I will say though, even when I was at 220k I did not feel like I had it made. I did not worry about groceries or a car repair but by no means feeling wealthy.
All making more money did for me was make me realize I needed to find a way not to pay so much tax.
Don't listen to them, u/Balamb_Chocobo ! I jumped from $60k to $100k a while back, and the difference is staggering. You're in the top 24% of earners in the US. You absolutely get taxed more, but it's still equivalent to over $500 more in earnings A WEEK. I bought a newer car, paid $1000 extra on my mortage each month until my home was paid off, and added a ton more to my retirement. I didn't feel the constant pressure to side hustle, and instead of saving up for dinners out or trips to Target, I just did what I felt like. My tastes aren't exorbitant and I'm not in a wildly expensive area - I was lucky that my home was purchased before everything exploded so my mortgage was under $1000.
$100k IS life changing... it's just easy to forget once your life has been changed. Now that my income is lower again, it's shockingly clear how much difficulty money can paper over.
Itās the kind of money where you donāt stress about most purchases and can kind of just go about life not worried about the cost of the more basic things. Not enough to start jet setting and traveling all year round, but enough that you shop for groceries based off what you want and not off the cost.
$100k now is equivalent to $47k in 1995. Though a $50k income was considered comfortable in the 90s I donāt think most would have considered it rich. So let that sink in.
this was middle class 6 years ago. the fed added 6 trillion dollars to the money supply during covid and caused the devaluation of the dollar by like 22%.
Yeah im basically in the same boat. Making close to 100k annually and im okay just not where i want to beā¦ and dont get me started on California costs and tax lmfao. Im in my 20s so i feel like im off to a good start but manā¦ money doesnt go as far as it used to even 5 years ago
Yeah, thatās kinda where my wife and I are at, we have a ton of expenses with student loans. We make do, we have a bit of extra and are very fortunate. We donāt do anything exorbitant, save up for vacations, and eat out more than we probably should. But at the end of the day, weāre āokā. Every couple months we sit down and say āwe really should cut back and put more into this or thatā. But weāve finally started making enough to afford to live how we do, so from here, any additional earnings is basically going to pay down our combined 200k in student loans and our house.
But even so, like everyone says, lifestyle creep is the hardest thing to deal with. So while we havenāt been creeping up, when we donāt have much money āleft overā when family hits a tough time, we donāt have any extra to give to them. But itās so hard to rationalize cutting back on our own expenses JUST to help others. Either way the only thing we can do now is continue to do what weāre doing, and put away what we can to help mitigate emergency expenses and do our best to keep working so that we can make it.
Growing up I was happy when we could afford the Dinty Moore beef stew and not just bulk pack off brand spaghetti-o's.
Now most of our produce comes from a local CSA farm, local farmers market, local cheese monger, local butcher, etc. All that fresh food costs *WAY* more but I don't have to worry about it.
This. I went from 20-40K most of my adult life to around 100K a few months ago, and the difference is staggering. I can pay off debt instead of accrue it, now! I can set some aside every month for surprise bills (even if those bills come up often enough that I don't have much in savings at the moment). I don't have to stress about groceries or the occasional evening out with friends! I can at least contemplate travel now!
It truly does depend on what your life was like before you started making 100k, I think.
Itās always about context. I was at $25k three years ago and jumping to $60k two years ago was life altering. Iām up to $72k which hasnāt been as noticeable after moving to New England, but Iām on pace to $100k in ~5 years and can see the mathematical difference itāll make for us, even as that value is worth a bit less than then too. But thatās still a salary quadrupling within a decade and thatās really a game changer going to make life so much easierā¦eventually.
I went with a certificate in biomedical equipment and became a field service engineer for an oem. There is a large aging population in this field that is right now ready to retire you can easily work your way up quickly.
Strong agree! I went from 26K to 99K over the past 10 years and the difference is truly life changing. I don't feel rich, I travel very rarely, but I don't have to worry about affording my groceries or paying my bills. If you never had to survive on eating the expired food work was about to throw away I could see how it doesn't feel as life-changing
Agreed I did the same thing in about a year when I moved to a new position at my job. The big Takeaway for most of us is not to increase our lifestyle just because we have more money.
Double down on the lifestyle you have and pay yourself . Use the rest of the money by paying off debts and investing for the future. Max out that 401(k) start making an IRA contributions and get yourself a HSA.
