We were struggling at 200 in our early 20s. Things got comfy at about $350.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh shut up. Most households make less than 100k period. So everyone in the DC area is running around crying because they are uncomfortable? Give a rest. Your ideas are warped, you are materialistic, and you don't know wants from needs.

I wouldn't bust my ass working 50 hours a week if I was happy having enough to cover only my needs and none of my wants.

You mean sit on your ass shuffling papers?

I love it: "Once I spend my money, there's just not much left!"

Median income in Dc is 60K which means many people around here are making well under 300K and doing more than scraping by.

Unreal.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a young nanny living in DC. I make $36k. My boyfriend and I have an $80k income combined. I think you all are completely out of touch as to what "comfortable" means. I have enough to pay my bills including student loans, I eat out occasionally, we take a yearly vacation, and we have some left over to save. There have been times in my life where I had to choose do I want groceries or heat? I feel pretty damn comfortable now!

I think you are out of touch when it comes to savings. How much are you saving? How much are you paying in rent? I can't imagine you are saving enough for retirement. You must not have a car and no children.

People on this thread are BEYOND crazy! I've said multiple times, my household income is about $90k. We have two children. We have maxed our retirement. We are saving for college. We go on European vacations every year. We have weekends away several times a year. We have a nice car. We eat out several times a month. Sure we haven't mortgaged ourselves up like many on this thread and we don't send our kids to private school or pay for child care at all, for that matter but $90k is certainly enough for us to be comfortable. I try not to spend money unnecessarily, I always shop around and I don't spend a lot on clothes, make up or other similar frivolities. But I'd still do that if we bought home a lot more.

Like someone else said, if you can't live comfortably on hundreds of thousands of dollars you are doing it wrong!

When did you buy your house? Was it before prices went way up? Not having any child care costs or student loan debt is also huge. Once you add in those things (and potentially higher housing prices), it is much harder to get by. We have HHI of about $140 with 2 incomes and things are very tight. and two kids in child care ($30k a year) and we certainly can't afford European vacations or to max out retirement..

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel bad for all of the poors posting in this thread. 100k? How can you even afford the internet?

Not any of the PPs, but we don't have internet at home. I use it at work or at the library.

Um, that doesn't work when both parents work full time and your high schooler needs internet at home to do schoolwork.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a young nanny living in DC. I make $36k. My boyfriend and I have an $80k income combined. I think you all are completely out of touch as to what "comfortable" means. I have enough to pay my bills including student loans, I eat out occasionally, we take a yearly vacation, and we have some left over to save. There have been times in my life where I had to choose do I want groceries or heat? I feel pretty damn comfortable now!

I think you are out of touch when it comes to savings. How much are you saving? How much are you paying in rent? I can't imagine you are saving enough for retirement. You must not have a car and no children.

People on this thread are BEYOND crazy! I've said multiple times, my household income is about $90k. We have two children. We have maxed our retirement. We are saving for college. We go on European vacations every year. We have weekends away several times a year. We have a nice car. We eat out several times a month. Sure we haven't mortgaged ourselves up like many on this thread and we don't send our kids to private school or pay for child care at all, for that matter but $90k is certainly enough for us to be comfortable. I try not to spend money unnecessarily, I always shop around and I don't spend a lot on clothes, make up or other similar frivolities. But I'd still do that if we bought home a lot more.

Like someone else said, if you can't live comfortably on hundreds of thousands of dollars you are doing it wrong!

You make $90,000 a year, gross income, and put away $34K of it for retirement? Really?

Anonymous wrote:Oh shut up. Most households make less than 100k period. So everyone in the DC area is running around crying because they are uncomfortable? Give a rest. Your ideas are warped, you are materialistic, and you don't know wants from needs.

I wouldn't bust my ass working 50 hours a week if I was happy having enough to cover only my needs and none of my wants.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a young nanny living in DC. I make $36k. My boyfriend and I have an $80k income combined. I think you all are completely out of touch as to what "comfortable" means. I have enough to pay my bills including student loans, I eat out occasionally, we take a yearly vacation, and we have some left over to save. There have been times in my life where I had to choose do I want groceries or heat? I feel pretty damn comfortable now!

I think you are out of touch when it comes to savings. How much are you saving? How much are you paying in rent? I can't imagine you are saving enough for retirement. You must not have a car and no children.

