NPR ~What do you consider a decent income these days?

I have a hard time these days when I see all these people with all these nice things and Im trying to figure out what I am doing wrong? Is it that i make significantly less or they are just better spenders than I?

this is not an inquiry as to what your family income is, just what you think is a decent household income. obviously more is better.

Re: NPR ~What do you consider a decent income these days?

i think about this too! I have no idea what is consider decent but i have feeling combine what me and DH make it would be conisidered decent.

I thnk our problem is we are paying off a lot of CCs we have. We also pay a riduclous amount of money between both of us for our cars.


ETA: wow this got moved quickly. I was in the middle of responding when it did

Message edited 4/13/2011 2:48:58 PM.

Re: NPR ~What do you consider a decent income these days?

lol i had no idea they just move posts like that. I really didnt think it was inappropriate for a parenting board considering I have the same expenses as other parents.

I thought my husband and I had a decent income too, but maybe our debt to get to where we are is just much larger than everyone elses.

Re: NPR ~What do you consider a decent income these days?

I think to be reasonably comfy on LI, you need to be higher then $75,000-$85,000+
Obviously, there is a lot of perception involved in comfy. I am a simple person. Not a shopper, don't get my nails done, or spa things etc. I do not pay for gym memberships, no cleaning lady, simple vacations etc. We have no credit card debit, or loans and own a reasonable home. We have one smallish car payment and one car is paid off.

Message edited 4/13/2011 2:56:46 PM.

Re: NPR ~What do you consider a decent income these days?

Re: NPR ~What do you consider a decent income these days?

after what the 2 other PP wrote I have def. come to the conclusion we just are not managing our money very well. Cause we dont do a lot at all so I think between paying off our bills and just spending money on little things here and there it must just all add up!

Re: NPR ~What do you consider a decent income these days?

I wonder this sometimes too. I thought DH and I had a good income but I see what other people buy and think how do they afford that

But honestly...a lot of people have debt up the wazoo. A lot of the nice things they have are charged on CCs. Yes I'm sure there are some people with a lot of disposable income but honestly I wouldn't look too much into what others have....they may be worse off $$ than you think.

Re: NPR ~What do you consider a decent income these days?

I really wouldn't judge based on what other people have and buy because some people spend a lot more loosely than others.

DH and I make a very nice combined income. We do have some very high expenses (we rent in the city, go out to eat a lot, and take one big vacation a year) but we also have no debt, no car/minimal transportation expenses, paid off all student loans and for the next 4 months we are childfree. We save A LOT (max out 401ks, employee stock plan, and invest a substantial amount beyond that).

I don't know other people's situations but I constantly see people who (I think) have much lower income but spend a lot more lavishly than we do -- renovating ABC, always the newest XYZ, always on vacations, but save little to nothing.

I quickly learned from living in the city that there are always those who have MUCH MUCH MUCH more, those who live like they have more than they do, those who live well below their means, and everything in between.
I can't really speak to what a decent income is on LI but as long as you and your family are happy I wouldn't worry about what it seems like others are doing...

Re: NPR ~What do you consider a decent income these days?

I don't know, I wonder about this too. It's hard to put a dollar amount to it though, because a decent income means different thing to different people, depending on what a family's expenses are like & their spending habits. I feel like our income is very average & sometimes worry we don't make enough, but we also don't really splurge at all either & do okay with paying our bills right now & the things we need/want. For now anyway!

Re: NPR ~What do you consider a decent income these days?

A decent income depends on too many factors - debt, mortgage, how you spend your money.

With that being said, DH and I are savers and together we make a decent salary for where we live. We have nice,modest things; nothing is elaborate. We save up for everything we buy. We do not have fancy phones, cars, etc.

I will not lie sometimes I get jealous of people who just go out and buy whatever, but in the end, I know our method works best (for us).

Re: NPR ~What do you consider a decent income these days?

It's so hard to say, especially here on Long Island. Everyone has a different comfort level when it comes to money and what they are willing to spend it on.

I also tend to feel that a lot more people are in debt and/or living paycheck to paycheck then many of us may believe. I say this based on what I see with some people in our immediate circle of friends.

I also think because the COL here is so high, that even if you are making a 6 figure income, you are still easily at risk of becoming in a bad place if you lose your job, or depend on 2 incomes to live.

Went through this over the past year because DH is self-employed and he did not have a good business year. We had to drain most of our savings to pay our mortgage because my income only will cover everything else we are responsible for.

It's tough.

Re: NPR ~What do you consider a decent income these days?

Sometimes I feel like I must be doing something wrong because it seems like everyone around me is taking vacations, buying flat screens, etc...

I have to reel myself back in by focusing on the fact that I have no clue about other peoples' finances and the level of debt or total income they have to work w/.

