Hard to live on 100K per year ?

[NW-Bound]

Sounds good to me. But I wouldn't know because I have not been to a concert in a long time, preferring to listen to music by myself in the boonies home where I can turn on the music as loud as I want.

My nephew must like living in NYC for other reasons too. Not all big city residents have the same reasons, but I think they all share the like of the hustle and bustle of the city. We visit Manhattan, Chicago, SF, Paris, London, etc... as a tourist and enjoy the visit, but we never see ourselves living there. This is OK, as we cannot afford to live in those places with the amenities that we prefer.

 

[savory]

Typically I am sensitive to these reports. I read Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich (2011-08-02) and sympathized with the premise of the book. But these articles that say people can't get buy without providing spending habits are fairly useless. I feel bad that I conclude the people being interviewed are clueless about budgeting and in fact with good choices they would have enough.

I guess I wish I really knew what was happening rather than needing to guess and come up with my unproven point of view.

 

[bclover]

Too bad they only hire pharmacists in HCOL areas like NYC. Wouldn't it be nice if a pharmacist could get a job in a LCOL area maybe an hour or two from NYC? Imagine if we had freedom of choice like that.

LOL except an hour or two from NYC is going to still be HCOL, what you think they haven't figured out they can charge what they want for the NYC refuggees.

I lived in NJ, (I left when my property taxes hit 12,000 a year) and now Philly, don't know about further north but they just built a new apartment building. Had an awesome grand opening. rent for a 3 bedroom apt. $8,000 a month.
A friend of mine just moved from NYC to Philly, a new condo building absolutely beautiful where every condo supposedly offers you a view of Independence Park (liberty bell and all that) his 1 bedroom 1 bath was a cool mil.

Philadelphians are complaining that the NY'ers are raising the cost of every thing here.

 

[BeachOrCity]

THis is all different strokes for different folks. It’s all priorities lifestyle, location, socializing etc. Doesn’t make anyone right and anyone wrong

Some people would rather live in the big city with the fancy kitchen and restaurant bill than save up to retire. Their choice !

 

[athena53]

LOL except an hour or two from NYC is going to still be HCOL, what you think they haven't figured out they can charge what they want for the NYC refugees.

Yep. Plenty of the residents in the area I just described had 2-hour commutes into NYC. There were areas in that radius that cost less if you didn't mind subpar schools, high crime rates or suspicious disease clusters in formerly industrial areas.

 

[ejman]

Fascinating to me to read about the lifestyles of folks earning six figures ++ and struggling with living costs at their chosen locations. I guess there must be multiple reasons not to live in "fly over country" but I must say I'm happy that the average national family income results in a very comfortable standard of living here in SW Oregon. Last time I looked my NW places me in the top 5% of families in the US. It's amazing to me that that NW apparently would result in my living in a dumpster in NYC or SF. I guess I won't be moving there any time soon.

 

[Scuba]

As SittingInTheSun said, it's all relative. A person who lives a modest lifestyle in a LCOL are would struggle to spend $100K. On the other hand, someone used to earning and spending at a higher level could easily struggle with $100K income, especially in a HCOL area and supporting kids.

DH & I spend far more than $100K annually and have for many years. We don't live above our means or have lots of debt, nor are we financially irresponsible. Far from it - we retired at 56 & 57 after many years of maxing out all tax deferred savings options available to us as well as accumulating a sizable taxable portfolio to help fund our lifestyle.

We love living in So CA and enjoy living on the beach. Sure, we could cut our property taxes quite a bit by moving into a small house in a middle class neighborhood several miles inland, but why would we want to? Or we could move to a lower tax state and live with less sun and more bugs and humidity, but we don't want to. We worked hard to be able to afford ER and live on the beach in So CA. And we have several expensive hobbies we enjoy (travel, great seats at live events, fine dining, good wine) plus charities we like to support. Even so, we drive 11 year old cars, don't own a boat or a plane, and only own one home which is actually a 1,600 sq ft condo, not a huge SFR.

My point is that not everyone who would have trouble living on $100K per year is a spendthrift with poor financial discipline. Of course it's possible for people to spend far less, but may not be desirable depending on one's priorities.

 

[NW-Bound]

... Last time I looked my NW places me in the top 5% of families in the US. It's amazing to me that that NW apparently would result in my living in a dumpster in NYC or SF. I guess I won't be moving there any time soon.

Would you be amenable to live in a dumpster if it has AC?

 

[W2R]

Would you be amenable to live in a dumpster if it has AC?

Does it have granite?

 

[NW-Bound]

There's no photo of the interior.

But surely, it is doable. With an income of $100K, one should still have enough left to buy 1 or 2 sq.ft. of granite for the small countertop.

 

[Independent]

Some of you might be interested in some discussions that are occurring in the Data is Beautiful reddit here: https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/

People from all over the world are using Sankey diagrams to show how their monthly or annual income is spent. It's quite interesting to be able to visualize some of the differences in lifestyle and priorities.

Cool. This one happens to be $100k in Seattle, USA
https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeau...t_my_gross_income_of_100000_is_actually_used/

It's interesting that they break federal taxes into uses.

