I agree, I don't think $100k would be comfortable.  I don't know if I'd use the word "harship", but I do quite like the word "precarious" to describe it, and some economists have even described this class as the *precariat*.  Meaning, they earn enough to make a decent living, but not enough to build up a cushion, and if they get hit with an emergency expense it could spiral them.



SimpleStacker

econ

The real poverty line in the US isn't $31,200: it's $140,000 - Michael Green

Scoresby

You make some good points, however there are also taxes. I think $100k pretax income for a family of 4 is indeed near some level of hardship. 

My wife and I had three kids in Seattle on a $70k income and it was tight. I'm pretty frugal, so I made it work. But it was never comfortable and we definitely weren't saving, despite this being 2018. It probably wasn't poverty, but it's not a good feeling to cut most every corner and know that you still are counting on nothing going wrong. 