s/o What do you consider a "good" household income?

[rafiki]

.

[Mejane]

To me, "good" is being able to afford a nice place to live, buy food, pay household expenses, save for retirement and emergencies, and still have money left over for extras. Of course, that's all relative to where one lives. With dh's salary, we would be able to live like royalty elsewhere, not so much here.

Edited June 5, 2010 by Mejane

[rainforest mama]

Um, whatever DH is making at any given time? Sorry, I'm no help. DH has made lots and then not so much in the past, and it always seems to be enough for us. As long as I've got money for HS books and food, we're fine. ;)

 

Lana

[Hannah]

To me, "good" is being able to afford a nice place to live, buy food, pay household expenses, save for retirement and emergencies, and still have money left over for extras. Of course, that's all relative to where one lives. With dh's salary, we would be able to live like royalty elsewhere, not so much here.

 

:iagree: and I'd add reliable vehicles and good health insurance.

It is definately relative to location. As we live in Africa, we can afford a cleaner and gardener. Unemployment is very high (nearly 40%), there is no social safety net and labour is therefore cheap. We pay well above the minimum wage and a day's labour is still what my sister would pay for an hour in the UK.

[Daisy]

It is relative to location.

 

My husband makes twice as much in CA as my brother makes in AL, and yet our standard of living is very similar.

 

I'd consider a good income one which gave us decent shelter, healthy food, sturdy clothing, health insurance, and reliable transportation. The rest is extra.

[jillian]

To me, "good" is being able to afford a nice place to live, buy food, pay household expenses, save for retirement and emergencies, and still have money left over for extras. Of course, that's all relative to where one lives. With dh's salary, we would be able to live like royalty elsewhere, not so much here.

this lol.

[TravelingChris]

I haven't lived everywhere but in my view in the US, a good income is probably somewhere between 75K-150K, depending on location. It may even be higher in some places. This is for a family, not a single person. It seems to be somewhere around average too for a person with a bachelor's degree in middle age. (I think that figure was 101K).

[Daisy]

I haven't lived everywhere but in my view in the US, a good income is probably somewhere between 75K-150K, depending on location. It may even be higher in some places. This is for a family, not a single person. It seems to be somewhere around average too for a person with a bachelor's degree in middle age. (I think that figure was 101K).

 

Really? That is vastly more than what the average American household makes.

[cathmom]

I would say at least $60K would be a decent income, allowing for all necessities plus savings for the future. A "good" income would then be all that plus savings plus disposable income, so that would be over $75K.

[Debora R]

Enough to cover all of our "needs" (including future planning) and some of our "wants."

[Renee in NC]

For me a good income would be enough to provide for basic household expenses (and my idea of basic is pretty low:D), basic medical and dental care, tithing, other needed items (clothing, braces, shoes, etc.), money to set aside for "sinking funds" (car repairs, car replacement, household repair, etc.), and money for retirement/savings/college.

 

Right now, for us, $60K would be AMAZING!:lol: We can get by on much less, of course, but that would make me not worry.

[Blueridge]

This quote has often made me laugh, because it seems so true!

 

 

“When I have a little money, I buy books. If any is left over, I buy food and clothes.†~ Erasmus

[Nicole M]

I did a little googling, but I'm terrible at figuring out the right search words for the things I want to find. What I wanted to point you to was a website that I'd seen that tells you what a "living wage" would be for your particular area. It calculates things like daycare that many of us would not need, but it gives a good basic indicator of what a single person or a retired couple or a family of four would need to earn to cover basic expenses, what a good median income would be. For our area several years ago, before housing and medical insurance costs skyrocketed, a living wage for a household of four would be $45K. I am curious about what it would be now. But what I think you're asking about, a "good" income, is referred to as a "living wage."

[Granny_Weatherwax]

It seems to be somewhere around average too for a person with a bachelor's degree in middle age. (I think that figure was 101K).

 

I know many people with a Bachelor's degree and some with a Master's who don't earn that much. I think those must be regional figures.

[Shelly in the Country]

I know many people with a Bachelor's degree and some with a Master's who don't earn that much. I think those must be regional figures.

