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Old 04-30-2018, 10:48 AM
 
Location: Paranoid State
13,044 posts, read 13,799,206 times
Reputation: 15837

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Quote:
Originally Posted by tgbwc View Post
At first I thought, “Maybe they are including benefits”, but then I read the article.

It lists people who will eventually make $300k either individually or with somebody else who works. It’s interesting to read the cherry-picking. A 26 year old middle school teacher making $55,000 a year plus her $250,000 a year VP of Marketing wifeSeriously? How many VPs of marketing are there?
There are gazillions of them. Every Silicon Valley start-up has one.
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Old 04-30-2018, 10:53 AM
 
Location: SW Missouri
15,853 posts, read 35,030,160 times
Reputation: 22693
Ye Gods, I'm $240,000 short (and living a pretty damn good life.)
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Old 04-30-2018, 10:54 AM
 
Location: The analog world
17,077 posts, read 13,278,867 times
Reputation: 22904
There's a ton of hyperbole in that article.
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Old 04-30-2018, 10:59 AM
 
1,183 posts, read 700,172 times
Reputation: 3240
Quote:
Originally Posted by Eumaois View Post
Living here in PHX, if I was making $30-$40K/year, I would consider that lower middle class.
That's working class, not anything middle class even lower middle class.
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Old 04-30-2018, 11:03 AM
 
1,183 posts, read 700,172 times
Reputation: 3240
Quote:
Originally Posted by 20yrsinBranson View Post
Ye Gods, I'm $240,000 short (and living a pretty damn good life.)
great - you got your mortgage on your entry-level, $750K modest 3-bed house in Westchester NY already paid off and now all you have to worry about is your $18K property taxes, 6.5% state income taxes, your 75K federal income tax and FICA/SS bill and your...


Oh wait - you're no financial genius - you are applying a family income in NY to your own income in Missouri.
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Old 04-30-2018, 11:06 AM
 
Location: Paranoid State
13,044 posts, read 13,799,206 times
Reputation: 15837
Quote:
Originally Posted by ragnarkar View Post
$300,000/yr is rich even in many expensive cities like Los Angeles, Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong, etc.
You have a very odd view of what makes a person rich.
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Old 04-30-2018, 11:13 AM
 
1,183 posts, read 700,172 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bobspez View Post
And many millions more families live happy prosperous lives and raise children on less than $150K a year in NYC, San Fran, LA, San Diego, Boston, Seattle, Toronto, and Vancouver. Lives without nannies, boats, private schools, luxury cars, fancy restaurants and expensive family vacations. Lives with cable TV, XBox, public schools, home cooking and vacations around their back yard pool and the beach and local amusement parks.

For some reason people equate lving in NYC with the lifestyle of a hedge fund manager living in a multi million dollar condo. The median family income for NYC residents is $55k per year, with 80% of NYC families earning less than $115K per year.
Happy - yes. Prosperous? No. 150K a year in NYC with Federal, NY State and NYC Income Taxes (yes NYC has its own income tax on top of NY state income tax) and NY property taxes already leaves you with under 100K for a start. You are talking ****. Plus they don't have backyard pool at 150K - the majority don't have a backyard period - just a handful in outer boros. And if you bought housing prior to 2000, you don't have an opinion effectively because the game is completely different now.


That median family income includes the 100,000s of people living in NYC projects, those living in section 8 housing, those who are unemployed living in rent-assisted housing and rent-controlled apartments.
It also doesn't include the 100,000s of people living in NYC who don't have US-stated income sand so aren't included in the figures. Nearly 60% of people in NYC are foreign-born, and a chunk of them - especially most of the rich ones - have no US declared income or very little. That's why you have a "median" income of 55K - of those who actually have declared income - yet the average price of a Manhattan apartment is in excess of $1 million. So when you go to buy a home in NYC you have to buy a home at a price that reflects the whole buy-side of NYC properties - include a lot of people who never get included in those median figures and have stacks of cash too - you are competing with them. Not to mention various foreign investment firms that buy NYC real estate in buckets.

Of course everyone on here and their aunt living in a $70K home in Mississippi is an expert on how much money you need to live in NYC.
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Old 04-30-2018, 11:20 AM
 
Location: The analog world
17,077 posts, read 13,278,867 times
Reputation: 22904
Bought a house, put money aside for college & retirement, and had young children on ~$115k in Marin County, California. Yes, it's possible to live comfortably on less than $300k in the Bay Area.
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Old 04-30-2018, 11:33 AM
 
6,844 posts, read 3,921,858 times
Reputation: 15849
Of course you have to live in the outer boroughs. That is still NYC. Maybe you are talking about the borough of Manhattan. Ever heard of Staten Island? Half the single family and semi attached homes in Staten Island cost less than $450K today, and they all have back yards with room for a pool. And NYC property taxes are less than half of what they are in NJ, Long Island and Westchester. And a good accountant can do wonders with your income tax deductions.
And what is prosperous? To me it's being able to afford the things you want without worrying about money. I can tell you from a lifetime of experience, that is much more a question of money management and living within your means than income level. After living and working in NYC for most of my life I'm retired and living on a net of about $55K a year with no money worries in my own home in Southern NJ. To me that is prosperous. Maybe to you it would be middle class. The houses in my NJ subdivision are worth about $250 to $325K today. And people in Staten Island and even in my present NJ neighborhood, do commute to NYC to work, and they declare their income, pay taxes and raise a families on less than $150K gross family income a year, just like I did and my kids do now.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Chint View Post
Happy - yes. Prosperous? No. 150K a year in NYC with Federal, NY State and NYC Income Taxes (yes NYC has its own income tax on top of NY state income tax) and NY property taxes already leaves you with under 100K for a start. You are talking ****. Plus they don't have backyard pool at 150K - the majority don't have a backyard period - just a handful in outer boros. And if you bought housing prior to 2000, you don't have an opinion effectively because the game is completely different now.


That median family income includes the 100,000s of people living in NYC projects, those living in section 8 housing, those who are unemployed living in rent-assisted housing and rent-controlled apartments.
It also doesn't include the 100,000s of people living in NYC who don't have US-stated income sand so aren't included in the figures. Nearly 60% of people in NYC are foreign-born, and a chunk of them - especially most of the rich ones - have no US declared income or very little. That's why you have a "median" income of 55K - of those who actually have declared income - yet the average price of a Manhattan apartment is in excess of $1 million. So when you go to buy a home in NYC you have to buy a home at a price that reflects the whole buy-side of NYC properties - include a lot of people who never get included in those median figures and have stacks of cash too - you are competing with them. Not to mention various foreign investment firms that buy NYC real estate in buckets.

Of course everyone on here and their aunt living in a $70K home in Mississippi is an expert on how much money you need to live in NYC.

Last edited by bobspez; 04-30-2018 at 11:59 AM..
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Old 04-30-2018, 11:34 AM
 
6,749 posts, read 5,440,144 times
Reputation: 17584
I don't live on the coast, but do live in New York.

Gee, I feel so...so...inadequate.

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