How much do you spend...

amother

Dodgerblue

Wed, Mar 16 2016, 12:28 am

amother wrote:

Husband is self employed. We make 180k before taxes in Lakewood. Spend about 6k per month. I guess we are middle class? 4 kids.

You spend 72k and save about 60k a year. I would say definately middle class...

amother

Babypink

Wed, Mar 16 2016, 12:35 am

amother wrote:

We make 150k a yr after taxes and spend approx 10,000 a month. We have 6 kids and don't have to pay tuition. We save approximately 2k a month. I would consider us upper class because I have a lot of cleaning help.( 4 days a week) But we don't go out to eat or go on vacations.

Why don't you have to pay tuition? How much do you pay your cleaning help?

amother

Slategray

Wed, Mar 16 2016, 8:39 am

Quote:

There are many people who say they are very poor on here. They for some reason didnt respond.

We make about 40k a year ($3300 a month) and our expenses are about $4000 a month. But B"H my DH is in school for a pretty good profession and iy"h we'll be making much more than that in a couple of years, though we will have close to $100,000 in student loans and credit card debt to pay off.
I have no cleaning help, we have not gone on vacation since before we had children (almost 10 yrs ago), and we try not to spend on things that are extras. Yes, I consider us "poor", but I am also willing to spend money when necessary because feel I we have a plan in place.

amother

Gray

Wed, Mar 16 2016, 9:24 am

ROFL wrote:

Would, love to know what people, do to earn a salary of over 100,000 per year if only one of you works. I am curious if a person is working in a job for example OT PT Doctor lawyers or are people self employed with business?

I'm an amother from the first page.
My dh has a degree in a profession, but is self-employed and runs a company related to that profession.

amother

Salmon

Wed, Mar 16 2016, 11:01 am

We make about 70k and spend about 4500/month. We have one child and one on the way iyh. Live in NY. My dh is self employed and only recently started his business so we hope that our income will steadily grow. Bh we can cover all our expenses plus some extras, but we are not really saving much at this point.

HonesttoGod

Wed, Mar 16 2016, 11:17 am

amother wrote:

Op here. It is really interesting! We have people on here saying they are lower middle class that make $150,00 and there are people on here that make $40,000 and say the same thing. I don't work and my husband probably makes about $200,000. I don't consider us lower middle class, but I don't know if I should consider us upper yet?
It's also interesting that in the us, the median house hold income is $51,000, and pretty much everybody on here makes more than that.

Median household income doesn't mean anything.
Jewish people have to pay tuition (even if the school gets funding, hebrew studies are usually separate), we have to pay three or four times the price for meats, cheeses, generally kosher food is more expensive than non kosher. Especially restuarants and take outs.
We have Yomim Tovim that require us to have 2 meals a day with kiddush and challah, meat and fish, even keeping things tight still costs a lot. Collectively I would say Jewish people spend more on Pesach than the non jewish people spend on easter, tahnksgiving and July 4th together. Tishreai expenses are for sure more than x-mas.

To me, anytthing over $100K is middle class. Over $200K is very comfortable / upper class.

amother

Saddlebrown

Wed, Mar 16 2016, 11:23 am

Family of 4
Earn $5.7K a month
Spend approx $6k a month including playgroup, babysitter, health insurance (not eligible for medicaid) groceries etc. We try keep this closer to $5k to keep things as low as possible. But we have credit card bills to pay off from when we earned even less than this a month and its hard.
I would say we are lower middle class but after taxes and health insurance we barely have enough for savings or paying off debt and most months for basic necessities like shoes for my kids.

We are in the "American hole" where we earn too much for any benefits but after paying benefits we can barely pay food and rent.
BH things are looking up and I hope to start school next semester to get my degree and enable a higher pay check.

amother

Yellow

Wed, Mar 16 2016, 11:34 am

HonesttoGod wrote:

Before or after taxes? We make $350k before taxes, I guess you'd consider us very comfortable but we are not!!! After taxes we make $210k. Mortgage and tuition are about $50k per year, EACH. We are also paying back mega student loans incurred by DH who is now making most of this very large salary. . .

We have ZERO extra at the end of each month Sad

Living in the tri state area, 5 kids (tuition is over $10k/kid), no summer camp and minimal vacations, cleaning help etc.

amother

Pearl

Wed, Mar 16 2016, 12:26 pm

DH and I make $185k pre-tax. There is no money left over. We pay $40,000 post tax in tuition plus $8,000 for summer camp (a need since we both work and we can't use the cheaper camps because of the hours). Add in gap weeks, we spend $50,000 post tax dollars on some form of childcare.

amother

Olive

Wed, Mar 16 2016, 12:36 pm

amother wrote:

Those who are making more than 200,000 can you tell us what you do, please?

Dh is self employed. His main business brings in about $150,000. His side business bring in another $50,000 to $100,000.

amother

Powderblue

Wed, Mar 16 2016, 1:28 pm

I'm a lawyer with many years of experience. I make $155k with a $10k bonus. My husband earns roughly the same. B"H we pay all our bills and tuitions, and give lots of tzedakah, but we don't live lavishly.

amother

Dodgerblue

Wed, Mar 16 2016, 7:08 pm

We live in NY with 3 kids. Im an SLP and make about 85k before tax. Could be more depending on the year.
Dh is starting a business so his profits are very variable right now. We spend about 4k - 4500 a month. We are pretty careful with our money and have savings and retirement account.

staten islander

Wed, Mar 16 2016, 9:27 pm

Those who are making more than 200,000 can you tell us what you do, please?

DH is in the computer field and he also runs a business from home.He works 6 days a week. He is also an expert in his area of computers and he frequently gets asked to assess a business' potential with investing in various tech start ups.Those consultations pay well.We are very blessed

amother

Wheat

Wed, Mar 16 2016, 9:39 pm

amother wrote:

Asking since you're amother. I assume you work for a midsize to large firm...Do you have any idea what an attorney would earn working part time at a small firm (NY)?

Asking because I've been considering it....but for all I know the salary would be similar to my current income (as a solo)

HonesttoGod

Thu, Mar 17 2016, 10:17 am

amother wrote:

Living in the tri state area, 5 kids (tuition is over $10k/kid), no summer camp and minimal vacations, cleaning help etc.

Just because you have zero at the end of the month doesn't mean you are not comfortable.
you make $350K. You pay off all tuition and mortgage payments, you are paying off your student loans which means you are comfortable. Maybe not comfortable to go to Florida twice a year but to pay off debt? THAT is being comfortable. Once the debt is paid off you will have extra.
Plus you haven't listed other expenses. After mortgage and tuition alone you are still left with more than I make combined with my dh. And we have loans too. So yes whilst you may not see it, from the outside, that is comfortable.

amother

Powderblue

Thu, Mar 17 2016, 11:53 am

I'm responding to the lawyer question.

First I went to law school. Then I worked really hard at a big firm for around 4 years (making significantly more than what I do now). Then I learned a specific practice area and consulted in that for around 4 years (through an agency like Axiom, earning significantly less than I do now). Then I got an employee job at a bank, in the same practice area. There are no part time jobs in my bank - no one works part time. However, some people "work from home" once a week, and everyone in my department works from home once a month. So in a way, it's not a bad job at all. BUT it was easier for me because each job schedule got easier, rather than someone who is looking to ramp up and then each job gets harder.

amother

Taupe

Thu, Mar 17 2016, 2:53 pm

My husband makes 5,500 shekels ($1,400) a month and every single shekel goes to bills and expenses. But we're managing because we own our car and home and are debt free. We have one child. We are poor.