I’m a big believer in retirement savings and agree that FOR ME, outliving my money would be a terrible outcome.
But truly- folks on CC must not understand what it really means to be middle income/middle class if retirement savings is a reason you feel strapped. We live in a country where a significant percentage of people could not handle a $750 car repair (we’re talking about the car that gets them to work which puts food on the table and keeps a roof over their head). Being able to “worry” about retirement savings, funding an elite education, etc. is truly a marker that you’ve passed out of the middle class- congratulations!
We, too, live in a HCOL area. And yet, when faced with the choice to live in/buy in a neighborhood of very expensive housing or to live in/buy in a neighborhood of less expensive housing - we chose the less expensive housing…which meant that the school our children attend are slightly lower rated than the more expensive towns/neighborhoods. Also vastly more diverse. We also chose the less expensive vehicles, and sent our children to less expensive colleges. Those were all choices we made.
DH has partners that make the same amount he does, and feel like they are barely getting by. Of course, their homes cost several multiples of what our home cost, they sent their kids to private school for K-12, as well as full-pay super ‘elite’ schools for undergrad and they drive (multiple) cars that cost more than double what ours cost. Those are choices they’ve made.
Let me exit left here because someone above just noted that this thread “officially” jumped the shark.
Let me add one extra thought – the person that comes to clean our house probably has a family income of 200k or so. I am sure this person would be called upper middle class by the same standards :-).
I agree. Not that the conversation isn’t worthwhile, but it’s sooooooooooo far OT that I don’t see a way back. A user is free to start a new thread, but since it looks like discussion of the original topic has come to an end, I’m closing.