General Politics XII World • Page 403

*quickly closing the thread with the BMW convertibles* hi fellow not-midlife crisis havers

 

these people watch TikToks of people riding private planes to eat $150 steaks and think that's a normal lifestyle lol

 

$100k a year would be quite difficult for two or more people to live off with student loans depending where you live

 

I am interviewing for a job that pays 100k next week, which would be a 40% pay rise from my current one.

I am very fortunate to live a moderately modest life style so I hope I can afford to keep my fiancee afloat who is, to be frank, not well enough to be working the rest of her life, but given my country's extremely good social safety net coupled with tax deductibles for single earners as well as child support, it seems entirely possible.

not enough for that green 4 series though haha

 

To live comfortably in a mid-size US city, I feel like a single person needs to clear like $150K right now.

Thats taking into account wanting to live in a desirable neighborhood in the city, having a car/insurance, being able to take 2-3 vacations, have a social life, etc.

also there’s a good chance you have loans if you’re making that much money as well.

 

I could live pretty comfortably by myself on around 50k a year, but also I don't have student loan debt or car payments or a child or a house.

 

2-3 vacations!? I haven't been on one in at least 4 years lol

 

I imagine. I ... yeah, I dunno, those numbers are staggering to me. (Also glad I don't watch TikTok or follow influencers that make me think I need any of those things I guess.)

What I have learned from talking to some of my sister's friends, and a few of my friends, is that I think about money very differently than my sister's generation. (About 5 year difference.) From a purely anecdotal way, I think because I was self employed so long I was averse to spending money and had a mentality of needing to save in case the next year was a down year, or that it could all just go away immediately. And while other people were upgrading their car after a new raise, or moving every 2 years, or taking lots of spendy vacations, I just kinda stayed level for a long time and saved. And then when I finally did have to get a real job, I didn't actually need to make a crazy high number to keep living a lifestyle that made me happy and I enjoyed.

I honestly don't even know what I would do with the money if I, alone, was making 200k a year ... like ... that seems, to me, like so much money I would probably just end up putting most of it in retirement funds? I am so very clearly not fun or cool.

 

dual income, no kids, sure is a nice lifestyle though; do recommend.

 

I mentioned this the other day when we were talking about this. Looking at like median incomes for where I live and then comparing it with what my household income is, I just don't get how people can afford to live in some places. We are double our counties median income and it's going to take serious effort to ever buy a house here.

 

Using Data US? Data USA

Or what did you use?

 

100k was always the "made it and be very comfortable" number in my head growing up too.

I got to that a few years ago, and my wife and I are solidly in the 100-200k range together, but her salary is basically just breaking even with childcare costs. Whether she goes back to work after we have our second kid is still very much up in the air.

In general, I'd say we're comfortable (no student loans and both our cars paid off helps a lot with that). One more bedroom would be nice, but our current interest rate is also really nice, and with the way housing prices have gone, we're effectively priced out of the size house we'd want in our area now.

 

100k would drastically change my life

 

I looked at MLive which owns a bunch of local newspapers sites in Michigan.

But yeah when looking at that its different than what I saw. I think its because it splits my county, It has one that includes the city of Ann Arbor in one and does not in the other. While I think the MLive number combines them.

 

they don't, in the sense that they have roommates and most of their money goes to rent

 

I think its also because there is a ton of people who bought there houses before the values skyrocketed and in Michigan your property tax is capped to increase at max by 5% YOY.

It's wild to look at what some of the houses were originally purchased for on Zillow and then being sold for after that.

 

I have a friend who is early thirties just got a laid off from a job that paid ~130k and lives at home and has still been worrying about retiring even before getting laid off. If you're living in a median or above CoL era and expecting to fully retire in ~2060 you gotta be shooting for multiple millions in net worth when you retire. That's daunting even at 200k I think

 

Looking at the census data, for where I live now.

Median household income: 150k
Median individual: 63k

Both up a bit from where I used to live downtown, which probably makes sense cause it's the 'burbs and kind of a weird small pocket. That's higher than I expected.

From a "what is financial success" to me ... I am pretty confident that we could absolutely live comfortably on a household income of 150k a year. (Hannah's car is paid off, student loans paid off a long time ago, and only have a mortgage for debt.)

 

24% federal income tax also sucks very much heh

I'm gonna be paying off student loans until my mid 50s >_>

 

effective rate is much lower than that at 200k

 

My direct supervisor who I am friends with I was talking about this with her because she is empathic to me on this topic and then mentioned what her mortgage payment is and its somewhere like 25% to 35% of our rent. It clicked for me then because she is saving like at minimum a grand a month just on that plus makes more money than I do.

They also bought that house without a down payment and paid the PMI for years so they did not start with a whole lot either but I was fucking floored.

 

Wow that's insane

Although, you do need to factor in upkeep and property taxes, too

 

Correct, like there is plenty of shit that I am missing there and they did put an addition on it and redid their kitchen as well so it's not like they have not put money into it but their value for it has skyrocketed for what they paid/put into it as well.

 

Retirement is scary for sure. I make about that income, and after 9 years, I have about $130k in my 401k account. No idea how I'm gonna survive more than a few years when it's time to retire