How much money would you have to make a year to feel "comfortable" ?

[Herman Munster]

I'm sure this will vary depending on the cost of living where you live and the size of your family.

[Saphire]

1. twice as much as I make now.

[Cronus Protagonist]

2. $100,000

If I had that, I could pay all my bills, have an expanding savings account, buy health insurance and donate cash to charity.

[UndertheOcean]

3. 2 people , no children , I'd say $30k in florida..

n/t

[Dr.Phool]

13. $30k in Florida will almost pay your homeowners insurance

Not to mention real estate taxes.

[UndertheOcean]

16. We are currently managing with $20k and renting .... not great , but we are not in debt...

but $30k would be great!

[theoldman]

4. I can answer that for a retired person living in an average cost

of living area. My wife and I can live comfortably on about $30K but I admit that $40K would be better. If you still have house payments make that $50K.

[rosesaylavee]

5. $100,000

would give us the security we would need. We could prepare better for retirement (or get to have one) and pay for our son's college if he needs that from us.

[CGrantt57]

6. It's not how much you make.

It's how much you spend.

I consider myself "comfortable" right now.

I only have two credit cards with outstanding balances. And, both balances together only account for 5 percent of my monthly salary.

Our mortgage is only 10% of our monthly salary.

We shop the specials, buy frugally at the supermarket, and put whatever "extra" we have at the end of the month into savings.

Remember the Yankee Maxim: Use it up; wear it out; make it do, or do without.

Wise words.

[Sherman A1]

8. Agreed and Well Said.

wife and I are comfortable, we don't live extravagantly but have all the creature comforts. More money would of course be better, but we don't seem to want for anything.

[Midlodemocrat]

You're exactly right. The more you make, the more you spend.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

18. 10% of my income would be $130 per month

if only I could find a 3 bdrm for that price.

[malaise]

22. Absolutely correct

and stay away from the malls. Buy cash always and save with the Credit Union.

[CGrantt57]

30. Saving is good...

but, I go with the higher yield accounts.

For examples, HSBC offers 5% APR on its internet savings account. You'd be hard pressed to find that anywhere else.

[Ariana Celeste]

29. You are absolutely right, man.

my SO and I live off of just over $25,000/yr.

No kids. 1 dog. No cable, no long distance. We live in a nice apt in the greater Indianapolis area. We don't go out to eat and cook mainly from scratch. We don't drive at all, we have no need to. So we can manage very easily on $25,000/yr.

We've already decided that when I am working, too, we will put most of my paycheck into savings and continue living the way we do now.

[jgraz]

7. My only "discomfort" is my outrageously high SF-area mortgage

If l lose my job -- even for a couple months -- I'm totally screwn.

[CrispyQ]

9. These people are having a hard time scrapping by on $150k a year.

http://money.cnn.com/2006/12/13/magazines/moneymag/scra...

snip...

NEW YORK (Money Magazine) -- If she thought it would really fix her family's finances, Amy Schuett would make it her New Year's resolution to squeeze every bit of extra spending from the family budget.

But she's already slashed so many little luxuries - the gourmet coffee, the restaurant lunches, the weekly dates with husband Brian - that she's fresh out of ideas.

Cable TV? Unplugged. Pool membership? Down the drain.

They've even considered giving up their unlisted phone number. At a cost of $3 a month, this move wouldn't save much - even over, say, 150 years - but it shows how desperate the couple feel about easing their financial strain. "We're struggling week to week to get by," says Brian, 42. "Any money that comes in gets chewed up right away."

Digesting that fact becomes harder when you consider that the Schuetts earn a comfortable living, with Amy, 39, pulling in $150,000 a year as a hospital psychiatrist. True, their income did take a big hit last summer when Brian got laid off from his job as a sales rep for a pharmaceutical firm (he'd been making a base salary of $82,000 a year, plus commissions as high as $24,000).

[tammywammy]

10. I would like to make around $30K

Things are tight. I have no credit card debt, a small amount in a 401k and my health insurance isn't much each week. No cable, no internet at home, etc.

I currently will make around $25K this year. If I was at $30K, I could put more in savings and more into the 401k.

[Geoff R. Casavant]

11. Well, we just found out we have a new baby on the way.

So I expect our definition of "enough to be comfortable" is about to go way, way up.

[SmokingJacket]

27. Actually they're pretty cheap for a few years, as long as you have

good health insurance.

When you start paying for preschool or daycare, it gets tricky.

Congratulations! I love babies.

[Withywindle]

12. It's always just a little more than you have, isn't it?

I say 50K. I'd be able to save a lot more, and then I'd feel a lot more secure. Right now I'm on about 36K (in Chicago) and getting by alright, but sometimes it is a little tense and I don't have much of a safety net.

