Good salary

[JLKennedy]

Here's my COL breakdown:

Cost of Living Indexes
Overall 116
Food 106
Housing 122
Utilities 128
Transportation 116
Health 103
Miscellaneous 111

 

[ekatiel]

We did live in the Frisco area for a time and the real estate prices were higher but our electric rates were actually lower than where we are now.

Currently we live about 20 minutes southwest of Fort Worth. Our house is not large, 1800sqft, all electric, and our highest electric bills have been around $400. Usually those are for August, September, January and February. The rest are between $175-$300. And...I HATE to be hot. We keep it nice and chilly!

Even my brother and my friend who have 2 story houses, 3500 sqft, with 2 AC units and a pool never has electric bills that come close to $1000. Their highest have been pushing $600.

We use Reliant Energy but I honestly don't think that there is a significant difference among providers. Maybe the size of your house is a factor?

Hi from Houston ! Have you guys looked into signing a contract with your provider or switching providers? We saved ourselves a boat load of money this year by signing a 2 year contract with our provider at 12 cents/kilowatt hour. They were charging us 20+ cents a kilowatt hour !!! My best friend lives in the Dallas area, and just called her provider and was able to save a ton, too. Our bill hasn't been over $150 this summer (I'm sure this month's will be higher b/c it's been hotter than you know where!)-- we live in a 2100 sq.ft. house. --Katie

 

[cltk78]

Here's our COL numbers. We're below national in all the categories.

Overall 92
Food 95
Housing 86
Utilities 88
Transportation 95
Health 95
Miscellaneous 97

 

[MALE*RN*777]

The way I look at it as it depends on what you can live with... We live very conservative and have a very very small house with a low morgage and 3 kids. We don't have much but what we have we make last. We exchange clothing with other families and don't eat out much and the boy goes to a private school. I make a little over $50K (my wife stays at home) but you know after taxes it not near $50K. I get bothered by those in huge debt that both husband and wife work making more and have everything and go everywhere and say they can't make it. Also I get upset with those who say I make alot but don't understand that my pay is the only pay in the house. I also cut the neighbors grass for a small amount weekly to help out. We save up and try to make it to Disney every 3 years and we will have to start giving up more as the kids get older and the prices go up to make the trips but its worth it to them and us. Lucky for us we camp which is much cheaper and within our budget.

 

[JoanneNC]

Our medium income for our town is 43k and DH and I combined are right around $150k so definitely comfortable as we have made good choices.

We have a 2800sq ft home in a gated lake/golf community that we bought for 250k a few years back - Outside of our obnoxious state taxes on gas - it's seems pretty affordable here

 

[3boymthr]

Also I think it important to remember a 2 earner home can be paying $2400/m in childcare for 2 young children (infant and toddler) so while a single earner may make 100K and a double earner family making 150K- they aren't any "better off" than the single earner.

I think is why we are so much better off than many people making the same income as us. We have three kids but they are all school age and I work mother's hours. I only have to pay for daycare in summer time. It's still expensive but no where near $48,000/yr. I think I pay about $3,000 for the whole summer for the three kids plus about another $1,000 for the rest of the year.

 

[neatokimmo]

My city's COL is a 73. I make 35K. I am single and pay daycare (about 5K a year). Last month I bought a pretty nice house (hardwood, tray ceilings, 2100 SF) for 160K. We have a variety of housing options here, if you are willing you can get a fixer in the lower cost area of town (where my old house is) for 50K or less (fixer).

I'd love to make 50K so I voted for it. I would then have furniture that matched and some extra cash saved up for the car I'll need in a couple of years

 

[Donnainnj]

Not sure how accurate these numbers are. I looked through everything, and noticed the spending per pupil was much lower then I thought for my town. I checked the states numbers and they are over $3000 more per student then this site listed. Thier number was last updated in 10/07, and even at that time the cost per pupil was not near that low. All the numbers I checked for my area were last updated 10/07. Things change a lot in 2 years, especially in NJ.
Donna

This site is pretty cool: http://www.bestplaces.net/COL/

You can put in where you live now, your current salary, and where you'd like to move. It will tell you how much you will need to earn in the new city to maintain the same standard of living. It also lists the COL index for your area and the new area. Our COL index is 87, so we are in a LCOL area. DH makes 87K, and I don't consider us to be rolling in the dough, though! I would agree that he makes "good money", but we are a one income family, so his salary is it for us. --Katie

 

[pilesoflaundry]

We are POOR POOR here in NY... DH makes more than 60k , I'm ASHM. Thinking of moving to NJ.

The property taxes in Jersey are murder!

Dh makes decent money but he's in the military so half of that is benefits. Fine by me as long as it means we are past the point of just scraping by like when he first enlisted. You make squat at first but it pays off if you stay in for awhile. We live in a low cost of living area and that helps too.

We are from New England and we would be in serious trouble with his salary and 3 kids up there. Even double his salary is just about scraping by if you own a home. (taxes are bad and water bills eek! ) We could never move back home and that stinks.

 

[kimisabella]

Cost of living where I live - thanks for that link

Overall 369
Food 140
Utilities 163
Miscellaneous 138

Sad, but true....

