Does your income allow you...

[Anonymous]

...to live comfortably?

In some places 50k is enough, in other places it's paycheck to paycheck.

Currently my DH makes about 55k before taxes. Tack on my P/T income and we barely reach 60k. After taxes and med. insurance are taken out we don't have much. We pretty much live paycheck to paycheck, with very little expendable income.

I've read plenty of posts on here, where people claim they could live like royalty on 50k. Or people will say things like "its all about budgeting...blah blah blah". I'M smart enough to realize, this isn't always the case, as cost of living varies from place to place.
I've recently accepted a full time position that will increase our combined (pre-tax) income to a little over 85k.
We will finally be in a position that I consider to be more comfortable. We will be able to save more and be able to pay for classes and extracurriculars for our children. Our lifestyles will not change dramatically and we wont be indulging in any thing extravagant. We will still have to budget, and coupon and save for bigger purchases.We will still be a bit below average for our area, as we live in the (NYC Tri-state) area.

How much do you make? Are you at, below or above average income for your area? Are you (what you to consider to be) comfortable?

I'm not asking for any specific reasons beyond those of my own curiosity. Naturally you're under no obligations to answer my inquiries.

Keep it light! Have a good day ladies ;-).

*Please excuse any and all typos and/or grammatical errors. I suck at typing on my phone.*

[Diatech12]

When dh was military he was making about $4k a month. We lived in a high COL area and still lived very well. Our rent amt there would get us upperclass living here. If he was still making that much we would be living AWESOME here(different town).

Had we stayed where we were living, making what I make now there is no way we would make it. My paycheck would not even cover rent in a safe part of town.

*oh and I make more than average for an entry level job, most make min wadge of $9.20. I make $10.35 full time with lots of over time that is encouraged(last job was discouraged). I work for the county so we have health care(no premium for me but $398 for 2kids) and lots of other options like LI, retierment etc.

[Anonymous]

More than comfortable.

[Anonymous]

Our town is kind of dying, so most people here work at our one big business. The average pay is about $40k. That's what the middle class makes and most of my friends are very comfortable on that. Dh, however, drives an hour and 15 minutes into the city for his job and makes $175k. We live here simply because it's beautiful and we don't love city life. We're definitely considered rich where we are, but if we moved closer to where dh works, we'd be middle income.

[mich.el.le]

We have a little extra money, but not much. If we didn't have credit card and student loan debt we'd be doing great.

[Josie_P]

We are more than comfortable :)

[Anonymous]

We make 110k and live OK, not enough for family vacations. At 50k we would be in trouble. We live in IL

[teal.blaze]

We were able to live comfortably before kids with 22k. It was tight, but we still made it after Michael was here. Can't wait til I finish school and can make $35k, not including hubby's income.

[Anonymous]

We make a little over $100K and that's almost exactly average for our town. We are stable, bills are paid and we save some each month. Trying to live on $50K would be near impossible. Housing costs for a 2-3 bedroom are around $2K a month and any place you could rent on a $50K salary would be an absolute dive.

[angevil53]

We make around that. Our insurance is free through his job so that's not a biggie. We just save for the deductibles. We are comfortable and it affords me to be a sahm.

[ColieO]

We have to budget, and increases in bills and such cause me stress, but we are fairly comfortable. We made $52k before tax last year. We can't go on any extravagant vacations and if something major breaks, it usually drains a lot of our savings. Both of us work. It would be beyond stressful to have one income.