This DINK Couple Is Struggling to Make Ends Meet Even With Their 6-Figure Salaries

DINK, short for Double Income No Kids, is a lifestyle choice that many young couples promote. They say that by not having to raise children they get more free time and save a lot of money. According to the US Census Bureau, the percentage of adults living without children rose from 52.5% to 71.3% between 1967 and 2016. The main reasons why people are choosing this lifestyle more and more is because of money, time, mobility as well flexibility. However, many are failing to make ends meet even after earning a six-digit income and not having any kids. The couple who consider themselves "middle class" had to downgrade their lifestyle to have some savings as the two claim to have saved nothing in 2023. 

A West Coast couple shocked the internet after they revealed that they are struggling to pay their bills even after earning $100,000 each. They are reportedly giving up luxury habits like pricey gym memberships, European vacations, and more. Natalie Fischer, 25, and her partner Keldon thought that they had made it after both of them bagged well-paying jobs in Seattle's tech industry. However, in a recent viral social media post, Fischer says they had to “downgrade” their lifestyle in 2024 to get their finances under control. "I consider me and my husband to be middle class," said Fischer.

"We live in the greater Seattle area and we both had nine to five jobs in the tech industry. We’re both earning over $100k and as we started to earn more money we treated ourselves a lot more," she added. "A big reason we have decided to downgrade our lifestyle is because we didn’t know where our money was going," she said.

Just five years ago, the Fischers were broke college students. As they started to earn more money after getting jobs, they treated themselves more. "We weren’t too concerned about spending money…I noticed it was getting very hard to track how much we were spending," said Fischer. 

The couple live in a model 2-BR apartment in Seattle with a mortgage of $2,378. The couple also does not own a car. They also said that since the very beginning of this year, they have avoided restaurants and are cooking at home. The two spent a lot in 2023—$2,378 on mortgage, $1,163 on bills, $416 on gym memberships, $524 on food, $300 on eating out, $430 on clothes, $105 for socialising and $0 for savings.

“I was living beyond my needs. I want to greatly increase the savings we have and I feel like we spend way too much so I am trying to balance it this year,” Fischer said. They are now aiming to reduce their costs and plan to spend nothing on gym membership, socialising, eating out, and more.