Saving money in NJ when making 100k USD/year? (rent, insurance)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I cringe to answer a question like the OP's because while I would say affirmatively YES you can easily live on $100K in NJ I also know, from experience with other people, that many have the mentality that certain things are "necessary" when they aren't.
I have a friend, here in Bergen County, who owns a home and has 2 kids and a wife. He makes somewhere in the $100K area (probably on the plus side) and his wife is a SAHM. He is constantly crying poor, complaining they don't have enough money, etc. However, I know that he has a substantial amount of savings he has hardly ever tapped into (and this is separate from 401K and other retirement savings) and that he loves his toys - his hot tub, his "hobby" car, their luxury cars and his new "commuter" car which is a V-8 muscle car, 5 years old but he paid over 15K for it. I know they spend on the kids (the kids get toys as rewards for being good every time they take them out, anywhere - even if they're not so good), I know he does take little trips with his friends and that they go out to eat and that she has her girls' nights out with her friends...
So, it depends on the person. If you truly understand what necessity is and truly keep things simple, yes you can easily live on $100K a year in NJ. If you're like my friend, then you will struggle. How can someone cry poor when he's paying hundreds of dollars more for gas per year, insisting on buying luxury vehicles brand new, dropping anywhere from $500 to $2000 at a time on a hobby/project car that mostly sits in the garage, etc.??? He considers those "necessities". It is "necessary" for him to be able to have a V-8 car to commute to work so he can "beat" the other cars (I say buy an econobox with a good radio and leave 15 minutes earlier for work if you really want to save money). It is "necessary" to go order sushi delivered to the house every so often (I say find some new foods to prepare and enjoy if money's an issue). It is "necessary" to have a project car that costs thousands of dollars a year (I say find a new hobby - I have hobbies that I'd like to do which are expensive but in order to save I have found less expensive ones as well).
I think it was also "necessary" to update the kitchen and replace the granite countertops that were only 12 years old because they were tired of their first update. I guess it's also necessary to buy X amount of new toys each week for the kids while giving away or throwing out the same number of toys because the kids grew tired of them. All these "necessities" make it hard for a person to live on a "small" amount like $100K/yr .
Now he has some kind of problem with the climate control of the house, he is wondering where thousands of dollars will come from - he should have thought about this before buying a brand new luxury car and an expensive, gas-guzzling "commuter" car (for his 80-mile-a-day-round-trip commute); I told him to tap into his 10's of thousands of dollars in non-retirement savings. He is such a jackass.
BJC - there was an article in Money mag a while ago about a family in Nebraska with 180,000 income. they had 5 or 6 children, which i know isn't cheap, but they still struggled to put money into savings. It was one of the features of the magazine every month - "Money Makeover". They redid their finances and found all the unneccessary expenses. One doesn't have to eliminate all of what they want to do, but that's the answer to the question - and what i was saying before - everyone struggles to save no matter what the income. $100,000 is plenty to get by and save, as long as this poster pays themself first, and lives off the rest.
that's true of someone making $50,000/yr also. and $500,000/yr.
if you don't pay yourself first, you will spend the money. many of us can probably pay ourselves more than we do, but that's where you start breaking down the wants - how badly do you want it vs saving more money?
sticking to a budget is tough, but if you do, you'll be able to accumulate savings.
I've seen some "My husband makes approximately $100k and we are struggling." statements on this forum and I am (actually, my wife is :-) wondering if we ourselves will be struggling or not when we move to NJ next year:
- 100k USD/year
- expect to be renting for max. 2k/month
- 2 person household, no kids
- would like to have to two (cheap/small/etc.) cars
I was thinking 100k would be ~ 70k after taxes. After 24k rent this would leave 46k or ~ 3800/month. We don't have an extravagant lifestyle.
Please tell me it should be possible to safe money with such an income, even in NJ :-).
Thanks,
paul.
you are gonna want to save money if you want to live decently when you retire. saving is as important a part of your budgeting as your groceries.
unless you want to live on social security when you retire (if its there for you) or maybe you dont want to ever retire.
I like this response. The key (for us) to saving money is to remove/reduce any recurring monthly expense. Anything that you have to pay regularly should be minimized.
Some tips on what I do to save $$:
Don't get cable or Tivo or netflix, they are expensive and you probably don't have a lot of time to watch TV between work/kids. You can watch many shows on the internet for free (all the major networks let you do that), so you can hook up a computer to HDTV and watch some of your favorite shows.
Cell phone, get the cheapest plan possible based on your usage and don't ever go over minutes/texting.
Magazine subscriptions, get rid of them. Read them at library or browse at bookstore.
Make your own coffee in the morning, you will be amazed how much $$ you save by not going to Starbucks/DD. On similar vein, bring lunch to work. By doing these 2 things alone, you can probably save $10-15 a day, which translate to $250 or so per month.
If you smoke, quit for your wallet and health. I don't know how people can smoke and save any $$ in the city! Isn't it like $10 a pack now?
By reducing your recurring expense, you will have more money each month and once you learn to live without these things, you will be fine as before. I am sure there are many more ways to make your budget stretch (coupons, etc).
Another thing I do is never buy the top of the line of anything, be it car, computers, phones, whatever. If it is something I want, I buy the basic or middle of the road model which usually have the basic functionality that I want, but don't have to pay premium for all the bells and whistles.
