Anonymous wrote:Over $100k but I can't remember what exactly. I think I saw on some college forms.

House cost $70k.

^ This was in Philly suburbs - MC/UMC. House purchased in late 70s and I graduated public HS in late 80s. We were comfortable, in the middle of our peers.

Dad had own company, $160k, sahm, 1970s and 80s. Don't know after that because I was out of the house.

I believe when my dad filled out the FAFSA in 1987 he made about $75K. We lived in an affluent LA suburb.

Anonymous wrote:Poverty level in a Pittsburgh suburb.

Mom was a waitress, parents were divorced and dad was working in restaurants in another state and I don't think he reliably paid child support.

Poverty level in a Pittsburgh suburb.

I don't know. My dad is a psychiatrist and worked both in the private sector and for the state. My mom was a SAHM and a freelance artist. (And sometimes an interior designer.) We never lacked for anything, but by no means got everything we wanted.

Their first house--a 4BR, 2 bath split-level in Baltimore County--cost $75K in 1979. They stayed there until 1997, and I don't know how much the second house cost.

When I was filling out my FAFSA, my dad warned me that I wasn't going to get anything need-based. They paid for my whole undergraduate education through savings.

When I was in HS my dad made about $120K. Early 2000s. Mom was a SAHM and I had five siblings. We lived in a high COL area (southern CT).
We weren't poor but definitely knew I had less than my classmates. We didn't take vacations, and all of us were expected to get jobs in high school. Once we had a job we were responsible for all of our own expenses--buying/maintaining a car, gas, clothes, AP test or sports fees, etc.

My folks' HHI in the 1980s was about $70k in Pittsburgh. We had a nice house on a quarter acre lot in a great school district. Two cars, four kids in college and pensions with lifetime healthcare on the horizon.

I'm at a about the same stage in life but with two kids in the DC suburbs. We make about $75k combined, which means that our lifestyle is much less than what I grew up with.

$150K. Grew up in DC. The numbers are kind of meaningless because everything costs so much more. Our house cost $240K in 1990. A house in the same neighborhood now costs at least $800K. My sister and I went to private school--tuition was $8K per year. Now it's $35K.

My HHI is $250K and no way can I afford as nice a neighborhood and send 2 kids to private school.

When I was really young, probably barely $25K.

By the time i was in HS/college, probably about $80K. I was an only child in a low COL city.

My childhood home cost about $45K in 1984. Sadly, it's not worth too much more than that now. My parents really missed their window to sell.

My parents together probably made $25k max, 30 yrs ago. Mom was in 50s dad was is 60s, uneducated, minimum-wage jobs as a grocery sacker and janitor. I am now a college-educated white collar professional, income of about $165k, which feels really poor to me as I still have tremendous anxiety about being poor.

My dad made about $45K. My mom didn't return to work until I was in middle school and she made about $20K. For context, I'm 45.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I never had any idea. Who talks about that?

Families who had to have a hard talk about how they would pay for college. Or not. You have to complete the FAFSA etc and submit their Tax forms.

My parents filled out those forms (their equivalent) but I never saw them. And no we weren't rich. If I had to guess it would have been less than $50k, early 1990s.

I don't know because they kept it private. My mom was a SAHM and dad was a software engineer, and they lived in New Jersey. I would guess that once my dad was in his 40s he made the ballpark of what would be $150k today.

Anonymous wrote:When I was in HS, $80k - also saw on some college forms. House cost $113k and we lived in a small town out west.

This was 1996 when I was filling out the FAFSA.