 

:iagree:

[Renee in NC]

I know many people with a Bachelor's degree and some with a Master's who don't earn that much. I think those must be regional figures.

 

Median income (overall) for a household with a Bachelor's degree is $68K. That will obviously vary from state to state (and even within a state.) Only 15.73% of households in the US have an income over $100K.

[HeidiKC]

Median income (overall) for a household with a Bachelor's degree is $68K. That will obviously vary from state to state (and even within a state.) Only 15.73% of households in the US have an income over $100K.

 

Yeah, but almost 16% is a LOT, really, especially considering all the people who are unemployed or maybe working part-time (and probably living below the poverty level). I'm guessing a lot of those people do NOT have college degrees (I realize some do since the economy is not so great and people have lost good jobs). I wonder what the percentage of households with incomes over $100K is for college graduates.

[Rosy]

A little more. ;)

[coop]

More than we are making right now :tongue_smilie:

 

The $$ just never goes as far as we want...

[Mergath]

Worldwide, anyone living in the US and working at all is astonishingly wealthy.

[LuvToRead]

I think DH makes a good income, but it is less than some of the numbers posted here. It is relative to the region, considering the median household income in my county is $35,000. I think unemployment is %12, which is normal, even before the recession.

 

We have no debt, I have enough to buy groceries and odd and ends as needed, plus we have a little to put back each month. We may not be rich by American standards, but God has blessed us.

[LuvToRead]

Worldwide, anyone living in the US and working at all is astonishingly wealthy.

 

:iagree:

[cornelia9805]

Yeah, but almost 16% is a LOT, really, especially considering all the people who are unemployed or maybe working part-time (and probably living below the poverty level). I'm guessing a lot of those people do NOT have college degrees (I realize some do since the economy is not so great and people have lost good jobs). I wonder what the percentage of households with incomes over $100K is for college graduates.

 

I don't think 16% is a lot at all, especially considering there are parts of the country that require that kind of income to be able to have anything beyond necessities.

 

I think we need to remember that the majority of these households are not one income. I don't think $68K for a household is much at all if both parents are working full-time. I also live in a very high COLA area so maybe that is why. :)

[jld]

$100k, minimum, to be "good". Maybe it's my age, but I think it's hard to get by under this with a family.

 

Don't forget that expenses are a lot higher in the developed countries, too.

[Jean in Newcastle]

This is a spin-off of the extra-curricular threads regarding having money to spend for sports, art, music lessons so keep in mind that the idea of "good" is being able to afford those kinds of things, not just the basics of modern life.

[Mergath]

This is a spin-off of the extra-curricular threads regarding having money to spend for sports, art, music lessons so keep in mind that the idea of "good" is being able to afford those kinds of things, not just the basics of modern life.

 

Just out of curiosity, what do you consider the "basics of modern life"?

[Cricket]

I did a little googling, but I'm terrible at figuring out the right search words for the things I want to find. What I wanted to point you to was a website that I'd seen that tells you what a "living wage" would be for your particular area. It calculates things like daycare that many of us would not need, but it gives a good basic indicator of what a single person or a retired couple or a family of four would need to earn to cover basic expenses, what a good median income would be. For our area several years ago, before housing and medical insurance costs skyrocketed, a living wage for a household of four would be $45K. I am curious about what it would be now. But what I think you're asking about, a "good" income, is referred to as a "living wage."

 

Is this the one you were thinking of? It is interesting. Using the calculator, for two adults and four children in out area (not including childcare and housing), we need $49,704 per year. I didn't include housing since that is part of our salary and we've never needed to pay for childcare. We make about half that and seem to be doing fine. If we did make $49K a year, wow!

[dslittle]

Basics of modern life - wouldn't that be the ability to allow your kids participate in a sport, go on one frugal vacation a year, homeschool (meaning buy the books and supplies you need for this purpose), and put aside money for the children's college and your retirement? I would like to be able to do this ON TOP of just getting by (food, morgage/rent, insurance, etc.):glare:

[AHASRADA]

More than we are making right now :tongue_smilie:

 

The $$ just never goes as far as we want...

