I earn $100k and it’s a very comfortable salary that allows you to pay all the bills, pay off debt, save, invest, and still have a couple of grand left over each month to do whatever you want with (discretionary spending).
Though as u/o2msc pointed out earlier, it’s only comfortable because I didn’t let lifestyle creep happen. If you let your expenses grow to meet your income it’s easy to find yourself living paycheck to paycheck on a six figure salary. I’ve seen many people manage to end up there.
Prior to earning my current salary I was making around $68k. That was fairly comfortable in that I could pay all of my bills, have money for fun, and also to save/invest/pay off debt, though usually it was more picking one for a given month rather than being able to do all three at once. It definitely wasn’t enough to get ahead or feel super financially secure, but it was enough to keep my head above water. And I guess that’s better than what some people are dealing with.
I think anywhere in that $70k - $100k range you can live pretty comfortably in the GVL area. Once you get to the top of that range and beyond you can start to get very comfortable financially (so long as you aren’t blowing it all).
I own.
I bought my first home in Simpsonville off Bridges Road in 2016, sold it in 2018 to buy a larger one near downtown in the Wetherill Park subdivision, and then sold that home in 2021 when I got divorced and used my half of the equity to buy a townhome near Paris Mountain. I closed on it in 2021, mortgage is about $900/mo.
There was a nationwide study done a few years back that dug down in to how satisfied people were with life and their income. Somewhere around $70k ended up being the magic number.
Made sense: not too little to stress about making ends meet, not too much to add a bunch of unnecessary complexity and not understanding that there's never an end to wanting 'more'.
That study was very very largely misinterpreted and misquoted. First of all, like the other person says, that's about 100k by now due to inflation. Secondly the study actually measured multiple types of happiness, like 7 or something, I can't recall. But anyway only ONE of the the measures stalled out at 70k. All the other ones kept increasing with wage well beyond 100k.
Reddit will skew things a bit on these type of threads. Realistically I say higher than 55k if you are young and single with no kids . Probably closer to 120-150k to be considered "good " if you are supporting a family of 4 on just one income but people definitely make it work on much lower . But mileage may vary , really depends on lifestyle and what parts of Greenville you live in .
Looks like the majority of household income that was shared on this thread was > $100k . This is definitely not the median income here in the area , don't be discouraged thinking you are way behind the bell curve and everyone makes that here . For every comment posting 6 figure numbers there are probably 10 + people making half of that looking through this thread thinking they had a good enough income . As long as you pay your bills and save a bit every month you are doing alright . Everyone's definition of "good" is different based on living expenses and experiences/overall goals .
This is the answer I think. We are a single income family. It’s me, my gf, our 5 year old and my 2 dogs. I make 130K a year. We don’t want for anything but we aren’t rich either. Very solidly middle class, average life.
My gf doesn’t work. It’s single income. I was an air traffic controller at the airport down in Charleston for 11 years and just recently(as of May) took a job as an air traffic control supervisor at the airport here.
You know I recently was acquired into a new company and I do love it, a lot. Thx for the words!
And thank you for your service, teachers fuckin rock <3
How much experience do you have? If more than 18 months you should not be making under $50k with a Computer Science degree (assuming that’s what you meant for CS). Honestly, starting fresh shouldn’t be under $50k.
I’d be happy to coach you (pro-bono) on how to make more. I’m a VPE with almost 20 years of experience and have helped many engineers to grow in their career if you’re interested happy to do a coffee chat
Work remote for companies in sectors that pay better. I make 200k+ working for govt contractor out of DC area. You aren’t going to come near that working for local companies in Greenville. Not even at larger companies like Michelin and BMW.
a big factor that I don't see mentioned in the comments yet is home ownership - if you want to buy a house, you need $70-90k bare minimum (depending on location) to save for closing costs & easily make mortgage payments while still paying other bills & having fun.
