I appreciate the critique - I&#x27;m not from the KC area, so I don&#x27;t have local intuition. Seattle rents in the city are about $1.2k to $1.6k for a <i>single-bedroom</i> apartment, and a 2-bedroom (as would befit a couple or small family) are north of $2k, so I don&#x27;t have local context.<p>Can I ask what you mean by &quot;really should be plenty&quot;? I left out costs which, in my part of the country, would vastly exceed the remaining $1.2k in our little exercise. I guess I should have been explicit about this assumption. I am better off than the average American by far, but even so, student loans from my grad school (an extravagance, I know) hurt to the tune of $1k&#x2F;month. I don&#x27;t have kids, but feeding&#x2F;clothing&#x2F;sheltering them would take a pretty penny too, nevermind the costs to time, commute, etc.<p>Any one of the un-accounted-for expenses could vary wildly person to person, and could easily swallow up all that excess. I&#x27;m all for frugality and feel like folks have a lot to learn in that regard. Still, $52k for a household doesn&#x27;t seem to math out without a whole lot of scrimping and luck.