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this post was submitted on 30 Nov 2023
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If you're making 150k and are living paycheck to paycheck you either live in a crazy expensive area or are a total fucking idiot when it comes to managing your money.
Rent in NYC where I live is insane. My partner and I recently toured a place where they broke up the basement of a building into 4 apartments, none of which had a real bedroom, and were asking for $3k each
This is a trend everywhere, I just recently moved to different apartment and I’d say 8/10 apartments I saw on Zillow and the other sites were these “open concept” or whatever 1 bedrooms and hallway kitchens. It’s depressing
Try making $150k in a "reasonably priced area." It can be done, but is not the norm. The problem is that to make a good salary, you have to be in a place that pays those wages. Obviously, this attracts more people, so real estate is more expensive.
The trick is to make $150k in some kind of sweet spot where housing does not compensate. But it's always a moving target and is extremely difficult. Then in you lose your job? Start all over again.
I started working remotely and then left America. Now I live in a very low cost of living city and haven't owed more than 1-2% taxes in years.. It blows my mind that more people don't do this.
If they did, it wouldn't be a low cost of living area for long
Most people won't do something if they think it's "too hard," even if it will solve their problems.
You just explained how work from home jobs will transform how people buy housing and where they buy it.
Go look at a mortgage or even rent in any major city.
Hi, this is pretty much me, and I concur. If you can't live on $150k then you are definitely making some questionable decisions. That's around $8k/m take home. Even if you are spending $4k on rent/mortgage, you should have plenty left over to live on.
Do you have kids?
I'm pretty sure I covered the questionable decisions.
Yeah, if you're a single man who doesn't have anyone to take care of and has no physical or mental health problems $150k is great. If you're part of a house with two incomes you're probably OK. If you're on a single incoming supporting parents with disabilities, kids, partners with disabilities, or any combination of similar things, you can maybe get by on $150k as long as you never fuck up and everything goes perfectly in your life and you don't care about or try to help anyone else.
Edit: and I say man, because men are less likely to take on caregiver roles that cost large amounts of money.
My wife is disabled FYI. I get what you are saying, but there is still a good amount of wiggle room in our budget. I also still don't really like the idea of lumping kids, which are a choice with a very clear financial impact, in the same category as dealing with illness and disability. That doesn't seem to be a good faith argument.
A society where having kids is an unsustainable financial decision is a society that can't continue to exist, and a society where caregiving for someone with a disability or having one yourself makes life impossible is also a society that can't continue to exist.
There are also a ton of other factors that can easily push someone over the edge. "We have lots of wiggle room" is great for you but lots of people don't... And even if someone did make a mistake, why should some small mistake put someone in inescapable debt?
I just think the idea that $150k is fine and everyone who can't make it is an idiot isn't taking in to account the obvious data that shows the opposite.
It does always strike me as ridiculous when we live in a world where continuing the existence of the human race is considered bad financial planning. No wonder birth rates are declining massively when the incentives are all on personal productivity and streamlining your life rather than having/raising a family. I don't plan to have children for a number of reasons, but the fact that society is filled with active disincentives certainly doesn't help persuade me otherwise.
Kids are not always a choice, especially now that abortion is illegal in so many places.
In addition, the idea that if you don't have enough money then you just don't get to have a family seems abhorrent.
Hmmm you're not going to be making 150k a year in a shit fly over state.
I moved from the Bay Area to the East side of Washington near Seattle, folks here don't make as much as I do for sure, at least not on average. We both have good salaries so we can afford a lot of things. We essentially got to keep most of our bay area salaries.
But even then if we need a big repair we still have to sit down and plan out the money.
I can't even imagine what it's like for folks around here.
I live in Nebraska, and all comp included make around 155k per year salary + bonus. You can make that kind of money even here in the "shit"
What's your title?
I'm a software architect, though even when I was just a senior java developer I was making 130k, software pays well even in the fly overs.
In California, a new mortgage payment is 8-15k/month. Rent on an apartment is 3-4k/month. $150k salary isn’t enough for the mortgage and will struggle to cover that cost of rent.
Terrible assumption
Student loans
Household income not personal income? And gross not net, correct? After healthcare, taxes and retirement deductions my net is 50% of gross so let's say that calculates to 6,250 a month. It is a lot of money! But for a household of 4, 2 paid off cars 3 drivers and one college student with no tuition costs, and one high schooler in a school that gives everyone lunch(so it could be much worse) here the average community monthly costs are:
2.5k mortgage with the tax & insurance in there, make that 3k if you are renting.
800/ month car insurance
600/month electric, water, internet
200/month family cell phone service
50/month streaming and donations to community radio
600/month average repair & maintenance on home and cars
Leaving 1700 for food for 4, gas, vet bills, credit card payments (because if someone is making bank now, they got there by making less for years). It's certainly reasonable but here it's about the least you can make household - wise and be solid, so if you are making 50k, you need three people working not two. And I can see how a family could get behind. That 2.5k plus $600 housing cost can be much more if you bought a house in the last year or so, and car loan or tuition could also blow this up, as could a medical emergency.
Or you only consider your expenses after savings and think that you are "living paycheck to paycheck" because you use up all your non-invested money by the end of the month.