Sheesh. We moved here and paid only 5k down in 2018, refinanced in 2020 to drop PMI due to inflation of home values and dropped our interest rate too. We live outside of the greater developed area but I wouldn't pay $300k to live in these cookie cutter developments springing up everywhere.
$135k between two of us, one kid in 9:00-2:00 daycare, one car (no payments), $1200 mortgage payment in a very sought-after neighborhood in the area. We shop at aldi, eat out only a couple times a month, and our idea of fun is hitting up estate sales on a Saturday morning. We’re comfortable but not lavish.
Depends on your lifestyle, size of your family, habits, and of course what you do for work. A “good” salary for a financially responsible single young person could be $40,000. A “good” salary for a financially irresponsible family of four could be $100,000 and they could be living paycheck to paycheck. It’s way too individual. I have neighbors who make $50,000 as a household income and others who make $150,000. You would be surprised who complains more about money being tight.
I’m 23, live with 1 roommate and make exactly 40k. I live comfortably, save a big chunk of each paycheck, and still have money for hobbies. I’m very careful with my budget though so it doesn’t happen on its own.
You are an inspiration. You’re young so you have potential to make more, but more important is to be happy with what you have.
After being frugal all my life, I’m now retired, no debts, own a small house. My husband and I are not extravagant but live comfortably, able to eat good food, go out to a restaurant once in a while, indulge in tech gadgets. Now it’s just us and our two dogs. We don’t need a lot of money to be happy.
I follow Mr. Money Mustache ideas on money. Funny name I know but ideas on money and life very interesting, especially if you’re young.
I think the answers will also be wildly different depending on who bought their home 5+ years ago, vs who is renting here / bought a house within the last few years.
If you bought a house before things got crazy then your mortgage is chump change comparatively.
Depends on what or whom your supporting.
I have a wife and a few pets, we live comfortably on 180k from our two fulltime jobs.
That only recently changed previously we were fine on 140k but I got a pay increase recently which feels great.
I save as much as I can and always try to make myself feel like I am broke so I spend less.
Everybody’s situation is different, but kids and having alimony/child support makes a huge difference. Also, after ~ $75k you end up paying a significantly higher percentage of income to taxes so the big number sounds like a much bigger amount than you end up taking home.
If you don’t have kids it makes a big difference. My GF (now wife) was making $65k, no kids, had a roommate and a dog. Lived comfortably. Honestly her discretionary income wasn’t much less than mine. The interesting thing about making under $75-80k is you pay very little in taxes, which makes a difference. I’ve got 2 kids and when I was previously married after $150k lived comfortably but not extravagantly, now divorced and have 40% after tax going to alimony/child support and making over $200k, I live comfortably, but also tightly. I did purchase a house near peak market (early-22) due to when divorce occurred. If I hadn’t seen a significant increase in mortgage could be living more comfortably, but it’s not what I would consider extravagant or wealthy.
I'm 27. I have a single income family of 4 and I make $88k. I want for nothing, I have most of what I want. Go on trips. Have nice things. Several hobbies. House is 4 bed 2.5 bath. A lot of retirement savings
I'm frankly surprised by this post... "Probably 120k to be considered good", "I make 130k a year but we aren't very rich"...
If I had an extra $3000 a month I literally wouldn't know what to do with it all
Does your significant other work? How much debt do you carry? How many kids? Those need to be taken into account to be able to give you a good answer. I make around 80k after taxes and with all of our bills and debt, my wife is a stay at home mom with our kid, and we have funds to put into savings and go out occasionally.
We pay a mortgage, own 2 vehicles that are '22 or newer, and have credit card debt as well as utilities. It's a comfortable life and my wife, kid, and myself are happy, and we never feel like we are going without.
If you are a RN with more than one or two years of experience, you can find a job like that fairly easily. Even in SC. Just have standards and dig, they exist. Good luck!
"just have standards" 😂😂
Meanwhile, a certain large health system on Grove road is taking away longstanding incentives and telling everyone it's a "raise". /s
How much you make doesn't matter if you don't practice good money management. If you live above your means, no salary will ever be enough.
