The Loudouns: At $122,000 a year, an average family can’t keep pace with cost of living (coupon, 2014)

[blindside]

The Loudouns: At $122,000 a year, an average family can’t keep pace with cost of living | LoudounTimes.com

In my case, every amount seems rather high.

However, I wondered how much that dual income is really benefitting this family. Continuing the calculation, On average, if a woman makes 78 cents for every $1 of her male counterpart [whitehouse.gov] , as much as 75% of her income is going to taxes, commuting, and childcare costs. Ouch. I hope she really likes her job.

[Carlingtonian]

Originally Posted by blindside

The Loudouns: At $122,000 a year, an average family can’t keep pace with cost of living | LoudounTimes.com

In my case, every amount seems rather high.

However, I wondered how much that dual income is really benefitting this family. Continuing the calculation, On average, if a woman makes 78 cents for every $1 of her male counterpart, as much as 75% of her income is going to taxes, commuting, and childcare costs. Ouch. I hope she really likes her job.

I don't believe either statistic is accurate. Regarding the "78 cents per dollar" figure: Women frequently choose lower-paying professions than men, and they frequently leave the workforce when they have children. So this skews the overall average salary for women. In every place I have ever worked (in the private sector and in the government), women have been my superiors and senior colleagues, and in many cases I knew women who made (or make) more than I did (or do now). I don't doubt there have been cases where employers knowingly paid a woman less than a man doing the exact same job--I'm looking at you, Firestone--but thankfully, this is rare nowadays.

The portion of any person's income going to taxes/commuting/child care varies widely, obviously. In some cases, I'm sure a second income is not worth it after expenses. In other cases, it is worth it. Keep in mind too that the second job can be insurance of a sort, in case the other spouse is laid off.

[FCNova]

This example isn't very good. Basically they took a fairly modest household income, and loaded the budget to the gills with expenses. Of course there will be a shortfall. There are so many areas they could cut expenses drastically. If you have that income, with a kid in fulltime daycare and 2 car payments, and obviously a mortgage, you're going to need to be frugal in other areas and they're not.

"They rarely buy new clothes, have given up golf and seldom go out for a movie or have dinner at one of the county’s fine restaurants – even if they could find a babysitter at $10 an hour"

Yet the budget has $200/month for clothes, and over 12k per year for health/wellness/leisure. Our household income is a lot higher than that and I don't even spend anywhere close to 200/month on clothes. Our family medical plan through employer costs us around 6k per year, so there's a lot of leisure somewhere in that 12k. Not to mention there is a separate line item of 400/month for lunches/eating out.

[airjay75]

All that example really demonstrates to me is that the middle class continues to be squeezed no matter where you live. Primarily because of the increased cost of housing in this area, you can make 6 figures, and still be squarely in the middle class. Whether you make the median income living in a place like Loudoun or you make the median income living in a much lower cost area, you are going to find yourself stretched no matter where you live. The only area where you sort of get squeezed a little bit more here is with your income tax because income tax brackets are not adjusted tor the cost of living in your particular area. I think some people automatically assume that because median incomes in this area are in the 6 figures, that means everyone is living high on the hog. It simply isn't the case.

Regarding the point of the cost/benefit of the second earner vs. staying home to care for children, I think a lot of people forget that while, the cost of child care may come close to zeroing out that second income in the early years, that is not going to be the case for the rest of your life. As the children go to school and get older, your childcare costs are going to decrease. Re-entering the workforce can certainly be done, but that can also present challenges that won't be there if you stay in the workforce, even if it is largely eaten up by childcare costs in the early years.

[TheWatchmen]

Is this a serious piece? I need a tiny violin emoji.

Each year they pledge to cut spending at holidays … but never do.

Why not?

But they are frustrated by the amount they pay in taxes to support these assets. The Loudouns pay $47,000 a year – about 39 percent of their income – in federal, payroll, state and county taxes that reduce their disposable income to about $75,000: still substantially higher than the national average of $53,891 for household income.

