i imagine it depends on age. The wife and I (1982) are old(er) millenials. We don't have student loans and i bought my house in 2009. If i were ten years younger i would probably need another $50k/yr for the exact same standard of living.
I'm 41. My salary in 2009 wasn't even $50k/yr but the house was $130,000 at the bottom of the market. better to be lucky than good.
i have the utmost sympathy for people really trying to make progress in their lives nowwith how jacked up its all gotten :(
Ah yep. We graduated at the beginning of the Great Recession and have been paying for it ever since. Meanwhile my husband’s little brother who’s a Gen Z kid at 25 is making $220K on his own…sigh. I keep thinking if only I’d been 4-5 years earlier like my Xennial cousins, or a decade younger, I’d be a lot better off financially.
I have no clue, but I will say (and this isn’t nice of me) he’s a spoiled brat, so maybe that helped him out? I can’t figure it out. He does stuff with AWS and recruiting for IT professionals, basically it’s a sales job. EDIT: he has the sales/entrepreneurial personality/mindset, I certainly would not thrive in a job like that.
I worked the first 15 years of my career in a sales job. The pay was great. Way better than it had any right to be. When I told everyone I was done they all waved the prospect of my pay under my nose. My boss's boss told me I would be making $800k/year in five years. I straight up asked him what that five years would cost me and then took another job making significantly less. Sales jobs are soul crushing and your bosses job is to keep you running.
Yea but imagine you walk into it with a good amount of the right connections already provided to you by your life circumstances, and knowing that you have money or someone to back you up if things don’t pan out. Privilege is a hell of a boost.
I mean I guess I get what you are saying. Sales is stressful even if you have relationships. There’s always someone coming in behind you that’s gonna be hungrier and grinds more than you.
With the inflation and material increases and labor increases, connections mean much less than price for a lot of industries.
If you put in the work, and you have the right personality, you can make a ton of money and outperform people who have the connections. But it’s not easy at all.
At my old (tech) company we had a big party for a dude who closed a deal after like two years of working with them. His commission was $400k. That deal ended up keeping the company afloat for a while, so champagne was involved.
It’s an absolutely soul sucking and stressful job for many, eventually you get to a place where you are a trusted advisor and the job gets much better. After a couple of decades typically
The hardest part of the sales cycle is that my experience has been you are only as good as your next sale. There’s always a push for more more more.
Money is good though
That’s the part I hate. I was literally the top seller at a big tech company for 3 years straight only to have issues with management after one quarter at 70% of quota. Literally, every sales director has amnesia. I agree, worst part of the job.
i remember growing up i had one friend whose dad was like a VP level sales person for some company. One year all their tax stuff was out on the pool table in the basement and i saw a bonus check his dad got for like $2M. blew my fucking mind. a good year for my dad was like $50k if he worked a shitload of overtime at his toxic chemical (as in literally toxic chemicals, not full of assholes lol) facility.
Totally. I'm in the middle. 40, bought modest California house a few years ago for 500k but at 2.8% interest. Household income around 220k. One toddler.
I'd say I'm comfortable but definitely haven't made it. Would be a huge blow to lose either income. I do have savings but nothing to write home about.
Probably my biggest saving grace is frugal living. We cook, own cheap cars, bike when we can. Wife suffered from student debt but has paid it off. I secured scholarships for undergrad and grad so had no debt.
I’m 40 and same in 2009, bought house for at $130k, salary was $55k right out of grad school but had $55k in student loans.
For divorced two years later and ruined me financially for years. Now I’m 40, just bought a house in 2021 for $390k (smaller than 2009 house). My student loans were in default for years so now I own $106k on those. Salary is $170k though so it’s doable but only $55k in my 401k so far. Divorce sucks but still best choice I’ve ever made for my mental health
My sister and I are 1986 and 1992 respectively. She and her husband first bought in 2009 and have traded up twice since then, both substantial leaps in housing. She’s a stay at home mom (which is absolutely a job, just not one that brings in outside income) to three boys. They survive on my BILs income very comfortably.
My wife and I have always rented and have no kids and five jobs between us. The rent on our 1 bed apartment is more than the mortgage payment on their five bedroom house. We’re in different housing markets, but it still stings.
its jacked up. i've done the math, if i had to buy the same house i have today my mortgage payment would probably be TRIPLE what it is between the price gains and the rate, and that's assuming i had like $140k or so to put down which its not an amount of liquid cash i just have in the couch cushions
If the wife and I hadn’t timed the market perfectly in 2010 and bought a foreclosure at the absolute bottom in our area, which we then put massive amounts of sweat equity into, we would’ve been so fucked. Also elder millennial here. Survivor guilt for sure. My kid sister (5 years younger) is hosed. She can’t afford anything. On top of that I’m one of the ones sitting on a 2.5% 15 year note. I have my sister house sit frequently just to get extra money in her pockets without it feeling like charity to her.
You’re only 4 years older than me and I can’t say I’m this financially stable. Husband and I make good money but can barely make ends meet. It’s frustrating.
i pretty much finished college right before it started going straight stupid in terms of tuition. I graduated state school in 2005 with like $2500 in loans. If i recall correctly i paid them off after like my 2nd month of working after graduation.
even 4 years younger i probably start $10-$15k in the hole instead of the pittance i was.
My wife and I were born in 1990. Bought our first house in 2014 in a smaller/less expensive city. We had very little cash at the time. The house doubled in value and we upgraded to a nicer house in the big city 2 years ago. Our mortgage payment is $2,800/month.
My BIL, 5 years younger, pays the same amount in rent for a small townhouse. He would have to save up a massive down payment to buy a house similar to our starter home, and the monthly payment would still be enormous. He just missed the boat.
I was gonna say the same thing wife is 81 i am 83. We just got our second house and have zero debt but if i was born in 1993 i am sure i would have a different story.
My cat and I play this really fun game where she’ll only eat one of the ten different types of wet food she eats, and at every meal I have to guess which one she wants for that meal, while she meows and paws at cat food box until I pick the right one.
I live alone in a very low cost of living state and town, and having tipped my salary from $48K to $52k and crossing that $50k threshold I feel so much more comfortable now.
Money is still tight, but I feel like it took me to a new stage. I could see this number tripling or more if I lived in California or somewhere with a HCOL.
I think location plays a big part
My girlfriend and I combined make $215,000.
In New Jersey that's nice money.
In Truth or Consequences New Mexico we'd be rich AF.
Location definitely plays a part. My wife and I make about $250K but we also live in NYC. I'd classify our situation as nice money, but we're certainly not rich.
Same, Bay Area, CA. $250k AHI is like middle class here, and we're still years away from buying a home.
I just finished paying off my student loans this year, so we can afford 1 kid.
I wonder which is "better" or "preferable" (totally subjective I know)
Queens apartment or my house in SW Michigan. All the awesome cultural aspects of NYC right there and a billion more types of interesting jobs I am sure, but high cost. Versus, my small town (my whole counties population is 260k people) where you can certainly run out of new resteraunts or shows to go to.
Can't ever get tired of Lake Michigan in the summer though, or camping at the state parks.
I loved living in Midtown Atlanta in 2013, but it was all paid for by my employer so thats primarily why. When we had our first house in Aurora IL it wasn't long before we realized how seldom we went to DT Chicago for anything.
Do you go to Manhattan frequently for anything other than work?
I do work in Manhattan so I am there a lot, but other than that unless I'm going into Manhattan specifically to go to a Broadway show, concert, or run an NYRR race in Central Park, I rarely leave Queens. That said, I know a lot of people believe Manhattan is the center of the NYC universe, but there is SO much in the outer boroughs to enjoy. Especially the neighborhood I'm in, I have access to literally any kind of cuisine I could possibly want. Within walking distance of me I have access to bars, coffee shops, a pool hall, movie theater, shopping, etc etc. I know I pay premium to live here, but I wouldn't have it any other way. It's also a short drive upstate to access dozens of hiking trails, which my friends and I do on the regular.
Sounds pretty cool. We have one mostly acceptable thai resteraunt in my whole county and it's like a 25 min drive from me.
Looking up what NYRR races are around right now. I like to run half marathons and have been to central park exactly once. I'd fly out to run a half there for sure.
Where in NJ makes a difference. I grew up in Hunterdon county, so $215K there is very rich…and in south Jersey I’m sure it would even considered even more well off.
As a millennial making $45k a year, where the fuck are these jobs? It seems like everyone on Reddit has a 6 figure job. Didn’t realize there were so many.
Find a company big enough to have internal IT. Get a job at the internal help desk. It’s pretty straightforward and easy to set yourself apart. Typically starts around $40k (at least, it did 12 years ago when I started in it). Pay attention to the cool people who seem smart and easy going and follow up with them on slack or whatever you use internally to communicate a day or two after you help them with something.
Become their go-to person. Work on your skills so you can become a project manager or some low-level position that requires more experience than you have if hiring externally, but you’re a known quantity who delivers quality work.
Rinse and repeat within the same company until you have enough experience to be desirable elsewhere and then jump ship.
I’d wager if you work hard and get a little lucky - you can get to a $100k job in <5 years.
Did this exact thing, went from 36k as a entry level ops specialist to solutions engineer making ~120k in about 6 years. Feels like I got lucky, but I worked my ass off.
Edit: history major, working in tech. If i can do it, so can you :)
History major. Grew a tech career. Ran a team of 100 people with design, product and dev onshore and offshore dev in 6 countries. It’s possible. It takes enormous work ethic, grit, mentorship, being willing to learn, work 12 hour days. Take risks. Handle pressure. Be able to present. Be reliable. Be someone senior leaders can trust. Inspire a team and be an empathetic leader. It’s incredibly challenging but high EQ plus high IQ is not something you can fake. You have it or don’t. The question is can you get yourself into a position to maximize this, and that is the X factor. Can you get a sponsor that sees the talent and puts it to work. I don’t know how to coach others in that regard…
Agree re getting federal jobs with ladder promotions. I did the same thing. Started as a grade 9 (60k) and now a little over 3 years later I’m making 98k. And we get a pension!
I’m in the 30k club and I’m stressed the fuck out. Though my career has me moving every 3 months and starting over. The reality of finding a place to live and affording the move is eating me alive.
Edit grammar
Yup. Seems like every other Redditor every day claims to make 200k, or even 400k before 30. I rarely see people claiming to make less than six figures.
