General Politics XII World • Page 402

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

 

Yeah, talking with my mom's financial advisor as she prepared for retirement and looking at all those numbers is super daunting. Makes me glad like 20 years ago I started putting money in retirement accounts that I can't touch.

Most of my friends that make around that or higher have most of their net worth in their homes. College roommate bought a house in a really nice part of town and it's at least doubled in value by now, last I saw on Zillow it was over a million. The first married couple I knew pooled money (gov job + accountant) and bought their home right after the wedding and it's done similar, just skyrocketed in value, and they've just only made more money every year sense.

I lost a lot of time from like 2016-2020 of prime salary years that I'm trying to make up for now to get to a spot where I'll feel good about retirement. I think that's part of why I have very miserly tendencies about saving money.

 

This area is absurd, for sure. I was talking about with my friend and it’s so defeating to look for houses here

 

Are you in your 30s? At that rate ... that will be well into 7 figures if you keep at the same level and assume even a moderate 7% annual return.

 

Really? I guess I don't understand how that works if it took me nearly a decade to save a year of my salary. Ok I feel dumb now haha. Gotta talk to a financial advisor to understand this shit

 

It sucks so bad man because for this side of the State, it's in my opinion the best County to be in. It's not as densely populated as Wayne or Oakland which is partly why it's so expensive but from the school quality (if we ever have kids) to having a world class health system among many other things it's where I would love stay but fuck trying to afford it for a house that does not need a whole shit ton of work. There is some spots you can find stuff but they fly off the market at an absurd rate.

 

Yeah we’re super happy in the township with everything but our current rent and would like to put down long term roots here for sure. Even fixers are way overpriced in the area. Adding in both of us working in cannabis, limiting who we can get loans through it feels impossible for us to own

 

This is reductive as hell, but with 7%

130,000 * (1 + .07)^33

Assuming no additional contributions, at 7% about 1,131,167

Assume you contribute 10k a year.

10,000 * (((1+.07)^33 - 1) / .07) = 1,219,990

Total future value: 1,131,167 + 1,219,990 = ~2.25m

Contribute early and often!

But, yeah, IMO that's a very healthy spot to be in for the 401K if you're in your 30s.

 

Our combined income is over $150k, but with 3 kids, a mortgage, other house expenses, student loans . . . it's still tough to find extra to save for retirement, kids' college, etc.

 

Food $200
Data $150
Rent $800
Donations to Kamala $3,600
Utility $150

someone who is good at the economy please help me budget this. my family is dying

 

I feel like all of this just reinforces my idea that kids are too expensive and expensive af?

(And also that student loans are an albatross to economic growth and should be voided.)

 

someone please fucking tell me to stop donating to kamala so i can reply "no" and finish the bit, I don't have all night

 

i think you should keep donating to kamala