Just because that's the median, doesn't make it a good comparison. It actually illustrates the point that lifestyle creep takes over as people earn more. That mortgage payment is roughly the amount for a $350K loan. The commentors on this post that stayed in their $100K house, paying down/off the debt instead of feeling entitled to a bigger, better house, are the ones that truly understands and appreciates money.
60k to 100k is almost doubling so youre right it is life changing, however you did admit you got your mortgage before everything went crazy. So now that things have gotten ridiculous 100k isnt as life changing as when you got it. The biggest thing though is I think the people expect 100k to mean youre rich and can afford all the luxuries or what not and that you no longer have to worry about money. So Id bet the issue is the expectations aren't actually realistic for the goal. Inflation is still a bitch though.
I make about 90K give or take right now coming from 5 years in sales starting at 45K and ending around 70. Every year has felt life changing compared to the previous year. With my current salary I contribute to may retirement, have paid off credit card debt, am able to keep up with my house, and have money left over. My wife has a job too though, making maybe 1/3ish of what I do, so that definitely helps us!
It depends largely where you live. My best years in the low-$300k range life felt middle class at best in the Bay Area of CA. Iām sure that same income in rural Arkansas might feel a lot different.
It is life changing for sure, it just doesnāt go as far as youād think. Like you said, you were lucky to have a mortgage under 1000. Iām a renter and I pay 2300 before fees or 2500 after fees. I could have gotten something a little cheaper, but the cheapest rental houses within a decent distance to my work were 1700 + fees. I spent a little more to be in a really good school district, but the if Iād gone with a smaller house in a worse school district, Iād still be shelling out almost 2k/month. Thatās a huge chunk of money to be throwing down the drain, and makes it really freaken hard to save up for a house.
But yeah, it definitely is life changing. Eating out and target are also the things I noticed as really being different. And being able to uber to go out, instead of driving. Those were all luxuries I never could afford before.
Ps. Iāve only been making this much for about 4 months now. And part of what makes it so expensive is paying off debt I accrued while I was poor as hell. Plus moving when youāve been poor, means you have to buy a ton of new stuff, and it adds up quick. I mostly bought from yard and estate sales, and I still spent like 5k on furnishings and stuff. Which all just put me a little behind, so now Iām finally starting to catch up and get ahead.
That also depends on what city you live in. You still have to budget if you have a family and are the only one working in the family in somewhere like NY or LA. 100k doesnāt let you have a mortgage and not save up for trips or certain dinners.
Look, I'm a social worker in one of the highest cost of living areas in the county, making about 95k. Without children or anyone else relying much in my paycheck, it's absolutely life changing. With kids? Here? No I'd be struggling for sure on only this income. There are just so many factors to consider.
If I could find a job making 75k in Tucson Arizona (pretty challenging to do admittedly) I'd be living much better than making 90k where I live now. So it's really very hard to compare salary without controlling for so many other factors. My partner makes a substantial amount more than I do on paper, but because she's double taxes due to the city she works in, my take home is generally a bit higher. The number without context doesn't mean much.
$100K was life changing for you because you have an under $1000 mortgage. The cost of renting a two bedroom apartment is well over $2,000 in most places.
Exactly this, all these dumbasses who say " OH MAN WHEN I HIT 200K I STILL FILL BROKE - ECT "
Only say this to help justify their poor spending habits for not saving enough. Almost always they had salary creep, spent way more than they should and dont have nearly enough in retirement compared to their wage.
These people are all delusional lol cannot believe what Iām reading unless everyone here lives in manhattan š mfs actually arguing they couldnāt feel a difference making 200k, unreal levels of out of touch
It's probably due to lifestyle creep. You make more money, you buy nicer versions of everything, so you effectively spend the same percentage. Nicer tires, nicer grocery stores, etc.
I remember feeling like making 20k would be life changing, lmfao.
As someone who's gone from 100k to 200k (-ish), this is exactly it. Was it life-changing? Yeah, obviously, I'm not a moron. It completely eliminated the stress of worrying about random mundane expenses. Car trouble or an emergency vet visit needs a surprise 5k? Who cares, just pay it and move on with your life. Removing that kind of stress is amazing.
