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You make $90K a year and you post this crap? At $90K a year, I'd be debt free and a millionaire in 8 years or less guaranteed.
What a load of bologna. $90k after federal taxes is ~$68k. Let's assume you live frugally in a metro area and are able to spend only $20k total on necessary expenses -- housing, food, medical copays, etc. That's $48k that you can invest every year. Now let's pretend you put that into an investment account that grows at 10% per year (an absurdly high amount). After 8 years you'd have
((((($48k * 1.1) + $48k)*1.1 + ....)*1.1 ~= $603k
It could be slightly higher if you sheltered $18k of it an a 401k account every year, I realize.
Anyhow, remember that's assuming you never spend any unnecessary money, i.e. assuming that you have no life (never go to see a move, never eat out, don't have a wedding, don't have kids, etc.), and all it would prove is that to have a middle-class lifestyle nowadays you have to forgo a middle-class lifestyle for a while.
Finally, with the way real inflation is trending, $603k in 8 years will buy less than $500k does today.
Well, 6 figures is still a good salary anywhere. I barely made that when I retired last year in the SF Bay Area and saving 10% of that over 30 years invested in a basic S&P fund will leave you with a WHOLE lotta money.. I easily did that will living in an expensive suburb...
Yea, but if you started living in that suburb 30 years ago, that's a lot different.
What a load of bologna. $90k after federal taxes is ~$68k.
Zillow shows lists of apartments for downtown Seattle specifically. I see the price of real estate in that section is high and in demand. Nice apartments too.
But Zillow also shows a list for apartments throughout the larger Seattle city area. But I'm not familiar with Seattle so I have no idea how convienent in location--or how the areas areas are--in some of the apartment buildings listed. But you would know that since you live there.
At $68,000 I'm sure you don't want to exceed $1,700 in monthly rent, ideally. But from just a quick glance at Zillow for Seattle I'm not sure how easy it will be to stay within that rent cap.
Here are a list of 1 bedroom apartments in Seattle, some below $2,000 a month in rent, and some pretty nice looking places.
Here's the Griffis Belltown apartment building in Seattle with rooftop deck and long pool at a lower level. The interior of the apartments look pretty nice too. When they do have rental unit available some 1 bedroom units (at a decent 600 sq ft or so) go for about $1,300/month and another 1 bedroom model of unit (at roughly 700 sq ft.) going for roughly $1,530/month.
Seattle seems like a pretty fantastic city, especially for a young professional person making good money, but the price of living in the city seems like it can be pretty high. If you can find a way to reduce your expenses then I would recommend staying there.
No need to live like a big time baller in a $3,000 a month 1 bedroom apartment in the heart of downtown. You can still live like a baller--just at a lower level--by not exceeding $2,000 a month in rent for a 1 bedroom that is not located right downtown (but maybe close enough by it you get a good skyline view off a rooftop deck). At $2,000 you would be spending about 35 percent of your $68,000 a year pay on rent. Not the worst thing imaginable, but probably not best player deal on earth either. Better than spending 50 percent of your income on rent.
But your college loan debt is probably eating you up too.
Best of luck.
(I have a younger brother living in the ghetto in a Vice Lord gang area and from his dialysis and disability payments he's been on I think he brings in a little over $7,200 a year. Ironically he seems content. Family of a friend of his rent out an upstairs duplex to him for $200 a month, otherwise he'd be screwed. So, it could be worse and you could get fired and find out you have testical cancer. LOL.)
Do you realize how many Americans would love to make $90K a year? What a whiner. Grow up.
And by the way, there are vast parts of this country where you can still buy a house on an average income. Much of the midwest and south is still very affordable.
"Do you realize how many Americans would love to make $90K a year? What a whiner. Grow up.'
This is the problem with many posters on here.
They look at their own situation and think it applies to everybody else.
This is why the fed minimum wage arguments are such a joke.
America is so diverse in the cost of living that ANY number thrown out is meaningless.
