We are a family of 4 and DH and myself make $85,000 combined a year. Just wondering what the norm is.

Might I suggest that you set this up as an anonymous poll?

cj/

I think the norm varies for every city- so this poll will be useless to you
If you really want to know what the norm is- type your city name into google and type the words median or average salary

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★♥Caroline★♥

It is anonymous now. OP must have edited. I think it is interesting and have often wondered the same thing as well.

I think this is interesting too. I wish I could vote for over 100,000

Depends on where you live If we could live here and make that kind of money that would be awesome! My husband was talking to a company about a job in California, that paid over $100k/year but the cost of housing is 3x what it is here, easily!

If we were making over $100K, I don't think I would need this board!!!

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I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!

Aha...but the truth is that the (non-Hollywood) well-off are often quite frugal. Often they are well off because of their frugal ways, but I think those same ways help them to find careers that have high incomes too. Double whammy!

Well, I do alone...and I still need this board. My yearly income combined with my boyfriend is more than what my parents house is worth...and my dad is quick to remind me of that everytime. But, neither one of us has any debt, we live in a house that we paid for in cash, no car payments, and we are heavily saving for retirement.

Every little bit help...so, we both love the coupons!

DH makes $125,000, I make $0 (I'm a SAHM), but I do the finances so we (soon to be family of 6) live quite comfortably. If DH did the finances, we would be in a far different financial state than we are right now. Oh, the cost of living here is very cheap, so his salary does go a long way, especially after I pinch the pennies. We live well within our means and use credit cards for everything, which we pay off each month (we earn great rewards, so we pretty much make a lot of money in the form of gift cards from the credit card company, I'm sure they don't like us!).

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I've had a Foreman Grill for about six years. I've done about 85% of my cooking on it, but I've never burnt myself. Probably because I don't use it as a pillow.

we make good money but I see reason to see any of that go to waste! I am a couponer

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Proud to say I haven't shopped at a Wal-Mart since Sept 2003

Bingo. We live in Montana but DH works out of Thousand Oaks, CA. He's been with an internet company 10 years and was just promoted to VP. I don't want to brag, but this year he will make over $300,000. We are so blessed to make this kind of money and live in Montana.

I'm also an RN but only work part time. My money is automatically put in savings. We are also saving a ton of his money because he's sick of all the travel he has to do. We're both 40 and he hopes to "retire" from this job within 5 years.

We actually live pretty modestly and 99% of the people we know have no idea what he makes. I'm only telling you because we're anonymous on message boards. We live in a beautiful neighborhood but don't live in the largest, most expensive home on our block (there's one that is a mansion built in the late 1800's that tops ours by far). We have no car payments. Our newest car is a 2003 Dodge truck. We have no desire to get a new car at this point in our lives. We are slowly remodeling our 70 year old home and doing most of the work ourselves. Altho I never use coupons, I do love a good sale. We put the max into our 401K/403B each year (about 36,000 total between us).

Our youngest child will be a freshman in high school next fall. So, if DH is still happy with the company in 5 years we'll either move to the Thousand Oaks area (probably Westlake Village) or he'll "retire".

We own a business here too so he'd have something to fall back on. We also own a couple commercial properties and one will be paid off this year so we are looking to buy another.

We'd only be able to do this making California wages and living here in Montana. I feel very lucky.

sadly, though dh works for uncle General Motors, we are in the 21-30K annual.

I was laid off from GM in January, and I didn't count unemployment...so our income was cut in half.

Had I still been working (same job as DH), our income would have been about $41,000 combined....

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SPJRNTGADL!

I voted ,but won;t say how much we actually make....
but we live comfortably.our mortage payment on a 5br 2 ba(2300 sq feet) is $700(including insurance and taxes).we thought about moving to a neww house,but the mortgae would almost triple.we are fixing up our house(just minor remodeling) and maybe next year we will put an inground pool,when we save enough money to pay cash....

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By the time you make ends meet, they move the ends

My husband makes almost 35,000
I do not work
Suzanne

See, the poll shows that MOST people voted over $100,000...almost 30%. Interesting...

We vary year to year depending on DH's over time, but it is uusally $90-100,000. Last year it was $83,00 with 2 mortgages most of the year! YIKES! I make about $5,000 a year at a PT job.

I guess I see that as a very good living, but we are NOT lving the high life. We live modestly, rarely travel. DH has only had 2 cars in the 14 years we have been married. I coupon, shop sales, etc.

We do save a lot for retirement. DH has been at his job for 17 years and has over $500,000 saved in his 401k. That shows where a lot of our money went.

In our case, DH averages $7,000 a month before taxes. After taxes, retirement, health insurance, etc...it's less than $4,000. If our family of 4 spent the average on groceries, 1/4 of that would be gone. A chunk for mortgage, etc. We have little extra income.

Wow I am totally jealous of your house size!!!! We live in a tiny 2 bedroom with just barely 1200 sq ft and pay the same amount you do!!!! But of course that's what happens when you live in the richest county in TX - you pay out the A.. in property taxes!!!! We hope to add another bedroom sometime as it stinks having to have our boys in the same bedroom - they so need their own space!!!!

