How much is to much $$$$?

Reading the thread about highest paying jobs without a degree got me thinking. How much money do you need vs. do you want to get by on? It's hugely dependent on your region, family size, and personal life choices. Since this can be a touchy topic I'll start.
I won't give my exact salary because folks I work with could read this thread and I think my bosses would get bent out of shape if our individual salaries were discussed. Although, it's my freaking business, why can't I discuss it.....but I digress. Here's my situation:
Anyway, I'm in Michigan, a little south of Flint. I make under 50K a year, but not too much under. I have three kids, a house, a wife and aside from my insanely upside down mortgage, we have no debt to speak of.
We don't have much shavings (2 years of unemployment can do that) but some investments that have done well through the financial crap this country has been through.
I have 5 cars, but am looking to sell three very soon.
I run my car on veggie to save a few hundred a month.
We don't have cable to save money, we don't have a home phone, 2 cells. Our cells are not "smart" phones with expensive data plans. My wife does quite a bit to keep the grocery bills low (usually 40% lower than normal prices). I built a solar collector to get free heat from the sun, with a BIGGER one coming soon. We don't eat out much (a family of 5 eats up $50 REAL quick at a restaurant). Other than that, we don't have to live like paupers, but that's because we've made a lot of decisions that have allowed us to live on not too much.
That being said, kids get more expensive as they get older. My oldest is 9, my wife will be working next year, part-time so she can be home when the kids are. In fact, that's the whole reason we've done the things we've done, so she can raise our kids, not a day-care worker.
So, how about you?

Ok, I forgot to answer my own question. I'd LIKE to make 6-figures, but I'd be happy (for now) with 15% more than I make.

No kids, modest house (1200sq ft), married.

Wife and I both drive new cars, both are putting approx 20% into savings/retirement, once I finish off the last of my CC debt, I plan to increase that number to around 30%.

Our house payment represents approx 12% of our NET pay.

We both have smart phones, no home phone or cable, but buy the fast internet for browsing and Netflix.

Our entertainment budget (good booze, going out to eat, vacations, etc) would probably be considered offensive/excessive to most here (not trying to be snarky, just based on the kinds of responses certain threads get).

We go to the carribean once a year, then take 1-2 road trips, and other little things here and there.

Also finishing up my Miata track build as well.

So, you're a typical DINK is what you're saying?

I bring home ~$1200/month as a graduate student. I "make my nut" at $1600/month or so in College Station TX. It would be nice to race a couple times a month through the summer, which would cost a few hundred each time, and would also be nice to get ahead fiscally month-to-month, so $2300-$2500 would be enough here if I wanted to live here. CSTX is probably the cheapest place to live in the entire US. Anywhere where engineers are employed will be a couple hundred more. $2700-3000 would do.

However, I will mostly be looking for jobs which have take-home-pay greater than $4000 a month, for two reasons. First, I want to make more with a M.S.M.E. at a top-ten public u. and a world championship than I did with a B.S.M.E.. Second, I want to be expensive enough to not be the cheapest guy on the floor - "there are five yes-no variables. test these 32 configurations each individually tonight and give me the results tomorrow morning."

I've lived on $6/hour with 3 kids before. It used to be doable, but not so much anymore. Rent was $200/month, gas was 90 cents a gallon and we ate cheap. Vacation was camping somewhere for a week, and a night on the town was the local diner for whatever the special was on kids night. We had fun and enjoyed life.

Now, I make north of $100K/year. The house payment is $900/month, gas is $3.25/gallon, and food prices are kind of painful. We still have fun, we still enjoy life, but life was easier back then. The only thing money does for me is give me options and make things a little easier. I've done a clutch replacement till 3am so I could go to work the next day. Now I've got an extra car. I hate working on the daily drivers, they usually go to the shop. When something craps out, it isn't an emergency, just replace it or get it fixed. No sweating how to pay for it. Surprisingly enough, vacation last year was a camping trip to the mountains and a night on the town is still the local diner, though I probably won't get the special.

As to how much is too much, there's no such thing. Let a man settle wherever he is comfortable, be it $10/hr or 10 million a year. Some people thrive on making money and end up stupid rich. I'll probably never be a rich man. Chasing the almighty dollar just isn't that much fun to me. I work to live, rather than live to work.

Toyman01 wrote: As to how much is too much, there's no such thing.

