Financial Poll

After having this conversation at work with some co-workers, I was inspired to post this poll - understanding that money is always a delicate issue, please do not feel like you have to post in addition to voting on the poll

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I am the first to answer I guess

My DH and I both work FT and make decent $ so I answered that we are comfortable. We own our own house and usually have a little left over to go out to eat, shopping, etc. But I understand and expect that once we have a baby we will be cutting back a lot. Especially if I want to work part time. There are some times where we are barely making it to the next check because of an unexpected expense, etc. Our aim is to really get serious about having a decent amount of $ in savings. But overall, we are ok, thank God.

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What actually inspired this is that there is a 24 year old in my school that just bought a house by himself- it is only his second year teaching. So many people are saying it is obvious that he received some sort of money from somewhere to be able to buy a house on his own, pay a mortgage on his own and on a starting teacher's salary.

There are others that have received a huge down payment from parents, receive a great deal of financial assistance from family or have won lawsuits that granted them a large sum.


This kind of got me thinking if there are many people out there that have an extremely comfy lifestyle for reasons other than working hard to get there.

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we fluctuate between "struggle to make ends meet" and "comforatable" but in all honesty, that's because I do set money aside in savings that I absolutely REFUSE to spend under any circumstances. So, I voted for "comfortable"

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I will admit that my DH and I had help buying our house from my grandma and my in-laws. They gave us part of the down payment. But we still pay our own mortgage and expenses. It's hard! I see what your saying though.

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we make enough to pay our bills and still have some for savings - however, we both live at home, so no $ goes for rent/mortgage.

ps - my brother bought his own home at the age of 25. he had no help whatsoever from my parents. he did however qualify for a grant from nassau county b/c he earned less then a certain amount. but he saved his $ his whole life, my dad likes to say he still has his baptism money. so it is possibe for someone so young to buy a house of their own w/o help from inheritance, etc

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Right now we are very comfortable...

Pretty soon will, not so much be struggling, but the purse strings will be much tighter

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We both work hard and save. We bought the house and the land was enough to cover the down payment. We pay everything as soon as possible and anything extra we put aside for a rainy day. We're right where we want to be

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We are comfortable. Though sometimes I have to force myself to see that because I find myself wanting things we can't afford at the moment and it makes me feel like we are struggling - when really we are not.

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xx

Message edited 6/12/2007 6:28:42 AM.

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We bought our condo with no help. I actually could have bought it myself, just from saving my whole life, and been able to swing the mortgage payments. We're comfortable I'd say...Have a large chunk in the bank, mostly live on one of our salaries and save the rest. We never got any help, so I feel proud that we were able to do what we have done. I wouldn't say we're very well off, since though I never worry about money or live from paycheck to paycheck, I still think about it and curb spending because we are not rolling in money.

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We are living comfortably I would say, paying for our wedding and our first house by ourselves with no help from family, I am pretty proud of that
Althought we won't be able to spend the way we do now for the next yr (till after the wedding), we are still pretty comfortable and since we are only in our 20s, I am hoping things will be even better later on.

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I would say we're in the comfortable range right now. We pay all of our bills, save a little and still have a social life that includes going out to dinner a few times a week. I definitely think we'd be a little more solid in the comfortable category if we tightened up our spending a bit, which we are trying to do.

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I am not ashamed to admit any of this:

We struggle to make ends meet. We live in an apartment (a 2BR for a good price and its really big with a DR too). We are unable to save and I cry about this on a daily basis. We are not interested in a house or a baby anytime in the near future. I however, would like to have more than $3 in my account 10 days before I get paid again. Yes its that bad! I decided this weekend that I am going to be making some major changes soon because I cant live like this anymore. I cant even afford groceries. We dont know what we are going to do but its funny you post this today because we are going to sit and seriously figure things out this week.

BTW we are 28 and 31

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We are comfortable, we brought our co-op on our own and have a good chunk of $$ in savings that we never dip into. I am paying for grad school as I go along, no loans for me. We can pay our bills with some left over each month and I am only working part time now...but it seems to be working out.

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I would say we are pretty well off

WE both have pretty good jobs (Paralegal and Mortgage Broker) He def makes more than me with his commissions and all.

I paid for our wedding out of my pocket and I came up with the down payment for our townhouse. I had a terrible accident at a job over 6 years ago and my settlement pays me with a check every March until I die. I chose it that way because it would give me the greatest amount in the end. Its like a 3rd salary. I put it away in the begininng (begore I even met my husband) because I knew I would use it for a wedding and a house. Most of it will be saved for our children and any house emergencies we have.
But trust me, if I could reverse the damage that was done to me (I am going in for my 4th surgery in Dec) I would give the money back. Right now we are a little behind because we had some damage from the weather, we pay out taxes out of pocke instread of in our mortgage (and those are due soon) and we have Xmas, etc....

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I voted.

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i voted comfortable

we both make great money - im in shipping and get paid on commissions - its been a good past few years, and he is an attorney.

however, our house is sucking me dry. some weeks its paycheck to paychek. we still go out and shop here and there but its nothing like it used to be when my rent was $400

i think we are just at the cusp of being over our heads. sometimes i wish we bought a townhouse

Message edited 10/23/2005 7:53:54 PM.

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