The more you make the more you spend so it is all relative. The key is to set your budget based on your base income, live within your means, and always save for retirement.
Here's my take on "good money" which takes into account where you live and how you live. If you live on 50% of what you make and bank the rest, you make "good money".
In my area which runs on the expensive side i would say For a married couple or Small Family, I would say 100-200K a year is doing ok. 200 - 400K is doing well. 400 - 1mil is doing "REALLY WELL". Anything above that is killing it.
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It really depends on how you want to live. $200K would not begin to pay for my lifestyle but you should be able to live comfortably on that.
Have you read the 1040 instructions? They supposedly have that covered now in the section where you have to declare proceeds from illegal activity as income. Also have to count the fair market value of stolen goods as income unless you return said goods within one year. This has been going around UTube recently so maybe it's true and maybe it's a hoax.
I don't see how anyone can afford living quarters in CA if the average cost of a home is now $750,000. Are half the people in Section 8?
Some people are so judgemental. You can tell just by looking at 'em.--Some random meme
I don't see how you can get by comfortably with two kids these days making under $100 each?
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My definition of good money was when I wasn't counting down to the first of the month. I will say that $100k with two kids in private school is not enough here.
Dave Ramsey likes to cite that the two most common professions among millionaires are/were teaching and engineering. Engineering makes sense if you consider that it generally pays well and the type of people that become engineers are also the type to be very disciplined and pragmatic in how they spend, invest, etc. Unfortunately, I've never heard him explain how teachers get there. I guess professors are teachers as well so they might pull the avg. income upward but teaching is not where most people go to get rich. Is it the pension? Does it allow for lucrative side hustles? Selling grades?
Some people are so judgemental. You can tell just by looking at 'em.--Some random meme
My wife and I have 1 child and another on the way. I make what I think is "good money". At the end of 2021 we moved back to South Dakota from Wisconsin. I took a job that paid 20K more a year and the wife took a job that paid $3.50 more per hour. Fast forward to the start of 2024 and I am making 35k more a year than I was in Wisconsin and she is making $8.00 more per hour. We are comfortable but with all the extra income things are tighter than we ever imagined. We were moving back to a area with lower property taxes and no state income taxes.
When we made the move a equivalent house here was about the same price as the home we left in Wisconsin, but finding a home was almost impossible as they were selling within the hour they listed. We decided to build and by the time we built, houses in the area were up about 150K from when we moved. Fortunately we moved somewhat fast and got things locked in on our new home before interest rates rose above 4%. Add in all the inflation, the extra 50k we are bringing home together isn't going as far as one would think. Property taxes when I built my home have doubled, my mortgage is $1k more than before we moved, groceries are so much more, fuel is more, heck I'm paying $250 more per month on insurance vs when we closed on our home.
Whatever it is, it's never enough. I would be happiest living a 1700s style life off grid with no paycheck
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Good money you would have to 1st have a fair tax system. I pay more in Fed and State Taxes then 2/3 people make on here. But yet people making less pay no Taxes and get tax credits, great system for lower income earners. Hell we raised 4 kids and never had a credit of any kind now day's the pay you to have kids what since does that make.
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It’s easier these days. Parents are smart. About 60% use the divide and conquer scheme. They
have kids, get divorced and split the cost of the kids. Each only having to pay for every other weekend and let the government pay for everything else. I should have been so wise.
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Double post.
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