Thanks for the link.

 

[NW-Bound]

Oh wait! There is.

 

[marko]

$100K in a high COL area isn't a lot.

In the Boston area you've got $10K in property taxes, another $5K in local taxes and utilities (car excise, boat excise, general sales tax (6.25%), fees, heat, electricity, cable etc.) At $100K that's $5.1K in income tax. If you don't own outright, rents are steep ($2K per month in decent suburbs is considered cheap/reasonable).

Add $15K in health care and another $6K in insurance and you're already up to $40K and you still haven't bought food, clothing, paid for a car or mortgage/rent (if you have them) or for fun stuff (meals tax 6.25%). Heck, the parking meter in my little town costs 75 cents an hour.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

I get a kick out of living in the Bay Area and having relatively low expenses. It has become a hobby of mine. We usually go to live events a few nights a week but most of the time it is with some kind of Groupon, happy hour special, seat filler or preview ticket. The bargain hunting is half the fun for me and helps keep our long term withdrawal rate pretty low.

 

[38Chevy454]

Would you be amenable to live in a dumpster if it has AC?

Is that the latest tiny home fad?

 

[ejman]

Would you be amenable to live in a dumpster if it has AC?

Wow! Very tempting. I wonder if it has a potty and shower. Ha, I know it there is probably a trap door that will lead you to a 10,000 Sqft basement that would blow your socks off...

 

[NW-Bound]

Is that the latest tiny home fad?

No, it's a creation by Professor "Dumpster" Jeff Wilson.

You can read more about him here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Wilson_(professor).

Cool. This one happens to be $100k in Seattle, USA
https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeau...t_my_gross_income_of_100000_is_actually_used/

It's interesting that they break federal taxes into uses.

Thanks for the link.

One quick look and I saw: $50/month for hair cut, $300/month for clothes, $150/month for apps (?), $210 for games (?), etc... These have nothing to do with living in Seattle, and can be expenses for anyone anywhere so inclined to spend on these items.

 

[ejman]

Oh wait! There is.

Come to think about it, not enough room for my Magneplanars so, I'll have to pass...

 

[Music Lover]

I was fortunate to live and work in a place where a modest income goes a long way if you're not foolish, and I guess I was also fortunate enough not to be financially foolish.

Choosing a hobby that's basically "free" after the initial outlay of gear helps too. Rehearsals, practicing, and jamming cost nothing, and this year I'll earn more gigging than I spent on strings and other musical needs.

 

[Sunset]

......
One quick look and I saw: $50/month for hair cut, $300/month for clothes, $150/month for apps (?), $210 for games (?), etc... These have nothing to do with living in Seattle, and can be expenses for anyone anywhere so inclined to spend on these items.

No wonder some folks have trouble, I never spent $300/mo for clothes, that is $3,600 a year.
Sure I have about 120 shirts right now, but that is over years, and many of them cost $9.99 each. Pants run me $15 to $30.

I was always one of the better dressed folks at work as it doesn't take a lot of money to dress decent.

 

[JoeWras]

Well, if one's definition of 'fun' includes activities that take place on a ocean beach, in tall piney mountain, and the desert, all while living in a relatively temperate climate, you can't go far wrong with many parts of California.

Thank goodness we have the humidity in North Carolina. Keeps those desert seeking wimps away.

Sure, we have mountains and unbelievable coast, but you really don't want to come here. Stay away. The humidity is *terrible*.

 

[Maenad]

I've noticed that the posts in this thread that talk about how understandable it is that $100K is hard to live on also talk about a lot of elective expenses - supporting college-aged or adult children, wanting to live in certain areas, etc. It still all comes down to choices, which is fine. We all make our choices, I just wish people would stop complaining about the choices they make like they were laws of nature somehow (no one here, just in general).

And advertisers can suck every dollar/euro/pound/yen/etc. out of your pocket no matter if you're making 50 thousand or 50 million, so if you let it, it's always "hard to get by".

 

[jollystomper]

I think, in the U.S., if you subtract the cost of housing (by having a paid for house) and health insurance/costs, then it becomes very feasible to live on less than 100K a year.

 

[ponyboy]

ugh...you mean this year I cant take a bath once a week in Cristal?

 

[athena53]

No wonder some folks have trouble, I never spent $300/mo for clothes, that is $3,600 a year.
Sure I have about 120 shirts right now, but that is over years, and many of them cost $9.99 each.

I can do better than that- I mostly wear freebie T-shirts from athletic events, volunteer activities or with logos of former employers. Just got a new one from the blood bank last week.

I spent a lot on clothing to wear to the office and don't regret it; the good stuff lasts for years (I have decade-old cashmere sweaters) and it's motivation to keep my weight down. Last year DH and I spent $300 COMBINED on clothes. This year it was just me and I spent $550 but that's because I hit Chico's to celebrate after my portfolio crossed another multiple of $1 million. Besides, everything was 40% off!

But, to get back to the OT- yes, a lot of it is choices. On another discussion board I follow, a guy who manages a grocery store says some of his employees have $700/month car payments.