I currently live in the Washington metro part of Maryland, about 50 miles from DCA. The median home around my neighborhood (a very nice, very safe neighborhood that is about 12 years old) goes for $450k...and is 4 bed, 2.5 bath, 3200 square feet two story traditional on a .18 acre lot.

If that is your vision of the American Dream, so be it....but don't crap on me because its not mine. The rent for our 1 bedroom, 1 bath apartment is about $150/mo more than the payment I would have had if I had bought a 4 year old 3bd/2ba 1400 sq ft ranch in Indianapolis last spring. Additionally, I have no desire whatsoever to live in a location where the annual property tax on a median home would be greater than the yearly mortgage payment on a median home in a cheaper location. If that cheaper location is in "flyover country", so be it.

Everybody wants to make a ton of money, I am no exception...but if I ever need to make $100k just to meet my basic needs then I know I will have failed as a provider for my family.

Devils Advocate:

What if you had 3 children? One bedroom might not be enough, so expect housing costs to increase. With 3 kids, you could see all 3 in college in the same brief expensive time period. At age 60 (or 65) you are done...how is your retirement plan? Anyway, some things to consider.

Not picking on you, just raising some points.

You could live like a king in DSM on 100K. Don't blame the person who is content with that for being.....content with that.

Teachers rawk. They don't get into it for the money, they get into it cause they think they will love it, make an impact, like working with kids. Pilots shouldn't get into this biz for the money, either. I mean, if you don't love aviation, you don't have any business being a pilot in the first place.

If a guy thought "airline pilots make 200K" cause he picked up a Flying magazine once that said so and decided to go for it, then went to Gulfstream, went to PCL, and is now upset that he's not making 200K after four years, should he be upset? I'd say no because he got into the biz for the wrong reasons and didn't do his research.

One other thing. You can't get banned here for calling someone a "dummy".

Great points! I'm going to delve into my background just a little bit to give some perspective on my position.

I am nearly 24 years old. My dad is a construction equipment mechanic, my mother has 25 years in at her current company and is a mid-level plant manager. They never cracked 100k in gross earnings until my senior year of high school. Despite this, my folks have been able to support my brother and I, buy three homes, a 105 acre farm, and we've all driven like-new vehicles for the last decade. The only major debt they have is the farm and that will be paid off in 2008, 8 years into a 20 year note. I didn't live extravagantly growing up, but I never wanted for anything.

My parents paid half of my college education; Uncle Sam paid a portion and the rest is on me. My wife received no financial help whatsoever from her parents because of their divorce. Obviously I want to be able to provide more for my children's education because it is so important, but I also want them to know the value, cost and price of work and earning something. My father wrote a $13,500 tuition check for my very first semester at Purdue at the kitchen table and handed it to me so that his first-born son could hand-deliver it to the Bursar's Office. I'll never forget the look in his eye and the scars on his hands as I took that check...and I'd never want to!

My folks also do not have a traditional retirement plan. They have two rental homes for income, my mother has moderate 401k, and the rest of their net worth outside of property is in liquid assets like savings, CDs, etc. Knowing this I started a Roth IRA when I was 19 years old and contribute a sizable amount of my check to my company's very good 401k, which has a defined contribution as well as a pretty decent match. I started a Roth for my wife last fall because her current job does not offer a retirement savings vehicle; with nearly four decades until retirement I do not worry if we'll have enough.

What's the point to this autobiography? Live well but well within your means. Plan early for the future. Make a budget and stick to it, staying out of unsecured debt as if your life depended on it. Buy used cars instead of new. Save every possible penny you can. And most importantly, don't go bitching on the intarwebs if you're not meeting your expectations for compensation...nobody cares.

BoilerUP,
Great post! How's it going these days? I hope you make it over here sometime, you will love it. :)

You've already gone a lot further than that in your PM.. Thanks there for the calm down... What was your soft spot? the part about my wife staying at home? Did I push the wrong buttons on that for ya? Or was it the fact that I was defending our profession and how some think it's well paid and trying to explain to this guy that his perspective is wrong.

Glad you're company pays well, but most of the rest have a long way to go.. And don't think you're immune from pay cuts if everyone else starts to think $50K is a good living. I'm personally set for other reasons, but that's not the same for a lot of others. I know too many people that work too hard for the crap they earn..

Your turn, and please try to be constructive to the debate.

you and Hotmama have some serious "Chip on shoulder" issues.. So because I think it's better for my wife to stay at home with our kids I'm somehow bad? Well I've got news.. SO DOES SHE. I didn't put a gun to her head and demand it... on the contrary she did when we got married. More over, she was a teacher for 5 years before we married and show the difference between kids with a mom at home and kids without.

If you chose to work while your kids are in day care, or what ever you do, that's your choice, but it's not for everyone. I know that the majority of people I know feel the same way.. so take your insults and feminist BS to someone else please.

Amazing..

Boilerup.. glad your teacher was a great guy, glad he live large on $50k.. your 1 BR apts for the rent of a 3 br home is enough evidence to make my point, so I'll not belabor it.

BoilerUP,

Sounds like you have done some quality planning based on thoughtful consideration of our industry.

My compliments!

who's making the generalizations now? Guess what I originally said wasn't so far off the mark then, was it?

I'm glad the majority of people you know feel the same way. The majority of people I know think it's fine if mom works.

I never said staying at home with the kids is bad. It's great if you want to do it and it is a choice. I made that comment because you have said that women should not work if they have kids. You pretty much showed you are a sexist in other posts.