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Old 04-05-2015, 11:25 AM
 
105,688 posts, read 107,663,235 times
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yep , what folks live on has nothing to do with a connotated lifestyle. just look at the term millionaire today , while it is a number it also connotates a lifestyle . that lifestyle of old with rolls and driver would take about 12 million bucks today .

families today can easily be worth a million bucks especially with a long island home. they are millionaires by sense of the word.

but you don't have a rolls in the driveway and a butler.
odds are you have 2 average folks working and two leased fords in the driveway with a fair amount of debt.,

never confuse income with lifestyle.
first you have to define just what a middle class life style means to YOU !

like i said 88k in long island pretax with 17k in healthcare costs , 10-13k in real este taxes and a mortgage won't leave much for my idea of a middle class lifestyle and i am talking only my wife and i , no kids and we are retiring .

Last edited by mathjak107; 04-05-2015 at 11:43 AM..
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Old 04-05-2015, 11:49 AM
 
Location: Nassau County
5,262 posts, read 4,701,467 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mitsguy2001 View Post
And, as I keep saying, there are obviously many people living in Suffolk County on less than $88k per year. Whether or not they are middle class is subjective.
Well said I don't know how he says it's impossible when there are tens of thousands doing it every day. Does he really think every homeowner in suffolk makes over 88k a year?
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Old 04-05-2015, 12:36 PM
 
3,666 posts, read 6,546,476 times
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Originally Posted by mitsguy2001 View Post
And, as I keep saying, there are obviously many people living in Suffolk County on less than $88k per year. Whether or not they are middle class is subjective.
Listen, I can make $88k a year go a long way too, provided we go bare bones on most truly non-essential expenses. I can go without DirecTV and Internet access. We could keep the house at 62 degrees in the Winter and 78 degrees in the Summer. We can forego ever eating out, ever going on vacation and only drive used cars. There are lots of ways to sacrifice and make things work (I have some experience with that too). But in exchange for what? A 631/516 area code? Why is that worth it? And isn't one of the strongest arguments for living on Long Island is access to better paying jobs?

People who argue that it's possible to be truly middle class living in Suffolk County on $88k per year are excluding important considerations at their own convenience (I don't mean you, by the way).
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Old 04-05-2015, 12:40 PM
 
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it is no different than those who tell others how much they need to save for retirement because the median incomes of americans are no higher than 50k a year.

they don't consider location or the fact those on median incomes may hate that lifestyle. all income ranges mean is it has to work , they have little choice.
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Old 04-05-2015, 01:06 PM
 
126 posts, read 221,081 times
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Originally Posted by ovi8 View Post
^ What I said probably sounded more personal to you than it should have. If it's not clear by now, I wanted to show how people can do it on $125k/yr. When you spend $700/mo. on 2 cars, that's a luxury. You can get an Audi A4 for $350/mo. A Honda can be had for $150/mo. Why even do new cars when you can't save or have no savings? Too much house with too much taxes, etc. decisions like these... with better planning and choices - you can make do with your salary and live a basic middle class lifestyle (most things you want, just in less quantities). We did it with a 1300sqft starter house and $80k ($5k/mo. net) combined starting salaries in Nassau, before a ~$2100 mortgage. The only difference was we didn't have kids back then, but we certainly didn't have to skimp having $3k to spend then either. Even with my expenses of $1600 today with kids and a bigger house, we'd still have savings.
I call BS on that. Even a used Honda can not be had for $150/month. Without factoring the interest expense of the loan that is only $9,000 total for 5 years of payments.
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Old 04-05-2015, 01:38 PM
 
33,363 posts, read 46,784,531 times
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Originally Posted by NYC2RDU View Post
Listen, I can make $88k a year go a long way too, provided we go bare bones on most truly non-essential expenses. I can go without DirecTV and Internet access. We could keep the house at 62 degrees in the Winter and 78 degrees in the Summer. We can forego ever eating out, ever going on vacation and only drive used cars. There are lots of ways to sacrifice and make things work (I have some experience with that too). But in exchange for what? A 631/516 area code? Why is that worth it? And isn't one of the strongest arguments for living on Long Island is access to better paying jobs?

People who argue that it's possible to be truly middle class living in Suffolk County on $88k per year are excluding important considerations at their own convenience (I don't mean you, by the way).
At one point in time, living in Long Island was seen as a status symbol. A couple of my good friends bought houses in Nassau County a few years ago and I don't have the heart to tell them to check their property taxes 10 years from now.
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Old 04-05-2015, 01:43 PM
 
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it is like when we were in our 20's back in the 1970's we were buying homes in suffolk for 30-35k. it was sooooooo much money . our rent was 189 at the time and the mortgage was going to be just under 250 bucks.

so 30 years later the mortgages are now paid , the taxes are 16k a year on those homes and the entire mortgage that is paid off accounts for just 250 bucks in expenses . barely 1/2 the utility bill today. most of the guys are selling and relocting to cheaper areas as they can't afford to stay even with a paid off home.


so much for having a paid off home = affordability.
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Old 04-05-2015, 02:02 PM
 
1,027 posts, read 2,499,583 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SeventhFloor View Post
At one point in time, living in Long Island was seen as a status symbol. A couple of my good friends bought houses in Nassau County a few years ago and I don't have the heart to tell them to check their property taxes 10 years from now.
When we left Nassau, our property taxes on that house were at 6k. 10 years later they've more than doubled!! Can you imagine what the taxes on that house would be today if the county/school taxes had doubled every ten years since 1949???? Something is WRONG.
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Old 04-05-2015, 05:18 PM
 
6,922 posts, read 6,981,977 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NYC2RDU View Post
Listen, I can make $88k a year go a long way too, provided we go bare bones on most truly non-essential expenses. I can go without DirecTV and Internet access. We could keep the house at 62 degrees in the Winter and 78 degrees in the Summer. We can forego ever eating out, ever going on vacation and only drive used cars. There are lots of ways to sacrifice and make things work (I have some experience with that too). But in exchange for what? A 631/516 area code? Why is that worth it?
It has nothing to do with the prestige of a 631 or 516 area code. Some of us live on Long Island since we want to be near our family. I don't know why that is such a foreign concept for people on City-Data.

Quote:
And isn't one of the strongest arguments for living on Long Island is access to better paying jobs?
I don't consider Long Island to be access to higher paying jobs in NYC. Again, I've done the math, and my life would be nothing but commuting, working, and sleeping. I'm sorry, but that is not a middle class lifestyle. That, to me, is just barely getting by. I also do not consider those jobs to be high paying anyway, since they do not pay a living wage to live in NYC or anywhere that would be a recent commute.

Quote:
People who argue that it's possible to be truly middle class living in Suffolk County on $88k per year are excluding important considerations at their own convenience (I don't mean you, by the way).
Again, everybody has a different definition of middle class. That was my whole point with this thread.
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Old 04-05-2015, 05:56 PM
 
33,363 posts, read 46,784,531 times
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Originally Posted by iluvmycuties View Post
When we left Nassau, our property taxes on that house were at 6k. 10 years later they've more than doubled!! Can you imagine what the taxes on that house would be today if the county/school taxes had doubled every ten years since 1949???? Something is WRONG.
It's bull! I think you guys should just stop paying - they can't put a lien on the whole county.
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