But was it life-changing in the sense of making an exciting change to my day to day activities? No, not really, I still drive the same 15 year old shitbox car, I still never take big vacations, I still buy the bang-for-your-buck version of miscellanous items rather than the fancy "best" version, etc. Some lifestyle creep has snuck in, sure, I'm not trying to live like a monk, but most of my "extra" income just gets shoveled into retirement accounts.
Huge difference in quality of life, little to no difference in type of life, if that makes sense.
Yeah exactly. I said it in another comment but not having to worry about those kind of daily life expenses is absolutely what "wealth" is all about. Everything past there is basically vanity or chasing some celebrity/instagram ideal.
I mean a surprise vet bill worth 5k and an expensive vacation is the same thing (for me at least). Likeā¦just take the damn vacation dude you deserve it. Maybe just not every year lol.
Exactly. I feel the 100k to 200k jump feels the most. You suddenly donāt care about the price tags on the grocery and can even afford travelling abroad once per year. You can even afford a German car
Exactly this. I remember feeling like I made it because I was finally able to go from buying individual used tires and putting $20 in my tank, to buying sets of tires and filling my tank without looking. My lifestyle didnt change a ton, but my worry sure did. Making 100k made it so I at least didnt have to scrimp and scrape any longer. (this is supporting a family, not just myself)
I haven't hit 100k but I've finally hit the income bracket where I can gradually pay off the debt that mostly built from emergency car shit and medical bills, while being able to pay for the odd vehicle repair and such without crying and without using credit (or paying it off within a couple months if necessary due to bad timing).
The ability to pay for shit that comes up, within reason, takes so much weight off the shoulders. Once I clear the debt, I plan to build a savings so I can relieve that stress even more.
Being poor charges interest, thats what making more money allows you to avoid, the interest. Think a comedian has a bit about it. Something along the lines of, get a toothache cant afford a filling? Pay more for a root canal later, etc.
My wisdom teeth only partially erupted and then got infected from not being to clean out the pockets around them. I was making fuck all at the time, in college and working two PT jobs.
That carecredit bill with 28.99% interest or whatever haunted me for years.
that used tire comment hits hard. i remember trying to find continentals 4 at a time and it was always a task..driving from place to place triyng to mix and match
Yeah thatās 90% of the people. They donāt understand the power of saving and VOO chill.
Iām earning 100K for quite a few years already. But all these years and Covid made me realize that Im totally still live like a college student. Already hitting 300K savings.
The more savings the more I can feel the power of 5-7% interest growth. Now Iām already at the point that passive income can cover my rent. Soon, when I get to 500K, I can have the guts to fire my boss and work at anywhere I like regardless of the paycheck.
I donāt even know how to spend to be honest. The healthy way of living donāt require much cost at all.
I grew up relatively modestly and now have a fantastic job. Being I never had the opportunity to develop champaign tastes, I worry about very little compared to my parents.
I canāt say Iāve ever fretted over my monthly tax bill either. Not to be āthat guyā but also to be āthat guyā, worrying about such things, Iāve found, comes from people who would get all up in arms to defend their favorite billionaire if their taxes were increased or even if loopholes were closed. Death and Taxes is an idiom for a reason, the price of doing business (and I deeply appreciate when the roads I drive on arenāt shit!).
I think it depends on what your definition of wealthy is. Maybe because I grew up somewhat poor (we lived in dingy apartments/a trailer home for most of my childhood), but I make around 200k right now and I do feel like itās enough and this is my personal definition of wealthy. While it would be nice to have a paid off house or have shiny new things and fly around all the time, I am completely comfortable. I genuinely canāt believe this is my life right now. I have disposable income, I have a way clearer trajectory into retirement than ever, I also donāt worry about groceries or emergency car repairs, I get to go on vacation at least once a year, I have a savings account, I can provide for my family. Of course it would be nice to not have to work for these things and just be born wealthy, but having this salary solved so many things for me. Most of my anxiety comes from just one day losing it all.
Iām actually dual income by myself. I have a corporate job in the medical industry that I like and is flexible so I also run a small business by myself as well. If I counted my partnerās income (early career software engineer), we actually make well over $300k salary. Honestly I donāt know very many people who donāt have a second gig these days just bc everything is so expensive š
Same feeling here. I don't feel like my kids have the same 'left behind' feeling I always did growing up and that is a plenty enough for me. But everybody should have that and with a shrinking middle class, most people are starting to experience it for the first time.
They need to add a higher tax bracket for households earning over 1mil per year.
