Decent Salary for San Diego

[earlyretirement]

Originally Posted by skyegirl

Okay, just being nosey here; 2500/month for groceries? Are you cooking filet mignon every night? I would assume with a grocery budget that high, you wouldn't need the 800/month set aside for dining out! We have a grocery budget in our home for 5 people of 800-900/month, and that includes pizza 1-2x's/month on a Friday night for the kids.

Ha, ha! Good point skyegirl. Well, yeah it's a really high budget. That's one thing we spend quite a bit of money on is our "grocery expense". My wife buys fresh fruits and vegetables almost everyday at Whole Foods and those types of places. And we eat lots of steak and also seafood like shrimp, fresh fish and sometimes Lobster so our grocery budget is higher than most with a family of 4.

We typically dine out a few times a week as well. I'm not sure how much this will change once we move to San Diego. Right now we have a chef that comes to our house Monday to Friday to cook but I'm sure that will not happen once we move to San Diego.

Maybe the budget is a big on the high side but that is what we spend now and I didn't include the expense for our chef that comes in. I am trying to be conservative however. I've always worked in executive level jobs and this is the first time in my adult life that I will try not working so we'll see how it goes.

Most likely I'll go work again and that will cut a big portion out of our budget with medical healthcare expenses. That's the only thing that really scares me about not working is medical care coverage. It seems like some insurance plans in California are raising premiums up to 57% a year! Crazy.

Also, those of you reading this that have 5 bedroom houses in the area... if you can comment if my utility estimates are ok? We're looking at houses with a minimum of 4 bedrooms and an office or 5 bedrooms and an office with 4 bathrooms. Most have a big yard so I assume watering the lawn will be a factor as well. It's just tough estimating how much utilities will be on this size house. The areas we are looking at are La Jolla, Carmel Valley, Del Mar and possibly Rancho Santa Fe (Santaluz). Thanks!

[MissNM]

earlyretirement - with a budget like that, I'm not sure I'd be thinking about early retirement!

[MissNM]

Here is a basic budget of our necessities
625 car payments
250 car fuel
200 car insurance
175 car parking
1625 condo payment
40 condo insurance
240 condo HOA
200 pets (food, vet, meds, litter)
400 utils (gas, electric, cable, water, internet, cell)
1400 everything else
5150

All things are budgetted on the high end.
The "everything else" fund covers food, fun, etc. It also covers haircuts, stamps, medical/Rx copays, cleaning supplies, etc. We PLAN for these first and food and fun come after that.

[shmoov_groovzsd]

Originally Posted by MissNM

Here is a basic budget of our necessities
625 car payments
250 car fuel
200 car insurance
175 car parking
1625 condo payment
40 condo insurance
240 condo HOA
200 pets (food, vet, meds, litter)
400 utils (gas, electric, cable, water, internet, cell)
1400 everything else
5150

All things are budgetted on the high end.
The "everything else" fund covers food, fun, etc. It also covers haircuts, stamps, medical/Rx copays, cleaning supplies, etc. We PLAN for these first and food and fun come after that.

I would say that sans the HOA and car payments, I have a similar round budget for a house of 2. I also have a nice chunk that go into savings or my trading account.

Good thing yours doesnt include credit card debt or student debt etc.
Sadly, I know too many that have credit card bills that exceed all of the monthly expenses you listed by unhealthy margins. When it comes to house hunting, I have seen them get shot down during financing. Sad but true.

[MissNM]

Originally Posted by MissNM

625 car payments
250 car fuel
200 car insurance
175 car parking

Imagine if we got rid of our vehicles completely. That would drop our monthly expenses to only $3,900.

I'm sure $1,250/mo would buy a couple MTS passes and a whole lot of weekend sports car rentals.

[earlyretirement]

Originally Posted by MissNM

earlyretirement - with a budget like that, I'm not sure I'd be thinking about early retirement!

Ha, Ha. MissNM. Yeah, well I'm still not convinced I can handle early retirement as I like working. I'm still in my mid/upper 30's now. But fortunately lots of years of hard work, saving, investing well and we have no debt and own plenty of rental properties free and clear that generate income. So I guess life could be worse.