San Diego or bust (Mesa: sales, real estate, 2013)

[Ron Paranto]

Can a family of 4 survive in San Diego on a gross income of $100,000.00. We would be working in the Mira Mesa area.Thanks for your info
ron/heidi

[earlyretirement]

ALL you could want to know has been asked and answered many times over. Check out this link and you can read all the posts discussing this issue.

//www.city-data.com/blogs/blog3...st-living.html

Happy reading.

[docmcstuffin]

A family of 4 can not only survive but thrive in San Diego with $100k GI.

[Dr. Clean]

tight but feasible. good area for that kind of budget too.

[USDefault]

Search the forums, lots of answers.

Back-of-the-envelope answer: going to be very, very tight. You are at an income level where you will get destroyed by fees and taxes. In California, you'll be hit with the second-highest state tax at 9.3%, a whopping amount. There is only one higher bracket, 10.3%, and you need to be making $1 million to reach it. So as you can see, California taxes really, really sock it to young families with professionals who earn a reasonable, but not monstrous, income. Because you get put just below the highest bracket, yet at an income level that is one-tenth of the whales. It is disturbing -- but this is what the stupid voters approved with Proposition 30.

Don't even get me started on the markedly higher cost-of-living you will be paying to live in San Diego. I honestly don't see how you can pay high taxes and fees, high home costs, high cost of living, and then have any money left over for your retirement, for your kids' college fund, let alone any spare money for investments, vacations, emergency fund, etc.

Living in Southern California, you are likely to pay a minimum of $14,250 in fed & state income tax alone, and this includes your dependent deductions. This is a huge hit to a young family. It disgusts me. This doesn't factor in property taxes, nor does it factor in other taxes on income (dividend taxes, potential Medicare tax, capital gains, it goes on and on and on).

Use this calculator, California Income Tax Brackets 2013 and check for yourself. I am correct in my analysis here.

Please think long and hard. Many parents have run the math, and every time the die come up snake eyes. Southern California is, simply put, a bad financial choice for young families.

[bounty80]

You'll do just fine as long as you are smart with your budget. Live in a small apartment, eat in as much as possible, opt for Netflix and streaming TV over cable, keep your commute short and monitor car use to save on gas, etc - you get the idea.

As long as you are okay with making some adjustments to your lifestyle - 100k is doable for a small family.

The good news is you can replace a lot of the expensive indoor activities with an endless amount of free or low cost outdoor activities. I moved a few months ago and haven't turned on the TV once - just called to cancel cable last week because I simply don't use it anymore. I walk my dogs every night, grill out and eat outside a few times a week, and bike on the trails on the weekends.

Above poster is right though - it will be tight and I doubt you'll have any kind of a substantial savings. But if you have good income projection in the future - it might be well worth it.

[cruitr]

Originally Posted by USDefault

Living in Southern California, you are likely to pay a minimum of $14,250 in fed & state income tax alone, and this includes your dependent deductions. This is a huge hit to a young family. It disgusts me. This doesn't factor in property taxes, nor does it factor in other taxes on income (dividend taxes, potential Medicare tax, capital gains, it goes on and on and on).

Less than $15,000 of combined federal and state tax on an income of $100,000? Sounds low. That's a total tax rate of less than 15%.

Also, don't forget to mention the new 8% sales tax.

[USDefault]

Originally Posted by cruitr

Less than $15,000 of combined federal and state tax on an income of $100,000? Sounds low. That's a total tax rate of less than 15%.

Also, don't forget to mention the new 8% sales tax.

That's if s/he can claim four deductions, filer, spouse, and two dependents, with marrieds filing jointly.

[earlyretirement]

Originally Posted by USDefault

Search the forums, lots of answers.

Back-of-the-envelope answer: going to be very, very tight. You are at an income level where you will get destroyed by fees and taxes. In California, you'll be hit with the second-highest state tax at 9.3%, a whopping amount. There is only one higher bracket, 10.3%, and you need to be making $1 million to reach it. So as you can see, California taxes really, really sock it to young families with professionals who earn a reasonable, but not monstrous, income. Because you get put just below the highest bracket, yet at an income level that is one-tenth of the whales. It is disturbing -- but this is what the stupid voters approved with Proposition 30.

Don't even get me started on the markedly higher cost-of-living you will be paying to live in San Diego. I honestly don't see how you can pay high taxes and fees, high home costs, high cost of living, and then have any money left over for your retirement, for your kids' college fund, let alone any spare money for investments, vacations, emergency fund, etc.

Living in Southern California, you are likely to pay a minimum of $14,250 in fed & state income tax alone, and this includes your dependent deductions. This is a huge hit to a young family. It disgusts me. This doesn't factor in property taxes, nor does it factor in other taxes on income (dividend taxes, potential Medicare tax, capital gains, it goes on and on and on).

Use this calculator, California Income Tax Brackets 2013 and check for yourself. I am correct in my analysis here.

Please think long and hard. Many parents have run the math, and every time the die come up snake eyes. Southern California is, simply put, a bad financial choice for young families.

Absolutely San Diego is NOT for many people out there raising young kids. $100k salary is nothing to write home about in San Diego if you are raising 2 or more kids. Sure, there will probably be people telling you what the median income is in San Diego but that is all relative.

USDefault makes some good points. I'm not saying that people shouldn't move here. Quite the contrary. People that can afford to and are in a comfortable position with their careers/savings/etc. will find San Diego to be almost a paradise.

Much just depends on what your goals in life are. Do you just want to "survive" or do you want to be prepared for the future. It's SHOCKING how little people save for their retirement. Scary actually. You will read tons of articles like this one below from the Wall Street Journal a few days ago.

Workers Saving Too Little to Retire - WSJ.com

NO ONE can tell you if you can afford it. Ultimately, it depends on what your goals are in life, the type of lifestyle you have/want/need and lifestyle for your family and kids. What type of schools you want to send your kids to, etc.

I think it should be a requirement that anyone that asks, "is $X enough in San Diego" give a breakdown of what their monthly spending is. I'd venture to guess, many of the people asking if they can afford it, haven't made a detailed spreadsheet before breaking down all their monthly expenses. That really should be a requirement for anyone wanting to move here. A breakdown down to the last dollar in each category of what they usually spend. Then back out the taxes so you can figure out what your net income will be and how much you will have left over each month after all expenses, taxes, etc.

As I always mention on this forum, the 3 biggest hurdles that I see for San Diego for people with young families are going to be (1) high cost of real estate to buy or rent in a good school district; (2) higher State income taxes compared to some areas; (3) fairly mediocre salaries compared to other major Metro cities.

If you can make peace with these things and still afford it while maintaining retirement savings, go for it. If not, maybe worth thinking twice about.

[docmcstuffin]

Originally Posted by earlyretirement

Absolutely San Diego is NOT for many people out there raising young kids. $100k salary is nothing to write home about in San Diego if you are raising 2 or more kids. Sure, there will probably be people telling you what the median income is in San Diego but that is all relative.

$100k is well above the median income. Income is only one part of the equation. Expense is the other side of that equation. If you make $100k and spend $50k, then you're much better off than someone who makes $300k but spend $400k. So, to OP's original question. I reiterate that not only can you survive but you can thrive. I know because I've been there. You just have to make the right decision wrt spending. If OP buy a place in Mira Mesa, since he/she works there, a $450k house will mean PITI of $26k/year. That leaves the OP about $2k/month is other spending and come in at ~$50k/year is total spending and save the remaining. $2k/month is very doable.