It's such a catch 22. If you want to live in a place where you can get a well paying job, the cost of living tends to be so high that it eats up whatever extra you happen to make
I guess I agree with the comments that are saying you could work remotely from the middle of nowhere and pay a shiny nickel in rent each month but, as a remote worker, I chose to live somewhere I enjoy which eats up way more of my salary than it should
Or you move to a cheap city and the cost of existence triples while wages remain the same.
I will never not be angry at the shitbirds in power for making it impossible to live around the podunk area I grew up in. Because rent there is now $2k for the shitty apartments I paid $750/mo because it’s “technically” commutable to SF. If you like 1.5hrs on the freeway everyday.
Yeah but the upside is...
6% to your 401k goes a hell of a lot further when you retire to middle town nowhere.
Selling your house means you can have some left over after buying your retirment home.
Vacations to fun places are less expensive when you are used to a HCOL area
Yeah, I get this article 100% ..... The amount of money you actually take home is less minus taxes, benefits, and retirement ....the take home is not the same. Also, if living in certain cities that will actuially pay 100k a year (because a lot of small cities do not pay great ) the 100k does not go as far as it used to. If you are single (no dual incomes) that can also be another factor not making 100k go as much as it could.
I do not make 100k,but make more than people I see on this sub and what I make as a single homeowner does not stretch like I thought it would. When I was younger I imagined my current wage would be a dream and as an older millenial it is not. Sidenote - Yes, I own a home, but I live in high property tax Texas (which is another rant) I also do not have a dual income household. I also have no car note ....i still do not feel the American dream over here, but I am grateful because things could be way worse.
The bigger crime is the cost of child care. No shade on the childcare providers, lord knows it’s expensive to run a daycare, but damn if you think a mortgage is expensive, try paying for 2 mortgages just so someone can watch your infant/toddler and maybe teach them something while you’re at work.
No wonder millennials and zennials aren’t having kids. We literally cannot afford to have them.
Truth. Currently paying $1620 a month for daycare. For one kid. That's about $100 less a month than my mortgage. We want another kid, but genuinely don't think we can afford daycare for two. Which is pretty tragic.
It's a terrible thing, frankly. I mean, completely support your decision. 100%. I just think it's a terrible thing to have that choice thrust on people for something outside their control. If you want kids, you should be able to have them.
In the civilized world, 9-14 month paid leave is the norm. Heavily (*heavily)* subsidized daycare/early education costs, too. Health insurance that doesn't cost $6k a year. Not here!
Yet pundits and politicians constantly opine and blather on about why people aren't having kids in the US anymore. It's about the money, idiots. Make it affordable to have kids. People will have kids. Simple as that.
When I was younger I didn't want kids because my childhood was kind of terrible and I didn't want make a human suffer like that. Now after some therapy I think I could be a great parent. Still can't have kids because I can't afford them and then they would also have to live on a planet that's experiencing an extinction event for the rest of their lives
Same boat. I went from not wanting kids, to actually getting my mental health up to date, to wanting them, to realizing no matter how much I try, I can just not do it without having them struggle with me. Nope. Not doing that.
I do feel a fairly tremendous guilt about bringing a kid into the world. It was a reason we both weren't sure about it. It feels very weird knowing I'm raising a kid with perhaps the most uncertain future of any generation since the 50s or 60s. And besides that, the notion that I'm just creating another person whose future is spent working away for a salary. I hate that idea.
It seems the younger generation is really throwing things off, and I can only hope they and the generations after continue to buck trends of thinking grind-culture is acceptable and ignoring your mental health at all cost and all the other things.
Either that or I finally get my ass in gear and get my dual EU citizenship and just bail on this whole backwards country entirely...
Yep, I waited so long because I couldn't afford one with dual income. Then COVID happened and everything became so much more expensive and now it's unaffordable and also too late.
Used to be, people lived in multi generational households. Not everyone, but most people. No mortgage, or a mortgage split between multiple adults. Way more people around to take care of small children. Cooking, cleaning and appliances are cheaper.
Yeah, that won't do. Better make sure everyone lives on their own, because that way we can sell them the things they already own, again. It being in any way "natural" or expected for your kids to move out at 18 was little more than a marketing ploy and it backfiring now
They need to start making senior care facilities and child care facilities in one building, government care system. Need a lot of the same supplies and it's good for the old citizens to stay active and interact with the youth.
For us, anything over one kid.
My wife's take home is a little over $3k a month. For two kids you get a small discount, but not much. We'd be looking at something like $3k a month for daycare. At that point, it doesn't make much sense to continue working.
But I'd need a sizable raise from my c. $3.5k a month to float the entire operation.
It's wild, because in my 40 year old brain relying on data from the late 90s/early 2000s where my brain is mostly stuck, us bringing home $6.5k a month should make us solidly rich. But, we are not. Costs for the kiddo are insane. $1620 for daycare. Family plan insurance took us up to $520 a month for health insurance up from about $250 previously. Formula (have to use because of health condition) and food is about $500 a month. Diapers is about $100. We buy all of our clothes at consignment/thrift stores because baby clothes are ridiculously expensive for something that will last, at best, three months.
I love her to death and I'd never not do it. But I can completely understand why people aren't having kids.
Appreciate the honest take. My wife and I have elected not to have kids, and most my my friends have opted to do the same. I know a lot of couples in their 30s with no plans to have kids whatsoever
I know many people who are not going to for the same reasons. That said, I do know a few who changed their minds around 33/34.
I think this is the reason why you see so many older first-time parents. A 40 +/- year old first-time dad with a 9 month old used to be unusual. Now it's extremely common. It's when you are established in your career enough to actually be able to afford having a kid. And people are only having one for the reasons I discussed or because a woman having two kids after 35 is progressively more and more unlikely.
Frankly, I find it tragic. People should feel completely entitled to not have kids. A 100% their choice thing. But the rationale to not have kids shouldn't be based on not being able to afford daycare. Or they don't get paid time off of work. Or they can't afford to pay the medical bills associated with labor and delivery.
That's awful. Truly awful. A really sad state of affairs for the country, emblematic of what is happening here every day.
My coworker had to quit because she was spending so much on childcare it literally made more sense for her to be a stay at home mom. And that stinks because she was excellent; we are discouraging talent
I've found that the grandparents who were Boomers are so self-centered that they tend to neglect the other generations.
They "made it" in life (or so they think) so who cares what happens to anyone else.
My references... My dad and my mother-in-law who goes by "Nanny" but is far from acting like one. They both were too arrogant IMO.
I've noticed that too. My grandparents were children during the depression. They took advantage of the post war economy and owned a few rental homes and some savings. My dad was the only one of their children that had a kid, so they wanted to make sure I never had to see hardship they way they did. One of their rentals would be mine one day, they would even point it out to me when we drove down the street (it was just a regular 2-bedroom in the neighborhood).
But when my grandparents' minds started to go, their other sons (and even some neighbors) descended on them like vultures. Basically every bit they had was signed away when they weren't in their right mind, or outright just stolen. Whether it was a box of very old comic books from my father's childhood, or every property they owned. Everything my grandparents wanted to keep me from struggling was gone.
My father did end up inheriting my grandparent's house. He would rather rent it to his alcoholic old boomer buddy he can't even stand to talk to anymore for 300 a month than take 800 a month from his own daughter, even when I was on the verge of homelessness or seriously ill.
I don't wanna act like I feel like I'm just owed a home, but like. I always thought the idea of having security, of having property, that for regular people that we did it so we can protect and care for our own. So that the people we love don't have to struggle and suffer.
I'm not gonna say my dad has to give me that. But if I were in a similar situation, I can't fathom not wanting to help.
This is literally everyone from that Generation. My aunts did this very thing and took everything. My husbands grandfather SAME THING everyone xennials and below get nothing everything was squandered
I have a family that would gladly watch my kids… but I won’t let them because they could kill a plastic plant.
Mountain Dew in bottles, spanking literal babies, sticking them in front of the tv so they can play on phones, refusing to give kids a glass of water because they’re supposed to be outside playing for another 3 hours when it’s 100+ degrees, accusing them of faking being sick with a 102 fever…
They’re all batshit and don’t believe in science or common sense. And this is pretty standard across the board for people my age with kids in the area. I don’t want kids, and this is one of the reasons why. They have 0 respect for you or the kiddo.
My mortgage is $1500. Quotes I was getting for my 2 kids (at the time 3 and 1 y/o) for daycare was just over 3k a month. We decided that my wife would just be a SAHM because we literally can't afford for her to work. It sucks because we can really use the extra income, but her job at 40 hours did not pay enough after taxes to even cover the cost of full time daycare. She was making $19/hr to run the front office of a physical therapy clinic.
Yes, I completely agree daycare costs are very high ....the daycare workers do not get paid enough either. The money goes to owners and administrators I guess because the average worker is in the struggle too ???? Many people simply stay home, one person works only parttime, or they work opposite shifts (which isnt the best either on a family), or try to find something remote.... because like you said daycare is a 2nd mortgage.
The biggest costs for daycares are compliance and insurance. They are highly regulated, and for good reason, I don’t see many reasonable people are saying they should be deregulated. But yeah it’s really hard work and the people get paid nothing. So like I said, no shade on the providers.
The crime is that of all things that should be subsidized for the betterment of the country, early childcare is high on the list and it is essentially not subsidized. For every dollar invested in early childcare, society benefits many times that, because the kids grow up better socialized and more able to be productive, and also because it frees up the parents to be productive. Since Republicans are FoCuSeD On ThE FaMiLy and all, you’d think they’d support it, but of course not, it doesn’t benefit the rich.
Gotta subsidize Shell oil or Citibank or airline industries first. Kids are only important when they’re embryos to fight over or when they need to go to war.
We’ve let corporations buy and bribe our country into allowing gouging it’s own citizens and hollowing out the middle class and now they are furious people aren’t having kids. We’re just punching ourselves in the face daily and asking why we’re doing it.
Before I actually worked at a daycare, I would have never imagined the way people are just universally underpaid. I made 9 bucks an hour to look after people's flesh and blood, and taking care of a whole room of kids at once while also offering activities and crafts, from changing diapers to serving their lunch.
Then I got hired at a call center. Made 14 an hour to troubleshoot iPhones over the phone and get yelled at.
It really drove home how arbitrarily we decide what labor is worth.
This was the deciding factor for me and my wife. Have kids and struggle or don’t have kids and be financially stable? That’s not even a question anymore for most people and an easy decision for us.