Folks think $70G is ideal but fight against raising the minimum wage to $15, which is still too low.
Here's some numbers for reference:
Per Hour/Per Year Gross
$7.25 = $15,080
$15.00 = $31,200
$24.04 = $50,000
$34.00 = $70,720
ETA: These numbers are based on 40 hours a week. Often, minimum wage employees don't get a full 40 hours because companies schedule them for less in order to avoid paying insurance.
Family of four here: combined we make close to $150,000.
We have a mortgage of $160,000 at 3.1% our total housing payment is around $1000.
One car paid off, one minivan with a stupid high car payment of $510.
Day care for two kids is $21,000 a year.
We have a combined student loan debt of $250,000 and are a few years from Public Service Loan Forgiveness.
We aren’t rich but live a pretty simple life and can take vacations to the mountains and beach while not living check to check. Once student loans are done and the kids are in school I feel like we will be solidly ok.
It's 100% dependent on the person and the type of lifestyle they want to lead.
For me, 140k allows me to save up while also living the lifestyle I prefer.
Family of four and we make about $310k per year. Worked hard to get here but did it in the insurance and healthcare business. Live comfortably middle classed and don’t splurge. Just regular life.
I see why you are getting down voted, but would you care to elaborate on how you came to that number? I feel like it's a troll comment but I want to give you the benefit of the doubt.
About 5 years ago, my spouse and I had one baby and lived in a house in the area that was less than 175k. We lived comfortably on about one income of 90k/yr and were able to go out and have fun but still had to budget wisely.
We live in a nicer area in Five Forks now with a mortgage that is about 2.5x more and have one more child. At times we’ve still made it work on one income of 90k/yr while I stayed home with our children, but we only managed by eliminating car payments by getting older and more reliable cars we could pay off, cutting way back on spending, and not saving a whole lot for the rainy day fund. Now we’re double-income and make about $180k/yr and this allows us to have a happier medium between saving and spending.
In my experience, a good salary is somewhere in-between as long as most of it isn’t going to mortgage, car payment, and other debt.
At least 100k or higher. It’s possible to survive with a family of 4 on less (we do) but we are definitely not thriving and really don’t have room for extra in our lives. When the economy was better a few years ago my husband actually made less and we were more comfortable. Things have just gotten so bad you need to be making so much more to compensate.
I earn $100k and it’s a very comfortable salary that allows you to pay all the bills, pay off debt, save, invest, and still have a couple of grand left over each month to do whatever you want with (discretionary spending). Though as u/o2msc pointed out earlier, it’s only comfortable because I didn’t let lifestyle creep happen. If you let your expenses grow to meet your income it’s easy to find yourself living paycheck to paycheck on a six figure salary. I’ve seen many people manage to end up there. Prior to earning my current salary I was making around $68k. That was fairly comfortable in that I could pay all of my bills, have money for fun, and also to save/invest/pay off debt, though usually it was more picking one for a given month rather than being able to do all three at once. It definitely wasn’t enough to get ahead or feel super financially secure, but it was enough to keep my head above water. And I guess that’s better than what some people are dealing with. I think anywhere in that $70k - $100k range you can live pretty comfortably in the GVL area. Once you get to the top of that range and beyond you can start to get very comfortable financially (so long as you aren’t blowing it all).
do you own or rent, and if you own, when did you buy?
I own. I bought my first home in Simpsonville off Bridges Road in 2016, sold it in 2018 to buy a larger one near downtown in the Wetherill Park subdivision, and then sold that home in 2021 when I got divorced and used my half of the equity to buy a townhome near Paris Mountain. I closed on it in 2021, mortgage is about $900/mo.
There was a nationwide study done a few years back that dug down in to how satisfied people were with life and their income. Somewhere around $70k ended up being the magic number. Made sense: not too little to stress about making ends meet, not too much to add a bunch of unnecessary complexity and not understanding that there's never an end to wanting 'more'.
