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Rent a place that isn't more than ~$1500/month. Buy used cars outright or with really short term payoffs (no need to carry full insurance). Limit eating out to once or twice a month. Get rid of cable TV. Stop buying the new iPhone every other year. Take reasonable vacations. Stop shopping at Whole Foods.
High housing costs can be an issue in more places than you think. I live in Podunk, Florida and there are plenty of people down here paying $1000-$1200 a month for a one bedroom apartment or two bedroom mobile home in an area that's not fancy in the name of not spending two hours commuting every day.
The $1500/month option here is often better here because you're getting something big enough to have space for a roommate to reduce costs.
That's just the thing, you and your wife are earning 2x-3x the avg household income. Even a cursory bit of lifestyle adjustment would probably save you about $30,000/yr. These are things that most people with standard incomes do to get by.
Rent a place that isn't more than ~$1500/month. Buy used cars outright or with really short term payoffs (no need to carry full insurance). Limit eating out to once or twice a month. Get rid of cable TV. Stop buying the new iPhone every other year. Take reasonable vacations. Stop shopping at Whole Foods.
Average income is a meaningless comparison. The average income in a metro is brought down by places that 2 professionals don’t want to live in. It’s not safe and it’s not a place you would want to put kids in school.
So then you start narrowing down suburbs. You try to get one close enough to downtown that you aren’t spending 2+ hours in the car while already working tons of hours in said professional job.
Then you aren’t competing with the mythical “average” income for housing space. You’re directly competing with people of your financial means, which stretches both sides to the limit.
Yes, lifestyle creep is a real threat and problem, but telling people to trade down is stupid. Everyone could trade down. I could ride a bike into work and live in a used broken down trailer outside the metro in a tract of abandoned land. It’s not a helpful discussion. I could subsist on rice and beans and burn a wood stove instead of using a furnace....grow my own crops.
But...no thanks.
The point is, making 100k isn’t some grand easy living. The good jobs are clustered in the major metros, and having access to said metro has major cost. You’re still running on the treadmill.
People from cheap places without good jobs where people don’t want to live hear 100k and think you’re living like a king and a wasteful slob buying at “Whole Foods” *snicker* but they’re clueless.
Last edited by Thatsright19; 12-01-2019 at 08:43 AM..
That's just the thing, you and your wife are earning 2x-3x the avg household income. Even a cursory bit of lifestyle adjustment would probably save you about $30,000/yr. These are things that most people with standard incomes do to get by.
Rent a place that isn't more than ~$1500/month. Buy used cars outright or with really short term payoffs (no need to carry full insurance). Limit eating out to once or twice a month. Get rid of cable TV. Stop buying the new iPhone every other year. Take reasonable vacations. Stop shopping at Whole Foods.
Just stereotyping or repeating what you hear. Those single moms out there doesnt go vacations every year or drive a brand new lexus. but they do spend for daycare.
And oh yeah, the next obvious attack would be the "its a choice they made to be single" .
A big part of the problem is what took a lot of us years to acquire, young people want right NOW.
THIS^^^^^
Most young people don't realize that their parents furnished their first homes (rentals) with hand-me-down furniture, and drove beater cars (no payments, low insurance and registration fees) until they were 30+, went to the state park tent camping for vacations, and ate a ton of Top Ramen, and mac n'cheese. Most didn't own homes until their 30's and thus had no HO insurance, property taxes, mortgage interest, etc.
Now everyone wants brand new cars, with their accompanying car loans and big payments, granite countertops, expensive travel, etc, right out of college. These things took their parents' generation 20+ years of scrimping and saving to achieve.
Most young people don't realize that their parents furnished their first homes (rentals) with hand-me-down furniture, and drove beater cars (no payments, low insurance and registration fees) until they were 30+, went to the state park tent camping for vacations, and ate a ton of Top Ramen, and mac n'cheese. Most didn't own homes until their 30's and thus had no HO insurance, property taxes, mortgage interest, etc.
Now everyone wants brand new cars, with their accompanying car loans and big payments, granite countertops, expensive travel, etc, right out of college. These things took their parents' generation 20+ years of scrimping and saving to achieve.
Do you have any data to back that up? Or?
Last I heard, millennials were casting off home ownership and car ownership, but here I am listening to you and your wisdom about the “kidzzz these days” and you say they want all those things now.
Now everyone wants brand new cars, with their accompanying car loans and big payments, granite countertops, expensive travel, etc, right out of college. These things took their parents' generation 20+ years of scrimping and saving to achieve.
Kids These Days aren't buying new cars either and many are delaying buying any car at all as long as they live where Uber and mass transit are easy. The auto industry is actually kind of freaking out at how little relative interest that cohort has in car-buying, especially new models. See Toyota's failed attempt at creating the Scion brand for younger buyers and how the people who ended up buying Scions were typically Boomers looking for a reliable small car instead.
Just stereotyping or repeating what you hear. Those single moms out there doesnt go vacations every year or drive a brand new lexus. but they do spend for daycare.
And oh yeah, the next obvious attack would be the "its a choice they made to be single" .
Yep. It’s the same tired thing. You buying iphone every year!!! You go to whole food spend whole paycheck!!! You want granite counter top stacked on top of other granite counter top!! You use 2 ply TP!!!
Sad.
Although he or she did forget the $15 daily coffee accusation.
Kids These Days aren't buying new cars either and many are delaying buying any car at all as long as they live where Uber and mass transit are easy. The auto industry is actually kind of freaking out at how little relative interest that cohort has in car-buying, especially new models. See Toyota's failed attempt at creating the Scion brand for younger buyers and how the people who ended up buying Scions were typically Boomers looking for a reliable small car instead.
Let’s not let actual facts and real world businesses who know the truth get in the way of a clueless rant by a sage oldtimer.
High housing costs can be an issue in more places than you think. I live in Podunk, Florida and there are plenty of people down here paying $1000-$1200 a month for a one bedroom apartment or two bedroom mobile home in an area that's not fancy in the name of not spending two hours commuting every day.
The $1500/month option here is often better here because you're getting something big enough to have space for a roommate to reduce costs.
That's why my wife and I moved. It was asinine spending that sort of money on a rental (or purchase) in a low end area. We went south from VA into a lower cost area with good jobs and a strong tech job base. We bought our house near the peak in 2008 just before the crash (lucky us) but still live in the same house, and drive the same cars but save/invest about 15k a month into the market. Life is too short to work just to scrape by and pay bills.
At one point when we were younger my wife was driving 45 mins each way to work. But we did what we had to do and she worked toward a WFH job that has not only made it easier but also more than doubled her pay.
The high COL areas are great for establishing careers but I would never want to stay there. Once you get into the club and vetted by name brand companies and have a larger salary history behind you, make the move to a lower COL while transferring your east/west coast salary and live a better life. Living around all those people is stifling.
That's why my wife and I moved. It was asinine spending that sort of money on a rental (or purchase) in a low end area. We went south from VA into a lower cost area with good jobs and a strong tech job base. We bought our house near the peak in 2008 just before the crash (lucky us) but still live in the same house, and drive the same cars but save/invest about 15k a month into the market. Life is too short to work just to scrape by and pay bills.
At one point when we were younger my wife was driving 45 mins each way to work. But we did what we had to do and she worked toward a WFH job that has not only made it easier but also more than doubled her pay.
The high COL areas are great for establishing careers but I would never want to stay there. Once you get into the club and vetted by name brand companies and have a larger salary history behind you, make the move to a lower COL while transferring your east/west coast salary and live a better life. Living around all those people is stifling.
15K into the market a month, $180,000 a year? Is that all?
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