Great suggestions. I just bolded the one sentence because I agree that sometimes money gets frittered away on the small things. Making my own lunch for work made a difference.
I cringe to answer a question like the OP's because while I would say affirmatively YES you can easily live on $100K in NJ I also know, from experience with other people, that many have the mentality that certain things are "necessary" when they aren't.
I have a friend, here in Bergen County, who owns a home and has 2 kids and a wife. He makes somewhere in the $100K area (probably on the plus side) and his wife is a SAHM. He is constantly crying poor, complaining they don't have enough money, etc. However, I know that he has a substantial amount of savings he has hardly ever tapped into (and this is separate from 401K and other retirement savings) and that he loves his toys - his hot tub, his "hobby" car, their luxury cars and his new "commuter" car which is a V-8 muscle car, 5 years old but he paid over 15K for it. I know they spend on the kids (the kids get toys as rewards for being good every time they take them out, anywhere - even if they're not so good), I know he does take little trips with his friends and that they go out to eat and that she has her girls' nights out with her friends...
So, it depends on the person. If you truly understand what necessity is and truly keep things simple, yes you can easily live on $100K a year in NJ. If you're like my friend, then you will struggle. How can someone cry poor when he's paying hundreds of dollars more for gas per year, insisting on buying luxury vehicles brand new, dropping anywhere from $500 to $2000 at a time on a hobby/project car that mostly sits in the garage, etc.??? He considers those "necessities". It is "necessary" for him to be able to have a V-8 car to commute to work so he can "beat" the other cars (I say buy an econobox with a good radio and leave 15 minutes earlier for work if you really want to save money). It is "necessary" to go order sushi delivered to the house every so often (I say find some new foods to prepare and enjoy if money's an issue). It is "necessary" to have a project car that costs thousands of dollars a year (I say find a new hobby - I have hobbies that I'd like to do which are expensive but in order to save I have found less expensive ones as well).
I think it was also "necessary" to update the kitchen and replace the granite countertops that were only 12 years old because they were tired of their first update. I guess it's also necessary to buy X amount of new toys each week for the kids while giving away or throwing out the same number of toys because the kids grew tired of them. All these "necessities" make it hard for a person to live on a "small" amount like $100K/yr .
Now he has some kind of problem with the climate control of the house, he is wondering where thousands of dollars will come from - he should have thought about this before buying a brand new luxury car and an expensive, gas-guzzling "commuter" car (for his 80-mile-a-day-round-trip commute); I told him to tap into his 10's of thousands of dollars in non-retirement savings. He is such a jackass.
I bet we all know people like this or different versions of it. One woman I know doesn't have an income of $100K, and she prides herself on finding bargains at garage sales. Problem is, she goes to garage sales every week and finds all this stuff she doesn't need at great prices. Her attic, garage and shed are stuffed to the gills with all kinds of crap she just had to buy because it was so cheap. Meanwhile, their upstairs bathroom hasn't been used in years because there is a plumbing problem and they "can't afford" to get it fixed. Of course, it is now also stuffed with garage sale bargains. Except that the living areas of the house are OK, I'd think she was a hoarder.
She also leases two late-model cars. When I suggested that it might be cheaper to at least buy something older and serviceable for her husband to use, she said she won't do that because he needs a reliable vehicle for work. He works four miles from their house, using town roads to get there. He doesn't have to travel or anything for the job--owns his own business (and doesn't make any money at it).
its incredible how people waste their money. i have $11 an hour employees who get breakfast delivered from a restaurant, go out for lunch and drive a nicer car than i do. my breakfast at home probably costs me about $1, lunch about $2 and my car payment is $277 a month. my m-f dinner is about $2 also.
I am hoping to find a house within walking distance to the train. If not, I am going to find a used American brand minivan as a commute car, those are dirt cheap (maybe 3-5k?), and I don't care if people ding it all up.
its incredible how people waste their money. i have $11 an hour employees who get breakfast delivered from a restaurant, go out for lunch and drive a nicer car than i do. my breakfast at home probably costs me about $1, lunch about $2 and my car payment is $277 a month. my m-f dinner is about $2 also.
She also leases two late-model cars. When I suggested that it might be cheaper to at least buy something older and serviceable for her husband to use, she said she won't do that because he needs a reliable vehicle for work. He works four miles from their house, using town roads to get there. He doesn't have to travel or anything for the job--owns his own business (and doesn't make any money at it).
My 2001 Jetta is pretty reliable. I don't get it.
You're right and they're wrong. Sounds to me like a case of being penny-wise and pound-foolish on their part as autos are second only to housing in their costs.
A reliable model of car is good for about 200k miles, and when they're not good any more, it isn't because they suddenly break down on a 4 mile trip -- it's because the cost of maintenance creeps up and the value creeps down to the point where it doesn't make economic sense to own them. Your car isn't going to have a mechanical flaw in the middle of a 4 mile commute with no prior warning (and the "hazard rates" for electrical problems don't change much over lifetime of the vehicle.
breakfast is 3/4 cups oats, splash of skim milk and 1 scoop protein.
lunch is 8oz chicken breast, wrap, few craisins, squirt of balsamic glaze
dinner is 8oz grilled chicken, mixed veggies
yep, its the same thing monday through friday. it could be made a little more interesting without too much more expense.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
.
