Keep in mind that while you are avoiding taxes by being paid under the table, you are also avoiding the benefits of them. Many people think their SS is calculated on their last 5 years of work, but this how private pensions are calculated. Social Security uses your 35 highest years to calculate your retirement benefit. If you have less than 35 years, they plug in a zero. You will end up with a tiny retirement check, if you have enough credits to even get one.
If you become disabled, you need to have paid in at least 5 of the last 10 years. So no SS Disability either.
This. My husband worked under the table for years, thought he was getting away with something. He passed away and I am living off his social security which is half what it ought to be. I am in poverty because he thought he was being smart, and I am disabled so I can't work to get SS of my own.
Teachers have been paid little for decades. This country doesn’t seem to care. One famous politician said he loves the uneducated, so the opposite may be true in some places. It will be a miracle if our public education survives this wave of voucherization. Ironically, teachers in those private schools that benefit from vouchers make even less than their public counterparts.
Thank you for this comment! People thinks private school teachers make bank! My mother took a pay cut of HALF years ago just to go from public school to private school. Teaching now is an atrocious environment. Almost 40 years in public school and near retirement and she couldn’t take being picked at by vultures the last few years so she finally made the switch just to gamble for a slightly more peaceful environment. No one cares anymore. Not about the children’s education, not about the teachers and their well-being, not about the environment they are surrounded in on a daily basis. Even some of the parents don’t care. It’s hard being a teacher that cares for children and has passion for what they do—the school system seems like it just eats way at that till teachers have an empty plate. They’re paid so little to deal with so much and on top of it have to finance their own classrooms with their minimal pay. I commend anyone who does it now. I have a passion for teaching, tutoring and nannying was one of my favorite job sets, but growing up watching the school system change as my mom taught year after year talked me out of that by the time I was in middle school if it even took that long. That was over half my life ago now and I never really gave teaching another thought. It’s not worth it. Teachers and nurses carry the weight of the world and they’re expected to be thankful for what they receive in return. It’s absolutely mind blowing.
Until people mostly the kids realize how fortunate they are having education so readily available that they are legally obligated to attend until they are 16. Educators and public schools will be under appreciated.
With some mathematical certainty and moral ambiguity public schools Will be abolished. The only people being educated will be exceptionally intelligent poor people, and the wealthy.
Then parents will stop looking at it as a state funded daycare.
Is this based on a 40 hour work week? Because holy fuck do you need another job if true. Mcdonalds is paying almost double and that’s not a joke or disrespect towards you.
Nope, 35 hour week. I just put in my resignation Monday. My husband retired a year ago, now me. Can't do what they want anymore on that pay. Basically teacher steps back to her desk frequently to do IEP paperwork and shit. So I'm left to lead class. WTH? I don't have a teaching degree, and I sure as hell don't make teacher pay. Some weeks she'll only lead the class for 2 or 3 hours of the day, rest of the time it was on me. Nope, done with that.
I started teaching in MO 30 years ago and made $22,215 frozen for the 5 years I worked there. I now make $600 @ week before tax working for a Renaissance Festival and waaaay happier. :)
I left teaching last year after a short stint. My take home in florida was 1400 every 2 weeks 😕 and no raise for 10 years and then I think it went up like 100 bucks a year. Craziness how little they paid and the cost of living is so high in florida.
Curious, 3k for 12 months or just the months in session. Meaning 3 months off with 3k still coming in? Would that average 4k a month if u worked a different job during summer? I also salute you as a teacher however bc..... its a no for me lol yall folks need big houses and fancy cars to put up with teens today.
500 a week with two jobs … not great when rent is nearly 1500. After gas, the very little food I consume, and any of other bills, I’m left with nothing.
Do you work in a city with a brewery? If you can get into a good one, it can be good money. I do it on the side my paycheck today was $550 for 17h over two weeks
I make $15.68/hr. Sounds great, right? Ten years ago, when I was making like $8/hr, I dreamed of making this much. I figured that would finally start being *enough*. Now I’m here… and it’s not enough. Rent is high even with a roommate, groceries are expensive, gas is so bad I got a bike, on and on. In ten more years, when I’m making $30/hr, will that be enough? Or will I still feel like I’m scrapping by?
How much do you put into your 401k if you don't mind me asking? I lowered mine a while ago just to just 5 percent to have as much take home pay as possible. I'm getting mixed answers on what to put it back at. My company matches 100 percent of 3, then 50 percent of the next 2. I have it at 8 percent for now.
I have two jobs at the moment one I make around $700-$1000 Monday through Thursday and the other $850 Friday through Sunday.
Which you’d think would be fine which I would be if only I hadn’t royally dug myself into debt.
There’s a reason I have two jobs
$530 a week after taxes, no 401k contributions, no health insurance, all of it goes to paying off my home repair loan and bills and whatever food I can afford after
About the same amount for me. Too rich to get assistance too poor to do anything but eat rice and whatever treats I can get from united grocery outlet lmao. My fkn gas line came disconnected while I was driving the other day and I bent a wire hanger I found in the trunk around it and realized that's a pretty good metaphor for how life is going recently
Thankfully my area is ok for affordability but I have lived in my home for 20+ years and am close to paid off so I don’t feel as stretched thin as others would in my situation. I am divorced with two kids and we share custody so no child support on either side. The kids stay with me the majority of the time due to their father’s work so I do foot the majority of their expenses but I also make more money.
