How much to earn to live "comfortably"?

[Dopo]

Visiting my poor relatives in Venezuela made me realize that 2500sq ft is a huge house for 5 people

[DanielWayne]

This thread is enlightening, and obviously not representative of the real population of Houston, where median salary is about $45,000. And yes, there are many places in Houston where that can comfortably carry a small family if they are good at managing money.

[LocalPlanner]

Originally Posted by DanielWayne

This thread is enlightening, and obviously not representative of the real population of Houston, where median salary is about $45,000. And yes, there are many places in Houston where that can comfortably carry a small family if they are good at managing money.

Actually Houston area median household income in 2014 was roughly $60,000. That's different from salary, of course, but just sayin'.

[Houston321]

Some surprisingly realistic answers on this thread. Typically when a money question comes up in this forum, everyone acts like they make 250K per year, but live in a 150K home, with no car payments or credit card debt....and treat you like a fool if you don't do the same.

[naadarien]

Originally Posted by Dopo

Kids are expensive
Now I understand people that don't want to have kids

Yeah but I happily spend money on them. Not willy nilly, but still...

Luckily I have a spouse who is super frugal. He acts like spending $20 (on himself) is too much.

[naadarien]

Originally Posted by swopoe

My husband makes over $200k, and I still worry about money. College (we have 3 kids), retirement, etc. we live comfortably, but I still worry. I budget, use coupons, etc. Money is always a worry.

Yep. I make $200k and the hubby is a SAHD. I think we are pretty comfy, but we have 3 mortgages and two car notes. Man I will feel soooo much better when those are paid off (working on that in a serious way) and at least one house is sold or rented. We normally don't have car notes but both of our cars hit the 10-12 year mark and we had to buy new ones. They'll be paid off in 3 years, but I'll be holding my breath until then. I like having more of a cushion of disposable income and those car notes are eating that up.

Paying for kids is the least of my worries.

[naadarien]

Originally Posted by swopoe

I hear you; I do. We value education highly in our family. My husband and I had scholarships and loans to pay for our college educations (our parents all could barely afford to help). We are lucky to have paid everything off. We are not at all opposed to having our kids help pay for their own college educations. But we do want to help in any way we can.

Same, same.

I went to $25k/yr college (25 yrs ago) and my parents paid some, I had a scholarship, and I worked full time. I graduated with only $8k in loans, which I paid off myself.

I expect something similar for my kids. We will help as much as we can, but we don't expect to make their college debt free. We save anyway. I didn't have my kids until I was 40 and beyond. I don't want to diminish my semi-retirement (I'm not the full retirement type) income if I don't have to.

[swopoe]

Originally Posted by naadarien

Same, same.

I went to $25k/yr college (25 yrs ago) and my parents paid some, I had a scholarship, and I worked full time. I graduated with only $8k in loans, which I paid off myself.

I expect something similar for my kids. We will help as much as we can, but we don't expect to make their college debt free. We save anyway. I didn't have my kids until I was 40 and beyond. I don't want to diminish my semi-retirement (I'm not the full retirement type) income if I don't have to.

Again, similar. My husband and I met at college, and our college was also about $25k a year at the time. It is now over $40k just for tuition. I am now only 40 and had my kids in my late 20s/early 30s, but my oldest is 12, and so to think that in only 6 years, he will be gone is mind boggling. Anyway, lots to think about! Thanks for commiserating with me!

[Shark01]

Originally Posted by RampageInAZ

Make them pay for their own college. There is no rule that parents have foot the bill for that. Not trying to make assumptions but i imagine growing up in your household that they probably have it made and don't have to worry about anything.. making them pay for college will make them appreciate it more and. It just treat it as a 4-5 years to party on mom and dad's dime.

We live by a different philosophy....we stress higher education and if the children do their part and excel then we want to do our part by providing as much funding as we can

[motorcycledoppelganger]

Family of 4 here living on one 50k salary. We're doing okay. Housing costs take up an obscene amount of our budget without reflecting the same, but we have a nice clean, warm (or cool) place to live and clothes that fit. If the kids choose to go to college they'll have to pay for it themselves, but hopefully we'll be able to help out a little. Retirement fund levels could be higher, but at least we have something saved, etc. Generally I think we're fairly comfortable. The discomfort comes from knowing it would only take one major illness or a job loss of a month or two to ruin us, but that's pretty much the definition of being a middle class American.