Whats a good salary to you?

[thinhorn_AK]

My wife is a stay at home mom, wouldn't have it any other way

As long as it’s ok with you.

 

[dirtshooter]

To add, I'd never want my wife to work just to pay someone else to raise them. Why have kids if you aren't going to raise them yourselves.

 

[Marble]

!!! thats insanity. ik people who make 5 times that with a HS dip

Pretty sad we don't pay our teachers well. There are some other benefits they get, you don't in other professions. But I would like to see teaching be a well paying job.

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[dirtshooter]

As long as it’s ok with you.

It certainly is, we don't struggle with bills. 6 figures cash in the bank and I'm sure that's pennies compared to some here but for us it's good.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

We must have different ideas of poverty.

What’s the context? A single guy making 100k? Or a family of 4 trying to live off 100k?

 

[MountainTracker]

I think it is set by design, but by the people who benefit the most, the people who sell debt. It's very easy to get loans.

Besides real estate and investments in retirement instruments, I can't think of much of anything that appreciates in value for the American consumers.

I used to use debt wisely, if that's a thing. But horrible health circumstances opened my eyes to the vulnerability I had exposed my family to. Most people are just one tragedy in life away from financial disaster. That is because they carry a lot of debt. I choose not to. It took my wife and I about 3 years post health issues to be debt free, minus my home. As soon as my kids are done with college, I'll pay off my house.

I think if most people understood and knew how to get out of debt, as well as had the patience and discipline to do so, they would be shocked how much further their salary could go.

I'm hoping I'm not getting this thread off track.. if so, someone yell at me, and I'll politely stop.

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Well said


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[thinhorn_AK]

It certainly is, we don't struggle with bills. 6 figures cash in the bank and I'm sure that's pennies compared to some here but for us it's good.

Then it works for you then great. But like my co worker, he’s making ~ 60k, they routinely receive anonymous donations from their church because they are so broke and the wife just stays at home…..I couldn’t live that way.

Lots of missing context here. Having a large income which allows you to afford having a stay at home mom is different than being broke to the point people who go to church with you feel bad for you while your wife stays at home are very different things.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

I think it is set by design, but by the people who benefit the most, the people who sell debt. It's very easy to get loans.

Besides real estate and investments in retirement instruments, I can't think of much of anything that appreciates in value for the American consumers.

I used to use debt wisely, if that's a thing. But horrible health circumstances opened my eyes to the vulnerability I had exposed my family to. Most people are just one tragedy in life away from financial disaster. That is because they carry a lot of debt. I choose not to. It took my wife and I about 3 years post health issues to be debt free, minus my home. As soon as my kids are done with college, I'll pay off my house.

I think if most people understood and knew how to get out of debt, as well as had the patience and discipline to do so, they would be shocked how much further their salary could go.

I'm hoping I'm not getting this thread off track.. if so, someone yell at me, and I'll politely stop.

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It’s amazing how comfortable some people are with debt. We pay our credit cards off every month and the only debt we carry is on the house which has only a few years left of our 15 year mortgage. Boats, cars, snowmobiles, educations etc are all paid off and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I watched a guy buy a Yamaha boat motor the other day and he had to split it all on like 4 different credit cards while making sure to pay 225.00 in cash that he had on hand. I felt sad for the guy but at least he will have a new Yamaha motor.

 

[WiscoHoundsman]

Wife and I should combine for between 175k and 200k this year. Have a mortgage a car loan that should be paid off this year about 3 years ahead of time. We don’t like debt and live comfortably in the sw part of WI.

I mostly don’t worry about money except for always wanting to invest more. It dosent feel like enough with what we spend every month for daycare, gas, groceries, mortgage, and the car payment.

Once we pay off the car the savings/investment should start growing nicely as long as my truck holds out a few years.

 

[elkhunter505]

This is such an absolutely wild thread to view. Graduated with my MS with no debt in 2023 and went directly into a PhD program.

Currently, I live on 32K a year while my tuition, fees, and health insurance are paid from another portion of my grant. All in all I’d say the total salary when accounting for those expenses being covered is approximately 42K since I am not having to pay those school related expenses. There are people in this thread that are paying half of my salary in taxes on one paycheck. I also live in Missoula so we all know the cost of living there.

If it weren’t for my own hunting obsession and bad spending habits, I would be saving money consistently. I’ve brought some debt on in the last year and it’s actively being paid down right now even with hunting a considerable amount last fall. This is as a single guy with 0 kids though. The one caveat being no retirement savings whatsoever to this point. Working on my Roth when I can but it’s seldom. $20-$100 here and there when I have it.

