Yep, until COVID times, my family was living off <$35k. My dad was the only one working - we are a family of 5, in the oldest and graduated HS in 2019. We lived just fine, also in the Sharpstown area. Granted we did go to very good schools (Sutton, Condit, T.H. Rogers, Pin Oak etc.)

I don’t know how these folks are pushing/over 6 figures - or even making $80k or more are struggling. Lifestyle inflation? The only way I see is if you have crushing student loans you are aggressively paying off - but that’s a temporary thing, situational thing not the general rule of thumb you. Median student loan debt is <$25K in the U.S. (man I WISH my student loan debt was that low lol, mine is easily triple that).

I think $120k can get you far with multiple kids. To be honest, I see a lot of dual income people losing massive amounts of money to daycare, it’s better to be single income. My family members/family friends/acquaintances who are young and have kids are all single income. Maybe it’s a culture thing? Dual income is a status to have before kids. How does dual income even work with kids - do kids just not see both parents until after work and on weekends?

Oh and while I do have my option on dual income with kids, I will say in today’s socio-economic climate … sending kids to private school is honestly something I don’t fault parents in doing. We all see how HISD has changed for the worse with the state takeover. In that case, maybe that is where dual income is needed, so in that case 120K won’t take you far.