 

:iagree: We have made vastly different amounts of $$ over the years, and the ideal salary always seems to be "just a little more", LOL. I think the definition of wants and needs, or at least necessities and needs, varies depending on how much $$ there is available.

 

Speaking of a "living wage", I think that is supposed to be the amount a family would need to earn in order to have all of their basic needs met (shelter, food, clothing, transportation, etc.) I don't believe "living wage" calculations allow for extracurricular activities, vacations, retirement savings, etc., which most of us would include in the definition of a "good" salary.

 

In my area, I believe a living wage for a family of 4 is 60-65K. This is how much we made about 7 years ago, and it was a reasonable salary back then, allowing for a few extras and a bit of savings, but now I agree that it would just about cover basic expenses, although comfortably.

[bethben]

I calculated ours and for the 6 of us, dh would need to be making almost $80K for a living wage (according to the random chart who knows decided). This helps me to understand why I feel like we can't keep up and why our retirement savings is not further than it really should be. Right now, having dh back to his old salary (before they cut it due to the economy) seems like a windfall and that's only $200 a month or so.

Beth

[OrganicAnn]

Living wage according to the calculator posted for us is $44K. We make more than that, but not double than that.

 

I've heard that people with very few exceptions don't like to be called rich. They may be in the top income brackets and live in million dollar homes but think of themselves as upper middle class and doing 'okay'. I think there is a psychological element to this. Two people might both say 'putting away for retirement' means you are comfortable. But one person thinks that means having $2 million when they retire and the other person thinks that means having $250K.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Just out of curiosity, what do you consider the "basics of modern life"?

 

I was considering utilities (gas, water, electric, garbage), healthy food, basic medical care/insurance, shelter (which in the US is pretty luxurious), basics of neat, clean clothing for our climate, and in most neighborhoods - 1 car/insurance/maintenance etc. because we need it in order to get to work.

[Dandelion]

I haven't lived everywhere but in my view in the US, a good income is probably somewhere between 75K-150K, depending on location. It may even be higher in some places. This is for a family, not a single person.

 

:iagree:

[Mejane]

We make twice what the living wage calculator says we need. We do have disposable income, but not an inordinate amount. I don't see how we could live on half our income in this area even without the extras without really sacrificing. I wouldn't call that a living wage, more like a barely-scraping-by wage.

[Tutor]

Enough to cover all of our "needs" (including future planning) and some of our "wants."

 

Ditto. The actual amount varies depending on the region of the country one lives in, but we've figured that in most areas $40,000 - $50,000/ year would be sufficient for our family of 6. We've never made that much, but it would sure be nice.

[Daisy]

Basics of modern life - wouldn't that be the ability to allow your kids participate in a sport, go on one frugal vacation a year, homeschool (meaning buy the books and supplies you need for this purpose), and put aside money for the children's college and your retirement? I would like to be able to do this ON TOP of just getting by (food, morgage/rent, insurance, etc.):glare:

 

Wow, no, I wouldn't consider that the basics of modern life. I would consider that a very generous living.

 

This is a spin-off of the extra-curricular threads regarding having money to spend for sports, art, music lessons so keep in mind that the idea of "good" is being able to afford those kinds of things, not just the basics of modern life.

 

I didn't realize "good" meant generous. LOL.

 

I consider sports, art, music lessons, vacations, saving money for college, etc. all as extras. By that standard, we don't make a good living and yet, we carry very little debt, pay all our bills, have a/c, save for retirement, have plenty of food, and really very few financial worries (okay, maybe the roof).

 

I consider myself extremely blessed.

[Wheres Toto]

According to the calculator - $68,099 is what is needed for a family of 2 adults/2 children where I live. That seems about right but can vary from town to town within the county I live in.

 

The town where my dd goes to school - median household income in 2008 was $182,000 (for the state it was $70,000). Median house value was $900,000. (Yes this is a really rich town).

 

Where we live (next town over) median income is $117,000 and median house value was $712,000 (ours house value is considerably less than 1/2 that at the moment but we are probably in one of the last remaining "bungalows" in town).

