$82,000/year to live comfortably in Denver.

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Originally Posted by Irving

My wife would quit in a heart beat if I made that much money on my own.

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Same here.

IDK, guess it would depend on that definition of comfortably....and for how many people. I might venture to say that number is a little low if it is for a family. For a single person, yeah you could probably barhop every weekend and hang out with the hipsters in lodo on $80K LOL

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Originally Posted by HBARleatherneck

we dont live in Denver, but we have a custom home on land. We make less than 80k a year. we have 9 of us living comfortably, lacking nothing and we help out our oldest in college. of course we dont have to have a new overpriced car all the time, we dont eat out, etc.

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This is where I'd like to be someday, but I'm good with our 2 boys lol.

Child care is a very big expense, at one time when the kids were younger we paid over $1,600 per month. Now we only have to pay for our youngest (4 years old) she goes to pre-school 6 hours total a week and 1 full day 8 hrs of daycare per week so a total of 14 hrs per week. We pay $256.00 a month for this. We also have medical and dental-braces bills (over $250.00 per month) family of 5. We are right about 85k per year and need every penny of it.
Don’t eat out, we have one truck payment (less than $202.00 per month) My company pays my internet and cell phone bill.
We really try to keep the utility's bill down (keep the heat set at 64, NO AC in the summer, ect)

Our biggest expense next to the house payment is the grocery store. We have 5 people who eat 3 meals a day from home 7 days a week (we all pack and take our lunches to work or school) and my wife likes us to eat healthy.

IDK, seems a lot of people here are forgetting the single biggest expense, taxes. When you get into that arena of income, the taxes come along hot and heavy, especially when you're single and your only itemized deduction is the interest on your home.

At that income range as a single person (I've never been anything but so I can't comment on any other situation) you're looking at about $13k in Fed income tax, $3500 to CO, Another $6500 to SS and Medicare, Knocks that $82K down to $59K in a big hurry,And that's not even considering property taxes and licensing your vehicle(s), putting something away for retirement, etc.

So then your spendable income for all your expenses and everything else becomes $4916/month which when you own a home, a decent vehicle have some toys and hobbies isn't really all that much. Comfortable, yeah, but not flying high by any means.

After taxes and health insurance, I brought home just over 50% of what my documents say i make every year.

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Originally Posted by Irving

After taxes and health insurance, I brought home just over 50% of what my documents say i make every year.

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Ouch!

We need more "Stop taking all my money" protests instead of "Give me more income" protests.

That's with not even contributing to a 401k. I saved so much money by switching health plans that I can contribute and still bring home more this year.

Paid over $22,000 in tax, SS, and medicare last year. Nice to know I pay more for the privilege of living here than most of my expenses generated from living here....