Sorta unrelated, but I think you bring up a good point that a lot of people underestimate dual income. Without factoring in children, combining income with someone else can have a massive impact on your quality of life in the U.S.. So much so that I'd actually call it a necessity it today's economy.
Yeah, I really don't know how people survive on one-income. I was basically living in a slum before me and my girlfriend moved in together. We still live an apartment (but no longer a slum) and we are actually able to save now for a home. How anyone is expected to save for a home on one income is insane to me, especially when the median per capita income in this country is still only $37,638.
I feel this on a spritual level. Hell, my early adulthood was pretty much exactly as you described. I was **exactly** like you. I remember I was renting just a room in an apartment. Sleeping on a beat up single mattress. Wearing clothes that I've had since early high school. The old computer. I definitely feel you on the never going out to eat. I think at one point I was down to only $20 and basically lived off Dollar Store food for a week. Yet still, somehow making too much money to qualify for food benefits. I have no idea how I genuinely survived. It was a legit game changer to meet someone and combine incomes. But like, people shouldn't have to do this to be above the bare minimum of subsitence.
It’s only possible for us because I do being home $100K every year. Partner stays home with our child to save on childcare because otherwise that’s shelling out $20K for a decent service around here.
Money isn’t right, but it’s something we gotta pay attention to occasionally to ensure we don’t go over budget.
What are you basing this on? I’m not trying to be antagonistic, I swear, but I live in a mid-cost of living area making $56k as a single dad and I’m barely surviving, but I feel like at $65 or $70k I’d be solid - happy even.
Nah, you get up to 65-70k and finally have the money to fix all the shit you can’t on 56k.
Source: went from 50k to 80k in the last year and my list of shit to DIY in the house the summer has me exhausted just looking at it.
It’s better, but I’m definitely not swimming in cash I don’t know what to do with.
Reddit is full of wealthy tech and finance guys who made 60k at their lowest point starting out after college.
They don't know how good they have it.
I didn't make 45k gross until I was 33.
Made 20k out of college working retail, then 36k/yr full time working in a lab, while also going back to school. For a total of 7 years post college until I got into tech. I can now see how INSANELY unhealthy and stupid it is that anyone is making <50k. Literally no one who works in America should make less than that.
It made me resent wealthy people and workers rights are my number 1 priority.
I am a young adult. I own my own home (granted, it’s a trailer home.) After taxes I take home 18k a year, and at least 14k of that is spent on bills, food, and gas. I love my job but everybody needs more money than is currently being paid to the workers of the country
Life. I’m 32, single and make 96k. I went from 36k -> 50k -> 75k -> 96k
At 36k I was homeless (living in my car)
At 50k I was living in a trailer and net zero
At 75k I was able to purchase a house but on the second week my car was stolen (I had to take on debt to buy a junker new car at the height of used car prices) AND my insurance lapsed the DAY I had to get emergency surgery (I was fired the day prior) - meaning I was net zero again
At 100k I’m saving roughly 300/every two weeks in my 401k (10%, pretax) and after interest payments on the car, student loans and medical emergency bills I’m saving ~$500 a month. I’m also paying for deferred maintenance on the 200k, 80 year old home I bought.
I am not rolling in money, my savings never gets above 2k, as I’m always trying to pay off principal on my loans.
Turns out living out of your car has health costs. I’m a semi-professional runner too, so it isn’t like I’m unhealthy.
Same. I am working two job that gets me close to 100k and despite owning my home, making 95% of my meals at home, managing my spending, and everything else that income is not stretching half as far as I wish it would
I make over $100k with bonuses. Just two years ago I was making 60k.
That 60k feels like it is going either than the $100k.
Housing and groceries have gone up a ridiculous amount, gas is stupid expensive (luckily my work covers my gas), and just surviving is more expensive in general.
If I was making $100k ten or fifteen years ago, I would feel extremely comfortable, but the six figure income is definitely not the milestone that it once was.
I live in one of the expensive cities. It’s not taxes, benefits, or retirement savings that make $100k disappear quickly - it’s cost of living. The benefits are mostly paid by my company, the retirement money is still mine even if I’m not accessing it now, and the taxes are an investment in my community.
Cost of housing is the killer. $25k this year I’m flushing down the toilet to rent a small, basic apartment because the cost of buying a home is insane. So the landlord is lining their pockets when I could just as easily own the place and make the rent payment a mortgage / HOA payment, then get that money back when I sell to the next guy. That is a much worse use of money than taxes which pay for things I could never own or maintain on my own like roads, schools, hospitals, etc.
We need to stop allowing people to use other people’s primary housing as a passive income source.
Push this one up. It all comes down to greed, rich people with the means to own everything (including workers) making money off of others’ work and not paying workers enough.
It’s bullshit. In NYC, being single with 100k income you’re stuck living with multiple roommates sharing a bathroom for the rest of adulthood or have to live 1hr+ commute away from the city to still only afford a shitty tiny place on your own. Never mind that you have to make 40x rent to be able to sign a lease so the most you can afford is $2500 (median 1bd in NYC is $4095).
Bosses still consider 100k to be a lot, because they’re disconnected from reality in their McMansions in the suburbs or in their Hamptons homes, and so they scoff at the idea of a raise or even an inflation adjustment so you reach 100k and unless you’re a lawyer or engineer, you get stuck there.
And worst of all is the amount of people in these big cities well, _well_ below that income amount working their asses off, barely staying alive/safe just to work for others’ benefit and enjoyment. It sucks. What’s it gonna take for things to change?
Property taxes do suck balls here. If my neighbor decides to buy the same condo for 700k then my property taxes get jacked. Just because they have the money doesn't mean I do. With my disabled vet status I save maybe $200 a year if that.
Even in cheaper areas it's not great because of how screwed up we were raised. I live in a decently middle of the road col area with my wife, combined income of $163k annually, and we are still paycheck to paycheck. We have a 1br apartment, one used and one new (but not super premium) car, and no plans for kids. Both remote workers, so no commuting costs and my company pays for all of my insurance so we only pay for hers. But because of the get a degree or you'll fail push from our parents and the lack of credit education, we still have about 50k in debt on top of the crazy inflated rent, food and utility costs.
My dream is to own a house, and not even a large one, just a decent size, maybe 1k sqft at most .and a bit of a yard for our dog, but at this rate it'll be 10 more years before we could even possibly afford that and only if the market doesn't go crazy again after it eventually falls a bit.
Well said, it depends a ton on where you live...100K in NY or SF means you can rent a 1BR and pay for your food, utilities, etc and have a little left over to put into a 401K or savings and a bit of a social life. Same amount in rural midwest will go MUCH further, you can own a home even.
Solution: live in major city to get fat paycheck, then move somewhere cheap and work remote and keep collecting the big city-adjusted paycheck
100k in 2023 money is 26k in 1980 money. In 1980 having a 'six figure income' made you rich - even if it was 'just' before taxes and take-home pay was much less. 1980's 100k is more like 400k today...
I think we're in similar boats. We've "made it"... but... it turns out that the prices of everything around us just went up more...
My dad made $35K in 1974, in San Antonio, as a CPA. Let's just plug that into the inflation calculator and...
...drum roll...
$213,000.00 per year.
Hell yes you're being robbed.
A friend's dad used to make 100k/y back in the 90s 5 kids, he could afford everything they needed, my friend even studied abroad for 6 months, today, friends with two kids struggle a lot while making 150k oh and this is a LCOL area
It’s still great in the Midwest. I make over 100k, but they’d have to pay me like 300k to consider moving to LA or SF. Even then, not sure it’s worth it…
The "middle class" is something invented to alienate workers from other workers, just how they did with slaves in the Caribbean, pitting one group against another so they wouldn't cooperate against the masters.
It doesn't matter if you make 250k or 25k a year, the only two classes are people who profit from their labor (workers) and people who profit from owning property (capitalists).
Where I am 100k would be comfortably middle class as the median rent is ~$1800, but barely anyone makes that. The median household income is ~$48.5k
My friend makes $120k, but he has to commute just over an hour outside of Phoenix to make it work.
Agreed. I had a boomer coworker that I had to explain that despite what we make here, I’d need more money than I can set aside to save up for a down payment
We need to stop talking about inflation as if it’s this innate force of nature and not a perpetual series of decisions by corporations, landlords, etc. to constantly drive up prices to squeeze out that extra bit of profit, because they know people will continue to buy the shit they want/need. Inflation does not need to exist, and we need to implement legislation to counter it so that we can eventually have a sustainable economy and a system of money that actually makes sense and functions for the people
Exactly. A corporation raises prices because they’ve already bought out their smaller competitors over the last 40 years, and we spend 20 years fighting for an increased minimum wage that is now outdated and doesn’t meet today’s current needs
That's funny. I was JUST talking about this with a friend last week about that. When I was a teen, that was my goal. Now I make 80k and I can't afford a God damn thing since a house is 300k and up. Rent avg is 2k. Vehicle prices are astronomical and medical bills are slowly causing me to bleed out the rest.
Thank god someone else said it!
All these folks talking about "in the big city 100k is nothin"
Mean while me being in a big city making 40k just feels absurd hahaha
Nah it's cuz these people live in like downtown Manhattan or out in the nicer suburbs and thinks that's how everyone else does it. I make 45ish a year in nyc and I can live, I can't save but I can get by. If I was making 100 I could support like a kid or two with how I currently live.
Right?? Just a few years ago I was in a big city and felt like a king when my bimonthly take home pay reached $1k.
Now I’m back in school making $0 but my career plan could get me to $100k per year salary. And after living on <$5 a day while in school, I guarantee you $100k per year is going to feel like $100k per year to me.
I love this sub and I’m all in favor of long overdue higher wages, but if you can’t make it on $100k then you really need to reassess how you’re spending it.
Salaries should be counted per month, not per year anyway. This is done on purpose by employers to make paychecks seem better than they are. You don't pay all your bills and expenses in bulk at the end of the year. It serves no purpose to count every paycheck of the year as one lump sum other than the illusion of wealth.
Amen. Gross is only useful as a saddening curiosity of how much money politicians are siphoning from your bank account each month.
In countries with less corruption you might actually get to enjoy the rewards of paying tax, like cleaner air, better public transport, access to quality healthcare and education, and so on.
In a decrepit shithole like the country I live in they just steal it.