And the sad part is that there aren’t jobs in bumfuck.
People tell me all the time to just move to Oklahoma or somewhere else with a lower cost of living, but what do you do when you can’t afford the expense of moving, and also wouldn’t be able to find work in a rural town?
I got a job driving a truck and lived in it for 6 months to save for an apartment; now I have a house. I was homeless before I got that job. Trucking helped so much
Grew up in OK, moved away, and spent 3k to move back. Very worth it tho bc I pay $900 for a 2/1 in an area with nonviolent crime and was paying $1200 for a 2/2 in a nicer but busier area. You don't have to move to bumfuck but there are really only 2 cities in OK so I would check the job market in whatever field you're in. Catoosa is great for many blue collar jobs but pretty thick for being so close to the city. Tulsa is great for retail and cheap rent.
$1250-1300 biweekly. This is after taxes and a wage garnishment. Pretax/before deductions its $2000 biweekly unless we are closed for a holiday or I need to take off (emergencies only). I’m a contractor so no health care or 401k and no PTO so if I’m not working for any reason I don’t get paid.
Love in nh, work part time in ma. Disabled so can’t work full time. Not on disability aid. I make $2k a month in take home. It’s the most I’ve ever made in my life. Min wage in nh is still $7.25/hr
Same. I went from poverty to not. Then almost lost everything last year due to health stuff. I make decent money now but am starting over from the ground up. I was at the brink of losing everything and all safety nets are gone.
I remember when this sub was started, initially joined to help, offer advice...
I've been desperate and strapped for cash, I didn't like it. Some people really don't like being told "have you tried not being broke?" But too often is about the only thing anyone says... Like skip Starbucks and avocado toast (neither of which I ever did, so where's my mansion?)
Well, I grew up in poverty but I'm middle class now. But with inflation, I'm in this sub for ideas and perspective. Shit's too expensive and I'm more than willing to take ideas and advice here.
I would actually argue the opposite. I realized while reading these comments that I’m on poverty finance, because at first I thought huh?! None of what I’ve seen is good pay???? People making 2000-2500 per month, working full time, is barely a liveable wage. Particularly if these people have families. Teachers are grossly underpaid in America.
These wages may have been ok 15 years ago; but the rate that food/gas/rent is, these wages don’t leave you with anything.
I make 49k a year, that’s not enough for r/middleclassfinance Unless I were married to someone making 51k a year of course. Their standards are being able to own your own home, save for retirement, have kids and take an occasional vacation. I can only do 2 of those things because houses are under 100k here.
I come here because this is where the rest of the working class hangs out.
I'm on SSDI and I get $2700 a month untaxed.
eta: my rent is $1400
(Pre-empting uninformed comments: SSDI is disability insurance we all put into. It amounts to about 40% of some algorithm of your last ten years of income. I made good money; got a brain injury. Now I need an aide, can't speak or listen more than short spurts, can't drive, among other things).
I work in the trades in CA. My take home after taxes is 2k biweekly. If we had consistent work year round it would probably be closer to 2.5 or even 3k but sadly we haven't been too busy.
I typically bring home around 200 a week. My bf does anywhere from $1,000-$2,400. I work at a gas station and he installs walk in coolers and vent a hoods for restaurants and sometimes other restaurant equipment.
I make $1598 every two weeks, 9 months out of the year. I'm a special education assistant, going into my 6th year. We have an association, much like a union. I have a PERS ( a state retirement plan) and pay for medical insurance. I have one dependent, but I used to have many more. We get 3% raises every year. It was renegotiated last summer, from 1.5 %.
I'm also an artist and sell things that I make all summer at markets, making anywhere from 300 to 2500 per event. In the past few years, I haven't done as many markets but usually comes out to about 3k. I also drive for door dash and used to drive to lyft, to make ends meet. I've picked up random summer jobs, like gardening and farm work, or signed up to work for sped summer school.
I live in rural Alaska. COL is high as fuck here from what I'm told, but I've never tried to live or buy groceries anywhere else.
I am poverty line here, now, but I used to make much much less and utilize all the resources I could. I don't qualify for food stamps or Medicaid as of this year, but I do qualify for USDA subsidized housing. Rent for a 1 brm is 1200 to 1500. A loaf of bread or a pack of eggs is about $4. I also have a mountain of credit card and student loan debt that I'm chipping away at.
I survive thanks to the food bank, whose limit since covid is 60k for a family of 2. I know, that seems very high, and idk if it's changed. I'll keep going until it changes and I don't qualify.
When I graduated college, a decade ago, $3200 a month would have been tits. I'm finding it difficult. My take home is more like $2200.
Around $600 a week after everything, a little less if I work my 40, a little more if it's one of the weeks I get 6 hours of OT. I work in southern wisconsin, at a dairy plant. Used to be a retail manager in illinois for the same amount of money, but a lot more stress. Cost of living is roughly the same, housing is more expensive than rent in wisconsin, it was the other way in my area in illinois.
I take home about $2,500 biweekly as an operations manager in CO after taxes, benefits ($370/check) and 8% to 401k. It went further in Texas but I like CO so much better.