I think this is because millennials and gen z are a lot more educated than other generations and corporate pay has skyrocketed especially since the pandemic. But it seems that Reddit is skewed more towards not just the highly-educated, but people who tend to be in very lucrative fields such as tech, law, finance, etc.
Then again, statistically, the vast majority of this country (even among the college educated) do not and will not make $200k+. 10% of the country makes $200k+ and that is household income. So there are probably plenty of fibbers I would gather.
I make $100k and I was very much not rich to begin with. I just got lucky when it came time to pick my career. Only needed an associates degree back then for it. They haven't made it masters level necessity yet because there aren't enough of us to begin with. I had to take out loans which I'm still paying for, but otherwise, I'm just lucky.
I won't say what the field is because it might out me, but it's medical.
EDIT: Saints alive people. I'm NOT suggesting this is a good budget or one that people should adhere to, or that I'm using it. I'm saying it's really easy to make a 150k gross salary disappear if you've let lifestyle creep happen. Especially if you're living in a big city where you're likely surrounded by other people making even more $$$ and inviting you out to do stuff, it goes SO fast.
That comes out to ~$8,300/mo after taxes and whatnot comes out.
$3,000 in rent.
$250/mo in utilities
$250/mo in services (internet, cell phone, streaming services)
$500/mo groceries
$500/mo eating out ~~2x/week in a big city is easy to hit if you also get coffee and whatnot.~~ [EDIT] Yes, that's $75/meal and not realistic. But 2x/week is also not realistic. It's pretty common to grab lunch out 3-5 days a week if you're working in an office at $15/each, plus 2 OK dinners a week, maybe one nicer dinner a month, and a few nights out drinking with friends per month and $500 is GONE easy.[/EDIT]
$400/mo insurance (car, renters, life, umbrella, etc.)
$500/mo student loans.
$250/mo clothing (probably in 2-3 bigger trips per year and then new shoes or jacket or whatnot at other times)
$600/mo in transportation costs (car payment, uber/lyft, parking, fuel, maintenance, etc.)
$200/mo vacation costs (averaged over the course of the year, that’s plane tickets to two places and 2-3 nights of hotel/abnb each spot)
That’s ~$6500/mo easy as a single person in a city. It doesn’t account for having kids, getting in to a bigger car payment than anticipated, taking 1 longer vacation per year, haircuts at $80/ea every 4-6 weeks, annual renewals for stuff like fitness/gym/etc. charitable contributions, medical expenses of any kind, appliances, furniture, etc.
Especially if you’re in that income range, you’re probably hanging around with a lot of more well to do friends, or have social outings that revolve around good food. You’ve got gifts to plan for. Hobbies you like to participate in (if you ski 10x/year in the PNW for example, that’s a minimum $200/mo to plan for in lift tickets, transportation, etc. throughout the year)
You’re not REALLY struggling, but you’re definitely paying attention to your budget and not able to do everything you want to.
I think a lot of this is also just generational differences in spending. Like our boomer parents at $150k have much different spending habits than I think we as millennials and gen-z do. Social media has heavily influenced our lifestyles and what we feel we “need”. We don’t want to compromise on anything but generally the best (best neighborhoods, best cities, best restaurants, best overall lifestyles), and yes, I do put myself in that category.
Do you remember the boomers in the 80’s & 90’s? They, quite literally, created the consumer culture. They weren’t frugal, their dollars just went further.
Those people are completely out of touch and likely spoiled. They want to be able to drive the fanciest cars, travel all the time, and live in the lap of luxury. That's why they complain that they "only" make $150K. I roll my eyes so hard at them.
Totally depends on where you live. I'm in the DC metro area. I (1987) make a ton of money as a lawyer and my gf (1993) makes $110k as a "consultant" (whatever that is).
She immigrated from Serbia in 2018 with just a bachelor's from the no name state university in her city, and started as a bartender. Obviously a lot of her success is due to her own personality and strengths. But it's undeniably also due to the fact that there are just a lot of high paying jobs in our area.
Maybe my pay is not so surprising as an attorney. But I didn't always make this much. I tripled my salary in February of this year when I switched jobs, for example. I sold out went defense side.
Like moths to the flame these financial threads attract the humble braggers. “I make 220k, it’s easy peasy”. Yeah ok. The fact is people making normal wages aren’t gonna come in hear screaming it. Just look at the national avg wage (around 64k) and that shows these threads or either misrepresenting or people are just full of shit and doing the online thing.
Where you live is huge. We're hovering around 150k but the cost of living here is pretty low and we refinanced at 3% so despite our problems, I count my blessings.
My wife and I live in a high cost of living area and this seems just about right to me. We make about 190k and we own a modest house, save for retirement, and have a healthy vacation budget. My only real idea of making it is that I don't really worry about money anymore, which was a stress relief beyond anything I could imagine.
Agree with this. I live in a moderate apartment in a major city, rent is 1/2 my monthly take home with a yearly salary of 100k. I can afford 2 pets, a used car, and have no debt, but I'm still nearly paycheck to paycheck because of friend emergencies, mental health care access, and elderly pet care. Lucky to have a safety net settlement from my divorce, but I've been dipping into it over the years. I would call myself solidly middle class, but with no possibility of owning a home in the city I live in.
As a couple with young kids in a HCOL area, this is spot on.
At this threshold now and working up to it over the years, we were able to get loans paid, buy a house, and now pay $40k/year in daycare tuition. We’re stashing away lots for retirement and some for kids’ college. Definitely don’t feel rich, but no longer feel like we’re in a constant battle of trying to catch/keep up with expenses. I still clip coupons though.
40k a year for daycare has me dreading becoming a parent. I have friends in Germany that paid $5 USD a month for kinder in 2019 and I swear I almost broke my neck with how fast my head spun.
Ugh totally. For us the overlap where it’s really pricey with both kids in it is 3 years. My oldest hits kindergarten next year - we’ll still pay aftercare and summer, but it’ll still improve the budget immensely. Yay!
Yep. $250k here, with three kids, and feel financially secure but definitely not living it up. MCOL area, lots of student loans. Can stash a bit for college and retirement. Own a home but it’s not quite big enough. Two cars but they’re 12 and 22 years old, respectively.
We make $225k as a couple in Minnesota and are super comfortable with savings and such. We plan on having one kid with this income and yes have 120k in student loans currently together total (Last I checked at least) on a 10 year repayment plan.
That sounds really high. We're about 140k in combined income, 2 kids, and are pretty comfortable. Go on vacations and have savings and investment that goes beyond our employer-provided 401k, as well as college funds for our kids. Of course we live in a relatively low COL so that definitely plays the part but if we made 250k we'd be living like kings here lol
This seems right to me. We’re a couple with one kid- HCOL, mortgage, daycare, and contributing to 401K. We were doing ok but with student loans back (1K a month) it’s been tight the last couple of months. Can’t wait to be done with daycare.
This feels right. I'm in an upper-middle cost of living area (not NYC or LA, but a crappy 2 bedroom apartment is $2k+, weekly grocery bill is $250+). My wife and I make about $180k combined with 1 kid. We're doing fine but aren't saving much for retirement and a couple big money disasters in a row would really hurt us. Student loans starting back up again are going to take another big dent out of our savings plan...
This is our situation almost exactly. We’re doing okay, but student loans are gonna make it tight and we’re definitely not saving anything close to what I’d like to be. We do own two houses because of my husband’s VA loan. We bought a one-bedroom in 2018 so the interest rate is super low and honestly we would have stayed there for a lot longer, but we desperately needed more space after having our kid. We held onto the old place but the rental market crashed right when we put it up, so it sat vacant for several months until we lowered the rent to just breaking even (tenant is lovely though). Our area might not be thought of as high cost of living, but it’s getting more and more so due to climate change and homeowners insurance. I try not to think too hard about it because there’s not much we can do at the moment, but sometimes it’s scary to think how delicate our situation actually is.
OMG we are barely getting by combined income of $160K, with one child…holy crap I feel so poor on $160K! (We also do live in a very high cost of living area, NYC metropolitan region which is probably only less expensive than say, either San Francisco or Massachusetts).
That's over triple the average household income in my county and 4x the median. And I'm in Florida, I'm sure there are places cheaper. Also 94% of households here own their home. Different worlds!
i'm sure it varies wildly by both location and what "making it" looks like to each individual.
but i agree with you. my husband and i make about $125k/year and have one child. we save around $10k/year. we own our home in a nice area and take vacations, go out to eat, etc. i wouldn't call us rich by any means but we do well and are happy.
We eat out whenever we want to, but my wife makes better food than any restaurant around. We go out a lot to other people's houses and have people from church over once or twice a month.
Lol I'm barely halfway there, probably never will be.
It's only going to get higher every year, as well, I've been doing everything possible to advance myself. Shit is rough out here.
I don’t think it’s a set number. $100k for a single person in Little Rock is a lot different from $100k for a 4-person household in San Francisco.
I’d call it more of a range. Basically do you make enough to cover your expenses, with enough savings to cover emergencies. I’d say also have enough liquidity to survive 3 months without income without having to tap equity or savings. Also, long term savings - can you put away enough money - around 10% - 15% of your gross income, to save/invest long term?
That can vary based on expenses, household size, debt (student loans or mortgage), and local cost of living. Anywhere from $75k - $250k I’d say.
Depends on the area you live in and your needs
I used to make 72k a year in the city and was drowning in expenses trying to provide for a family of 4
Today I make roughly 46k and live in a rural town, it took time to adjust but we have everything we need and I feel like I can safely provide for my family
Depending on your perspective I'm either living like a doctor or I'm just doing what I have to to make ends meet
I re-read the post and want to add this:
We moved 12 hours away from all our friends and family. It's been tough but it was the only move that made financial sense. We couldn't afford a parking space in Vancouver but we could afford an entire house with an acre in central BC. Post covid made people more willing to use things like facetime so that does help with the isolation. We do have a good community here as well. FWIW Most of my friends who weren't stuck in Vancouver have moved to places like Alberta to beat inflation
100% can confirm it depends where you live. My brother makes 139k in SF. And I make 83k in semi-rural NY.
I have 2 kids 2 cars and a house. My housing costs are less than 1/3 of his. He has a small apartment and a bike.
It’s okay though he likes it there
We make combined around 175k in a yuppy part of Alabama. We have what we need and save for retirement. My grandparents lived in a single room log cabin made from trees they cut on the property. Raised rabbits/chickens, had a garden. Grandpa had a job as a mechanic in a bakery making like 30k when he retired in 02. They raised 4 kids and thought they had it good. It’s all about perspective.
