Here it goes(sorry I have to go for per month): 1. 12% of annual salary that is $1000 per month goes to my Roth IRA 401k. 2. $6721 goes to insurance annually, including health(100% coverage no deductibles), dental, vision, life, LTD and PAI. That's about $560 per month. The following is the cash part: 3. I have one family van paid off, 4 years old. For the new car I pay $460 per month, 60 months. 4. Auto insurance for two cars $110 per month. I have to pay full coverage for the new car. 5. HOA $850 a year, that's about $70 a month. 6. House, minimum mortgage payment $1690 per month, including very high property taxes( rate at 3.65%). 7. I go cheap with day care for two kids, $1300 per month. 8. Fuel for two cars, $300~350 per month. 9. One cell phone plus internet, $80 per month. No cable TV. 10.water+electricity+gas, about $200 per month. 11. I bring about $5400 a month home, that leaves me about $1200 a month for food ,clothing, toys, children's special classes, going out for fun, for a family of four. No savings for investment and children's future education fund. Barely getting by is an understatement.
Hmmm, that's pretty close to the numbers I came up with. Question, does your wife work? If not why do you need the day care cost? I would also search around for lower premiums. Clothing cost should be pretty optional right now. Kids shouldn't care till they're in middle school, and you and your wife should have enough of a wardrobe by now to only need an occasional upgrade. What are special classes for children? Once again, I can actually relate and is actually in the problem solving mood. My first generation Chinese mentality made it all about budgeting for household expense.
That's pretty reasonable breakdown. I have said it before a 100k family does not have that much money to spend freely.
what brand/make is the new car? >3000 sqf house? I assume your wife works isn't that what the IRA for is?
With how much things cost now, you really need two professional incomes to live comfortably. $100K for household income is very tight for a family of four. Sure you get by, but you're really restricted financially. Life is so much easier when two financially independent working adults marry. Good luck.
Sounds like your house is too expensive. For all the excuses about good schools most parents could send their kids to prep school K through 12 with all the lost discretionary income from buying for 3x salary or 2x combined and "upgrading" every five years or so. What's the difference between a manager and a terrorist? Spoiler When something bad happens, a terrorist takes responsibility.
Increasing taxes on the top 1% isn't even going to be enough to cover what little bit of a safety net we have right now. You're out of your mind if you think the top 1% makes enough to cover what you're suggesting, even if they were taxed at 100%.
Mr Obama answers the question. "This President cannot tell us that you're better off today than when he took office." - Mitt Romney Here's where we were in 2008: "Worst financial collapse since the great depression" "American workers were laid off in numbers not seen in over three decades" And here's where we are today... 30 months of private sector job growth. Creating 4.6 million new jobs. We're not there yet. But the real question is: Whose plan is better for you? The President's plan asks millionaires to pay a little more to help invest in a strong middle class, clean energy, and cut the deficit. Mitt Romney's plan? A new two-hundred-fifty-thousand-dollar tax break for multi-millionaires. Roll back regulations on the banks that cratered the economy, and raise taxes on the middle class. "They want to go back to the same old policies that got us in trouble in the first place" - Bill Clinton "We're not going back, we are moving forward." - President Obama <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/YiVe_7kTTdQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Well you can look forward to when she gets out of school, your family income will take a big jump and you will live much more comfortably.
VW. I am having a little fun myself <2400 See the other post That means I have little free money for vacation or travel
Found this nifty graph in that bastion of conservative thought, the Washington Post. Didn't realize Obama's numbers were this dismal. Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...-in-one-chart/2012/08/02/gJQA58tsRX_blog.html (And yes, this number appears to be mostly accurate. It doesn't cherry pick its results and it doesn't conveniently forget to subtract job losses from job gains as the Obama administrations numbers do.) More info here: http://politicalmathblog.com/?p=1819
I don't think you realize how catastrophic the global economy - much less the US economy - was affected in 2008 (and still is). I don't think you realize how myopic political gamesmanship has been in DC and around America where we have gridlock instead of decisive action. This party-over-country/me-over-my-countrymen mentality has effectively nailed our lost supremacy in terms of education, infrastructure, military, and middle class. I don't think you realize that with the exception of presidents from 1945-1975, every single one (including Clinton) has weakened our middle class and sought short-term economic polices at the expense of the long-term fiscal and civil strength of our government. So, you can cut out a lot of names from that chart you listed.
