30 and 38, I SAH. Two kids, 6 and 4. 115K income, 570K retirement, 30K college. 2200 mortgage. Biggest expense is about 10k a year on travel but otherwise we are pretty frugal.

Anonymous wrote:Here’s some perspective. 28 and 29. 165k HHI. 20k in retirement, 5k savings/emergency fund. Perpetual renters. DC is milking us dry.

Where is your money going? Daycare? Student loans?

I'll bite. We're 38 & 43.

Two kids - one in K, the other is two. So daycare went from nearly 2500 to 1700 a month in the last six months.

HHI 154. Own a very small home. 220,000 in retirement (total, includes us both). Last student loans paid off this year (we will have paid off over 100,000 in 10 years). We'll probably continue to increase in salary, but not dramatically. No other debt (car is 11 years old, but no plans to replace, no cc, etc.). But also no other savings at this point.

We do have small 529s with a total of 15,000 so far.

I've been pretty stressed over our lack of retirement, but we increased contributions last year, and when we stop throwing 1500/mo at the loans later this year it should be relatively painless to start maxing one account and still increase the other a little. We both get 7% match.

I do think if we can stay the course, that our finances/retirement will dramatically improve in a few years.

Double daycare and student loans have been killer, but when we stop paying them and the kid is out of daycare we don't have plans to increase our lifestyle and we're used to living pretty cheaply (for this area, although we are quite happy with what we have). Luckily family is close by so we can drive to see them and parents generously pay for a beach vacation for the family every year.

But I know most people on this board would not have had two kids or bought a house with our setup 5 years ago (closer to 100 HHI and significant loans).

Anonymous wrote:Here’s some perspective. 28 and 29. 165k HHI. 20k in retirement, 5k savings/emergency fund. Perpetual renters. DC is milking us dry.

And that's the sad part PP. $165k would be a comfortable life in 80% of the country. Is there any way you guys can sacrifice commute for 3-4 years and get a cheaper place? That might allow you to pour that money into an emergency fund, and once you hit say $20,000 you could start diverting the extra money to a mortgage down payment fund. DC is really tough, especially if you're still trying to get into the housing game at today's prices.

Here’s some perspective. 28 and 29. 165k HHI. 20k in retirement, 5k savings/emergency fund. Perpetual renters. DC is milking us dry.

38 and 39. HHI $200k, three young children. About $115 in 401K, $25k emergency fund, $6k in 529s, $75k in home equity. No loans, credit card debt or car payments.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, I feel wealthy. Mid 40s with two kids. No child care payments, vacations 4-5 times a year including to Europe once, eat out regularly, but are frugal in other areas.

Our HHI is under $100k.

But mortgage is $1400 a month and no car payment or debt. We have hundreds of thousands in equity, healthy college savings and well funded retirement. Net worth is $1.8m.

You should feel wealthy...you are! Wealth is not defined by HHI. You have assets very few have. Sounds like you have good savings habits and live well within your HHI.

We have high HHI but feel behind in other areas. Have good savings and decent retirement but could do better. Not counting on state colleges since they are getting so competitive (anyone see that article in the WaPo about high achieving kids from MD not getting into to UMD because of the competition).

Hence why most Americans will never understand how the truly middle class/poor live. You automatically assume this poster did something to acquire their wealth, when this person likely had financial help from a relative/parent in the form of down payment, debt payments or some other jump start that the average person never receives.

Anonymous wrote:So I know this post will make some people angry, but maybe this can allow some of you to have perspective. I am 25 married to a 28 year old and we have a HHI of 215k. This is mostly my husband's salary I am aware. He is in cyber security and knows how to program, I guess that commands a 150k salary because he also has a strong network of advocates in his field.
Me, I feel small by comparison. I have a 67k salary in a job I don't really like but at least it is a job.
Early on I encouraged my husband to get out of debt fast since he was commanding a high salary since he graduated. I convinced him to pay the 7k left on his loans straight out and the 6k left on his Honda. I don't know if this is financially wise or not I am just learning. My student loans have always been higher than his since I moved from out of state. I still have 25k left and 4k car debt. My retirement is about 50k right now and his is about 90k and our cash savings is about 30k. Not a lot. We need to be better at that. We paid for our own wedding in cash, though. We don't own a house because we don't know where we are going to settle down and we don't have much of a down payment. I pay a lot of my mom's bills. I grew up with a single mother making 30k at the most. I am OK with paying her and my siblings bills sometimes if they can have a better life.

What a strange post.

Anonymous wrote:Well, I feel wealthy. Mid 40s with two kids. No child care payments, vacations 4-5 times a year including to Europe once, eat out regularly, but are frugal in other areas.

Our HHI is under $100k.

But mortgage is $1400 a month and no car payment or debt. We have hundreds of thousands in equity, healthy college savings and well funded retirement. Net worth is $1.8m.

You should feel wealthy...you are! Wealth is not defined by HHI. You have assets very few have. Sounds like you have good savings habits and live well within your HHI.

