How much money do u consider "comfortable" for u & ur S0/Family (wife, hubby)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
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?
May I ask where you are? It sounds like a nice life. I'd love to simplify. Unfortunatley, my husband wants to move into a condo so no garden for me I'm going to miss my roses and fresh tomatoes and cucumbers in the summer.
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.
Well, since I do not watch television, I do not know the two references that you mention. However, I will assume that you mean modern suburban America.
I would think that a "family" (as you describe a family to be), could live reasonably well on about $45,000 - $50,000 per year. Again depending on how extravagant their lifestyle.
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.
This is EXACTLY the type of thinking that led to my divorce.
May I ask where you are? It sounds like a nice life. I'd love to simplify. Unfortunatley, my husband wants to move into a condo so no garden for me I'm going to miss my roses and fresh tomatoes and cucumbers in the summer.
Get a townhome with a small backyard. You the benefits of a condo but still have a little more room to breathe.
May I ask where you are? It sounds like a nice life. I'd love to simplify. Unfortunatley, my husband wants to move into a condo so no garden for me I'm going to miss my roses and fresh tomatoes and cucumbers in the summer.
Get a ground level unit. Or a "patio home" condo. Most have small yards (enough for a tomato plant or two). Or look into putting together a community garden nearby for other condo/apartment dwellers who long for fresh veggies.
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?
Rock on sister, rock on. You (and I) have the answer to true happiness. I would definitely make those kids pay for their own college though. It builds character.
20yrsinBranson
wishing I were 5 minutes away from the ocean.
Location: Everybody is going to hurt you, you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for-B Marley
9,516 posts, read 19,998,362 times
Reputation: 9418
I've lived off almost nothing and been homeless with my kids post divorce (but it was worth it to get out of a bad marriage) and I've had times where I always had money in my pocket but I've never been rich. I could survive on nothing again if I had to. It wouldn't devastate me like it does some. But it's much easier and more fun with money, I don't deny that.
Rock on sister, rock on. You (and I) have the answer to true happiness. I would definitely make those kids pay for their own college though. It builds character.
20yrsinBranson
wishing I were 5 minutes away from the ocean.
I hope you feel the same way when you are elderly and need their help. Why should you benefit from something that you don't want to pay for? (please note: I said want not can't. There is a difference)
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?
Comparing this & Canada, I think Canadians need to stop whining they have it easy
1) Free healthcare. You dont need insurance to see the doctor in Canada u need to pay for ur own prescriptions but just to see the doctor is free. So typically Canadians pay for "extended" health care eg if a bus knocks u down & u have to be in the hospital for a month, insurance will cover cost of room, also prescriptions etc here just to have the doctor hear about ur headache u need to be insured.
2) I miss the good old days when I'd make at least $500/night as a stripper. Here prostitution is legal so no one is paying $20 a song just to see you naked. If you want to make $500 you need to go all the way & suck some dingalong because nobody entertains strippers here.
3) Phonecalls: I remember how in Canada I used to gossip for hours on the phone. Here you pay as you go just to talk to ur mom in the same city.
I remember how in Canada the "mark" of making it was making 100K a year. Here its difficult for traditionally big earners such as doctors, prostitures engineers etc to make 100K Euros a year.
4) The idea of "cheap" stores like Walmart...doesnt exist here.
I'd say here $60K Euros is sufficient for a suburban comfortable life unless you live in Amsterdam in which case u'd need at least $120K Euros.
In terms of salary in Canada the "mark" of making it was making 100K/yr but here even doctors, prostitutes, engineers & other "high level" professionals dont always make 100K Euros.
Last edited by thebanker; 05-09-2009 at 12:47 PM..
I hope you feel the same way when you are elderly and need their help. Why should you benefit from something that you don't want to pay for? (please note: I said want not can't. There is a difference)
I am blissfully childfree, thank you very much. And before you launch into that old chestnut about "who will care for you when you are old", let's visit a few nursing homes shall we? How many of THOSE poor, forgotten souls have children?
LOL Nobody is going to help you when you are old, you have to take care of yourself, and if you think otherwise, you are fooling yourself, CESpeed.
20yrsinBranson
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I'm going to miss my roses and fresh tomatoes and cucumbers in the summer.
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. 
