Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a teacher and have always lived comfortably, even when my husband was unemployed for almost a year. Bought a house, a car, had a kid, have savings. And I’ll really be enjoying myself starting next week. 😂

How is the commute from Manassas?

Longer than I want, but we love our Kensington neighborhood.

Anonymous wrote:So many people here are such snobs. My neighbor came over to our house and made a comment like "I can't imagine living with this kitchen." WTH? There is absolutely nothing wrong with our kitchen. The cabinets are old and the appliances don't match but everything works well. My teenage son asked me what she meant after she left. Teach your kids what is important. To me, that is my family and their health and happiness. Everything else is a bonus.

Oh please, people make this comment touring most $1.5mil houses in DC. Lots of old poorly maintained shacks where even buying the third cheapest Home Depot oven sets your house apart from the rest.

Anonymous wrote:Isn’t this depressing? Almost all jobs and careers don’t pay enough to live a normal middle class life these days, you HAVE to work in tech/big law/medicine and make 250k+ just to be semi comfortable unless you were born in to wealth. I thank my younger self every day for going in to CS, I almost majored in history because it was an interest of mine (back then I didn’t care about money that much). I would be so screwed now if I did that. My peers who went in to different fields are all broke. Not saying this to brag (I’m not even close to rich), it just sucks that nearly every job pays like s**t

I majored in history and now make $350k doing a much more interesting job than coding…

But I agree with others that you can have a great life on 20 or 30 percent of that.

So many people here are such snobs. My neighbor came over to our house and made a comment like "I can't imagine living with this kitchen." WTH? There is absolutely nothing wrong with our kitchen. The cabinets are old and the appliances don't match but everything works well. My teenage son asked me what she meant after she left. Teach your kids what is important. To me, that is my family and their health and happiness. Everything else is a bonus.

Anonymous wrote:I’m a teacher and have always lived comfortably, even when my husband was unemployed for almost a year. Bought a house, a car, had a kid, have savings. And I’ll really be enjoying myself starting next week. 😂

How is the commute from Manassas?

I’m a teacher and have always lived comfortably, even when my husband was unemployed for almost a year. Bought a house, a car, had a kid, have savings. And I’ll really be enjoying myself starting next week. 😂

Anonymous wrote:I got a degree in CS in 2001 and I make $160K working for the Government and my husband also works for the Government, and makes more than me not in Tech with an MBA and we live just fine.

You’re just trying to start trouble. Stop thinking wealthy is middle class.

How do you make this much working for the government? Are you both SES?

250k in DC is MC, it means you can afford a house, pay childcare costs, and afford to go on a niceish yearly vacation. We are at around that income level, and are comfortable because we bought our house 10 years ago, have paid off all student loans, and only have 1 child. I can't imagine being able to live comfortably if we had a higher mortgage and two kids in daycare for example. 250k sounds like a lot when you come from a modest background, but when you start calculating the COL in DC (especially for families), it is fine. All this to say, I agree with OP, when a CEO makes 400x/worker something is very off, and we all know those people don't deserve their wages. Most of upper management does not, their success is built on the backs of the worker bees, but salaries do not reflect that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn’t this depressing? Almost all jobs and careers don’t pay enough to live a normal middle class life these days, you HAVE to work in tech/big law/medicine and make 250k+ just to be semi comfortable unless you were born in to wealth. I thank my younger self every day for going in to CS, I almost majored in history because it was an interest of mine (back then I didn’t care about money that much). I would be so screwed now if I did that. My peers who went in to different fields are all broke. Not saying this to brag (I’m not even close to rich), it just sucks that nearly every job pays like s**t

$250K is not middle class. That's upper class and wealthy. Middle class is when you barely pay your bills, live in a small basic house under $300K (usually $150K, etc.

NP and disagree that middle class is barely paying your bills. Middle class covers your needs and some wants and allows some savings for retirement (say 5-10% of salary but not maxing). Barely paying bills is working class.

I think OP is right and PP is right about housing costs. For those of you disagreeing, you clearly aren’t trying to buy a house NOW. And Mr. Boomer, yes going camping without my cell phone would make me happier - for like 2 days - but then I’d have to come back to the reality that I’m renting an expensive condo for God knows how long because I cannot afford to buy a house.

Anonymous wrote:Isn’t this depressing? Almost all jobs and careers don’t pay enough to live a normal middle class life these days, you HAVE to work in tech/big law/medicine and make 250k+ just to be semi comfortable unless you were born in to wealth. I thank my younger self every day for going in to CS, I almost majored in history because it was an interest of mine (back then I didn’t care about money that much). I would be so screwed now if I did that. My peers who went in to different fields are all broke. Not saying this to brag (I’m not even close to rich), it just sucks that nearly every job pays like s**t

Your title doesn't make sense. If a job isn't worth it financially, that means you would get a better return on your investment of time by not working. Are you saying you'd be better off on welfare? That's certainly not true.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Or we had the American dream stolen from us. One household earner and nice lifestyle with college and vacations attainable.

You aren’t entitled to it; you have to earn it.

Yes you have to work hard for them in the hopes of one day earning it while they keep moving the goal posts farther away

Anonymous wrote:I make $100K, $180K household, and we have a comfortable middle class life. There's not much I want that we don't have.

We’re at $250K with two earners. We’re very comfortable. We have no problem paying our mortgage, saving for college, saving for retirement, and still have $$ left over for things we don’t even need.

And yes, this is in the DC region.

I got a degree in CS in 2001 and I make $160K working for the Government and my husband also works for the Government, and makes more than me not in Tech with an MBA and we live just fine.

You’re just trying to start trouble. Stop thinking wealthy is middle class.

You aren't worth for most jobs. So there...