In our area, we'd be sitting pretty with 50K/year. But that is because we are debt free and live very frugally. However, we could easily swing a moderate mortgage on that, for a house maybe 60-70K (for that price we could get a big old Victorian with a nice yard where we are now, or move closer to the city and get a smaller single family home). For us 100K/year would be feeling "rich", and we could easily live on half of that and save and invest the rest.
I think there are two sides to this question - What is a good salary in relation to the area that you live/lifestyle? OR What is a good salary for your job/career/profession?
I live in a mid to high cost of living area, and compared to the Canadian average household income, we're doing REALLY well...nearly double the average. However, since we live in a city where the main employer is the government, the average household Canadian income is similar to what one government worker makes! Yes we earn a good salary, but it's pretty average in our community.
If we're talking about profession, I think that skews numbers. There are ranges for every position. For example, my brother is an early childhood educator, a field which is notoriously underpaid with salaries ranging from $12-$15/hour on average. My brother landed a job, while it's part-time, pays him $17 dollars an hour. I think he earns a really good salary for what he does. If I were to put his salary in terms of where he lives, which has a high cost of living, then I don't think he earns a really good salary.
I'd feel like we were doing amazing at 40-50 K a year.
We make about 15 K now, in a low cost of living area. It sucks and there is never any extra money. 30K would be nice, but more would allow us to actually purchase a home with land, like I want to.
For us... we'd need at least $90K to be doing ok - student loans are going to kill us. If we didn't have my student loans - we could be ok at $40K, good at $50K. We aren't anywhere near any of those numbers right now and it sucks.
We live in a slightly higher than average COL area (score of 113, anything below 100 is "low"). Anyway, Dh makes just over $40k/year and for us, it's great. I'd imagine other people living here might feel like that's not enough, but for us, we don't have a lot of expenses, we're pretty frugal...so it works. I feel very comfortable.
We make just above $20K. We are barely keeping our heads above water on my DH's income. I'm not working anymore because I would basically be working to pay for daycare for my kids, gas money for work travel, and home care for my mother. When I worked we made about $45k, which paid the bills, and left plenty of room for extras, like eating out, and martial arts memberships.
We live in a low COL area and I have built up a bartering community with my farmer friends in the area, so we do okay, even with the drastic reduction in our income. For me to feel comfortable and not have panic attacks when doing the bills, it breaks down like this:
$30k + is good
$50k+ is wonderful
$75k+ is getting into dream-land
$100k+ is really freakin' fantastic
$150k+ is an incredible fantasy
$200k+ is rich beyond my wildest dreams 
Our take-home income is about 15K (after taxes), but we get free healthcare through the Air Force and a housing allowance that pays our rent and utilities which we never see (it goes straight to the landlord). Our monthly expenses are around $800 per month (not counting rent/utilities), so we are able to save the remainder of each paycheck. We feel very comfortable on this income, we were able to pay $7,000 out of pocket for a homebirth from our savings (we will eventually get re-imbursed but we had to pay cash at the time. We should get our check by the time our son is 6 mos old). I'd say if we didn't have free healthcare or a housing allowance then we would need 30K to have the same level of comfort and ease we have now. We could definitely live okay on 20K, but we'd be pinching pennies and never splurging. (I'm basing this off of eastern NC since we currently live in Italy)
In my & DH's opinion, $40,000 - but I know our family and friends would consider that extreme poverty. We're not struggling at all. We are in an expensive area, we just watch our money and make it work.
Funny too. People use high COL for such different areas. I could find a repo house that has been stripped of plumbing, needs a new foundation, and has no ktichen, lead paint, and asbestos insulation and has been used as a crack house, had gang drive by shootings, and horrible schools and I would have an hour commute for that price. For 500K someone would have flipped it cheaply but the schools and gangs would be the same.
Funny too. People use high COL for such different areas. I could find a repo house that has been stripped of plumbing, needs a new foundation, and has no ktichen, lead paint, and asbestos insulation and has been used as a crack house, had gang drive by shootings, and horrible schools and I would have an hour commute for that price. For 500K someone would have flipped it cheaply but the schools and gangs would be the same.
LOL... $500k buys a mansion in my area. Marble floors and the best schools (though there's no really BAD schools in our area) and jacuzzi tubs and 4000+ sq ft ...
That's funny. In my town there ARE no houses for $500k. Maybe you could find a 22 room Victorian on the main road for $250k or $300k at the most.
My town is at 101 (Edit: I just looked it up, now it's 108) for COL (100 being national average). However, that index is an average of factors. I think our real estate is cheaper than the national average. Our food and fuel costs are definitely more expensive. (I posted already; we make $40k and that's enough, I felt $60k would be good and allow shopping outside of Goodwill, and $80k would put us on easy street).
ETA: I looked up the national average household income, and for 2006 it was $50,233.00. I was shocked, I thought it was around $20k - though I never could figure out how so many people could be living at that level. I live in a town with a COL index of 108, so it's higher than average (though not "high"). And our average household income in town is $29k. Whoa. What a lousy town I live in - pay more than average to live, and earn less than 60% of the national average. At $40k we make much more than average in our town, yet our income doesn't meet the national average either. Crazy.
40,000-50,000 would be really nice.
I just looked it up and my town's col is 84 and the average income is around $35,000. We're a little under that with me working full time and dh working part time.
Funny too. People use high COL for such different areas. I could find a repo house that has been stripped of plumbing, needs a new foundation, and has no ktichen, lead paint, and asbestos insulation and has been used as a crack house, had gang drive by shootings, and horrible schools and I would have an hour commute for that price. For 500K someone would have flipped it cheaply but the schools and gangs would be the same.
Our income for 2010 was $22K. Of that, $5K was DH's (from unemployment for part of the year; he didn't qualify for much of the year due to school) and my income was $17k, only working part of the year since I was on medical leave for several months due to an injury.
He just got a job and it's about $40k. It's not super awesome but it's enough. I planned our budget and with just his income, we would be paycheck to paycheck, but with my unemployment we will be able to save a bit.
hcol here too and we would need about 150k to be doing good. DH made 75k last year self employed, which means crazy expenses including health care. we spend about 130 and thats being frugal for us...
we are about to pay off all our debt and we still need about 7000k a month with no debt to live "well" as in how my grandparents lived on MUCH less
i was just thinking t his morning of how easy things where for my grandmother who had 2 boys never worked outside the home had a maid service, day care, ate out some, vacations, friends, movies etc. and even left a lot of money for her boys when she died. We would need many million to be in her situation like 300k a year with 3 mil in the bank to be "rich" as in not frugal at all and just not even look at price tags etc.
We live in a slightly higher than average COL area (score of 113, anything below 100 is "low"). Anyway, Dh makes just over $40k/year and for us, it's great. I'd imagine other people living here might feel like that's not enough, but for us, we don't have a lot of expenses, we're pretty frugal...so it works. I feel very comfortable.
My town is at 101 (Edit: I just looked it up, now it's 108) for COL (100 being national average). However, that index is an average of factors. I think our real estate is cheaper than the national average. Our food and fuel costs are definitely more expensive. (I posted already; we make $40k and that's enough, I felt $60k would be good and allow shopping outside of Goodwill, and $80k would put us on easy street).
I just looked it up and my town's col is 84 and the average income is around $35,000. We're a little under that with me working full time and dh working part time.
Could someone post where you are finding your "COL" numbers?
TIA
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