Making $100K a year and still struggling to support a family

Nick is a 32-year-old military veteran living in Marysville with his wife and two daughters. Together, the couple earns just over $100,000 per year, but Nick says that with the way local taxes are increasing lately, it isn’t enough to support his family.

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“I make decent money, but I am coming closer and closer to living check-to-check. It’s scary, and my budget has remained conservative and gets tighter each year,” he wrote in an email to the Dori Monson Show.

Nick wasn’t looking for pity, just a platform, he said. When he tried to tell his story to local lawmakers, he said no one responded.

“I’ve reached out to politicians that I could find contact emails for, the legislator for my district, just explaining to them how much it’s stacking up against us,” he said on the Dori Monson Show on Thursday.

Five years ago, Nick was doing pretty well, financially.

“I had $25,000 in the bank. I used most of that for a down payment on the house that we bought. But since then, it seems like my property taxes get more expensive. The tabs get more expensive. I don’t have a grandma or an aunt or an uncle to watch after my kids,” he said.

Taxes and budgets

Nick receives some disability pay due to a severe injury he sustained during his time in the military. It’s not enough to live off of, however, so he also works as a commercial driver.

“I’m not even looking for handouts. I’m just trying to get people to stop looking for handouts from us. I don’t even know where it goes,” he said. “I’m just trying to be able to support my family and it’s getting harder and harder.”

Each year, Nick and his wife have to cut something out of the family budget. This year, he said, it was adding to their daughters’ college accounts. He wants to be able to pay for their college or a down payment on a house later on.

“I would like to have something for them, because I didn’t have that,” he said.

Nick acknowledged that he’s better off financially in Snohomish County than people living south of him in King County.

“Everybody that’s less off than me, I just want to say keep fighting. And hang in there. Hopefully relief is coming,” he said.

“I don’t want any sympathy from anybody, but I want people on a bigger spectrum to see what it’s doing. People who are making half of what I am, my heart goes out to them,” he said. “I beg people in my spot that are making less to make their voices heard too.”