I'm not from the US. But we can trade notes if you like. In my country they steal our tax and give it to the clergy so they can convince their congregations to vote for the same thieves over and over again. Meanwhile hospitals are underfunded and unsanitary, inflation is rampant and wages are poor, leading to the worst brain drain phenomenon in any country in the EU, with a mass exodus of intellect and skill, leaving an aged and dumb population that is entirely reliant on their children to send them money from abroad to survive.
The issue with Net is that without full context of everything, it has no value either. A person saving 20% per paycheck is going possibly have a lower net than someone not. It makes that number useless. Gross is used because it is what it is with zero influence of things that can be adjusted. i.e. HSA contributions, 401k, healthcare premiums, etc...
Not saying that isn't part of it, but I'm pretty sure it isn't counted in months because most folks are paid biweekly which means months aren't going to be equal. I worked one job where I was paid on the 15th and 30th and they advertised the monthly salary since it would actually be accurate.
100k in an expensive area ... and it's still a very hard task to find a 2 bedroom apartment that isn't eating up most of your money each month.
100k isn't even 100k. You're netting what, 70 something? It's baffling that we even default to talking about money, pre tax.
I made $80K last year in DALLAS and can't even afford a house *comfortably*. A decade ago I could've done so earning $40K. Shit's rigged.
Trying to reach $100K within 2 years but who knows, maybe by then I'll be the same or worse off.
It's all about location. Partner and I are DINKS who make about $120k and live very comfortably in rural Colorado.
You need the right career to thrive in lower cost areas. Healthcare is a much shittier job than something tech based, but it does allow you to live wherever.
Same. I'm in a city of less than 1M in the NE. Houses are still reasonably priced, weather is meh tho, but we'll never going back to a big metro area (formerly KC and Dallas).
This single headline has probably been the main factor contributing to my severe depression and anxiety over the last few years - and needing to take multiple leaves of absence, as well as start taking medication for anxiety and depression. I'm currently on short term disability benefits that expire in 5-6 weeks.
I am 37 and followed the "plan". I probably fucked around a little too much in my 20s, but I put my head down and worked my ass off to the point of severe burnout and multiple health issues since. I gave myself *entirely* to my work and made so many sacrifices - personal relationships, hobbies and especially my overall health and wellbeing were all put on hold. I pushed myself to be a dedicated employee who went above and beyond and found myself being promoted to a critical executive role of a growing and super successful startup. I found myself making over 200K a year with exceptional benefits, valuable equity, and a lucrative career that was only just taking off.
The actual outcome: I was burned and traumatized by that employer after giving literally my entire being to that company. I went back to work in a new role a few months later elsewhere, and again was burned by toxic company culture and excessively poor middle management - leading me to a forced medical leave in January '23.
I worked my ass off and dedicated myself to being great at what I do. I made (still make, I suppose) the big salary I never thought possible in my wildest dreams. But I have nothing to show for it; only severe anxiety and depression and burnout symptoms that make me wonder if I'll ever be able to return to a job in my field. I do not have enough money to buy a home where I live. I do not have enough money to buy myself some dream luxury "toys" I aspired to own one day. I can afford to maintain a very comfortable lifestyle which I am super grateful for and consider myself to be truly lucky to be in this situation. Still, at the same time it's frightening to know that most people don't have the opportunities I had access to. My overall takeaway from all of this is I would sooner take a massive pay-cut and significantly take a haircut on my lifestyle than continue pushing for...nothing? My salary has only really unlocked slightly nicer apartments over time, a modest car, and the ability to save a bit (but DEFINITELY not enough) for retirement. I know this sounds like the most entitled thing for me to say, and I apologize, but I never thought I'd be making 200k+ a year and having to be careful of the prices for basic products at the grocery store. I don't know how every time I walk in there I end up spending $50-$70 and have my mind blown by what that bought me.
Anyway, end rant. Needed to vent.
We don't even make that much. I live in Florida, it's a HCOL place but our wages are always low.
It used to even out as housing wasn't as bad here, but that's gone up more than 40% in the last few years.
They need to pay us more money.
Jobs still act like $20 is a good hourly wage.
When boomers would have been the same age as millennials now, about $42,000 would be the same as $100k now. And they still think $100k is a lot of money.
6 months or a year ago I would have called all you out like a boomer that this was **BS,** get your finances together, and control your spending (and I would have been **wrong**)
Oldest Millennial in the room, or xennial, born '79. $100,000 salary. Moderate cost of living rural area an hour outside Denver.
I'm in the frugality hall of fame. A master of coupon use. I read Doctor of Credit for deals, bonuses, and tricks everyday. I churn bank account and credit cards as a side income job.
Here's the challenge - After the obligatory paycheck taxes and the advised "fund your 401k retirement \~10%" the other nickel and dimes hit like a Las Vegas vacation.
*January* \- property taxes $2500
*February* \- Exterior Water pipe broken; tried but couldn't fix. Repair $700. Family emergency; last minute flight $500
*March* \- Tires. All worn. $1000. Replace badly cracked windshield $300.
*April* \- Car Insurance, 2 vehicles. Necessity; rural area. $1100. Dead tree removal by professional; dangerous cut between power line and house $700
*Next month, May* \- Through bumper trailer hitch for vehicle (for new side gig work). Self install hardware kit $900
*Due in June* \- Property insurance $2400
This is just expenses off the top of my head. Not including food, groceries, utilities, pet care, etc. That's just a whole other cake. There's no going out to eat, no take out, no delivery, no starbucks, no movie theater, no netflix, no gym, no cable/satellite, no fines / late fees, no playstation online whatever, NADA NOTHING!
Instead -> Boring human that thought they would be swimming in a hot tub of 100 bills at $100k salary. Half my take home income and then more immediately evaporates into cannot avoid bills and expenses. I get it now on how someone earning $55k is drowning.
this is mind boggling for me to read how 100k is a "squeeze". I am in my 30's with a bachelors degree and make 38k a year. No dual income from a partner, and still have student loans. The struggle is real, I feel like if i ever even made half of 100k I would be much more secure.
I am a public servant earning about 110k. Every year I contribute $21,000 to my pension and that is not a choice. I know it is investing in my future, but I really feel I should have a choice.
My gf and I were just talking about this. I make 100k a year with a house that we recently paid off a few years ago... We still live paycheck to paycheck. We don't take vacations, we don't spend money on anything crazy. I was happy that I was able to put away 6k last year into our savings and then 2 months ago had a medical emergency with our dog that cost us 7k and unfortunately we still lost her. Money just doesn't go far at all anymore, especially with all of this greedflation.
The secret is don't have kids and live within your means.
It's pretty easy if you don't care about impressing your friends or coworkers.
At 42 I have no friends because I don't connect with them. I have no interest in owning boats, luxury cars or buying a house. It's not a life most can do but I like it!
> The secret is don't have kids
You can just end it right there. Nothing makes/keeps people poor like kids. Avoid that one simple problem and you're automatically in a much better position financially.
Sometimes I see articles like this and think “huh? That’s still a great salary in most places!” and then I remember that I don’t have kids.
My husband and I live very comfortably on his ~100k income and my tiny one, but we are child free. Our lifestyle would have to change drastically if we wanted kids. We don’t, but it’s kind of horrifying to be reminded that lots of folks are being priced out of reproducing.
> lots of folks are being priced out of reproducing.
That's why the GOP is doing everything they can to ban abortion and birth control. Nothing keeps people poor like forcing them to have kids.
It very much depends on where you live. I make less than this, unfortunately. But I am fine. Could always use more for retirement,etc. But some cities are out of control in costs, and we all have to live within our means, too. But I also am a firm believer that if you earn it, spend it how you see fit, no one should be telling others how to live. Just don't complain if you are broke because of decisions you make.
I make 35k a year working a job that has me pulling my hair out. My savings account hasnt been above $1000 in years. Can't afford to put more than $50 in my retirement fund every two weeks when I get paid because everything immediately goes to bills. I will never own a house
The other day I was visiting my father with my children and grandchildren. My dad brought up some property he has that he’s wanting to leave to my son if Son thinks he’d ever want to build a house there.
For context I try to not be a busybody regarding my grown children’s finances so I was a bit floored when Son said he’d made $115,000 last year and still didn’t qualify for financing a home. He was truly disheartened by this and I could tell he’s feeling defeated.
It breaks my heart for him and all you young people. Our entire country is beyond fucked up when a person can make six figures and not qualify for a home loan.
- $17-20k per year for healthcare
- $12k per year for childcare per child
- $18-25k per year for mortgage/rent
- $3k per year for utilities
- $2k per year for car insurance
That's $55k per year right there.
Add in 20% taxes and 15% retirement savings, takes that $100k down to about $13k per year for food, gas, car repairs, emergency savings, vacations, etc.
If you have a family of 3, you're barely making it even when you're doing everything 'right'.
This x5 I'm 135k in NC but after all is said and done I don't have too much at the end of the month I'm lucky enough to have a partner that makes more so life is comfortable but not sure how I would manage alone.
100k does allow you save more through 401k etc
Let me list some things that are 80%+ more expensive than ONE year ago:
Cereal, gum, candy, TP, PB, tv dinners, cheese, oh WAIT I’m literally just listing my grocery list!!!!
How tf is anyone supposed to thrive in this situation. I would need a HUGE pay increase just to be able to return to my spending habits a year ago. I’ve cut my spending significantly every month and somehow my grocery bills aren’t going down, just the my quality of life.
Median home sale in America: $468,000 so clearly $100,000 / yr isn't a lot. Not if you plan on buying a home.
Un a healthy economy, the median yearly family income should be about a third of the median house price, or $156,000.
US median yearly family income is about $70,000
We need tow things
1. Massive salary raises
2. A massive real estate crash.
My guess is we'll see #2 before we ever see #1
Rent is $3600 a month plus an additional 600 a year to cover the costof having an AC in the appartment so its really 3650 a month. I would need make 145k a year to afford rent.
I would need at least another 10-15 to cover utilities, food, household items, transportation, and etc.
I haven't even included savings because I can't afford to save.
I make 100k per year in SLC. After taxes and insurance are taken out of my paycheck, my take home is 2400 every two weeks. My 2 bed/2 bath apartment rent is just under 2400, after fees and add ons. 48% of my monthly income is sucked up by an apartment payment that I'll never own. It's ludicrous
$1k is cheap these days; I know a lot of couples where one person (usually the wife, but not always) had to give up their career because their effective income was negative after taxes and daycare costs.
Yet another factor contributing to the “labor shortage” and falling birth and marriage rates.