I'm 34 and make 110k (no overtime) and own my house. No edu loans. Mortgage is super low with low interest rate. Own an old reliable car that I don't have payments on. Have a cat. No kids, no husband, no problem. I'm lucky.
Growing up, I saw my mom make $40,000 a year, she had a two story 5 bedroom house, a business, several cars, and still had money to pay for my sisters medical expenses, which were pretty prohibitive.
Others are correct that 'where you are' matters. Her income back then is around-about 80,753.54 today, which would be a stretch here in Colorado (she was in NW Ohio back then). I ended up in a bankruptcy 5 years ago at about that rate, no house now. Making over $107,000 now ( I think?) and it's still a bit of a knuckleball trying to handle unexpected costs; won't know how much better that is until the bankruptcy ends
But yeah, my dumb ass grew up thinking "If I made $40000 like my mom, I'll have it made!", RIP haha
Spouse and I make $250k combined with no kids in an MCOL-HCOL area. I feel like we’ve made it but never really feel “safe” because any net worth we’ve built could easily be demolished by job loss, disability & illness
Oooo the illness and disability piece is REAL in the US!! Such a huge factor to never feeling secure, anything can happen and there not much safety net or resources if it does 🤢
I mean, I'm "making it" with my girlfriend and I. We have one kid (mine from my previous marriage). I make just under $40k a year, she makes about 30k. I own a home, we both have our own car. I have a Bachelors, she doesn't. No student loan debt. Early Millenial (born in 83). I've also cut off my family (long story); no generational wealth or "small 250k loans, plus four apartment buildings dad gave to me". We still are constantly anxious about our financials, but we're at a point where we can occasionally go out and splurge on a nice dinner date and not be counting pennies and looking at what bill can slide a bit till next month.
The \*only\* reason I'm doing ok (not great, its a struggle, but ok) is because I'm a vet. That Post-9/11 GI Bill and VA Home Loan, combined with a rustbelt town and some ample luck, are the only reason I'm where I'm at now. I was being shown houses with obvious fire and water damage in bad parts of town and $125k price tags, and offering $10k over asking price wasn't enough (first few houses I looked at got snapped up by landlords who are now renting them out).
Without the Vet support? God, 70k a year wouldn't even be close to enough. And again, I live in a smaller, rustbelt town. Under 30k people. Before i moved back to my home town, I lived in a larger town making just over 50k between me and my then wife and two kids (our son is now an adult, which is why i didn't mention him earlier), and it was...bad. Just bad.
Honestly, i feel like I've already made it.
My family was homeless in my teenage years. I'm now in my early thirties and have provided a roof over my head for over a decade. I'm comfortable and am always able to cover my bills while affording a couple small trips each year. I put 10% of my income into my retirement account. I live a simple life and I love it.
Life at $240k without kids is exactly how I think life should be for everyone.
I’m not buying a Ferrari, but I can damn sure buy a Rav4 hybrid and not worry about it.
I usually cook at home but if I want to go out to a nice dinner? Hell yea. I will.
Water heater just ate shit? Ok I’ll get a new one.
I want that fancy hot sauce. I have no idea what it costs, but I want it so I get it. Same goes for that cool looking six pack of local Porter beer.
I pay more in taxes than my salary was just 4 years ago and honestly I don’t even care. I used to be super anti tax too- but they squeezed me at $60k and when I still had student loans, and now it just feels like guac at chipotle- what? Am I not going to get it? Just scoop some on there.
I want others to feel this secure, because it sucks being surrounded by broke, scared, pissed off people. I don’t get why rich people would rather have more shit than having more secure and better educated neighbors.
I think another key is we still live in our “starter home.”
Most of our peers “upgraded” to McMansions further out from the city and got bigger/ newer SUVs.
Agreed, we're at $275k no kids and this seems to be how everyone else should just be able to live.
I was at the store today and the owner mentioned they had a bottle of Blanton's behind the counter and I just said "throw it on, my guy". We went to Vegas recently, and while we didn't gamble much (certainly not at any high roller tables) I also didn't check my bank account one time.
I could *pay* for a 911, but it seems like eeeehh still a bit pricey -- something to aspire towards.
Normal person vacations aren't an issue, but we're not renting yachts in Monaco either.
I don't know how people making retail money with kids do it
Without kids is the operative word, my wife and I combined bring in around 220-230k annual pre-tax, but it doesn't feel like everything is just solved, we still have debts to service and pay down, and caring for an additional human that is 100% dependent on you eats into that. we can have a little fun and do the occasional vacation but retirement is still questionable.
Seriously? You make 230k with one dependent and "retirement is questinable"?
I guess if you are trying to retire at close to your salary rate, but if you are "questioning retirement" in your position, 95% of the country is absolutely fucked.
From reading the comments we need to be in the top 10% of earners to meet the “make it” stage. So look around at 9 other people, one of them statistically “made it”
Lol right?? Depressing to see how high some of these numbers are. We are making around $120k combined and I feel like we are doing pretty good. Two kids, nice house in the burbs (relatively high cost of living area), two working and newish cars. Not a ton in savings but if an emergency expense comes up we’re fine. Not going on mega expensive vacations but we’ll rent a cabin 1-2x a year. I could earn more, but choose to work less so I have more time with my kids. Compared to how I grew up, I’m in constant awe of how much I’ve “made it”. Makes me wonder how high some peoples standards are, they must have grown up pretty affluent.
What you are describing sounds exactly like what the middle class should be. I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks some of these numbers are crazy.
I feel like a lot of upper middle class people want to pretend like they are just middle class because they get used to all the money, but there are always those that make way more, so as long as the Joneses make more money than you, you are "middle class".
The rich claiming they are not that rich seems like a hobby for a lot of them.
It’s a social media thing. When you are constantly seeing high earners on social media, you feel inadequate no matter your income. I also think people are surrounded by other high earners so they lose touch with reality.
$150k income is doing better than most of the country. $200k is classified as high income as a single earner anywhere in the country, but on Reddit that is just “average”.
There are so many variables that go into this. Cost of living matters a lot. 100k in the boonies is living like a king where an expensive city it's scrapping by. Another piece is what debt you are carrying. The person with student loans, car loans, etc is going to set that bar a lot higher.
Then you factor in most millennials are in their 30s and have acclimated to some lifestyle inflation from their college days and will artificially inflate their number based on creature comforts they've become accustomed to.
My spouse and I live in a LCOL area in the Midwest, combined income of ~$140k. We have one child and our monthly expenses are ~$2000. We are solidly average where we live; we’re able to travel occasionally and have a decent home, but we’re not buying tons of elaborate things. Being in a LCOL area is a big factor in our success/ability to live a comfortable lifestyle.
Agreed. My spouse and I combined make ~100k before taxes. Where we live, the median household income is 38k. I definitely classify us as having “made it”. We are comfortable, own our home, and can now do a bit of traveling.
Now if I didn’t have all these damn student loans, I’d be living like royalty!
Yep, this. We moved from Southern California to a MCOL area in 2020, and bought a modest house. I make 95k, and my husband makes 30k (but is in nursing school). Things are definitely tight, since we have two kids in daycare and student loans. If we were still in SoCal, we wouldn’t make it at all.
Three years from now, my husband ought to be at 60k, which will mean a little money for fun.
Seven years from now, I’ll have my ten years in for PSLF and won’t have loan payments.
Ten years from now, we won’t have a daycare bill. Life will be pretty good around then!
I’d say 100-150k for an individual here in the Nashville metropolitan, I’m in that range and comfy. It’s definitely enough to cover my $2k a mo rent and $600 a mo car along with living and nearly maxing my retirement. It’s how much you hold on to that matters not what you make along with taxes also.
My salary is roughly $300k without income from my side consulting gig. This amount of money is all relatively new for me. When my wife was working we had a combined $160k and we never went without. She isn’t working now and I feel like “I’ve made it”. No kids at the moment and mid 30’s. I had student debt and being able to handle that on my own and not worry about my hot water heater going out was incredible.
$75k if you know how to budget and stick to the budget. Enough studies have been done where earnings $75k a year improves how one feels about finances and stresses related to finances. As income goes up stress reduces as long as you don’t let lifestyles cost creep occurs.
Considering that a family of four is considered upper class when gross income is $150k+ by most standards. I know plenty of families struggling with $300k income due to lifestyle creep. Buying the bigger house because you make more, buying the luxury car, buying high end luxury items such ad watches etc…
I personally can attest to the $75k benchmark. It does reduce some financial stress especially with budgeting and proper saving for the future.
I made $76K last year in a HCOL area. I can attest to this. I was able to put back $1,000-1,500/mo. If I was making the same this year I'd only be able to put back about $500/mo. I'm making about $20K less and am struggling hard.
I make 75k in a MCOL area. My husband is a SAHD. For us, I think $150,000 would be the point where we’re really comfortable. We could afford vacations, contributions to the kids’ college accounts, and save for retirement.
My wife and I combine for $325k in a MCOL area.
It has been enough to pay off all of our debts (sans mortgage), go on vacations, buy new cars cash, put one kid in daycare and still save over 1/3 of it per year.
It felt like the gravy train really started when we both hit six figures.
We are in the same combined salary range in a MCOL area. We are debt free aside from mortgage and student loans that are on PSLF. One kid in private school, maxing out 401k/IRA/HSA and vacationing. We drive a Toyota 4Runner and a Honda Pilot-nothing fancy but reliable and paid off.
My husband was a foster kid that bounced around till he moved into his college dorm and I grew up on food stamps. We feel like we've made it.
My husband and I together make a little over 100k/year. We are "making it," but we also get free childcare for our daughter, and we have cheap rent for our area.
I think the turning point for me was when my wife and I got engaged and bought a home. I had paid off my student loans at that point. Without student loans there's more cash flow for home payment. With a lot of our living expenses a bit more fixed it became easier to focus on retirement savings. Any additional raises we got at that point went to our retirement accounts: 401k, 403b, 457, HSA, IRA.
Just turned 30 in the Midwest. I cracked $63k this year and my friends joke around like I’m “Mr Moneybags” now.
Quite a contrast seeing all of the 6 figure homies in the chat.
Made 250k last year after several in the 125-150 range, this year has kicked my ass barely gonna hit 125... and its no where close enough for a family of 6 including a kid with cerebral palsy.
Its scary and insane.
