Anonymous wrote:It would make more sense if your federal income tax rates were adjusted based on geographic COL. Won't happen, but then the person making $200K in Nebraska, where it goes much farther, will pay more in taxes than someone who needs every cent of the $200K to compensate for crappy schools or high real estate costs in a hcol area.

Completely agree!!!!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are terrible with money, have student loans, more medical expenses, make that income and can't afford to buy... But if we wanted to buy in DC at this point there's not a lot below 700k. There is some stuff... And some of it I like--but 700k seems to be the new 500k market here.

And wtf. People really spend that much on gasoline?? That's just sad.

This is ridiculous. The houses in my neighborhood are $350k. The schools are not the best, but they are fine. Your kid will go to a fine college. How can you say that you can not get anything below $700k? Are you demented? Do you think people living in $250k homes just are not human beings?

You sound unhinged. No one is saying that people living in $250k homes are not human beings. Obviously PP is not seeing many options with what he/she wants in a house for below $700k, which is why he/she is not rich. Unlimited options don't come with HHI of $200k. There's a lot of bitterness and wealth envy on this thread, primarily among the 200-450 HHI folks who are frugal, manage to save a decent amount (ex. 100k) annually, and bought less house than they qualified for, etc. That's great they are able to save what they can and "feel rich," but the reality is that they are not. There is no point being delusional and slamming others with similar or higher HHI (even 300-500k more) whose finances are tight, or complain they can't afford everything they want, especially living in high COL area. Neither person is rich, but one has learned/resigned themselves to live with what they have, and gained a HUGE chip on their shoulder in return.

It would make more sense if your federal income tax rates were adjusted based on geographic COL. Won't happen, but then the person making $200K in Nebraska, where it goes much farther, will pay more in taxes than someone who needs every cent of the $200K to compensate for crappy schools or high real estate costs in a hcol area.

Anonymous wrote:If you want to argue 200K isn't rich, ok. But please don't argue that they are struggling or nearly struggling. The luxury to say "I DONT want a townhouse in the suburbs, I WANT to go on vacation, etc." just negates all of that. If you can make choices like these, you are doing fine.

Yes. On our 95k HHI - living in a townhouse in the suburbs is the very best we could do.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are terrible with money, have student loans, more medical expenses, make that income and can't afford to buy... But if we wanted to buy in DC at this point there's not a lot below 700k. There is some stuff... And some of it I like--but 700k seems to be the new 500k market here.

And wtf. People really spend that much on gasoline?? That's just sad.

This is ridiculous. The houses in my neighborhood are $350k. The schools are not the best, but they are fine. Your kid will go to a fine college. How can you say that you can not get anything below $700k? Are you demented? Do you think people living in $250k homes just are not human beings?

+1000. We live in a townhouse and elem school is rated a 9 on great schools (for whatever that is worth). We paid under 300k for the townhouse.

This, a million times this. It sounds like PP is insistent they must live in DC proper, in a good neighborhood, though.

If you want to argue 200K isn't rich, ok. But please don't argue that they are struggling or nearly struggling. The luxury to say "I DONT want a townhouse in the suburbs, I WANT to go on vacation, etc." just negates all of that. If you can make choices like these, you are doing fine.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That doesn't quite track since it has child care and only one spouse maxing out. Is this dual income or single? If it's single, there's no child care bill.

And also, $8,000 in vacations per year and still having nearly $6,000 left over is pretty comfy.

So this is rich? Having 6k leftover a year?

I'm pretty sure the "rich" part comes in where you have a $700,000 house and take two vacations a year for thousands of dollars each and pay $2,000 a month for childcare. Those things are discretionary, lovely, wonderful, desirable things to have. But if you bought a $400,000 townhouse further out, sent your kid to an in-home day care, and spent $1,000 for driving/camping vacations you'd have a heck of a lot more left at the end of the year and you'd probably feel rich because of that...and because the people in your neighborhood who you are now comparing yourself to are doing the same.

No one feels rich living in a town house in the far out suburbs. Sorry. Not desirable.

We are in a townhouse - and the point to our life isn't to feel rich. We are quite comfortable financially.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are terrible with money, have student loans, more medical expenses, make that income and can't afford to buy... But if we wanted to buy in DC at this point there's not a lot below 700k. There is some stuff... And some of it I like--but 700k seems to be the new 500k market here.

