What is a comfortable salary for you?

Hey guys!

I decided to sit down and project the future of my pay if I stayed in this job. Basically I will be at 60k in 2 years with the possibility to jump to 70k a long time down the road and probably max at 90k without venturing too far from being a fish biologist. That's like after 20+ years of work though. The majority of my time working will be between 60-70k.

I am a happy guy, living a great life, and doing cool things. I feel financially secured at 40k. I work hard to keep debt down and I am a reasonable spender 90% of the year.

I decided to google and see how much people need to be comfortable. That brought up articles saying 60k is the sweet spot for most people in most places. Any less and you might be depressed, any more and you wouldn't see a real "gain" in happiness.

Obviously my small town of 3,000 people has a different cost of living than NYC. My "needs" are not of those in other areas and I wear carharts/hoodies to work and not suits.

That said, I found it really interesting to read about what people thought their ideal comfort income was. Assuming you were happy and not depressed by other things, how much money would you need to make a year to be in a spot where you were happy/comfortable?

 

$140,000 a year to be “comfortable” not not own my own home or anything else. Area I live in is overly expensive for housing and pretty much everything else.

 

It depends on a lot of factors, but between my wife and I we're pulling in $130k, and it's very comfortable. It's extremely nice not having to worry about emergency expenditures because the money is there due to my wifes great financial prowess. We could definitely be comfortable with less, but it's fun being able to buy truck parts like I do.

 

Yep, my wife or as i call her, the CFO, keeps us on budget.

 

$750,000.

 

$60k in most states is a respectable yearly income, unfortunately here in SoCal it isn't. I've been at $60k/year at my current job for the past 9 months and I'm much more comfortable than I was before, but I still have to watch my spending and I can't afford to pay more than $1100/month in rent. Fortunately I live with my girlfriend so we split rent on a nice little 2 bedroom house for $2100, and I make about another $10k/year in freelance gigs. In the future when we look to start family, I'm going to have to rethink my current position work-wise. $60k/year in CA is alright for a single guy with no kids, you'd need to be well into 6 figures to afford having a family comfortably here though. Then there's retirement savings to have to think about as well, so on and so forth.

Heard on the local radio the other day that $80k is necessary in Orange County to be considered above the local poverty line, that's effing crazy to me.

 

This is a really broad question that needs to factor in where you live and what you like to do outside of driving around in your Taco.

In my area last I saw, $88k/yr was the poverty line. Housing is about $5k/month for a average house in a nicer area with an acceptable commute (Watch out to all those cities that want Amazon to move in)

I don't know how people do it, but I'd say it's hard to live in my neck of the woods for less than $200k/yr. I'd say $300k/yr to live w/o stressing about money, being able to do most of the fun stuff and being able to retire while I'm still young enough to have fun. Ideally around $500k/yr to also do "optionally" fun stuff and retire earlier.

 

Holy s**t batman! $5000 for housing? I thought my area was kind of high and we're paying $2000/month mortgage on a 1/2 acre lot/1800 sq ft house. It really is area dependent. Between the wife and I we are at about $100,000 per year and things get pretty tight sometimes.

 

Question is too broad, as any answer would require a lot of 'why's'.

The good news is that you are content, your needs are met, and you enjoy your work.

Avoiding debt and living below your means is key to a lot of that for anyone. Instant gratification and lousy choices are the killer for a very high percentage of folks in financial trouble.

Along the way though you need to be preparing for retirement. I'm there, and grateful I did. I look around and see many my age doing well, but I also see many who are not. And often because they didn't plan/save/invest enough.

 

Not that hard to get there. $1M house, 20% down is about $3800/mo over 30 years. $700/mo in property taxes + insurance + utilities. A 2000-2750 sq ft house on a 5000 or 8000 sqft lot. Could get the same house but with an extra 60 to 90 minutes of commute time a day for half the cost.

10 years ago I was having a conversation with my wife's friend in the San Francisco area. I was complaining that earthquake insurance was $600. Later we realized I was talking about $600/yr and she was talking $600/mo.

 

I don't want to live anywhere you guys live haha

 

Comfortable is relative. My wife's idea is vastly different than mine. Also, huge difference between comfortable and subsisting. We take 2 or 3 vacations a year and consider that comfortable, others would call that luxury. Wife and I make a little over 250K and are certainly comfortable. I have no idea what we could reduce that to and still have the same comfort. I only work every other week but have no interest in making more.

 

To cover the basic essentials.

 

Gotta remember to put money away for retirement. I don't see how you can live comfortably (ie have a decent place to live and have some money to spend on luxuries like vacations and hobbies) and put enough away to retire before the age of 75 making 60k a year. If you aren't thinking about retirement, you should be.

 

It's not how much you make, but what you do with what you make! If that makes sense? Sort of off topic, but I have found if you want to make more money then travel (for a job) or move.

 

100K does us well in Tennessee.

 

I make 32k as a journeyman electrician at a state university, which is pretty crappy pay, but I'm here for the 13 paid holidays, cheap insurance, and the paid vacation days. None of which I had when I was a construction electrician.

 

I've been putting money away since I Was 18 for retirement and still have money put away. I have never lived paycheck to paycheck, despite working at lower incomes. We can afford to go on vacation, though we haven't bothered leaving the country (why? Look at where I live) but not because we can't afford it. I not only save for retirement but have more than enough left over each month to put into savings too. This is currently on my 40k a year salary. My fiancé is around 50k and saves far more than I.

After starting and reading this thread it's obvious "comfort" varies from people to people. Glad I work in a field that's not materialistic and live in a place that is "poor". I am also glad I don't need much in this life to be happy. Just good company, a happy pup, and a place to explore.