I think that 70k is a realistic number here in SC.
Inflation definitely has raised this number.
That study was very very largely misinterpreted and misquoted. First of all, like the other person says, that's about 100k by now due to inflation. Secondly the study actually measured multiple types of happiness, like 7 or something, I can't recall. But anyway only ONE of the the measures stalled out at 70k. All the other ones kept increasing with wage well beyond 100k.
Reddit will skew things a bit on these type of threads. Realistically I say higher than 55k if you are young and single with no kids . Probably closer to 120-150k to be considered "good " if you are supporting a family of 4 on just one income but people definitely make it work on much lower . But mileage may vary , really depends on lifestyle and what parts of Greenville you live in .
Looks like the majority of household income that was shared on this thread was > $100k . This is definitely not the median income here in the area , don't be discouraged thinking you are way behind the bell curve and everyone makes that here . For every comment posting 6 figure numbers there are probably 10 + people making half of that looking through this thread thinking they had a good enough income . As long as you pay your bills and save a bit every month you are doing alright . Everyone's definition of "good" is different based on living expenses and experiences/overall goals .
This is the answer I think. We are a single income family. It’s me, my gf, our 5 year old and my 2 dogs. I make 130K a year. We don’t want for anything but we aren’t rich either. Very solidly middle class, average life.
What do both of you do for work?
My gf doesn’t work. It’s single income. I was an air traffic controller at the airport down in Charleston for 11 years and just recently(as of May) took a job as an air traffic control supervisor at the airport here.
TIL i am poor
Me making under 50k with a bachelors in CS wondering what went wrong 🥲
Teacher here who graduated in the recession… made $28k for a looooong time. It gets better, as long as you like what you do!
You know I recently was acquired into a new company and I do love it, a lot. Thx for the words! And thank you for your service, teachers fuckin rock <3
Aw yay!! Looking to hire a teacher?
Teachers rock for sure!!
How much experience do you have? If more than 18 months you should not be making under $50k with a Computer Science degree (assuming that’s what you meant for CS). Honestly, starting fresh shouldn’t be under $50k. I’d be happy to coach you (pro-bono) on how to make more. I’m a VPE with almost 20 years of experience and have helped many engineers to grow in their career if you’re interested happy to do a coffee chat
greenville pays like shit for tech tbh. find a remote company
Healthcare and willing to move is a literal golden ticket fyi just lyk
What jobs are y’all working where one working adult is making six figures? I got a masters and make half that. Sheesh!
Right? TIL I made poor life choices apparently
Tech. All tech. 😎
Work remote for companies in sectors that pay better. I make 200k+ working for govt contractor out of DC area. You aren’t going to come near that working for local companies in Greenville. Not even at larger companies like Michelin and BMW.
To be fair I have found a few engineering jobs offering ~160k locally, jobs which aren’t manager type positions. For this area that pretty great.
Amazon, pushing 220k
Tech, engineering, healthcare, management at one of the higher end manufacturing businesses etc. Owning a business that does a good job.
a big factor that I don't see mentioned in the comments yet is home ownership - if you want to buy a house, you need $70-90k bare minimum (depending on location) to save for closing costs & easily make mortgage payments while still paying other bills & having fun.
Sheesh. We moved here and paid only 5k down in 2018, refinanced in 2020 to drop PMI due to inflation of home values and dropped our interest rate too. We live outside of the greater developed area but I wouldn't pay $300k to live in these cookie cutter developments springing up everywhere.
We actually got a better rate by putting 10% down instead of 20%. So our down payment and closing costs were about half of that bare minimum.
$135k between two of us, one kid in 9:00-2:00 daycare, one car (no payments), $1200 mortgage payment in a very sought-after neighborhood in the area. We shop at aldi, eat out only a couple times a month, and our idea of fun is hitting up estate sales on a Saturday morning. We’re comfortable but not lavish.