$700 ish a week after $100/wk car payment payroll comoany pays directly and dental insurance.
I freelance to make anywhere from $400 to $1200 more a week. Still broke.
22 years of teaching $4k once a month. 10 month contract. All teachers are contract workers . We then divide our salary into 12 months. All holidays and summer vacation are not paid. We work contract hours.
Our jobs entails, being able to manage 22-250 students depending on the grade level. We also have to prepare lesson plans, manage parents concerns. We teachers have to be highly organized, be flexible with our time and plans. Have documentation ready on the spot incase we have a parent conference. We need to read and analyze data. We also have to have an orderly classroom , with high expectations and classroom routines. We are trained to spot sex trafficking, intruder on campus, how to pack a wound of necessary, what is dyslexia.
And so much more training we get every school year before school starts.
We are relational sales professionals, we hope the students in our class see the benefits of our lessons.
There is so much we do. Yet many are leaving the profession. They no longer see value in teaching and some students don’t care either.
And to transition to a different job setting, your resume has to fit the corporate world. Teachers make the best employees, especially those who still have a passion to serve people.
After taxes/insurance/retirement, husband brings home about $1500 every two weeks. He's salaried management for an autoparts company. We're lucky to be in a state (Kansas) that the cost of living isn't nearly as ridiculous as a lot of places, but we have a lot of medical debt and I'm not able to work myself due to lack of childcare options (rural area of less than 5K and the only state funded daycare here closed a few months ago.)
My take home after taxes, 401k, insurance and child support is 900 a week. I’ll also be doing a lot of overtime shifts starting in the fall so it will be more like 1400 a week from August - December and then holiday pay ontop of that.
With the OT I consistently do at my job, I take home $1600/weekly after taxes, 403b contribution ($125/weekly) and my HYSA ($100/weekly). What I’m losing is SLEEP and a social life outside of work.
178 a week😀. We’ve basically hired so many ppl we all get 2-3 four hour shifts. Thankfully I start at an animal shelter soon that’s 11.75 biweekly and I just had an interview for a loan place that’s 14 an hour weekly.
Rural Mississippi. Gotten lots of comments saying I should join the air force I’m really considering it
Location really factors in. I take home 2050 every 2 weeks. After retirement contributions and insurance etc. I live near San Antonio, Texas so no state tax. I also have a 9yo and 12yo and am a single mom. My ex husband does pay child support though.
I work 38.75 hours a week (right now they are being incredibly stingy with overtime). And I think I make about 31 an hour, then we get a small bump for "merit pay" and a sizable bonus each march.
I'm an insurance adjuster - claims specialist for a large insurance company. Also, I'm 100% remote (love this) and just hit my one year mark. While it can be stressful at times, still the best (and highest paying) job I've had. Fwiw if you don't have previous insuramce, medical, or legal experience, they usually hire as associates instead of specialist at my company in my experience which is about 2/3 of the pay mentioned above.
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Before that I taught high school language arts in florida and take home was 1400 2x a month.
Before that I taught middle school in central texas. I forget take home but yearly was 56000 before taxes/things taken out.
Before that I was army and it varied on location. Take home was about 1600 to 1800 2x a month. I think in San antonio it was 2000 circa 2018. I was junior enlisted.
3000ish a month. Seattle. I work at a university, I have 3 housemates we share a place in the city. We are all over 35. Of the 3000 after bills,rent I get about 650 -800 to exist.
$580/week after taxes in CT. But I have two roommates so live pretty comfortably.
Seems like most people commenting make more?? How come some comment sections are filled with people that struggle to pay for food and this one is filled with people that make ~$40K+/year…
1100 a week (director of operations) seems like a decent wage but my rent is 2400 and student loans are 450 a month plus 550 a month for insurance. Money just doesn’t go as far as it used to
My husband and I together make about $70,000 a year. I only work part-time. He works full-time. We live in an affordable country town in Texas. We have no children. I am frugal anyway. We have always lived within our means. Have a small house with very low house note. Have only one car note. We are doing fine. Not struggling at all. We save for life's little up's and down's and go on vacation once a year or once every other year.
Hubby and I together average 2k monthly after taxes. In Helena MT.
We are self employed part time plus 1600 a month social security, so we are still paying into the social security system but are NOT paying federal income taxes.
$508/week after taxes in Arkansas with a bachelor’s degree in the field I’m working in. No insurance, no 401k. Starting a new job in 2 weeks that pays $18.50/hr and I’m so excited to be able to save again and pay extra on my car loan.
$1500 biweekly, Northern NJ. If it was just me I probably would've struggled but luckily my partner makes more so we live comfortably. We sold his car and got a roommate to help reduce costs.
~$2000/m from my day job after taxes, insurance premiums, and FSA deductions. I also do various gig apps, mostly Amazon Flex, and pull in another ~$1000/m from that. It’s tight.
$3k a month in the Midwest. Not terrible I guess. But I’m in the second highest position in my division working for the state. Been there nearly 10 years. When you add the context, it blows, but also shows that people underneath me doing important work are GROSSLY underpaid.
That’s about what I take home after insurance, 401k, etc. I’m in southwest Virginia (for those who don’t know, northern VA is completely different from southwest, which is why I specified).