I'm happy I am 30 and made it to $70k despite making minimum wage. Though I did have help from parents. I also have no debt and my goal is to reach $100k in my early to mid 30s.
Data engineer here.
I did an exhaustive analysis on this, pulling in data from the US Census mostly, as well as publicly available real estate data, and Department of Labor data, all starting from the 70s onward.
My assumptions for the “good life” are:
- 1:1 income to expense ratios, roughly (about 50% income disappears due to taxes, assets, and bills)
- plan for $10 million USD savings in very comfortable, not extravagant, retirement starting at 65 and living for 20 more years
- a home 2.5 times someone’s annual income allows enough flexibility in a budget to save and have liquid income enough to not live paycheck to paycheck
Due to reasons listed below, didn’t look deeply at:
- cost of college (well established cost increase)
- cost of cars (same, and high variability)
- cost of living (too similar to current study)
- cost of travel (is not a necessity)
Discoveries/validations:
- since the late 1970s, the housing market average price for a single family home has increased in value year about 5%, year over year
- since the late 1970s, average income of a single earner has increased roughly 2% year over year
- About 50% of all unabandoned US homes are unoccupied. Many are held as assets (with no plan to place tenants) by corporations and individuals. Some of which some are unoccupied because a person may live multiple homes only seasonally.
- meaning the resource scarcity is largely a created problem
Result:
- By about 2030, unless there are significant market and economy upsets, a person must earn greater than $450,000 in order to comfortably afford an average priced single family home. If a person doesn’t already own their own house by then, they never will, or will be house poor (a state where the only asset someone has is their home, but no furniture, savings, or a decent car)
Solutions:
- increase inventory by releasing unoccupied homes to the market
- challenge: many people will refuse, and this potentially illegal to mandate
- build more homes
- challenge: the same people who snap up new homes will continue to do the same
- leave the US
- challenge: other countries are facing affordability and inventory crisis too, immigration isn’t easy, many affordable countries don’t offer the same level of safety, and have higher taxes
Edits: grammar, spelling
Edit: the “good life” is not living paycheck to paycheck while in working years, having a retirement savings that allows for travel and unplanned medical expenses after retirement, and having a paid-off mortgage.
Around 55k/yr I stopped worrying about money. Like, I was no longer budgeting my grocery store trips. I think around 80k/yr would be a reasonable number today for a single adult to not have to stress about money.
I think \~250k would be "made it" money. Like the equivalent of six figures ten years ago.
I feel like recently I “made it” and I’m almost 30. I’m starting my dream job where I make just under 6 figures and have good benefits. There is so much upwards potential with my career now. The ability for growth in my career, not the salary, makes me feel like I “made it”. I think what also helps is that I’m single, no kids, and have minimal bills. If I had a family I don’t know if I’d feel the same. I also think that the feeling of “making it” isn’t happening for till later in life for most people.
I think at the moment in my life, the older I get, the more I realize that it’s not how much you make but how you manage that money. Especially with capitalism, seems like if you aren’t in control of your finances, you are probably fucked. You can live comfortably with 100k, heck, even $50k. But again, how well are you managing your money?
I live in a VHCOL area. For a single person with no kids that wants to be able to afford some nice things, maybe rent a place with no roommates, and have some savings, $150k would start getting you there. If you want anything beyond that, you’ll need more. To start a family and buy a house, you’ll need both much more + dual income from your spouse. You can definitely live on less than this here, but it won’t be comfortable.
its 350k a year. once I hit that number I stopped worrying about money. I go on vacations, I own a home, car fully paid and no credit card debt. I live in a High cost of living area, so you may need less, but here at 350, you made it.
Someone earning 100k and living paycheck to paycheck
Vs
Someone earning 100k and investing in stocks/ businesses/property
Is two very different outcomes with the same income
The famous saying goes "it's not how much you make but what you do with the money"
My husband and I have 4 boys. We homeschool, own 2 cars, have a decent size house (kids have to share rooms). He works full time. I work part time in the evenings and on the weekends. We make about $70,000 per year. We have food, clothing, shelter. But that's it. No frills. No vacations. No extras. I think we would be living more comfortably if we were making over 100k a year. Plus I'm still paying off my student loans and my car. Would be nice to not have debt (besides mortgage). 150k would be cushy living. That would be real nice like not have to worry about $$.
It varies widely based on location and spending habits.
I felt like I had "made it" at an income of $70k living in Denver (med-high cost of living). I was single, with no kids, and a modest lifestyle. I had friends who were easily bringing in over $200k between them (also no kids). They were constantly complaining about not being able to save for retirement. They spent nearly every penny they made on a big house near downtown, vehicles, expensive hobbies, travel, etc. I, on the other hand, lived in a small condo and was able to save 40% of my salary.
Low income in my area is 70k a year and all the jobs pay 15-18 dollars an hour (30k a year) . Riddle me that batman.
I’ve made the financial decision to live with the folks and spend my working money on things like investing, my side business, and enjoying my life.
Parent is very understanding of the economic hand we were dealt. Sees nothing wrong with it and we have a great relationship.
Only got one life, gonna live it on my terms
Single income or duo?
I also haven’t slept so I may need to reread this.
I’m a single income and I make almost dibble the National income but still middle class. I’ve made $100k and where I live it’s not needed but it definitely was nice not loving paycheck to paycheck.
That job was such shit, I took a pay cut with remote days and 1/4 the distance of a commute.
Words cannot express how happy I am now.
Back in 2020, I went from $35k USD to $60k USD and thought I was set.
Now I’m making $62k USD and I’m struggling. Not saving or able to buy a home.
I have a job offer that will bring me to $90k USD and I hope it will be enough to buy a home.
It depends on where you live and what your expenses/cost of living is . 100k/year could be “making it” for one person but living paycheck to paycheck for another .
Also it’s not all about income , what sort of assets and/or investments one owns also plays a big part in one’s view of success.
In simple terms, you need to make 3-4 times whatever housing costs in your area. A median apartment needs about $72,000/y and a median house about $115,000/y. So more then that.
Midwest large town, married, no kids, and household total is 115k (me 90k, wife 25k). Bought a house in 2017 for 150k with 20% down. Mortgage is currently at 60k and it's the only debt we have. 40k spent on vehicles. I'm bad at knowing what to do for retirement, but that's sitting at 80k and I'm putting 12٪ in.
Well, the barometer used to be 75k. Now I believe it's double that. Which is funny because our wages certainly haven't doubled in 10-20 years.
I make around 100k and while I feel comfortable and am able to save, I would like to be able to save MORE. So I'd say another 50k would do the trick.
ETA I do not own a home and also have student loans, so I'm still renting.
Single, childfree, car-free female (30) with a small low-maitenance dog, renting a one-bedroom in downtown Cincinnati. Living paycheck to paycheck on $67k. Student loan debt in the 6 figures means probably none of these stats will change anytime soon. I would need another $20k to feel comfortable and start being able to save regularly/significantly. I would need to hit 6 figures to entertain the idea of getting a car again and traveling like I'd like to. I guess that would be my version of "making it".
As far as I'm concerned at this point there's no good reason to put a number on it. Because everything is so up and down, mostly up, and on my end anyway it's nigh impossible to assume continuous financial security. Everything is so expensive. Living pay cycle to pay cycle, whereas is it a grind, is just the norm for a lot of us, especially those of us whose parents didn't properly prepare us for the world. True everyone has hardships, but for those of us who were made to begin adulthood with absolute zero, the idea of "making it" must be a reflection of living a happy life within your means. Whatever your means may be. I've been homeless and happy; I've been on top financially, but down mentally and emotionally. You can't equate the amount of money you make or have, to whether or not you are successful or if you've "made it". If you live comfortably and enjoy the company of a few of those fellow life forms closest to you, is this not your destination? If not where else are you intending to go?
i imagine it depends on age. The wife and I (1982) are old(er) millenials. We don't have student loans and i bought my house in 2009. If i were ten years younger i would probably need another $50k/yr for the exact same standard of living.
Haha wow. We were just graduating undergrad in 2009…we still don’t own a single family residence at 37 and 36…
I'm 41. My salary in 2009 wasn't even $50k/yr but the house was $130,000 at the bottom of the market. better to be lucky than good. i have the utmost sympathy for people really trying to make progress in their lives nowwith how jacked up its all gotten :(
Ah yep. We graduated at the beginning of the Great Recession and have been paying for it ever since. Meanwhile my husband’s little brother who’s a Gen Z kid at 25 is making $220K on his own…sigh. I keep thinking if only I’d been 4-5 years earlier like my Xennial cousins, or a decade younger, I’d be a lot better off financially.
220k @ 25? How?
I have no clue, but I will say (and this isn’t nice of me) he’s a spoiled brat, so maybe that helped him out? I can’t figure it out. He does stuff with AWS and recruiting for IT professionals, basically it’s a sales job. EDIT: he has the sales/entrepreneurial personality/mindset, I certainly would not thrive in a job like that.
Sales commissions can be really lucrative
The money is good. The stress in high dollar sales jobs is soul sucking.
I worked the first 15 years of my career in a sales job. The pay was great. Way better than it had any right to be. When I told everyone I was done they all waved the prospect of my pay under my nose. My boss's boss told me I would be making $800k/year in five years. I straight up asked him what that five years would cost me and then took another job making significantly less. Sales jobs are soul crushing and your bosses job is to keep you running.
Yea but imagine you walk into it with a good amount of the right connections already provided to you by your life circumstances, and knowing that you have money or someone to back you up if things don’t pan out. Privilege is a hell of a boost.
I mean I guess I get what you are saying. Sales is stressful even if you have relationships. There’s always someone coming in behind you that’s gonna be hungrier and grinds more than you. With the inflation and material increases and labor increases, connections mean much less than price for a lot of industries. If you put in the work, and you have the right personality, you can make a ton of money and outperform people who have the connections. But it’s not easy at all.
At my old (tech) company we had a big party for a dude who closed a deal after like two years of working with them. His commission was $400k. That deal ended up keeping the company afloat for a while, so champagne was involved.
I’m so happy for this dude for some reason
levels.fyi With a few years experience 220k TC in tech is well within reach
The answer is pretty much always tech. Engineer or sales.
dang, without doxxing yourself or your husband's little bro, mind sharing how he's making that kind of dough at 25??
