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No, lubby, I'm sure most brain surgeons make quite a bit more than that.
You'd probably be surprised at the occupations that pay quite a bit of money. A State Farm agent making $150K is considered a lower tier, "smaller" agent. Just one example from an industry I am familiar with.
Reporting taxes and filling out a census form are two completely different things... and the census info comes solely from their forms, not W-2s. You can write whatever you want down on it, and you're not going to get in any sort of trouble for putting your income as $500k even if you didn't pay any taxes that year, or that you have 37 people living in a 5-room bungalow.
That said, I'm still sure that MOST drug dealers and 12-year old snow shovelers are not writing that info down anywhere, LOL.
However - the numbers published by the Census Bureau are not static, actual figures. I think they get about 20-30% of the forms back that they send out, and the rest is estimated based off those and other research. Obviously, owners of most illegally subdivided buildings and off-the-books income earners are not accurately reporting that information, but the Census takes that into account and tries to represent it accordingly. One of my friends worked for them during the preparation for the 2010 version and his job was to go out canvassing neighborhoods and trying to figure out exactly how many housing units there were per building and how many people lived in them. I'm sure they've got whole teams of other people researching income, demographics, etc., etc.
So even though it's not truly 100% accurate, it's as good an estimate as we're ever going to get!
The Census Bureau says they don't give out the information to other agencies, but even so there are still a lot of people who don't trust them.
For the income, I think you have to put down what field you work in, and what the income was. I guess you could just put down your true income from your job, and if you really want to, you could put any off-the-books income down as "other" or something. But for the number of people living in a dwelling, I don't think people would want to put down anybody who isn't supposed to be there.
I don't think people would be willing to put down the first and last names of anybody who's not supposed to be there.
As far as the reporting goes, they have the community surveys (done every 1 year, 3 years, and 5 years), and the official 2010 census. The community surveys are just estimates, so then they try to control for subdivided homes and things like that, but for the census, they don't do that.
What happens is that around 70% of the forms mailed out are actually returned (and even then, you don't know if they're filled out accurately). For the remaining 30%, they go up to the people's homes, but even then they can't count everybody. Do you really think the census taker is going to go up to the person and say "I know you have more people living in here than you're putting down on the form", when the home is in a questionable area?
The official census is as close as we're going to get to knowing the demographics, but there are still many inaccuracies between the actual data and recorded data.
I can't believe only 7/34 voters here have household incomes under $100k.
It surprises me b/c a lot of forumers complain about not being able/barely able to afford LI but if your that well-off then you should not be struggling at all (unless you have a very extravagent lifestyle). My household is in the early 100k's and we live very comfortably [I have no problem admitting that since we're all anonymous anyways].
Very intriguing.
most people have a lot of luxuries they'd rather not give up. A $30/mo data plan, $5 texting plan, on top of their minutes plan are also luxuries. Who actually needs a $200 cellphone, a $500-$1000 tv, summer camp for the kids, or dinner away from home every other night?
My husband and I are in the $150-200K income range. I am an attorney and outearn my husband (who is an IT techie in a civil service job) by only a few thousand dollars - however I have a part time job that nets me anywhere from an additional 10-20K/year.
Last year, we were almost at 190K (total income, not AGI). I havent yet read all our 2011 W-2s so I dont know where we are for this year, but I presume we will still be under $200K since my part time job income was much lower than prior years (and expect it to disappear altogether once the real estate market bounces back up). In that case, on our base salaries alone for our F/T jobs, its around $150-165K (AGI).
My husband and I are in the $150-200K income range. I am an attorney and outearn my husband (who is an IT techie in a civil service job) by only a few thousand dollars - however I have a part time job that nets me anywhere from an additional 10-20K/year.
Last year, we were almost at 190K (total income, not AGI). I havent yet read all our 2011 W-2s so I dont know where we are for this year, but I presume we will still be under $200K since my part time job income was much lower than prior years (and expect it to disappear altogether once the real estate market bounces back up). In that case, on our base salaries alone for our F/T jobs, its around $150-165K (AGI).
you are making that much and have a part time job? Well I guess it all depends where you live, your monthly expenses, debt, etc... right?
you are making that much and have a part time job? Well I guess it all depends where you live, your monthly expenses, debt, etc... right?
Well actually no. I just like more money..haha!
My student loans after law school were pretty moderate ($65-75K) but I had this part time job since around 2007 when my salary was much lower. My salary didnt really start going up until 2008 when I changed firms, and last year my firm gave me a 30% raise because I was promoted to a senior level position. I actually paid for my wedding with the proceeds of my part time job and since I had a relationship with the company since 2007, I decided to keep it - but only take assignments when it doesnt conflict with my full time hours. Rght now I am trying to pay off my student loans (only 20K left) plus I need to unload my underwater condo so that my husband and I can move into another home in a few years (personally not crazy about the way our block is changing and want to move closer to my job). So at this point, I dont really "need" the part time income but its just nice to have more $$ for retirement/savings, and mortgage repayment. I always hustled for cash though - in college I held a full time job and also a part time evening job because I didnt want to take on massive loans for college - I remember doing all sorts of odd jobs for cash just to have the $$ to buy those Gucci shoes without credit cards!!!
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