What do you do, where do you live in, and how much is your annual income?

In My Humble Opinion
1

This thread asked for it, so here it is.

I’m 28, Male, from Peoria, Illinois. I am a Web Developer for an insurance company and also supervisor of the Graphics Department. We put together all printed and electronic marketing materials for the the company.

My annual income, with bonuses included, is about $50,000/year. I also get a 401K match of 100% up to $1,000 per year and free insurance benefits, including medical, life, and disability. I also do freelance web development on the side which makes me around $8,000-$10,000/year.

I drive a car that I paid $18,500 for. My payments are about $330/month, plus insurance. It’s a diesel which gets outstanding gas mileage, which is the main reason I paid a little more upfront for it… cheaper to keep fueled.

My house cost $104,000, and my mortgage with insurance and property taxes included is $735/month. This is the second home I’ve owned and I was able to afford the down payment due to my savings as well my parents’ help. They fronted me some cash that allowed me to put a significant amount of money down and avoid the PMI. My loan was for $82,000. I am single but live with my girlfriend, although until this month she maintained her own apartment and hasn’t contributed to monthly bills.

My student loans are paid off, also because my parents saved well for me and I didn’t need to borrow much to get through. I have no credit card debt and the only money I owe is on my car and my home. I also owe my father about $4,000 for various things he’s given me and various agreements we’ve come to about various deals (ambiguous but also boring stuff), but he is not charging me interest. $200/month goes directly into his account and I never see it.

My cell phone is about $65/month, cable and internet is about $90, electricity is between $75 - 250, depending on many factors. After taxes and my 401K and various other contributions (charities and parking, etc.) are taken away, I take home about $2,800/month from my full-time job, and the freelancing money obviously varies, anywhere from $1,500/month to $50/month.

2

“Where do you live in”?

3

Oops. I had to do some editing to the proposed title to make it fit in the subject line and I left a stray 2 letters. My fault.

4

That’s cool. People around here say “where do you live at” all the time, so I was wondering if Peoria had some dialect variant I was unfamiliar with. :slight_smile:

5

I am a 20-year-old female from Western Maryland. I’m a university student who makes somewhere between $10,000 and $15,000 a year working at whatever job I can (currently it’s at a local call center handling insurance). I am in a on again/off again relationship with my (if you want to call him this) boyfriend and we are not living together.

(Now, this is how things worked while I was working. I do foresee a similar set-up being demanded of me once I get into my new job next week…) Even though I am still living at home with Mom and Dad, I am required to pay some form of “rent”. Several house bills outside of a vehicle payment ($250/month), car insurance ($125/month), cell phone bill (average $90/month) land in my lap nearly every month. Electric bill (varies from $40/month to $120/month), 25% of the water bill (about $50 every three months), and $75 every paycheck towards groceries. My parents pay the rest of the bills with minor help (once it’s been strangled and argued out) from an elder sibling who also still lives here.

My Dad is retired and receives a mere $500 a month from Social Security (though, I am certain that he should be getting some sort of Veteran’s pension as well…). Mom works as a dietary cook at the local nursing home. Between the two, after taxes are taken from Mom, they make roughly $19,000 a year. My elder sibling who lives at home makes at least twice of what Mom, Dad, and I do combined. He refuses to contribute more than a $100 a month to the groceries and might pay part of the water bill when it rolls around every three months. (I said that the help was minor, right? lol).

I have a great deal of credit card debt right now due to my lack of a job over the last two months. I needed to pay my “personal” bills and put gas in my Jeep someway. I’m probably up to around $5,000 total right now, unfortunately. I do not have any student loans looming over my head (yet) and I hope not to at all. Mom and Dad do not have any kind of intention or way to contribute to my schooling, so I am right now relying on federal/state grants and university scholarships to get me through. I do have some debt (a little over a thousand bucks) at the local two-year university I recently graduated from due to a miss communication on the school’s part regarding my financial aid.