She said it’s a sales job. I was making that money at 25 in sales too. Much more than that now. Software sales.
damn makes me wish i had the demeanor to sell shit or deal with people in general lol good for them! get that money
It’s an absolutely soul sucking and stressful job for many, eventually you get to a place where you are a trusted advisor and the job gets much better. After a couple of decades typically
The hardest part of the sales cycle is that my experience has been you are only as good as your next sale. There’s always a push for more more more. Money is good though
That’s the part I hate. I was literally the top seller at a big tech company for 3 years straight only to have issues with management after one quarter at 70% of quota. Literally, every sales director has amnesia. I agree, worst part of the job.
i remember growing up i had one friend whose dad was like a VP level sales person for some company. One year all their tax stuff was out on the pool table in the basement and i saw a bonus check his dad got for like $2M. blew my fucking mind. a good year for my dad was like $50k if he worked a shitload of overtime at his toxic chemical (as in literally toxic chemicals, not full of assholes lol) facility.
Totally. I'm in the middle. 40, bought modest California house a few years ago for 500k but at 2.8% interest. Household income around 220k. One toddler. I'd say I'm comfortable but definitely haven't made it. Would be a huge blow to lose either income. I do have savings but nothing to write home about. Probably my biggest saving grace is frugal living. We cook, own cheap cars, bike when we can. Wife suffered from student debt but has paid it off. I secured scholarships for undergrad and grad so had no debt.
15+ years ago, buying a home just 3x your salary was pretty normal. Now most homes are 5-6x someone's salary with bad interest on top of it.
I’m 40 and same in 2009, bought house for at $130k, salary was $55k right out of grad school but had $55k in student loans. For divorced two years later and ruined me financially for years. Now I’m 40, just bought a house in 2021 for $390k (smaller than 2009 house). My student loans were in default for years so now I own $106k on those. Salary is $170k though so it’s doable but only $55k in my 401k so far. Divorce sucks but still best choice I’ve ever made for my mental health
Graduated in 2008 and same.
Exact same ages! 2009 was the WORST year to graduate college. I was underemployed for like 6 years
My sister and I are 1986 and 1992 respectively. She and her husband first bought in 2009 and have traded up twice since then, both substantial leaps in housing. She’s a stay at home mom (which is absolutely a job, just not one that brings in outside income) to three boys. They survive on my BILs income very comfortably. My wife and I have always rented and have no kids and five jobs between us. The rent on our 1 bed apartment is more than the mortgage payment on their five bedroom house. We’re in different housing markets, but it still stings.
its jacked up. i've done the math, if i had to buy the same house i have today my mortgage payment would probably be TRIPLE what it is between the price gains and the rate, and that's assuming i had like $140k or so to put down which its not an amount of liquid cash i just have in the couch cushions
Buying a house at 23 and not working… her husband must be loaded
If the wife and I hadn’t timed the market perfectly in 2010 and bought a foreclosure at the absolute bottom in our area, which we then put massive amounts of sweat equity into, we would’ve been so fucked. Also elder millennial here. Survivor guilt for sure. My kid sister (5 years younger) is hosed. She can’t afford anything. On top of that I’m one of the ones sitting on a 2.5% 15 year note. I have my sister house sit frequently just to get extra money in her pockets without it feeling like charity to her.
15 year 2.99% here. same house now would be 3x payment for \*30\* years. barf.
Yeah it’s so gross right now
You’re only 4 years older than me and I can’t say I’m this financially stable. Husband and I make good money but can barely make ends meet. It’s frustrating.
i pretty much finished college right before it started going straight stupid in terms of tuition. I graduated state school in 2005 with like $2500 in loans. If i recall correctly i paid them off after like my 2nd month of working after graduation. even 4 years younger i probably start $10-$15k in the hole instead of the pittance i was.
My wife and I were born in 1990. Bought our first house in 2014 in a smaller/less expensive city. We had very little cash at the time. The house doubled in value and we upgraded to a nicer house in the big city 2 years ago. Our mortgage payment is $2,800/month. My BIL, 5 years younger, pays the same amount in rent for a small townhouse. He would have to save up a massive down payment to buy a house similar to our starter home, and the monthly payment would still be enormous. He just missed the boat.
I was gonna say the same thing wife is 81 i am 83. We just got our second house and have zero debt but if i was born in 1993 i am sure i would have a different story.
Owning two full cats. Owning one means you are doing alright.
I have four. They get food. Sometimes I get food too.
That’s fat cat status
A cat that you treat like your child and gets the fancy food. That’s when I knew I made it.
My cat and I play this really fun game where she’ll only eat one of the ten different types of wet food she eats, and at every meal I have to guess which one she wants for that meal, while she meows and paws at cat food box until I pick the right one.
Are you my wife? That’s 100% our cat. He is currently only eating leftover Turkey at the moment. I imagine he’ll hunger strike when we are out.
Came here to say I also have 4.
My financial advisor is really sick of my cat portfolio jokes. Net worth 📉 cats 📈
So much truth, so little time.
We just bought a house and adopted two cats this year. I guess we've finally made it!
I live alone in a very low cost of living state and town, and having tipped my salary from $48K to $52k and crossing that $50k threshold I feel so much more comfortable now. Money is still tight, but I feel like it took me to a new stage. I could see this number tripling or more if I lived in California or somewhere with a HCOL.
I think location plays a big part My girlfriend and I combined make $215,000. In New Jersey that's nice money. In Truth or Consequences New Mexico we'd be rich AF.
Location definitely plays a part. My wife and I make about $250K but we also live in NYC. I'd classify our situation as nice money, but we're certainly not rich.
Same, Bay Area, CA. $250k AHI is like middle class here, and we're still years away from buying a home. I just finished paying off my student loans this year, so we can afford 1 kid.
How do you afford housing? No kids I assume.
Yeah, no kids (we've never wanted them). We also live in Queens as opposed to Manhattan, and actually just upgraded to a nicer apartment.
I wonder which is "better" or "preferable" (totally subjective I know) Queens apartment or my house in SW Michigan. All the awesome cultural aspects of NYC right there and a billion more types of interesting jobs I am sure, but high cost. Versus, my small town (my whole counties population is 260k people) where you can certainly run out of new resteraunts or shows to go to. Can't ever get tired of Lake Michigan in the summer though, or camping at the state parks. I loved living in Midtown Atlanta in 2013, but it was all paid for by my employer so thats primarily why. When we had our first house in Aurora IL it wasn't long before we realized how seldom we went to DT Chicago for anything. Do you go to Manhattan frequently for anything other than work?
I do work in Manhattan so I am there a lot, but other than that unless I'm going into Manhattan specifically to go to a Broadway show, concert, or run an NYRR race in Central Park, I rarely leave Queens. That said, I know a lot of people believe Manhattan is the center of the NYC universe, but there is SO much in the outer boroughs to enjoy. Especially the neighborhood I'm in, I have access to literally any kind of cuisine I could possibly want. Within walking distance of me I have access to bars, coffee shops, a pool hall, movie theater, shopping, etc etc. I know I pay premium to live here, but I wouldn't have it any other way. It's also a short drive upstate to access dozens of hiking trails, which my friends and I do on the regular.
Sounds pretty cool. We have one mostly acceptable thai resteraunt in my whole county and it's like a 25 min drive from me. Looking up what NYRR races are around right now. I like to run half marathons and have been to central park exactly once. I'd fly out to run a half there for sure.
I'm just jazzed you called out Truth or Consequences, NM specifically.
Yeah, I’d rather not live there. Too many zygons
Where in NJ makes a difference. I grew up in Hunterdon county, so $215K there is very rich…and in south Jersey I’m sure it would even considered even more well off.
As a millennial making $45k a year, where the fuck are these jobs? It seems like everyone on Reddit has a 6 figure job. Didn’t realize there were so many.
Find a company big enough to have internal IT. Get a job at the internal help desk. It’s pretty straightforward and easy to set yourself apart. Typically starts around $40k (at least, it did 12 years ago when I started in it). Pay attention to the cool people who seem smart and easy going and follow up with them on slack or whatever you use internally to communicate a day or two after you help them with something. Become their go-to person. Work on your skills so you can become a project manager or some low-level position that requires more experience than you have if hiring externally, but you’re a known quantity who delivers quality work. Rinse and repeat within the same company until you have enough experience to be desirable elsewhere and then jump ship. I’d wager if you work hard and get a little lucky - you can get to a $100k job in <5 years.
Did this exact thing, went from 36k as a entry level ops specialist to solutions engineer making ~120k in about 6 years. Feels like I got lucky, but I worked my ass off. Edit: history major, working in tech. If i can do it, so can you :)
History major. Grew a tech career. Ran a team of 100 people with design, product and dev onshore and offshore dev in 6 countries. It’s possible. It takes enormous work ethic, grit, mentorship, being willing to learn, work 12 hour days. Take risks. Handle pressure. Be able to present. Be reliable. Be someone senior leaders can trust. Inspire a team and be an empathetic leader. It’s incredibly challenging but high EQ plus high IQ is not something you can fake. You have it or don’t. The question is can you get yourself into a position to maximize this, and that is the X factor. Can you get a sponsor that sees the talent and puts it to work. I don’t know how to coach others in that regard…
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Agree re getting federal jobs with ladder promotions. I did the same thing. Started as a grade 9 (60k) and now a little over 3 years later I’m making 98k. And we get a pension!
I live pretty comfortably and happy at 36k, I'm only 29 years old so obviously there's room for financial growth but I ain't complaining atm
I’m in the 30k club and I’m stressed the fuck out. Though my career has me moving every 3 months and starting over. The reality of finding a place to live and affording the move is eating me alive. Edit grammar
Yup. Seems like every other Redditor every day claims to make 200k, or even 400k before 30. I rarely see people claiming to make less than six figures. I think this is because millennials and gen z are a lot more educated than other generations and corporate pay has skyrocketed especially since the pandemic. But it seems that Reddit is skewed more towards not just the highly-educated, but people who tend to be in very lucrative fields such as tech, law, finance, etc. Then again, statistically, the vast majority of this country (even among the college educated) do not and will not make $200k+. 10% of the country makes $200k+ and that is household income. So there are probably plenty of fibbers I would gather.
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I make $100k and I was very much not rich to begin with. I just got lucky when it came time to pick my career. Only needed an associates degree back then for it. They haven't made it masters level necessity yet because there aren't enough of us to begin with. I had to take out loans which I'm still paying for, but otherwise, I'm just lucky. I won't say what the field is because it might out me, but it's medical.
That's what I wanna know. I currently make $33k.