A 'decent income' can range from $30k to millions. A recent college grad living w/ parents and paying no rent can probably have a pretty comfortable life on 30k. For us, another 7-10k per year would make us quite comfortable.

Re: NPR ~What do you consider a decent income these days?

Honestly with a combined income of $120K-$130K you can buy a middle of the line house. You can on a on decent vacation once a year. Should be able to save for retirement. Go to movies, go out to eat, etc..

With a kid, you would have to lower the vacation standard a bit and have less disposable income for take out, restaurants, etc.. You just need to be more frugal.

Message edited 4/14/2011 9:29:45 PM.

Re: NPR ~What do you consider a decent income these days?

thank you for all your responses. I am def doing something wrong.

Re: NPR ~What do you consider a decent income these days?

You're not the only one..I see this every day, and DH and I assume those folks are either up to their eyeballs in debt, or were trust fund babies their entire lives!

FWIW, our combined income is around 170k-190k, but we live in a tiny 2 bedroom Bungalow house in south Nassau, drive old cars, and vacation maybe 2x a year and usually nowhere fancy (our honeymoon is this July at Sandals St. Lucia, our last vacation was 2 months ago on a Royal Caribbean cruise to Mexico). We shop at Associated or Waldbaums (never Trader Joes, their prices are insane)' we go out to eat 1x a week or 2x is friends come along (and it's usually an Applebees type place), and only buy clothes if we need to (I've never bought Loboutin shoes or anything from Ann Taylor, Nordstrom/Bloomies). we try to live within our means but I can't help but wonder how folks earning less than we do take nicer vacations, own bigger/fancier houses, or drive around in Lexus or Mercedes vehicles...we just live the way we can while keeping our debt levels low (right now, only mortgage debts and my 1 student loan).

Re: NPR ~What do you consider a decent income these days?

DH and I make a nice combined salary, our problem however is debt. We really hit the bottom of the well since the beginning of the year as all of the debt caught up with us. A lot of our friends assume that because we both have fancy job titles we shouldn't have any problems. We started running up debt doing renovations on the house, shopping a little too often and just being careless. Since we found ourselves in the position we are, I no longer worry about what other people have, they could be in debt up to their eyeballs and just putting on a great show. Once DH & I are done paying off CC debt, we will be back to being "ok", even with great salaries, we won't be the people that shop without looking at prices, especially on LI.

Re: NPR ~What do you consider a decent income these days?

Re: NPR ~What do you consider a decent income these days?

Re: NPR ~What do you consider a decent income these days?

Posted by mommy2Alex

ITA!! I think even if I hit lotto, I would still shop the supermarket flyers and look for sales in the store. I just think it is ingrained in me to do so.

Re: NPR ~What do you consider a decent income these days?

Posted by computergirl

Posted by mommy2Alex

ITA!! I think even if I hit lotto, I would still shop the supermarket flyers and look for sales in the store. I just think it is ingrained in me to do so.

I'm the same way! I'm a SAHM and lucky enough that my DH makes a nice income. However, I'm a very "simple" type of person-- I do sales/coupons for groceries, we take modest family vacations, I don't have a cleaning lady, I buy most of our clothes on sale and rarely buy high-end stuff. People who see us probably think we're living paycheck to paycheck. But I can't help it-- it doesn't matter what DH makes... we were both raised to live below our means, we'll never change!

Re: NPR ~What do you consider a decent income these days?

I'll be honest, we make combined 102k per year, which I thought was great, not compared to others though apparently. But hey, if it's great for us and it's working then that's all that matters

Re: NPR ~What do you consider a decent income these days?

Re: NPR ~What do you consider a decent income these days?

Single-over 75k
Married - over 125k

Re: NPR ~What do you consider a decent income these days?

Posted by computergirl

Posted by mommy2Alex

ITA!! I think even if I hit lotto, I would still shop the supermarket flyers and look for sales in the store. I just think it is ingrained in me to do so.

I'm the same way! I'm a SAHM and lucky enough that my DH makes a nice income. However, I'm a very "simple" type of person-- I do sales/coupons for groceries, we take modest family vacations, I don't have a cleaning lady, I buy most of our clothes on sale and rarely buy high-end stuff. People who see us probably think we're living paycheck to paycheck. But I can't help it-- it doesn't matter what DH makes... we were both raised to live below our means, we'll never change!

Re: NPR ~What do you consider a decent income these days?

DH and I make a decent combined living but always thought we didn't have enough to save much. The money I was putting aside was minimal because I thought that was all we could afford. That said, recent events have caused us to make some cutbacks and I realized that it wasn't that we couldn't save, i t was that we were spending too much!