those people are ****ing idiots. they've been brainwashed into buying things they don't need with money they don't have.

yes. this. thank you.

This, assuming it's USD. Is it post-tax?

Even so, the taxes on $100K take up what, $36K, so you're left with $64K. Let's call it $5K/month.

But, if you're a such shallow person that you must have the latest car/watch/shoes/phone/whatever because someone else told you that's the thing to do, then you might find a way to burn through that kind of money.

I suppose it's true that $5K/month doesn't make you a big deal in NYC or London or Sydney, but there's a bunch of nice places to move where you can live super nicely on $5K/month, and go visit those places once in a while. I'm sure even in those locales you can live quite nicely on that.

100k a year is a lot of money lol. maybe not in Santa Clara, Cali or some **** but in rural OH u r ballin

ok

First of all: realistically, when someone makes $100k a year, they're usually college graduates -- doctors, engineers, lawyers, etc., and they will generally have a ton of bills to go with that. In the case of well-paid doctors, they also have to pay malpractice insurance. Factor in taxes, and in reality they're actually making much less than $100k.

Second, you can't just have a six-figure job and live like a hillbilly. People who make six figures are expected to maintain a certain living standard -- drive a certain car, dress in nice tailored suits, go to country clubs -- and the long-term career health of these people depends on them doing these things. So, for someone like a lawyer, driving a BMW or better is not just a luxury, it's a necessity.

Third, it's churlish to just tell someone with a family making six figures to just live in an absolutely basic way. Getting to a point where you are making that much money is not easy, no matter what your career is. People don't do it so that they can have a basic life, they do it so that they and their children have some security and comfort.

And finally, I'm not sure if either of you guys have ever stopped to think about how ****ing expensive having a family is. I'm not a head of household but until about two months ago I was engaged to a single mom, so I have a decent idea of what the running cost of a family would be like. This is my estimate for a somewhat decent basic lifestyle for a family of four in, say, Los Angeles.

• 3-bedroom house (in a somewhat safe area of town) - $2,500 a month
• One month grocery tab for four (that includes better food than ramen, potatoes and chicken, which is what I'm primarily eating now) - $900 a month, including non-food items like cleaning implements and clothes
• Utilities - $180
• Family cell phone plan - $120
• Internet - $80
• Health insurance for four - $600
• New economy car or very nice used car + maintenance - $200
• Gas - another $200
• Entertainment - At least $100 a month

Final tab - $4,880 a month

For a family that isn't actually poor, this is actually a very bare-bones existence. Doing less than this is not something that anyone at all would unless they had no choice. And even a life like this, in a reasonably large city, would cost almost $60,000 -- e.g. as much or possibly more than a person making $100k a year actually takes home, after taxes, student loans, etc.

So no, it's not actually that surprising that someone making six figures would be living paycheck to paycheck. I would consider a family of four making less than like $50k a year after taxes + non-optional expenses like loans, actually poor (I have a fairly stringent criteria set for what constitutes poverty).

100k a year - taxes - child care - groceries - housing - insurance < $0

If money became a non-issue for me I'd tell my boss to eat a big bag of dicks and do nothing for a while, then eventually I'd find something to keep myself busy. Unemployment/retirement is boring. I get stir crazy on day 6 of vacation.

I love how these threads always devolve into arguments about how its impossible to live comfortably on 100K a year, when thats more than 80% of people n the US make.

the above post is a lol example of how ******ed people are. You can EASILY provide for a family of 4 on much less than 100K/year. Anyone who says otherwise if a ****ing moron.

You can provide for a family of four with less than a hundred k, it's just not actually easy; that was my point. The average American head of household has to live under a tremendous amount of stress to put food on the table.

To clarify: I think a family of four taking home six figures will live well and comfortably; they're just cutting it closer than you might realize -- especially if they live in a big city and/or have to pay student loans.

I guess different people have different definitions of "comfortable". Bunch of poors itt.

^ That just sounds like misery and I would definitely need to have another job to be happy (although the job itself brings misery along with it, still worth it).

Yeah when I calculated that I was making plans to eventually move the family from Australia to the US (mostly because I hate Australia but the gf was from there), and my estimate was that I would have to be grinding 5/10 with a good winrate for the move to be worth doing, at least to LA. Vegas is easier (basically subtract $1k a month for housing expenses, plus however much for taxes).

That family of four spends way too much in rent, you should spend about a third of your salary on rent/mortgage. Move somewhere cheaper and boom you just saved about 12 grand a year.

$900 a month is pretty large for a grocery bill, the average household income in America is a bit over 18k IIRC so you are trying to claim well over half of that should be going out in groceries, lol. You can cook an entire family meal for five bucks including fruit for after the meal. Buy less expensive brand names, shop for bargains inc bulk buying some stuff and cook more from basics rather than taking the easy route with expensive jar sauces etc.

Zomg derail. The point is 100k/yr is not the same thing as money being no issue. Ain't the same ballpark neither; we ain't even playing the same sport

Example: if money was no issue I'd get courtside seats for my Wolves. On 100k/yr one seat would be 60% of my annual take home.

You obviously have no idea what ballin actually is. The poster who broke down the family of fours expenses did a very nice job. Did his breakdown sound at all baller to you?

