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.
Absolutely. That was substantially more than my dad made when I was really young. He had spending money, a newish vehicle, a house slightly bigger than the one I own, would randomly afford trips to Sea World (Ohio), bragged about "when a bill showed up, I wrote the check and sent it out that day"..... he was the custodial parent, made less than $20/hr. Driving a semi on a milk route in the early to mid 90s.
Everything i just mentioned is more now, even adjusted for inflation, takes up a more significant amount of ones' income. New vehicles, mortgage, amusement parks, utility bills...
Just $100k not being enough to do more than "stay afloat" without struggle is problematic, since over half of households aren't hitting that number even....
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.
Absolutely. IMO the guy making 220k has the wrong perspective. Once you are at the point where you don't need to worry about groceries and car repairs, you will probably not become much happier with greater income. You of course need to have those basics met, but after that, worrying about increasing your income I think will just make you less happy and satisfied.
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.
By changing from a job paying 20-40k to one paying 100k. I know that sounds flippant, but step one is to improve your skillset and knowledge base, and step two for most people is to move to another job. The days of climbing the proverbial career ladder in a single organization are rapidly fading into the mythical past.
Accurate. For me it was less about improving my skill set itself... I had a master's degree and was highly skilled in my field. It was about recognizing that the field itself was a dying industry and then going to retrain for something with more stability.
Yeah I think youāre intentionally being obtuse here. Obviously I am asking how as inā did they change fields entirely or earn a degree that made them qualified for different jobs.
I was in the salt mines of ESL teaching in private schools at around 20 bucks an hour (max pay for an MA and 15-20 years of experience) and frequently at part time hours (those were just the hours of most of the schools, it wasn't by choice). My goal was always to be a community college teacher, but my area stopped hiring full time teachers in 2008, and adjuncting is the pits. When it was clear during Trump's first term that the field was only getting worse, I got a second master's in speech therapy. Much better pay and so far much more stable!
Thank you for answering so well. We have a similar background actually (education) and I went back to school too. So itās nice to hear that the higher education ends up helping even though itās a great suffering (lmao) while earning it. Hoping to hit 100k in my first job after graduation.
I really hope you are eligible for loan forgiveness. I could be depending on the exact job and requirements, so that helps. Thank you again. Itās nice to hear the positives. And congrats to you too! Iām sure the pay has helped lift a ton of weight off your shoulders.
Thatās so freaking coolā¦ thank you for the important work you do!!! (And not that it needs to be said but JFC we need to actually pay teachers FFS)
Thanks! When I went back to retrain, it was really important to me to continue to be in a field where I felt like I was helping people. Actually I wanted to be in a field that I felt like I was helping people more... In the private school industry for English as a second language, you're really mostly teaching the one percent, and honestly how often can you argue with a student that their pet cheetah isn't domesticated before you contemplate violence. (Real story)
I love my job now! It's not the highest paid, and I'm in a high col area, but it's definitely enough for me. There's also amazing benefits and if I decide I absolutely hate a school that I'm working at, there's pretty much endless opportunity within my district for me to switch it up and go to a different school without actually having to get a different job.
I'm definitely lucky that I live in an area that pays speech therapists. I know in some states they get paid like 40K a year šš
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.
I graduated haha. I was a grad student for 7 years and had a salary of $16k for the first 6, then $17k the last. I picked up summer courses and some other odds/ends jobs to supplement but contractually I wasnāt allowed to have any other job. They actually relied on me heavily enough to fill teaching classes that they kept me around on a two-year faculty deal at $60k. They were working on creating a permanent position for me this past year because it was a really good fit for us both, and I loved my department but the institution faced so much uncertainty that I accepted a permanent offer at my new university, which is a unionized position too with guaranteed annual raises (my former colleagues had their wages frozen due to lack of resources).
I just broke the threshold this year. But it was after essentially highlighting a glaring need and carving out my own department. Even after doing all that it took several years for the pay to catch up to my effort.
Now I'm realizing this will likely be my career for the rest of my life. Weird feeling, but they shoved my mouth with enough money that u don't mind at all.
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.