[pdrichards114]

14. They couple in the article had FOUR kids!!!

From everything I've heard kids are worse than the IRS!!. Don't have four kids is the lesson here, not how/or why should we make more money. More people excacerbate an already 6.something billion person problem. Want to stretch a thin budget? Have a kid. Nowadays, thats almost like signing a loan for $500k, if you plan on sending them to a state college. More like $400k if they are not going to college.

[Nikia]

31. While expensive, 4 in 1 family is cheaper than 1 in 4 different families

It depends on the attitude of the family of course. Some families with multiple children save money by reusing or sharing clothes, infant/toddler furniture, toys, and bedrooms.
This family has no childcare expenses. Some families with multiple children do have childcare expenses and it might be more economical for a lower earning parent to stay at home if the children are close in age when they are young. A higher earning family might find it more economical to hire someone themselves rather than taking the children to a daycare center if they can't find a good center that offers mulitple children discounts.
Each extra children of course costs more in food. The more people there are, the greater in savings to eat at home vs dining out. When big families dine out, they usually do go to restaurants that offer inexpensive/free children's food or have family meal deals where each individual piece of food is cheaper when one buys more, such as buckets of chicken.
Of course some families do buy new clothes for their children each year and would never dream of having a younger child wear their older siblings clothes when they grow into the clothes. Some families would buy a big enough house for each child to have their own room. Some families would buy just as many toys for each individual child as they would if they only had one child.
I am saying that there are ways for bigger families to save money if they encourage sharing and reusing amongst their children.

[Drops_not_Dope]

15. Comfort?

What is that?

[tigereye]

17. what's odd is that it is very easy to spend up

to the level that you are paid. Bigger houses, more expensive cars, more take-out, private schools for kids... what have you. The culture really encourages moving up to the "next big expense." When I think about how little husband and I used to live on 20 years ago, prior to becoming parents, and what we now have to pay for - mortgage, cars, tuition, health and other insurance, computer fees, professional fees, what have you - it's kind of shocking. And we aren't exactly flush and don't have an expensive house, fancy cars or even fancy furniture! Maybe it's all those books and electronic gadgets that break the budget! I often see people driving around in really pricey cars and into houses that I know most cost 350,000 and up and I think - where do people get so much money if the median income is only around 45,000?

What shocks me is that anyone is this country is making 30,000 per year or less. There hasn't really been much improvement in actual buying power since, what, the 60s?

[Shipwack]

19. $56,000, in Space Coast Florida.

The key word is comfortable... I was quite comfortable with that amount. I can live on less, and will have to soon. Currently retired Navy, still unemployed. Odds of getting a job for 40K (or 16/hr) are looking worse all the time.

56K pays rent, car payments,insurance, other living expenses, pay off debt, give (non court mandated) child support, and donate to progressive causes, and spend a little on myself.

[nashville_brook]

20. hey! Satellite Beach here!

grew up here.

unemployed, though -- so, i'm prolly going to have to move closer to orlando. bleh.

[Blue_In_AK]

21. About $50,000 is working well for my H and me here in Alaska.

When I was living alone I got by on quite a bit less, but didn't have as much fun.

[taught_me_patience]

23. 250k

Los Angeles for 2 people would be "comfortable" but by no means "rich".


taught.

[Nikia]

24. Around $40,000 per year

Which I hope to be making in a few years.

[SmokingJacket]

25. Here in upstate NY, I think $40K is around the cutoff for a family of 4

Comfortable meaning you can have a decent used car, afford the payments on a decent but modest-sized house, eat out occasionally, and you don't panic when the heating bill arrives. Maybe put a little aside for vacations/renovations/college. Oh, yeah: your job would also have to give you good health insurance. If it doesn't, 40K isn't enough.

If you want all the extra shit that most Americans deem necessary (a new car, or two cars, new clothes all the time, latest gadgets, etc) you'd probably have to make closer to $60K or so. Here, anyway.

[rolleitreks]

26. I think the rule of thumb is 25% more than you make. n/t

[ikojo]

28. I'd like to make $60k a year

which is about $22k more than what I currently make.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

32. We're retired and quite comfortable on $56k a year.

But, we have no kids. No debt (save our mortgage). And, we're cheap dates who enjoy books more than trips to Disneyland.

SW Washington State.

[Rosemary2205]

33. 30k in Atlanta is plenty

unless of course you and hubby get hit by a drunk. Disabled for life, go 4 years with NO income and still fighting with the drunk's insurance carrier and SSDI. Rack up nearly 2 million in medical debts......but other than that 30k for a couple is plenty around here.