I look at future jobs as I am about 3 years out still and see salaries at ~75K for jobs that I would be absolutely over the moon to have. Wild how different in perspectives are across here. I know it takes me out of the dating pool for women that want to be stay at home moms, but I sure love what I do and feel like it allows me to be really happy even while I’m approaching the poverty line. I think that will be a long term benefit with my ability to be a good partner and father in the future.

 

[Ucsdryder]

This is such an absolutely wild thread to view. Graduated with my MS with no debt in 2023 and went directly into a PhD program.

Currently, I live on 32K a year while my tuition, fees, and health insurance are paid from another portion of my grant. All in all I’d say the total salary when accounting for those expenses being covered is approximately 42K since I am not having to pay those school related expenses. There are people in this thread that are paying half of my salary in taxes on one paycheck. I also live in Missoula so we all know the cost of living there.

If it weren’t for my own hunting obsession and bad spending habits, I would be saving money consistently. I’ve brought some debt on in the last year and it’s actively being paid down right now even with hunting a considerable amount last fall. This is as a single guy with 0 kids though. The one caveat being no retirement savings whatsoever to this point. Working on my Roth when I can but it’s seldom. $20-$100 here and there when I have it.

I look at future jobs as I am about 3 years out still and see salaries at ~75K for jobs that I would be absolutely over the moon to have. Wild how different in perspectives are across here. I know it takes me out of the dating pool for women that want to be stay at home moms, but I sure love what I do and feel like it allows me to be really happy even while I’m approaching the poverty line. I think that will be a long term benefit with my ability to be a good partner and father in the future.

Yep. My life was pretty simple too at 23 year old…

 

[elkhunter505]

Yep. My life was pretty simple too at 23 year old…

Haha yeah, I wish, about to crest 30 here in a month. Been living on $25K since 2018 . Wildlife biology is not the way to go if you want to make money.

 

[Ucsdryder]

Haha yeah, I wish, about to crest 30 here in a month. Been living on $25K since 2018 . Wildlife biology is not the way to go if you want to make money.

30?! By the time you’re done with school it’ll be time to retire!

 

[elkhunter505]

30?! By the time you’re done with school it’ll be time to retire!

No kidding, my younger brother is a project manager for a construction company and I think he’s on track to retire 30 years earlier than I will. Kid is absolutely killing it and if I didn’t absolutely love what I do every day, I probably would have taken him up on a couple of job offers at this point.

 

[TxxAgg]

$250k is the new $100k

$2.5M is the new Millionaire

 

[waspocrew]

We had our first child a few months before moving across the country for med school. Had our second child during my third year of school. We lived off loans the entire time and my wife took great care of our kids. Made about 60-65k over the next 5 years as a resident/fellow, but also now had a mortgage.

I had it easy. Being at home with sick kids, grocery shopping, laundry, etc is no walk in the park and can actually be pretty isolating. I never expected her to work during that time. It just didn’t make sense with our young kids. Also, we knew it was just a “grind it out” sort of thing as I’d eventually graduate and make a good salary.

Everyone’s situation is different. Even if I hadn’t gone the medical route, I still would have preferred my wife to be at home raising our young kids instead of daycare.

 

[TheTone]

I make more currently than I ever expected to. I’ve never felt more broke in my life

 

[roadrunner]

It’s all relative. If what your wife brings to the table matches your life goals then there is no problem. There is nothing wrong with marrying a teacher as long as it works with the goals you have in common. I wouldn’t marry somebody without an education or somebody who had no ambition other than being a stay at home mom because I want to have a comfortable life but again, all that is relative. I want to have enough money to go do some saltwater my fishing every year and buy things I want when I want. I like going to the grocery store and not having to think about costs, I like being able to book an aoudad hunt to get out of Alaska in the winter for a few days.

My friends that have stay at home wives or low earning wives really struggle here where I live. The 44k your wife earns would look very different in Michigan vs. Alaska, California, Hawaii or any more expensive area.

For the record, where I live, 100k is good for an individual, it’s not good at all if that’s a dual income and 2 people together bring in 100k. Here, dual income homes that bring in 225-300k are doing well but still not “rich”.

You say "I" a lot...

 

[thinhorn_AK]

You say "I" a lot...

Yeah

 

[alecvg]

Between my wife and I we make over $200k. I’d like to get to the point where she can scale back to 2 or 3 days per week of work. We certainly aren’t living large, but invest a lot, and I am on track to retire from my job at 50 and go back to working more in the guiding/packing mules as my only income. I certainly have friends living a higher lifestyle on less income, I can only imagine they are living on debt, or with no long term savings plans.