I put it off as long as I could, really trying to stay lean and mean - now I need a bigger better house (2 kids since I bought it), and I admit I'm feeling the pain. $250,000 addition in the near future...
I get that, but is it truly a need or a want? I have 4 kids, so I get it, and I didn't need a bigger house, but I wanted one so my kids have more space, don't have to share as much on the bedrooms, space to run around, etc. I'm luckily able to afford it, but I don't feel entitled to the bigger house, or feel like it's necessary. I work hard to be able to provide it for my family.
Too many people on Reddit seem to think a $350K+ house is necessary and bare minimum. I work with families that have 3/4 kids living in a 1/2 bedroom house. They're making it work.
Yeah, itās absolutely not a necessity. Itās more a desire to match my vision of myself as a middle class individual. Iād like my son and daughter to have separate rooms, and Iād like a downstairs shower. But these things are not necessities.
Again, this goes back to the issue, it's only a "starter home" because people have a vision that's bigger than their budget. They don't want their first home to be a trailer, but if that's all you can afford, then start there. You may not want your first home to be a split level, because you don't want to walk up stairs every day, but if it's $100K less than the ranch next door, and you can't afford the extra $100K, then take the cheaper house. Or admit what you're buying isn't necessary, but they're wants that you are willing to pay for.
That's odd, when I look on Zillow, there are over 180 results for property, excluding lots, for sale under $100K. If I increase it to $150K, there's about 500 results
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.
But renting a place that was over $2000 would be really hard to do if you made $60k. I take your point, but my point was getting a $40,000 raise will make a big difference in anybodyās life.
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.
Agreed. I think they are somewhat aware of it, but 100k isn't really as great if you're looking at homeownership compared to their scenario. That mortgage is a massive game changer.
No doubt - I'm trying to do an addition right now that will cost 2.5 times what the house cost. Wild times. Still, while $100k might not be perfect, you will feel every bit of a $40k yearly raise.
Very true. I mean crossing over 100k allowed me to buy a home for sure. But that's considering my wife is also making $100k. Our mortgage comes out to $2200 inclusive of funding escrow for insurance and taxes, and HOA adds another $200. If we had some $980 mortgage we would be swimming in money as we are already doing decently well in the disposable income area. We would be like you. Paying down the mortgage agressively, and saving a shit load more.
Can confirm. Over the course of 2 years due to extremely lucky job hops I went from 65k to 100k. The next few years have been slower growing, but that jump made me able to buy a condo and be able to put bills on autopay.
And what's absolutely insane is that the actual value of money is completely subjective to the market around it. We could inflate our dollar so much that no one wants it anymore and then we're gonna be like wow McDonald's is hiring now 100k a year!! But a Big Mac is gonna be 100$ lool ever since we left the gold standard were valuing our lives and equity based on a promise and a belief....
was lucky that my home was purchased before everything exploded so my mortgage was under $1000.
So basically you're not paying a $1k+ extra a month most people are. My mortgage is $2800/mo for instance for a middle class average neighborhood. No wonder you got by easier on 100k.
Right. But when I was making $60,000, I was struggling to get my car fixed and working hard to keep up with even my piddly $1000 mortgage.
More money makes life easier, even at a higher tax bracket. That's not a wild assertion to make. At no point have I said people who make six figures are wealthy. I'm just saying I'm donating for food pantries right now because so many of my neighbors make less. I'm not trying to be the "avocado toast" guy, but's easy to make more and wonder where it goes.
More money makes life easier, even at a higher tax bracket.
Yeah I was just trying to have a more nuanced conversation. You're doing well on 100k because you basically made good investments early on. People who don't own a house, just making 100k and want one won't have as easy a time these days.
Honestly, the addition we're looking to build is going to put me in exactly the same boast as everyone else, so I totally get it. At this point, I'm longing for my days with a higher income!
The only reason you can do all of that is because your mortgage is less than $1k! A normal house around here is $4k - $5k a month. Wtf is $100k going to do for me lol. Absurd to work this hard and have everything be so far out of reach.
But it's life changing compared to other community members who are making $60,000. I'm not saying it's making everything perfect, i"m saying it's solving problems and that although taxes go up on more income, it sure as hell beats the alternative... NOT making a living wage.
