My wife and I have a household income of around $230k. After taxes, deductions etc we only see at best $8600/month.
While that sounds like a lot of money it really isn't anywhere near being "wealthy" or "rich". We are most solidly middle class and our home is valued around $200k, my car is 22 years old hers is 7. No kids no debt etc.
When you say "deductions," I suspect you are including maxed out 401k contributions and other saving/investment?
We made $237k last year. Our net income after state and fed taxes, OASDI and Medicare was $182,481. That's $15,207/month. Cannot fathom how your number is so vastly different from ours. And yes, we are rich by ANY measure.
Well I don't how how you hit that.
$230k with zero deductions besides federal tax is around $170k MFJ. Subtract local tax and we only get $158k. According to pay check city.com.
Minus 401k, ESOP, medical and union dues we see $8600/month which is just over $100k after deductions/taxes.
Mortgage interest deduction, property tax deduction, 401k contributions, charitable contributions.
Federal tax alone is more than that. You aren't being forthcoming about something.
Federal tax alone on $237k is around $55k. Which gets you down to ~$180k ish and doesn't even touch FICA, state/local, and deductions.
Not being forthcoming? What reason would I have for that? Income was $237,879. We paid $29,547 in fed taxes and $9,306 in state (income) taxes. Add another $11,000 for property taxes, and that puts us at $188,026. Subtract $16,532 for Medicare and OASDI and we're at $171,494, or $14,291/month.
But we might be comparing apples and oranges here -- I wasn't subtracting 401k, "medical" (by that I assume you mean health insurance?), ESOP (no idea what that is), or union dues (I don't pay any).
When I do that for 401k ($42,000) and health insurance ($6,154), we're left with $123,340, or $10,278. So therein lies the rub, I guess -- I wasn't including these two (arguably, the former is discretionary, no?).