A friend and I were talking the other day about some of her family and their income. She is a very close friend of mine and we can talk about anything. Anyway, I was surprised to hear what she thinks is "a lot of money" regarding one's yearly income. Mine was much higher than hers.
So I'm curious: What is the start price of what you consider to be "a lot of money" for an income?

(I hope this makes sense! You may even be in this income range, but please don't share anything personal. I'm just curious, and I also wonder if this will vary based on where everyone lives.)

By Karen~moderator on Friday, January 27, 2006 - 02:59 pm:

Certainly depends on what part of the country you live in, and then specifically what city or metropolitan area. $150,000-$200,000.00 in my area is considered high income.

By Marg on Friday, January 27, 2006 - 03:17 pm:

lol, because of dh's occupation and job we really say anything over $26,000.00 but around here and not to have to travel over an hour to work really $40,000.00.

It's really hard to even start somewhere around here and to have a Bachelor's degree and start around $25,000.00.

Dh is subcontracted to a school district (he is not employed by the school district so he does not earn that level of wages) and teacher's who just start teaching begin at $38,000.00 and complain about that. No teacher really realizes what dh earns, they may think it is alot, but it is about half of their income. But yet he literally does the same level of what they do.

Dh and I talk about this, we live off very little.

By Reds9298 on Friday, January 27, 2006 - 03:33 pm:

I should have listed mine...sorry
I think (at least from my geographic location) $85-90K is a lot.

By Mrsheidi on Friday, January 27, 2006 - 03:34 pm:

$150,000+

By Yjja123 on Friday, January 27, 2006 - 03:48 pm:

I would say $150-$200,000

By Tink on Friday, January 27, 2006 - 04:11 pm:

I'd say anything over $150,000. I live in an area with a very high cost of living and several metropolitan areas nearby. We're a commuter community and I think that affects my perception.

By Tunnia on Friday, January 27, 2006 - 04:11 pm:

I'd say $200,000-$300,000 would be a pretty decent salary.

By Marg on Friday, January 27, 2006 - 04:49 pm:

Can I ask where you live and what these people would do for this income?

We live 1 hour from Baltimore/Washington 2 1/2 from Phillie and 3 from Pittsburgh.

S/e doctors/psychiatristic (remember I used to do tax returns) only make $125,000+ in our area.

I need a job;)

By Kaye on Friday, January 27, 2006 - 04:51 pm:

I think a lot of money is different than a pretty decent salary. A lot of money to me means making 500k a year. Pretty decent money is closer to the cost of an average house. So in my area, an average house is 2k sq feet, 3 bedroom, 2 car garage and a year, runs about 150. So 150k is decent money.

BTW when I started teaching in Texas, my first year I made 16k (that was in 1995). Woo hoo, i thought i was rich!

By Marg on Friday, January 27, 2006 - 04:54 pm:

I should have posted, I choose to be a sahm when mom was dying. Dh wanted it for years, but I wanted the house to be paid for.

Does these income amounts bother you?

When I was employed the highest dh and I made combined was $50,000. Dh changed occupations and I never went back to work.

It was truly difficult cutting back. I worked until our house was paid.

Don't laugh, the original part of our house cost $49,900 (1986). We have built on 3 times. Value today (they revalue for property tax purposes $225,000+). We in no way could afford that today.

By Dawnk777 on Friday, January 27, 2006 - 04:54 pm:

When I started working as a nurse, I made $8.74/hour. I thought I was RICH! It was a $3 raise from what I made as a nurse's aide.

Now, I make $8.23/hr as a lunchlady! LOL! Isn't that weird?

By Karen~moderator on Friday, January 27, 2006 - 05:18 pm:

Well, we don't make $150,000 a year ( I WISH! ), and I'm not going to state our income, but I will say we are both underpaid and should be making more, and would be tickled to make $150,000 a year, in THIS area. FAT chance of that though.....LOL

By Boxzgrl on Friday, January 27, 2006 - 05:21 pm:

200K+, but that's CA living.

By Kym on Friday, January 27, 2006 - 07:20 pm:

In Southern AZ, I would say decent is 75K which is a salary range a lot of people make becasue of Government jobs.
A GOOD salary is 125K

By Reds9298 on Friday, January 27, 2006 - 07:26 pm:

Kaye- I totally agree with what you said about "a lot of money" being different than a "decent salary". Rich living to me would be $200K (here), but my $85-$90 quote is a minimum of more than enough to live well in my area.

I made $40K as a teacher here. (I don't mind saying it because I don't make it anymore!!LOL) It was not difficult to lose the income when I chose to be a SAHM (the actual decision was VERY difficult) because we had always lived on one income and played on two, so it was a minor adjustment but not a major one.

This is pretty interesting comparing the salaries and where people live, especially being from Indiana!

By Trina~moderator on Friday, January 27, 2006 - 09:25 pm:

Wow, I'm choking here on $40K as a teacher, Deanna! My last year teaching was in 1996, my 10th year teaching, at a parochial school in NH. I made $18,000. Needless to say, it was not a hard decision to become a SAHM.