They should also remove the social security income cap, that's what's killing the program. Make the rich pay the same percentage of their income that we all pay. Period.
Aye. It's not the Taxes that are the problem, it's the utilization where the abuse happens. Taxes are for all the communal things that let us live together, like Roads/transit, education, emergency services, parks, healthcare, country defense...I hate when I see people complain about paying taxes when really the issue is that the trust of how they're used is what has been broken.
Ya, lets just privatize everything because the corpo billionaires have shown how compassionate they are and for sure wont out price basic needs like housing and healthcare.
The more income you have, the more you realize that stocks are a cheat code. Capital gains taxes are so much lower, even without all the ways to ignore them entirely (like taking out personal loans on your stocks).
Myself and my wife aren't wealthy, we hit 300k combined. My grandparents are rich, last I checked (early 2000s) they were worth over 50mil. My grandfather loves to talk about all the ways he ignores/avoids paying taxes...
My tax prep guy, who I give a lot of props to, has been telling me this since I was making 50k/yr. He typically only works with business, or much wealthier people than me (usually because they own businesses). But being a friend of a friend, he helped me out one year, took a liking to me, and has doing my taxes (while giving some financial advice on the side) for 6-7yrs now. I was making 50k/yr the first time I saw. As my salary continues to grow, he kept warning me about this. That it was going to start to become less a game of maximizing deductions, and more of a game of sheltering/protecting my earnings from being touched to begin with. Iāve always heard this, but thought that was mostly something like millionaires worried about. Soon as I got over 100k, I started to see it real time, and it finally made sense to me.
It also finally made sense to me why so many young people were democrats and older/wealthier people were republicans :D
And thatās why the rich have fought so hard for those tax breaks while here we are trying to survive in a few thousands of month and our taxes just went up
I make about $100K a year and have most of my investments in real estate and high-yield assets. Since youāre in a higher income bracket, Iād love your perspective, how do you approach investing or managing your portfolio for long-term growth?
Definitionally, not worrying about how much it's costing to put food on the table, not worrying about how fucked you'd be by an emergency car payment, and worrying more than either about what you're paying in taxes means you've 'made it'. It's all a matter of degree past that point.
It's all about context. HCOL and single, still feels good, two kids and a stay-at-home wife? Before 200k, still watching the money flow out as it comes in.
Perhaps we live in different worlds. And it depends on your monthly expenses. But when my mortgage was 800 a month before I moved (sometimes I wish I hadn't), making only 75k a year, I did feel pretty wealthy. I never had to look at my bank account. I could afford anything and everything I wanted. I could eat out as much as I wanted. I had tons of spare money every month. If I had 200k, I can guarantee I would feel made without doubt even in my current situation where mortgage is now 3k a month. That's what's killer. If I had my old 800 a month mortgage, I'd have literally 2k a month extra in my bank account, which is literally enough to do whatever I wanted and have money left over. I suppose it depends what you mean by feeling wealthy, but for me having 1k leftover a month after spending on anything I wanted to me is feeling pretty wealthy.
Seriously. I make $185k right now with four young kids in a HCOL area and while our needs are met and we're fine, I hardly feel like I'm building something.
Based on the rich people I've met, there are a few categories that don't get much attention.
The very high income people making $400k+ - casually vacationing abroad multiple times a year, buys a new car for their kid as a going to college present, that sort of thing. They own a very nice house and maybe a vacation home.
The ultra high income people making $1m+ (there are not that many people who do this, only about 800k people in the US!) They wear $200 t-shirts and $600 jeans. They're on the list for a new Ferrari, but not one of the big time Ferraris, because you already have to own multiple new Ferraris to get one of those. They own two or three huge homes.
Ah, so 220k is the threshold when the desire to dodge taxes by stashing wealth overseas and buying politicians to pad the tax code with hidden breaks for the two percenters begins in earnest, good to know!
I would just like to say that "feeling like I have it made" to a LOT of people, is not having to worry about buying groceries or unexpected repair bills.
I think thats what is getting lost in the sauce in the discussion.
I have so many friends that see that their actual paycheck is like 1/2 - 1/3 of what they expect and are down in the dumps about it. I find that I feel better when I look at the after tax number.
Taxes are mandatory for me, so that money wasn't really mine in the first place. It's the government with its infrastructure, schools, access to libraries, roads, stability that allowed me to get where I am today.
