What's considered a real, nice income in this area? (Woodbridge: rent, school)

[kutra11]

Originally Posted by kutra11

It really depends on the neighborhood/community. I live in the part of Oakton where the houses are priced from $700K to $1.5M, and based on what my neighbors (and we) do, I would guess that the net income must be around $300K - $400K/year. Also, different people have different needs and/or different priorities. While we drive a BMW and a Lexus, my neighbors down the street (who definitely earn more than us) have a Toyota and a Nissan. I wouldn't necessarily make a judgement based on what people drive unless we are talking Jaguars, Porsches and other high-end cars.

With reference to my earlier post, I wrote that I don't know what most people make. I was just going by my neighborhood.

But for a dual income couple in IT (with at least, a Masters degree), making upwards of $200K total after working 8-10 years in this area is not uncommon. I don't know how much s/w engineers are getting paid now, but back in 2000-2001 (before the internet bubble burst), a fresh grad with a Masters in CS would easily get between $70-$80K/year. Assuming they did not get laid off and they were good at their job, I would expect them to have doubled their salary in 10 years (or at least 90%)! If not the net income, then you would at least be making that money through profit-sharing and bonus plans... ...again, assuming you were good enough to get promoted in those 10 years.

[Azmordean]

Originally Posted by stp_fan

That's....a lot of debt for someone only making $66k a year. Are you sure mom and dad didn't contribute to anything?

I made a significant down payment on my car and also negotiated a good price on it. My condo (2br 2ba) I got for 229,900 - housing prices have fallen quite a bit lately. I put 5% down ($11,500). My dad did decide to help me out by matching that (for a total of 10% down), but I could have afforded it without the additional down payment. It just made sense for the loan terms and so forth to go the other way.

[NC211]

In my opinion, DC MSA is a $150k town, +/- $10k. Whether that's one income or two, is dependent on what you do for a living.

[Carlingtonian]

Originally Posted by kutra11

With reference to my earlier post, I wrote that I don't know what most people make. I was just going by my neighborhood.

But for a dual income couple in IT (with at least, a Masters degree), making upwards of $200K total after working 8-10 years in this area is not uncommon. I don't know how much s/w engineers are getting paid now, but back in 2000-2001 (before the internet bubble burst), a fresh grad with a Masters in CS would easily get between $70-$80K/year. Assuming they did not get laid off and they were good at their job, I would expect them to have doubled their salary in 10 years (or at least 90%)! If not the net income, then you would at least be making that money through profit-sharing and bonus plans... ...again, assuming you were good enough to get promoted in those 10 years.

Wow. And some people think us Feds are overpaid. My wife has been with Uncle Sam for just under 15 years (with a master's from a top school) and makes just over 100K. (And is paying off her student loans.) I make way less but didn't start with USG till this year.

Even a four-star general with 30 years in makes just over 200K. And there are damn few of those. More commonly, a LT COL with 20 years makes just over 98K.

Nothing personal, Kutra, but I think IT people are overpaid.

[EuroExpat]

Originally Posted by Blanca29

Most people make that.

HA! HA! HA! Funniest thing I've read here in a long time. Honey, not everyone is a lawyer here..

[EuroExpat]

Originally Posted by Carlingtonian

Nothing personal, Kutra, but I think IT people are overpaid.

I could not agree more with you.

[oneasterisk]

Originally Posted by Carlingtonian

Nothing personal, Kutra, but I think IT people are overpaid.

Hey I resemble that remark! Don't call me when you can't get your files off some random server though

Back to the original question. It really depends on what kind of debts and obligations you have. I can only speak for myself. I'm 31/single/male and have a 6 figure salary. I make way more than what I need to live comfortably, but I also have no debt other than a mortgage. When I was making less money (60-80k), I was still comfortable since I had no car/college/credit bills to pay. Now that I make more money, I just max out my TSP, contribute more to my ROTH-IRA, save 10% of my salary in a savings account and still manage to have fun money left over every month.

[kutra11]

Originally Posted by Carlingtonian

Nothing personal, Kutra, but I think IT people are overpaid.

There is some truth to that. In my 11 years in this field, I have seen several utterly, useless people get paid a huge chunk of money only because they have some random diploma for some random course they took that is somehow related to IT. And in this region, if you have a TS clearance, all you need is a face and SSN behind it to get a high-paying job!

But the truth of the matter is that you cannot make a general statement about all IT jobs. Higher education is still valued in this country so a Masters/PhD in Engineering (or any Math, Science, etc field) should deserve a higher salary. Should it be higher than a four star general with 30 years of service? That I don't know, but we can't compare private sector salaries with public sector salaries.

And at the end of the day, what matters to me is how happy I am with what I do with my life and the time I spend with my family. I am sure I would be equally happy if my net income was 50% lower or 50% higher.

[Carlingtonian]

Originally Posted by kutra11

There is some truth to that. In my 11 years in this field, I have seen several utterly, useless people get paid a huge chunk of money only because they have some random diploma for some random course they took that is somehow related to IT. And in this region, if you have a TS clearance, all you need is a face and SSN behind it to get a high-paying job!

But the truth of the matter is that you cannot make a general statement about all IT jobs. Higher education is still valued in this country so a Masters/PhD in Engineering (or any Math, Science, etc field) should deserve a higher salary. Should it be higher than a four star general with 30 years of service? That I don't know, but we can't compare private sector salaries with public sector salaries.

And at the end of the day, what matters to me is how happy I am with what I do with my life and the time I spend with my family. I am sure I would be equally happy if my net income was 50% lower or 50% higher.

Wow--I must say, I'm surprised and impressed by such a candid and objective repsonse.

Certainly IT folks are of high value, and if someone actually creates the next Windows XP or iPhone, then they deserve a rich reward. But yeah, when mid-level IT folks right out of a so-so college are making 80 grand, to me that seems overly generous. Then again, I wouldn't turn it down, either. And maybe it's just simple supply/demand.

Not sure I agree on the value of degrees, though; maybe folks actually learn something in the hard sciences' grad programs. But for the other disciplines? I have my doubts.

But you're right in that a master's is now required for a lot of jobs. My wife and I were just discussing this today. She said at her federal agency, they used to get a lot of interns with bachelor's degrees, and they couldn't put a sentence togther. So now, her agency requires a master's for a GS-9--mainly to weed out the incoherent.

If it were up to me, I would just give candidates an on-the-spot writing assignment and hire based on that. If someone can do the job and get along with people, I couldn't care less if they didn't even graduate.

[info781]

It is not really valid for single people in their '20s to compare themselves to people in their '40s with kids, salary wise, different stages of life. Also, if the wife stays home with kids that lowers income, other folks may have higher income, but paying for day care/nanny.
Look at the GS schedule, lets say you have a gs-13 married to a gs-14 both step 8 and you are looking at a household income of 240k a year plus great benefits and there are many of those folks in this town. So I would say between 200k and 400k household income is normal around here for mid-career.