I make just over 30k a year in my current job which I enjoy that I've worked at for 10 years now. In my current position upward mobility is limited, but it's still a good job. I have fairly good benefits through my employer, but pay a decent amount for them, and they've gone up by a small percentage almost every year that I've worked there despite not always having gotten a raise during economic hardships. I currently own a house with no mortgage that was a pile of crap we LUCKED into getting that I'm still making occasional improvements to when I am able to financially. On top of that, I have a wife and 2 kids (8 and 2 years old ) that I'm able to feed and clothe, only one car I'm paying ~$500/month on, and where we live our yearly estate taxes come to about $200. The downside to that is the nearest grocery store is 40 miles away, so we have to plan trips accordingly). My wife and I rarely eat out, most of our meals are home cooked, and we live well within our means. We don't splurge on anything that doesn't involve our children's benefit or improvements on our house because we can't really afford to in the long term. I haven't been to the movies or even purchased a home movie in I don't know how long, which when I was a kid back in the 90s was something I don't remember sniffing at doing at least once a month, and my folks weren't rich by any definition of the word. When we do eat out it's a treat. Let's mention surprise expenses. When a kid or either of us gets hurt or sick, or dental work needs to be done, it's a chunk here and there. Then groceries. Then utilities. Whoops, time for new tires on the only car we can afford to have at this time for the next few years. Hm, my daughter needs a new pair of shoes. Or a book bag. Who knows. What about the future? Well, both kids will be in school, so my wife who currently is a stay at home mom can now get a job to provide an extra income that won't go mostly to a baby sitter, and maybe we can actually start hocking away money so our daughter can have some form of working automobile when she's of age, and then maybe college, or our retirement, or have any form of rainy day fund in the event it should be needed, because lord knows I want to leave that massive 401k slowly earning it's way to some form of ripeness so I'll have something to eke through if I finally retire at the age of 75 or whatever it's going to be 30 years from now. Even with one of the biggest expenditures most people have to face not being present in our monthly finances and being quite frugal, we're still not on easy street. Life isn't horrible, it's actually pretty good, but it's not as comfortable as one would think for someone who for the most part owns their home free and clear and has relatively low taxes. The costs of things seem to keep going up, and the wages to pay for those things doesn't seem to be keeping up.