Are you able to support your family with what you are earning or do you have a second income in the home? Mind sharing what the numbers are?

I am a retired teacher who had a Masters. I taught for 27 years. The last eleven years of service I made over 100k. I have no children and my husband still works full time. He is eight years older than myself and is also collecting his social security. (He’ll never retire after sitting home three weeks during Covid.) We have investments, and I was “grandfathered” into a pension where I earned more on my month contribution amount. I also put an extra 200 in that account to add to my pension for when I retired. We live very comfortably. We own our home, have a boat, and take a couple nice vacations each year. Because we don’t have the expense of children and are not extravagant in our day to day lifestyle, we are doing great.

My advice to any new teacher…put an extra 200 a month toward your pension contribution. It didn’t seem like much at the time, but after 27 years, it was a game changer. Also, we live by the motto of: If you can’t pay cash for something (excluding house and cars) you can’t afford it.

Year 12 w/ a masters and making over $100K. Husband is retired military (pulling a pension) AND works a full time job. So we essentially have 3 incomes coming in. ONLY DEBT is our $1200 a month mortgage for our house. Even with pension jobs, we still put 30% each month into our retirement accounts.

We have so much $$ left over each month we don’t know what to spend it on…..besides traveling. We take 3 international vacations a year.

TA here always said thankful for my husband without him I would be a single mom, working a state job supporting 2 kids on welfare 🤦‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️. Honestly , I would be at a higher paying job but it’s so sad what NC pays teachers.

I don’t have any children and live with my boyfriend. Without him, I wouldn’t be able to make rent/pay bills. However, I did just accept a teaching position in a higher paying district and my new salary will be $64k, so that should alleviate some of the financial struggles.

I'm a recently widowed Para. The only way I can pay my bills is by taking on extra duties. So I start work at 6:25am to supervise on the school bus and then after school the same. Plus, 2 to 3 days a week I work until 7 pm working basketball and volleyball games after school. Without those jobs, I would not be able to pay my household bills.

I’m a 25 year veteran teacher with a masters in gifted Ed. I just retired. All the pay increases have gone to new teachers while experienced teachers get about $25 a month increase. Thankfully I was grandfathered in before North Carolina stopped all new masters pay. It’s shameful and insulting. I would have quit teaching 5 years ago but was not willing to walk away so close retirement. If you move to another state you lose all and have start all over again. I have a husband whose income allowed us to live comfortably. I couldn’t have managed all those years with two kids on my income alone. I loved teaching. I loved the kids and my coworkers. But the 60+ hours weekly was exhausting. It’s not worth it anymore.

Single mom of one in CA. I'm able to pay my bills and do some investing. I am someone who lives simply so my daily living expenses are fairly low.

Masters, 20 years, 6 figures, 2 kids, homeowner, and yes. There is a second income in the home (partner), but we keep our finances separate. It’s very important to me that I am not reliant on someone else’s income. I stayed in a situation once because I couldn’t afford to leave. Never again.

I’m a veteran teacher with 35 years experience with masters in early child. I moved to NC 20 years ago to be closer to my parents. Without their help putting down a down payment for my house there would be no way for me to survive on what I make. Thank goodness, I only have a $700 house payment instead of a $1600 apartment payment. Housing in the Buncombe/Asheville area is outrageous! But, from what I’ve seen it’s outrageous in most areas of NC. The state needs to do better! I’m just glad I’m close to retirement. I love my school , kids, parents, peers and my administrators, it’s just how the state degrades their teachers that makes me angry and ready to start a new profession.

Teaching with a masters for 16 years. 3 kids and married for 20 years. My husband is a pastor and thankfully his job provides a house. We both make around 70k and do ok. Housing prices around us are around 400k-800k for a 4 bedroom house. Rent is around $2,000 for 3 bedroom townhouses.
We do ok because of the housing provided.

27 yrs in the school, I make 3 figures. Husband has had his business for 30 years- some years are better than others, he’s not ready to retire. Kids are out of the house-We have a cottage, a couple boats and go on vaca when we can. We live a very simple life.

I could afford renting an apartment by myself when I was single. We can only afford a house because of my husbands income. I have a masters and we have 4 kids. I’ve been teaching for 29 years. We make over 200k. Southern CA housing market is a tough one. Our lifestyle is still very modest. It is not extravagant.

Where we live, could never make it on my teaching salary alone. (28 years, MA, $85,000). Outside Atlanta. Glad hubby has a great job! Renting here 2bd 1.5 ba= $2400 a month!

My stepdad said, “He who does with the most debt wins.” That was in the Reaganomics 80’s, but still… 🤣

Yes, we could live off my salary of $88,000. Wife mskes a lot less than me.Home in the San Francisco Bay Area is worth $1.1 million and paid off. Bought it 25 years ago. I also put 25% of salary into a 403b and contribute to other retirement investments. I bought my home when I was 21. Wasn't easy then but now we are comfortable.

I work summer school and pick up shifts in homecare both during the school year and summer. Between me and my husband we do ok, but we're still both paying off so many student loans and credit card debt from a major unforeseen house repair. Plus Jersey is just expensive. I'm towards the top of our steps.

I have 10 years experience with 3 extra endorsements. Every time they have given new teachers a raise we have gotten a tiny one. Our legislators have been talking about starting new teachers off at $60k, but not sure if it passed. I do know they just changed some things and so I’ll get paid based off how many kids are present on whatever day they decide to check as opposed to how many are registered in my classroom. They don’t want to pay us for a kid who is absent. I currently make $54k. There’s no way I could afford my family on my salary alone. My husband collects social security and we get by. If I had no debt and didn’t have his income I would be okay. Only if I had no debt.

I was a teacher 25 years with a Masters and ended with $70,000 a year. I changed to a para for $18,000 a year. I have to work summers elsewhere to get paid to pay bills. I will be retiring next year with pension around $30,000 a year but will be cashing out 403b early to pay off debt from credit cards and previous loan on 403b. I will need to work another job to refund my pension and try not to use credit cards again. My husband makes 55,000 a year in school as tech specialist. He has worked there 20 years. We still have 28 years on mortgage (1000 a month) because we refinanced to get cash out to pay off credit cards another time. We have 3 kids at home and our youngest is 9. Money has been a struggle for a while especially when I stepped down from teaching.

At only $42,000 a year, I'm glad I'm single and my children are adults.

We actually only live on one income. We both work but since 2018 when we decided we were sick on being broke, we have lived on one income. His…. Which, these days, my gross is more, but his take home is more … My take home is roughly 1/2 of my gross after deductions because I max out the HSA contribution each year ($430 per pay ) carry my husband on my health Insurance ($325 per pay). I do have them hold money back for summer pay and of course retirement and taxes. What I do take home goes into a savings account. Our only bills are are mo they living expanses.. no car pmts, no credit cards, home is paid off. It sucked for a long time. Our combined gross Is 130k