Living on around $100,000 a year (Houston, Bellaire: apartments, for rent, insurance)

[Grunn]

Well I'm not getting expensed living as I expected and am now looking at having to fund my accomodation myself if I move to Houston

I figure federal taxes are going to amount to 30 percent of my income so around $66K a year left to play with or $5.5 a month. I want to spend no more than 1800 a month of this on an apartment. Is this realistic for a one/2 bed apt in a nice inner loop area with parking for 2 cars?

Will I be able to afford to live on this amount of money and support my partner until they find work?

Kinda worried I'm going to have to live in a not so nice area and be on a strict budget for things like cars and leisure.

[houston-nomad]

Originally Posted by Grunn

Well I'm not getting expensed living as I expected and am now looking at having to fund my accomodation myself if I move to Houston

I figure federal taxes are going to amount to 30 percent of my income so around $66K a year left to play with or $5.5 a month. I want to spend no more than 1800 a month of this on an apartment. Is this realistic for a one/2 bed apt in a nice inner loop area with parking for 2 cars?

Will I be able to afford to live on this amount of money and support my partner until they find work?

Kinda worried I'm going to have to live in a not so nice area and be on a strict budget for things like cars and leisure.

You should manage fine on that. We have a similar budget with two kids in daycare (I call their school "my vacation home" since it's basically a second mortgage!) and still get by.

[rasta empress]

You can get a nice apartment to rent for $1800 a month, in fact I've seen 2 bedroom townhouses with garages advertised for rent for less than that.

Here's one that I found on HAR 5843 Katy Street but there are also nice apartments one or two bedroom that you can get for under your threshold.

[Grunn]

Thanks for the help. The house on Katy Street looks nice but I had in mind some specific areas where I can walk as well as drive ie Montrose, Rice Village or Galleria. I think perhaps my budget is a little limited for those areas now which is a shame.
I use HAR as well but can never seem to find anything in those areas I mentioned, they are either very limited, don't exist or cost in excess of 3 thousand a month.
Starting to wonder if my expectations are too high or if my employer should be paying me a bit more considering it's a major multinational.

[tstone]

Originally Posted by Grunn

Kinda worried I'm going to have to live in a not so nice area and be on a strict budget for things like cars and leisure.

You're worried about this on a $100k salary? Seriously?

How do you think the average American family feels on $45k per year... before taxes?

I wouldn't even consider renting on that salary if I were to be here for more than 3 years.

This is Houston, not San Francisco. Unless you use $20 bills as TP, you'll be fine.

[chris_ut]

100k isn't what is used to be. You need 100k/year to have the same lifestyle from making 28k/year in 1977 (year I was born). Inflation sucks.

[EasilyAmused]

If you're single and just renting it's a very nice lifestyle.

A family, a house, insurance, taxes, necessities, gas.....better than the average American family, but certainly no extras.

[Topaz]

Originally Posted by Grunn

Will I be able to afford to live on this amount of money and support my partner until they find work?

You'll definitely be able to live on this but you won't have a lot of extra money until your partner finds work.

[recuerdeme]

Many if not all the apartments complexes in the areas you are looking in should have what you are looking for at the price you are looking for.

Plus a lot of owners rent out in the towers/condos in Montrose should be easy to find something.

Don't worry jej

[tstone]

Originally Posted by EasilyAmused

A family, a house, insurance, taxes, necessities, gas.....better than the average American family, but certainly no extras.

Having "extras" really depends on how much debt carried over from before you started a family, how much debt you're willing to take on, or both + the amount of discipline you have. After eliminating all debt except mortgage, and making an effort to be efficient @ the house, I strongly believe it. Because in all honesty, ''necessities'' at a house in Clear Lake, even with high speed internet, dish, Netflix, and cell phones w/ mini-internet don't require that much. Again, the usual family in this country is bringing about $3k/ month home. We couldn't live off of that right now, but we don't require very much more. A family bringing home $6,000 per month and not having anything left for extras seriously makes me wonder what the hell people think are 'necessities.'

The exceptions I can think of are if someone is chronically ill, or living in an area like Uptown, West U, Bellaire, etc where most of that income is wiped out in a mortgage/tax/insurance payment. Then again, buying in a convenient place does not really qualify as a ''necessity'' here in this area anyway.

Anyway that's the end of my rant. After abandoning the credit system and spending weeks analyzing my budget vs my bank statement, my mind opened up to a whole new way of thinking. Cost analyst by day & night I guess... can't help it.