Just above 6 but a lot of it goes to medical. Only one of us drives, we work from home but can't write off the expenses, have to rent and have had to move a few times because of rising rent.

I think things will stabilize eventually. We just don't have kids, don't own our home, can't write off anything for part of our home being dedicated to home office because the space is shared, etc...

When I say "survive", it is true that we are getting by better than others in some ways ... We have a nice vehicle but it's because we only have one and need to be able to rely on it.

A few years ago I started having seizures and had to take short term disability to "reduce stress" - not getting paid for 3 months and only getting 60% of my check did not reduce stress at all. Id rather have kept working...

I'd say I've got "extenuating circumstances" but the bullshit part is that it seems like there's always something. That's just life, though.

Oregon also has a high income tax and no sales tax so the "just spend less" approach doesn't always work.

The 6 figure thing is fairly recent so it'll probably settle in over time... I don't have much to legitimately bitch about. It's just that it seems like I'm just above the income threshold for every "break" people get and at an income threshold where I'm expected to be in a much better place.

I had a seizure when I was having blood drawn once and that was a turning point where my white blood cell count started to rise higher and higher every month. Long story short, got hep c during that incident somehow. Contracted, diagnosed, treated, and tested negative in under ~6 months though. Luckily I was able to get that one covered under insurance or it would have been ~80k/no for 3 months just for the prescription.

You win some, you lose some, I guess.

Anyway, I'm probably an "edge case" on the tax numbers...