Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do you afford rent or a house around here?

OP here. We bought about eight years ago, so prices were not quite as insane as they are now. We are very good savers, so we were able to put down more than 20% (no help from family, who have less money than we do) and get good terms. Housing still eats up a good chunk of hour monthly nut, but we are frugal in other areas (don't eat out a lot, don't spend a ton on clothes and other extras). I think we actually assumed that by now we would have sold our place and moved outside the city, but then we decided to stop at one kid and when we looked at houses in the suburbs, we just couldn't stop thinking about all the stuff we'd give up, like access to free museums, being able to walk or bike most places, socializing with our friends, and living in a more diverse community. We also just didn't find a town in the suburbs that called to us. Many are as expensive as the city (bigger homes, yes, but we don't really need a five bedroom house anyway) and those that aren't just feel kind of sleepy compared to what we're used to.

I am grateful we bought when we did. I think if we were still renting, we'd have had no choice but to move (or leave our jobs for the private sector so we could earn more). The amount rents in the city have gone up since we last rented is jaw dropping.

Anonymous wrote:OP how old are you? If one of you has a government job, that seems like a low combined salary unless you’re relatively young and low on the GS scale. A step one GS13 makes $100k. So with time, that HHI will go up.

I’m a single parent government employee-I make about $150k and get a little bit of child support. I just ignore the ridiculous “I can’t live on $300k” posters. I’m doing fine. I make more than the average household in the DC area, and so do you.

Anonymous wrote:It's actually easy to explain the DCUM phenomenon. I believe most posters making a lot of money are real. And they are women. In households making >400k, it's fairly common that the man has a very lucrative job. The woman then becomes SAHM. Women naturally seek validation, and being at home bored while the kids are at school makes it just too tempting to come on DCUM and gloat. I wouldn't say they are necessarily "unhappy" like a prior poster suggested. If they were poor they'd be on here virtue signaling about making their toddler only organic vegetable mush from scratch, or chastising the guy posting about a corvette because he's destroying the environment and "their family prius has just been great for DH." The rich posters are just the rich version of these other posters.

Anonymous wrote:How do you afford rent or a house around here?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just curious. Our HHI income is between 100k and 140k any given year (I own my own business so it varies a bit). We are happy with our income and live within our means, but between our friends who we know make a lot more than us and the huge numbers people throw around on DCUM, I sometimes wonder if there are any people out there in our income bracket. We are married, one kid, own our home, one car. Our families don't have money but thankfully don't need us to provide for them (yet). We have some school debt but it's manageable. We both attended elite schools on scholarship, and both chose to go into public interest (government jobs and non-profit work).

Is this unusual on here? I consider us pretty squarely middle class. Our kid will go to public school, like we did, but we are saving for college so she has some options down the road. We both contribute to 401k's and we think we should be okay in retirement between that, other savings, and the option of selling our home and moving somewhere less expensive.

The way our friends and people on DCUM talk, sometimes I feel like we are broke. Surely there are more people like us out there? I'm starting to think being middle class is an anomaly in DC.

1. if you were you would not be asking
2. How did this happen? You attended "elite" schools and only have 120K to show for it. Basket weaving degree? I'm guessing you don't come from much so you never got guidance. You could drive a truck for the same amount of money.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just curious. Our HHI income is between 100k and 140k any given year (I own my own business so it varies a bit). We are happy with our income and live within our means, but between our friends who we know make a lot more than us and the huge numbers people throw around on DCUM, I sometimes wonder if there are any people out there in our income bracket. We are married, one kid, own our home, one car. Our families don't have money but thankfully don't need us to provide for them (yet). We have some school debt but it's manageable. We both attended elite schools on scholarship, and both chose to go into public interest (government jobs and non-profit work).

Is this unusual on here? I consider us pretty squarely middle class. Our kid will go to public school, like we did, but we are saving for college so she has some options down the road. We both contribute to 401k's and we think we should be okay in retirement between that, other savings, and the option of selling our home and moving somewhere less expensive.

The way our friends and people on DCUM talk, sometimes I feel like we are broke. Surely there are more people like us out there? I'm starting to think being middle class is an anomaly in DC.

1. if you were you would not be asking
2. How did this happen? You attended "elite" schools and only have 120K to show for it. Basket weaving degree? I'm guessing you don't come from much so you never got guidance. You could drive a truck for the same amount of money.

Anonymous wrote:How do you afford rent or a house around here?

Anonymous wrote:Just curious. Our HHI income is between 100k and 140k any given year (I own my own business so it varies a bit). We are happy with our income and live within our means, but between our friends who we know make a lot more than us and the huge numbers people throw around on DCUM, I sometimes wonder if there are any people out there in our income bracket. We are married, one kid, own our home, one car. Our families don't have money but thankfully don't need us to provide for them (yet). We have some school debt but it's manageable. We both attended elite schools on scholarship, and both chose to go into public interest (government jobs and non-profit work).

Is this unusual on here? I consider us pretty squarely middle class. Our kid will go to public school, like we did, but we are saving for college so she has some options down the road. We both contribute to 401k's and we think we should be okay in retirement between that, other savings, and the option of selling our home and moving somewhere less expensive.

The way our friends and people on DCUM talk, sometimes I feel like we are broke. Surely there are more people like us out there? I'm starting to think being middle class is an anomaly in DC.