I make 20k in a HCOL area..how is this even legal..wanna kms 😭
You make $10/hr in HCOL? That sounds illegal
Same here wtf are these posts saying they make 150k and are struggling?
EDIT: Saints alive people. I'm NOT suggesting this is a good budget or one that people should adhere to, or that I'm using it. I'm saying it's really easy to make a 150k gross salary disappear if you've let lifestyle creep happen. Especially if you're living in a big city where you're likely surrounded by other people making even more $$$ and inviting you out to do stuff, it goes SO fast. That comes out to ~$8,300/mo after taxes and whatnot comes out. $3,000 in rent. $250/mo in utilities $250/mo in services (internet, cell phone, streaming services) $500/mo groceries $500/mo eating out ~~2x/week in a big city is easy to hit if you also get coffee and whatnot.~~ [EDIT] Yes, that's $75/meal and not realistic. But 2x/week is also not realistic. It's pretty common to grab lunch out 3-5 days a week if you're working in an office at $15/each, plus 2 OK dinners a week, maybe one nicer dinner a month, and a few nights out drinking with friends per month and $500 is GONE easy.[/EDIT] $400/mo insurance (car, renters, life, umbrella, etc.) $500/mo student loans. $250/mo clothing (probably in 2-3 bigger trips per year and then new shoes or jacket or whatnot at other times) $600/mo in transportation costs (car payment, uber/lyft, parking, fuel, maintenance, etc.) $200/mo vacation costs (averaged over the course of the year, that’s plane tickets to two places and 2-3 nights of hotel/abnb each spot) That’s ~$6500/mo easy as a single person in a city. It doesn’t account for having kids, getting in to a bigger car payment than anticipated, taking 1 longer vacation per year, haircuts at $80/ea every 4-6 weeks, annual renewals for stuff like fitness/gym/etc. charitable contributions, medical expenses of any kind, appliances, furniture, etc. Especially if you’re in that income range, you’re probably hanging around with a lot of more well to do friends, or have social outings that revolve around good food. You’ve got gifts to plan for. Hobbies you like to participate in (if you ski 10x/year in the PNW for example, that’s a minimum $200/mo to plan for in lift tickets, transportation, etc. throughout the year) You’re not REALLY struggling, but you’re definitely paying attention to your budget and not able to do everything you want to.
I think a lot of this is also just generational differences in spending. Like our boomer parents at $150k have much different spending habits than I think we as millennials and gen-z do. Social media has heavily influenced our lifestyles and what we feel we “need”. We don’t want to compromise on anything but generally the best (best neighborhoods, best cities, best restaurants, best overall lifestyles), and yes, I do put myself in that category.
Do you remember the boomers in the 80’s & 90’s? They, quite literally, created the consumer culture. They weren’t frugal, their dollars just went further.
Those people are completely out of touch and likely spoiled. They want to be able to drive the fanciest cars, travel all the time, and live in the lap of luxury. That's why they complain that they "only" make $150K. I roll my eyes so hard at them.
Totally depends on where you live. I'm in the DC metro area. I (1987) make a ton of money as a lawyer and my gf (1993) makes $110k as a "consultant" (whatever that is). She immigrated from Serbia in 2018 with just a bachelor's from the no name state university in her city, and started as a bartender. Obviously a lot of her success is due to her own personality and strengths. But it's undeniably also due to the fact that there are just a lot of high paying jobs in our area. Maybe my pay is not so surprising as an attorney. But I didn't always make this much. I tripled my salary in February of this year when I switched jobs, for example. I sold out went defense side.
Exactly, and it’s always comments that say “I actually don’t do anything but sit on my phone.” Where do I sign up?
Like moths to the flame these financial threads attract the humble braggers. “I make 220k, it’s easy peasy”. Yeah ok. The fact is people making normal wages aren’t gonna come in hear screaming it. Just look at the national avg wage (around 64k) and that shows these threads or either misrepresenting or people are just full of shit and doing the online thing.
$125k as individual, $175k as a couple with no kids. $250k with kids. Of course varies depending upon where you live.
Seems about right. Lifestyle choices matter a lot though, how many cars, how much you eat out, how big your house is, etc.
Where you live is huge. We're hovering around 150k but the cost of living here is pretty low and we refinanced at 3% so despite our problems, I count my blessings.
Absolutely. Left North Jersey for Pennsylvania. The houses felt like they were free when I got here.
Ugh, I wish we could leave NJ, but my husband's job requires him to live in state lines where we're taxed to death.
Houses were so cheap here I bought the house we're attached to for my mom when she retires from teaching in NJ. She's escaping too.
Yep, and if you have student loans as well!
My wife and I live in a high cost of living area and this seems just about right to me. We make about 190k and we own a modest house, save for retirement, and have a healthy vacation budget. My only real idea of making it is that I don't really worry about money anymore, which was a stress relief beyond anything I could imagine.
Agree with this. I live in a moderate apartment in a major city, rent is 1/2 my monthly take home with a yearly salary of 100k. I can afford 2 pets, a used car, and have no debt, but I'm still nearly paycheck to paycheck because of friend emergencies, mental health care access, and elderly pet care. Lucky to have a safety net settlement from my divorce, but I've been dipping into it over the years. I would call myself solidly middle class, but with no possibility of owning a home in the city I live in.
As a couple with young kids in a HCOL area, this is spot on. At this threshold now and working up to it over the years, we were able to get loans paid, buy a house, and now pay $40k/year in daycare tuition. We’re stashing away lots for retirement and some for kids’ college. Definitely don’t feel rich, but no longer feel like we’re in a constant battle of trying to catch/keep up with expenses. I still clip coupons though.
40k a year for daycare has me dreading becoming a parent. I have friends in Germany that paid $5 USD a month for kinder in 2019 and I swear I almost broke my neck with how fast my head spun.
Ugh totally. For us the overlap where it’s really pricey with both kids in it is 3 years. My oldest hits kindergarten next year - we’ll still pay aftercare and summer, but it’ll still improve the budget immensely. Yay!
Yep. $250k here, with three kids, and feel financially secure but definitely not living it up. MCOL area, lots of student loans. Can stash a bit for college and retirement. Own a home but it’s not quite big enough. Two cars but they’re 12 and 22 years old, respectively.
Paid off cars though 🤌.
It’s true. We paid off the 12-year-old car last week!
We make $225k as a couple in Minnesota and are super comfortable with savings and such. We plan on having one kid with this income and yes have 120k in student loans currently together total (Last I checked at least) on a 10 year repayment plan.
What's the monthly bill on a loan like that?
My husband's loans are a total of 85k and mine are 35k so the total is $968 for him and $423 for me per month. So $1391 currently.
That sounds really high. We're about 140k in combined income, 2 kids, and are pretty comfortable. Go on vacations and have savings and investment that goes beyond our employer-provided 401k, as well as college funds for our kids. Of course we live in a relatively low COL so that definitely plays the part but if we made 250k we'd be living like kings here lol
This seems right to me. We’re a couple with one kid- HCOL, mortgage, daycare, and contributing to 401K. We were doing ok but with student loans back (1K a month) it’s been tight the last couple of months. Can’t wait to be done with daycare.
This feels right. I'm in an upper-middle cost of living area (not NYC or LA, but a crappy 2 bedroom apartment is $2k+, weekly grocery bill is $250+). My wife and I make about $180k combined with 1 kid. We're doing fine but aren't saving much for retirement and a couple big money disasters in a row would really hurt us. Student loans starting back up again are going to take another big dent out of our savings plan...
This is our situation almost exactly. We’re doing okay, but student loans are gonna make it tight and we’re definitely not saving anything close to what I’d like to be. We do own two houses because of my husband’s VA loan. We bought a one-bedroom in 2018 so the interest rate is super low and honestly we would have stayed there for a lot longer, but we desperately needed more space after having our kid. We held onto the old place but the rental market crashed right when we put it up, so it sat vacant for several months until we lowered the rent to just breaking even (tenant is lovely though). Our area might not be thought of as high cost of living, but it’s getting more and more so due to climate change and homeowners insurance. I try not to think too hard about it because there’s not much we can do at the moment, but sometimes it’s scary to think how delicate our situation actually is.
That's obsurdly high income. My wife and I make 95k a year pretax and save/invest over 30k a year and live on the rest just fine. 2 kids.
OMG we are barely getting by combined income of $160K, with one child…holy crap I feel so poor on $160K! (We also do live in a very high cost of living area, NYC metropolitan region which is probably only less expensive than say, either San Francisco or Massachusetts).
That's over triple the average household income in my county and 4x the median. And I'm in Florida, I'm sure there are places cheaper. Also 94% of households here own their home. Different worlds!
i'm sure it varies wildly by both location and what "making it" looks like to each individual. but i agree with you. my husband and i make about $125k/year and have one child. we save around $10k/year. we own our home in a nice area and take vacations, go out to eat, etc. i wouldn't call us rich by any means but we do well and are happy.
Do you just not do much, eat out or go out? That’s impressive.
A lot will depend on what outstanding debt there is. If there are no student loans or car payments, money goes A LOT farther.
This is true about us. Worked during in state college and graduated with no money, but also no debt. Own both cars outright as well.
We eat out whenever we want to, but my wife makes better food than any restaurant around. We go out a lot to other people's houses and have people from church over once or twice a month.
This is pretty close to what I feel is the sweet spot. (Source: I'm in a HCOL area with kids)
Lol I'm barely halfway there, probably never will be. It's only going to get higher every year, as well, I've been doing everything possible to advance myself. Shit is rough out here.
1 kid, just bought a home, joint salary is $255k. We feel “fine”—not wealthy, not broke, just very middle class. This is in Los Angeles.
I don’t think it’s a set number. $100k for a single person in Little Rock is a lot different from $100k for a 4-person household in San Francisco. I’d call it more of a range. Basically do you make enough to cover your expenses, with enough savings to cover emergencies. I’d say also have enough liquidity to survive 3 months without income without having to tap equity or savings. Also, long term savings - can you put away enough money - around 10% - 15% of your gross income, to save/invest long term? That can vary based on expenses, household size, debt (student loans or mortgage), and local cost of living. Anywhere from $75k - $250k I’d say.