$90k in one are is NOT comparable to $90k in a different area.
Not even comparable within the same state, much less the entire country.
"Do you realize how many Americans would love to make $90K a year? What a whiner. Grow up.'
This is the problem with many posters on here.
They look at their own situation and think it applies to everybody else.
This is why the fed minimum wage arguments are such a joke.
America is so diverse in the cost of living that ANY number thrown out is meaningless.
$90k in one are is NOT comparable to $90k in a different area.
Not even comparable within the same state, much less the entire country.
Not to mention high horses.
Being young and single is the time to live in Seattle. It will eat him alive once he gets a wife and kids in to take care of tho. Dayton is boring by comparison, but 90K will go a LONG way there.
What a load of bologna. $90k after federal taxes is ~$68k. Let's assume you live frugally in a metro area and are able to spend only $20k total on necessary expenses -- housing, food, medical copays, etc. That's $48k that you can invest every year. Now let's pretend you put that into an investment account that grows at 10% per year (an absurdly high amount). After 8 years you'd have
((((($48k * 1.1) + $48k)*1.1 + ....)*1.1 ~= $603k
It could be slightly higher if you sheltered $18k of it an a 401k account every year, I realize.
Anyhow, remember that's assuming you never spend any unnecessary money, i.e. assuming that you have no life (never go to see a move, never eat out, don't have a wedding, don't have kids, etc.), and all it would prove is that to have a middle-class lifestyle nowadays you have to forgo a middle-class lifestyle for a while.
Finally, with the way real inflation is trending, $603k in 8 years will buy less than $500k does today.
I certainly think the amount of taxes taken out is TOO high. It isn't fair that a single working person generally has no write-offs and they bear too much tax burden while having to navigate work and expenses on their own.
But, you are young, it as never been otherwise that you have to wait for some things. Yes you usually do work harder as you get older so that you can achieve more and move ahead. It isn't SUPPOSED to be handed to you.
You keep mentioning marriage and family, in all honesty, Seattle isn't known for being the best place to meet marriageable women.
It is very cheap to live in most of America. The question is, how do you want to live?
If you want to live like a hillbilly, then you could live practically for free. Just have to get ahold of a small piece of land and an old trailer(they are giving them away for free on craigslist, if you haul them).
I live about seven miles from downtown Oklahoma City, and my house only costed me $8k(was a big fixer-upper, but I am very handy).
The taxes are like $550 a year. The water bill/electric bill varies based on how many people you live with, and how efficient you are. Food can be very cheap if you buy in bulk and cook your own food. And you could theoretically walk or ride a bicycle everywhere you need to go.
All-in-all, I could probably live on $3k a year, if it was just me. Each additional person raises my water and electric bill a few dollars, my toiletries, general household goods, and then food.
I buy all my clothes cheap. I usually buy my t-shirts on-sale and in bulk for $2-$3 each(I bought a bunch of clearance Oklahoma Thunder shirts after they lost in the playoffs a while back, then I ordered a bunch of clearance shirts from JCPenney for $2.99 each minus their $10 off $25 coupon).
When these people talk about not being able to afford to live. They are struggling to pay the mortgage on a quarter-million dollar house, and a couple brand-new cars, and going out-to-eat almost every meal. Along with blowing fistfuls of cash at the bar/club, going out to watch $10-$15 a ticket movies every weekend. While dishing out hundreds of dollars a month on their cable TV and internet bill, plus their fancy cell phones. All while they live alone(generally refusing to live with anyone else), so they aren't splitting the cost of their bills with anyone else.
What about moving out to the burbs of Seattle? Like Bothell or whatever else is around there?
For perspective, the average house price in Bothell is $440K which is almost double Austin $235K. Still I'm with the majority that $90K for a single person in Seattle is enough to live well if you make good decisions with your money. My millinial son makes about 60% more than OP and is supporting wife and 2 young children and has a decent house in Seattle area.
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