300k per year to raise a family in the star cities-- a conservative estimate. That includes a mortgage (you don't want to be renting once you have kids), enough

300k per year to raise a family in the star cities-- a conservative estimate. That includes a mortgage (you don't want to be renting once you have kids), enough cleaning that you can both focus on your careers, nannies, vacations, and various educational assistance (possibly prep schools, possibly buying internships) needs to overcome the fact that your kids face a huge disadvantage in college admissions on account of where they live. (It might be a good idea, if you can't afford prep schools whose guidance counselors were hired because they know top-college admissions officers personally, to have your kids go out to Montana for two years to overcome this geographic adversity.) For a $1 million house, you're looking at a $4300 per month mortgage. You shouldn't be spending more than 30% of after-tax money on housing, so that means you should be making $14,000 per month post-tax, which puts you right around $300k.