Scraping by on $400,000 (DI, 2 kids, full-time nanny, private schools)

[GrayMatterWife]

**cross-posted with Ides. No disagreement with her.**

You do NOT need a a nanny AND daycare. I work full-time and have three kids. I have no nanny. And no housekeeper. And no gardener.

And, you do not need to live in the Upper West Side or in the mid-50s. Try Carroll Gardens or Park Slope or Bay Ridge. Or...**GASP!** try New Jersey. I know it is an affront to your city sensibility--to become part of the lowly bridge-and-tunnel crowd--but that is life. Grow the f**k up.

What these people REALLY mean is that they cannot support their preferred lifestyle on $400K a year in Manhattan. And I am sure they are correct. $400K a year does not buy you much of a high-end lifestyle in NYC. So, the choice is simple: lessen your lifestyle or move. But don't make the phoney-baloney suggestion that you are "just getting by," as if that is equivalent to the paycheck-to-paycheck existence that so many people ACTUALLY experience, not by their choice of lifestyle but out of a lack of any other option.

[ides]

**cross-posted with Ides. No disagreement with her.**

You do NOT need a a nanny AND daycare. I work full-time and have three kids. I have no nanny. And no housekeeper. And no gardener.

And, you do not need to live in the Upper West Side or in the mid-50s. Try Carroll Gardens or Park Slope or Bay Ridge. Or...**GASP!** try New Jersey. I know it is an affront to your city sensibility--to become part of the lowly bridge-and-tunnel crowd--but that is life. Grow the f**k up.

What these people REALLY mean is that they cannot support their preferred lifestyle on $400K a year in Manhattan. And I am sure they are correct. $400K a year does not buy you much of a high-end lifestyle in NYC. So, the choice is simple: lessen your lifestyle or move. But don't make the phoney-baloney suggestion that you are "just getting by," as if that is equivalent to the paycheck-to-paycheck existence that so many people ACTUALLY experience, not by their choice of lifestyle but out of a lack of any other option.

Here here!

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[SuzySunshine]

.

What these people REALLY mean is that they cannot support their preferred lifestyle on $400K a year in Manhattan. And I am sure they are correct. $400K a year does not buy you much of a high-end lifestyle in NYC. So, the choice is simple: lessen your lifestyle or move. But don't make the phoney-baloney suggestion that you are "just getting by," as if that is equivalent to the paycheck-to-paycheck existence that so many people ACTUALLY experience, not by their choice of lifestyle but out of a lack of any other option.

This!

[Thirteen]

...It made me laugh. Is that bad?

We moved, so we could have a better COL than where we were. I do it all (no gardener, no preschool): things could always improve financially, but I'm not about to write an article, complaining about how tortured my existence is because I overspend.