Connecticut is basically the same way. You need to make around 150K a year to afford a decent house in a good neighborhood around here.
Oh man OP, that gun to your head forcing you to stay in the shithole known as LA must be hard on your life and overall well-being, right?
amirite?
I mean, it's rough for me.... what... paying $600/mo. mortgage for a 3 bedroom 2.5 bathroom... just barely scraping by myself.
The problem is Americans always have to be fronting, they have to build that big totem pole. Cause you gotta make people think your some high roller and impress those "Friends"
Most likely this is what the typical American will do who earns 100K
#1 Permalease a 500-800 a month BMW/MB etc.. forever (not just one but two or more ie his/hers and the kids), and don't forget the cost of insurance.
[BG] I own my car outright, and have a $230/month payment my wife's used Versa.
#2 Buy a huge zero lot McMansion box house
[BG] Renting a 1300sq ft 3bd for the 4 of us.
#3 Everyone has a 100 a month phone plan, (his/her/kids) 300-400 a month or more, annual upgrades of those iphones as well.
[BG] Phone bill for 3 lines - 150/month. I have a 2 year old L920 that's paid for, my son got a $40 L520, and my wife has an iP5S that we pay 32/month in that bill for.
#4 Super cable package and super internet package (300 or more a month)
[BG] Our cable+internet is 124/month after all the nonsense fees and taxes.
#5 if they have a small child, send them to l33t kindergarden for 20-40K a a year
[BG] Our kids go to a normal public school.
#6 Murican wife usually does not cook, so spend tons of money a month on frozen food
#7 Murican wife cant cook but they buy the 2000 dollar l33t cookware to hang over the big kitchen, over the fancy unused Wolf or Garland stove/oven.
[BG] I do the cooking in our family, and spend around the normal amount for a family of 4 according to the USDA. We eat a decent healthy diet with plenty of variety.
#8 if they have kids, they gotta wear those 90 dollar made in china name brand outfits.
[BG] Getting new clothes at target is considered luxury spending around our house.
#9 Weekend outings every weekend to entertain "Friends"
[BG] My wife meets up with her ASL (sign language) group once a week at a cost of around $25/week. I went out for beers with my coworkers 4 months ago, but that got funded by our director.
#10 yearly tv upgrades, hey that new 4K TV is out, lets get rid of that crappy 1080P. now I can show my friends our new badass 4K tv.
[BG] We have a 5 year old 40" Vizio plasma screen, we got it in return for giving a friend a place to stay for a couples months during his divorce. We also have the black friday 32" LCD I paid 200 for in 2009.
#12 if they have kids send them to all kinds of programs but the l33t versions, ie soccer,karate,piano,ballet,etc.. but 5-6 programs at the same time.
[BG] Giving our kids opportunities to experience and learn is important, so we do spend around 200/month on extracurricular programs.
#13 etc.. usually the end result is spending more than what comes in, typically 40-100K credit card debts or more.
[BG] Currently carrying less than 10K in credit card debt, mostly caused by our wedding (which we paid for not our parents) and an emergency vet trip for our dog (over 3k in expenses on that) Also have 16K remaining on my school loans.
Hey someonesmind1, what area do you live? (I'm not calling you out, I'm actually curious where you're at to find a place like that for that $).
100k isn't that much money. SO and I are making a combined 120k and we certainly aren't saving piles of cash. North Jersey, life is expensive.
Anywhere in Texas... $140k newly built home. Not the most ideal, but definitely not a bad start. I'm glad we're building equity instead of living out of an apartment trying to save for a nicer home first.
Original Mortgage was @ 5%, we refied to 2.75%
Pretty much true except you forgot the part where Alke tries to make the thread about him and starts blogging random information that nobody asked for.
Texas is a very cheap place to live, unfortunately the pay is very low and there is not a lot of high paying jobs.
comments inline.
But seriously, several of us have posted budgets for a family making ~100K/year, and it's not the sort of wasteful spending you're making up. My budget right now:
5700/month after tax/fica/etc. income.
1800/month rent ~ a little high because we wanted to keep the kids in good schools and there were not many options available.
250/month school loan payments ~ Coming out of grad school had a total of 26K in loans, refinanced those at 2.5%. Without which a 100K/year income wouldn't be possible.
230/month car loan ~ This I wish I had stood my ground on with my wife, but she really wanted a newer car, so we bought a 2 year old Versa hatchback for 12K with 3.5% interest.
300/month credit cards ~ I'm paying well over the minimum payments to get these off our back.