Rent in the area varies greatly. If one were to be down here in Cumberland, where I am, the rent is about $350/month including very few to no utilities. Rent in Frostburg depends greatly on whether or not the place is connected to the university or not. So, rent alone can vary from $250/month all the way up to $700 a month without utilities.

6

47 years old, attorney, western burbs of Chicago.
annual salary >$100K
no mortgage, car payments or CC debt.
total net worth including savings/investments/401(k) ~ $1 mill - will be decreasing over the next 5 years or so as I put 3 kids thru college!
total utilities ~$700/month
annual RE taxes ~$10K
pack a PBJ for lunch every day and drive a 2000 Toyota minivan.

7

When I’m done with school, I’ll (in theory) be making around $50k a year, but that’s a slow process, so we shall see.

I’m a 27 year old female, living in rural northwestern Wisconsin. Bachelor’s Degree in English, now pursuing speech language pathology and secondary ed.

I’m the pizza cook in a co-op deli, making around $15k a year. (See how well that BA turned out for me and why I’m going back to school?)

For utilities and rent, I pay around $400 a month. This is a bit on the high-end for what I’m renting in this area, but I’m renting from my mother and she needs it.

I have no debt currently, though I’ll probably end up breaking down and getting student loans real soon here.

I have a niece whose care I share with my mother, though no children or partner of my own.

8

Age, Sex, Location, Occupation, and Income
I’m a 36-year-old female. I live in Northern Virginia (not far from Washington DC), and I work as a technical writer and editor for a large government contractor. I’ve been in this field for 10 years, and I make $75,000/year.

Car
My car payment is $600/mo. I spend $200/mo on gas, and $125/mo on car insurance.

Rent and Utilities
I moved in with my boyfriend on Thursday but am still responsible for a lease through August, so my current rent/utilities are complicated, but here’s what I lived with until last week:
$1400/mo rent (for a 2BR townhouse)
$100/mo cable & internet
$70/mo (average) power
$60/mo cell phone
$35/quarter water

9

I’m 53, single, male, now living in an unincorporated part of Jefferson County (south of St. Louis). I’m retired. I did a variety of jobs, but the last 17 years of work were doing computer stuff.

My annual income totals about $22,000/year, combining distributions from my 401k with about $3K in dividends and interest. I also get access to decent health insurance through my former employer’s plan.

My main vehicle is a small pickup, given to me by family, that was worth about $11K when they gave it to me. It gets about 21 mpg, but it doesn’t matter, as I only drove it 2500 miles in the most recent 12 months. They gave it to me because they knew I wouldn’t buy a new vehicle. I also have four cars, two of which currently run. They’re just for fun. All the vehicles are paid for.

I paid $85,000 for my home. I paid for it; there’s no mortgage. I had an outbuilding constructed ($18K), got a new roof ($4K, but insurance paid for half, due to damage from a tornado), a new furnace ($2K), new water heater($200), and added central air ($1500); all these expenses were spread across the last seven years. This is the second home I’ve owned.

Homeowner’s insurance is $850/year. Auto insurance on the two running vehicles is $1100/year. Health insurance is $1340/year. Last year’s property taxes totalled $950 on the land, house, truck, and cars. Charity giving varies, but this year is about average: $1500 so far this year, with $2500 more planned for a total of $4000.

Monthly landline phone and internet is about $35, electricity is $20-80 (higher in the summer). My propane company forecasts my next 12 month’s usage will cost $1700, if I accept their prepay plan. (I will.) I don’t really keep track of grocery costs, but the last 2 receipts showed $45 and $50, shopping weekly. So, looks like I’m up to $200/month. But I don’t care if strawberries or melons or whatever are pricey, if they’re good.

10

Female, 53, Bergen County, New Jersey (one of the most expenisve areas in the country).

Real estate property manager. Salary is $500 a week, plus commissions.

Rent and utilities are about $660 a month. No car.