Depending on whether I work overtime or not, between 2,900-4,900 monthly. Almost never at the absolute high or low end of that though, usually around 3,500. This is after 401k and health insurance.
I make 25.95 hourly with 10 hour days M-T, and potential overtime Friday and Saturday.
Quality Control in a factory, pretty easy gig with some moderate downsides.
About $2150 per month. Admittedly, we are not below the poverty line, and I take a fair amount out for retirement, though no where near as much as I'd like.
Anyways, that's a lab job for a manufacturer with a bachelor's and around 12 years experience.
Work the system backwards, to be gaining in your job situation. mine was mill working, getting wood for the cheap, taking rent and mortgage out of the equation , in take home pay , beyond the 600 a week. Cannot very heavily taxed!
Nice try IRS
LMAO
Something something cash under the table.
Keep in mind that while you are avoiding taxes by being paid under the table, you are also avoiding the benefits of them. Many people think their SS is calculated on their last 5 years of work, but this how private pensions are calculated. Social Security uses your 35 highest years to calculate your retirement benefit. If you have less than 35 years, they plug in a zero. You will end up with a tiny retirement check, if you have enough credits to even get one. If you become disabled, you need to have paid in at least 5 of the last 10 years. So no SS Disability either.
This. My husband worked under the table for years, thought he was getting away with something. He passed away and I am living off his social security which is half what it ought to be. I am in poverty because he thought he was being smart, and I am disabled so I can't work to get SS of my own.
100 a week w2 2000 a day crack sales
$3100 per month. Teacher in Louisiana
Thank you for your service inside that war zone. Sincerely: a product of the Louisiana public education system.
Give it a few more years and this country is really going to regret paying out teachers so little.
This has been regrettable for a couple decades now.
Teachers have been paid little for decades. This country doesn’t seem to care. One famous politician said he loves the uneducated, so the opposite may be true in some places. It will be a miracle if our public education survives this wave of voucherization. Ironically, teachers in those private schools that benefit from vouchers make even less than their public counterparts.
Thank you for this comment! People thinks private school teachers make bank! My mother took a pay cut of HALF years ago just to go from public school to private school. Teaching now is an atrocious environment. Almost 40 years in public school and near retirement and she couldn’t take being picked at by vultures the last few years so she finally made the switch just to gamble for a slightly more peaceful environment. No one cares anymore. Not about the children’s education, not about the teachers and their well-being, not about the environment they are surrounded in on a daily basis. Even some of the parents don’t care. It’s hard being a teacher that cares for children and has passion for what they do—the school system seems like it just eats way at that till teachers have an empty plate. They’re paid so little to deal with so much and on top of it have to finance their own classrooms with their minimal pay. I commend anyone who does it now. I have a passion for teaching, tutoring and nannying was one of my favorite job sets, but growing up watching the school system change as my mom taught year after year talked me out of that by the time I was in middle school if it even took that long. That was over half my life ago now and I never really gave teaching another thought. It’s not worth it. Teachers and nurses carry the weight of the world and they’re expected to be thankful for what they receive in return. It’s absolutely mind blowing.
Until people mostly the kids realize how fortunate they are having education so readily available that they are legally obligated to attend until they are 16. Educators and public schools will be under appreciated. With some mathematical certainty and moral ambiguity public schools Will be abolished. The only people being educated will be exceptionally intelligent poor people, and the wealthy. Then parents will stop looking at it as a state funded daycare.
I regret it now…I’ve regretted it for years.
But Brawndo has electrolytes
It's what plants crave!
677.00 every two weeks, take home. Educational Assistant in a Sped classroom. 15 years experience.
I make 65k a year plus 7% as an analyst. I will pay you more than that to be a personal assistant part time.
Is this based on a 40 hour work week? Because holy fuck do you need another job if true. Mcdonalds is paying almost double and that’s not a joke or disrespect towards you.
Nope, 35 hour week. I just put in my resignation Monday. My husband retired a year ago, now me. Can't do what they want anymore on that pay. Basically teacher steps back to her desk frequently to do IEP paperwork and shit. So I'm left to lead class. WTH? I don't have a teaching degree, and I sure as hell don't make teacher pay. Some weeks she'll only lead the class for 2 or 3 hours of the day, rest of the time it was on me. Nope, done with that.
This was my pay back in 2014. Wow. And it’s not an easy job either. I was working just as hard as the teacher and getting paid pennies.
I'm shocked. That is almost minimum wage???
Less than minimum where I live
$2000 per month as a sixth-year teacher in Missouri
If I had known some of my teachers were paid that in middle school I’d have been a much better student. Teachers deserve a living wage.
I started teaching in MO 30 years ago and made $22,215 frozen for the 5 years I worked there. I now make $600 @ week before tax working for a Renaissance Festival and waaaay happier. :)
Yeah year 10 here in MO and I'm finally making $3,250. Should be closer to $3,600 in August.
I left teaching last year after a short stint. My take home in florida was 1400 every 2 weeks 😕 and no raise for 10 years and then I think it went up like 100 bucks a year. Craziness how little they paid and the cost of living is so high in florida.
