My family makes $100k plus a year, its not enough!!

[Firetrak]

So after that catchy headline got some of you in, I wanted to open up a discussion about this.

I live in the Los Angeles area and between us we do make over $100k and it barely feels like we scrap by each month.

Which is frankly ludicrous I know.

If we live in Florida we'd own a home and be living the high life, but SOCAL just seems to suck you dry for everything. Anyone else live here or in expensive parts of the country and experience this bizarre situation and what did you do about it if anything?

 

[cubby1223]

Hedonistic creep gets you every time. The more accustomed you are to living the good life, the more difficult it is to return to the frugal life.

 

[stormkroe]

Break down monthly expenses and you'll get some answers. There's a chance you will be ridiculed.
J/K!!! You certainly will

 

[1sikbITCH]

Isn't that the market though? In rural areas everything costs 5 cents including your trailer because everyone is on welfare.

In NYC a hotdog costs 350 bucks but the jobs pay like fucking movie stars so it works out even in both places. Everybody is broke.

 

[Firetrak]

My rent is $2000 a month, honestly I dont expect any answers because there aren't any for me, we cant move because our kids need to go to the school in this area.

I'm more interested in others stories and what they did to either make more money or downsize themselves.

We where thinking of moving to Montana as an example then my wife got a job at the local jail.

 

[doubledeluxe]

I lived in LA on $60K and lived by the beach in a town house with a roomate. When I made $100K I had my own place by the beach. Not Manhattan but still by the beach. Your housing expenses should be as a percent of your income. Generally less than 30%. That would leave you $2000 a month which is not enough to live by the beach in a 2BD townhouse but enough to do quite a bit with. A mortgage could be had for much less if you are willing to sit in traffic for a long time. I wasn't.

The problem with LA is that the housing prices are irrational. However even if rents are high they are doable. Nobody says you have to live in a 2500 sq ft place which would cost you a king's ransom in the most desirable parts of the city. A rationally sized condo in a decent place shouldn't make you feel like you're barely getting by.

But yeah, CA is way too expensive. I left. If traffic was better in most parts of the state I might have stayed though. I just had to get out and live somewhere that had a functioning mass transit system but didn't cost $2M for a house (SF I'm looking at you)

 

[BarkingGhostar]

No sympathy from me. I moved 1,000 miles to a lower cost of living environment. This was especially needed since I was paying my own way through college and not getting/expecting assistance from mommy and daddy.

Simply move. The short term will be tough, but the long run should be better.

 

[moonbogg]

You can either make double the money (some how) or get the hell out and move to a reasonable state where normal people live. Being middle class in CA means 200k. You're talking about a place where people live in cardboard boxes 10 minutes walking distance from 10 million dollar mansions.

 

[Ruptga]

OMG why do you want a handout, get a jerb and stop hating Amurricah. Also, have some pride and live below your means while investing in your 401k. Don't be so entitled on shit you don't need like new cars or those fancy VHS and it'll be easy.

...
:hmm:
I think that about covers it.

 

[Turin39789]

Mr Money Mustache has the answers.

 

[Sonikku]

Everyone I've met, of all income levels, tend to talk about how they're scraping by. It leads me to the conclusion that people subconsciously adjust their standard of living to their income and by the end of the month, have no money left. Thus reaching the conclusion, "just scraping by". It's uncanny.

 

[doubledeluxe]

Everyone I've met, of all income levels, tend to talk about how they're scraping by. It leads me to the conclusion that people subconsciously adjust their standard of living to their income and by the end of the month, have no money left. Thus reaching the conclusion, "just scraping by". It's uncanny.

