Katrina Allen | What My Boston Looks Like

Photograph by Webb Chappell

Age: 36
Job: Revenue Control Manager
Household Income: $140,000
Relationship Status: Married, with four kids
Lives in: Everett

“If you look at it on paper, you think, Oh, they must be doing really good. But most of our income goes toward bills—mortgage, heat, electricity, student loans. My daughter goes to an afterschool program that we pay for, and fortunately the city of Everett has a grant program that covers some of the cost. We also have a 21-week-old at home, and my mom is helping us watch the baby for the first year while we figure out what we want to do with regard to daycare. We each contribute to a 401(k), and we try to put money in savings, but then something comes up and it comes right back out. It’s almost in a sense living paycheck to paycheck. We don’t take very many vacations—we did the big Disney vacation when my daughter was five, and that was it. We joke around that we should move to Texas, where the cost of living is cheap, but I don’t think we would ever want to leave. For us, it’s important to be close to the city. We are eight minutes away from Boston right now. Having that accessibility is something that we really appreciate.”