I can't figure out if most the "omg 100k a year is like hitting the lottery" posters itt are just very young so they have know idea the cost of raising a family or how the real world actually works or if they are just trolling or if they are just underachieving poor ppl that are just bitter about their underachieving.
Either way anyone who thinks 100k per year is a lot of money really need to set the bar higher. If their goal is to make this much per year they are going to be very disappointed once they reach that goal

I'd park anywhere I'd want to.

$100k is great if you want to just travel on it - most people manage to do budget round the world trips for a year for around $30-40k.

However, $100k in the real world is nothing in any major city if you want to (a) be able to purchase a home, not rent, or (b) eventually want kids.

A $100k salary in the DC area where I live, for example, basically would afford you something like a $350k one bedroom condo if you want to live anywhere near the city. Otherwise you're looking at living in suburban hell with a 45-60min commute and no metro access.

please, can we stop the usual argument of $xxxk buys 10x more stuff in Alabama vs. NYC. It gets old.

no he didnt, his numbers were laughable

You are right some of his numbers were laughable. For instance the monthly budget of $200 for car payment plus car ins. The average family of four has a min of 2 vehicles and has even more depending on if and how many of the kids are old enough to drive, so yes $200 is laughably low. The $100 monthly entertainment budget is also laughably low when you can't even take your family out for dinner at a sit down restaurant for $100.

So we are in agreement that some of his numbers were laughable. However, his numbers do work in proving his point that 100k is nothing when raising a family.

So like I've already said 100k if you're single: fine. 100k for a family: peanuts.

yeah, I did find it odd that he went with $200 a month for car expenses, which I agree is pretty low. Especially since the most important number on his list ($2,500) is so high its absurdly ******ed unless you are in a handful of US cities. For the other 99% of the US its well under half of that.

but thats how these stupid arguments always go. Talk about how its near impossible to live on less than 100K a year for a family of 4, base your facts on living in San Fransisco, then hand wave and boom youre done.

ya that's why this thread in its current state sucks and we should just go back to looking at infinity pools and debating how many dozens of bedrooms a house should have before it's too much. I set the line at 1.5

Not a bad place to watch Le Ratatouille imo

Ok, pick la for pricing, one of the most ****tiest and expensive places to live in the united states.

If you're going to spit in the face of someone giving you 100k/ yr for life, complain it's not enough, and then use the money to play keeping up with the joneses-- a vain ****ing fantasy, then shame on you..

I encourage you to broaden your perspective on life. Travel around the United States. Learn how normal people go about their daily lives. The stress they're under, how hard they work and what they spend their money on.

I encourage you to travel to places where your friends have probably lied to you and said you will be kidnapped/ raped/ mugged. Pretty much anywhere in South America. It's truly sobering to learn about how little they make, how far they can stretch it out, and how full of life they actually are in spite of it.

wake up.

I dunno how many bedrooms my house would have, but I do know it would sure as **** be littered with secret passages.

I actually prolly wouldnt have a very big house. Id much rather have a house small enough that I can take care of it myself, so that I dont have an army of hired help constantly around cuz id rather have the privacy. A library and a theater room would def be a requirement tho

The average US household income is $51,000 (source). $18k is the kind of household income you see in a country like Colombia.

1) I'm including non-grocery expenses in this tab.

2) My roommate and I spend $110 a month on food, eating mainly potatoes, Ramen noodles, bulk-bought chicken leg quarters, and egg. Add fruits, veggies, and (more importantly) variety to the meat portion of your diet (beef is roughly eight times as expensive as the chicken we're getting, especially good beef), and good cheese, and you're looking at easily $100 a month per person (I've managed to spend $140 on food for myself buying mostly generic brands, except for generic mayo because I can't stand it). Replace your meals with stuff that isn't laden with chemicals and garbage, and you're looking at upwards of $200 a month per person.

3) Refer to item #3 in my argument above.

Now -- if you had $100k a year, tax free, with no career-social expectations, that's something completely different, and even in the scenario I presented you'll probably have everything you need, but again, what I'm saying is that a family making 100k a year in a real job in the real world doesn't have it as made as you think they do. I'm not even including child care in this calculation (if one parent is stay-at-home it's unnecessary of course, but if mom and dad work and take home $90-100k together that's a different story).

dude i got you hooked up for the library


gotta admit this looks pretty sick

Yeah this is actually right, my bad. I made that post in a hurry, and my fiancée couldn't drive (medical condition) so I was the only one that would have a car in my household.

ok, let's say that you're in a place that's cheaper and has access to good jobs -- basically that would probably be a major city on the Gulf or the Southern East Coast (South Carolina, etc.) You'd save $1k a month in housing expenses and maybe $500 in taxes vs SoCal, but since I've cocked up the numbers for car insurance et al., in reality you would probably only save $500 or so vs the breakdown I provided, if you save anything at all. You still need $50k a year after taxes (and after student loans and professional expenses like malpractice insurance) to live somewhat comfortably.

And that's not even including a higher education fund for the children, or a nest egg. In reality you need to be saving about 40% of your income to have a safety net (in Singapore the government actually mandates people to save that much money). So for a family of four, to be truly safe and comfortable, you need closer to $90k a year after taxes et al.