Average House hold income (Page 2)

Making a lot of money is not always what it seems...I could give you a number that may sound high, but currently I pay around 42% of that to uncle sam and uncle arnold.   So my lifestyle hasn't changed all that much from when I was a LT in the Navy.  Moved to a more expensive place, more crowds, crappier housing. Once you get over $200K you lose lots of tax write offs, etc.  So there are certainly levels of middle class...but we're all still in the same race.

Yes, I don't even tell my brothers what I make.  That being said working at General Motors, this year is at least 45% less then two years ago.

I make less than the top # and more than the lowest #...

I'm not disclosing my exact #s, but at the same time, I find the stance of nondisclosure a bit strange (I know, I'm a hypocrite!) Income tells you something about the person, but not that much. Plenty of folks who are extremely educated, work very hard, and live very fulfilling lives, aren't going to make $250K+ as an investment banker might. Besides, you can get ballpark estimates of someone's income the moment they tell you what they do - it's not that big a deal.

I actually think someone's progression of race results as found on Athlinks.com tells more about someone than their income!

Also, your income effect obviously matters a LOT where you live. In upstate NY, $100K gets you to a really wealthy, have-it-all lifestyle. In the popular parts of California, you'd probably need $350k if not $500k to afford the same size house, school district, savings, etc. You're definitely NOT wealthy if you make $250k and live in Santa Monica, Palo Alto, or locales like that. 

Edited by agarose2000 2009-12-13 1:56 AM

I agree with Bear, $80K in upstate NY gets you a pretty good lifestyle where it puts you just above poverty in Manhattan.

Triathlon equipment does not have to be an expensive sport, my first year (2005) I was on a 30 yr old bike with friction shifters and upgraded to a used tri bike off ebay for ~$600 that took me through my first few Ironman races. No power meters, computrainers, race wheels, aero helmets, etc. The entry fees are another thing. Most people don't have many if any "local" races that they can commute to the day of the race so hotel fees, airline fees, and other travel expenses make it a little harder to keep a handle on the budget, especially if you start doing IM races!

I was fortunate enough to upgrade to a new "second hand" bike that a fellow BTer was selling, that allowed me to ride a bike that I would never have dreamed of owning. My wife and daughters have a hobby that makes it easy to justify my triathlon expenses, HORSES!

It also makes a difference whether or not your 'household' is one or two people.

My fiance and I live together and we're probably somewhere around the average when combined - not sure with the conversion though - we make Canadian $.   I feel like we do very well and my own job is great.  I feel lucky.  And like Bear pointed out where we live also drastically changes our perception of wealth.  We do live in a big city where housing is very expensive while in my hometown our combined salaries would make us pretty rich.  But we can't really do the kind of work we do there.  

We are careful with money but right now most things tri-related are possible. We'll see after the wedding and house purchase!

Edited by juniperjen 2009-12-13 6:23 AM

As for the money part, i'm in the 60-90k but as the economy has changed. our company has given us a 12% pay cut and dropped our 401 completely to keep from laying a bunch of people off. This happened in may 2009. But the good news is they have given us half of the 12% back starting in Jan 2010 and a one time yearly bonus plus some 401k back so i'm happy. With the unemployment at 10% and higher at the end of day i think i'm very blessed to even have a job. As for Tri equipment i have found some great deals on ebay and criagslist you just got to look around and wait.

You shouldn't share with co-workers as that can instill jealousy/undue rivalry.  But it really shouldn't matter to share with others.  As already mentioned, working for the government if I were to say my pay is equivalent to a GS-14, Step 2, then anoyone can look it up and find out if they wanted.

It's really not a big deal.

If we're going by just my salary, then I'm in the bottom. If we're going combined, we're one above the bottom. It isn't how I'd like it to be, and I'm pretty depressed about how bad wages have been. I'm making a very low wage for a job that is very technical and involves handling sensitive objects, and I make better wages at my retail job, but only by a quarter more. I know that being in the nonprofit sector is not a recipe for high income, but even by those standards, I'm not making a whole lot.