Much like ilovezingers, My DH works from home for a CA company. We live in the Kansas City area and the cost of living is not high. DH has had job offers that would actually take us to CA, but he's turned them all down as we'd never be able to stretch his salary there like we can here. We know how lucky we are to be in this situation!

We make about $35-40K a year. We are young and are still working toward our goals. We live very comfortably (although I wish we could travel more ). I work full-time and DH works .8 . . .

We live in Kansas City. My husband just got a job with the IRS in January. But, he's seasonal so he'll be laid off soon. Fortunately he did really well and he's high up on the call back list for January. It's unemployment for us til he finds something to get us through til January. I'm on disability social security. Our income this year will probably fall around $22,000.

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I'm in a constant search for the next great freebie or deal.

Were right around 60k

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Too many people spend money they haven't earned to buy things they don't want, to impress people they don't like. - Will Rogers

We'd be over $100,000 if I had a paying job but I am holding off until the kids are grown and move out. They seem to need me more and more as they head into the teen years.

We live modestly in a 1600 square foot home (that is close to being paid for!), have a few expensive toys, attend concerts, go on cheap vacations most years, and save what we can.

My husband makes a great salary and luckily, we both know how to streeeeeeeeeetch the almight dollar.

Life is good.

we have 1,280 square feet on a 3 bedroom / 2 bathroom house and pay $790 a month (incl. homeowners insurance). Property Tax runs $2200 (+/- $200)

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SPJRNTGADL!

Again, like others have said, it depending on where you live.

Such an interesting discussion! We make significantly less than 100,000 - but if we lived on Long Island where my brother lives, we'd make well over that doing the same things we do here. However, housing is more than double the price for what we have here - so our standard of living would be much lower.

So for us, the bottom line is not how much we make, but what our lifestyle can be. I think if we lived down south we'd make even less money, but our housing situation would be better.

My husband makes around $60,000 a year.We live in Middle Tennessee and he works at Nissan.I am a homemaker and we have a 1,500 sq ft home.Our mortgage is around $800 a month including taxes and insurance.We don't live high on the hog.But we do go to concerts and are currently putting our daughter through college.I am considering getting back into the work force to add to our retirement.

Totally! We were in California for the company Christmas party in December and his boss was taking us around the area "house hunting". He pretty much knows we won't move there, but is always trying. LOL! We were looking at homes in Westlake Village and they would be well over a million. Here in Montana, we live in an awesome neighborhood in a 4000 sq ft home and paid $160,000 for it in 1999. Ok, now it's worth $350,000 because property values are going sky high here, but nothing like California. They offered him $500,000 per year to move down there but that still didn't tempt us. Living here is just so awesome (except for a couple months in the winter). My kids can walk downtown, we have boulevard trees and brick sidewalks (live in the historical part of town). I can leave my doors unlocked and it doesn't matter what kind of car we drive. You should see how the people of his company life down there. They have to be paycheck to paycheck (even making such great money). They drive expensive cars, send their kids to expensive schools, wives have LV purses, etc...

NOT for me.

If you lived in Jacksonville florida with me your house would cost you into the high $900,000's depending on the inside of the home. It is funny how somethings can be so different!! It truely is about location, location, location!

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Vicki


TLJ Women united in Spirit!

My granny and papa and Mil and Fil and my parents are very very well off by anyones standards and guess what, they buy generic when they can and use coupons even out to eat. Dh and I both were raised by "Its not what you spend, its what you keep"!

I agree completely with you Smurf!!

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Vicki


TLJ Women united in Spirit!

We make around $75,000 and it sounds like a lot, but we pay almost $10,000 a year in property taxes and insurance! Good old New Jersey!

We do have a 3500 sq. ft. house with 5 acreas that we bought as a foreclosure. And DH has all of the toys, motorcycle, quad, 2 cars, while i drive a 10 year old Mitsubishi.

I coupon and refund and we are pretty frugal. We try to save as much as we can and a lot of our disposable income is going into the house right now to bring it back to good condition.

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"A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked." ~ Bernard Meltzer

I live in Maryland right next to DC. We have about 850 sq. ft.(one level but we also have a basement) We bought it for $140, 000 about 17 years ago. If I sold, I could get $400,000 to $425,000. It is small but it is only me, dh and dd so it works. Taxes are about $2000 a year. I make $64,000 teaching in a Catholic school. My dh went on disability about 2 years ago so he brings in another $20,000. We do ok because we have always shopped with coupons etc. We always look for a good price on things and generally find them. We eat out at least once a week sometimes more often. But we do lunch instead of dinner because it is cheaper. So I think anyone can make it with a little work. I enjoy looking for deals and shopping.

Yup, then you can find tons of houses for sale north of West Palm Beach and south of Daytona Beach. We were there this spring and I bet half of the houses along some beaches were for sale. We're waiting for them to drop a little lower and we'll probably buy one as an investment. Heck, ocean front property will go back up in value at some point. Plus, we'd like a winter home once the girls are grown and gone.