11

56, engineer/computer scientist, Silicon Valley.

make well over $100K a year. Mortgage is about $1400 a month, but $350 is to my wife’s father which we’ll get back. No car debt, no credit card debt, about $600K equity in the house (even now.) One more year of college to pay for my second kid. Have an 11 year old Saturn with 125K miles, and take my lunch also, so I’m a lot like Dinsdale. Close to that in retirement savings also, but it will really take off in the next few years after college is paid for.

We don’t have a budget, since we are natural savers. A big splurge for me is $60 of used sf books.

12

I am 30 year - old Female. I currently live in Southern Maine and I work at a Credit union as the vault teller and have other responsibilites and projects that get handed to me. I also work PT at a local bottle redemption company (it isn’t as gross as it sounds, my postion anyways). Between those two jobs I make around 30,000 a year, give or take depending on the hours of the PT job.

My car payment is 200 dollars a month. Spend 25 dollars on gas when ever the “E” light comes on, so generally every three days. (For some reason 25 dollars doesn’t seem so painful in a couple hits, vs 70ish dollars in one hit.)

Rent is 650 a month and only includes water.
Power is about 70 a month
Heat averages 700 dollars a year (propane)
Cell phone is 90 dollars a month
Cable and internet is 120.

I have one other loan out for another 200 a month. And only have debt on one credit card that is under 500 dollars…

Single. No kids. Just little ole me.

13

Female, almost 40 :eek:
Northern New England, but near large towns
Accounting type, 15 years experience, $54,000
Company contributes 10% of salary to retirement and so do I
Bought my car outright–$16K

Rent, 1 BR, not in great shape: $500/mo but that’s low for the area, incl water and satellite dish
Oil for heat: ~300-350 gallons a year, but I have to keep the house at 50 degrees to achieve this
Electric water, stove, lights: $60/mo
Landline w/no long distance, plus cell phone: $75/mo
Gas for the car: maybe $40 a week, 3.99/gal today
Car+renter’s Insurance: $800 a year

14

36, female, live in rural Tennessee and work for a call center.

I make $29K/year plus 100% match on my 401K up to 6% (roughly $1800), plus insurance (life, medical, dental and vision) benefits and annual bonus of roughly 2 weeks’ pay ($1100).

No rent/mortgage – property taxes run about $600/year.
Electric runs about $100/month, we have been using propane heat, which is ridiculously expensive (averages out to approximately $150/month if I average 12 months) but we are switching to wood this year, so that will be an initial cost and then only a matter of chopping wood.
Cell phones are $100/month, internet/tv/phone is approximately $200/month, and car insurance is $65/month.
No car notes – I drive a 2000 Chevy Cav, he drives a 1991 Geo Tracker & when she’s old enough my daughter gets the 1996 Kia Sephia.

15

Female, 48 yrs old, Central Mississippi.

I’m a self employed consulting civil engineer. My husband is the vehicle maintenance supervisor for a suburban city here.

Together we bring in a less than 100k per year. We have four kids: 23, 21, 19 and 18. Two are in college but are mostly self-funded thru scholarships & student loans. One is in the Marine Corps. We are paying health insurance for two of them, and car insurance for three of them. We have 6 vehicles on our auto insurance. We are paying for cell phones for all of them but 2 are going to roll off of the dole soon (yay graduation!).

It’s easier for me to work with percentages, so here’s some figures from my Quicken:

Insurance (other than medical, including professional liability insurance) = 17.8 %
Utilities (includes two land-lines and 6 cell phones) (House is all electric) 12.0 %
Medical (includes medical insurance of appx $500 per month) = 10.7 %
Housing = 8.1 %
Groceries (includes household cleaning stuffs) = 7.3 %
Taxes = 6.1 %

There are other categories but they’re mundane.

I have a tiny amount in an IRA (due to a divorce a few years ago I had to use a lot of that for a down payment on a home in an area with decent schools for my kids). Hubby has a most excellent State retirement plan which is actually a ‘guaranteed benefit’ plan rather than a ‘pay you back what you put in’ plan; it will pay about 3/4 of his current salary.