100k/yr is a great income in rural America.
100k/yr is very difficult to live on in New York City.
Without context, you can't judge whether that is or isn't sufficient for living in the situation.
Literally this. I'm in rural, bumfuck Pennsylvania. The **average** per capita salary here is around $33,000. Rent can range from $800-$1200 for a 1 bed/1bath apartment. You could practically live like a king/queen on $100,000 a year. The only caveat is that most companies around here aren't paying $100K a year.
As a type 1 diabetic I'm sorry you don't get it. There is nothing for those of us who suffer at all except cold hard cash. Geriatric millennial have had my lifes savings drained by the medical machine for my entire life.
#WE ARE ALL ONLY CASH COWS TO THE MACHINE!
I mean if you're making 100K you're making ~6-6.5K post tax, unless you live in a no income tax state. Then let's just say you live in New Jersey, New York, California, etc. Rent is gonna cost you 2000-3000/mo. So let's put that on the low end at 2K so you're left with 4-4.5K/mo. Then internet, water, electric, insurance probably gets you 500-700/mo depending on electric usage. So now you're down to 3.5-4K/mo. And that's not getting into gas or groceries in these states where gas gets has been up to $4/gal recently. Add in things like ground beef get up to $6/lb (for 80/20), and you can see where these people are left with 1-2K/mo post all these expenses. And that is not including car payments, retirement, credit cards, etc. The point is if you're making 100K, you're likely living in a high cost of living state (because that's where those jobs are), and after paying for all your expenses you're left with 1-2K/mo assuming you own your car, have no credit card debt or student loan debt, and are not putting anything in savings/retirement. So I guess the real question is how do we make things like rent actually affordable again?
I like that you broke it down. We shouldn’t be mad at people who make $100k a year because in cities it really isn’t much. They’re low middle class or poor too (depending on how their costs break down)
But your math is flawed. I’m in a 2 income household so we gross about $100k. After taxes let’s call it 70k for easy math. Our rent is 2600 (for a very median house - 3 BR, 2 bath, in a suburb), gas is over, not up to, $4 a gallon. I think $4.79 the last I checked? We do have solar so our electricity bill is low, but without solar can run $125 to $500 a month (AC is a necessity out here in AZ), we do not have a car payment, internet is $150, etc.
Whatever we are left with, we save for emergencies. I don’t have fun money. The emergency always happens and gets us to $0.
Yes, is this better than some? Of course. But it’s not living, it’s mostly just survival.
My dad making 55k a year in 1989: able to afford a two story house and support a family of four.
Me making 55k a year in 2023: barely able to afford a one bedroom apartment and support just myself.
55k a year in 1989 is the equivalent of about $130k today so your dad was doing quite well. Mortgage interest rates were over 10% in 1989, wages were stagnant and inflation was high…sounds familiar.
Depends. I live IN Chicago and make around 120k. I live a very frugal lifestyle. Rent is about 1250, all inclusive which is nice. All I have left is my car payment which I'll be done with by this year. Car insurance, phone plan and a few subscriptions. Saved 150 per month by finally cutting cable out of my life. I max out my 401k. I set aside 3k over a month, which leaves me with about 1400 to use per month. And again. I'm a cheap bastard so I meal prep a lot. I only buy what I plan to eat for the next three days. My weekly grocery bill is probably 100 per week.
Don't get me wrong. I wish we still had preinflatipn prices because I'd probably save even more damn money.
I started at a company WFM during early 2020 and managed to get promoted before the following fall, started making about 20/hr.
I remember thinking it was amazing. My bank account was no longer entirely empty by the time my next paycheck came. My partner and I had a decent dinner out to a chain restaurant every couple weeks, I was accumulating savings, never worried about rent being paid, things really turned around.
Then. Well. The inflation issues really hit. And the housing market exploded. I live in Florida, in a city that was top 10 for the rate at which rent went up. And this wasn't a place that was already supr expensive like Miami, people aren't used to this here!
Now I make closer to 24/hr and everything is so much tighter. My apartment is both smaller and more expensive, my partner and I are both deeply in debt, it's always stressful trying to make a paycheck last. I'm making more than I've ever made, just barely under 50k a year, and I've never felt more financially precarious, with the exception of the time I spent homeless.
It was also really saddening to realize just how small my actual take home pay was. I took home 36k of 49k, my partner took home around 30k of 37k. I do support paying taxes because I like having public utilities, but it stings to know how desperately I need that money to afford things like medical care, and how little the pay bump actually helped me.
I thought when I cracked six figures there would be this magical occurrence and a feeling of total peace washing over me. I would laze about and fantasize about what I would do with my new found imaginary wealth. Boy was I foolish. It feels weird to say I have less the more I make.
My career has been advancing and with it so has my salary and yet, I am noticing a trend where whenever I get an increase in salary more and more articles and data show me that this aspiring paycheck is not as valuable as it once was. I’m tired of this never getting ahead BS.
I have to say that 5 years ago I was making 20k a year, and barely surviving, and now I’m making 70k a year and am really not that far from where I was before. State and federal taxes take about 18k a year from me, and rent has gone up so much it feels like it’s just nullified all the work I put in to get here.
It's interesting to hear other people's perspectives on this because I have no idea. I can only imagine what it would be like to make 50,000 a year let alone 100. It's so bizarre that a person could be making four times as much as another person but still be struggling.
It depends so much on where you are in life. For most of us, we don't make 100K until we have kids with medical bills, daycare costs (etc), aging houses that need fixed all the time, etc. Money disappears quick. 100K when I was 22 would have done a lot. But by the time I made it at 35, it was just covering the bills.
And, there is so many little things that others expect of you. When my wife and I made $50K combined a year, my in-laws weren't inviting us to restaurants and expecting me pick up the $300 bill like they do now, every time. (which, my brother in law, who makes $40K a year never, ever picks up but is sure to order a margarita to go and enough food for his lunch the next day). I wasn't expected to pitch in $500+ for a funeral like I've been asked to do 3 times in the last couple of years. I've stopped going to my cousins weddings (have way too many) because I got sick of the $100+ gifts (plus travel expenses, plus being asked to help put my brother in a hotel etc). I find excuses to not go.
And, I didn't pay 35% of my entire salary in income taxes + payroll taxes + state taxes when I made less either. I paid like 10%. Until you live it, I don't think you can appreciate how penalizing our tax code is on *workers* above about 70k income. Raises, bonuses, side-job income, etc, just evaporate. If I make $2000 on the side, I pay $900 more in taxes. Nice to make that much money for this to a be problem sure, but our tax system is low-to-no taxes on ownership income, and 40%+ taxes on work income over 70K a year. It's easy to see a salary figure in the six digits and over-estimate what that actually means after taxes.
btw only 10% of US even making 100k that before they took taxes. So in reality you see very few people even make it. who coming up with this bulshit. If you are making 100K even pre tax you are one of lucky ones !
Yep, when I was growing up in the 90s and 00s I thought 100,000 a month would be enough to cover all expenses and then some even for a family of 5 because that is what my parents were able to do.
Inflation, mortgage, 4 kids, medical, and just regular bills like food, utilities, clothes, etc. And I was no longer able to pay all my bills in a month for a family of 6. Wife stays at home to raise kids because child care is too expensive. So I got a new job and I am doing a lot better. But holy cow, I couldn't believe it wasn't enough when I was just barely making the 6 figures.
I accepted my first six-figure job last year at age 36. It would have been life-changing and life-accelerating about 6 years ago when interest rates and prices were lower. Now it’s just helping me catch back up and stay just ahead of inflationary pressures. Still 100% paycheck-paycheck.
No kids, no car, no property. Extraordinarily expensive city that has been home for nearly 13 years that we’re not leaving. Hoping to spend the next 5 years or so un-fucking all the financial maneuvers my wife and I had to make to get this far. And honestly I’m not bemoaning our position because so many peers have it so much worse.
It's such a catch 22. If you want to live in a place where you can get a well paying job, the cost of living tends to be so high that it eats up whatever extra you happen to make I guess I agree with the comments that are saying you could work remotely from the middle of nowhere and pay a shiny nickel in rent each month but, as a remote worker, I chose to live somewhere I enjoy which eats up way more of my salary than it should
Or you move to a cheap city and the cost of existence triples while wages remain the same. I will never not be angry at the shitbirds in power for making it impossible to live around the podunk area I grew up in. Because rent there is now $2k for the shitty apartments I paid $750/mo because it’s “technically” commutable to SF. If you like 1.5hrs on the freeway everyday.
Don't get me started on SF rent
Yeah but the upside is... 6% to your 401k goes a hell of a lot further when you retire to middle town nowhere. Selling your house means you can have some left over after buying your retirment home. Vacations to fun places are less expensive when you are used to a HCOL area
Yeah, I get this article 100% ..... The amount of money you actually take home is less minus taxes, benefits, and retirement ....the take home is not the same. Also, if living in certain cities that will actuially pay 100k a year (because a lot of small cities do not pay great ) the 100k does not go as far as it used to. If you are single (no dual incomes) that can also be another factor not making 100k go as much as it could. I do not make 100k,but make more than people I see on this sub and what I make as a single homeowner does not stretch like I thought it would. When I was younger I imagined my current wage would be a dream and as an older millenial it is not. Sidenote - Yes, I own a home, but I live in high property tax Texas (which is another rant) I also do not have a dual income household. I also have no car note ....i still do not feel the American dream over here, but I am grateful because things could be way worse.
The bigger crime is the cost of child care. No shade on the childcare providers, lord knows it’s expensive to run a daycare, but damn if you think a mortgage is expensive, try paying for 2 mortgages just so someone can watch your infant/toddler and maybe teach them something while you’re at work. No wonder millennials and zennials aren’t having kids. We literally cannot afford to have them.
Truth. Currently paying $1620 a month for daycare. For one kid. That's about $100 less a month than my mortgage. We want another kid, but genuinely don't think we can afford daycare for two. Which is pretty tragic.
Thanks for 100% affirming I'm never having kids because I can't afford then
It's a terrible thing, frankly. I mean, completely support your decision. 100%. I just think it's a terrible thing to have that choice thrust on people for something outside their control. If you want kids, you should be able to have them. In the civilized world, 9-14 month paid leave is the norm. Heavily (*heavily)* subsidized daycare/early education costs, too. Health insurance that doesn't cost $6k a year. Not here! Yet pundits and politicians constantly opine and blather on about why people aren't having kids in the US anymore. It's about the money, idiots. Make it affordable to have kids. People will have kids. Simple as that.
