TC deflation from 600k to 200k would be a disaster. Personally it would break my family.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territ...
You can argue from your data all you want, but it would 100% lead to divorce.
* but not less than $200k, this is a marriage not a charity.
I’m just giving my personal perspective: I have assumed substantial responsibilities with long term duration and liability. A precipitous drop in income would be cataclysmic.
Move somewhere else indeed! How is that not destroying the life we’ve built so far?
We’re you not putting away any sort of money for emergencies? Do you need to stay at the now theoretical 200k job even if cost of living in the area remains the same, or could you move to somewhere lower cost of living?
I see in your other comments that you would end up in a divorce if you had to lower your lifestyle, and then you described what is still above the average persons lot in life in the US by even owning a home (cramped and by the highway or not).
You and your spouse should get some therapy on why your’re so materialistic, or just accept that you are and then deal with living in a system that will drop you the second it can.
In my opinion it’s not your place to tell others to “get some therapy”. My opinion: no amount of therapy can address your children going to a 4/10 school breathing leaded AV gas fumes.
And again you’re trying to bring up that living like the vast majority of your countrymen is unacceptable. How gated is your compound that you don’t have any leaded gas fumes in the air? If you’re in a HCOL area then you’re either on a super luxury property or by a city with airports and airplanes have leaded fuel last I checked(2010-2012)
This seems pretty uncalled for. You don't know their story, don't make assumptions you do and that you are qualified to give smug advice.
I’m assuming they work in tech and so can handle the math behind finances which really only leaves living way beyond their means. I think that’s backed up him disparaging needing to live in houses near a highway as part of why he would get divorced.
In pretty much any flyover state 80k a year is decent, and somewhere like Rural Kentucky, will put you into a fairly nice house. I know folks who took a big pay cut to work remotely so they could leave NoVA and head to KY. They could get a sizable house for ~$290k (and they're from KY / have fam around, a big selling point) and basically as much land as they're comfortable with.
And to the parent poster's point, kids definitely change the equation. Not even talking things like private schools or fancy sports, just simple stuff like diapers, or replacing a torn backpack cuz Jr. decided he likes swinging it around as he walks home. And braces, jeez.
Going to need some support for that...Because that's definitely not true in one of the most expensive housing markets in the U.S., Los Angeles.
There's a calculator you can use that will estimate AMI and generate lists of subsidized units available: https://www.boston.gov/metrolist/ami-estimator/
The limits in LA are lower, but a six person family still qualifies for public assistance at $117K: https://housing.lacity.org/housing/helping-low-income-first-...