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is $100,000 / year still a good salary?

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I know where I live that 100k is a great salary to live on. I was able to afford a 1500/month house payment, 2 cars payments, out of country vacation, contribute to 401k and IRA, plus saving roughly 20k a year. If I had to support kids, it would be easy to scale back to a single cheaper car and some other unnecessary expenses.
 
Capt Caveman said:
Where in NYC? My friend just moved there and paying $2.8k for a 600 sqft apt in Chelsea.
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The problem is he is living in chelsea. Move to park slope. Problem solved.

Oh and 100k is a great salary regardless of marital status. Get of your high horses. Many families in nyc scratch by with a combined income of less than 75k.

Sent from my ThunderBolt using Tapatalk
 
child of wonder said:
I live near the Twin Cities and $100k can support a family of four.

If you're the type of person that has to have car loans and CC debt up the ass, then, no, you probably won't find $100k is enough.

$100k is still a very good salary but not the "OMFG you make $100k" like it was 10+ years ago.

EDIT:

According to Paycheckcity.com, $100k/year in Minnesota with 4 allowances (family of 4), 10% saved for 401k, $250 per paycheck for health insurance, gives one a 2 week paycheck of $2,550. That's $5,100 every 4 weeks.

This could be their monthly expenses:

$1,400 Mortgage
$300 Utilities (Elec, Gas, Water, Sewer, Garbage)
$100 Cell Phones
$150 TV and Internet
$100 School Lunches for 2 kids
$100 Car Insurance
$300 Car Payment
$200 Misc (Life insurance, student loan, etc.)

$2,650 Total expenses

$2,450 Disposable income

If the family saves $850 per month and lives off of $1,600, that's a very comfortable wage.
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Can support is the key difference and your estimates are low. My utilities/monthly bills alone are almost 800/mo. A 1400 mortgage puts them at a 200k house, while a good idea, it goes along with your other underestimates on living.

But that proves my point further, it's not a lot of money and will allow one to "get by" and save some for retirement.

It's not some magic number and quite normal for professionals these days.
 
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Good but not as great as many people think. If you're single, expect 1/3 to be taken for taxes, etc.

Also, depends on if you own a house. Seems renting is cheaper than the combined cost of mortgage and upkeep on a house.
 
SandEagle said:
i can see it being good for a single person, maybe for a couple with no kids. what about couple +1 kid? +2 kids? +3 kids? is this still enough to make a good living? read an article earlier where the author thinks 100k just isn't what it used to be.
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Dude seriously?

My parents raised me, and my 3 brothers, on less than half that. My dad worked, my mom was a stay at home mom for most of it.

Granted it depends on your location (cost of living) and also the dollar doesn't go as far as it used to, but still 100K would not be cutting it close for a couple plus a kid or two.

I could see it being an "issue" if you have money management issues, or you simply must have a car no older than 3 years old, or must have a fancy home theater set, or wear the latest fashions and name brands of designer clothing, or have that 200k fancy house, or something. My parents set themselves limits and lived within their means, and we did fine. Except for the first few years they have owned a house too. Well, with a mortgage of course, but still.
 
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spidey07 said:
Can support is the key difference and your estimates are low. My utilities/monthly bills alone are almost 800/mo. A 1400 mortgage puts them at a 200k house, while a good idea, it goes along with your other underestimates on living.

But that proves my point further, it's not a lot of money and will allow one to "get by" and save some for retirement.

It's not some magic number and quite normal for professionals these days.
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Low? I based them on my own budget numbers and, as someone who lives near the Twin Cities, I think I have a better idea what a TC resident's bills look like than you do.

$100k is "a lot of money," but, like all things, it all depends on what you do with it. Safe to say, however, that unless one lives somewhere with a very high cost of living, $100k will get a family by unless they spend it stupidly.
 
Depends where you live, but only ATOT would ask such a bone headed question when the national average income is ~45K.
 
its a good salary but its not a lot of money if you live in the SF Bay area. I make more than that and realistically can't afford to buy a house on straight salary.
 
100k for each spouse for 200k total, that is great.

100k on a single income, that's pretty mediocre if u average it out at 50k each adult that is capable of working.

Gone are the days where u can afford to raise a whole family with one middle class income (at least desirable places on the coast)
 
Definitely. Being able to pay off my house in like 4 years (taking into account that a third of that goes towards other expenses) instead of 25 would be quite something.

I honestly don't know what I'd do with all the extra cash at the end. I'd end up buying stuff I don't need like a corvette, and ridiculously powerful servers and upgrade my PC with the latest and greatest every month, just because I can.

Really what I'd probably do is buy a couple other properties and rent them out. It is true that the rich get richer. Would not take a long time to start racking in some millions. Then quit my job because I have my own income, and have more time to make even more money. Would be awesome.

Edit: wait I'm not accounting for taxes, often when people say they make 100k, that's gross not net, you only see like 60k out of that. Still a nice chunk of cash compared to a typical 40-50k gross per year job though.
 
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Where I live $100,000 isn't that great. Me and my fiancée have a combined income of about $100k and it's only really adequate. $100k is only around $75k after taxes, and after making payments on a $290k mortgage and paying monthly bills and a bit of savings for annual house repairs and a little holiday, there's hardly anything left over.
 
Red Squirrel said:
Definitely. Being able to pay off my house in like 4 years (taking into account that a third of that goes towards other expenses) instead of 25 would be quite something.

I honestly don't know what I'd do with all the extra cash at the end. I'd end up buying stuff I don't need like a corvette, and ridiculously powerful servers and upgrade my PC with the latest and greatest every month, just because I can.
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You have a bizarre perspective of what $100k will buy you. Paying off a house in 4 years, buying a Corvette and upgrading your PC monthly? Please.
 
Red Squirrel said:
Still a nice chunk of cash compared to a typical 40-50k gross per year job though.
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Just remember that only 25% of Americans earn even that level. 75% make less than 50k/yr. Hell, almost 50% make less than 25k/yr.

Whenever people talk about 'what can be done on a certain salary', remember that 42% of the nation does it all on less than 25k/yr. What 'can' be done isn't dictated by the 10% at the top, but the 50% at the bottom.
 
$100K is good if you are single. However, with kids, that sucks. Definitely not poor, but you'd have to cut back on the fun stuff. 🙂 So a little savings tip, don't have kids.

I do find it annoying when people brag about making "6 figures." Motherfucker, you just barely squeaked by the $100K mark, so don't act like you're big shit. There is a BIG difference between $100K and $900K (both are "6 figures"), and $100K ain't that fantastic. Now $900K, yeah, you're the man.
 
child of wonder said:
Low? I based them on my own budget numbers and, as someone who lives near the Twin Cities, I think I have a better idea what a TC resident's bills look like than you do.

$100k is "a lot of money," but, like all things, it all depends on what you do with it. Safe to say, however, that unless one lives somewhere with a very high cost of living, $100k will get a family by unless they spend it stupidly.
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I didn't see food(besides the school lunch budget) and gasoline, assuming gas is only used for heating, in your budget, and those 2 are sizable omissions. My expenses are pretty close to that but those 2 items add up to about $800/mo and we don't have kids.
 
This is such a relative question. Depends on you as an individual in terms of consumerism and where you live in terms of cost of living.

As stated earlier, only ATOT would bring this up when most of America less than half of that sum.
 
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