I'm interested in knowing if your household has one salary or two... Hey, maybe I'll post another poll! Eek! LOL.

LOL at the number of views on this thread. Guess this is a hot topic.

I won't give our household income (I'll let my stalker do that ). We are comfortable. DH and I both work. It's hard for me to spend money even now that we have it to spend because we were so dirt poor for so long....

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Mental that one, I'm telling you. ---Ron Weasley, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"

Stalker? A Mycoupons stalker? Well, that's scary. It's just an internet board, people!

DH made 111, 000.00 last year. This year it will be a little more. We are a one income family. but dh works in MD so we are supporting 2 households!

Christine

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TLJ ~ Women United in Spirit

I can't participate it the poll because you have no catagory for under $10.000.
I'm sure there must be some others on the boards, besides me, who have income that is monster low.
I live on disability of a total of $7,716 per year.
along with that I get $10 a month food stamps and medical help.
Of course there is just me but I out of that I have pay apartment rent, pay my bills, feed a car it's gas and such things.
I should think that explains why I coupon so much for food and non-food items.

[quote=ilovezingers;2819661]Bingo. We live in Montana but DH works out of Thousand Oaks, CA. He's been with an internet company 10 years and was just promoted to VP. I don't want to brag, but this year he will make over $300,000.

What did your husband do before he was VP? And did he still make the same kind of money.....thinking about a career change.

As my DH is moving out in 2 weeks my household income will be cut in half to around 50k. Unfortunately I lived all the way up to our combined income, so this will be a time of transition for myself and my kids and I will finally figure out if I can pull off being a single mum or not.

M

Yes - you can do it!!!! Don't hesitate to lean on the folks here when you need emotional support and budget-stretching tips.

All the best wishes to you and your kids.

cj/

I am certainly not being critical of you, but am curious about our seemingly ridiculous system...why $10/month food stamps?

I know there was a group of lawmakers trying to live on the groceries to feed a 'normal' family, but $10 for one person for a month? I am curious how they arrived at $10/month based on your income? That's $.30/day or less. If you don't mind, in what state do you live?

Yes I know people are under the incorrect impression that those of low income get lots of food stamps.
But the truth is that each state calculates food stamp distribution differently.

Generally speaking a deduction from income is given for rent, utilities and out of pocket medical expense and then some kind of percentage calculation is done to arrive at the amount of disposable income you have.
If that amount is below the minimum amount listed as the cost of food needed then a calculation is made so that your disposable income and food stamps combined are equal the minimum allowed food cost needed. (There is actually a chart someplace stateing a mimimum food cost needed per month per person)
In my state (Indiana) the food stamp calculation is set up to deduct utilities from your income when arriving at the amount of disposable income. You get that deduction ONLY if you pay 2 or more utilities like electric and heat,
I do not pay those since mine is included in my rent.
I also get most medical paid for.

So for me the calculation is simple. it's income - rent= disposable income.

I believe the last time I looked a person was to have $140 a month for food and since my income - rent = more than 140 I wouldn't get any food stamps at all if it was not for federal rules.
Federal rules cite that the state MUST give at least $10 to anyone in my classification so I get the ten but that's it.
I'm in indiana.

Not to worry I'm very good at couponing and my cupboards stay nice and full.

My dh is like a few others here. He works at home for a company in PA. Last year he did about $150,000.

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Mommy to Kalyn (9/4/99), Saige (3/20/02) and Alexander (8/10/04)

What does he do?

We live on my Hubby's teacher salary. I am a SAHM. We have a house, two vans and so much fun. I cherish everything that we have. I recently learned that my BF has been diagnosed with ALS. She has three small children. I am going to take pictures of her with the kids and make videos of things she would like the kids to know. I will be arranging to give her kids certain presents at milestones from their Mom. Assuming I am lucky enough to live a long life. Screw money. If you can hug your loved ones and enjoy the moment you are in, then you are as rich as you need to be.

I think Geek makes a great point I dont care about money like dh well I care to have enough to live on but dh would rather work 100 hrs a week & have a brand new truck & harley I would rather drive a clunker van that is paid for BTW & spend every single day playing with my kids & reading with them & going to the beaches I could care less what I drive or if I have a house on the beach.

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mom of 3 greats girls

Maybe it would be interesting to see how the over $100K club breaks down.....there's more in that group then I would have thought.

Good point!

We are also in the slightly over $100,000 group. My DH is an engineer and I have 3 part-time jobs -BUT - we have 4 children and live in N.J. where our property taxes are almost $8000. Our house is modest - a little over 2500 square feet on a little over an acre. Last month our electric bill was over $500. We live modestly - a truck and two cars - all paid off - but the kids are active so there is lots of dancing lesson and soccer money going out too.

I never, ever give this information out. Not here, not on surveys, not on warranty cards, etc.

While it can be interesting to see what others do, the variables are too great. Industry, area of the country, cost of living, layoffs, etc all play into the yearly result.

dl

Thank you for all your contributions, this post is now being closed due to length. Please feel free to continue your discussion with a new post. xxxxx Carrie xxxxxx.