52K AFTER TAXES is tight?
Only if you buy too expensive a house and too many cars, each of which are too expensive!
That's $4,333 a month!
$1,200/month house mortgage
$ 500/month TWO cars
$ 500/month utilities/internet
$ 500/month groceries
$ 250/month health insurance
$ 250/month gasoline
=============
$3,200/month at WAY MORE than a MMM spending level.
That's still $1,133 a month to invest or deal with less frequent expenses.
Cut back on cars, to a <$10,000 low mileage used car for 3-4 year payments, and drive them long enough to only have to pay for one of them at a time, and you've got another $250 to $300 a month.
Tight?
Of course, if you raise the mortgage payment by 50-100% because you've overbought what you could afford, and toss in two $600 clown car payments at a time, and eat out several times a week, yep, it will get tight.