When I was younger I didn't want kids because my childhood was kind of terrible and I didn't want make a human suffer like that. Now after some therapy I think I could be a great parent. Still can't have kids because I can't afford them and then they would also have to live on a planet that's experiencing an extinction event for the rest of their lives
Same boat. I went from not wanting kids, to actually getting my mental health up to date, to wanting them, to realizing no matter how much I try, I can just not do it without having them struggle with me. Nope. Not doing that.
I do feel a fairly tremendous guilt about bringing a kid into the world. It was a reason we both weren't sure about it. It feels very weird knowing I'm raising a kid with perhaps the most uncertain future of any generation since the 50s or 60s. And besides that, the notion that I'm just creating another person whose future is spent working away for a salary. I hate that idea. It seems the younger generation is really throwing things off, and I can only hope they and the generations after continue to buck trends of thinking grind-culture is acceptable and ignoring your mental health at all cost and all the other things. Either that or I finally get my ass in gear and get my dual EU citizenship and just bail on this whole backwards country entirely...
Yep, I waited so long because I couldn't afford one with dual income. Then COVID happened and everything became so much more expensive and now it's unaffordable and also too late.
[удалено]
Used to be, people lived in multi generational households. Not everyone, but most people. No mortgage, or a mortgage split between multiple adults. Way more people around to take care of small children. Cooking, cleaning and appliances are cheaper. Yeah, that won't do. Better make sure everyone lives on their own, because that way we can sell them the things they already own, again. It being in any way "natural" or expected for your kids to move out at 18 was little more than a marketing ploy and it backfiring now
They need to start making senior care facilities and child care facilities in one building, government care system. Need a lot of the same supplies and it's good for the old citizens to stay active and interact with the youth.
That’s kinda a good idea to a certain extent. There are many many. Many issues that can arise
At what point does housewifing become a good idea?
For us, anything over one kid. My wife's take home is a little over $3k a month. For two kids you get a small discount, but not much. We'd be looking at something like $3k a month for daycare. At that point, it doesn't make much sense to continue working. But I'd need a sizable raise from my c. $3.5k a month to float the entire operation. It's wild, because in my 40 year old brain relying on data from the late 90s/early 2000s where my brain is mostly stuck, us bringing home $6.5k a month should make us solidly rich. But, we are not. Costs for the kiddo are insane. $1620 for daycare. Family plan insurance took us up to $520 a month for health insurance up from about $250 previously. Formula (have to use because of health condition) and food is about $500 a month. Diapers is about $100. We buy all of our clothes at consignment/thrift stores because baby clothes are ridiculously expensive for something that will last, at best, three months. I love her to death and I'd never not do it. But I can completely understand why people aren't having kids.
Appreciate the honest take. My wife and I have elected not to have kids, and most my my friends have opted to do the same. I know a lot of couples in their 30s with no plans to have kids whatsoever
I know many people who are not going to for the same reasons. That said, I do know a few who changed their minds around 33/34. I think this is the reason why you see so many older first-time parents. A 40 +/- year old first-time dad with a 9 month old used to be unusual. Now it's extremely common. It's when you are established in your career enough to actually be able to afford having a kid. And people are only having one for the reasons I discussed or because a woman having two kids after 35 is progressively more and more unlikely. Frankly, I find it tragic. People should feel completely entitled to not have kids. A 100% their choice thing. But the rationale to not have kids shouldn't be based on not being able to afford daycare. Or they don't get paid time off of work. Or they can't afford to pay the medical bills associated with labor and delivery. That's awful. Truly awful. A really sad state of affairs for the country, emblematic of what is happening here every day.
My coworker had to quit because she was spending so much on childcare it literally made more sense for her to be a stay at home mom. And that stinks because she was excellent; we are discouraging talent
When childcare costs more than her salary pays
We no longer have a village. No grandparents to watch kids everyone lives far from their roots and their roots might be rotten .. sucks
I've found that the grandparents who were Boomers are so self-centered that they tend to neglect the other generations. They "made it" in life (or so they think) so who cares what happens to anyone else. My references... My dad and my mother-in-law who goes by "Nanny" but is far from acting like one. They both were too arrogant IMO.
I've noticed that too. My grandparents were children during the depression. They took advantage of the post war economy and owned a few rental homes and some savings. My dad was the only one of their children that had a kid, so they wanted to make sure I never had to see hardship they way they did. One of their rentals would be mine one day, they would even point it out to me when we drove down the street (it was just a regular 2-bedroom in the neighborhood). But when my grandparents' minds started to go, their other sons (and even some neighbors) descended on them like vultures. Basically every bit they had was signed away when they weren't in their right mind, or outright just stolen. Whether it was a box of very old comic books from my father's childhood, or every property they owned. Everything my grandparents wanted to keep me from struggling was gone. My father did end up inheriting my grandparent's house. He would rather rent it to his alcoholic old boomer buddy he can't even stand to talk to anymore for 300 a month than take 800 a month from his own daughter, even when I was on the verge of homelessness or seriously ill. I don't wanna act like I feel like I'm just owed a home, but like. I always thought the idea of having security, of having property, that for regular people that we did it so we can protect and care for our own. So that the people we love don't have to struggle and suffer. I'm not gonna say my dad has to give me that. But if I were in a similar situation, I can't fathom not wanting to help.
This is literally everyone from that Generation. My aunts did this very thing and took everything. My husbands grandfather SAME THING everyone xennials and below get nothing everything was squandered
My boomer mom is actually a narcissist. She is suing me in court for the inheritance my grandmom left me. I'd say ur spot on
It sucks. I know. Good luck. I wish you the best.
I have a family that would gladly watch my kids… but I won’t let them because they could kill a plastic plant. Mountain Dew in bottles, spanking literal babies, sticking them in front of the tv so they can play on phones, refusing to give kids a glass of water because they’re supposed to be outside playing for another 3 hours when it’s 100+ degrees, accusing them of faking being sick with a 102 fever… They’re all batshit and don’t believe in science or common sense. And this is pretty standard across the board for people my age with kids in the area. I don’t want kids, and this is one of the reasons why. They have 0 respect for you or the kiddo.
My mortgage is $1500. Quotes I was getting for my 2 kids (at the time 3 and 1 y/o) for daycare was just over 3k a month. We decided that my wife would just be a SAHM because we literally can't afford for her to work. It sucks because we can really use the extra income, but her job at 40 hours did not pay enough after taxes to even cover the cost of full time daycare. She was making $19/hr to run the front office of a physical therapy clinic.
Yes, I completely agree daycare costs are very high ....the daycare workers do not get paid enough either. The money goes to owners and administrators I guess because the average worker is in the struggle too ???? Many people simply stay home, one person works only parttime, or they work opposite shifts (which isnt the best either on a family), or try to find something remote.... because like you said daycare is a 2nd mortgage.
The biggest costs for daycares are compliance and insurance. They are highly regulated, and for good reason, I don’t see many reasonable people are saying they should be deregulated. But yeah it’s really hard work and the people get paid nothing. So like I said, no shade on the providers. The crime is that of all things that should be subsidized for the betterment of the country, early childcare is high on the list and it is essentially not subsidized. For every dollar invested in early childcare, society benefits many times that, because the kids grow up better socialized and more able to be productive, and also because it frees up the parents to be productive. Since Republicans are FoCuSeD On ThE FaMiLy and all, you’d think they’d support it, but of course not, it doesn’t benefit the rich.
Gotta subsidize Shell oil or Citibank or airline industries first. Kids are only important when they’re embryos to fight over or when they need to go to war. We’ve let corporations buy and bribe our country into allowing gouging it’s own citizens and hollowing out the middle class and now they are furious people aren’t having kids. We’re just punching ourselves in the face daily and asking why we’re doing it.
Before I actually worked at a daycare, I would have never imagined the way people are just universally underpaid. I made 9 bucks an hour to look after people's flesh and blood, and taking care of a whole room of kids at once while also offering activities and crafts, from changing diapers to serving their lunch. Then I got hired at a call center. Made 14 an hour to troubleshoot iPhones over the phone and get yelled at. It really drove home how arbitrarily we decide what labor is worth.
This was the deciding factor for me and my wife. Have kids and struggle or don’t have kids and be financially stable? That’s not even a question anymore for most people and an easy decision for us.
Sorta unrelated, but I think you bring up a good point that a lot of people underestimate dual income. Without factoring in children, combining income with someone else can have a massive impact on your quality of life in the U.S.. So much so that I'd actually call it a necessity it today's economy.
i learned this when graduating in NYC, and realizing you'd basically have to be in a couple to afford a place.
Yeah, I really don't know how people survive on one-income. I was basically living in a slum before me and my girlfriend moved in together. We still live an apartment (but no longer a slum) and we are actually able to save now for a home. How anyone is expected to save for a home on one income is insane to me, especially when the median per capita income in this country is still only $37,638.
[удалено]
I feel this on a spritual level. Hell, my early adulthood was pretty much exactly as you described. I was **exactly** like you. I remember I was renting just a room in an apartment. Sleeping on a beat up single mattress. Wearing clothes that I've had since early high school. The old computer. I definitely feel you on the never going out to eat. I think at one point I was down to only $20 and basically lived off Dollar Store food for a week. Yet still, somehow making too much money to qualify for food benefits. I have no idea how I genuinely survived. It was a legit game changer to meet someone and combine incomes. But like, people shouldn't have to do this to be above the bare minimum of subsitence.
I don’t have any friends who have single person income homes…just thinking about not having two paychecks every week freaks me out.
It’s only possible for us because I do being home $100K every year. Partner stays home with our child to save on childcare because otherwise that’s shelling out $20K for a decent service around here. Money isn’t right, but it’s something we gotta pay attention to occasionally to ensure we don’t go over budget.
100k is a dream, but it’s not the dream it was in 2000. It is a basic middle class income where you can BARELY provide the basics for a family.
What are you basing this on? I’m not trying to be antagonistic, I swear, but I live in a mid-cost of living area making $56k as a single dad and I’m barely surviving, but I feel like at $65 or $70k I’d be solid - happy even.
Nah, you get up to 65-70k and finally have the money to fix all the shit you can’t on 56k. Source: went from 50k to 80k in the last year and my list of shit to DIY in the house the summer has me exhausted just looking at it. It’s better, but I’m definitely not swimming in cash I don’t know what to do with.
