Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you can afford to go SAH and still support your current lifestyle, how does it affect you one iota whether your neighbors are making 5x that amount? Explain it to me.

Because, your relative position to those you live near directly affects your happiness. Been studied a lot. We can all pretend it doesn't and that we are above that, but the science doesn't lie.

care to cite the "science"???

Just google. This is a well-studied area.

interesting because I could care less. we are doing fine on our income and could care less what our neighbors earn.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you can afford to go SAH and still support your current lifestyle, how does it affect you one iota whether your neighbors are making 5x that amount? Explain it to me.

Because, your relative position to those you live near directly affects your happiness. Been studied a lot. We can all pretend it doesn't and that we are above that, but the science doesn't lie.

care to cite the "science"???

Just google. This is a well-studied area.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you can work out a budget that makes it work for you, with your particular HHI and your particular expenses at your particular standard of living... why does it matter what is typical for your neighbors? If it's something you want to do and you can afford to do it, just do it. It's really that simple.

It does matter because you typically want to fit in or else it will either be uncomfortable or awkward. We don't subscribe to being the poorest on the block and struggling.

Sounds exhausting. But, if that's how you want to live, have at it.

How is that exhausting? It's planning, I would be exhausted if I didn't make enough and was struggling.

No. Planning is emphatically not simply measuring yourself by comparing HHI to your neighbors. Planning, actual real adult-level planning, is budgeting your income and expenses so that you can afford your lifestyle. Planning just means a strategy for spending less than you make.

Agreed PP. There are households with two govt workers in McLean, HHI of sub 200k with family money, households at 1M as well. You will find a wide variance. 350k is totally possible in McLean but your mortgage, opting for private vs public, etc are the biggest factors.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you can afford to go SAH and still support your current lifestyle, how does it affect you one iota whether your neighbors are making 5x that amount? Explain it to me.

Because, your relative position to those you live near directly affects your happiness. Been studied a lot. We can all pretend it doesn't and that we are above that, but the science doesn't lie.

care to cite the "science"???

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you can work out a budget that makes it work for you, with your particular HHI and your particular expenses at your particular standard of living... why does it matter what is typical for your neighbors? If it's something you want to do and you can afford to do it, just do it. It's really that simple.

It does matter because you typically want to fit in or else it will either be uncomfortable or awkward. We don't subscribe to being the poorest on the block and struggling.

Sounds exhausting. But, if that's how you want to live, have at it.

How is that exhausting? It's planning, I would be exhausted if I didn't make enough and was struggling.

You can't figure out if you'd be struggling on one income without asking your neighbor's income? Do a budget and see what it looks like.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you can afford to go SAH and still support your current lifestyle, how does it affect you one iota whether your neighbors are making 5x that amount? Explain it to me.

Because, your relative position to those you live near directly affects your happiness. Been studied a lot. We can all pretend it doesn't and that we are above that, but the science doesn't lie.

NP. I am curious how you are defining "relative position." It seems like you're trying to use HHI as a proxy for "position." But aren't there other factors in play? Is a family with a $750k HHI that is up to its eyeballs in debt and spends more than it earns in a better "position" than a family with $350k HHI that lives within its means? Even accepting your premise that your "position" relative to your neighbors is determinative of overall happiness, it seems like your focus on HHI alone is reductive.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you can afford to go SAH and still support your current lifestyle, how does it affect you one iota whether your neighbors are making 5x that amount? Explain it to me.

Because, your relative position to those you live near directly affects your happiness. Been studied a lot. We can all pretend it doesn't and that we are above that, but the science doesn't lie.

I asked you to explain to me how it affects you, not to merely assert that it does. I'm not doubting that it affects your happiness, I'd just like you to explain to me how it does so. I'm not sure I get it.

NP here, guess the relevance depends on how neighborly you are. If you are waving hi and bye, then yes it does not matter. If you plan to SAH and compare notes 5 hrs a day with the other neighborhoods SAH, I can see how this becomes a critical factor.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How the hell do you know *how* your neighbors do? They could be riding around in a Tesla on fucking credit? You people are absurd!

The question is pretty specific poopy mc poopy pants.

that made me laugh, my 4 year old DS says that stuff.

Anonymous wrote:If you can afford to go SAH and still support your current lifestyle, how does it affect you one iota whether your neighbors are making 5x that amount? Explain it to me.

Because, your relative position to those you live near directly affects your happiness. Been studied a lot. We can all pretend it doesn't and that we are above that, but the science doesn't lie.

If you can afford to go SAH and still support your current lifestyle, how does it affect you one iota whether your neighbors are making 5x that amount? Explain it to me.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are thinking about doing this when DH transitions into a new level of work.

What is the typical HHI for those that SAH in McLean?

We have 2 elementary kids in public and a new house and our current income is 350K.

$350K is plenty of money, even in McLean. There's not really a "typical" and $350K is well over the median in any zip code in the DC area.

Some of the McLean neighborhoods have a median of 550K.

Anonymous wrote:How the hell do you know *how* your neighbors do? They could be riding around in a Tesla on fucking credit? You people are absurd!

The question is pretty specific poopy mc poopy pants.

Anonymous wrote:We are thinking about doing this when DH transitions into a new level of work.

What is the typical HHI for those that SAH in McLean?

We have 2 elementary kids in public and a new house and our current income is 350K.

$350K is plenty of money, even in McLean. There's not really a "typical" and $350K is well over the median in any zip code in the DC area.