Hey Everyone,
Before I begin I just want to say that I'm grateful for everything I've achieved in my life thus far. My goals and aspirations have changed over the past year due to some experiences in my life. Before getting my new job, I was happy with my compensation but as the responsibilities came and my goal in life to buy a house and raise a family the compensation doesn't seem sufficient.
I don't want people to think that I did nursing for the money. I still love my job and the things that I learn from it everyday, it's stressful but I can handle it. I've come to a point in my life where the making money for the future is very important. I live in NYC and for the sake of .. I guess finding some financial advice I'll disclose my salary which is 78k a year roughly.
Taxes are rough, net gain yearly is approximately 52,000. With tax returns probably an extra 4-7k. Do other RNs on this board live pay check to pay check that is paying off a mortgage on a house and raising children? I see myself paying a mortgage of say 2000 a month which is 1 pay check. That leaves another 2k, for lets say car payments, insurance, property tax and the other living expenses, some for myself and the family to enjoy. That leaves me with probably nothing to save.
My question I guess is, what lifestyles do you guys have? Back in the day my parents made it w/o an education. I guess I just live in a bad economy where the housing market is just crap. I've never actually bought a home, but from expenses that my friends that are home owners this is what I foresee. On top of that I want to further my education. I don't want to live pay check to pay check. I see myself having to make well over 100k to have the lifestyle that I want.
How do you guys feel?