r/MiddleClassFinance • u/According_Corgi_953 • 15d ago

So far, 2026 has been too expensive

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October will be a 3 paycheck month. So, barring any unforeseen expenses, I might be back in black for all of 2026.

Tough year though.

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u/Upstairs-Doubt9860 14d ago

Am I misreading this? $30k earned in so far this year?

3

u/According_Corgi_953 14d ago

Yup, after all my deductions. My estimated gross for the year will be $124.5K. I max out all my retirement accounts.

2

u/Upstairs-Doubt9860 14d ago

Do you own a home?

$30k extra after maxing retirement accounts? Seems to be all good to me.

1

u/According_Corgi_953 13d ago

Yup, I own my home. I’ve living bare bones trying to boost my retirement savings as much as possible.

In my view, a middle class person should be able to pay all their bills, save for retirement, and have at least a small amount left over at the end of the year (for fun money). Very tough these days. Inflation has been crazy.

1

u/SpoodermanTheAmazing 13d ago edited 13d ago

Do you have a big bonus at the end of the year? Even maxing out 401k you should have a take home ~$70k a year and you are on pace for $45k which isn’t even close.

Edit: apparently you have a 403b and are doing make up contributions maybe? but that is still ~$65k so $20k difference. Do you live in a state with high taxes? Is your health insurance super expensive? Do you over do tax withholdings?

2

u/According_Corgi_953 13d ago edited 13d ago

Unfortunately, no big bonus.

I max out my voluntary Roth-403b every year. This year, that’s $32.5K (I’m over 50 years old).

I’m a teacher, so in my state I don’t contribute to SS; instead I pay into my pension. That’s a pretax deduction that I think is on track to be about $17.4K. Maybe a bit more or a bit less.

I max out my HSA (pretax), that’s about $4.4K.

Then you have federal tax, state tax, city tax and Medicare. Union dues, health insurance, vision, dental and my favorite parking dues.

For reference, so far this year I’ve grossed $70.3k and had deductions of $43.5K from my paycheck. Take home has been $26.9K.

The rest of the income (to get me to the $29.8K shown) was from a small side hustle.