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How much $$$ do u consider a 'good income"/ comfortable for a family.
How big is the family u talk abt? ( I ask because a family of mum, dad, two kids and a dog requires more than one of two SOs living together.)
By comfortable I mean not poor not rich just ur average family 3 bedroomed house in the suburbs, lil garden, more like how Raymond in 'Everybody loves Raymond" lived or how Lynette from Desparate Housewives lived.
It really depends on where you live. In a place like LA or NYC, you'll need an income of at least $150-$200k to live comfortably and save for college/retirement. In a place like Arkansas, you can live that for around $60K - $75K.
It really depends on where you live. In a place like LA or NYC, you'll need an income of at least $150-$200k to live comfortably and save for college/retirement. In a place like Arkansas, you can live that for around $60K - $75K.
Also most people have student loans from their undergraduate degree, and anticipating more loans for graduate school. A commitment to budgeting and saving is more important now than ever before. Frankly it's very hard to have a relationship with someone who is in a different financial state.
Quote:
N.Y.C. so costly you need to earn six figures to make middle class
The study, released Thursday by the Center for an Urban Future, shows that New York City is hands-down the most expensive place to live in the country.
Among the findings:
A New Yorker would have to make $123,322 a year to have the same standard of living as someone making $50,000 in Houston.
In Manhattan, a $60,000 salary is equivalent to someone making $26,092 in Atlanta.
You knew it was expensive to live in Manhattan, but Queens? The report tagged Queens the fifth most expensive urban area in the country.
The average monthly rent in New York is $2,801, 53% higher than San Francisco, the second most expensive city in the country.
“Income levels that would enable a very comfortable lifestyle in other locales barely suffice to provide the basics in New York City,” the report concludes.
It depends on the decision the family makes, many have gotten into painful mortgages and that is a killer. Salary does not matter.
Totally right. You'll see people just eeking by because of the choices they made when they bought a home they really couldn't afford. That's why we're all in the mess we are today. Once home prices stop falling, and the economy stabilizes, it will be easier to determine what is "comfortable". But location is by FAR, the biggest factor. NYC and Seattle will require FAR more income than most.
You can find all this sort of information online, easily. This is one good site.
This family of 4 (2 adults, 2 kids) can live on $24,000/year. Rural area, no mortgage, a garden, fruit trees, chickens, and the big gateaway, the ocean (the vacation expense), is 5 min away. Factoring in college funds and some travel, $35K is OK.
thebanker - what's the comfortable level in the Netherlands (if I remember it correctly)? Is it an expensive country?
As others have said, it depends. We seem to need something in excess of $100K to live comfortably but that has more to do with my husband thinking that only poor people need budgets I've been trying to get him on one for a while.
He does things that just irriatate me. For example, he rented a storage unit when he moved back in two years ago because we were going to sell the house and it needed to be uncluttered. Well, there's no selling a house in this market and we've now paid more in storage fees than it would have cost us to replace everything in that unit if we'd just sold it all back then and banked the monthly fee. By the time we actually do move, we will have paid twice over for what's in that unit. Somehow, this makes sense to him. We can't have a cluttered basement if we're selling the house. Only we haven't actually put the house on the market.
Do you guys know the story of the cobblers children who have no shoes? Well, my husband has an MBA in finance.
Oh and he gets really irritated if I question his financial wisdom. I wanted to move my 401K funds to an interest fund last spring. I should have listened to my gut. I may not have an MBA in finance but I seem to have more common sense about finances. He has since decided I was right there but that doesn't help now. To add insult to injury, as I said, he won't live on a budget which limits what gets into savings. Right now, I think we should be saving everything we can and investing it trying to recover what we lost but what do I know? I don't have a degree in finance.
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I've been trying to get him on one for a while. 
We can't have a cluttered basement if we're selling the house. 
Only we haven't actually put the house on the market. 
