Reply to Families of five, making under 150k, share your budget

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Family of 5 here. Make $162K one earner. No longer live in DC area but lived there for many years on about $140K. It is doable for us. However, we (parents) had no college loans, and I saved up a lot before we had kids so had savings to buy cars with cash, etc. We also don't live extravagantly. Lived in older and smaller house in Fairfax Cty. Cost of house now is similar.

Approx. Budget on $13,500 Monthly Gross
Mortgage: $2800 (15 year)
Utilities: 300
Food: 800
Internet/TV: 100
Cell Phones: 100
Gasoline/Car Ins/Maint: 600
Entertainment/Travel/Activities: 1200
Health Costs (all): 1100
Taxes (Fed/State): 2000
401K Savings: 2000
IRA Savings: 1000
College Savings: 500
Clothes: 200
Misc: 800

Having no childcare costs helps. I cook mostly from scratch. We're not big meat eaters. We aren't into designer things.

My kids aren't in travel sports (their choice) or other expensive activities. We do scouts and school sports. Vacations are mostly by car and travel points racked up from work travel. Camps are usually community ones.

We are DIYers for fixing a lot of things. We mow our own lawn, buy secondhand replacement parts, etc. We have limited data plan for phones.

It would be much harder to do with two workers at that salary due to childcare costs and not having time to cook, fix things, etc.[/quote]
Nice budget. You can afford a nice quality of life (healthy travel and leisure budget) while still saving $36000 for retirement. Curious about whether you are allowed to save that much in retirement accounts. I thought the max was $18500 for 401k and $6000 for an IRA[/quote]

My husband is 50 so he can put in an extra $6,000 per year for a total of $24K (I guess it's $24.5K now). Even though I don't work, I can do a spousal IRA. The limits were $6500 last year for a 50+ aged person and $5500 for those under 50, so we can put in $12K total. Not sure if the limits have been updated this year. I'll have to check.[/quote]
Thanks for the explanation. Again, great job on saving so much and still living so comfortably. [/quote]

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