Combined income Poll

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Posted by Mimacat

You CAN live on long island with less, we're just part of an age group that doesn't like to 1) wait and save to get things 2) deprive ourselves of small things.

I bet when our parents were saving for houses they weren't carrying $300 pocketbooks.

My mom didn't work, or sometimes worked part time, and my dad at the most made 50k. We didn't really have to do without things, but we also didn't go on insane vacations, etc.

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This is so very true...and my mom didn't work and raised 4 of us in an apartment with a salary probably similar to what your dad made.

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Posted by emomma17

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Posted by Mimacat

You CAN live on long island with less, we're just part of an age group that doesn't like to 1) wait and save to get things 2) deprive ourselves of small things.

I bet when our parents were saving for houses they weren't carrying $300 pocketbooks.

My mom didn't work, or sometimes worked part time, and my dad at the most made 50k. We didn't really have to do without things, but we also didn't go on insane vacations, etc.

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This is so very true...and my mom didn't work and raised 4 of us in an apartment with a salary probably similar to what your dad made.

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Plus New york was also NOT at all what it is now. Especially in the 70's, towards the end of the 70's NY was close to being bankrupt, the city was chaotic and going through alot and bc of that cost of living was very low here, houses didnt cost alot. Its funny but Manhattan was not considered the place to live and it being expensive. It was the other way around and back then they thought the suburbs were the place to live if you had money and alot of the city was pretty cheap to live. Upper west side and alot of areas that cost MONEY now, used to be all artists, known to be a very high single mother area and inexpensive.

IL's bought their house for $60k I believe, uhmmm now its worth at about $800k, every house on his block is anywhere from $700-900k, its ridiculous. Even for their wedding they told us they paid $11 per person. SO on top of people at that time not being into expensive handbags and all that sort of stuff, everything cost alot less. Yes salaries are probably higher now but at the same time compare how much salaries went up and how much cost of living went up and just looking at how much houses alone went up, the higher salaries still dont make up for how high all these other things have gone up.

living here is hard.....we make more than a lot of people we know who have houses and we scratch our heads b/c we have no idea how they are doing it i guess they take out a lot of loans and use credit cards? or get help? not sure - b/c DH and I don't do much as far as spending, we save, and we have no debt except 1 student loan and a car lease.....i guess we worry to much so that is why we don't want to take the risk of buying a house here

This has sparked a great conversation today. I do think a lot of people live outside their means. Me being one of them, but I am changing my ways thanks to DH! I make a better salary now then I used to but I always just bought what I wanted and charged it and never worried. Now I dont do that.

We always base our mortgage and everything else off of DH's salary - so we try to make sure we live in those means and put my salary in the savings account. This way I can stay home one day with the kids. And we save save save and if for some reason he lost his job, we could probably live off our savings for 12-16 months. These are all things taught to me by DH and I am so thankful for him! I now try to love within my means but I see the younger generation and they are DOOMED! I mean little girls with Coach bags...come one. I am going to really try and not spoil my kids like that.

Back in our parents/grandparents generation (aka 'the good old days' lol) things were much simpler. In the average family, men mostly worked one job and were the bread winners (they made far less than today, but things cost far less), women stayed home tending to the house/kids... almost every family owned a home, each famiily had several kids, they had 2 cars, they took an annual family vacation, etc etc.... it was almost like it was expected...

Today, most families can't afford half of what that generation had in a 2 income household, and in many households the husband/wife carry 2 jobs each just to be able to get by.... very sad. Families have gotten smaller because people fear they can't afford to raise more than 2 children, and because mothers are now in the workforce.... forget vacations.. what's a vacation?? no time for that.. society has become fast-paced and hectic. (alot of people don't even have health insurance, let alone able to take vacations)

And, I do agree there is just a ton of 'stuff' at our disposal nowadays and people do live beyond their means... there were no ipods, iphones, itunes, laptops, high speed internet, cell plans, text plans, coach bags, etc etc back in our parents generation.... I mean they had their own extravagant stuff too for their generation but they didn't 'need' it like this generation does... Nowadays if people forget their cell home one day they're in a panic!

Sorry just venting lol

My grandmother used to wash and reuse aluminum foil

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Posted by MCA1180

Back in our parents/grandparents generation (aka 'the good old days' lol) things were much simpler. In the average family, men mostly worked one job and were the bread winners (they made far less than today, but things cost far less), women stayed home tending to the house/kids... almost every family owned a home, each famiily had several kids, they had 2 cars, they took an annual family vacation, etc etc.... it was almost like it was expected...