The result is that my bike is 6 years old, doesn't have any bells and whistles. I'm probably not going to race tris this year, and instead do just one race where my entry fee has already been paid due to missing the race last year. Because I don't have a salaried job, and I get a lot of hours on the weekend because I'm available (no kids to take care of or real obligations in that arena)...can't justify missing work for a race.

Where I work talking about your salary is grounds for dismissal. It ranks right up there with watching porn at work, sexual harrassment and stealing from the company or coworkers :-) Its pretty funny though because they post salary ranges for a specific "band" on the companies intranet. Those ranges are huge though, so someone who is in band X could make significantly less/more than someone else in the same band (hence the "talk about it and you're fired").

I don't really consider what I make private --- it's a government job so anyone could look it up. I know how much my coworkers make [well, the other attorneys' because we have a chart that shows the levels and steps for our jobs.

According to .gov statistics, the avg household income in the US is 48K

Just FWIW.

Heh, guess what my other sport is... Show jumping. But I can do it cheaper than most since I can keep them at home and do most of the training myself (I used to be a professional trainer.)

As for location (and the example of needing at least $250k to live comfortably in CA), I used to live in the Bay Area, and it wasn't until our household income hit $300k that we finally felt we were getting somewhere. Then we moved to CO, I kept my CA job and salary (hubby commuted to CA for his job for a while) and our living expenses were cut in half... WooHoo! Of course, hubby and I ended up changing jobs eventually, but our income never went down all that much relative to our living expenses and our quality of life went way up!
 

Edited by lodewey 2009-12-13 9:57 AM

I'm someone who just doesn't like to discuss income with people unless they are close to me.  However, I do think that $130k wouldn't be all that unreasonable for a 2 income household with the earners being in the average age groups for triathletes.  For those of us in a 1 income household (single or single earner) it is a stretch. 

x2 (except I am in the Philadelphia metro area)  I chose a career that makes little money but is extremely satisfying.

I make zero as a stay at home mom.. should be paid though! Fortunately we live in the DC area and my husband does pretty well..

Edited by Shanruns 2009-12-13 2:46 PM

Ouch neighbor!

If we don't believe in ourselves no one will!  You do not need math/money/technology/lawyer to make "6 figures".


 

One Million Dollars!!!! Mwahahahahahah!

I grew up in a house where you didn't discuss three things with strangers-Politics, religion or income.

I usually don't open these types of threads since they tend to support the falacy that you need well above average income to be a triathlete.

To me it is clear that:

1)  You don't need an expensive bike, wheels or helmet
2)  Once you have a bike, basic tri clothing and a wetsuit, you'll have very little additional clothing or equipment costs
3)  Running costs almost nothing (except for shoes)
4)  Swimming on a masters team can cost as little as $25 a month, though usually double or triple that
5)  Race entry fees for local races tend to be reasonable

Those of us who are a bit older tend to have higher incomes.  That's normal, and a reason why a lot of 45+ folks have very nice equipment.  In our 20s or 30s we couldn't have afforded the same type of equipment.  I'm one of those odd ones that has really cheap stuff even though I can theoretically afford much more expensive stuff -- I just don't see the need to spend lots of money on triathlon gear.

I honestly don't think that my AG peers who are faster than me are faster due to equipment (I have a really cheap bike).  I might rent some wheels for a key race this year, though, since I do think they help! 

The only times when I think triathlons are particularly expensive is when I do bigger out of town races which tend to have higher entry fees plus hotel/dining costs.  I take the whole family, so a weekend car trip to a triathlon can add up to $500 pretty quickly.  If by plane much more....

Brian

I have a theory about the average incomes of triathletes being high.  Many people think that triathlons attract people who are high wage earners.  However, I don't really see it that way.  I think it has more to do with the mentality of the person.  I think people that are driven to do something like triathlon are also driven in other areas in their life.  That drive leads to a higher than average income.  I know personally I am WAY more competitive and driven to do well in my job than I am at competing in triathlons.  Luckily for my wife and kids, I am also much better at my job than triathlons otherwise we would be living in a van down by the river.