 

[kckmom]

We are POOR POOR here in NY... DH makes more than 60k , I'm ASHM. Thinking of moving to NJ.

Ahh, don't do it! My hubby does pretty well, but our school systems are iffy in some areas so private school is for us right now. I told him he needs to bump it up to 100k, one daughter with braces, 3 tuition bills, activities and occasionally we eat out, it is so costly here.

Plus most places where we are need to commute to earn the money, and that cuts into your take home more than you know!

 

[dvcgirl]

I followed that COL link and for my little town, the "overall number" was 125. Manhattan was 165 overall, and the town of Rumson, which is about one mile from me is 245......it all comes down to housing. Well, at least the comparison between my town and Rumson.....the score is nearly double and it's because housing is so much more there.

However, if you're someone like me, who owns a small service company, you can sort of feed off of that wealth that is so close to my reasonably inexpensive home (for our area). And we paid a little over 500K for our home....which would blow many of the mid-west DISers away to begin with....

 

[wall*e2008]

Not sure how accurate these numbers are. I looked through everything, and noticed the spending per pupil was much lower then I thought for my town. I checked the states numbers and they are over $3000 more per student then this site listed. Thier number was last updated in 10/07, and even at that time the cost per pupil was not near that low. All the numbers I checked for my area were last updated 10/07. Things change a lot in 2 years, especially in NJ. Donna

Yes, especially housing values. So that 245 may be way less now.

 

[wall*e2008]

Cost of living where I live - thanks for that link

Overall 369
Food 140
Utilities 163
Miscellaneous 138

Sad, but true....

You win or is that lose?

 

[crisi]

Also I think it important to remember a 2 earner home can be paying $2400/m in childcare for 2 young children (infant and toddler) so while a single earner may make 100K and a double earner family making 150K- they aren't any "better off" than the single earner.

That works multiple directions with this question.

A good salary is different than a good household income and the terms are used interchangeably (along with 'good money') making the survey difficult to answer.

Let's say you have no kids and are married. The COL in your area is low, and you can do really well with $50k a year. You have two $25k a year jobs. Now, neither of those is a "good salary" in my opinion for full time work - but regionally speaking, you make a comfortable household income. Or lets say you are a trust fund kid working an internship for a small $10k a year stipend. You make a poor salary, but trust fund income lets you live the high life. Or say that you paid off your mortgage when you had a good salary, and are now starting a business - you can make a lot less and live the same life without a mortgage payment. But two beginning attorneys in Manhattan with kids and school debt making $100k each are probably struggling. Then there are the perks - teachers have never been known for making money hand over fist - but in some states their pension programs are pretty good.

 

[kimisabella]

You win or is that lose?

Would that make me the biggest loser????? It is terrible that some families are having to move away because they can't afford to live here. DH says every day that he wants to move down south in 6 years when he is able to retire, but, I will have 2 girls who won't want to leave all their friends/school at that point, and all of my family lives within a mile of us so it would be very difficult to leave. We are stuck for now.

 

[LauralF22]

Also I think it important to remember a 2 earner home can be paying $2400/m in childcare for 2 young children (infant and toddler) so while a single earner may make 100K and a double earner family making 150K- they aren't any "better off" than the single earner.

I hear that! I just did the online COL comparison from a PP and we are smack dab in the middle of the U.S. at 127. I think we make a 'good' income, but by no means are we well off. We have a mortgage, two kids in daycare, and one car payment. We chose to only turn over our cars every 10 years so that we can only carry one payment. I need to wait one more year for the minivan!

I think part of the problem, too, is that we tend to spend on things that we don't really need. Maybe I need to join the 'no buy' group.

 

[MrsNick]

Our COL:

Overall 146
Food 112
Housing 201
Utilities 122
Transportation 119
Health 119
Miscellaneous 114

100=national average

 

[cats mom]

I followed that COL link and for my little town, the "overall number" was 125. Manhattan was 165 overall, and the town of Rumson, which is about one mile from me is 245......it all comes down to housing. Well, at least the comparison between my town and Rumson.....the score is nearly double and it's because housing is so much more there.

However, if you're someone like me, who owns a small service company, you can sort of feed off of that wealth that is so close to my reasonably inexpensive home (for our area). And we paid a little over 500K for our home....which would blow many of the mid-west DISers away to begin with....

Absolutely. Every category is above the national average where we live, but none as high as housing.

I checked several cities in our county using the Sperling calculator and the housing index was generally from the high 200's, to the mid 300's. One local city was 731 Yikes!

Even crazier, politicians (both federal and state) are coming up with plan after plan trying to pump taxpayer money into our housing market in an attempt to put an artificial floor under prices in an effort to stop (or at least slow) foreclosures.

Ummm, anyone else think that with indexes that high, prices need to fall?

I guarantee local income numbers don't support those price levels in any way, shape, or form.

 

[ekatiel]

I think I finally figured out the universal answer to this question:

What's a good salary? . . . .

Just a little bit more than what we currently make !

I think that pretty much sums up most of America's answer-- those who are making $25K AND those who are making $250K! The grass could always be just a little bit greener .--Katie