Today, most families can't afford half of what that generation had in a 2 income household, and in many households the husband/wife carry 2 jobs each just to be able to get by.... very sad. Families have gotten smaller because people fear they can't afford to raise more than 2 children, and because mothers are now in the workforce.... forget vacations.. what's a vacation?? no time for that.. society has become fast-paced and hectic. (alot of people don't even have health insurance, let alone able to take vacations)

And, I do agree there is just a ton of 'stuff' at our disposal nowadays and people do live beyond their means... there were no ipods, iphones, itunes, laptops, high speed internet, cell plans, text plans, coach bags, etc etc back in our parents generation.... I mean they had their own extravagant stuff too for their generation but they didn't 'need' it like this generation does... Nowadays if people forget their cell home one day they're in a panic!

Sorry just venting lol

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good point, not only were homes ALOT less than they are now, they had less monthly expenses. No cable, cell phone bills, internet bills, and all the other accessories like you mentioned.

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Posted by Espo22

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Posted by MCA1180

Back in our parents/grandparents generation (aka 'the good old days' lol) things were much simpler. In the average family, men mostly worked one job and were the bread winners (they made far less than today, but things cost far less), women stayed home tending to the house/kids... almost every family owned a home, each famiily had several kids, they had 2 cars, they took an annual family vacation, etc etc.... it was almost like it was expected...

Today, most families can't afford half of what that generation had in a 2 income household, and in many households the husband/wife carry 2 jobs each just to be able to get by.... very sad. Families have gotten smaller because people fear they can't afford to raise more than 2 children, and because mothers are now in the workforce.... forget vacations.. what's a vacation?? no time for that.. society has become fast-paced and hectic. (alot of people don't even have health insurance, let alone able to take vacations)

And, I do agree there is just a ton of 'stuff' at our disposal nowadays and people do live beyond their means... there were no ipods, iphones, itunes, laptops, high speed internet, cell plans, text plans, coach bags, etc etc back in our parents generation.... I mean they had their own extravagant stuff too for their generation but they didn't 'need' it like this generation does... Nowadays if people forget their cell home one day they're in a panic!

Sorry just venting lol

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good point, not only were homes ALOT less than they are now, they had less monthly expenses. No cable, cell phone bills, internet bills, and all the other accessories like you mentioned.

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And their stuff was built to last forever lol was it ever!!! And it cost ALOT less!

I know older people that still have TV's and radios from that era that still work!!! and cars that still run which have become classics! You could probably own just one car your entire lifetime back in those days because they were built like tanks to last through armageddon lol... and those people used to drive around all over the country in those things on family vacations lol Nowadays people go through several cars in their lifetime just based on normal wear and tear.... I wonder if there will be any plasma or LCD TV's around in 50 years... highly doubtful... they're not built to last too long.

Nowadays, things have a shorter life span so the product keeps moving and the manufacturers keep making $....

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Posted by MCA1180

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Posted by Espo22

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Posted by MCA1180

Back in our parents/grandparents generation (aka 'the good old days' lol) things were much simpler. In the average family, men mostly worked one job and were the bread winners (they made far less than today, but things cost far less), women stayed home tending to the house/kids... almost every family owned a home, each famiily had several kids, they had 2 cars, they took an annual family vacation, etc etc.... it was almost like it was expected...

Today, most families can't afford half of what that generation had in a 2 income household, and in many households the husband/wife carry 2 jobs each just to be able to get by.... very sad. Families have gotten smaller because people fear they can't afford to raise more than 2 children, and because mothers are now in the workforce.... forget vacations.. what's a vacation?? no time for that.. society has become fast-paced and hectic. (alot of people don't even have health insurance, let alone able to take vacations)

And, I do agree there is just a ton of 'stuff' at our disposal nowadays and people do live beyond their means... there were no ipods, iphones, itunes, laptops, high speed internet, cell plans, text plans, coach bags, etc etc back in our parents generation.... I mean they had their own extravagant stuff too for their generation but they didn't 'need' it like this generation does... Nowadays if people forget their cell home one day they're in a panic!

Sorry just venting lol

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good point, not only were homes ALOT less than they are now, they had less monthly expenses. No cable, cell phone bills, internet bills, and all the other accessories like you mentioned.

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And their stuff was built to last forever lol was it ever!!! And it cost ALOT less!