People on this thread are BEYOND crazy! I've said multiple times, my household income is about $90k. We have two children. We have maxed our retirement. We are saving for college. We go on European vacations every year. We have weekends away several times a year. We have a nice car. We eat out several times a month. Sure we haven't mortgaged ourselves up like many on this thread and we don't send our kids to private school or pay for child care at all, for that matter but $90k is certainly enough for us to be comfortable. I try not to spend money unnecessarily, I always shop around and I don't spend a lot on clothes, make up or other similar frivolities. But I'd still do that if we bought home a lot more.

Like someone else said, if you can't live comfortably on hundreds of thousands of dollars you are doing it wrong!

Anonymous wrote:I feel bad for all of the poors posting in this thread. 100k? How can you even afford the internet?

Not any of the PPs, but we don't have internet at home. I use it at work or at the library.

I feel bad for all of the poors posting in this thread. 100k? How can you even afford the internet?

1113 is not the 22 year old PP

Oh shut up. Most households make less than 100k period. So everyone in the DC area is running around crying because they are uncomfortable? Give a rest. Your ideas are warped, you are materialistic, and you don't know wants from needs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a young nanny living in DC. I make $36k. My boyfriend and I have an $80k income combined. I think you all are completely out of touch as to what "comfortable" means. I have enough to pay my bills including student loans, I eat out occasionally, we take a yearly vacation, and we have some left over to save. There have been times in my life where I had to choose do I want groceries or heat? I feel pretty damn comfortable now!

I think you are out of touch when it comes to savings. How much are you saving? How much are you paying in rent? I can't imagine you are saving enough for retirement. You must not have a car and no children.

We're 22. No I'm not saving a ton yet but it will come. I'm not out of touch. There are a lot of people who do just fine on less than $100k in this area I promise you. It's really very sad that so many of you have soooo much and still truly believe you need more to be happy/comfortable. To say that you need $300k or more is truly laughable. You're clearly doing it wrong.

I made 30K at 22 as well and my boyfriend (now husband) was in law school and made nothing/lived on student loans. We also felt like we were doing fine, and in truth we were for 22. We had enough to pay rent, eat, go on the kind of vacations that are fun at 22 (backpacking in Europe, hiking out West, etc.) I have no doubt that you feel you can make it in DC on your salaries because you can right now. But, you will not feel this comfortable if your income stays the same and your expenses go up, as they will inevitably as you age. Kids are expensive, requiring you to find a bigger apartment, buy more food, wash more clothes, etc. You will need to start saving for retirement, college, buy life insurance to protect your kids' futures, medical expenses will go up as you age (I didn't go to the doctor once between 20 and 30 and I am still relatively healthy now, but there have been more medical expenses in the last decade.) If you both work, there will be daycare to pay for, school lunches, summer camp (or summer daycare during elementary school), a bigger car, carseats, then booster seats, diapers, new shoes as they outgrow them every six months. There are expenses you haven't even thought of yet in your future. People definitely make it in DC on less than 100K, but most of them would not tell you that they can do it without a great deal of anxiety and would not describe themselves as "comfortable."

22 is a great age because the world seems full of endless possibilities and money doesn't seem to be an impediment to reaching them. Hang onto that. But, keep in the back of your mind that there are some different realities coming and you will also want to start laying the groundwork for how you are going to pay for your new responsibilities.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a young nanny living in DC. I make $36k. My boyfriend and I have an $80k income combined. I think you all are completely out of touch as to what "comfortable" means. I have enough to pay my bills including student loans, I eat out occasionally, we take a yearly vacation, and we have some left over to save. There have been times in my life where I had to choose do I want groceries or heat? I feel pretty damn comfortable now!

I think you are out of touch when it comes to savings. How much are you saving? How much are you paying in rent? I can't imagine you are saving enough for retirement. You must not have a car and no children.

We're 22. No I'm not saving a ton yet but it will come. I'm not out of touch. There are a lot of people who do just fine on less than $100k in this area I promise you. It's really very sad that so many of you have soooo much and still truly believe you need more to be happy/comfortable. To say that you need $300k or more is truly laughable. You're clearly doing it wrong.

You're doing it wrong. I plan to retire at 55 with no debt and travel the world. That's doing it right.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/28/least-affordable-city_n_2971714.html

DC is the nation's least affordable city. That makes me feel better, at least.