500/month ~ 401k and company stock plan. The 401K I need to up as soon as I clear the credit cards, and our company stock plan essentially lets you put in for 6 months and then purchase stock at 80% of the market value at the time of purchase, a 20% return investment vehicle is hard to find. This is after-tax reduction (so the before tax amount going into 401k is higher)
150/month ~ Cell phone bill.
125/month ~ cable/internet.
250/month ~ Avg. bill over the year for water, electric, trash, and misc. city services (the city controls all the utilities but nat. gas here.)
75/month ~ Avg. nat. gas bill - 25-30 in the summer, but 100-150 in the winter.
200/month ~ car/renter insurance.
100/month ~ misc entertainment subs, my wife plays wow, I have a music streaming sub, netflix, amazon prime. We could cut this, but since we're not having problems paying the bills and doing a little savings it seems like reasonable luxuries.
subtotal: ~4000/month for fixed bills, 1700 left.
800-1000/month ~ Avg. groceries, a bit less than midline by the USDA standards for a family of 4.
300/month ~ Avg. fuel costs
200/month ~ Kids enrichment
Total: 5300-5500/month. Leaves around 200-400/month for discretional spending, clothes, eating out, etc. Not bad, but hardly piles of wealth. From that over the last year we've managed to put aside 2k as part of our savings for house down payment (most of which is being funded by the stock plan investments)
You sir, would be full of shit. Wife and I both make decent salaries, combined we are approaching just under 150. Texas is booming like no other.
I don't defend Texas in a lot of ways (education, general populace, average IQ) - but the overall economy and job market I'll be damned if you will try and shit on it
When it comes to cheap living, dont mess with Texas. Three of the ten cheapest cities in the U.S. can be found in the Lone Star State. Several Texas cities, including San Marcos, McAllen and San Antonio, didn't crack the top ten but ranked very highly for affordability
Read more at http://www.kiplinger.com/slideshow/...ies-to-live-in/index.html#ZmfkCTHiSAPJj6MV.99
I might be able to count the number of mistakes in your ONE POST OF INFORMATION if I include both fingers and toes...
Such as?
/because Texas.
You sir, would be full of shit. Wife and I both make decent salaries, combined we are approaching just under 150. Texas is booming like no other.
I don't defend Texas in a lot of ways (education, general populace, average IQ) - but the overall economy and job market I'll be damned if you will try and shit on it
Lets give it a whirl:
1. Rent - High rent, you're an idiot. No one should ever pay that much for rent... something you don't even own. RIDICULOUS.
2. Location. Move. This isn't the olden days, anyone can move. Getting a new job isn't hard. You make it hard. You tell yourself it's hard. You tell yourself it's stressful.
3. $150/mo for 3 Phones, you can trim some fat here. You don't need unlimited everything.
4. $125/mo RIDICULOUS. Everyone knows cable right now is ridiculous. I make ~$150 and we cut the cable cord. We watch local channels and stream anything else we want for free. We don't even have Netflix or any other garbage. I'll leave you with a max of $50/mo for internet here. TONS of fat can be trimmed here.
5. Credit Cards.... Credit... fucking cards... Paying wedding costs on a credit card. People make fun of that shit for fucks sake because they get divorced so fast they still haven't paid off the costs of the original wedding. DONT USE CREDIT CARDS IF YOU CANT PAY THEM OFF.
6. Really? Going for company stock? How do you even know your company stock is stable? Why don't you just make like Enron employees and toss all your retirement investments into it? You have way more important shit to do at the moment than gamble on company stock. Put in the company match on 401k and pay off your debt deadbeat.
7. Entertainment expenses - way too much fat. $10/mo here, $15/mo there, $10/mo there, next thing you know you add it all up - thats an automatic ejection of $150 every month that you don't even get to see. Stupid stupid stupid.
8. "Kids enrichment"? Define that better. Honestly, unless it's worthy physical activity it sounds like a bunch of BS.
I can't go on.... Too much Face slapping.
Lets give it a whirl:
1. Rent - High rent, you're an idiot. No one should ever pay that much for rent... something you don't even own. RIDICULOUS.
2. Location. Move. This isn't the olden days, anyone can move. Getting a new job isn't hard. You make it hard. You tell yourself it's hard. You tell yourself it's stressful.
3. $150/mo for 3 Phones, you can trim some fat here. You don't need unlimited everything.
4. $125/mo RIDICULOUS. Everyone knows cable right now is ridiculous. I make ~$150 and we cut the cable cord. We watch local channels and stream anything else we want for free. We don't even have Netflix or any other garbage. I'll leave you with a max of $50/mo for internet here. TONS of fat can be trimmed here.