We have high HHI but feel behind in other areas. Have good savings and decent retirement but could do better. Not counting on state colleges since they are getting so competitive (anyone see that article in the WaPo about high achieving kids from MD not getting into to UMD because of the competition).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:all of you can 'feel middle class' and say this area is 'expensive' and all the other things you wring your hands with but you are not middle class. You are earning more than 96% of the American population.

Get over yourselves and acknowledge your priviledge.

Get over yourself and acknowledge your bitterness. I've seen very little hand wringing on this thread from high earners. You have no right to tell people what they are allowed to be concerned about any way.

I'm a teacher who married a teacher so firmly in the middle class and will stay there but not bitter about it. If you can't deal with reading about people with high incomes or who have saved more, than get off the forum.

For being a teacher- I thought you reading comprehension would be better. I know that my HHI of $370k makes me no where close to middle class. I know my 600k mortgage, my vacations, my ability for both my husband and I to max out our 401ks, save additional funds, contribute to 529s, etc... makes me both priviledged and lucky. I laugh a little at the posters who think they are middle class with the same kind of stats. There are people in this area and the rest of the country who are actually middle class and struggle daily. Have a little self awareness and compassion.

So you have a 370L HHI and you are posting all your stats - you are allowed to do this but others are not because they are not middle class? Got it. I see a lot of posters on this thread of all incomes saying they are lucky to have what they have. You are not special or somehow enlightened. How about we let people post their stats and concerns and hold off on the judgement. It's well established that middle class in this area is harder to define, especially when many people have lower incomes but major assets, like on this thread.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for the replies. I do agree that middle class for purposes of this discussion on this board should be around $170k-$220k for a family of 4.

Ok, we make $225k as a family of 4, so I guess I'll chime in, particularly since as dual feds we pretty much will not make much more going forward.

35/37, 2 kids. One in school, one in $2k/month daycare.

We max 2 TSPs and have since 2011. I once had a manager early on tell me to absolutely put in the minimum to get the full match and to increase my contribution with every step, COL, and promotion until I hit the max. That took 5 years for me and 6 for H to do. But I came in as a lawyer so earned more. We have just over $600k combined in TSPs.

We have $50k in liquid cash.

Another $30k invested in stocks.

We put $4k/year/child in 529s. Balances are about $30k for our oldest, $14k for our toddler.

Roughly $400k in equity in our house, but we owe quite a bit on it.

I owe $50k in student loans still at $350/month, 2.1% interest. I will pay this off in 16 more years, ha. Likely after my first child is already done with college.

Why carry that much cash when you have student loans you could pay off?

Well, I feel wealthy. Mid 40s with two kids. No child care payments, vacations 4-5 times a year including to Europe once, eat out regularly, but are frugal in other areas.

Our HHI is under $100k.

But mortgage is $1400 a month and no car payment or debt. We have hundreds of thousands in equity, healthy college savings and well funded retirement. Net worth is $1.8m.

So I know this post will make some people angry, but maybe this can allow some of you to have perspective. I am 25 married to a 28 year old and we have a HHI of 215k. This is mostly my husband's salary I am aware. He is in cyber security and knows how to program, I guess that commands a 150k salary because he also has a strong network of advocates in his field.
Me, I feel small by comparison. I have a 67k salary in a job I don't really like but at least it is a job.
Early on I encouraged my husband to get out of debt fast since he was commanding a high salary since he graduated. I convinced him to pay the 7k left on his loans straight out and the 6k left on his Honda. I don't know if this is financially wise or not I am just learning. My student loans have always been higher than his since I moved from out of state. I still have 25k left and 4k car debt. My retirement is about 50k right now and his is about 90k and our cash savings is about 30k. Not a lot. We need to be better at that. We paid for our own wedding in cash, though. We don't own a house because we don't know where we are going to settle down and we don't have much of a down payment. I pay a lot of my mom's bills. I grew up with a single mother making 30k at the most. I am OK with paying her and my siblings bills sometimes if they can have a better life.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:all of you can 'feel middle class' and say this area is 'expensive' and all the other things you wring your hands with but you are not middle class. You are earning more than 96% of the American population.

Get over yourselves and acknowledge your priviledge.

Get over yourself and acknowledge your bitterness. I've seen very little hand wringing on this thread from high earners. You have no right to tell people what they are allowed to be concerned about any way.

I'm a teacher who married a teacher so firmly in the middle class and will stay there but not bitter about it. If you can't deal with reading about people with high incomes or who have saved more, than get off the forum.

For being a teacher- I thought you reading comprehension would be better. I know that my HHI of $370k makes me no where close to middle class. I know my 600k mortgage, my vacations, my ability for both my husband and I to max out our 401ks, save additional funds, contribute to 529s, etc... makes me both priviledged and lucky. I laugh a little at the posters who think they are middle class with the same kind of stats. There are people in this area and the rest of the country who are actually middle class and struggle daily. Have a little self awareness and compassion.

$800k HHI. Both 46. $1.7 million in retirement $4.5 million in real estate equity.(primary plus investment property)