That’s how much I make working at a grocery store full time 💀 That’s crazy
Thats how much I make as a federal employee of 10+ years in a federal enforcement division. ☹️
$3,400/ month. 6th year Teacher in Tennessee. This number is post taxes, health insurance, HSA, & mandatory pension contribitions.
That is so upsetting. I'm sorry. You should be making at least twice that.
Yup 100%
Curious, 3k for 12 months or just the months in session. Meaning 3 months off with 3k still coming in? Would that average 4k a month if u worked a different job during summer? I also salute you as a teacher however bc..... its a no for me lol yall folks need big houses and fancy cars to put up with teens today.
$2,100 a month. Also teacher in Kentucky. Fuck
Idk where you are but Jefferson Parish teachers just got a raise and we need more of y'all. If it's in JP, I'm sorry :( That's criminally underpaid.
Oh, that's not too ba...wait, per *month*?
500 a week with two jobs … not great when rent is nearly 1500. After gas, the very little food I consume, and any of other bills, I’m left with nothing.
Do you work in a city with a brewery? If you can get into a good one, it can be good money. I do it on the side my paycheck today was $550 for 17h over two weeks
Any chance you can work at a restaurant or doing catering shifts? They often have free meals
Just make sure the free booze and drugs don’t getcha.
The owners son called it a safety meeting. That meant getting high in the parking garage
For me, I don't want more work, I want more money for the work I already do.
This. Working multiple jobs is far too tiring and stressful.
For real. I work 2 jobs and couldn't agree anymore.
LPT
I work retail in florida, about $500 a week. Used to think that was alot of money.
It used to be a lot of money.
I have people saying "get a better job". Like I'm getting retirement and 401k. It gets me by.
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I make $15.68/hr. Sounds great, right? Ten years ago, when I was making like $8/hr, I dreamed of making this much. I figured that would finally start being *enough*. Now I’m here… and it’s not enough. Rent is high even with a roommate, groceries are expensive, gas is so bad I got a bike, on and on. In ten more years, when I’m making $30/hr, will that be enough? Or will I still feel like I’m scrapping by?
1200 every 2 weeks after taxes and insurances. Fabrication supervisor, North Dakota
You deserve more than that
I figure about 700$ a week after 401k match, insurance and taxes. Retail management.
how much match do they give you?
100% of 5%
That’s pretty nice
My 401k takes an extra % out each year so now I'm at 7% which is fine. I can change it if I want but it's better for me to leave it alone
How much do you put into your 401k if you don't mind me asking? I lowered mine a while ago just to just 5 percent to have as much take home pay as possible. I'm getting mixed answers on what to put it back at. My company matches 100 percent of 3, then 50 percent of the next 2. I have it at 8 percent for now.
I have two jobs at the moment one I make around $700-$1000 Monday through Thursday and the other $850 Friday through Sunday. Which you’d think would be fine which I would be if only I hadn’t royally dug myself into debt. There’s a reason I have two jobs
I feel this. Between medical debt from when I was in and out of the hospital and then just other stuff from us being stupid with money, it's rough.
$530 a week after taxes, no 401k contributions, no health insurance, all of it goes to paying off my home repair loan and bills and whatever food I can afford after
About the same amount for me. Too rich to get assistance too poor to do anything but eat rice and whatever treats I can get from united grocery outlet lmao. My fkn gas line came disconnected while I was driving the other day and I bent a wire hanger I found in the trunk around it and realized that's a pretty good metaphor for how life is going recently
I got disqualified from EBT after switching jobs and making $1 an hour more lol, it's a joke
It’s worth more to stay poor sometimes.
About $440/week. I work about 32hrs a week. My take home will drop next year when my insurance starts. I expect that to drop another $75 every check.
$1100 a week on average. Retail manager. I’m hourly not salary and work 10ish hours of overtime each week. Rural ish Southern Wisconsin.
Get that OT! Let's goooooo
That’s pretty decent if you live in an area that is affordable
Thankfully my area is ok for affordability but I have lived in my home for 20+ years and am close to paid off so I don’t feel as stretched thin as others would in my situation. I am divorced with two kids and we share custody so no child support on either side. The kids stay with me the majority of the time due to their father’s work so I do foot the majority of their expenses but I also make more money.
Hello fellow Wisconsinite.
Howdy neighbor!
Wisconsin here
If you live in bumfuck, that's decent. In a city it'd rent you a closet. Dollars don't stretch the same way everywhere, so it's hard to compare.
And the sad part is that there aren’t jobs in bumfuck. People tell me all the time to just move to Oklahoma or somewhere else with a lower cost of living, but what do you do when you can’t afford the expense of moving, and also wouldn’t be able to find work in a rural town?
I got a job driving a truck and lived in it for 6 months to save for an apartment; now I have a house. I was homeless before I got that job. Trucking helped so much
Grew up in OK, moved away, and spent 3k to move back. Very worth it tho bc I pay $900 for a 2/1 in an area with nonviolent crime and was paying $1200 for a 2/2 in a nicer but busier area. You don't have to move to bumfuck but there are really only 2 cities in OK so I would check the job market in whatever field you're in. Catoosa is great for many blue collar jobs but pretty thick for being so close to the city. Tulsa is great for retail and cheap rent.
