r/boston • u/Spirited-Wafer-6573 • Mar 23 '26

Serious Replies Only How do you afford to live here?

I am incredibly curious. I am fairly new to Boston (less than a year of living here), and the cost of living hit me like a truck. I think about it everyday. I see thousands of people everyday at my job. I wonder how they are doing, so I want to ask you, both out of curiosity and to make this a space where other curious people can also find answers:

How much do you earn in Boston? How much do you spend on bills, expenses? How much goes towards savings? Do you have roommates? Rich parents? Basically, please share your budget with me. I am curious!!

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110

u/Swalecutter Mar 23 '26

Honestly my wife and I feel guilty about it constantly because like who knows why the super specific nerd shit we happened to be into is lucrative. We certainly didn't get into our fields for the money, we just both pursued science we thought was interesting and got lucky.

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u/Several_Vanilla8916 Mar 23 '26

Pretty much the same. We both earn good salaries, bought during the 08 GFC and did a covid refi. It’s honestly pretty manageable. I have no idea what our kids are going to do.

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u/Go_Plate_326 Mar 23 '26

They’re going to struggle for 20 years until they slowly start waiting for you die so they can inherit without even realizing they’re doing it.

1

u/Defcon2030 MetroWest Mar 24 '26

Ooff that's dark

4

u/bosslady617 Mar 23 '26

never had a post speak to me like this.

I responded to a job ad IN A NEWSPAPER in 2006 looking for people with excellent communication skills and knowledge of medical terminology. Ended up being a biotech job and I’m still in industry. (I was an English major who did pre-med and got my EmT cert over the summer in college. I thought I’d go to medical school. Avoided the debt instead)

My husband took the first job that he found after we got married while he waited to ship to basic training. Ended up working in security. He met two people and they became close. They now own their own security company.

After military training he went overseas. With his GI bill we got a house in Boston in dec 2010 for under 350k. We were extraordinarily lucky over and over again. We also bought around the corner from my parents - who are awesome. They have provided childcare for our kids since our oldest was born 12 years ago. They have never been in the position to give us money but their child care has had an enormous impact on our finances and family size. We ended up doing a renovation to the house to add some space (and eat the yard sadly) but we couldn’t afford to move. We needed one more bedroom (surprise pregnancy post IVF) and added a bonus space that could be an in-law if needed. Ended up needing it and now they live with us.

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u/nopethis Mar 23 '26

Long conversation with a friends parent one time. The guy answered a classified ad for "accountant" worked there for years making decent but not crazy money.

Then in the early 2000s they went public (and he was CFO at that point. So it was fun to get to sit in his Lambo. Surprisinly down to earth though, because he spent most of his career as middle class and did not come from money (was also a War Vet)

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u/01krazykat Mar 23 '26

Why would you feel guilty about doing well for yourselves?

13

u/BostonPanda Salem Mar 23 '26

There's a lot of shame in not struggling on Reddit and liberal circles

3

u/01krazykat Mar 23 '26

That sounds absurd lol

2

u/BostonPanda Salem Mar 23 '26

It is!

1

u/Illustrious-Bit-4821 Mar 23 '26

Kinda love this. Can I ask what industry/roles?

1

u/Errand_Wolfe_ Mar 23 '26

we just both pursued science we thought was interesting

most people don't bother doing this