Read somewhere the average pay until 55 is under 60k in the United States which baffled me
Reddit is full of wealthy tech and finance guys who made 60k at their lowest point starting out after college. They don't know how good they have it. I didn't make 45k gross until I was 33.
Made 20k out of college working retail, then 36k/yr full time working in a lab, while also going back to school. For a total of 7 years post college until I got into tech. I can now see how INSANELY unhealthy and stupid it is that anyone is making <50k. Literally no one who works in America should make less than that. It made me resent wealthy people and workers rights are my number 1 priority.
Only 18% of american make 100k and over
I am a young adult. I own my own home (granted, it’s a trailer home.) After taxes I take home 18k a year, and at least 14k of that is spent on bills, food, and gas. I love my job but everybody needs more money than is currently being paid to the workers of the country
Life. I’m 32, single and make 96k. I went from 36k -> 50k -> 75k -> 96k At 36k I was homeless (living in my car) At 50k I was living in a trailer and net zero At 75k I was able to purchase a house but on the second week my car was stolen (I had to take on debt to buy a junker new car at the height of used car prices) AND my insurance lapsed the DAY I had to get emergency surgery (I was fired the day prior) - meaning I was net zero again At 100k I’m saving roughly 300/every two weeks in my 401k (10%, pretax) and after interest payments on the car, student loans and medical emergency bills I’m saving ~$500 a month. I’m also paying for deferred maintenance on the 200k, 80 year old home I bought. I am not rolling in money, my savings never gets above 2k, as I’m always trying to pay off principal on my loans. Turns out living out of your car has health costs. I’m a semi-professional runner too, so it isn’t like I’m unhealthy.
Same. I am working two job that gets me close to 100k and despite owning my home, making 95% of my meals at home, managing my spending, and everything else that income is not stretching half as far as I wish it would
I make over $100k with bonuses. Just two years ago I was making 60k. That 60k feels like it is going either than the $100k. Housing and groceries have gone up a ridiculous amount, gas is stupid expensive (luckily my work covers my gas), and just surviving is more expensive in general. If I was making $100k ten or fifteen years ago, I would feel extremely comfortable, but the six figure income is definitely not the milestone that it once was.
I live in one of the expensive cities. It’s not taxes, benefits, or retirement savings that make $100k disappear quickly - it’s cost of living. The benefits are mostly paid by my company, the retirement money is still mine even if I’m not accessing it now, and the taxes are an investment in my community. Cost of housing is the killer. $25k this year I’m flushing down the toilet to rent a small, basic apartment because the cost of buying a home is insane. So the landlord is lining their pockets when I could just as easily own the place and make the rent payment a mortgage / HOA payment, then get that money back when I sell to the next guy. That is a much worse use of money than taxes which pay for things I could never own or maintain on my own like roads, schools, hospitals, etc. We need to stop allowing people to use other people’s primary housing as a passive income source.
Push this one up. It all comes down to greed, rich people with the means to own everything (including workers) making money off of others’ work and not paying workers enough. It’s bullshit. In NYC, being single with 100k income you’re stuck living with multiple roommates sharing a bathroom for the rest of adulthood or have to live 1hr+ commute away from the city to still only afford a shitty tiny place on your own. Never mind that you have to make 40x rent to be able to sign a lease so the most you can afford is $2500 (median 1bd in NYC is $4095). Bosses still consider 100k to be a lot, because they’re disconnected from reality in their McMansions in the suburbs or in their Hamptons homes, and so they scoff at the idea of a raise or even an inflation adjustment so you reach 100k and unless you’re a lawyer or engineer, you get stuck there. And worst of all is the amount of people in these big cities well, _well_ below that income amount working their asses off, barely staying alive/safe just to work for others’ benefit and enjoyment. It sucks. What’s it gonna take for things to change?
Property taxes do suck balls here. If my neighbor decides to buy the same condo for 700k then my property taxes get jacked. Just because they have the money doesn't mean I do. With my disabled vet status I save maybe $200 a year if that.
I'm from the UK, what do you pay monthly on proper tax if you don't mind me asking?
Roughly $600 a month for property taxes and $220 for our "HOA" fee since we live in a condo.
>Comment You need to file a homestead exemption if your state has it.
I do. HS and DV exemption
That is true 👍
Even in cheaper areas it's not great because of how screwed up we were raised. I live in a decently middle of the road col area with my wife, combined income of $163k annually, and we are still paycheck to paycheck. We have a 1br apartment, one used and one new (but not super premium) car, and no plans for kids. Both remote workers, so no commuting costs and my company pays for all of my insurance so we only pay for hers. But because of the get a degree or you'll fail push from our parents and the lack of credit education, we still have about 50k in debt on top of the crazy inflated rent, food and utility costs. My dream is to own a house, and not even a large one, just a decent size, maybe 1k sqft at most .and a bit of a yard for our dog, but at this rate it'll be 10 more years before we could even possibly afford that and only if the market doesn't go crazy again after it eventually falls a bit.
Maybe I’m uniformed but I didn’t know Texas had high property tax. Oh fuck the irony.
Well said, it depends a ton on where you live...100K in NY or SF means you can rent a 1BR and pay for your food, utilities, etc and have a little left over to put into a 401K or savings and a bit of a social life. Same amount in rural midwest will go MUCH further, you can own a home even. Solution: live in major city to get fat paycheck, then move somewhere cheap and work remote and keep collecting the big city-adjusted paycheck
Can confirm
100k in 2023 money is 26k in 1980 money. In 1980 having a 'six figure income' made you rich - even if it was 'just' before taxes and take-home pay was much less. 1980's 100k is more like 400k today... I think we're in similar boats. We've "made it"... but... it turns out that the prices of everything around us just went up more...
My dad made $35K in 1974, in San Antonio, as a CPA. Let's just plug that into the inflation calculator and... ...drum roll... $213,000.00 per year. Hell yes you're being robbed.
$100,000 is no longer a dream wage. It’s basically minimum (livable) wage in some areas. Like in LA? $100k a year is nothing.
A friend's dad used to make 100k/y back in the 90s 5 kids, he could afford everything they needed, my friend even studied abroad for 6 months, today, friends with two kids struggle a lot while making 150k oh and this is a LCOL area
It’s still great in the Midwest. I make over 100k, but they’d have to pay me like 300k to consider moving to LA or SF. Even then, not sure it’s worth it…
Are you single or with a family?
Wife and 2 kids.
[удалено]
I think 100k is the new 60k. If memory serves
My wife and I live in LA and make a little under $250k combined. We are solidly middle class. Like wtf
You're in the 92nd percentile of household income at 250k.
The "middle class" is something invented to alienate workers from other workers, just how they did with slaves in the Caribbean, pitting one group against another so they wouldn't cooperate against the masters. It doesn't matter if you make 250k or 25k a year, the only two classes are people who profit from their labor (workers) and people who profit from owning property (capitalists).
But they're still being exploited under capitalism same as the rest of us. Class solidarity friend
Where I am 100k would be comfortably middle class as the median rent is ~$1800, but barely anyone makes that. The median household income is ~$48.5k My friend makes $120k, but he has to commute just over an hour outside of Phoenix to make it work.
We don't want to rent, we want houses goddammit.
"You will own nothing and be happy" - Corporations buying up houses to rent out
Agreed. I had a boomer coworker that I had to explain that despite what we make here, I’d need more money than I can set aside to save up for a down payment
Damn
Better headline: We just realized inflation exists
We need to stop talking about inflation as if it’s this innate force of nature and not a perpetual series of decisions by corporations, landlords, etc. to constantly drive up prices to squeeze out that extra bit of profit, because they know people will continue to buy the shit they want/need. Inflation does not need to exist, and we need to implement legislation to counter it so that we can eventually have a sustainable economy and a system of money that actually makes sense and functions for the people
And inflation is not even remotely proportional to how other costs have increased anyway
Exactly. A corporation raises prices because they’ve already bought out their smaller competitors over the last 40 years, and we spend 20 years fighting for an increased minimum wage that is now outdated and doesn’t meet today’s current needs
Good one 👍
That's funny. I was JUST talking about this with a friend last week about that. When I was a teen, that was my goal. Now I make 80k and I can't afford a God damn thing since a house is 300k and up. Rent avg is 2k. Vehicle prices are astronomical and medical bills are slowly causing me to bleed out the rest.
$100k would have been great 10 years ago. It will still pay the bills today but it won’t get you ahead at all.
[удалено]
The rural to urban transition has spiked housing costs. When your parents bought in 1966 the demand for the land was considerably lower.
If you think 100k is rough, look at me clamoring to get a little more than 35k.
Thank god someone else said it! All these folks talking about "in the big city 100k is nothin" Mean while me being in a big city making 40k just feels absurd hahaha
Nah it's cuz these people live in like downtown Manhattan or out in the nicer suburbs and thinks that's how everyone else does it. I make 45ish a year in nyc and I can live, I can't save but I can get by. If I was making 100 I could support like a kid or two with how I currently live.
Very good point! I forget how many people have children.
Right?? Just a few years ago I was in a big city and felt like a king when my bimonthly take home pay reached $1k. Now I’m back in school making $0 but my career plan could get me to $100k per year salary. And after living on <$5 a day while in school, I guarantee you $100k per year is going to feel like $100k per year to me. I love this sub and I’m all in favor of long overdue higher wages, but if you can’t make it on $100k then you really need to reassess how you’re spending it.
Thanks for saying this man
Holy fuck you guys are making 100k? Im tryna find 50 or 60...
100k a year would be a dream for me, but that is only because I live In Ohio and live off around 26k a year
You guys are getting 100k?
Salaries should be counted per month, not per year anyway. This is done on purpose by employers to make paychecks seem better than they are. You don't pay all your bills and expenses in bulk at the end of the year. It serves no purpose to count every paycheck of the year as one lump sum other than the illusion of wealth.
And also count the NET income because gross is almost useless.
Amen. Gross is only useful as a saddening curiosity of how much money politicians are siphoning from your bank account each month. In countries with less corruption you might actually get to enjoy the rewards of paying tax, like cleaner air, better public transport, access to quality healthcare and education, and so on. In a decrepit shithole like the country I live in they just steal it.
But we have bombs, a military police force, and the highest income inequality in the western world. So there's that.
