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That's pretty ridiculous. A lot of just stupid extravagances in there to only be able to save about $55k per year? My household makes less than 1/5 that amount and we save and invest more annually than that, and we still live in a decent house in a nice, central part of town, drive two newer reliable cars, send our daughter to a private pre-school, and take nice vacations and weekend trips on occasion. Yes, I know that Phoenix vs. NYC makes a difference, but if I knew someone making $1,000,000 annually in NYC and spending like that I'd think them a complete idiot, and rightfully so, unless they were already sitting on a substantial amount of inheritance cash or something so they had a ton of fallback net worth or something.
No matter what they make, people consider themselves middle class.
And no matter what they make, people think anything below what they make is a crappy salary.
Haha, so true!! I was just saying this the other day to a colleague - that no matter how much somebody earns, they still seem to feel it's *just* enough. If you earn $500K, typically you will live accordingly and spend at least $400K of it; but if you only earn $50K, you will manage to make ends meet with that. I know this is true of me, since I spend waaaay less in the last few days of a pay period. I realize the money is limited by that point, and curb myself to stretch it out as long as possible. So we deal with what's in front of us, I guess.
Also, this reminds me of the old George Carlin quote: Anyone driving faster than you is a maniac, and anyone driving slower is a moron.
What is not being considered, is amount of salary a person, with a certain education, experience, and abilities is able to earn $XXXXX. What would be a good salary with that education. What some people and households can expect to earn at the top earning level with 5 years experience, is what determines what is a good salary for that person or household.
Too many people seem to think that everyone should be able to get a top salary no matter what there job is. They take a course in college that does not have the potential of a good salary, then complain everyone wants to low ball them when they apply for a job.
Here is a way to determine what type of income to expect in different parts of the country, by job description.
I live in NYC..
I think:
low salary: < $85k
good salary: $90k - $150k
decent salary: $160k - $250k
great salary: $250k+
Most of everyone I know and myself are in either good or decent salary..and we are getting by just fine and comfortable enough to be able to go out when we want, go on vacations, etc.
Trying to get to the great salary level -_-
I agree with the tiers except the word "decent" means less than "good", so that part doesn't make sense.
Very Low Salary: Under $30k
Kind of Low Salary: $30k-40k
Low Salary: $40k-50k
Kind of Decent Salary: $50k-60k
Decent Salary: $60k-70k
Kind of Good Salary: $70k-80k
Good Salary: $80K-90K
Very Good Salary: $90K-100k
Great Salary: $100k-120k
Amazing Salary: $120k-150k
Elite Salary: $150k-200k
Wealthy Salary: $200k-300k
Baller Salary: $300k-400k
1%er Salary: $400k-1MM
WTF!LOL!OMG! Salary: $1MM+
Metropolitan Area: Chicago, IL, actual city, not suburbs.
Being from Chicago, this list made me laugh with all of the colorful descriptions. Age also plays a role obviously. When I was out of college about a decade about, most of my friend's base salaries for professionals were between $45-65K (excluding value of retirement benefits, bonuses, etc). 10 years later, many of them have easily doubled their starting salary at this point and some are beyond that.
Yeah I completely agree, I think that’s absolutely true. There’s no way $200K in NYC is “upper class,” I don’t even think I could come close to living the lifestyle I expect in that city with that income haha. Maybe with $500K to $750K, or let’s call it $500K after tax income then yes.
I live in NYC.
Again it all depends on the person's lifestyle.
200K for a single person with no long term debt would be upper class.
This family is living lifestyle that they can't sustain. It's poor money management.
Private School is a toss. They are several top public schools in NYC that will give the children a great education. I might put the kids in decent public school and hire a tutor for certain subjects.
Buying a 1.5 million dollar is pretty absurd when after taxes your net income is 500K. They are plenty of homes that they could have purchased for 300K or less in good neighborhoods.
Two car payments while living in NYC?? Why buy 2 cars and still use ridesharing/public transportation?? They can lose 1 car.
Country Club membership that is most likely hardly used.
As a single individual in Phoenix (as in not a dual income household), I think making around 60k would make me pretty happy.
I make low 40s in the public sector right now and about 400/month of my income goes into the 401(a) (12% of gross is the current rate), 200/month goes into the 457(b), and 250/month goes into a personal savings account (I have it set for 10% of net). With that and benefits and taxes taken out I net a little over 1000/paycheck (~2000/month). Once a month or every other pay check I get a bit of a boost from mileage reimbursement, about another $100-200 since I live further out from my job. I have no debt outside of my car payment. I feel that I get paid alright until my rent and electric bill comes in. Rent in my opinion is starting to get obscene here for the local wages. Phoenix is not expensive per se in comparison to the rest of the country but in a wage:rent ratio I'd imagine we are pretty bad, probably just as bad as other big metros because the wages are depressed. Ideally I would like to get at least 3k/month net and that is mostly because of housing costs.
So this would be my personal breakdown:
<35k: Low
35k-45k: Decent
45k-65k: Good
65k-100k: Great
100k+: Dream Come True
This is all regional....I live in Northern California Bay Area, 200K is barely covering the middle-class lifestyle for a family of four.
Average home prices are over 1M. Taxes and utilities and gas are all high. College tuition is 30K/year and no assistance because income is too high.
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