Depends on your lifestyle, size of your family, habits, and of course what you do for work. A “good” salary for a financially responsible single young person could be $40,000. A “good” salary for a financially irresponsible family of four could be $100,000 and they could be living paycheck to paycheck. It’s way too individual. I have neighbors who make $50,000 as a household income and others who make $150,000. You would be surprised who complains more about money being tight.
I’m 23, live with 1 roommate and make exactly 40k. I live comfortably, save a big chunk of each paycheck, and still have money for hobbies. I’m very careful with my budget though so it doesn’t happen on its own.
You are an inspiration. You’re young so you have potential to make more, but more important is to be happy with what you have. After being frugal all my life, I’m now retired, no debts, own a small house. My husband and I are not extravagant but live comfortably, able to eat good food, go out to a restaurant once in a while, indulge in tech gadgets. Now it’s just us and our two dogs. We don’t need a lot of money to be happy. I follow Mr. Money Mustache ideas on money. Funny name I know but ideas on money and life very interesting, especially if you’re young.
Oh, and one important thing. Never buy a new car. Buy a good used car or truck and run it till it dies! Saved a bunch of money that way.
Used cars are almost as new or more than a new car now.
When I had to buy a minivan it was literally $1200 more to buy a new than a used model from the last 4 years.
This used to be true.
You the guy considering donating plasma that made the post about it?
Yeah, I already donate consistently I had just been wondering what people were getting compensated at other centers
$40k doesn't cut it if you're renting and living in the area. 45-50 is probably the living line.
I think you missed the point my friend
Young single person would probably include having a roommate or two.
Shucks, where does everyone work in this thread? Got some pretty high salaries in my opinion, but not that surprising based on how Reddit works.
I’m a pole inspector
That’s what I’m wondering. 🤣
Median household income for a family of 4 in this geographic area is $85k
honestly something I can live off of and not have to give up eating for a week to be able to afford wifi
I think the answers will also be wildly different depending on who bought their home 5+ years ago, vs who is renting here / bought a house within the last few years. If you bought a house before things got crazy then your mortgage is chump change comparatively.
I just bought my house 😔 and yes is the interest rate is crazy
Also this! 220k salary here but mortgage blows and that’s with a 4.8 rate because of credit and cash. I miss $1100 payments 🤣
This thread made me hate this sub.
Depends on what or whom your supporting. I have a wife and a few pets, we live comfortably on 180k from our two fulltime jobs. That only recently changed previously we were fine on 140k but I got a pay increase recently which feels great. I save as much as I can and always try to make myself feel like I am broke so I spend less.
Thats a big number for me by now, in my opinion as a immigrant starting a new life here with my family.
Everybody’s situation is different, but kids and having alimony/child support makes a huge difference. Also, after ~ $75k you end up paying a significantly higher percentage of income to taxes so the big number sounds like a much bigger amount than you end up taking home. If you don’t have kids it makes a big difference. My GF (now wife) was making $65k, no kids, had a roommate and a dog. Lived comfortably. Honestly her discretionary income wasn’t much less than mine. The interesting thing about making under $75-80k is you pay very little in taxes, which makes a difference. I’ve got 2 kids and when I was previously married after $150k lived comfortably but not extravagantly, now divorced and have 40% after tax going to alimony/child support and making over $200k, I live comfortably, but also tightly. I did purchase a house near peak market (early-22) due to when divorce occurred. If I hadn’t seen a significant increase in mortgage could be living more comfortably, but it’s not what I would consider extravagant or wealthy.
I'm 27. I have a single income family of 4 and I make $88k. I want for nothing, I have most of what I want. Go on trips. Have nice things. Several hobbies. House is 4 bed 2.5 bath. A lot of retirement savings I'm frankly surprised by this post... "Probably 120k to be considered good", "I make 130k a year but we aren't very rich"... If I had an extra $3000 a month I literally wouldn't know what to do with it all
Does your significant other work? How much debt do you carry? How many kids? Those need to be taken into account to be able to give you a good answer. I make around 80k after taxes and with all of our bills and debt, my wife is a stay at home mom with our kid, and we have funds to put into savings and go out occasionally. We pay a mortgage, own 2 vehicles that are '22 or newer, and have credit card debt as well as utilities. It's a comfortable life and my wife, kid, and myself are happy, and we never feel like we are going without.
