This survey was conducted by Martindale Legal Marketing Services. They interviewed over 7,800 attorneys from more than two dozen practice areas and focused on the answers of 6,900 attorneys who work full-time. This is the first of an annual survey, so we’ll see more of these in the future.
The Martindale solo and small-firm compensation survey is a comprehensive one. But the methodology does not completely address the wide variances of pay in the world of small law. Hopefully, their future surveys will be more detailed and relevant.
Christmas. This one always sneaks up on me! Despite my pleas to “make christmas smaller,” it hasn’t worked and I just need to plan for it.
Last month we spent a little more on groceries because we did some large instacart orders to avoid going out during the pandemic. Although we started cutting back spending to get out of debt, it’s been easier with everything closed!
We’ve been very fortunate to have high incomes. But, with four kids and more and more and more expenses, we’ve found ourselves living paycheck to paycheck.
While we still need my sister-in-law as a nanny, my goal is to not go further into debt. Once the child care expenses decrease in about a year and a half, we’ll be able to aggressively pay down debt and save for home updates.
There’s a rule of thumb that the cost is typically 1.25 to 1.4 times the salary, depending on certain variables. So, if you pay someone a salary of $35,000, your actual costs likely will range from $43,750 to $49,000. Some added employment costs are mandatory, while others are a little harder to pin down. Fortunately, there may be tax savings to offset some of the costs.
Federal law requires employers with at least 50 employees to offer unpaid family and medical leave. But a number of states have paid leave laws. Some put the cost on employees (through wage withholding), while others require employers to share in the cost. And the District of Columbia puts the entire burden on employers.
Add up the costs to see whether your business can afford to add an employee to your staff. If your business is growing and you need more help, you can’t afford to NOT hire more workers. But knowing the cost will help you budget accordingly.
Now, singles and married couples can earn up to $200,000 and $400,000 respectively, before their child tax credit begins to disappear. Child tax credit income thresholds. Bottom line: their $300,000 gross income gets reduced by roughly 38% after taxes and retirement contributions to $187,840.
The average specialist doctor finishing his or her fellowship at 32 makes $300,000. The average salary for a primary care physician is $200,000.
A middle class lifestyle includes vacationing several weeks a year. Some will say that spending three weeks of vacation is a luxury. However, I say spending three weeks of vacation is normal for two working parents who want to keep their sanity.
Their $1.5M assessed house is a standard 1,750 s qft, three bedroom, two bathroom home on a 2,500 sqft lot. For new homebuyers, only interest on up to a $750,000 is taxable.
After analyzing all the numbers above, the ideal household income to raise a family is around $315,000 after deductions. At under $326,601 you pay a 24% marginal income tax rate and avoid having to pay a whopping 8% more in federal income tax on each dollar over for 2020. This marginal federal income tax jump is large compared to the 2% jump from 22% to 24%.
Finally, this post should also provide insights to non-coastal city residents on how good you’ve got it if you enjoy living where you are. $100,000 – $150,000 is a rough non-coastal city household income equivalent.
For 2020, the FICA tax rate for employers is 7.65% — 6.2% for OASDI and 1.45% for Medicare tax. For example, an employee will pay a 6.2% Social Security tax on the first $137,700 of wages (maximum tax is $8,537 [6.2% of $132,900]), plus 1.4% of all income earned. Since both parents work, both parents pay the tax.
IT IS NEVER TOO LATE TO SAVE! 1 Figure out your net income 2 Build a preliminary budget based on your net income, based on what you think you spend 3 Track your actual expenses; they are surely higher than what you’re estimating 4 Review your budget each month against what you actually spent 5 Trim your expenses (or be more realistic in your budget) 6 Save at least 10% (I prefer 15% – 25%) 7 If you still have a gaping hole in your budget, then make more money 8 The younger you start, the better it is, otherwise you’ll have to work later and later
Track your actual expenses; they are surely higher than what you’re estimating
The younger you start, the better it is, otherwise you’ll have to work later and later
Further, the estate tax threshold doubles to $11.58 million per individual and $23.16 million per married couple for 2021.
Not at all. The median household income in 2021 is about $68,000. After contributing $10,000 to your tax-deferred 401(k), you are left with $55,000 in gross income to live.
CrowdStreet is focused on 18-hour cities where valuations are lower and growth rates are potentially higher due to demographic shifts. If you have a lot more capital, you can build your own diversified portfolio of select real state investments.
It’s too bad the government puts income caps on certain retirement programs given everyone should improve their finances. Earning $100,000 a year is definitely not considered rich. Only if you are under the age of 25 and live in the MidWest would earning $100,000 be considered well-off.
Ideally, it’s best to have both high income and a large capital base. This is my goal, and therefore my goal for all of you as well. In this post, we’ll focus on the income side of the equation. I’ll discuss what income level to strive for just in case you don’t have a trust fund
With the new tax plan that started in 2018, the Trump administration now views individuals making $500,000 and married couples making $600,000 as rich, because those are the income thresholds that now pay the top federal marginal income tax rate of 37%. Further, the estate tax thresholddoubles to $11.7 million per individual and $23.4 million per married couple for 2021. But these thresholds are expected to drop under the Biden administration.
Therefore, if you are constantly stressed out making a lot of money, you might want to consider taking things down a notch! Making over $400,000 while working 80 hours a week is not considered rich. That makes you a time mendicant with minimal freedom to do what you want.
The $1,000-a-month rule is really a variation of the 4% rule, which has been a financial planning rule of thumb for many years. The 4% rule was first introduced by William Bengen, a financial planner who found that retirees could deduct 4% from their portfolio every year (and adjust for inflation) and not run out of money for at least 30 years. He said that retirees who had a mix of 50% stocks and 50% bonds and lived on about 4% or so each year would be unlikely to run out of money in retirement. 2 
For every $1,000 per month in desired retirement income, you need to have $240,000 saved .
After analyzing all the numbers above, the ideal household income to raise a family is $315,000 after deductions. At $315,000 you pay a 24% marginal income tax rate and avoid having to pay a whopping 8% more in federal income tax on each dollar over $315,000. This jump is large compared to the 2% jump from 22% to 24%.
Bottom line: their $300,000 gross income gets reduced by roughly 38% after taxes and retirement contributions.
Finally, this post should also provide insights to non-coastal city residents on how good you’ve got it if you enjoy living where you are. $100,000 – $150,000 is a rough non-coastal city household income equivalent.
Based on my experience, happiness did not increase for me when I began making over $200,000 as an individual. Happiness did not increase for us when we began making over $300,000 either. Therefore, due to the increase taxes and increase stress, it seems pointless to put yourself through the ringer simply to try and make more from a day job.
Although $300,000 is a lot compared to the median household income in the United States of ~$59,000, it’s not an outrageous sum of money once you look at the realistic income statement I’ve put together for this post. All expenses in my example use current prices. I’ve also cross checked the expenses with my family’s monthly expenses now that we have a son to make sure they are within reason.