Well to some people´s defense the economy hasn't helped much. Rising expenses and stagnant wages can lead people who were doing fine to just be scraping by. Add on $200 a month for health insurance, $50 for gas, $50 for food, $50 for utilities, and suddenly you are spending an extra 10% of your income or more and not getting the raise to handle it. At that point people are suddenly scraping by since it's really tough to not pay for these things.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

It is what it is. $100,000 isn't a fortune in L.A. and it's the good life in Iowa (is there good life in Iowa?), but you would have a hard time making $100,000 in Iowa. Living in that area, San Francisco, NYC, etc is very expensive. So you have the option to either make more money or cut expenses. $2,000 rent isn't back breaking at a $100K income level, so where is the money going? As was mentioned above, you need to list actual expenses. Odds are if you're just scraping buy you're wasting a lot of money on a lot of things you don't need. Drive cheaper cars, eat out less, skip the Starbucks or commute longer so you can pay $1750 in rent.

 

[Firetrak]

Everyone I've met, of all income levels, tend to talk about how they're scraping by. It leads me to the conclusion that people subconsciously adjust their standard of living to their income and by the end of the month, have no money left. Thus reaching the conclusion, "just scraping by". It's uncanny.

Yeah i'm pretty sure this is the situation.

Its pretty complicated with us as our kids where homeschooled for years. We moved to an area that had the best public school in SOCAL which is Valencia. Now they've made friends and we cant just uproot their lives and friendships again.

I originally lived in London and it was cheaper than here, which is just crazy.

And yeah $200k seems to be the middle income bracket, avg houses costs in LA are $450k to the person that lived on the beach that must have been 10 years ago at least. Things have drastically changed in Los Angeles in that time.

 

[SlitheryDee]

Stop buying shit.

 

[doubledeluxe]

Yeah I left around 2009. Not that long ago.

 

[RaistlinZ]

$100k raising a family in LA is going to be pretty tight. High price of living, high taxes, etc.

Don't feel too bad. I make $75k near D.C. no wife, no kids, and I feel like I'm barely getting by as well.

 

[doubledeluxe]

Venice, Marina Del Rey, Playa Del Rey. Lived blocks from the beach at all of them. Surfed and had a good time after work. Playa del Rey in particular is really cheap because of the airport. However I rarely heard the planes when I lived there.

Valencia though is way outside of the city. Aren't prices there reasonable? With traffic on the 405 I'd guess you're two hours from the city.

 

[Wyndru]

That's what my wife and I make, we are in an area that has a much lower average income compared to LA, sadly only scraping by as well.

Although daycare sucks about 25k a year out of us, so hopefully things will get easier once kindergarten starts (although afterschool care isn't much cheaper)

 

[rednas]

Move to lancaster or Bakersfield. Or do what I did and leave California. The longer that I am away the more I regret not leaving sooner. This is a HUGE country and one should not limit oneself to living in any specific area just because its what you have always known.

 

[Firetrak]

Venice, Marina Del Rey, Playa Del Rey. Lived blocks from the beach at all of them. Surfed and had a good time after work. Playa del Rey in particular is really cheap because of the airport. However I rarely heard the planes when I lived there.

Valencia though is way outside of the city. Aren't prices there reasonable? With traffic on the 405 I'd guess you're two hours from the city.

Work in Canoga park, the avg house price in Valencia is $600k

Move to lancaster or Bakersfield. Or do what I did and leave California. The longer that I am away the more I regret not leaving sooner. This is a HUGE country and one should not limit oneself to living in any specific area just because its what you have always known.

Yeah I think my wife is going to give her new job a year and then I think we need to start looking elsewhere. Personally hate SOCAL.

 

[rednas]

Simply move. The short term will be tough, but the long run should be better.

This!!!

 

[doubledeluxe]

If a house is $600K then a condo should be less. Looking at Zillow they look to be much less.

 

[rednas]

Work in Canoga park, the avg house price in Valencia is $600k



Yeah I think my wife is going to give her new job a year and then I think we need to start looking elsewhere. Personally hate SOCAL.

I spent my childhood in Socal. Leaving Socal was/is the best thing that ever happened to me. Had my mom never moved out of LA I would have never attended/graduated from college and would more than likely be selling drugs, in prison, or dead.

 

[Mai72]

Boo hoo!

People make much less and survive. Stop loving like a king. Stop buying iPods, coffee, soda, iPads, cake.

I ate popcorn for dinner. Cost me 60 cents.