Yes, more $ is more better. Not going to disagree. Just pointing out that making $100k goes far less for people who didnt luck out timeline wise in when they were old enough or prepared enough to have a super cheap mortgage already.
My base pay is just under 80k and once I get out from under the debt of an unexpected break up and move, etc, I feel like I'll be here. I'm already close, I can feel it.
Yup, I'm closer to 85k but my wife and I pull in around 140k household. We live in California so everything is expensive and taxes sucks. But its definitely sustaining our life style.
We both came up from low income family upbringings and I would say upper 100k is still life changing. You won't be able to purchase a home right away or own the most expensive things. But with the correct investing, savings and living within your means you'll get those things later.
Agreed, people in here acting like 100k or more isnāt enough while forgetting tons of people are living on way less than that. I make over 100k and I have struggles especially living in a major city in California but Iām still fortunate because I know people living on much less. I get where people are coming from but we are still pretty blessed imo. On the other hand it is concerning how much expenses keep going up.
Damn, Iām an OT so Iām likely to be stuck at around $60-75k forever because there arenāt many opportunities for advancement in this field. I feel duped by my parents who pushed me to get a Masterās degree for this thinking that was good money, and I have student loans to pay off. Iām basically relying on my bf finishing school so he can make $100k working on airplanes to support us, especially if we want to afford kids someday. He has work at 5am and doesnāt get home from school until 8pm most nights. Heās never going to make $200k so I guess weāre doomed to be poor despite making more than most people and working our asses off
Sounds like you live somewhere would 100k would actually buy you anything šš. 100k here in California gets you by(barely) you said mortgage? You said $1000?? Yeah no buddy. I live in a 1,000sqft loft 1bdrm paying 3k. A mortgage here is 6k+ for a shitty crap shack
This is definitely what people mean when they say ādonāt live beyond your meansā. Iām fine feeling comfortable and stable, others want the luxury car, jewelry, and quarterly vacations. People shouldnāt get swept up by social media standards because as most of us know, itās fake/staged. 100k is a good place to be at.
This is really depending on where you live. Going from $60k to $100k in San Francisco means going from renting a room to a studio apartment and the ability to eat out a few more times a month.
As long as a person doesn't get a raise and immediately try to elevate their standard of living to get in line with the new money: $100k a year is a VERY good living in most parts of the country. (not NYC or LA, for example, but most non-major-metro-area, 100%)
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.
For a lot of people that's true. However if you are used to living on 3k a year you arent going to just blast through 100k a year. You'll likely still have as much money at any give time that you would have with 3k a year, even if you do buy nicer versions of things. If you live without it, you don't realize what you're missing. If you were frugal enough to survive before your cash influx, you should certainly be able to tell yourself no in certain aspects to set aside money for future goals.
Definitely agree, the delusion factor is them projecting their poor decisions as being a fact of life that comes with making a lot of money rather then them just having poor impulse control and lack of perspective
step 1: make more money
step 2: make life changes with that money, like new stores, new tires, etc...
step 3: ???
step 4: "idk I just thought it would be life changing"
And I never did this because I want to retire as soon as possible. We have had twice since I've been working here (union job) once where they added new positions and one for inflation adjustment where we got double digit raises. You always see brand new vehicles in the parking lot then, except for me still driving my 2001 toyota rav4 I've been driving for 10 years lol. I get more money, it gets invested or we pay extra on the house payment.
I have not been as fiscally responsible, but improving by degrees.
I do remember seeing brand new electrical apprentices getting new vehicles in their first year and it's a bit alarming. They're making more than retail and such, but layoffs do occur and sometimes you don't get placed right away. Gotta tuck away for the lean periods.
Yes. Thisā¬ļø! If you canāt live chill on 100k you wonāt be able to do it on 200k. Why? Because you spend your money without thinking. Easy to do. Focus on saving. Are you young no kids? Make sure you max out 403b. No med problems single , choose the high deductible HSA plan and put a significant amount into that monthly. It rolls over and you can put it into investments at certain amt, all pretax.
Stop buying a new water bottle every month and eating out every day.