Yeah, I goofed. I meant, how much is enough?

http://blogs.wsj.com/wealth/2010/09/07/the-perfect-salary-for-happiness-75000-a-year/

some WSJ blogger said: In July, I blogged about a study that revealed subtle links between money and happiness. Bloomberg News The study, which analyzed Gallup surveys of 450,000 Americans in 2008 and 2009, suggested that there were two forms of happiness: day-to-day contentment (emotional well-being) and overall “life assessment,” which means broader satisfaction with one’s place in the world. While a higher income didn’t have much impact on day-to-day contentment, it did boost people’s “life assessment.” Now we have more details from the study, conducted by the Princeton economist Angus Deaton and famed psychologist Daniel Kahneman. It turns out there is a specific dollar number, or income plateau, after which more money has no measurable effect on day-to-day contentment. The magic income: $75,000 a year. As people earn more money, their day-to-day happiness rises. Until you hit $75,000. After that, it is just more stuff, with no gain in happiness. That doesn’t mean wealthy and ultrawealthy are equally happy. More money does boost people’s life assessment, all the way up the income ladder. People who earned $160,000 a year, for instance, reported more overall satisfaction than people earning $120,000, and so on. “Giving people more income beyond 75K is not going to do much for their daily mood … but it is going to make them feel they have a better life,” Mr. Deaton told the Associated Press.

I went from a DINK (double income - no kids) to a SIOK (single income - one kid) last month.

In reply to DrBoost:

In all honesty, 40-50K is a decent number. I could and have lived comfortably there. Doubling it doesn't really do much for you. I still drive high mileage cars, for that fact I just bought a used refrigerator. I could go buy new ones, but living on the cheap is habit forming. I buy cloths at Sams and Goodwill, the couch in my living room came from Habitat. Yeah, I've got a smart phone and so does the wife and daughter. BFD that means I can check the forum in the middle of the day. Is it worth it, not really. I used to heat the house with wood to save money, now I just run the heat pump and build a fire when I'm not feeling lazy. Hell if you look at it right, the only thing money has done is make me lazy. Must need to go dig a ditch somewhere.

Anything past 20-25K you are into wants, not needs. Food, shelter, clothing and transportation.

Food doesn't mean Outback Steakhouse. Hamburger and chicken are cheap and good.

Shelter doesn't mean a 2500 sq.ft. house with cable TV and a big screen. My last house was 1100 sq.ft. and we have 4 kids. OTA TV is free and if you sit close to a 15" TV it looks like a big screen.

Clothing doesn't mean name brands or even new. Goodwill is your friend. I still shop there.

Transportation doesn't mean a $400/month car payment. I drove $200-300 junkers for a long time held together with baling and twine. Now I drive $1200 junkers fixed with new parts.

Everyone is going to have a different ideal number. Mine will probably be lower than most. I kind of enjoy doing stuff for cheap. I'm going to copy your solar heater idea. Hell, have you seen the "It used to be electric thread"? I'm a cheap bastard.

$2k a month is enough for now.
If I can keep making what I made last week, I can make that. but flat rate is a pita when you work for a small subaru dealership with a tight fist on their dollars.
I'd like to make 3k a month so I can move forward on saving to do my own thing and not for anyone anymore, get the wife a better car, and work on the Z I'm about to finish buying ()
The eventual goal is low six figures. This so I can be comfortable, the wife can do what she actually wants to do, and I can have toys.
right now, I need to pay off my student loans (300/month), my car (333/month), my insurance (100/month), and move out of my in-laws house to our own first apartment in charlotte (~1000/month) so she can go to school

I have enjoyed reading all of this don't necessarily have the guts to put actual numbers up. Lets just say well north of 6 figures, pus my wife works.

9% housing, (In San Diego, which is not cheap, anywhere else I could just cut a check) 1% on Cars (Gas, Insurance, owned outright) 20% Investment (1/3 of that is matched)

The rest just kind of piles up, no kids, no credit cards, no student loans, no really anything. Minimal cable, office pays for the phone.

I can tell you that I simply could not live on what I used to which was about 7K a month. Not and continue to invest and do the things I like to do. Heck my total outlay each month is sub 4K and that's with drop dead no bills or monthly payments other then the house and taxes.

I was just thinking the other day about back in the day when I was poor.

I was discussing filling the fuel barrel with a few friends. In college, I had an oil heat house. Filling the fuel barrel was around $500. We put it off as long as we could, supplemented it with about 15-20% drain oil, and kept the heat at 58. We actually had to turn the heat UP when we left for vacation, because the lease specified it must be 60 degrees minimum at all times, and we didn't want to be on the hook if a pipe burst.

My 1998 Sable was a "nice car". It cost me $1000, had golfball size hail dents in it, some rust, 4 bald, mismatched tires, but the air, heat, and CD changer worked great and it got me to work every day.

I had eggs, potatoes, noodles, vegetables, and ground beef (I got it for $1/lb from my dairy farming uncle) in some variation every day. I packed my lunch to work exclusively.

Thanks to these cheapskate habits, I was soon living the high life. Last night when I stated, "Just pay the $150 for your share of fuel, you cheapass", I realized what I had said, and not everyone has $150 to spend.

But if you will excuse me, I need to go shop for superchargers for my Corvette, and decide if I want to go out for sushi tonight or fire up the grill and burn the $12 steak I picked up at the grocery store last night.