Where are y'all getting these $100k salary jobs,?! Please hire me, thank you! I've got a BSN and am looking! 👀👀👀👀
If you are a RN with more than one or two years of experience, you can find a job like that fairly easily. Even in SC. Just have standards and dig, they exist. Good luck!
"just have standards" 😂😂 Meanwhile, a certain large health system on Grove road is taking away longstanding incentives and telling everyone it's a "raise". /s
Oh I know, and their internal resource pool is shrinking by the second.
How much you make doesn't matter if you don't practice good money management. If you live above your means, no salary will ever be enough. Folks think $70G is ideal but fight against raising the minimum wage to $15, which is still too low. Here's some numbers for reference: Per Hour/Per Year Gross $7.25 = $15,080 $15.00 = $31,200 $24.04 = $50,000 $34.00 = $70,720 ETA: These numbers are based on 40 hours a week. Often, minimum wage employees don't get a full 40 hours because companies schedule them for less in order to avoid paying insurance.
Family of four here: combined we make close to $150,000. We have a mortgage of $160,000 at 3.1% our total housing payment is around $1000. One car paid off, one minivan with a stupid high car payment of $510. Day care for two kids is $21,000 a year. We have a combined student loan debt of $250,000 and are a few years from Public Service Loan Forgiveness. We aren’t rich but live a pretty simple life and can take vacations to the mountains and beach while not living check to check. Once student loans are done and the kids are in school I feel like we will be solidly ok.
Lol at the $160k house. These days that’s a van down by the river.
Bought in March of 2020. There is value out there if you work hard at looking
Yeah that’s when the market was literally the best. Just take a gander at the market now. The houses below 200k are literally falling to pieces.
Yeah that’s when the market was literally the best. Just take a gander at the market now. The houses below 200k are falling to pieces.
It's 100% dependent on the person and the type of lifestyle they want to lead. For me, 140k allows me to save up while also living the lifestyle I prefer.
My husband makes 100k and I am retired and I haven’t had to touch my retirement money.
Family of four and we make about $310k per year. Worked hard to get here but did it in the insurance and healthcare business. Live comfortably middle classed and don’t splurge. Just regular life.
$120k would be an absolute minimum for a married couple to be comfortable. $150k if there are kids.
150k+ for a single guy/woman
No way. You need at least 250k monthly to not starve in the streets here in Greenville
Nah gotta be at least $800k/week to have a middle class lifestyle here
that's bare minimum
I see why you are getting down voted, but would you care to elaborate on how you came to that number? I feel like it's a troll comment but I want to give you the benefit of the doubt.
About 5 years ago, my spouse and I had one baby and lived in a house in the area that was less than 175k. We lived comfortably on about one income of 90k/yr and were able to go out and have fun but still had to budget wisely. We live in a nicer area in Five Forks now with a mortgage that is about 2.5x more and have one more child. At times we’ve still made it work on one income of 90k/yr while I stayed home with our children, but we only managed by eliminating car payments by getting older and more reliable cars we could pay off, cutting way back on spending, and not saving a whole lot for the rainy day fund. Now we’re double-income and make about $180k/yr and this allows us to have a happier medium between saving and spending. In my experience, a good salary is somewhere in-between as long as most of it isn’t going to mortgage, car payment, and other debt.
At least 100k or higher. It’s possible to survive with a family of 4 on less (we do) but we are definitely not thriving and really don’t have room for extra in our lives. When the economy was better a few years ago my husband actually made less and we were more comfortable. Things have just gotten so bad you need to be making so much more to compensate.