More money, more problems? Maybe not, but definitely some problems. Big ones. Making six figures ($100,000 per year or more) used to really mean something in America. It was a big milestone in someone’s life and career, signaling, at least from the outside, that they had made it. They were officially a success. Six figures never necessarily meant that you were rich, but it definitely set you up for a very comfortable life. You could afford a home, a couple of kids, yearly vacations, the works.
My, how things have changed.
One woman recently took to social media to share exactly how far her near-six-figure salary goes, and it’s not nearly as far as it used to be.
Kait Alayna, who posts on TikTok about personal finance, budgeting, and all things money, shared a video recently breaking down her $95,500 annual salary. (It’s not six figures, but it’s pretty close.)
“[My net paycheck] can seem kind of low for my salary,” she says in the video, responding to a commenter. “So here’s the breakdown of gross to net so you can see where all the funds are going.”
In captions on the video, she shows that her gross paycheck is $3,979. $399.91 goes to her 401k contribution. Seventy-five dollars go to a health savings account, and she pays another $68.88 per pay period for health, dental, and vision insurance. A chunky $882.30 is taken out of her paychecks for taxes.
That leaves her with just $2,553 in her pocket per pay period. That’s about $5,000 in monthly take-home pay.
For Alayna’s next trick, we get to watch it all disappear!
Five thousand dollars per month is nothing to sneeze at, of course! By all accounts, Alayna is doing great in her life and career.
But it vanishes from bank accounts faster than ever in the year 2025. In another video, she breaks down her monthly budget, which she shares with her fiancé:
Rent is $1780, and the total of all of their “essential” costs like groceries, gas, car insurance, cell phones, etc. is a whopping $4600 per month. Again, some of these costs are shared between two people, but that’s nearly all of Alayna’s paycheck swallowed up right off the bat!
Crucially, they’re spending an extra $700 per month on paying off debt like student loans, on top of the $550 mandatory payments. Together, they own over $60,000 in student loan and other debts. We don’t know the terms of their loans, but it often takes people decades (or even a lifetime) to pay down balances like that.
Commenters could relate to Alayna’s situation:
“I have the same salary, nearly the same deductions, and I take home $2200. We are in such a hard spot” one user wrote.
“I made $100k a year and only being home like $2400. FSA, 403b, retirement pension, taxes, college savings. Sometimes I’m like where is my money?!” one added.
“I make $145k and my take home after insurance, taxes, 401k, etc is $3800 bi monthly, I cry when I think about it” someone wrote.
“Mine is about the same. Once rent and car payment is taken out, just enough for groceries and like one night out,” a commenter said.
“My salary is $95,481 and my net is super close to yours. It just doesn’t go as far as it used to!” added another.
“Money doesn’t buy what it used to. All of the necessities are priced up,” someone summed up.
Making nearly six figures per year puts people like Alayna in a comfortable and enviable position. But the hype still doesn’t match the reality in 2025.
Though it’s enough for a comfortable life, it’s still very difficult at that salary level to save for a house, travel regularly, retire early, or even have a family—you know, the fundamental promises America was built on. Alayna and her fiancé have to be extremely disciplined with putting money aside to ensure they can withstand emergency costs and go on the occasional vacation.
Fortune writes that, “A six-figure salary used to be considered wealthy—but now, most of these earners are struggling to stay afloat amid raging living costs and salary deflation. That’s because households making $100,000 annually are still considered ‘middle-class’ in every U.S. state.”
Even earning $200,000 per year isn’t considered upper-class in many places. Fortune adds that over half of Americans earning a six figure salary still described themselves as living paycheck to paycheck, and that number is growing every year.
Why? It’s because this whole time that we’ve been thinking people who make six figures are “rich,” the cost of living has been accelerating upward at breakneck speed. Groceries are about 25% more expensive than they were just a few years ago. In the last 10 years, the median home price has gone by over $131,000. The average cell phone bill, with smartphones now being a near-necessity to be a participant in modern society, is now about $141 per month. The federal minimum wage has not changed in that time, nor has it since 2009.
It’s time to reset our expectations of what a living wage really is, and even who we consider to be rich. If someone who makes the coveted $100,000 per year is still living paycheck to paycheck, living and dying by the budget spreadsheet, and devoting a huge chunk of salary to paying off debts, what hope does anyone else have?
Alayna writes that she’s thankful for her job, and she’s making it her mission to help others with smart budgeting and money decisions. But until a carton of eggs becomes affordable again, almost everyone’s going to have a tough time getting ahead.
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