Wages by Area and Occupation

For anyone who is curious.

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Where I live (a very costly area) I consider anything over say $65-70K to be decent (for an individual). For a couple (household) I would say anything over $100K is decent (although certainly nothing too extravagant here). My DH and I are currently at about the $80-85K range, but once I’m done with my degree I should be able to make almost that much by myself (and eventually 6 figures).

I agree it depends where you live. Here, in DC Metro area, to live decently you need 100K+ a year b/c of housing prices. Now if we were still living in TX we could live in a mansion with land on that amount a year. You won't get into a single family home here unless you make 150K+ a year, but most families here do and no we aren't rich but comfortable.

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A woman is like a teabag. You never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water.-Eleanor Roosevelt

I was comparing where I live in CO to Austin, TX. My city's average is about $1,000 more per year for salaray, but the median cost for a house here is $229,000 compared to $170,000 in Austin.

The median salary here is around $44,000 for a household.

You can also check on Stats about all US cities - real estate, relocation info, maps, race, income, photos, education, crime, weather, houses, etc. for your city's info.

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Frugal is being wise with your money and resources and cheap is forcing everyone else to.

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It really depends on where you live, the cost of living there, your debts and priorities. We live on the Eastern side of Washington State. The Chamber of Commerce says the median income is $30,000 but we surely can't make it on that salary. We have 2 big debts to pay off so we need more in the $60,000 plus range. So unfortunaly I am looking for a job. :-(

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Jana
Happily married to John - 7 years May 19th
One Happy mama bear to step daughter Amanda (15) and LeAnne Kimberly born Oct 11th 2007

Yes, cost of living/area does play an important role in the value of a good salary. A couple of years ago, DH was a supervisor in law enforcement. According to the May 2006 National Occupational Employment & Wage Estimates, the annual mean salary for that position was $70K--we sure would have liked for his salary to have been that much!
Ok, for Alabama, it was $50K--still we would have like for that to have been his salary also!

Yes, where you live plays into it significantly. We live in Northern California and it's pricey (though not as pricey as San Fran, for example.) My friend's husband only makes 65-70k and I always wonder how the heck they are living off of that.

On the other hand, personal spending habits play into this. My playgroup, for example, is the perfect example of this. There are 5 of us. Our husbands are all captains in the Air Force, all pilots and we all live in the same place. So, our base pay, our housing allowance and our flight pay is identical. However, we all look like any normal group of moms with varying household incomes from the mom with the Hummer and the UGGS toting a Coach bag (alright, I'm guilty of the Coach bags thing, too) to the mama driving the older minivan wearing sweats. I'm somewhere in between and it's a comfortable place to be.

Basically it all just boils down to we each put the money where it's important to us and that plays into how well we live off what we make.

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Vicki
Mama to Princess, 5 and Wild Thing, 3
Progress Since 1/6/09:

My opinion is it isn't how much you make it is how you manage it....if your not doing well at 50,000 you won't do well at 100,000! With that said it really does depend where you are and what you consider comfortable. In WV a couple could live well in the 50-70's in a smaller home if you had bought several years ago. I think around 80-100 would be most comfortable ...to be able to really save for the future,big emergency fund, do nice vacations, and having some of the nice extras...maybe investing in realestate. We can tech do all but invest in realestate...but it took us a long time to get here.

I totally agree with this. Learn to live within your means early on, and you'll do great as your salary increases. I see so many moms thinking, "Life would just be so much easier if we made more money" when in actuality that really isn't the problem. The underlying issues may be poor money management skills, not budgeting, emotional spending, etc.

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That seems quite true, Kim. Money management IS key!