General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: $400,000 per year = $33,333 per month [View all]Martin Eden
(12,802 posts)I can afford to pay more taxes, and would not oppose lowering the $250k threshold to include my bracket.
My wife and I live in DuPage County Illinois (middle class suburbs west of Chicago). Cost of living & propery taxes here are not cheap, but certainly less than NYC. We're better off than most at our income because we owe nothing on our house or cars and our daughter is finished with college ... but a family living here with a mortgage & car payments & one or more kids in college would have to live frugally to get by on our combined income (together, just under 6 figures).
I feel very fortunate that we can travel on vacations (including my senior softball tournaments out of state) and can afford to buy high quality backpacking gear to indulge my other recreational pursuit. My wife is a wizard with coupons and manages our finances very well.