What do you consider a good salary?

[floater156]

What is the MINIMUM salary range that you consider good enough to raise your family. I understand that this will vary by location, but it's not exactly a scientific poll.

[MonBK]

Enough + 5k/month.

[wantonebad]

it's not really a fair question in my opinion, I'm not trying to be a jerk but I have friends who have raised family's on a single teachers salary and have scrimped and saved at every turn and I have friends who have one kid and both parents work, they always cry poor and go on vacations twice a year. I mean it's a mater of priorities isn't it? And education/training industry you work in, motivation/drive, location lots of factors to consider.

[FeelingTheBlues]

Originally Posted by wantonebad

it's not really a fair question in my opinion, I'm not trying to be a jerk but I have friends who have raised family's on a single teachers salary and have scrimped and saved at every turn and I have friends who have one kid and both parents work, they always cry poor and go on vacations twice a year. I mean it's a mater of priorities isn't it? And education/training industry you work in, motivation/drive, location lots of factors to consider.

I completely agree...

[Carolina]

Originally Posted by wantonebad

it's not really a fair question in my opinion, I'm not trying to be a jerk but I have friends who have raised family's on a single teachers salary and have scrimped and saved at every turn and I have friends who have one kid and both parents work, they always cry poor and go on vacations twice a year. I mean it's a mater of priorities isn't it? And education/training industry you work in, motivation/drive, location lots of factors to consider.

[psv]

Impossible to compare. Also, at the end, it is your cost situation that is more important than your income side.

[wantonebad]

Originally Posted by psv

Impossible to compare. Also, at the end, it is your cost situation that is more important than your income side.

I agree, as long as you mitigate expenses and debt you can raise a family on very little. Keeping up with the Jones is really a dead concept. Multi-millionaires, struggling middle class families, and welfare recipients can all live on the same block these days, and they do.

[Noonan]

Haha, no option below $75K? You just eliminated probably about 90% of the world population.

[2th Dr]

Originally Posted by Noonan

Haha, no option below $75K? You just eliminated probably about 90% of the world population.

[Watch Professor]

Originally Posted by noonan

haha, no option below $75k? You just eliminated probably about 90% of the world population.

99.9%

[Tripp11]

Most folks I know are just happy to have a stable job and a healthy family. There's plenty of folks out there who don't have either.

[david_ord]

Interesting thread. Of course I understand that there are many variables involved. Nevertheless, I look forward to seeing the data that populates over the next couple of days.

[GermanyMatt]

Really depends on what part of the country you live, what your spending habits are, and what your monthly living costs may be. I know people who make 200k/year, but still drive Honda autos and are house poor.

[Watchdog]

There definitely should be lower options.

Plenty of people make less than 75,000 and live a lot better lives than those who make four times as much.

[rr-nyc]

So many factors can swing a number sugnificantly: number of dependents, student loans medical issues, geographic variances of cost of living, etc.

Start with NYC then adjust down based on the cost of living index, I would guess the average household with average expenses should make a minimum of $100,000 ($55,477 in Lincoln, NE)

[Cato]

Certainly depends on the location. Bare bones, I guess 50K could keep a family feed and housed. In Southern California, that would mean home schooling because living in a poor neighborhood means unsafe schools.

A solid middle class lifestyle (good community, money for college, etc) would mean $125k

Of course, to be satisfied, I'd need "FU" money. That would be 25 million in assets.

[Numismatist]

Enough to keep a Rolex on my wrist!

[HERITAGE82]

Originally Posted by Numismatist

Enough to keep a Rolex on my wrist!

[pacifichrono]

Depends on the job and your experience, but generally about twice whatever I'm currently making.

[snowbird]

Originally Posted by pacifichrono

Depends on the job and your experience, but generally about twice whatever I'm currently making.

I believe the research shows what you just said - not many people consider themselves well off, even those with very high incomes know and compare themselves with others with even more.

[mfer]

No matter how much people make, they "typically" spend it. So there is no other rule other than to live within your own means.

[david_ord]

I guess no one is going to step up and answer the question. The OP is asking what you consider to be a requisite salary to raise your family. The purpose is to collect useful data on members.

Answers to the effect that it "depends" are not useful. Everything in this universe "depends." He's not asking for your opinions as to what it depends on. He's asking what you consider to be minimal for your particular circumstance, living in the particular house that you're going to fall asleep in tonight.

I just PM'ed the OP with my answer. If he and a couple of others take the lead and answer the question about themselves, then I'll post my answer publicly.

[Dan2010]

To answer the question, "what do you consider a good salary" I would have to know what the job is. What I make as a CFO and what someone makes as a teacher is comparing apples to bananas. What might be a good teacher salary wouldn't even be what I pay a senior accountant that works for me.

And as others have said, it also depends on where you live as there are large differences by regions just in the US let alone the rest of the world.

[threemonkeys]

I make considerably less than I did several years ago. With a few changes to our spending habits we now have much more in savings than we ever did. For me it's not how much you earn that is the big factor, but how much you spend.

[theloxmyth]

Dream big!

The scale is a bit skewed, but I love the way you think!

I'm just a loxmyth, but I can check off the first category after 20+ years of going at it.

Peeps make it on less than $35-40K, but I'd consider this the minimum comfortable level here in The Burgh.

[The Joker]

Not sure there is such a thing as a comfortable salary.

Whatever you earn the wife will spend it.

[bewithabob]

fortunately, I am not supporting a family with Elin Nordegren any longer, so I can probably get by with about $150,000 a month.
And then I would still have to sell three houses, and cancel my memberships at Westlake, Augusta, LACC, and Riviera. The boat is a keeper though. No way I am parting with that.

[East Bay Rider]

Individual salary or household income?

[bewithabob]

Originally Posted by East Bay Rider

Individual salary or household income?

I was thinking monthly, with four kids in school right now….these numbers barely cover their tuition….

[MoBe]

I would say double the amount required to cover expenses would be a good minimum salary,and I`m talking after tax of course.

Speaking for myself I`ve been operating on a three to one ratio for the last ten years and this is what I`m accustomed to.