HHI approx. $400K
2 kids, ages 6 and 2
live in Au Pair and lots of mostly free help from grandmother
House worth about $950K in Vienna, $6K/mtg on 15 year term.

Anonymous wrote:Does everyone on this forum make over 250K? This is crazy.

HH!- 140K
3 kids - twin 3 year olds and a 6 month old
daycare is 2000 a month
small (very small) home in Arlington

Nope. I made $73k while I was working but just got laid off. I rent a shitty one-bedroom apartment.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:220k I never felt poor until I started reading this forum. Kids are 7 and 10. We spend 12k per year pt babysitter, 12k parochial, 5k on summer camps so approximately 29k total.

200k with 2 kids here and feel the same. we feel very well off. i don't understand this forum.

When you say well off where do you live and what is your home like? The home and location is a budget buster in this area. You need at least a million to have anything comfortable by typical middle class standards outside of the DC area.

Not PP, but this is just nonsense. We make less than $90k, in fact our actual taxable income this year was less than $20k and we are very comfortable. We live in a row house in DC that I bought 10 years ago, have a new car (2 years old) and go on several vacations a year including overseas. We are careful with our money but we live well. I just don't understand this mentality that you need a million dollars to live "comfortably". Let me give you an example, my 4 year old just went to a spring break camp run by DC parks and rec. It cost FORTY dollars for the ENTIRE WEEK. He had great fun. We'd do it again. There is no reason to spend hundreds or thousands on camps, the kids won't love you more if you do. Likewise, daycare, vacations, clothes, private schools etc.

You freaking bought a house 10 years ago!!!!!!!!! How do you not understand that people who are 10 years younger than you are facing prices that are most cases 2 to 4 times higher (if not even more)?

This comes up time and time again on this site. People who bought 10 or 15 years ago saying, "why do you need to spend a million on a house? Just buy 15 years ago!"

Did I say anything like that? How old are you? I'm 35 and many people on this site are a similar age. But it's irrelevant, there are plenty of places that you can live in DC or very close by where you can buy for less than $300k even now. Most people here are just snobs and won't consider them. 10 years ago, most people were also snobs. That's why I got a house for $250k that was a foreclosure -- none of the DCUM snobs would touch it. Well, now that's it's tripled in value you think my neighborhood is acceptable. But you know, there are many other neighborhoods in the DC area that still have low prices and that if you can just get over your snobbery and consider them you'll find are lovely neighborhoods with great neighbors and nice housing stock, even if they are a little rough around the edges and gasp your neighbors aren't all rich white folk.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:220k I never felt poor until I started reading this forum. Kids are 7 and 10. We spend 12k per year pt babysitter, 12k parochial, 5k on summer camps so approximately 29k total.

200k with 2 kids here and feel the same. we feel very well off. i don't understand this forum.

When you say well off where do you live and what is your home like? The home and location is a budget buster in this area. You need at least a million to have anything comfortable by typical middle class standards outside of the DC area.

Not PP, but this is just nonsense. We make less than $90k, in fact our actual taxable income this year was less than $20k and we are very comfortable. We live in a row house in DC that I bought 10 years ago, have a new car (2 years old) and go on several vacations a year including overseas. We are careful with our money but we live well. I just don't understand this mentality that you need a million dollars to live "comfortably". Let me give you an example, my 4 year old just went to a spring break camp run by DC parks and rec. It cost FORTY dollars for the ENTIRE WEEK. He had great fun. We'd do it again. There is no reason to spend hundreds or thousands on camps, the kids won't love you more if you do. Likewise, daycare, vacations, clothes, private schools etc.

You freaking bought a house 10 years ago!!!!!!!!! How do you not understand that people who are 10 years younger than you are facing prices that are most cases 2 to 4 times higher (if not even more)?

This comes up time and time again on this site. People who bought 10 or 15 years ago saying, "why do you need to spend a million on a house? Just buy 15 years ago!"

Anonymous wrote:Does everyone on this forum make over 250K? This is crazy.

HH!- 140K
3 kids - twin 3 year olds and a 6 month old
daycare is 2000 a month
small (very small) home in Arlington

The majority of PPs on this thread have listed a HHI of under 250k.

Does everyone on this forum make over 250K? This is crazy.

HH!- 140K
3 kids - twin 3 year olds and a 6 month old
daycare is 2000 a month
small (very small) home in Arlington

2 kids, 2 and 4. HHI ~$160k. We have staggered work schedules so one of us is home all but a few hours out of the day. Part time nanny (~10 hours/week) plus 3 days/week half day nursery school for the older one runs about $800-$850 in total per month.

$445,000

14 and 12

3 kids in public ES. HHI $500k

180K HHI

Kids are 2 and 3 months -- $1,200 per child for FT daycare, mortgage is $2,000

No more kids for us, but I couldn't see paying daycare for a third even if we wanted one.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:220k I never felt poor until I started reading this forum. Kids are 7 and 10. We spend 12k per year pt babysitter, 12k parochial, 5k on summer camps so approximately 29k total.

200k with 2 kids here and feel the same. we feel very well off. i don't understand this forum.

When you say well off where do you live and what is your home like? The home and location is a budget buster in this area. You need at least a million to have anything comfortable by typical middle class standards outside of the DC area.

Not PP, but this is just nonsense. We make less than $90k, in fact our actual taxable income this year was less than $20k and we are very comfortable. We live in a row house in DC that I bought 10 years ago, have a new car (2 years old) and go on several vacations a year including overseas. We are careful with our money but we live well. I just don't understand this mentality that you need a million dollars to live "comfortably". Let me give you an example, my 4 year old just went to a spring break camp run by DC parks and rec. It cost FORTY dollars for the ENTIRE WEEK. He had great fun. We'd do it again. There is no reason to spend hundreds or thousands on camps, the kids won't love you more if you do. Likewise, daycare, vacations, clothes, private schools etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:220k I never felt poor until I started reading this forum. Kids are 7 and 10. We spend 12k per year pt babysitter, 12k parochial, 5k on summer camps so approximately 29k total.

200k with 2 kids here and feel the same. we feel very well off. i don't understand this forum.

When you say well off where do you live and what is your home like? The home and location is a budget buster in this area. You need at least a million to have anything comfortable by typical middle class standards outside of the DC area.

800k
2 kids- older one in public elementary, younger in preschool; 12k/year

A nanny is always more than daycare for one kid.

Why do people pay so much for daycare when a nanny is the same or cheaper? I don't get it.