Oh gee. How terrible, making enough money to pay almost as much in taxes than the average household earns. Would they rather earn the $53,000?

Loudouns spend about $30,000 a year, or about 25 percent of their income, on their mortgage. Their housing costs also include home improvements, insurance and maintenance.

Sounds about right.

Both commute to work: 10 miles each weekday for Brian, who starts his day at 5 a.m. at his company’s Ashburn campus; and 40 miles a day for Hope, who pays tolls and battles traffic in her hour-plus trips to and from Tysons during rush hours.

That is the well known trade off that you make when moving out to an exurb. Luckily for them, their complaints and lobbying worked, and they are getting Metro service in the coming years.

I can't even read the rest. This piece is certainly not representative of the people that I know who live in Loudoun, who are not entitled, complaining whiners.

[jillybean720]

In my experience living in Sterling, this all looks relatively accurate. Except we had 2 kids who needed full time care (they are currently 15 months and almost 3 years old), which would nearly double the amount for daycare in this scenario. We had a higher gross household income than the $122k used here, BUT after we had our second child, my HUSBAND became a stay-at-home dad since I made significantly more money than him. At that point, we ended up being almost exactly like the scenario because my salary alone grossed very, very close to $122k.

So, minus the daycare expense, but increase the utilities since people were home in the house all day.

Our monthly mortgage on our home was lower than in this scenario, but we also took a loss on the rental of our previous home (can't sell since it's upside down), so it works out about the same. And the scenario in the article lacks any HOA/condo fees.

The $2100 seems high for vehicle taxes. We have 2 cars, one is a 2013, and I'm pretty sure our property taxes weren't that high. That said, the $200/month for "home improvements" is pathetic since it looks like that would cover maintenance AND improvements. Need a new dryer? Bam, 3 months' worth of "home improvements" gone. Hope you don't need new windows, a new roof, new siding, etc., because then you're out of home improvement money for a good year or two or three!

Add some expenses for our two small dogs (I don't see any pets in this scenario).

We found ourselves in the same situation, basically - never took vacations, no money being saved for college, no cable, haircuts at home, under-funded retirement...I never thought before that I could be earning 6 figures and still feel so far behind financially. And we bought our house (older SFH in Sugarland Run) when it was just over $300k. We sold it 2.5 years later for $360k, so the option to just buy a more affordable house in Loudoun is not an easy reality.

And I'm not crying about it, just agreeing it's a realistic case in Loudoun.

[PK12]

What nonsense. $122K is more than a substantial amount of money.

People need to manage their budget for leisurely actively within the appropriate means

[Lilac110]

$800 a month for groceries, $400 a month for lunches and dining out?

Are these people obese? Sure, they have 2 kids, but come on now.

And $12,220 on leisure activities such as vacations, concerts, drinking (because that's what "taverns" and "wineries" really means), and sporting events? Yeah, hi. Get a grip. Try free concerts on the Mall in the summer, picnics and cookouts, and Little League.

Good grief, the ridiculous expectations. If a family of four can't live on $122,000 a year in NoVA, Mom and Dad need to tone it down a notch.

[FCNova]

Originally Posted by Lilac110

$800 a month for groceries, $400 a month for lunches and dining out?

Are these people obese? Sure, they have 2 kids, but come on now.

The grocery expense seems fairly reasonable, I'm actually astounded how much our grocery bills are now. It's all the fruit our kids eat. But it's funny the article says they seldom go out for dinner anymore yet budget 400/month for it.

[TheWatchmen]

Originally Posted by Lilac110

$800 a month for groceries, $400 a month for lunches and dining out?

Are these people obese? Sure, they have 2 kids, but come on now.

I dunno. We are a family of 2, and regularly spend $100 - $150/week on groceries. Sure, maybe we are too lazy about shopping around and coupon clipping, and shop too often at places like My Organic Market, and another small, organic grocery store nearby, but when we have kids, I can see that budget shooting up a ton We will definitely have to set a firm budget, and shop more on a needs-basis only.