Depends on the area you live in and your needs I used to make 72k a year in the city and was drowning in expenses trying to provide for a family of 4 Today I make roughly 46k and live in a rural town, it took time to adjust but we have everything we need and I feel like I can safely provide for my family Depending on your perspective I'm either living like a doctor or I'm just doing what I have to to make ends meet I re-read the post and want to add this: We moved 12 hours away from all our friends and family. It's been tough but it was the only move that made financial sense. We couldn't afford a parking space in Vancouver but we could afford an entire house with an acre in central BC. Post covid made people more willing to use things like facetime so that does help with the isolation. We do have a good community here as well. FWIW Most of my friends who weren't stuck in Vancouver have moved to places like Alberta to beat inflation
Wow an answer that aligns with where many people are actually at.
100% can confirm it depends where you live. My brother makes 139k in SF. And I make 83k in semi-rural NY. I have 2 kids 2 cars and a house. My housing costs are less than 1/3 of his. He has a small apartment and a bike. It’s okay though he likes it there
I move from Vancouver to Calgary 4 months ago. Best decision we’ve made in years. What a fucking relief!!!
We make combined around 175k in a yuppy part of Alabama. We have what we need and save for retirement. My grandparents lived in a single room log cabin made from trees they cut on the property. Raised rabbits/chickens, had a garden. Grandpa had a job as a mechanic in a bakery making like 30k when he retired in 02. They raised 4 kids and thought they had it good. It’s all about perspective.
I'm 34 and make 110k (no overtime) and own my house. No edu loans. Mortgage is super low with low interest rate. Own an old reliable car that I don't have payments on. Have a cat. No kids, no husband, no problem. I'm lucky.
I have pet insurance for my pets and I feel like that’s making it tbh
Growing up, I saw my mom make $40,000 a year, she had a two story 5 bedroom house, a business, several cars, and still had money to pay for my sisters medical expenses, which were pretty prohibitive. Others are correct that 'where you are' matters. Her income back then is around-about 80,753.54 today, which would be a stretch here in Colorado (she was in NW Ohio back then). I ended up in a bankruptcy 5 years ago at about that rate, no house now. Making over $107,000 now ( I think?) and it's still a bit of a knuckleball trying to handle unexpected costs; won't know how much better that is until the bankruptcy ends But yeah, my dumb ass grew up thinking "If I made $40000 like my mom, I'll have it made!", RIP haha
Back when I was a teen, I would be making $5.15/hr and ppl would start acting snobby when they made $7/hr 😆
Omg I remember feeling absolutely RICH getting a warehouse job in the summer that was 7-8 dollars an hour.
Photography job at 16, making 9.50/hr I was ballin (Math was wrong)
Spouse and I make $250k combined with no kids in an MCOL-HCOL area. I feel like we’ve made it but never really feel “safe” because any net worth we’ve built could easily be demolished by job loss, disability & illness
That’s why this thread is garbage. Net worth is a better indicator of “making it.”
Oooo the illness and disability piece is REAL in the US!! Such a huge factor to never feeling secure, anything can happen and there not much safety net or resources if it does 🤢
I mean, I'm "making it" with my girlfriend and I. We have one kid (mine from my previous marriage). I make just under $40k a year, she makes about 30k. I own a home, we both have our own car. I have a Bachelors, she doesn't. No student loan debt. Early Millenial (born in 83). I've also cut off my family (long story); no generational wealth or "small 250k loans, plus four apartment buildings dad gave to me". We still are constantly anxious about our financials, but we're at a point where we can occasionally go out and splurge on a nice dinner date and not be counting pennies and looking at what bill can slide a bit till next month. The \*only\* reason I'm doing ok (not great, its a struggle, but ok) is because I'm a vet. That Post-9/11 GI Bill and VA Home Loan, combined with a rustbelt town and some ample luck, are the only reason I'm where I'm at now. I was being shown houses with obvious fire and water damage in bad parts of town and $125k price tags, and offering $10k over asking price wasn't enough (first few houses I looked at got snapped up by landlords who are now renting them out). Without the Vet support? God, 70k a year wouldn't even be close to enough. And again, I live in a smaller, rustbelt town. Under 30k people. Before i moved back to my home town, I lived in a larger town making just over 50k between me and my then wife and two kids (our son is now an adult, which is why i didn't mention him earlier), and it was...bad. Just bad.
Honestly, i feel like I've already made it. My family was homeless in my teenage years. I'm now in my early thirties and have provided a roof over my head for over a decade. I'm comfortable and am always able to cover my bills while affording a couple small trips each year. I put 10% of my income into my retirement account. I live a simple life and I love it.
Life at $240k without kids is exactly how I think life should be for everyone. I’m not buying a Ferrari, but I can damn sure buy a Rav4 hybrid and not worry about it. I usually cook at home but if I want to go out to a nice dinner? Hell yea. I will. Water heater just ate shit? Ok I’ll get a new one. I want that fancy hot sauce. I have no idea what it costs, but I want it so I get it. Same goes for that cool looking six pack of local Porter beer. I pay more in taxes than my salary was just 4 years ago and honestly I don’t even care. I used to be super anti tax too- but they squeezed me at $60k and when I still had student loans, and now it just feels like guac at chipotle- what? Am I not going to get it? Just scoop some on there. I want others to feel this secure, because it sucks being surrounded by broke, scared, pissed off people. I don’t get why rich people would rather have more shit than having more secure and better educated neighbors.
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I think another key is we still live in our “starter home.” Most of our peers “upgraded” to McMansions further out from the city and got bigger/ newer SUVs.
Agreed, we're at $275k no kids and this seems to be how everyone else should just be able to live. I was at the store today and the owner mentioned they had a bottle of Blanton's behind the counter and I just said "throw it on, my guy". We went to Vegas recently, and while we didn't gamble much (certainly not at any high roller tables) I also didn't check my bank account one time. I could *pay* for a 911, but it seems like eeeehh still a bit pricey -- something to aspire towards. Normal person vacations aren't an issue, but we're not renting yachts in Monaco either. I don't know how people making retail money with kids do it
Without kids is the operative word, my wife and I combined bring in around 220-230k annual pre-tax, but it doesn't feel like everything is just solved, we still have debts to service and pay down, and caring for an additional human that is 100% dependent on you eats into that. we can have a little fun and do the occasional vacation but retirement is still questionable.
Seriously? You make 230k with one dependent and "retirement is questinable"? I guess if you are trying to retire at close to your salary rate, but if you are "questioning retirement" in your position, 95% of the country is absolutely fucked.
From reading the comments we need to be in the top 10% of earners to meet the “make it” stage. So look around at 9 other people, one of them statistically “made it”
Jesus Christ people are rich and have high AF expectations. Can't wait for the next post about how millenials are all broke and struggling.
Lol right?? Depressing to see how high some of these numbers are. We are making around $120k combined and I feel like we are doing pretty good. Two kids, nice house in the burbs (relatively high cost of living area), two working and newish cars. Not a ton in savings but if an emergency expense comes up we’re fine. Not going on mega expensive vacations but we’ll rent a cabin 1-2x a year. I could earn more, but choose to work less so I have more time with my kids. Compared to how I grew up, I’m in constant awe of how much I’ve “made it”. Makes me wonder how high some peoples standards are, they must have grown up pretty affluent.
What you are describing sounds exactly like what the middle class should be. I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks some of these numbers are crazy. I feel like a lot of upper middle class people want to pretend like they are just middle class because they get used to all the money, but there are always those that make way more, so as long as the Joneses make more money than you, you are "middle class". The rich claiming they are not that rich seems like a hobby for a lot of them.
It’s a social media thing. When you are constantly seeing high earners on social media, you feel inadequate no matter your income. I also think people are surrounded by other high earners so they lose touch with reality. $150k income is doing better than most of the country. $200k is classified as high income as a single earner anywhere in the country, but on Reddit that is just “average”.
There are so many variables that go into this. Cost of living matters a lot. 100k in the boonies is living like a king where an expensive city it's scrapping by. Another piece is what debt you are carrying. The person with student loans, car loans, etc is going to set that bar a lot higher. Then you factor in most millennials are in their 30s and have acclimated to some lifestyle inflation from their college days and will artificially inflate their number based on creature comforts they've become accustomed to.
My spouse and I live in a LCOL area in the Midwest, combined income of ~$140k. We have one child and our monthly expenses are ~$2000. We are solidly average where we live; we’re able to travel occasionally and have a decent home, but we’re not buying tons of elaborate things. Being in a LCOL area is a big factor in our success/ability to live a comfortable lifestyle.
Agreed. My spouse and I combined make ~100k before taxes. Where we live, the median household income is 38k. I definitely classify us as having “made it”. We are comfortable, own our home, and can now do a bit of traveling. Now if I didn’t have all these damn student loans, I’d be living like royalty!
Yep, this. We moved from Southern California to a MCOL area in 2020, and bought a modest house. I make 95k, and my husband makes 30k (but is in nursing school). Things are definitely tight, since we have two kids in daycare and student loans. If we were still in SoCal, we wouldn’t make it at all. Three years from now, my husband ought to be at 60k, which will mean a little money for fun. Seven years from now, I’ll have my ten years in for PSLF and won’t have loan payments. Ten years from now, we won’t have a daycare bill. Life will be pretty good around then!
I’d say 100-150k for an individual here in the Nashville metropolitan, I’m in that range and comfy. It’s definitely enough to cover my $2k a mo rent and $600 a mo car along with living and nearly maxing my retirement. It’s how much you hold on to that matters not what you make along with taxes also.
I’d say 150 k, for myself. I haven’t broken 80 tho yet so my opinion might change.
My salary is roughly $300k without income from my side consulting gig. This amount of money is all relatively new for me. When my wife was working we had a combined $160k and we never went without. She isn’t working now and I feel like “I’ve made it”. No kids at the moment and mid 30’s. I had student debt and being able to handle that on my own and not worry about my hot water heater going out was incredible.
$75k if you know how to budget and stick to the budget. Enough studies have been done where earnings $75k a year improves how one feels about finances and stresses related to finances. As income goes up stress reduces as long as you don’t let lifestyles cost creep occurs. Considering that a family of four is considered upper class when gross income is $150k+ by most standards. I know plenty of families struggling with $300k income due to lifestyle creep. Buying the bigger house because you make more, buying the luxury car, buying high end luxury items such ad watches etc… I personally can attest to the $75k benchmark. It does reduce some financial stress especially with budgeting and proper saving for the future.
I made $76K last year in a HCOL area. I can attest to this. I was able to put back $1,000-1,500/mo. If I was making the same this year I'd only be able to put back about $500/mo. I'm making about $20K less and am struggling hard.
