Let's say $13,000 for food.

This is a little more than $35 per day, which seems like a reasonable average for "doing well."

Running total is $44,200.

If you're living in a major city, that 1k/mo rent figure might not cut it. I'm in the Princeton area, and a reasonable 1BR is > 1500/mo. 2BR are available for ~2k but there's nothing in town for that price that's not a total dump for students.

Here, I'd expect to pay 2500-3000 for a reasonable 2BR place.

And if you take a guy who's 30 or so, married, baby on the way, and discussing whether or not the wife is gonna work, that 100k is now 50k/person, and while we wouldn't be impoverished or anything, we'd be living closer to Trenton than Princeton.

But let's forget that for a minute.

For a single guy, 100k is probably decent. Into your figure, though, you have to include the cost of entertainment (and for a single guy, assume he's got an active dating life, and that **** is expensive), a "real" vacation, a few weekend trips with various women.

Let's start from the beginning. 10k in pretax 401k contributions, 30% of the remaining 90k in taxes and other paycheck deductions (--> 63k real, take-home), 10k in savings? That would bring us down to 53k real. You were already at 44200 running before adding the cost of entertainment/dating, vacations, oh and we haven't bought any clothes (fortunately I don't wear suits), or paid any student loans, or bought any electronics.

I mean maybe now we're nitpicking between whether 100 or 110 or 120 is the threshold, and obviously all of this is regionally (or even city-) dependent. But I think the point is that it's not like "omg i make 100k i am a 1%-er, I'm so rich!"

fwiw, 1%er land starts north of 300k

ETA:



http://www.bankrate.com/finance/taxe...cent-earn.aspx

(based on adjusted gross income per tax return)

It is amazing how little $100k means in a big city like NYC or DC.

In NYC, $100k will leave a single person a little less than $600 a week after taxes/rent/utilties/cable/cell/loans.*

So, $600 a week to be used for savings, 401k, food, dining out, drinking, cabs, subways, clothes, entertainment, vacation, friends' weddings, pet care (some people actually own pets), etc.

* This is assuming a $1,500 a month studio, which is a modest estimate to live in a desirable area.
Yes a person could live in non-Hoboken NJ for less but studios will still be in the $1k range and quality of life will go down from living in a boring neighborhood, which means commuting to NYC regularly to go out.
Brooklyn is no longer cheap for the most part, unless you want to live somewhere in some of the most dangerous areas in the city.

Actually living life from the age of 21 to 26 >>>>>>>> Having 500k. Life experiences seriously underrated when money comes up in this forum sometimes.

I made 100k+ a few years while in the peak of my poker career. Now I'm poor grad student who pinches pennies in many areas and I live a much more balanced, healthier life then when I ate $100 dinners and bought $5k watches. Many reasons for this, including my own maturity, but from what I've found is that having money or living "baller", yuppie metro lifestyles does not equate to a good life on it's own.

While you may be happier, it is very person-dependent. I hate having to be careful about money, I always have. Going from rich and unfulfilled to poor and happy happens, but I think it goes the other direction more often than not.

I agree and I think studies have shown that the top of the happiness bell curve tends to be people who make a little bit more money then they need (maybe that was even mentioned earlier in this thread?). I do think ITT and US/Canada culture there is an unhealthy obsession with being wealthy/making lots of money to the the point where people miss out on life. You really don't need all the **** like luxury downtown high-rise condos and 4k Vegas dinners written about here.

I don't know how you're getting this. Here is what taxes are for a single person living in NYC earning $100,000:

Social Security (4.2%): $4,200
Medicare (1.45%): $1,450
City Income Tax: $3,530
State Income Tax: $6,453
Federal Income Tax: $18,278

After Tax Income: $66,089

state and federal income tax based on http://www.tax-rates.org/New_York/income-tax
city tax calculated from page 70 of http://www.tax.ny.gov/pdf/current_forms/it/it201i.pdf

yeah those taxes are about right. I ended up with $62k take-home pay, but I guess $66k might be the right one.

So increase my estimate by $75 a week for take-home pay.

I first read your post as $600/month and was like WTF, but $600 a week doesn't sound all that bad for spending money. Most people could definitely live on that, even in NYC. I think $600/week is a low estimate for a $100k salary, too.

Really enjoyed this thread. Glad I don't live in North Dakota

This all seems reasonable. So another major expense category not addressed is "going out". I think $250/week might be reasonable, probably light actually. This includes ~3 weeks per night going out to bars (maybe one heavy night of drinking, other 2 are more light/casual), catching the occasional movie, play, museum opening, occasional date etc. etc.

Running total with $250/week "going out" expense is now $57.2k (out of $66k for $100k salaried person)
_____________________________________________

Unaddressed major recurring cost categories: $8.8k remaining for the following - 1) vacations/travel; 2) sundries/toiletries/drycleaning etc; 3) clothing/shoes; 4) gifts for family/friends; 5) out-of-pocket medical expenses... (I'm sure I'm missing some)

Does this foot with the numbers above? If those numbers are reasonable (they feel light to me, tbh) - seems like there is no way your co-workers are saving any monies at all, and very possibly generating cc debt/getting help from parents.

JLF,

When did we move our mystical person in the most expensive city in the US? Econophile was hashing out some number for NYC. But it is far more expensive to live there than other places, even the ones that were given in the "7 most expensive of the 10 largest metros in the US".

Ostensibly Thremp - sorry, I may have confused 2 different lines of thought in my above posts.

I was most interested to see what life is like for a single male in NYC making $100k (as I used to live there as a single male, but years ago) - so I was using econo's numbers to back into that and form an opinion.