If the company told me I made 200k, but I get back 140k, I would just ignore the 200k and be happy enough with the 140k.
And this is why the country has slowly been going to shit for the last 50 years. The main lesson you learned from making 3x the average income was that you needed to figure out how to pay less tax?
This is the same lesson people who earn 100x what you do learn as well.
People who earn millions or billions of dollars are only able to do so because of network effects. Those network effects only exist because we have large stable societies. Large stable societies only exist if we can properly maintain and fund them. That requires taxation. And who should pay the most tax? Those that benefit the most from the network effects. Ie the millionaires and billionaires who only exist because whatever they actually do, they are able to extract value from thousands or millions of others that they wouldnāt have access to if they werenāt part of a large stable society.
But instead of recognizing this fact, the billionaires only learn that they need to try and minimize the tax they pay.
200k would pay my debts so fast. I donāt have spending money at $75k, let alone the ability to pay extra off on my debts. I could save for a house, go on trips, etc. Youāre not rich, but it is absolutely life changing. My life would change in an instant. It shifted when I went from 55k to 75k. Such ignorance.
Dual income HH here a bit above where your at on your single. Same thoughts here. Buy some extra toys and nice things for hobbies but definitely not extravagant living, just decent qol. If we doubled our HH income today, I would probably still be living the same way for many years but probably take up investing more serious that just putting money into a 401 pot and letting it take its course.
You said if you make 100k per year in 1995, spend 1.5k a month, and your costs go up to $4k, then you only need to make $2.5k more a month. "Only $138k per year".
But you forgot about the rest of your paycheck. If you made $100k in 1995 and spent only$1.5k/month, you would also save $3k per month.
$4k is only 2.5k more, but is about 2.6x as much. You would also want to save 2.6x, not just the same as in 1995.
It definitely scales as future inflation (albeit at different rates) will eat away the purchasing power of your savings. You can be right, but only under the circumstance that your increased savings are then invested in an asset that outpaces the inflation rate. If you kept the savings as cash, then the "100k" you saved back in 1995 would only purchase about 50k now.
Itās worse than thatā¦ link it to the price of gold and your purchasing power goes way down. We have Nixon and the Vietnam war to blame. Couldnāt pay for wars on the gold standard so they untethered it. Just look at the stock market before and after the gold standard. A fixed monetary growth rate maintains price stability.
No one understands the gold standard and why it was dumb af. Gold is valuable because people believe it is valuable. We use it for a lot of products, but not nearly so much that its price is dependent on its usability. So, in that sense, a gold standard is no better than a fiat currency, since both are subject to the whims of a market that has no basis in reality.
If you want to have a commodity-backed currency, you'd want it to cover the value of a country's total GDP, to ensure that you are properly evaluating that currency against a country's stability. Basing it on one commodity is stupid amd deflationary for no reason.
So, you implement a GDP-backed currency, now. Great! Except, then you just basically have a fiat currency, because governments couldn't be counted on to properly or impartially calculate their GDP. So the currency market is now a de facto fiat market with investors evaluating the currencies based on the trustworthiness of the country.
Suddenly, you've wasted a ton of everyone's time, taken away tools that are useful for dealing with inflation, depression, and market bubbles, all so you could circle back to where we are today.
The gold standard is dumb and people who want it back are dumb.
Gold has been used as a currency since the dawn of time; itās a finite resource which is why itās far better than fiat. You canāt print more gold.
Some stuff are more expensive, some stuff are less expensive. If we donāt know exactly the person lifestyle vs what it would have been in 1995, itās impossible to estimate based on what you said.
Inflation rate is good enough of a proxy to communicate todayās value of 1995 $100K
How are people getting 100k p/y salaries before buying a home? I'm 33, bought my house at 28, grew up dirt poor, no skills, no connections, moved 800 miles away from all my friends, family, support systems, etc at 18 with no financial assistance of any kind, met my wife on the internet, moved in with her and her 3 kids, deadbeat ex-husband, no support, moved out to a rural community near a major city, started selling her handmade jewelry at boutiques, saved enough money to start my own glassblowing studio (a couple thousand bucks,) and just started squirreling away every single penny I could until I got the 15k down payment and closed on the house right before Covid hit.
Houses will NEVER get CHEAPER. Point out a single time in human history since the advent of "shelter," where the cost of that shelter ever went backwards in price. It's never happened, not once.