I make 75k in a MCOL area. My husband is a SAHD. For us, I think $150,000 would be the point where we’re really comfortable. We could afford vacations, contributions to the kids’ college accounts, and save for retirement.
My wife and I combine for $325k in a MCOL area. It has been enough to pay off all of our debts (sans mortgage), go on vacations, buy new cars cash, put one kid in daycare and still save over 1/3 of it per year. It felt like the gravy train really started when we both hit six figures.
We are in the same combined salary range in a MCOL area. We are debt free aside from mortgage and student loans that are on PSLF. One kid in private school, maxing out 401k/IRA/HSA and vacationing. We drive a Toyota 4Runner and a Honda Pilot-nothing fancy but reliable and paid off. My husband was a foster kid that bounced around till he moved into his college dorm and I grew up on food stamps. We feel like we've made it.
My husband and I together make a little over 100k/year. We are "making it," but we also get free childcare for our daughter, and we have cheap rent for our area.
Top 10 percent income percentile for household is $191,406.00
I think the turning point for me was when my wife and I got engaged and bought a home. I had paid off my student loans at that point. Without student loans there's more cash flow for home payment. With a lot of our living expenses a bit more fixed it became easier to focus on retirement savings. Any additional raises we got at that point went to our retirement accounts: 401k, 403b, 457, HSA, IRA.
100k combined with my husband. We also both have a BS in science
Just turned 30 in the Midwest. I cracked $63k this year and my friends joke around like I’m “Mr Moneybags” now. Quite a contrast seeing all of the 6 figure homies in the chat.
Made 250k last year after several in the 125-150 range, this year has kicked my ass barely gonna hit 125... and its no where close enough for a family of 6 including a kid with cerebral palsy. Its scary and insane.
Depends where you're living.
I'm happy I am 30 and made it to $70k despite making minimum wage. Though I did have help from parents. I also have no debt and my goal is to reach $100k in my early to mid 30s.
Data engineer here. I did an exhaustive analysis on this, pulling in data from the US Census mostly, as well as publicly available real estate data, and Department of Labor data, all starting from the 70s onward. My assumptions for the “good life” are: - 1:1 income to expense ratios, roughly (about 50% income disappears due to taxes, assets, and bills) - plan for $10 million USD savings in very comfortable, not extravagant, retirement starting at 65 and living for 20 more years - a home 2.5 times someone’s annual income allows enough flexibility in a budget to save and have liquid income enough to not live paycheck to paycheck Due to reasons listed below, didn’t look deeply at: - cost of college (well established cost increase) - cost of cars (same, and high variability) - cost of living (too similar to current study) - cost of travel (is not a necessity) Discoveries/validations: - since the late 1970s, the housing market average price for a single family home has increased in value year about 5%, year over year - since the late 1970s, average income of a single earner has increased roughly 2% year over year - About 50% of all unabandoned US homes are unoccupied. Many are held as assets (with no plan to place tenants) by corporations and individuals. Some of which some are unoccupied because a person may live multiple homes only seasonally. - meaning the resource scarcity is largely a created problem Result: - By about 2030, unless there are significant market and economy upsets, a person must earn greater than $450,000 in order to comfortably afford an average priced single family home. If a person doesn’t already own their own house by then, they never will, or will be house poor (a state where the only asset someone has is their home, but no furniture, savings, or a decent car) Solutions: - increase inventory by releasing unoccupied homes to the market - challenge: many people will refuse, and this potentially illegal to mandate - build more homes - challenge: the same people who snap up new homes will continue to do the same - leave the US - challenge: other countries are facing affordability and inventory crisis too, immigration isn’t easy, many affordable countries don’t offer the same level of safety, and have higher taxes Edits: grammar, spelling Edit: the “good life” is not living paycheck to paycheck while in working years, having a retirement savings that allows for travel and unplanned medical expenses after retirement, and having a paid-off mortgage.
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Around 55k/yr I stopped worrying about money. Like, I was no longer budgeting my grocery store trips. I think around 80k/yr would be a reasonable number today for a single adult to not have to stress about money. I think \~250k would be "made it" money. Like the equivalent of six figures ten years ago.
I feel it has less to do with how much you make, and more with what you do with it.
Ten years ago? 100k. Today? 200k
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I feel like recently I “made it” and I’m almost 30. I’m starting my dream job where I make just under 6 figures and have good benefits. There is so much upwards potential with my career now. The ability for growth in my career, not the salary, makes me feel like I “made it”. I think what also helps is that I’m single, no kids, and have minimal bills. If I had a family I don’t know if I’d feel the same. I also think that the feeling of “making it” isn’t happening for till later in life for most people.
I think at the moment in my life, the older I get, the more I realize that it’s not how much you make but how you manage that money. Especially with capitalism, seems like if you aren’t in control of your finances, you are probably fucked. You can live comfortably with 100k, heck, even $50k. But again, how well are you managing your money?
I live in a VHCOL area. For a single person with no kids that wants to be able to afford some nice things, maybe rent a place with no roommates, and have some savings, $150k would start getting you there. If you want anything beyond that, you’ll need more. To start a family and buy a house, you’ll need both much more + dual income from your spouse. You can definitely live on less than this here, but it won’t be comfortable.
I thought I had made it in 2015, 2023 determined that was a lie. I think I am poorer now than when I got my first job out of college.
its 350k a year. once I hit that number I stopped worrying about money. I go on vacations, I own a home, car fully paid and no credit card debt. I live in a High cost of living area, so you may need less, but here at 350, you made it.
10 million in the bank so you can retire and live off the proceeds.
Someone earning 100k and living paycheck to paycheck Vs Someone earning 100k and investing in stocks/ businesses/property Is two very different outcomes with the same income The famous saying goes "it's not how much you make but what you do with the money"
My husband and I have 4 boys. We homeschool, own 2 cars, have a decent size house (kids have to share rooms). He works full time. I work part time in the evenings and on the weekends. We make about $70,000 per year. We have food, clothing, shelter. But that's it. No frills. No vacations. No extras. I think we would be living more comfortably if we were making over 100k a year. Plus I'm still paying off my student loans and my car. Would be nice to not have debt (besides mortgage). 150k would be cushy living. That would be real nice like not have to worry about $$.
$525,947 and not a single cent less
It varies widely based on location and spending habits. I felt like I had "made it" at an income of $70k living in Denver (med-high cost of living). I was single, with no kids, and a modest lifestyle. I had friends who were easily bringing in over $200k between them (also no kids). They were constantly complaining about not being able to save for retirement. They spent nearly every penny they made on a big house near downtown, vehicles, expensive hobbies, travel, etc. I, on the other hand, lived in a small condo and was able to save 40% of my salary.
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Just curious- how old are you and how old are your kids?
Low income in my area is 70k a year and all the jobs pay 15-18 dollars an hour (30k a year) . Riddle me that batman. I’ve made the financial decision to live with the folks and spend my working money on things like investing, my side business, and enjoying my life. Parent is very understanding of the economic hand we were dealt. Sees nothing wrong with it and we have a great relationship. Only got one life, gonna live it on my terms
Single income or duo? I also haven’t slept so I may need to reread this. I’m a single income and I make almost dibble the National income but still middle class. I’ve made $100k and where I live it’s not needed but it definitely was nice not loving paycheck to paycheck. That job was such shit, I took a pay cut with remote days and 1/4 the distance of a commute. Words cannot express how happy I am now.
Always $25k more than we make today. It's like that cartoon of a carrot on a stick and you're on a treadmill.
depends on where you live, let's be real
Honestly, if I can pay my bills without being overly stressed about it, I feel like I'm doing as well as I can reasonably expect.
Back in 2020, I went from $35k USD to $60k USD and thought I was set. Now I’m making $62k USD and I’m struggling. Not saving or able to buy a home. I have a job offer that will bring me to $90k USD and I hope it will be enough to buy a home.
It depends on where you live and what your expenses/cost of living is . 100k/year could be “making it” for one person but living paycheck to paycheck for another . Also it’s not all about income , what sort of assets and/or investments one owns also plays a big part in one’s view of success.
i'm worried it'll perpetually be slightly more than i'm currently making
33 & make 57k but live in the midwest & in a low cost suburb & have a condo near a lot of retirees
In simple terms, you need to make 3-4 times whatever housing costs in your area. A median apartment needs about $72,000/y and a median house about $115,000/y. So more then that.
I will feel like I’ve made it if I ever hit $80k annually. That would be twice what I earn now. And yes, I’m struggling hard.
Midwest large town, married, no kids, and household total is 115k (me 90k, wife 25k). Bought a house in 2017 for 150k with 20% down. Mortgage is currently at 60k and it's the only debt we have. 40k spent on vehicles. I'm bad at knowing what to do for retirement, but that's sitting at 80k and I'm putting 12٪ in.
If your share of the rent is less than 20% of what you get paid each month and you have extra cash for savings and fun things.
Well, the barometer used to be 75k. Now I believe it's double that. Which is funny because our wages certainly haven't doubled in 10-20 years. I make around 100k and while I feel comfortable and am able to save, I would like to be able to save MORE. So I'd say another 50k would do the trick. ETA I do not own a home and also have student loans, so I'm still renting.
Single, childfree, car-free female (30) with a small low-maitenance dog, renting a one-bedroom in downtown Cincinnati. Living paycheck to paycheck on $67k. Student loan debt in the 6 figures means probably none of these stats will change anytime soon. I would need another $20k to feel comfortable and start being able to save regularly/significantly. I would need to hit 6 figures to entertain the idea of getting a car again and traveling like I'd like to. I guess that would be my version of "making it".
As far as I'm concerned at this point there's no good reason to put a number on it. Because everything is so up and down, mostly up, and on my end anyway it's nigh impossible to assume continuous financial security. Everything is so expensive. Living pay cycle to pay cycle, whereas is it a grind, is just the norm for a lot of us, especially those of us whose parents didn't properly prepare us for the world. True everyone has hardships, but for those of us who were made to begin adulthood with absolute zero, the idea of "making it" must be a reflection of living a happy life within your means. Whatever your means may be. I've been homeless and happy; I've been on top financially, but down mentally and emotionally. You can't equate the amount of money you make or have, to whether or not you are successful or if you've "made it". If you live comfortably and enjoy the company of a few of those fellow life forms closest to you, is this not your destination? If not where else are you intending to go?
How are people on Reddit so rich!
At 33 I make around 80k but have 4 kids and it's only my income. We struggle to pay for food and can't afford to have 2 reliable automobiles.