Anonymous wrote:
Funny how I raised two kids on much less in this area, then! Do you really want to go through life being miserable and feeling deprived? Try to be content with what you have, or hustle to make more.

So your kids are already grown? Yeah no shizz, $150k back when your kids were kids was a lot better of a salary

I make $50k after 25 years of working. Lifestyle creep never happened because it can't happen living on $50k in DC.
I invested $1000 a month since 2007. You can only imagine how much money it is now. Even $500 a month would be quite good.
I will never know why people, who make a lot more than I do, not have their money make money. Not sure why go for bigger house, car or private school first and then, most never make it to investments.

I make 150k and DH makes 130k. We are happy with that and have a nice lifestyle in a close in suburb. But we bought a house a couple years ago with a 3% interest rate. I would feel very stressed if we were house hunting now.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Crazy how this income used to be aspirational to me and now I dread the thought of making this much (in my industry it's the average, I am higher but if I lose my current job I could easily fall back down to this level). This sucks... F inflation.

Dread the thought? I make just a bit over that and am happier than a pig in sh¡t. I think your priorities may be screwed up.

You supporting a family on this or are you single?

NP. I'm supporting a family on $100K (my wife works too but we make like $160K combined). It's fine. Do we have luxury? No, but we're also not starving, and we're able to save a bit for retirement and college.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Crazy how this income used to be aspirational to me and now I dread the thought of making this much (in my industry it's the average, I am higher but if I lose my current job I could easily fall back down to this level). This sucks... F inflation.

Dread the thought? I make just a bit over that and am happier than a pig in sh¡t. I think your priorities may be screwed up.

You supporting a family on this or are you single?

I wish I had your problems.

This is our current HHI and sometimes we feel like it's not enough, but it's the combination of this area and inflation. If we moved almost anywhere else, we'd be extremely comfortable. Unfortunately, our jobs are currently not portable.

I think the most challenging thing is that living in this area, it is very hard to save on this income. We are lucky to own a home (small condo, so minimal appreciation) so at least we have a savings mechanism built into that.

We are hoping to be able to shift career wise to allow us to move within the next 6 years, so if we can pay down as much of the condo as possible in that time, and not incur anymore debt, if we can even just maintain this income but move to a lower COL area, I think it will get a lot easier.

It's really just that this area is incredibly expensive. I wish I had been more prescient about the trajectory of the economy here when we settled here and took these jobs. Then we had a kid and have to factor in schools, so we feel in a bind where we can't afford to move and stay IB for good schools. It's a frustrating compromise that we would not have to make in other areas (I mean, yes in places like NY/SF/LA, probably Seattle, but not in Chicago, Minneapolis, Philly, Pittsburgh and other cities we're looking at).

But I try to remind myself that we'll be able to walk away with enough equity in our 2-bedroom condo to probably buy a 3-4 bedroom house outright in a good suburban school district in one of those places. It will work out in the end. We've just got to make it through.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:…it isn’t short term inflation that gives you the impression $150k is bad. Also, it is still a freaking great salary in the grand scheme of things. Plenty to live on. Not sure where you’re coming from.

150k now is 120k in 2016 dollars according to CPI, 20% decline but other costs have gone up 30-40% since then like cars, housing, food, then if you include higher interest rates for mortgages this can effectively be a 50-100% cost increase. So for certain things 150k is like 75k just several years ago.

I remember I made 80k in 2017 as a new grad and thinking if I could just save up 50k cash and get up to 100k/yr I could buy a townhome in this area for around 400k. Nowadays I wouldn't even think about it unless I made double that salary.

Anonymous wrote:…it isn’t short term inflation that gives you the impression $150k is bad. Also, it is still a freaking great salary in the grand scheme of things. Plenty to live on. Not sure where you’re coming from.

150k now is 120k in 2016 dollars according to CPI, 20% decline but other costs have gone up 30-40% since then like cars, housing, food, then if you include higher interest rates for mortgages this can effectively be a 50-100% cost increase. So for certain things 150k is like 75k just several years ago.

If you have a locked in mortgage, it's great. If you need to purchase a new home, it's not anymore

Anonymous wrote:Crazy how this income used to be aspirational to me and now I dread the thought of making this much (in my industry it's the average, I am higher but if I lose my current job I could easily fall back down to this level). This sucks... F inflation.

Dread the thought? I make just a bit over that and am happier than a pig in sh¡t. I think your priorities may be screwed up.

That kind of inflation is in your head. For most people, $150k salary is great.

…it isn’t short term inflation that gives you the impression $150k is bad. Also, it is still a freaking great salary in the grand scheme of things. Plenty to live on. Not sure where you’re coming from.

Funny how I raised two kids on much less in this area, then! Do you really want to go through life being miserable and feeling deprived? Try to be content with what you have, or hustle to make more.

Crazy how this income used to be aspirational to me and now I dread the thought of making this much (in my industry it's the average, I am higher but if I lose my current job I could easily fall back down to this level). This sucks... F inflation.