You don’t have a below average income then—according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_income_in_the_United_States , “The overall median personal income for all individuals over the age of 18 was $24,062 ($32,140 for those age 25 or above) in the year 2005. The overall median income for all 155 million persons over the age of 15 who worked with earnings in 2005 was $28,567”—I can’t find a mean, or data more recent than that, but it can’t have changed that much. Unless you’re only working 26-hour weeks, you’re earning more than average for the US—significantly so.
In fact, according to that table, a $50,000 salary, which you were thinking of as low, would be in the top 25% of income for the US...
And yes, your cost-of-mileage would be lower, assuming I was driving. But in the UK we have a far more efficient, and cheaper, public transport system, and most people live significantly closer to our places of work than in the US. I work from home quite a bit of the time, but in a week where I have to travel in to work every day, my total transport costs for the week would be £8.50 (five return train journeys at £1.70 each). People in metropolitan areas, especially, are as likely to cycle or walk to work as to drive, if not more so.
Because it was in the context of me saying that £28,000 p.a. is a good wage in my original comment. £28,000 is a pretty good income for an individual, but not a wonderful one for two people, and that was the comment Logos01 originally picked up on.
You don’t have a below average income then—according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_income_in_the_United_States , “The overall median personal income for all individuals over the age of 18 was $24,062 ($32,140 for those age 25 or above) in the year 2005. The overall median income for all 155 million persons over the age of 15 who worked with earnings in 2005 was $28,567”—I can’t find a mean, or data more recent than that, but it can’t have changed that much. Unless you’re only working 26-hour weeks, you’re earning more than average for the US—significantly so.
In fact, according to that table, a $50,000 salary, which you were thinking of as low, would be in the top 25% of income for the US...
And yes, your cost-of-mileage would be lower, assuming I was driving. But in the UK we have a far more efficient, and cheaper, public transport system, and most people live significantly closer to our places of work than in the US. I work from home quite a bit of the time, but in a week where I have to travel in to work every day, my total transport costs for the week would be £8.50 (five return train journeys at £1.70 each). People in metropolitan areas, especially, are as likely to cycle or walk to work as to drive, if not more so.
How did you decide to use individual income, rather than household? You both seem to support other people.
Because it was in the context of me saying that £28,000 p.a. is a good wage in my original comment. £28,000 is a pretty good income for an individual, but not a wonderful one for two people, and that was the comment Logos01 originally picked up on.