I know older people that still have TV's and radios from that era that still work!!! and cars that still run which have become classics! You could probably own just one car your entire lifetime back in those days because they were built like tanks to last through armageddon lol... and those people used to drive around all over the country in those things on family vacations lol Nowadays people go through several cars in their lifetime just based on normal wear and tear.... I wonder if there will be any plasma or LCD TV's around in 50 years... highly doubtful... they're not built to last too long.

Nowadays, things have a shorter life span so the product keeps moving and the manufacturers keep making $....

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yeah a car back then held up MUCH better than cars now. They were built like tanks, now cars you get dents in them so easily, and every little thing costs so much to fix. Not only that but alot of ppl bought the cars and didnt always finance or lease or any of that so for many they didnt have that added monthly expense.

And yeah everytime you buy something, a new better version comes out just months later and people are CONSTANTLY upgrading. Nobody keeps a tv for long, computers, cell phones or anything.

I voted....it is crazy that in NYC you need so much more $$ than say Clevland to live well. My friend from college's DH is going on an interview in NYC and they currently own a beautiful home in Cleavland...she said he would need to make 190,000 for the move to even out I know that currently he makes much less (dont know exactly) but they bought their house for half of what I spent on my 2bdrm coop..she almost fainted and told me she could afford a mansion in Clevland for what I paid.

My parents bought our house in 1980 for $75,000 and now the house is worth over a million

i agree with you all. people could live on less, but we all want so much. years ago people didnt spend money like we do. my grandmother always had enoough because she watched every dime she spent. even as she got older she was able to pay her bills on her minimal pension she had because she would only buy food when it was on sale.

I think we can be a lazy generation. Not as far as working but as far as watching what we spend and how we spend it. we work so hard and so much but it doesnt go far because we work for luxuries

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Posted by Mimacat

You CAN live on long island with less, we're just part of an age group that doesn't like to 1) wait and save to get things 2) deprive ourselves of small things.

I bet when our parents were saving for houses they weren't carrying $300 pocketbooks.

My mom didn't work, or sometimes worked part time, and my dad at the most made 50k. We didn't really have to do without things, but we also didn't go on insane vacations, etc.

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I completely agree . My parents still make less than my DH and I and they are able to take nice vacations, eat out etc....they are just very good at budgeting money. Growing up we had much less but they made it work.

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Posted by Mimacat

You CAN live on long island with less, we're just part of an age group that doesn't like to 1) wait and save to get things 2) deprive ourselves of small things.

I bet when our parents were saving for houses they weren't carrying $300 pocketbooks.

My mom didn't work, or sometimes worked part time, and my dad at the most made 50k. We didn't really have to do without things, but we also didn't go on insane vacations, etc.

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Good point. I didn't grow up here and none of my family is from here, so I cant comment on if my parents would have made it here with their salaries. But i know when they got married my mom worked and so did my dad, but he worked as a radio dj and basically got paid like nothing. They never went out to eat and my mom colored her own hair. And they never went on vacation or weekend getaways. And I dont think she knew what a $300 hand bag was. LOL. But then again, there first 2 houses were under 20k.

We've cut back on going out to eat and I don't buy as much stuff. I only get my luxuries as gifts now. But I like to cook so I don't mind eating out less. And I don't like clutter so its better I buy less stuff.

The truth is, we are happy. We are comfortable. We were able to pay for the wedding, buy a car and we are paying of any debt, we don't have much and saving money for a home.

As long as we work we will work hard. I will probably never get to be SAHM but I have flexible scheduling. I enjoy my job... most days lol.

I can't compare myself to my mother in law who bought her house for 30K and the average income at the time was 15K... for one person. That's just not the way things are now.

To say 200K is middle-lower class... I just can't fathom it because we do not make that much and we are comfortable. Does that take into account lifestyle and debt and credit. Not everyone who has nice things has a lot of money, often they just have a good credit score.

I would love it if we made that much money.

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Posted by Autumn08

Not that this poll is scientific r anything but its sad. I remember a poll either here or on LIF that most people said you needed to make 150K or more in order tolive comfortably on LI. According to this one at this time on three make that.

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it truly is sad how much you have to make to live comfortably..Me and Dh's income combined is pretty good.and we are still having trouble

I think I have been living outside my means.. not by credit cards- But by not making a real savings account. I am ashamed to say., I do not have a savings account and just started one. I am proud that I have started it.. however.. I wish I did it a long long time ago