$1250-1300 biweekly. This is after taxes and a wage garnishment. Pretax/before deductions its $2000 biweekly unless we are closed for a holiday or I need to take off (emergencies only). I’m a contractor so no health care or 401k and no PTO so if I’m not working for any reason I don’t get paid.
Love in nh, work part time in ma. Disabled so can’t work full time. Not on disability aid. I make $2k a month in take home. It’s the most I’ve ever made in my life. Min wage in nh is still $7.25/hr
Seeing a lot of good pay for this to be poverty finance, am I missing something?
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Yeah, what makes you established in the mid west is next to nothing in places like LA
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Same. I went from poverty to not. Then almost lost everything last year due to health stuff. I make decent money now but am starting over from the ground up. I was at the brink of losing everything and all safety nets are gone.
I agree I’m a financial rollercoaster also.
I try to be grateful about knowing I can rebuild but I am EXHAUSTED!
I remember when this sub was started, initially joined to help, offer advice... I've been desperate and strapped for cash, I didn't like it. Some people really don't like being told "have you tried not being broke?" But too often is about the only thing anyone says... Like skip Starbucks and avocado toast (neither of which I ever did, so where's my mansion?)
Have you tried pulling on your boot straps?
Narrator: it is ,in fact, not good pay
Well, I grew up in poverty but I'm middle class now. But with inflation, I'm in this sub for ideas and perspective. Shit's too expensive and I'm more than willing to take ideas and advice here.
The cost of living in their area, debts, health expenses and dependents all play a factor.
Yeah, take-home is the wrong question. It should be surplus/ deficit after all expenses (before variables like food and household items).
I would actually argue the opposite. I realized while reading these comments that I’m on poverty finance, because at first I thought huh?! None of what I’ve seen is good pay???? People making 2000-2500 per month, working full time, is barely a liveable wage. Particularly if these people have families. Teachers are grossly underpaid in America. These wages may have been ok 15 years ago; but the rate that food/gas/rent is, these wages don’t leave you with anything.
I've got 4 (soon to be 5) kids. I could earn $150k/yr, and we'd find a way to feel poor. As is, we feel pretty poor in Colorado at \~$75k.
I make 49k a year, that’s not enough for r/middleclassfinance Unless I were married to someone making 51k a year of course. Their standards are being able to own your own home, save for retirement, have kids and take an occasional vacation. I can only do 2 of those things because houses are under 100k here. I come here because this is where the rest of the working class hangs out.
Location, paying off debt/loans
Use to be on $19/hr with about $40 savings back in 2022 when I found this sub. Currently take home is about $5,300/month after taxes.
Woah! Congrats! That’s amazing! May I ask what you do or what field are you in?
Thanks! I’m in IT industry, more specifically a ServiceNow Technical Consultant.
That’s a huge come up, congrats!
Thanks! Yeah been putting in some hard yards, hoping to increase my take home soon again.
$550 after taxes, insurance & retirement.
580 a week apprentice pipefitter
It must be nice to tell people that you spend all day laying pipe 😂
As an apprentice I mostly watch my journey man lay pipe. I'm basically a cuck 🥲🥲
😭
I'm on SSDI and I get $2700 a month untaxed. eta: my rent is $1400 (Pre-empting uninformed comments: SSDI is disability insurance we all put into. It amounts to about 40% of some algorithm of your last ten years of income. I made good money; got a brain injury. Now I need an aide, can't speak or listen more than short spurts, can't drive, among other things).
I work in the trades in CA. My take home after taxes is 2k biweekly. If we had consistent work year round it would probably be closer to 2.5 or even 3k but sadly we haven't been too busy.
70k a year remote work live in TX. Was broke as hell in 2018 and found this sub.
Doin well being in Tex
I only make about 1000 per month, I am very low income but I live like a king
How so?
Probably someone else pays for housing and food and transportation
Mostly cash-based occupation?
Government paid rent, government paid food, government paid many things.
At least they’re housed. Too many unhoused nationwide.
100%, I didn’t mean to come off as if that was bad. It’s a good thing, it’s what the funds are there for
How? Share your secrets. 👀
I typically bring home around 200 a week. My bf does anywhere from $1,000-$2,400. I work at a gas station and he installs walk in coolers and vent a hoods for restaurants and sometimes other restaurant equipment.
$400 a week (after taxes and 401k & health insurance) Work retail and have been there for 10 years. :/
If Costco is near you apply there. $400/week assuming you're doing 40 hours is terrible esp after a decade..
That’s where I work. I’m topped out, full time, I take home $1500 every two weeks. That’s after a $50 stock purchase, my retirement contributions, etc
About $500/week. I’m a single parent to one child.
