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LIRR + subway is still under $500 then right?
30 year fixed on a $600k house at 5% is $3220/month.
Property taxes $1k/month.
Big mac is a silly example there are plenty of cheap eating options in NYC you know that, it's about the only cheap thing there is.
So far we're still at about $5k for the house and public transportation. You telling me the other $8k you'd be taking home couldn't cover the rest comfortably?
Again, the use of subjective "comfort" as a measurement of defining who is "wealthy".
a month ticket on the LIRR (long island railraoad) is over 390 a month(for monday thru friday)plus the subway/bus, plus parking at the train station if all the free spots are taken
a big mac in manhatten is $10
on long island the average STARTER house (1200sf) on a postage stamp lot (50x100) is over 400k, with property taxes averaging about 12k a year (1g a month)......not to mention home owners insurance in a flood area......
In Austin Texas, 250K would afford you a very comfortable lifestyle, because just outside town, you could have a 30 acre small ranch with a few Horsies in the back yard for around 500K (and an AG exemption) ... but in Middleberg VA, if you want to have the same thing ... it would cost you 10 or more times that, and I dare say in NY it would be even greater.
So it is hard for some to understand how $250,000 is not rich ... they cannot comprehend how a 2500 sq ft home on a 1/4 acre lot can cost 2.5 Million, and the property tax alone exceeds the median national family income.
The secret here is that WE are being trained to accept that only wealthy people deserve to drive, and have a back yard for their kids to play in. They don't understand that income levels are set to the various regions for which such incomes are available to someone who actually has to go to work every day.
Nope ... for the average middle class American ... it's the metro bus for you you spoiled brat ... hey, you can live without the internet ... you don't need to drive that big SUV ... stuff your kids into that toyota corolla and quit yer belly aching.
So all liberals must be poor huh? Your paradigm diatribes are all too common in America these days. Everything is a left right center issue with people like you. Hey genius I'm a libertarian and I voted for Ron Paul. That doesn't mean I don't believe in economic justice and equality. A free and open market one in which true capitalism flourishes would provide that. An economy based on sound money and sound investments not a few filthy rich speculating the rest of us into poverty so that our taxes can bail them out. America isn't a capitalistic country otherwise AIG, GM and a host of other multinational corporations would have gone flat broke and bankrupt. If America was a capitalist country we wouldn't have a government that privatizes profits and socializes losses the way they do. I'm hardly envious and FAR FROM greedy. And my point regarding the rich was in response to others who would argue just the opposite.....that all middle class people are undereducated spendthrifts who don't work hard and want a piece of everyone else's pie.
You're the kind of Ron Paul supporter that gives Ron Paul a bad name...and there ain't no way in **** you're a libertarian. I hereby order you to stop saying you support him.
Depends on how you look at "median income" and what part of the county you are living in.
The median household, emphasis being on household median income in the Washington DC/Baltimore region in the surround 5-6 counties are close to or over $100K a year.
So $100K a year for a family is really just middle class in those areas. $250k, while well off is not "rich" by any standard there. Remember housing costs in most of these areas. Even with the housing crash, it's still going to take around $500K just to buy a townhome in these areas and around $750K and up to buy into a single family neighborhood with good school districts. So using basic mortgage requirements. 3X salary. $250K a year are barely afford to buy into a single family neighborhood.
I call bull****. I lived in Howard County, MD not so long ago at the peak of the market, no less, and housing prices have come down since then. You most certainly can purchase a SFH in a good neighborhood with excellent schools for less than $750k. That kind of money will buy you a Toll Brothers McMansion on an acre in Howard County.
Even after it was explained to you, you still don't get it...! We're not just talking about people who have a salary of $250k, were talking all small business' who make that amount, then pay all of their expenses out of that amount.
Those small business' you want to tax are the ones who create jobs, and you want to tax them to make sure they DON"T create any more jobs... Get a clue...!
What the hell are you talking about, I don't want to tax anyone and never said I did. I'm discussing whether an income $250k would be considered wealthy.
Please take your rant elsewhere, maybe find someone who's mentioned taxes.
Oh, don't forget the AMT (Alt. Min. Tax) that many of the "rich" $250k people have to pay. You know that nasty "flat" tax the Democrats made in 1969 to hit the middle class. AMT disallows a lot of important deductions like property taxes, state income taxes, personal exemptions. You can't even pay the 15% long term capital gains rate. You pay 20% long term capital gains rate. The AMT is one of the biggest "stealth" taxes for people making between $250-500K. You are almost 95% guaranteed to pay the AMT if you live in the one of the high state income taxes states such as Maryland, NJ, NY, California.
Only when you start making over 1 million do you start escaping the AMT.
I call bull****. I lived in Howard County, MD not so long ago at the peak of the market, no less, and housing prices have come down since then. You most certainly can purchase a SFH in a good neighborhood with excellent schools for less than $750k. That kind of money will buy you a Toll Brothers McMansion on an acre in Howard County.
It's nice to live in the fly-over zone where that kind of money will buy a couple hundred acres with home and outbuildings.
You are looking at all of these people as if they are an employee, and their take home pay is $250k.
Someone who owns a small business and files as a Sub Chapter S will put all their business income on their tax returns. It may look like a lot of money, but once they pay employees, and expenses, they may actually be living off $70k a year.
Expenses are taken into account on business returns. Your revenue minus expenses is your income.
Again, the use of subjective "comfort" as a measurement of defining who is "wealthy".
Yes, that is what I'm trying to determine out of simple curiosity. Where would all that money go to make it "barely" I'm dying to know.
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