And wtf. People really spend that much on gasoline?? That's just sad.

This is ridiculous. The houses in my neighborhood are $350k. The schools are not the best, but they are fine. Your kid will go to a fine college. How can you say that you can not get anything below $700k? Are you demented? Do you think people living in $250k homes just are not human beings?

+1000. We live in a townhouse and elem school is rated a 9 on great schools (for whatever that is worth). We paid under 300k for the townhouse.

Anonymous wrote:Yet another whine-y thread from 30 somethings in the top 5% of incomes. Stop comparing your life to reality tv! OP's fictional case owns a house and fully funds 401K but spends like people earning $100k+ more. Why do 35 year olds with preschool children compare their finances to 45 year olds with a 10 year head start on their careers? If you're making $200k now by the time your child is in high school, you'll be making at least $300k, but your mortgage will be the same and you won't have childcare bills. Just imagine what it's like for the rest of America trying to get by on a median income of $60k.

Not if they are big law...then they most likely be let go....

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yet another whine-y thread from 30 somethings in the top 5% of incomes. Stop comparing your life to reality tv! OP's fictional case owns a house and fully funds 401K but spends like people earning $100k+ more. Why do 35 year olds with preschool children compare their finances to 45 year olds with a 10 year head start on their careers? If you're making $200k now by the time your child is in high school, you'll be making at least $300k, but your mortgage will be the same and you won't have childcare bills. Just imagine what it's like for the rest of America trying to get by on a median income of $60k.

Yeah getting by on 60k when a house is 80k is not the same

Where are you imagining that houses are $80K?

Anonymous wrote:Yet another whine-y thread from 30 somethings in the top 5% of incomes. Stop comparing your life to reality tv! OP's fictional case owns a house and fully funds 401K but spends like people earning $100k+ more. Why do 35 year olds with preschool children compare their finances to 45 year olds with a 10 year head start on their careers? If you're making $200k now by the time your child is in high school, you'll be making at least $300k, but your mortgage will be the same and you won't have childcare bills. Just imagine what it's like for the rest of America trying to get by on a median income of $60k.

Yeah getting by on 60k when a house is 80k is not the same

Replace the vacations and children's instruction with student loan debt or other debt,

Replace charity with a cell phone bill,

Decrease 401k savings because 3k-5k goes in FSA and DC accounts

Replace miscellaneous with a cable bill and doctor copays,

and sounds about right.

Yet another whine-y thread from 30 somethings in the top 5% of incomes. Stop comparing your life to reality tv! OP's fictional case owns a house and fully funds 401K but spends like people earning $100k+ more. Why do 35 year olds with preschool children compare their finances to 45 year olds with a 10 year head start on their careers? If you're making $200k now by the time your child is in high school, you'll be making at least $300k, but your mortgage will be the same and you won't have childcare bills. Just imagine what it's like for the rest of America trying to get by on a median income of $60k.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That doesn't quite track since it has child care and only one spouse maxing out. Is this dual income or single? If it's single, there's no child care bill.

And also, $8,000 in vacations per year and still having nearly $6,000 left over is pretty comfy.

So this is rich? Having 6k leftover a year?

I'm pretty sure the "rich" part comes in where you have a $700,000 house and take two vacations a year for thousands of dollars each and pay $2,000 a month for childcare. Those things are discretionary, lovely, wonderful, desirable things to have. But if you bought a $400,000 townhouse further out, sent your kid to an in-home day care, and spent $1,000 for driving/camping vacations you'd have a heck of a lot more left at the end of the year and you'd probably feel rich because of that...and because the people in your neighborhood who you are now comparing yourself to are doing the same.

No one feels rich living in a town house in the far out suburbs. Sorry. Not desirable.

"leftover" when you ignore they're building equity and (mostly) fully funding retirement. What's odd is there's probably very few people who are this good to their 401k's and this terrible at the rest of their finances.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is some errors: with a 36K mortgage, 7K in property tax, 182K will not have a 30% rate.

In Va, assuming some other deductions, ~26K feds, ~8k state, so you are paying 34K in taxes, not 54K.

So you will have 20K more left over.

Have you included the socialsecurity and Medicaid tax?

No -- that will be about 8 grand. SS saturates about 110K.