Our property is presently worth about 5 times what the mortgage balance is, but that can change with the wind. Property taxes are appx $1200/mo on our 5 acres.

We have one very small credit card bill and only one car note (< $300 per month).

16

Male, 37, Lab rat at a academic institution, $44K
They kick in 9% and I kick in 3% toward retirement.
Take home is $1180/2 weeks
Starting a side business that is pretty much guaranteed to bring in $3k/yr, working 3 days a year. :cool:

Own a house that I built, plumbed, + wired myself. (Built to be easily converted to a garage if I ever get out of debt) $750/mo mortgage
Credit card debt $20k + slowly dropping
Car $250/mo
Power $60/mo
Phone, internet, tv $140/mo
Propane hot water $30/mo (est.)
Heat $40/year (Average - I burn wood, but had to buy a new bar + chain this year, so it’s up to ~$80)
Gas $60/mo
Groceries $100/week (this will soon drop drastically, as the garden starts producing, the chickens and hogs get ready for slaughter. I bought a big freezer, started baking my own bread, and started farming this year to cut down on the grocery bill.)
Insurance $1600/yr
Property Taxes $2600/yr

Wife takes care of the 2yo, and is due for another one in Sep. She only made $20k/yr before, so it’s not worth it for her to work.

A big splurge for me is eating something more expensive than ramen for lunch.

17

Female, 27 years old
Live and work in the Tampa, Florida area.
My job is Head Teller at a private bank - make $30,000 a year.
No car payment, drive a 1999 Toyota Corolla
Car insurance is $1100 a year
Rent an apartment for $850 a month, includes water.
Monthly: Cell $62
Electric $40ish
Groceries $100ish
Internet $44.95
Gas $60-80

Around $4,000 in my 401k
Around $11,000 in credit card debt.

18

South Florida. I’m a Team Lead (Supervisor) for the billing department of a publically-traded timeshare company. My workgroup is about 25 people strong (including temps), but I’m directly responsible for the work of 9 people. I’m on an hourly wage, and I make $36,296 a year before taxes.

My wife has just switched jobs, and her new position pays a lesser hourly wage than her old job, but gives quarterly bonuses plus a holiday bonus, so I can’t say how much our combined income is, but as it stands, her pay is less than my base rate. Could become equal or higher in the future, depending on how she rises through the ranks.

We drive an '05 Chevy Aveo that last year we paid $6000 cash for (before trade-in). Insurance runs $1200 annually. We rent a 1/1.5 apartment in a safe neighborhood; that runs $785 a month - water, pest control and garbage collection are included.

That is all. :stuck_out_tongue:

PS oh – we’re both 40.

19

Age 35 - live with my SO in Canada.

Our annual household income is $100,000+

I bought my car before I met him - it’s a 2007 Volvo - $36,000 - I bought it outright.

Our household payments total about $2,000/month (mortgage, his car loan, insurance, utilities, etc).

We own our home - a condo ~ $350,000 but we don’t owe very much on it.

20

Female, 47, living in West Virginia.

I make about $80,000/year as a database administrator. My husband makes around $45,000/year as the manager of a small business, but he also gets a lot of perks (free lunch, free gas, etc.) He has also managed to acquire for us 44 apartment units that supplement our income and net worth (I’m not sure how much - my husband is the finance guy).

Our house is worth about $250,000 and is paid for, and I drive a 2008 BMW 335xi (~$600/mo), my husband drives a 2008 Acura MDX (~$600/mo) and my daughter drives a 2007 Civic (paid for). Tonight we are going to trade in my son’s 1996 Saturn for a new Civic. We’ll pay cash for it.

We won’t be able to save much for the next four years, since my daughter’s in college now and my son is starting in the fall. When they’re done, though, we’re hoping we’ll be able to retire soon after based on the income/equity from the apartment rentals.

Now you know more about my finances than my mother does.