 

The third town in our "Tri-Town" leagues - $70,000 income with median house value of $400,000 (but a good portion of this town is rental apartments).

 

All three of these towns are within a 5 mile radius and the "good" income for living in each obviously varies greatly.

 

When I was single with one child, I was able to get by on approximately $50,000 with not much extra (rent on a two bedroom apartment in a cheap town, with a long commute to any work, was almost $1000/month with no utilities included).

[Shelly in the Country]

I looked at the figure from the Living Wage Calculator for my county and compared its figure with the median household income for my county. According to the calculator, median household income for my county is $2000 less per year than what one would require for a "living wage". Since I assume that most of the residents of my county are somehow able to "live" here, I think there is something horribly wrong with that calculator.

[Ravin]

Living wage is based on what it would take to live with a reasonable amount of security, as opposed to month-to-month, possibly without health insurance, etc. the way many people actually live.

 

It took some work (because we don't have a "standard configuration" household, but our living wage is evidently $69,108 after taxes. Broken down to hourly pay, all 4 adults in our household would have to work full time for at least $8.31/hr AFTER taxes to make that. In reality, DH makes barely above minimum wage, BIL makes still less (server pay and they don't give him any of the good tipping shifts, those are saved for the illegal aliens), and while DW#2 makes about that and works full time and I make around that, I don't get full time. I am the only one in the family with health insurance at present. A good chunk of that is saved because at present our child care expenses are nil because we juggle schedules, but that trade-off also results in working fewer hours, so it's probably close to a toss-up.

 

Anyway, we definitely don't have living-wage level security here, but we're not below the poverty line. Mind you, with just DH's pay (or just mine) and with just our nuclear family under one roof, we would be.

[Renee in NC]

Worldwide, anyone living in the US and working at all is astonishingly wealthy.

 

Absolutely true. When I start to feel particularly down about it, I read Material World and Hungry Planet again.:D

[Renee in NC]

Is this the one you were thinking of? It is interesting. Using the calculator, for two adults and four children in out area (not including childcare and housing), we need $49,704 per year. I didn't include housing since that is part of our salary and we've never needed to pay for childcare. We make about half that and seem to be doing fine. If we did make $49K a year, wow!

 

It's $58K here for 2 parents, 2 children. We're at less than half of that. Our housing is lower, our transportation costs are much lower, we don't have childcare, and the food is about right.

Edited June 5, 2010 by Renee in FL

[TravelingChris]

Where I got this figure of 101 K was for parents of entering college students. It was a very big study of who gets financial aid and how much each quintile pays for college on average. It was a national study. I figure that the average age of a parent of a college student is probably in the mid 40's or early 50's, especially for parents who have a bachelor's degree as a minimum. It made me see that there is a very good reason why I don't feel like we are rich. We aren't.

 

I didn't equate good income with living wage. I equate living age to be a minimum sort of income and good income to give you the ability to go out to dinner sometimes, go on vacations, go to a show, etc.

[Mommyof4ks]

Right now we are making a 'good' income because all bills are paid and we have some extras. Our health insurance is going up next year and we will need another vehicle, so our income may not be nearly as good next year even though it will be the same (hopefully not less).

[wy_kid_wrangler04]

Is this the one you were thinking of? It is interesting. Using the calculator, for two adults and four children in out area (not including childcare and housing), we need $49,704 per year. I didn't include housing since that is part of our salary and we've never needed to pay for childcare. We make about half that and seem to be doing fine. If we did make $49K a year, wow!

 

 

I am rather curious where they get the amounts for that living calculator!

 

According to that in our county- for 2 adults and 2 children you would need $46,169. They break that down like this-- Food $676, child care $827, medical $386, housing $556:001_huh:, transportation $796, other $592.

 

I would love to know, where in our county you can find decent housing for $556 a month!!!

 

We have 4 kids- and spend about that for food- but we do alot of bulk buying. *We* certainly do NOT spend that much for transportation-(we do not have vehicle payments- we do not buy nice new, we buy reliable used that is nice) and we certainly do not spend $827 in child care!