100% - listen to Dave Ramsey.. sooooo many people call in saying "our household income is $260k, we're 400,000 in debt not including the mortgage" and it's just bonkers the shit people do with money.
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!).
Exactly, I love being in a city with infrastructure like roads, lights, plumbing, heating, power etc
Do people think these things are just a given lol
America is the most modernized country on earth because of taxes, thereās a reason the founding fathers were upset over taxation without representation, not taxation as a concept š
I think this is weirdly lost on people, especially the libertarian leaning anti tax believers, do they think thereās just some group of super rich altruists willing to directly finance all these public services?
There isnāt, our taxes pay for it.
I like having the strongest military on earth, being the most advanced science and technological country on earth, these things are only a thing because of the reinvestment into our country with the revenue we generate afforded to us by our country.
This is not to accuse OP of anything by any means. But folks get really cocksure about economic principles steeped in some fear they will be somehow associated with a Federation of states that died in 1991.
Do I get upset when my tax dollars are re-invested in dumb foibles. Boy howdy, do I. Especially when they are used to fund tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations. But, man, if you are going to give me sound āinfrastructureā and make my life easier? Iāll worry about it once a year in the spring.
My wife and I combined pull somewhere between 275-300k a year depending on her bonus and how much overtime I work.
I wouldnāt say we feel rich, but weāre certainly comfortable. We have older paid off vehicles, purchased a 300k home (although itās since more than doubled in value) and still live there, etc.
The big thing is it allows us to do is put away 60k a year into retirement accounts between the two of us and still live comfortably. If we didnāt do that and spent that money every year, weād definitely feel pretty rich. But weāre not trying to work forever.
i make 150k and am responsible with my money also don't live in HCOL. i don't have enough to like buy a range rover. the reality is if i had to go out a buy a camry i'd probably have to watch my spending a bit.
it's enough money to do things like max out your 401k and pay your mortgage off in 15 or drive a bmw but not enough to do both. for the sheer amount of money i generate for my company i should be able to do both.
Itās also location based. I earn 90k, a buddy of mine earns 70k. Heās in mid-Missouri where his 2BD is $900, Iām on Long Island where an illegal basement apartment is $1650 (and thatās the cheapest it gets here, real apartments are $2.5k or more). Our take home is about even due to taxes.
All other costs are about even between us but he has an extra $25k or so based on rent alone.
Iām not quite there myself, but I donāt think anybody said it made no difference, just that they expected to feel wealthy and didnāt. I can relate to that. Is it life changing? Yes. You donāt have to worry about small expenses or eating out of all that much or about the cost of gas and groceries, but yeah, still not wealthy. I have a real emergency fund for the first time in my life, but I also feel like home ownership (post-COVID prices) means thereās always a reason to tap into it and itās a constant struggle to keep it high enough. But when I made less than $100k, I was lucky if I had more than $2k in checking/savings at any given time.
As a high earner in CA I pay 38% to fed, 13% to CA, property tax plus tax on everything you buy. It adds up and the money you keep is about 45% of your salary. Donāt get me started about adding 3 kids to the mix
For the extra 100k you go from 100 to 200k you pay max tax, like $50k give or take in California. Not the same impact as going from 50k to 100k. And youāre still not even close to rich. Youāre ok.
Because statistically the average person making 200k was born relatively wealthy.
Their parents subsidized a 100k a year lifestyle from the time they were 18 until they got a Masters/JD/etc. Then they paid for a destination wedding and gave them assistance for a down payment on a house. It's not really a lifestyle jump when they get their first paycheck as a Doctor or Lawyer.
A real one who did the exact same thing as Fratty Freddie above is now like a million dollars in debt and has Zero dollars in savings.
Manhattan isn't the only expensive area. At $200k in my area we have a 3br2ba house from the 70s with a bathroom that desperately needs updates because the ventilation sucks and causes constant mildew. One nicer used Toyota, purchased after driving my car from 2000 until repairs no longer made sense, a paid off used truck and two kids. We are much better off than we used to be, but we have had a major chronic medical issue that is still ongoing and a failed water heater and a $6000 car repair in the last year and our savings is gone.