5. Credit Cards.... Credit... fucking cards... Paying wedding costs on a credit card. People make fun of that shit for fucks sake because they get divorced so fast they still haven't paid off the costs of the original wedding. DONT USE CREDIT CARDS IF YOU CANT PAY THEM OFF.
6. Really? Going for company stock? How do you even know your company stock is stable? Why don't you just make like Enron employees and toss all your retirement investments into it? You have way more important shit to do at the moment than gamble on company stock. Put in the company match on 401k and pay off your debt deadbeat.
7. Entertainment expenses - way too much fat. $10/mo here, $15/mo there, $10/mo there, next thing you know you add it all up - thats an automatic ejection of $150 every month that you don't even get to see. Stupid stupid stupid.
8. "Kids enrichment"? Define that better. Honestly, unless it's worthy physical activity it sounds like a bunch of BS.
There is a reason the Federal Banking people stopped allowing HELOCs and LOC's in Texas.
There is a reason the Federal Banking people stopped allowing HELOCs and LOC's in Texas.
You guys don't know how to manage money.
so what do you and your wife do with all of your $150k lol? you sound like a penny pincher for someone who makes $150k/yr and lives in a low cost housing area.
Federal banking people didn't do shit. Those has been against the law in Texas because we didn't trust Yankee banks.
Patently false.It was because you had a VERY HIGH rate of Texans not realizing they were putting their homes up for collateral.
LOL at YANKEE banks.
Texas is a very cheap place to live, unfortunately the pay is very low and there is not a lot of high paying jobs.
He is making stuff up on the internet. Based on his posts, I expect his family income to hover around half that.
Lets give it a whirl:
1. Rent - High rent, you're an idiot. No one should ever pay that much for rent... something you don't even own. RIDICULOUS.
[BG]Well, a house down the street(admittedly a 4bd 2400sq ft) is asking 2500/month, and another house in the area (the mcmansion) is at 3200/month. I suppose I could move much further from work and deal with crappy schools to save 200/300 month. But I figure having my kids in a safe neighborhood they can play outside in, and a well rated school is worth a little.
2. Location. Move. This isn't the olden days, anyone can move. Getting a new job isn't hard. You make it hard. You tell yourself it's hard. You tell yourself it's stressful.
[BG]This IS after moving, my expenses in SoCal were notably higher.
3. $150/mo for 3 Phones, you can trim some fat here. You don't need unlimited everything.
[BG]Actually with a deaf wife I do. She uses a lot of data making video calls every month, because she can't use normal talk minutes. For her this is part of enabling her to have a life and it's not something I'm going to take from her to save 40-50/month.
4. $125/mo RIDICULOUS. Everyone knows cable right now is ridiculous. I make ~$150 and we cut the cable cord. We watch local channels and stream anything else we want for free. We don't even have Netflix or any other garbage. I'll leave you with a max of $50/mo for internet here. TONS of fat can be trimmed here.
[BG]Great, I was pretty happy with 12/1 DSL for 60/month myself, but of hearing my wife whine got old, so I gave in on it.
5. Credit Cards.... Credit... fucking cards... Paying wedding costs on a credit card. People make fun of that shit for fucks sake because they get divorced so fast they still haven't paid off the costs of the original wedding. DONT USE CREDIT CARDS IF YOU CANT PAY THEM OFF.
[BG]I spent around 15K for our wedding, including the cost of her ring. Well below the standard costs. Am I happy about it, not really, but decisions were made at the time, and now it's a matter of dealing with them realistically.
6. Really? Going for company stock? How do you even know your company stock is stable? Why don't you just make like Enron employees and toss all your retirement investments into it? You have way more important shit to do at the moment than gamble on company stock. Put in the company match on 401k and pay off your debt deadbeat.
[BG]WTF did you not get about the setup, for 6 months they take a deduction out of my check, at the end of the 6 months they buy stock with the accumulated money at 80% of the market rate at that time. I immediately sell the stock and put the money onto an index fund, this gives me a 20% return, which is well above my credit card rates.
7. Entertainment expenses - way too much fat. $10/mo here, $15/mo there, $10/mo there, next thing you know you add it all up - thats an automatic ejection of $150 every month that you don't even get to see. Stupid stupid stupid.
[BG]I admitted that this could be cut down. Given that debt is being paid off, and savings is occurring I'm not seeing an overwhelming reason to live like hermits.
8. "Kids enrichment"? Define that better. Honestly, unless it's worthy physical activity it sounds like a bunch of BS.
[BG]My son takes karate lessons, and my daughter gymnastics, plus occasional other events. These get them physical activity, social interaction (which is difficult sometimes with a deaf wife) and teaches discipline.