It's all relative, isn't it?
Currently we live in CT within commuting distance to Hartford. The cost of living is fairly high, although certainly not as high as CA. Judging by the BIG houses and Porsches, BMWs, Hummers, etc. that we see on a daily basis, I don't even want to know what those people think "a lot of money" is. LOL!

By Melanie on Friday, January 27, 2006 - 09:46 pm:

I agree with Trina, it's completely relative to where you live. The cheapest house in my neighborhood is a 3 bedroom, 2 bath 1600 sf 15 year old house on one acre. The price? $785,000. Seriously. What's a lot of money? Much more than I ever dreamed it would be before moving to the Silicon Valley area!!!

By Crystal915 on Friday, January 27, 2006 - 11:02 pm:

I don't know about here, but I think it's very similar to our old area in TX. Over $50K a year would be a nice income there. Then again, you can buy a nice house for $100K. For my hometown in NJ, it was more like $75K and up, yet the houses can get up to the millions. My parent's house is well over $300K, not counting land (7 acres), and I don't think it's all *that* extravagant of a home.

By Marcia on Saturday, January 28, 2006 - 12:15 am:

Trina, when I quit my job as an Early Childhood Resource Teacher in 1993, I was making over 40,000. Now I do foster care, which doesn't pay quite as much, but it is tax free money.
I've been out of the work force for so many years that I'm not sure what is considered good money. Certainly anything over 100,000 would be, but I really don't know what the average wage is. I do know that my home is worth close to 300,000, for a 3 bedroom raised bungalow. The same home in Toronto would probably be double the price, and the lot would be smaller. I'm less than an hour away.

By Karen~moderator on Saturday, January 28, 2006 - 07:56 am:

Melanie, it is definitely all relative, as I said in my first post. We live in a New Orleans suburb. Cost of living is relatively cheap here, so wages are lower comparitively speaking.

My sister lives in Mill Valley in Marin County, which I'm sure you are familiar with, so there is really no comparison. She received almost twice as much in child support monthly as I cleared from my job, until recently. Her X is a partner in a law firm and has decided to stop practicing law and go into the art business, he managed to get the child support reduced by the same amount that MY house payment is.

So it is all DEFINITELY relative to where you live.

By Reds9298 on Saturday, January 28, 2006 - 08:08 am:

Holy Cow Melanie on the price of a house where you live!!!!!!!! YIKES!!! My DH is job hunting right now and that's the reason we're not even considering the Silicon Valley!!!!!!!(that's his line of work)

Minimum of around $100K here for a nice house, but definitely have them in the $500-600K range, too, plenty of them. Lots of doctors, lawyers, and union people where I live. Here, union employees with nothing but a H.S. education make at LEAST $50K per year, and that's light for most of them. Mostly it's around $85K.

By Reds9298 on Saturday, January 28, 2006 - 08:10 am:

Trina - I'm working on my Master's for a $6K pay raise, and it will be more when I go back in a few years. Teachers are still underpaid IMO (at least in my district where you're raising someone else's kids!)

By Ginny~moderator on Saturday, January 28, 2006 - 11:41 am:

Good money is twice what I need for my monthly/annual expenses. It's not a dollar thing, it's what would make you feel both safe and comfortable, able to afford some luxuries if not all that you would like. Really good money is being able to put a two-week fancy vacation - Hawaii, or a cruise - on your credit card and pay it in full when the bill comes.

By Ginny~moderator on Saturday, January 28, 2006 - 11:43 am:

One of Charles Dicken's characters said something like - Income 20 pounds 1 shilling, expenses 20 pounds, equals prosperity; income 20 pounds, expenses 20 pounds 1 shilling, equals bankruptcy.

By Melanie on Saturday, January 28, 2006 - 01:16 pm:

Deanna, that's why many people won't consider moving here. It's hurting businesses as they can't attract the people they really want to hire. Dh's company had a hard time trying to fill an upper management position. When they finally hired someone, not only did he have to deal with the high cost of housing but also the bidding wars that went with it. He was outbid (over asking price) on three houses before finally getting one!! The university near me is having a terrible time trying to get professors since the pay definitely won't allow them to buy a house. We keep expecting the housing market to slow down dramatically, but our house has doubled in value in the 8 years we have owned it. It's crazy.

Karen, I am sorry. I did realize you and a couple of others had said it's relative, but I had just read Trina's post and hers was on my mind as I responded. I didn't mean to not acknowledge that I agreed with more than just Trina.

By Karen~moderator on Saturday, January 28, 2006 - 02:08 pm:

Melanie, don't be silly! I didn't mean for it to come across that way. *I* apologize if it DID sound that way! LOL

It's really interesting though, the different thoughts and opinions on this topic, solely due to what part of the country you live and work in.

My sister is struggling to stay in Mill Valley, since her X lives there, her DS goes to school there, and he has a lot of special ed needs. She can't afford to buy her own home, not even a condo there, because of the high costs, so she rents, and it's shocking to me what she pays in rent! She's actually had job offers in other parts of the country, but she wants to stay where she is because they have put so many years and money into getting my nephew the help he needs and he's doing so well now, she does not want to disrupt his life. I think once he is out of high school, she will end up moving, if not out of CA, then certainly to a *less expensive* area of CA.