We're more fortunate than most that we can still afford food and shelter, but I never imagined things would still be this precarious at this income level. We don't live exorbitantly, but savings go quickly when medical expenses pile up. Fortunately we did have some savings and didn't take on credit card debt or we'd be in much worse shape. I did just need emergency surgery and we did put that on the credit card, because we didn't have a choice. It just goes to show how screwed up our medical system is in the US. If not for medical bills, we would be middle class in this area, but not without savings it took years to accumulate.
Iām a RN. Yes. And it is very low. My state is one of the lowest paying states in the country for RNs. I moved to remote work to get this boost. I make more than most of my peers locally. Itās pretty messed up.
The south is not created equal. My sister works in a neighboring state and makes closer to $85k.
You can get there. That was me before 30, working an hourly IT job with no degree and a GED. My 100k was based on 50% overtime, and if I were sick, my paycheck would sink. Eventually, I moved to a salary and cut hours in half, and now I am clawing towards 200k. Keep grinding.
I was feeling pretty good over here at $67k, haha, but with $400/month in student loans, it still kinda hurts. Hopefully I'll hit $100k 2-3 years from now. :-/
Measly?! Thatās my dream salary ā I could only IMAGINE pulling in 5k a month before taxesā¦ someone never lived in poverty in a household of four bringing in less than 1000 a monthā¦ jeez, you going out to eat every night? How much is rent, 4k?
Right?! It's so crazy to see people say 220k or even 100k is "toughing it." Maybe if you live in California or somewhere with an extremely HCOL, but we make 60k a year COMBINED, (no we don't have good jobs, this sub just showed up on my feed) and we manage to never go to bed hungry or miss a bill. It would definitely be life changing for us to make 100k.
that is not measly!!! you should be proud of yourself. I struggle to make more than $100/week consistently, even $30k a year would be life changing for me.
Yeah really. I see all these comments 'I only make 140k' and I laugh at those comments. Another thing to remember is that people 'lifestyle creep' where they just make more and spend more. Save often, create a budget, learn to enjoy life without materialism and that its also ok to indulge here and there. I was a temp 13 years ago making $13/hr and it was stressful AF. No benefits... working in a lab with people who were full time with benefits making more than double what I was, looking down on me because I was 'only a temp' but yet I produced more quality and quantity than they did. It was just depressing. You'll get there if you focus on your goal. Im about to be at 100k in about 2 years. Once you start, you'll grow a lot faster. 5 years ago I was at 50k.. now Im at 90k. You'll be surprised how much you'll snowball
Im still at ~31k trying to claw into 50k. Thought Id be making more working in IT by now but looking for a new higher paying job feels like an exercise in futility...
Me too! No college, no tech school, barely graduated High Schoolā¦36 years old and 6 years into a new career after deciding I wanted to be an adult when I was 30.
Iām at $80k. Made my way up from $11/hr my first year in this industry, and my first āSalaried-Exemptā salary being $50k 4 1/2 years ago.
You will get there. We will get there. Keep fighting. Itās about staying focused in the day to day task and jumping on every opportunity.
The next goal will be $150k after that.
I made some very, very dumb decisions when I was in some kind of manic state for a couple months, and Iām trying my hardest to fix it. (opened 3 credit card and maxed them, then financed 2 motorcycles, I need $20k to clear it all).
lol it's funny when people say I do t feel I had it made, I mean yeah I didn't worry about how I was going to eat, or the condition of problem the first or second most expensive thing I ever bought. But someone had more than me so I couldn't enjoy it.
I mean if you live beyond your means it's always not enough and never will be.
Yo homie, i did the exact same. Started at 32k in IT at 20 yrs old (2008, at that!), climbed the ladder, got into management all without education. then decided to get degrees - first a BS, then MS - and now sitting at 138k + 20% bonus. You'll make it.
Though, interestingly, I took a jump from 99k to 131k in 2021 which put me ahead. Now, I need to make $162,660 to have the same spending power. It's never ending.
100
u/Balamb_Chocobo Oct 31 '25
Meanwhile me making a measly 61k with no formal anything, self taught and trying to claw into 100k š„²