Monthly take home on 50k a year? (Portland, Bend: real estate, rental)

[mrvaudo]

My wife and I have talked about moving to Oregon. I'd take a really big paycut and she would be home with the kids I have my doubts about how realistic the move would be financially.

If I were making 50k a year anyone have any idea what my monthly take home would be? I have 2 kids, the wife and me. I've seen some calculators online but they haven't been too helpful so I thought maybe real people in a similar situation would help.

What are monthly living expenses like? Energy and heating on 1500 sq ft house? High speed internet? Water and power rates? Gas bills. Thanks for any insider info.

[delta07]

Originally Posted by mrvaudo

My wife and I have talked about moving to Oregon. I'd take a really big paycut and she would be home with the kids I have my doubts about how realistic the move would be financially.

If I were making 50k a year anyone have any idea what my monthly take home would be? I have 2 kids, the wife and me. I've seen some calculators online but they haven't been too helpful so I thought maybe real people in a similar situation would help.

What are monthly living expenses like? Energy and heating on 1500 sq ft house? High speed internet? Water and power rates? Gas bills. Thanks for any insider info.

You say you have talked about moving to Oregon. You posted this in the Bend forum, so is that where you are considering? Or should I move this to the general Oregon forum for a broader scope?

[mrvaudo]

I would pick bend. But we would be open to other places (would depend on where I could get a job really). I think bend has a little higher cost of living (could be wrong) so if I could swing it there financially is probably be good.

Maybe it would be good to post in the Oregon general forum..

[Larry Caldwell]

Taxes on $50k won't be painful with 4 deductions. You can estimate your tax bill on the Oregon Department of Revenue web site, but at a guess they will be about 5% of gross or less.

Heat will depend on your insulation. My wife and I spend $125/month on electricity, which is our only utility, to heat a 1750 sq. ft. house, pump well water and heat domestic hot water, plus lights, computer, TV, etc. That is only because I did a complete energy upgrade of the house, including new doors, windows, upgraded insulation, LED or CFL lights, and energy star appliances. I know people renting older houses who pay $500/month for heat alone in the winter.

You don't say where you are from, but unless it's NYC or SoCal, housing costs will be higher than you are used to. Check real estate or rental ads for an idea, but you aren't going to find 1500 sq. ft. of energy efficient housing anywhere in Oregon for under $1 a square foot. The Portland Metro area will be quite a bit more, depressed rural areas might be a bit less.

[bler144]

To calculate take-home, even before you factor in taxes you need to look at pre-tax deductions, particularly retirement and employee-share of medical. The one thing you're definitely paying is FICA.

50k is also a complicated range to estimate because it's on the cusp for a number of tax credits and deductions. For example, in terms of EIC the cutoff for MFJ with two kids is $49,974. And do you pay for childcare (tax credit from both feds/state)? Etc.

If you'd said 20k or 80k either are both a heck of a lot easier to ballpark - in the range you're talking the potential for variance is high. But for the sake of argument, your take-home ceiling is around $3800 and I'd guess the floor is around $3300.

But both those numbers assume you aren't paying any of your stated income into retirement or medical premiums/HRSA.

[mrvaudo]

I'm in SoCal so Housing is definitely cheaper than here. But by no means is it cheap when compared to salary I'm looking at.

Sounds like the utilities swing much more during the year, which makes sense. I average $250 a month for natural gas, electricity, water and sewer, and sanitation fees on a 1800 sq ft home. Doesn't sound like it would be too much less in Oregon maybe.

[mrvaudo]

Thanks beir. It's the pretax deductions that make it difficult. That range is what I was looking at. Salary might be more like 60k too. No childcare credits. It's the pretax retirement and medical I need to figure out.

[oldtrader]

What type of job are you talking about to earn $50,000 a year? Maybe you can earn this much, and most often in most of Oregon you won't. Tell us what type of job you will be wanting to be able to help you.