 

DH makes more than what the calculator say for a living wage now, but up until 3 months ago he was unemployed for 4 months with 0 income at all and before that he made about 8,000 less (started that job making more- but then they just kept getting slower and slower) So we really learned how to live frugally- now we are able to help those that were in our situation.

 

Sorry about all the babbling- but those numbers just threw me for a loop :D

 

I really have to say it depends on location! We make very good money (for us considering where we were- God has been very good to us!!!!!!!- for where we live in Wyoming) but in California or New York (or somewhere similar) we probably would not make enough for the basics in life (food, shelter, electric and water) because the cost of living is MUCH higher there.

[HeidiKC]

I don't think 16% is a lot at all, especially considering there are parts of the country that require that kind of income to be able to have anything beyond necessities.

 

I think we need to remember that the majority of these households are not one income. I don't think $68K for a household is much at all if both parents are working full-time. I also live in a very high COLA area so maybe that is why. :)

 

Well, I guess that's what I meant. That $101K isn't THAT much and quite a lot of people make more than that in this country based on that 16% statistic. It doesn't stand out as being just a few people who are making that amount, so it must not be only hugely wealthy people making that. It is what is required in lots of areas in the country.

[Tree House Academy]

When I did the calculator, it said we needed to make $47,902 for the living wage. However, my dh makes about 3 times the hourly wage listed for his profession because he is in management. I can't imagine living like we do and doing all that we do to prepare for the future and making under $115K. We live in an area with a very low cost of living, but I am talking about driving newer cars, making substantial house payments, saving for retirement, saving for kids college, saving for emergencies, taking care of our family, shopping when we want to, going out to eat when we want to, having good insurance, having plenty of food and storing plenty of food, buying homeschool curricula (what you want, when you want it) and so on. The OP said "living good" not just getting by, right?

 

ETA: Dh does have a college degree - I can't imagine him making the money he makes with no degree. I also have a college degree and if I were to go back to work, I could easily make 45-50K. Right now, my dh makes plenty for us to live well (God has blessed us so much and I give absolutely 100% of the credit for how we are able to live to HIM!) and I feel my calling has been to homeschool our children and be a stay-at-home-mom. My husband agrees and I feel we do not suffer for me not working outside the home. We are also very blessed to live in the small town with low COL like we do and not out in CA or NYC or something.

Edited June 6, 2010 by Tree House Academy

[FairProspects]

I am rather curious where they get the amounts for that living calculator!

 

According to that in our county- for 2 adults and 2 children you would need $46,169. They break that down like this-- Food $676, child care $827, medical $386, housing $556:001_huh:, transportation $796, other $592.

 

I would love to know, where in our county you can find decent housing for $556 a month!!!

 

Sorry about all the babbling- but those numbers just threw me for a loop :D

 

And I would like to know where they got that number for medical!! That's about what we pay per month in premiums and would not be even close to what is needed for a whole year!!

[FairProspects]

Where I got this figure of 101 K was for parents of entering college students. It was a very big study of who gets financial aid and how much each quintile pays for college on average. It was a national study. I figure that the average age of a parent of a college student is probably in the mid 40's or early 50's, especially for parents who have a bachelor's degree as a minimum. It made me see that there is a very good reason why I don't feel like we are rich. We aren't.

 

I didn't equate good income with living wage. I equate living age to be a minimum sort of income and good income to give you the ability to go out to dinner sometimes, go on vacations, go to a show, etc.

 

That makes more sense. When I read your original post, I was wondering how, as parents in the just turned 30 range, we on average could make 101K! We will have to work up for some time in our careers to get to that!!

[cornelia9805]

For 2 adults, 2 kids the living wage for our area is $67K. The housing amount is not realistic for here at all. It needs to be at least $500 more a month and that is only rent. If it is a mortgage it needs to be at least $1000 per month. Food is a little high, child care is about right, transportation is high, and medical is about right. My DH does not make that much, but fortunately we do not have childcare.

[Ravin]

The living wage calculator I found said that housing for a family with up to 2 adults and 2 kids was based on a 2 bedroom apartment; no kids up to 2 adults was based on a 1 bedroom apartment.