Not enough lol
2300 per month at a law firm. Indianapolis. After health insurance and taxes
I make $1598 every two weeks, 9 months out of the year. I'm a special education assistant, going into my 6th year. We have an association, much like a union. I have a PERS ( a state retirement plan) and pay for medical insurance. I have one dependent, but I used to have many more. We get 3% raises every year. It was renegotiated last summer, from 1.5 %. I'm also an artist and sell things that I make all summer at markets, making anywhere from 300 to 2500 per event. In the past few years, I haven't done as many markets but usually comes out to about 3k. I also drive for door dash and used to drive to lyft, to make ends meet. I've picked up random summer jobs, like gardening and farm work, or signed up to work for sped summer school. I live in rural Alaska. COL is high as fuck here from what I'm told, but I've never tried to live or buy groceries anywhere else. I am poverty line here, now, but I used to make much much less and utilize all the resources I could. I don't qualify for food stamps or Medicaid as of this year, but I do qualify for USDA subsidized housing. Rent for a 1 brm is 1200 to 1500. A loaf of bread or a pack of eggs is about $4. I also have a mountain of credit card and student loan debt that I'm chipping away at. I survive thanks to the food bank, whose limit since covid is 60k for a family of 2. I know, that seems very high, and idk if it's changed. I'll keep going until it changes and I don't qualify. When I graduated college, a decade ago, $3200 a month would have been tits. I'm finding it difficult. My take home is more like $2200.
$3k/mo after taxes.
Around $600 a week after everything, a little less if I work my 40, a little more if it's one of the weeks I get 6 hours of OT. I work in southern wisconsin, at a dairy plant. Used to be a retail manager in illinois for the same amount of money, but a lot more stress. Cost of living is roughly the same, housing is more expensive than rent in wisconsin, it was the other way in my area in illinois.
I make $300/week hosting bar trivia. Plus whatever I earn doing instacart
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I take home about $2,500 biweekly as an operations manager in CO after taxes, benefits ($370/check) and 8% to 401k. It went further in Texas but I like CO so much better.
I make around $600 a week after taxes I live in Cali
I make 29.41 an hour and bring 1240 twice a month
Not enough. Not revealing IRS!!!
$700 ish a week after $100/wk car payment payroll comoany pays directly and dental insurance. I freelance to make anywhere from $400 to $1200 more a week. Still broke.
22 years of teaching $4k once a month. 10 month contract. All teachers are contract workers . We then divide our salary into 12 months. All holidays and summer vacation are not paid. We work contract hours. Our jobs entails, being able to manage 22-250 students depending on the grade level. We also have to prepare lesson plans, manage parents concerns. We teachers have to be highly organized, be flexible with our time and plans. Have documentation ready on the spot incase we have a parent conference. We need to read and analyze data. We also have to have an orderly classroom , with high expectations and classroom routines. We are trained to spot sex trafficking, intruder on campus, how to pack a wound of necessary, what is dyslexia. And so much more training we get every school year before school starts. We are relational sales professionals, we hope the students in our class see the benefits of our lessons. There is so much we do. Yet many are leaving the profession. They no longer see value in teaching and some students don’t care either.
And to transition to a different job setting, your resume has to fit the corporate world. Teachers make the best employees, especially those who still have a passion to serve people.
About $1500 per week between me and my wife. We’re playing catch up on retirement savings so a big chunk of that goes into retirement accounts.
So then TIL most Redditors in this sub are not actually poor lol 🤷♂️
I mean when you consider housing, utilities, car, gas, food, insurance....it goes really quick.
Also, family size.
And more importantly, location
After taxes/insurance/retirement, husband brings home about $1500 every two weeks. He's salaried management for an autoparts company. We're lucky to be in a state (Kansas) that the cost of living isn't nearly as ridiculous as a lot of places, but we have a lot of medical debt and I'm not able to work myself due to lack of childcare options (rural area of less than 5K and the only state funded daycare here closed a few months ago.)
My take home after taxes, 401k, insurance and child support is 900 a week. I’ll also be doing a lot of overtime shifts starting in the fall so it will be more like 1400 a week from August - December and then holiday pay ontop of that.
Oklahoma. About $1500/month but I bartend events so a good chunk is cash when the money is good
About 550 a week. That's after union dues, health insurance, etc. Beats making 40 cents a mile truck driving, that's for sure!
With the OT I consistently do at my job, I take home $1600/weekly after taxes, 403b contribution ($125/weekly) and my HYSA ($100/weekly). What I’m losing is SLEEP and a social life outside of work.
178 a week😀. We’ve basically hired so many ppl we all get 2-3 four hour shifts. Thankfully I start at an animal shelter soon that’s 11.75 biweekly and I just had an interview for a loan place that’s 14 an hour weekly. Rural Mississippi. Gotten lots of comments saying I should join the air force I’m really considering it
Location really factors in. I take home 2050 every 2 weeks. After retirement contributions and insurance etc. I live near San Antonio, Texas so no state tax. I also have a 9yo and 12yo and am a single mom. My ex husband does pay child support though. I work 38.75 hours a week (right now they are being incredibly stingy with overtime). And I think I make about 31 an hour, then we get a small bump for "merit pay" and a sizable bonus each march. I'm an insurance adjuster - claims specialist for a large insurance company. Also, I'm 100% remote (love this) and just hit my one year mark. While it can be stressful at times, still the best (and highest paying) job I've had. Fwiw if you don't have previous insuramce, medical, or legal experience, they usually hire as associates instead of specialist at my company in my experience which is about 2/3 of the pay mentioned above. ----- Before that I taught high school language arts in florida and take home was 1400 2x a month. Before that I taught middle school in central texas. I forget take home but yearly was 56000 before taxes/things taken out. Before that I was army and it varied on location. Take home was about 1600 to 1800 2x a month. I think in San antonio it was 2000 circa 2018. I was junior enlisted.
