Eight People Share What It’s Like To Live On $100,000 A Year

Where I really worry is the safety net. Especially being at a company that was part of a recent acquisition, and now reading all these things about a coming recession and how remote workers will be the first to go, I worry about losing my job. I worry if my car dies, I won’t have cash on hand. Even though I’m making more money than I ever have, I feel like I’m much closer to ruin.

My emergency fund has been earmarked to pay off home repairs, and I consider it to be gone. I bought a house in September 2021 and had to do a new roof, new windows and doors. The new roof was estimated at $22,000. But it was bad. And the overall costs ended up at around $34,000. Windows and doors were right around $15,000. The heat pump system was another $15,000. I didn’t get an inspection because the market, such as it was in 2021, if you mentioned inspection, your offer was denied. And to be honest, when I bought my house in Pennsylvania in 2019, which I later sold, I got an inspection for about $800 and it seemed useless.

A lot of my struggle now is of my own design, because I’m trying to make up for lost time by making myself hurt a bit. My car is paid off. My student loans are paid off. But I’m 38 and I’m still very, very fearful of retirement. I don’t think it’s ever going to happen. I just don’t see how it’s even remotely possible. Through my 20s, I had jobs, but they weren’t paying much, so I was living off of stale saltines and dollar store peanut butter for years in Portland and trying to overpay on my student loans as much as possible and just get ahead. I didn’t get a career-level “job-job” until I was 30, and that paid $45,000, so up until 30 I never contributed to retirement at all. From 30 to 35, even though I had started to make a salary, I still wasn’t able to contribute and meet my needs while living in California. So now, I’ve got my 401k set to max out this year at the IRS limit [$20,500], and I did the same last year.

I’d love to get the mortgage just off of me too. I try to make a $1,500 mortgage payment each month, even though the minimum is about $800. At the end of the year, if I have some extra cash, that might be something that goes into the mortgage. If I put an extra $2,000 in a retirement fund, there’s still a potential for loss in this market, whereas if I put $2,000 into my mortgage, there’s only gain.

So I’ve cranked up my withholdings and increased the payment on my mortgage, and it makes it feel like I’m really hurting with things like groceries and gas. I’m contemplating, Do I really need this bag of Goldfish? Or tortilla chips?

Making six figures has been a persistent milestone. My mom had me when she was 18. I remember driving around with her and seeing some of these nice houses on the lake, and her saying, “Look at that. It’s a $100,000 house.” I don’t know if a big, beautiful, veritable mansion here was actually $100,000, but I think it was more her perspective as a 20-something-year-old in the 1990s, Nobody can afford a house that’s $100,000. Those lake houses that sold recently were $700,000. There are places going for $1.5 million. It would be really nice to have a house on the lake. But I don’t know that I would want to do what it takes to get there.

I have relatively simple dreams. I like my job, and it’s important to me that I do really well at my job, but I like the idea that someday I could maybe ditch the career job and just find some part-time work maybe in the bakery and in my village, 20 hours a week, and then volunteer at the library or bookstore. Have my house paid off and read books. I haven’t been bored since 1993. I will find plenty to do. ●