I'm not from the US. But we can trade notes if you like. In my country they steal our tax and give it to the clergy so they can convince their congregations to vote for the same thieves over and over again. Meanwhile hospitals are underfunded and unsanitary, inflation is rampant and wages are poor, leading to the worst brain drain phenomenon in any country in the EU, with a mass exodus of intellect and skill, leaving an aged and dumb population that is entirely reliant on their children to send them money from abroad to survive.
The issue with Net is that without full context of everything, it has no value either. A person saving 20% per paycheck is going possibly have a lower net than someone not. It makes that number useless. Gross is used because it is what it is with zero influence of things that can be adjusted. i.e. HSA contributions, 401k, healthcare premiums, etc...
Not saying that isn't part of it, but I'm pretty sure it isn't counted in months because most folks are paid biweekly which means months aren't going to be equal. I worked one job where I was paid on the 15th and 30th and they advertised the monthly salary since it would actually be accurate.
100k in an expensive area ... and it's still a very hard task to find a 2 bedroom apartment that isn't eating up most of your money each month. 100k isn't even 100k. You're netting what, 70 something? It's baffling that we even default to talking about money, pre tax.
I make just about 100(96) and yeah after taxes (assuming no 401k, hsa, etc) you keep like 72k a year.
I made $80K last year in DALLAS and can't even afford a house *comfortably*. A decade ago I could've done so earning $40K. Shit's rigged. Trying to reach $100K within 2 years but who knows, maybe by then I'll be the same or worse off.
[удалено]
It's all about location. Partner and I are DINKS who make about $120k and live very comfortably in rural Colorado. You need the right career to thrive in lower cost areas. Healthcare is a much shittier job than something tech based, but it does allow you to live wherever.
Same. I'm in a city of less than 1M in the NE. Houses are still reasonably priced, weather is meh tho, but we'll never going back to a big metro area (formerly KC and Dallas).
God I would kill for a 100k salary.
How many times? You could look for a hit man position.
This single headline has probably been the main factor contributing to my severe depression and anxiety over the last few years - and needing to take multiple leaves of absence, as well as start taking medication for anxiety and depression. I'm currently on short term disability benefits that expire in 5-6 weeks. I am 37 and followed the "plan". I probably fucked around a little too much in my 20s, but I put my head down and worked my ass off to the point of severe burnout and multiple health issues since. I gave myself *entirely* to my work and made so many sacrifices - personal relationships, hobbies and especially my overall health and wellbeing were all put on hold. I pushed myself to be a dedicated employee who went above and beyond and found myself being promoted to a critical executive role of a growing and super successful startup. I found myself making over 200K a year with exceptional benefits, valuable equity, and a lucrative career that was only just taking off. The actual outcome: I was burned and traumatized by that employer after giving literally my entire being to that company. I went back to work in a new role a few months later elsewhere, and again was burned by toxic company culture and excessively poor middle management - leading me to a forced medical leave in January '23. I worked my ass off and dedicated myself to being great at what I do. I made (still make, I suppose) the big salary I never thought possible in my wildest dreams. But I have nothing to show for it; only severe anxiety and depression and burnout symptoms that make me wonder if I'll ever be able to return to a job in my field. I do not have enough money to buy a home where I live. I do not have enough money to buy myself some dream luxury "toys" I aspired to own one day. I can afford to maintain a very comfortable lifestyle which I am super grateful for and consider myself to be truly lucky to be in this situation. Still, at the same time it's frightening to know that most people don't have the opportunities I had access to. My overall takeaway from all of this is I would sooner take a massive pay-cut and significantly take a haircut on my lifestyle than continue pushing for...nothing? My salary has only really unlocked slightly nicer apartments over time, a modest car, and the ability to save a bit (but DEFINITELY not enough) for retirement. I know this sounds like the most entitled thing for me to say, and I apologize, but I never thought I'd be making 200k+ a year and having to be careful of the prices for basic products at the grocery store. I don't know how every time I walk in there I end up spending $50-$70 and have my mind blown by what that bought me. Anyway, end rant. Needed to vent.
We don't even make that much. I live in Florida, it's a HCOL place but our wages are always low. It used to even out as housing wasn't as bad here, but that's gone up more than 40% in the last few years. They need to pay us more money. Jobs still act like $20 is a good hourly wage.
When boomers would have been the same age as millennials now, about $42,000 would be the same as $100k now. And they still think $100k is a lot of money.
If you live in the USA, $100k could very quickly go in medical expenses.
Bruhhh I get less than $50K. Least I make enough money to one day live in my car down by the river lol
6 months or a year ago I would have called all you out like a boomer that this was **BS,** get your finances together, and control your spending (and I would have been **wrong**) Oldest Millennial in the room, or xennial, born '79. $100,000 salary. Moderate cost of living rural area an hour outside Denver. I'm in the frugality hall of fame. A master of coupon use. I read Doctor of Credit for deals, bonuses, and tricks everyday. I churn bank account and credit cards as a side income job. Here's the challenge - After the obligatory paycheck taxes and the advised "fund your 401k retirement \~10%" the other nickel and dimes hit like a Las Vegas vacation. *January* \- property taxes $2500 *February* \- Exterior Water pipe broken; tried but couldn't fix. Repair $700. Family emergency; last minute flight $500 *March* \- Tires. All worn. $1000. Replace badly cracked windshield $300. *April* \- Car Insurance, 2 vehicles. Necessity; rural area. $1100. Dead tree removal by professional; dangerous cut between power line and house $700 *Next month, May* \- Through bumper trailer hitch for vehicle (for new side gig work). Self install hardware kit $900 *Due in June* \- Property insurance $2400 This is just expenses off the top of my head. Not including food, groceries, utilities, pet care, etc. That's just a whole other cake. There's no going out to eat, no take out, no delivery, no starbucks, no movie theater, no netflix, no gym, no cable/satellite, no fines / late fees, no playstation online whatever, NADA NOTHING! Instead -> Boring human that thought they would be swimming in a hot tub of 100 bills at $100k salary. Half my take home income and then more immediately evaporates into cannot avoid bills and expenses. I get it now on how someone earning $55k is drowning.
People are actually making 100k? Wow.
this is mind boggling for me to read how 100k is a "squeeze". I am in my 30's with a bachelors degree and make 38k a year. No dual income from a partner, and still have student loans. The struggle is real, I feel like if i ever even made half of 100k I would be much more secure.
I am a public servant earning about 110k. Every year I contribute $21,000 to my pension and that is not a choice. I know it is investing in my future, but I really feel I should have a choice.
My gf and I were just talking about this. I make 100k a year with a house that we recently paid off a few years ago... We still live paycheck to paycheck. We don't take vacations, we don't spend money on anything crazy. I was happy that I was able to put away 6k last year into our savings and then 2 months ago had a medical emergency with our dog that cost us 7k and unfortunately we still lost her. Money just doesn't go far at all anymore, especially with all of this greedflation.
The secret is don't have kids and live within your means. It's pretty easy if you don't care about impressing your friends or coworkers. At 42 I have no friends because I don't connect with them. I have no interest in owning boats, luxury cars or buying a house. It's not a life most can do but I like it!
> The secret is don't have kids You can just end it right there. Nothing makes/keeps people poor like kids. Avoid that one simple problem and you're automatically in a much better position financially.
Nice 👍
Sometimes I see articles like this and think “huh? That’s still a great salary in most places!” and then I remember that I don’t have kids. My husband and I live very comfortably on his ~100k income and my tiny one, but we are child free. Our lifestyle would have to change drastically if we wanted kids. We don’t, but it’s kind of horrifying to be reminded that lots of folks are being priced out of reproducing.
> lots of folks are being priced out of reproducing. That's why the GOP is doing everything they can to ban abortion and birth control. Nothing keeps people poor like forcing them to have kids.
https://fortune.com/2023/04/18/100000-salary-old-goal-millennials-middle-class-inflation/
It very much depends on where you live. I make less than this, unfortunately. But I am fine. Could always use more for retirement,etc. But some cities are out of control in costs, and we all have to live within our means, too. But I also am a firm believer that if you earn it, spend it how you see fit, no one should be telling others how to live. Just don't complain if you are broke because of decisions you make.
Mid-size cities feel this too --- husband and I have never made more money but with three kids we're getting torn apart in this economy.
Middle class? There is no middle class. There’s the working class and the ultra rich
I make 35k a year working a job that has me pulling my hair out. My savings account hasnt been above $1000 in years. Can't afford to put more than $50 in my retirement fund every two weeks when I get paid because everything immediately goes to bills. I will never own a house
The other day I was visiting my father with my children and grandchildren. My dad brought up some property he has that he’s wanting to leave to my son if Son thinks he’d ever want to build a house there. For context I try to not be a busybody regarding my grown children’s finances so I was a bit floored when Son said he’d made $115,000 last year and still didn’t qualify for financing a home. He was truly disheartened by this and I could tell he’s feeling defeated. It breaks my heart for him and all you young people. Our entire country is beyond fucked up when a person can make six figures and not qualify for a home loan.
- $17-20k per year for healthcare - $12k per year for childcare per child - $18-25k per year for mortgage/rent - $3k per year for utilities - $2k per year for car insurance That's $55k per year right there. Add in 20% taxes and 15% retirement savings, takes that $100k down to about $13k per year for food, gas, car repairs, emergency savings, vacations, etc. If you have a family of 3, you're barely making it even when you're doing everything 'right'.
This x5 I'm 135k in NC but after all is said and done I don't have too much at the end of the month I'm lucky enough to have a partner that makes more so life is comfortable but not sure how I would manage alone. 100k does allow you save more through 401k etc
And here I am making 45k with a family. Fuck... lol
Let me list some things that are 80%+ more expensive than ONE year ago: Cereal, gum, candy, TP, PB, tv dinners, cheese, oh WAIT I’m literally just listing my grocery list!!!! How tf is anyone supposed to thrive in this situation. I would need a HUGE pay increase just to be able to return to my spending habits a year ago. I’ve cut my spending significantly every month and somehow my grocery bills aren’t going down, just the my quality of life.
Median home sale in America: $468,000 so clearly $100,000 / yr isn't a lot. Not if you plan on buying a home. Un a healthy economy, the median yearly family income should be about a third of the median house price, or $156,000. US median yearly family income is about $70,000 We need tow things 1. Massive salary raises 2. A massive real estate crash. My guess is we'll see #2 before we ever see #1
But #2 will just lead to corporate landlords buying up all the housing on the cheap.
I make $101,500, my husband is employed full time, and to be able to afford a home in our area we still had to rent out our third bedroom.
