Reply to SAHMs and marriage dynamics?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Quick minor hijacking of the thread, if you will forgive me and humor the side question.  DCUM readers skew affluent; I'd be curious to know how much this affluent group thinks is enough annual income from the working outside home parent to have the other parent SAH, in a two-kid family.

I got divorced, with elementary and middle school kids.  We both worked fulltime out of the house and had a HHI of around $700k.  Now I'm a single person kids half-time, and I earn about $400k.  $400k doesn't feel like a enough to me. Well, it is definitely "enough" but I'm a worry wart with money, and so it feels like cutting it too close - what if I lose my job, etc.?  Maybe $600k with a sense of job security or marketable / moveable / in-demand skills?
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I hear you. I have a HHI of 600k and I make about half. I can’t imagine losing the other half. I’m not even sending my kids to private school.[/quote]

Where on earth does all your money go?  We make 1/3 what you make and live comfortably.  [/quote]

DP.  
They probably have a lot of fixed expenses.  Most of them are taxes and housing, but they probably also have student loans and possibly car payments.  They are probably also saving a lot for retirement and kids’ college tuition.  They probably live far from family, so they are paying to outsource some things like cleaning and childcare, and they have to fly to see them once or twice a year.

Taxes: $200k
Housing (mortgage, taxes, maintenance): $120k
Student loans (two professional degrees): $35k
Car payments: $15k
Insurance (car, health, life, disability): $10k
Retirement: $65k
Kids’ college: $15k
Outsourcing (childcare, yard, biweekly cleaning): $50k
Vacations (one real vacation and otherwise go to visit family): $20k

Total:  $530k

So, they have roughly $6k/month to pay for everything else including food, clothes, entertainment, furniture, gas, kids activities, etc.

It sounds like a lot, but they are like, “How is it that we make $600k/yr and still have an iPhone 6 and buy most of our clothes at Target?  We don’t even send our kids to private school.”

I can see how it seems impossible to think about living on half of that.  
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Oh, I’m crying hot tears for their money anxiety….

FWIW, we have a higher HHI, but I would never do the woe is me crap. We bank plenty of money knowing it gives us a huge cushion should something happen to one of our jobs.  If you are that worried, buy a cheaper house, a non-luxury car, and talk to a half decent CPA about how not to pay $200K in taxes on $600K. Some of these whiny posts sound like people who have zero financial planning ability.
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Thank you, ha. It’s so tone deaf to complain about an income that is absolutely unimaginable to the vast majority of people. [/quote]

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