Interesting question I am mid to upper $60's

Cost of living index where I am is 89.

We spend ~$300 every two weeks in grocery's and maybe eat out $100 in that time frame.

One in school and one who will start year after next.

I have 2 mortgages because I returned to school late in life. $500 a month in car payments (2 used) and student loans.

What kills me are medical bills. My wife has RA, Endometriosis, and another auto immune and the oldest is a Aspergian (high functioning Autistic), we skimp on her medicine and his therapy and do it at home. Lucky he is good in school so it is primarily social therapy

I figure where I am at to get ahead of all the bills I need $80K. That would put to beating down debt and be stable every month with a little to spare.

Kind of OT, but I've realized I just don't have much of a knack for generating revenue. It's not that I don't have marketable skills, it's just that the things I enjoy doing do not equal the things I'm good at doing that generate a paycheck.

On the other hand, if I had to do the things I enjoy in order to earn a living, I'm pretty sure I'd grow weary of it.

All that said.... I suppose "enough" would allow me to quit my day job and not really have to worry about a steady paycheck.

Meh. I've been miserable when I had money to burn and I've been happy as a clam when I've been dirt poor.

Money never equates to happiness, family does.

I'd like to double my income to start, but would be happy at $100k a year take home.

I have a LONG way to go.

The more you have, the more you'll spend. I'd like to get back to my pre- 2008 "crash" wages. I still get by on the same $25 a week for groceries, (just me, single) but $40 to fill the 12 gal tank on an economy car sucks. I remember filling a truck (20 gallons) and still have enough change for a soda from a 20 dollar bill. got about the same amount of distance from each.

HiTempguy wrote: So, you're a typical DINK is what you're saying?

I don't know, the other DINKs I know have made them themselves house poor and can't afford to have fun.

Wife and I gross just over $100k, we've got friends who make 60% of that but spend more on their two car payments than we spend on our house. Aren't putting anywhere near enough in savings/retirement.

I shouldn't care, but I do.

I have all the money I'll ever need... As long as I die by 4 pm tomorrow.

I'm single. I make well above average, although maybe a tad below for this area.
I have zero debt.
I do not own a house, nor do I want to
I have two cars I paid cash for.
I put ~24% of my income in savings
I'm not very happy

Why? Because I dislike my job. When I made $10K less, but was doing things that were more interesting to me, I was happier. When I made $30K more, but was doing things that were more interesting to me, I was happier yet.

I'm at $52k/yr, I've made more in the past 3 months than I have in the first 25 years of my life (I'm 25). I'm single without kid or girlfriend and my expenses are a bit less than half my net income. I guess I'm living well enough for now, just wish I could get into my own place, some extra income would help with that, and a nicer but not necessarily newer vehicle.

z31maniac wrote:

HiTempguy wrote: So, you're a typical DINK is what you're saying?

Wife and I gross just over $100k, we've got friends who make 60% of that but spend more on their two car payments than we spend on our house. Aren't putting anywhere near enough in savings/retirement. I shouldn't care, but I do.

This annoys me more then anything on the planet. I have no idea how they even remotely sleep at night or even make ends meet.

Same with 50%+ income mortgages, then two cars and kids. Unless they are negative every month or there is some special power investing or just intend to die early and in debt.

I'm supposed to make $27,000 this year (or at least that's what the public records say so). My college loans are well over 75% of my expected annual salary.

I am not overly happy...not because I have lots of debt and don't make much...but because I'm living in a cold, wet, windy area of NW PA.

I just wanna ride my bicycle.

background: BSME, 19 years as a brake systems engineer in detroit. household net is about $6k / month. it's enough.

• pre-tax 10% to 401k, company matches 6.75%
• mortgage $1400 / mo PITI
• groceries $600 / mo -- wife buys a lot of organic but also clips coupons
• college savings $550 / mo -- two kids, 4th and 1st grades
• gasoline $500 / mo -- minivan and mazda6 are the two DDs
• car fund $300 / mo -- for repairs, maintenance, and replacements
• utilities $450 / mo -- we don't crank the heat or the AC
• life insurance $150 / mo -- two 20-year terms @ $1M each
• cell phones $200 / mo -- i hate this more than any other bill
• car insurance $200 / mo -- OK, i hate michigan no-fault just as much
• allowance $200 / mo -- $100 for me, $100 for the wife
• restaurants & entertainment $200 / mo -- covers the whole family
• kids activities $500 / mo -- schooling, extracurricular, etc
• christmas $200 / mo -- we go way bigger than we should
• other giving $300 / mo -- church, gifts for family, charity
• random household expenses $whatever is left

my budget spreadsheet is more detailed than than, but you get the picture. we could live on less and save more, but we're having a lot more fun than we used to. we downsized the house in a down market, lowered PITI by a grand a month, and now put that money into the fun stuff.