ChanaZ

The answer to this question can be debated. An average frum family buying a home today has a mortgage loan payment of paying about 3000 per month+/-. there are car payments, babysitting, tuition, community responsibilities etc. Before the children go to school, 100,000-150,000 may be okay. Of course this depends on the jobs that they have. Are they paying their own health insurance? Do they have an expensive commute? Do they have a commute at all to work? Can they freelance a bit to bring in extra cash? Are both husband and wife working? if yes what is the cost of babysitting? Once you have 4-5 children in school, and you have to pay tuitions etc..this formula no longer works. I think a lot of families get help from their families and if not, they are unfortunately not able to balance their budgets and are operating on a negative which then causes undue stress within the the family.

There is also a segment of our population that enjoy a good benefits package courtesy of Uncle Sam, those people tend to manage with less income!!