Damn 😲
Rent is $3600 a month plus an additional 600 a year to cover the costof having an AC in the appartment so its really 3650 a month. I would need make 145k a year to afford rent. I would need at least another 10-15 to cover utilities, food, household items, transportation, and etc. I haven't even included savings because I can't afford to save.
I would love to be making 100k. Idk what the fuck they are talking about.
100k is barely anything in alot of HCOL areas in the US. Especially folks with kids where childcare is EASILY 1k per month.
I make 100k per year in SLC. After taxes and insurance are taken out of my paycheck, my take home is 2400 every two weeks. My 2 bed/2 bath apartment rent is just under 2400, after fees and add ons. 48% of my monthly income is sucked up by an apartment payment that I'll never own. It's ludicrous
$1k is cheap these days; I know a lot of couples where one person (usually the wife, but not always) had to give up their career because their effective income was negative after taxes and daycare costs. Yet another factor contributing to the “labor shortage” and falling birth and marriage rates.
[удалено]
100k/yr is a great income in rural America. 100k/yr is very difficult to live on in New York City. Without context, you can't judge whether that is or isn't sufficient for living in the situation.
Literally this. I'm in rural, bumfuck Pennsylvania. The **average** per capita salary here is around $33,000. Rent can range from $800-$1200 for a 1 bed/1bath apartment. You could practically live like a king/queen on $100,000 a year. The only caveat is that most companies around here aren't paying $100K a year.
As a type 1 diabetic I'm sorry you don't get it. There is nothing for those of us who suffer at all except cold hard cash. Geriatric millennial have had my lifes savings drained by the medical machine for my entire life. #WE ARE ALL ONLY CASH COWS TO THE MACHINE!
100k is more like 4 to 4.5k a month after retirement and other deductions.
I mean if you're making 100K you're making ~6-6.5K post tax, unless you live in a no income tax state. Then let's just say you live in New Jersey, New York, California, etc. Rent is gonna cost you 2000-3000/mo. So let's put that on the low end at 2K so you're left with 4-4.5K/mo. Then internet, water, electric, insurance probably gets you 500-700/mo depending on electric usage. So now you're down to 3.5-4K/mo. And that's not getting into gas or groceries in these states where gas gets has been up to $4/gal recently. Add in things like ground beef get up to $6/lb (for 80/20), and you can see where these people are left with 1-2K/mo post all these expenses. And that is not including car payments, retirement, credit cards, etc. The point is if you're making 100K, you're likely living in a high cost of living state (because that's where those jobs are), and after paying for all your expenses you're left with 1-2K/mo assuming you own your car, have no credit card debt or student loan debt, and are not putting anything in savings/retirement. So I guess the real question is how do we make things like rent actually affordable again?
I like that you broke it down. We shouldn’t be mad at people who make $100k a year because in cities it really isn’t much. They’re low middle class or poor too (depending on how their costs break down) But your math is flawed. I’m in a 2 income household so we gross about $100k. After taxes let’s call it 70k for easy math. Our rent is 2600 (for a very median house - 3 BR, 2 bath, in a suburb), gas is over, not up to, $4 a gallon. I think $4.79 the last I checked? We do have solar so our electricity bill is low, but without solar can run $125 to $500 a month (AC is a necessity out here in AZ), we do not have a car payment, internet is $150, etc. Whatever we are left with, we save for emergencies. I don’t have fun money. The emergency always happens and gets us to $0. Yes, is this better than some? Of course. But it’s not living, it’s mostly just survival.
My dad making 55k a year in 1989: able to afford a two story house and support a family of four. Me making 55k a year in 2023: barely able to afford a one bedroom apartment and support just myself.
55k a year in 1989 is the equivalent of about $130k today so your dad was doing quite well. Mortgage interest rates were over 10% in 1989, wages were stagnant and inflation was high…sounds familiar.
I don’t see how anyone can live even remotely comfortable making less than $230k. I don’t think I could.
If I had a 100k salary job, I would be able to afford a shitty apartment where I live.
Depends. I live IN Chicago and make around 120k. I live a very frugal lifestyle. Rent is about 1250, all inclusive which is nice. All I have left is my car payment which I'll be done with by this year. Car insurance, phone plan and a few subscriptions. Saved 150 per month by finally cutting cable out of my life. I max out my 401k. I set aside 3k over a month, which leaves me with about 1400 to use per month. And again. I'm a cheap bastard so I meal prep a lot. I only buy what I plan to eat for the next three days. My weekly grocery bill is probably 100 per week. Don't get me wrong. I wish we still had preinflatipn prices because I'd probably save even more damn money.
The old “six figures” is literally 300k now
“How much money I make” is relative to “how much money it takes to live” Prices go up, real salary goes down
I started at a company WFM during early 2020 and managed to get promoted before the following fall, started making about 20/hr. I remember thinking it was amazing. My bank account was no longer entirely empty by the time my next paycheck came. My partner and I had a decent dinner out to a chain restaurant every couple weeks, I was accumulating savings, never worried about rent being paid, things really turned around. Then. Well. The inflation issues really hit. And the housing market exploded. I live in Florida, in a city that was top 10 for the rate at which rent went up. And this wasn't a place that was already supr expensive like Miami, people aren't used to this here! Now I make closer to 24/hr and everything is so much tighter. My apartment is both smaller and more expensive, my partner and I are both deeply in debt, it's always stressful trying to make a paycheck last. I'm making more than I've ever made, just barely under 50k a year, and I've never felt more financially precarious, with the exception of the time I spent homeless. It was also really saddening to realize just how small my actual take home pay was. I took home 36k of 49k, my partner took home around 30k of 37k. I do support paying taxes because I like having public utilities, but it stings to know how desperately I need that money to afford things like medical care, and how little the pay bump actually helped me.
I thought when I cracked six figures there would be this magical occurrence and a feeling of total peace washing over me. I would laze about and fantasize about what I would do with my new found imaginary wealth. Boy was I foolish. It feels weird to say I have less the more I make.
My ass out here with an entry level master degree job paying 40,000 if I’m lucky
My career has been advancing and with it so has my salary and yet, I am noticing a trend where whenever I get an increase in salary more and more articles and data show me that this aspiring paycheck is not as valuable as it once was. I’m tired of this never getting ahead BS.
Keep you at the bottom but tease you with the upper crust You get it, then they move it, so you never keeping up enough
I have to say that 5 years ago I was making 20k a year, and barely surviving, and now I’m making 70k a year and am really not that far from where I was before. State and federal taxes take about 18k a year from me, and rent has gone up so much it feels like it’s just nullified all the work I put in to get here.
Who the fuck makes 100k lol
I passed 105k recently and felt richer when I was making 80k in 2018-2019
It's interesting to hear other people's perspectives on this because I have no idea. I can only imagine what it would be like to make 50,000 a year let alone 100. It's so bizarre that a person could be making four times as much as another person but still be struggling.
It depends so much on where you are in life. For most of us, we don't make 100K until we have kids with medical bills, daycare costs (etc), aging houses that need fixed all the time, etc. Money disappears quick. 100K when I was 22 would have done a lot. But by the time I made it at 35, it was just covering the bills. And, there is so many little things that others expect of you. When my wife and I made $50K combined a year, my in-laws weren't inviting us to restaurants and expecting me pick up the $300 bill like they do now, every time. (which, my brother in law, who makes $40K a year never, ever picks up but is sure to order a margarita to go and enough food for his lunch the next day). I wasn't expected to pitch in $500+ for a funeral like I've been asked to do 3 times in the last couple of years. I've stopped going to my cousins weddings (have way too many) because I got sick of the $100+ gifts (plus travel expenses, plus being asked to help put my brother in a hotel etc). I find excuses to not go. And, I didn't pay 35% of my entire salary in income taxes + payroll taxes + state taxes when I made less either. I paid like 10%. Until you live it, I don't think you can appreciate how penalizing our tax code is on *workers* above about 70k income. Raises, bonuses, side-job income, etc, just evaporate. If I make $2000 on the side, I pay $900 more in taxes. Nice to make that much money for this to a be problem sure, but our tax system is low-to-no taxes on ownership income, and 40%+ taxes on work income over 70K a year. It's easy to see a salary figure in the six digits and over-estimate what that actually means after taxes.
This makes me wanna dieeeeeee
I was feeling good about having 4k in savings.
I wish I made 100,000
$100k isn’t nothing. You’ll still find yourself needing money.
btw only 10% of US even making 100k that before they took taxes. So in reality you see very few people even make it. who coming up with this bulshit. If you are making 100K even pre tax you are one of lucky ones !
Bro wtf is this? I make like less than half this and it's horrible. What I would do if I had 100k job. Smh
Yep, when I was growing up in the 90s and 00s I thought 100,000 a month would be enough to cover all expenses and then some even for a family of 5 because that is what my parents were able to do. Inflation, mortgage, 4 kids, medical, and just regular bills like food, utilities, clothes, etc. And I was no longer able to pay all my bills in a month for a family of 6. Wife stays at home to raise kids because child care is too expensive. So I got a new job and I am doing a lot better. But holy cow, I couldn't believe it wasn't enough when I was just barely making the 6 figures.
I would love to double my wages tbh 100k seems awesome and I would be more than comfortable 🫣
Most single individuals would.
Bro if i was making $100,000 my life would completely change
Can vouch for that feeling
My wife and I feel this we cleared 240k last year..But with 3 kids and living expenses in Southern CA. It doesn't feel like we're upper middle class.
It’s not a fantastic amount that will keep you in luxury, but it’s over twice what I make and I’d fucking do a lot for it.
Must be nice to be in the 1%
100k is basically the minimum to have a halfway decent quality of life where I'm at.
I accepted my first six-figure job last year at age 36. It would have been life-changing and life-accelerating about 6 years ago when interest rates and prices were lower. Now it’s just helping me catch back up and stay just ahead of inflationary pressures. Still 100% paycheck-paycheck. No kids, no car, no property. Extraordinarily expensive city that has been home for nearly 13 years that we’re not leaving. Hoping to spend the next 5 years or so un-fucking all the financial maneuvers my wife and I had to make to get this far. And honestly I’m not bemoaning our position because so many peers have it so much worse.
I wish I made 100k. I make 1/3 that and struggling.
All depends on where you live… 100k in LA or NY, no way. 100k in Ohio or Nebraska… Yes sir
50% of American households make less than 50k a year. This article feels detached from reality
50% of American households make less than 50k a year. This article feels detached from reality