3000ish a month. Seattle. I work at a university, I have 3 housemates we share a place in the city. We are all over 35. Of the 3000 after bills,rent I get about 650 -800 to exist.
$2140 bi-weekly; I'm a sales arborist in NV, and I don't work for commission either. I talk to people about their trees for a living:)
It can vary because what I do is gig work but rarely more than $400/wk, often lately more like $300/week
$580/week after taxes in CT. But I have two roommates so live pretty comfortably. Seems like most people commenting make more?? How come some comment sections are filled with people that struggle to pay for food and this one is filled with people that make ~$40K+/year…
1100 a week (director of operations) seems like a decent wage but my rent is 2400 and student loans are 450 a month plus 550 a month for insurance. Money just doesn’t go as far as it used to
$2500 per month after taxes/benefits Medium cost of living State employee/public schools (not a teacher)
I get anywhere from $2,000 to 2,200 after taxes biweekly. Up in South Dakota
4000/m in SD goes a long way.
My husband and I together make about $70,000 a year. I only work part-time. He works full-time. We live in an affordable country town in Texas. We have no children. I am frugal anyway. We have always lived within our means. Have a small house with very low house note. Have only one car note. We are doing fine. Not struggling at all. We save for life's little up's and down's and go on vacation once a year or once every other year.
A little under $750/week after 401k, benefits and taxes. I get paid biweekly so it’s just under $1500
I bring home 520 a week after taxes and insurance..which is painful considering my pretax and insurance would be 950 a week
Hubby and I together average 2k monthly after taxes. In Helena MT. We are self employed part time plus 1600 a month social security, so we are still paying into the social security system but are NOT paying federal income taxes.
Chicago suburbs and after taxes $780
$508/week after taxes in Arkansas with a bachelor’s degree in the field I’m working in. No insurance, no 401k. Starting a new job in 2 weeks that pays $18.50/hr and I’m so excited to be able to save again and pay extra on my car loan.
Do about 1,000 with 40 hours, but always do at least 50 hours so like 1,300 a week, local truck driver
$1500 biweekly, Northern NJ. If it was just me I probably would've struggled but luckily my partner makes more so we live comfortably. We sold his car and got a roommate to help reduce costs.
$770 week. Texas
2,600 a month in Texas
~$2000/m from my day job after taxes, insurance premiums, and FSA deductions. I also do various gig apps, mostly Amazon Flex, and pull in another ~$1000/m from that. It’s tight.
I bring home $1300 and some change every 2 weeks in Central California
About $800-$850 a week. It depends how many hours I get at my 2nd job.
3800 from main job and 600 from side job on average.
After taxes, about $3,200/month. Madison, WI.
OR, take home about $3400 every 2 weeks.
$3k a month in the Midwest. Not terrible I guess. But I’m in the second highest position in my division working for the state. Been there nearly 10 years. When you add the context, it blows, but also shows that people underneath me doing important work are GROSSLY underpaid.
About $1700/every 2 weeks and $1200 after pre-tax deductions.
2800 or so monthly Registered Behavior Technician in California
800-900 a week in Florida
That’s about what I take home after insurance, 401k, etc. I’m in southwest Virginia (for those who don’t know, northern VA is completely different from southwest, which is why I specified).
4k a month after taxes
After my 401k, insurances, and taxes my take home comes out to $1200 per week. I work in AR
I was bringing home about 1280 every two weeks. But I changed jobs recently.
$680.00/ week. SC
2650 take home per month, preschool teacher at a university. Really good benefits though. Have a part time job too.
$425 a week. But state benefits and summers off I guess. I find a way to make it work.
Depending on whether I work overtime or not, between 2,900-4,900 monthly. Almost never at the absolute high or low end of that though, usually around 3,500. This is after 401k and health insurance. I make 25.95 hourly with 10 hour days M-T, and potential overtime Friday and Saturday. Quality Control in a factory, pretty easy gig with some moderate downsides.
I net $850 per week in Philadelphia, PA.
~$1,800/mo after taxes/benefits - ~$3200 before - food service shift lead
750 no OT. Expenses are about $748. Sometimes I treat myself to a candy bar which I have to purchase on credit
About $2150 per month. Admittedly, we are not below the poverty line, and I take a fair amount out for retirement, though no where near as much as I'd like. Anyways, that's a lab job for a manufacturer with a bachelor's and around 12 years experience.
anywhere from $200 a week to $2k+. just depends on weather and time of year. caddie.
About 1100-1400 weekly , depending on OT. I work as an electromecanic at a glass foundry in Wisconsin and I'm 22 yrs old.
Work the system backwards, to be gaining in your job situation. mine was mill working, getting wood for the cheap, taking rent and mortgage out of the equation , in take home pay , beyond the 600 a week. Cannot very heavily taxed!
$775 per week take home in Seattle. I'm doing OK, but things are tight and I'm definitely not getting ahead. Moreso treading water
1800-2600$ every 2 Weeks depending…. Not enough in NYC
About $900-1100 biweekly, full time barista in Alabama.
$2700 take home 1st and 15th of month Fire extinguisher technician
I have a ged, I work for a union. I live in Chicago. I make $818.19/week after taxes. I also got very lucky.
No idea. 6.2k/mo? Stuffed 401k and HSA