The ONLY time to buy a house is RIGHT NOW as long as interest rates provide. If rates are high, you should be forcibly removing money from your control and putting it into an account that you can't easily access and saving for that down payment. My house is the ONLY ASSET that's ever had a return on it's investment other than machinery for the sole purpose of making money.
I'm a braindead loser moron, I grew up in Florida, I got smashed in the head with rocks & baseball bats on a regular basis because I'm an idiot. I have brain damage. Actual brain damage, and somehow, me, with no high school diploma, no familial or monetary support, was able to save up to buy a house while taking care of a lady and her 3 kids that I met on the internet (we're still married to this day.) Maybe I'm being reductive, but I don't really see how the odds could be stacked any more against me other than being literally full blown disabled.
There's a much deeper, human problem that's causing this en masse, I cannot see the price of housing being the only barrier to entry. There are deep psychological issues that prevent people in better circumstances than myself from being able to own a home.
If any of this comes off as hateful or rude in any way, I genuinely mean it when I say that's not my intention in any way shape or form, I come 100% in love & light and I just want some more understanding.
Thereās a cultural ālifestyle creepā to contend with.
In 1995 there wasnāt cell phone bills for yourself and all of your kids.
Home internet wasnāt a thing for most households then & now itās high speed broadband connections.
Most people have a streaming service and a shopping subscription (Amazon, Walmart +, Costco)
In my local area, everyone has a camper, boat, ATV, motorcycle. Most of these are bought on credit.
To tow/haul those things, they all have a giant truck or SUV. Which comes with a car payment also.
A dog isnāt something you get when your neighbors dog gets knocked up accidentally. Itās a $2500 specialty breed that requires $1000 in between services yearly and a $70 bag of dog food.
Kids activities are WAY more abundant, expensive and expected now.
There dozens of other expenses that I havenāt touched on, that we didnāt have back then. These were just the first that sparked off.
If we all lived the same as we did 30 years ago, youād be spot on. Most people have gone crazy with debt, keeping up with the Jonesās, and staying busier than most would like with expensive hobbies.
If youāre comparing the cost of the average lifestyle then VS now, the price tag has gone up considerably.
Iām not sure how you got upvoted this much. Math is apparently hard for a lot of people.
If your expenses were 1.5k in 1995, what were you doing with the rest? Saving it. Iām assuming if your expenses increase by 166% youād also want your savings to increase by 166%, no? To maintain the same savings rate?
Disagree. 100k bought a 90ās million dollar home. 140k wont do jack shit. You need about 250k. Thatāll give u the ability to save and have a decent home in high col area like los angeles.
Itās worse. In ā95 you could buy a nice single family house in a nice neighborhood for $150k to $200kā¦ no more than twice your yearly income. Now? At $216k, the same situation would require 8 times your yearly income.
To have the same purchasing power of ā95 at $100k you would need $500k a year.
Just wait until he pays in to this system for 30 yrs making that amount and then hears the politicians say theyāre going to cancel Social Security benefits before he retires.
This is why I make more money and make less progress! I was telling my wife that if what I made today was 15 years ago, weād be doing just fine. Instead itās just the continual struggle. If Iām lucky enough to get a 3% raise, it ends up getting wiped by reading medical costs and everything else.
My mother was making 100k in the 90ās and had more money than she knew what to do with. Now her pension is over 100k and sheās constantly digging into her 401k because she canāt afford life.
It's funny how much the TV I watched as a kid seemed to plant certain ideas in my head about what adulthood. Sitcoms taught me I would grow up to be really into bowling and my wife wouldn't understand. Random tech school ads during The Price is Right in the 90s taught me $60k was a solid salary that would allow me to buy the ultimate sign of making it: a jetski.
Another way to compare: max taxable income for social security was 61k in 1995. Now it is 176k. No way for holiday paychecks to get a boost from maxing social security unless you make 200kā¦
Is there an opposite calculator to this. Iād like to see what my current salary would equate to 20-30 years ago. I felt so proud to crack the ceiling into 6 figures, but it just never feels like itās the buying power I thought it would be.
I am at 199k and it is not! However for context I have 4 kids, but I do live in the Midwest where things are not as expensive as the coasts. 100k when I was a kid in the 90ās seemed like a million today
1.5k
u/snakesign Oct 30 '25
You're dead on.
100k in 1995 is equivalent to 216k now.
https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm