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My fiance and I were married 3 months ago, and we want to start doing all of the necessary nesting like things (i.e. buying a house, buying furniture, having a baby, investing, saving for retirement). Money, however, is an issue, as I'm sure it is with all couples. I was just wondering how our financial situation compared with others. We're both young professionals, but we're having a hard time making our salaries stretch.
So what is your combined household imcome (meaning adding the salaries from you and your spouse together)?
I have provided a poll for anonymity, but if everyone bumps the post, it might stay alive long enough to get results.
Our goal when we bought our house was to be able to live off one salary. We didn't quite make it since we completely underestimated utility costs, but are pretty close.
On paper, it seems like alot, but with 2 trucks, 2 long commutes in an expensive region, it's just enough with some for savings. :(
just about $100K. I am longing for the days when it's higher!!!! I grew up in a household where it was $500K plus and now I just feel poor.
The only thing with this though is that we are stretched all over the universe. I know that my salary down south could rake in a mansion. We've compared and here it would be a million bucks. Here in CT something in the same price range is a 3 bdrm 2 bath.
Right now we are just on his salary (well, he is just on his salary I'm living at home) but I am looking for a temporary (around a year) job before law/grad school.
I'm not expecting to make very much at all but hopefully my salary will go entirely towards savings/wedding.
I just finished my masters and starting working, so we're pretty poor still. Our combined income is around 100k and around here that's barely staying above water. Between rent, car payments, and school debt for both of us...we're just getting by.
Holy crap, I just calculated it and I didn't realize our salaries were that high!
We currently live on only my husband's salary and mine is for savings. It used to be to pay down the mortgage and now it's fully funding our retirement accounts.
We are living off of DH's income alone, I want to be a stay at home mom until my son (possibly another?!) are in school but once I go back to work we will be around $120k a year, right now we are at $80k. It's good experience for us to know what we can handle--right now that's 2 car payments, a mortgage under 2k, and of course bills like cell phone, insurance, paying off credit card debit and gas+food+clothing and savings.
My DH just started a new job in April, which has brought in an extra $22,000 a year. This has brought us up to quite a high combined salary, IMHO, however we're still just barely getting by right now. We live in a small, 2 bedroom townhouse, both have cars over 100k miles, and very little in savings.
However, we're both also on our 2nd marriages, with children. I think this plays a lot into where we are now, because we both agree that the first time around, with no kids, and just starting out, we were doing well with these salaries. But, when you go through messy divorces, including attorney fees, child support, etc., it just sucks up a lot of your income & racks up a bunch of debt. We have dug out a TON in this past year, and hopefully will be very comfortable a year from now (debt-free, yay!), but it's definitely very humbling....
We also bought our house with the goal of being able to afford it on one salary if we ever needed to, and luckily in our area housing prices are pretty low. We are also hoping to start banking my salary and living soley off of FIs after the wedding.
We make 100k combined and that will increase when I'm done with RN school. We also have zero debt except our mortgage which we pay down to have it paid off in less than 10 years. We are socking the rest in savings and 401/IRAs bc we want to buy more land soon and build another home.
Man, way below $30k for us. I'm working part-time as an intern currently in hopes that I'll get a great job with the company once my intern year is up, and DH is working as a pharmacy tech while he waits to get into an electrical apprenticeship. Last year, we made $10k. This year, hopefully closer to $20k, but we'll see.
Approximately $100k including both of our salaries for our day jobs and the income we receive from co-owning a software company. In the next few months, the software company income will hopfully increase enough to allow FI to quit his day job and focus on our company full-time. We'd love to eventually grow enough so that I'm able to quit my day job as well. We're both royally sick of Corporate America.
I work commission and still pay rent at my old place. Once that awful payment ends, we'll be sitting a little nicer. We only have one car payment and FI has owned his house for almost ten years and has a good bit of equity built up.
I estimated low as I have no idea how much money I will make. We've figured we could live on his salaray alone but I refuse. If things slow down business wise, I have no problem going out and getting a decent retail job if I have to.
Assuming I am employed at the job I was just laid off of and not including bonus it would be about 180K. Hopefully with my new job it will be closer o 200K.
Now mind you we live in SF, so his is not as high as it sounds. My mom buys california produce cheaper than we do. Really!
Of course we save a lot and play a lo(t, drive budget cars (mazda and subaru). Gas is really expensive here, rent is really expensive. We live in a not so nice town, but a nicer area of town. a 2 bedroom is $1700 a month. Its not even IN the city.
@Mrs Grape: Please, I don't mean this to be snarky, but HOW do you do it on that little?
Do you live with relatives? I couldnt imagine paying rent, food, electricity, gas, computer, phone etc on that. I am not sure its possible.
I am on unemploymen right now and qualify for the max in CA. THANKS to my husband because I dont think anyone could live on what my unemployment is. After tax its 1,620 per month. of course I live in an expensive area...
we make just under 200K combined (aussie dollars, which are, for the moment, worth more than us dollars, thank god), but 45% of that goes to our mortgage (about 1/2 a bank mortgage and 1/2 a low interest loan from my parents)
Honestly, its a wake up call being an adult. If you had told me when i was 21 and making $28000 pre tax that i would one day live on a combined income of nearly 200K, I would imagine mansions and fancy dinners out every night. Truthfully, we live in a modest 2 bedroom apt in a VERY expensive city and cook at home every night with the occasional dinner down at the pub when we have a bit of our weekly allowance left. Our wedding savings have gone reasonably well but they leave not very much room for anything else.
We make a little under 200K and live in one of the most expensive areas of California.
While we do have two car payments and rent (not interesting in owning right now, never home) we don't have children so that leaves a lot of extra cash in the savings. Most of our money goes towards traveling/vacation and entertainment/dinner out.
I'm around $30k. Above $25, but not quite $30. I'd say around $28k and that's me by myself. If Mr. Tattoo could get an effing job in his field in this effing city, we would be above $100k.
But if you count all the land my family owns (I own too! I just signed papers!) it puts us up there. I'm hoping to get $20k after the trees are cut down this summer.
Oh, wow.....everyone is talking about their salaries......so many of you have combined salaries of 100K.....wihich is GREAT in my book. My husband and I come in at 75K and really wish we could at least come in at 90k-100k.....I pray we do one day......
You have to take age into consideration too. I'm 30 (a teacher) and make mid $50k (with a Masters). But my husband is 41, a VP of his company and makes significantly more. You've got to start somewhere!
My suggestion is not to over-extend yourself. Live cheaply so you can save. Don't buy a house until you truly can. I was also trained really early to save as much as you can for retirement always. And with furniture, go slow and add quality pieces that will last (or IKEA for short-term!). : )
We make a combined 25k or so.
I work from home and DH works in carpentry... and is new to the field. We hope that in the next couple years he'll be able to get into Ministry and maybe do Media, which he really enjoys and already serves in.
Right now we budget everything out and we don't spend on things we don't need. It's tight at times, but overall it's very doable...... and we still consider ourselves very blessed as we both have our iPhones, the munchkin goes to camp, we have a nice townhome apt, and the last 3 years the munckin has attended private school (gifted by my dad)
My mother taught me the gift of "moving money around" and we tithe... I've seen more times than I can count where God's done more with the 90% we have than us taking it all plus more and trying to take care of things.
Also, neither DH or I have a carnote, we don't have cable, and we do what we can to keep our debt down. =)
Right now we are dirt poor. Okay, not really, but I just decided to go back for a second degree this fall and we will lose my measly income and we'll just be on FI's. He graduates in a few months and we will be about 40K to start off. However, once I'm done in 3 years and his income increases with experience, we should be, combined, around 150K. We just have to make it these three years so my earning power more than doubles. *sigh* So impatient. Lol. I work a little on the side (I do accounting for my dad on weekends) but I barely count that towards our income.
Ugh, we got the adulthood shock as well. We make about $160 together, but live in one of the most expensive areas. We're currently saving my entire salary to save up the $150,000 we would need for a 20% downpayment on a townhouse in hopefully four years, and pay off our student loan debt. We live in a 2 bedroom condo, and definitely aren't living the high life by any means.
where you live is a huge factor in income and how you make it. We made less than $30K, with 3 kids, where we lived before but it was so easy because our house payment was only $485 a month.
We are right around $49k and that's good for our area. We live comfortably and don't usually go without.
He is disabled but works as well as receives disability monthly. I bring in the most money with my pay and my child support. My car is paid off and due to his disability he can't drive so we don't have a bunch of car payments or anything.
Idk what I would do with myself if we made $100k a year lol That's a lot of money for where we live. Hell, we rent a three level 2 bedroom/2 bath duplex for $600 a month and we have 2 kids. So, it totally depends on where you live to how well you can be with what you make.
@shedayz: I want to live where you live! I know where we live cost of living is ALOT less than where I grew up in Austin, but I think some areas, like where we are, is kinda high still. =/
We make about 25k combined. I haven't been able to find work for a year and my FI had to go through a staffing agency to get his current job (which takes away some of what he should be earning). His contract is up in July so we're praying that his company takes him on full time and ups his pay. We also have a 16 month old.
We do well enough to have a own nice house in a nice neighborhood(currently we have our house up to move into a bigger home) , with brand new cars and 2 kids in daycare that cost an arm and a leg and we are still able to go on multiple vacations a year. It all depends on where you live. For what we are paying we could own a mansion down south.
Combined we make about 65k or more, depends on DH overtime, which is really good for our area. We do well, rent a nice home (going to be buying soon), only one car payment and are saving a little bit. But right now I only work part-time but as soon as I get full time we will be sitting really nicely, it'll be nice to have a little more freedom to travel as well as save more.
We make slightly more than $100k together. DH is starting an MBA part-time in the fall (paid for by his company) so he anticipates a salary jump after that. Right now we are saving >$1000 a month after paying our mortgage, car payments and all other bills. We are comfortable. :)
Last year before my husband went back for his PhD, we were making a little above $55,000 combined, which was short lived, because now we moved and he's back in school, and only has a GA stipend so we're living on around $32,000. We're hoping that he'll have a much larger salary with a doctorate when he's finished, and that I can actually get a salaried job in my field and not an hourly position. But luckily, neither of us have any school loans or car payments, etc. So all we really pay for is rent, school books and fees, utilities, food, insurance, and that kind of stuff! But I have to say reading that some of you are at $100,000+ combined make me so jealous! I feel like that's so much money.
Just under 20,000 right now. Last year it was just over 10,000. Once I get a job we should be up to about 30-40k, but we'll see.
We're young and broke, plus FI's going back to school this fall... so we'll see.
We're doing pretty well in our area (~$115k) and have a modest mortgage (under $1700/month), one car payment and some student loan payments. We paid off our other car with some of the wedding money we received and are looking to "upgrade" to a larger house that closer to where we both work. We're working on building up our retirement funds, and our emergency funds (last year DH was laid off and that was a huge wake-up call for us). And we're learning to stay within a budget - we have one, it's just staying under it every month that we're still working on!
We feel very blessed because a lot of our friends and family aren't in a similar situation - so we make sure to make the most of it and not take it for granted!
I work full time at a relatively good job, but he works part-time and for barely over minimum wage, so I voted for 51-60k, but with SL debt, car debt, and general cost of living we have to be frugal.
@Mrs Grape: I'm so glad I'm not the only one! Last year we made just over 16,000 between the both of us and I think it'll be less this year because of my husband being out of work since last fall.
As for the question of how we do it? We share a house with several other people (hopefully not for too much longer....) which means we split rent and utilities (we also live in a generally lower income part of town, which doesn't bother me), budget groceries and make a lot of things from scratch (Aldi is my new favorite grocery store), we keep fairly basic phones on a family plan, treasure hunt at thrift stores for most of our clothes, don't eat out much or buy a lot of non-necessities, and we use public transportation (we don't own a car). It's not easy but it's definitely possible.
over 150 for us. However, we live in Chicago wich has a very high cost of living. Also ours is hard to calculate since DH is a consultant and his wages change a lot. Some jobs are $40/hour and some are $60/hour....just depends. mine is steady though.
Somewhere between 80 and 90. We live in an approximately average cost of living area (exactly average I think) and we do okay.
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