. Then state taxes, and effective rate would be between 5-8% depending on whether you live in DC/MD/VA. So it's more like 40%. That's a lot, but it's not "about half." At that income rate, it's $75k better than "half"![/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