Hard to live on 100K per year ?

[Swordplay Charlie]

How about $500,000?
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/24/bud...making-500000-a-year-and-feeling-average.html

 

[karen1972]

We spend a bit more than you but I've done the math ahead of time and we should be able to spend the same this year with a general list like this:

30 pounds of fresh produce a week @ 50 cents a pound average = $15
4 pounds of grains / dried beans / pasta = $2
18 - 24 organic eggs = $6
1 pound cheese = $3
1 carton yogurt = $2
4 pounds meat / fish / shrimp / chicken on sale / Costco @ $3 pound = $12

Weekly total = $40

I buy what is on special but that is my more or less my baseline list, and that leaves a fair bit leftover for extras like $5 Friday shrimp and steak, dried shiitake mushrooms, curry sauce, etc. I discovered outlet stores after ER and the prices are half or less for the same products, same brand, fresher produce as my local supermarkets. Sometimes the prices are 75% less. If I ever had a seven wonders of our personal retirement plan, simply changing where we grocery shop would be one of them.

All I can say is WOW, clearly food varies by region. Even shopping at Aldis and small ethnic markets I can't get veggies or meat that cheap... like no where near that.

 

[sanfanciscotreat]

Well,
90000 RMD in 2018
71000 dividends and interest on taxable
41000 in SS
17500 other income

Yep, hard to get by on 100000

 

[explanade]

Bragging?

 

[Amethyst]

Three vacations a year? When do they find time to earn all this dough?

How about $500,000?
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/24/bud...making-500000-a-year-and-feeling-average.html

 

[Pilot2013]

Hyatt Place and Holiday Inn Express, mostly. Anything with free breakfast that's relatively cheap on points. Hyatts in particular are a steal at 5k or 8k per night, and Chase UR points are gold and easy to mint.

+1. I use Hyatt Visa Card for everything, and their points/night are better for redemption than any other program I have seen so far.

Just have to be sure to pay off card, it has ridiculous % rate!

 

[NW-Bound]

A poster here once said his housing cost was $60K/yr to rent a condo in SF.

Must have been me. It was closer to $70K for our 2-bedroom high-rise condo by the time we moved out. No regrets whatsoever though. I still have a poster-size photo of the fantastic view we had from our living room hanging on the wall of my home office.

We have since moved to Alabama to look after MIL and $100K (which is close to our actual budget for 2018) goes a long way here.)...

Yes, it was you. Come to think of it, perhaps you said $65K in that post.

There is no reason to regret anything, as your wife needed to be there for that big paying job. You almost bought your own place. Twice if my memory serves.

Our rental 3300 sq.ft. penthouse in Vancouver currently (2018) costs us $56k/yr Canadian all in (except cell phones). Currently $0.78 USD.

Vancouver is outrageously expensive. The rich immigrant Hong Kongese were said to drive up real estate prices, but I am sure there are other factors.

We spend a bit more than you but I've done the math ahead of time and we should be able to spend the same this year with a general list like this:

30 pounds of fresh produce a week @ 50 cents a pound average = $15
4 pounds of grains / dried beans / pasta = $2
18 - 24 organic eggs = $6
1 pound cheese = $3
1 carton yogurt = $2
4 pounds meat / fish / shrimp / chicken on sale / Costco @ $3 pound = $12
...

Your price is pretty darn good, for the SF location. We do not get much lower, if any, here in the SW. The main thing is to know where to go, and then watch for their daily specials.

Go up north, past the 49th parallel, and prices like the above are unthinkable.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

Your price is pretty darn good, for the SF location. We do not get much lower, if any, here in the SW. The main thing is to know where to go, and then watch for their daily specials.

Go up north, past the 49th parallel, and prices like the above are unthinkable.

Right, knowing where to go and getting the daily specials are key. I do the same with event tickets.

 

[aja8888]

Right, knowing where to go and getting the daily specials are key. I do the same with event tickets.

Just curious, but what do you use 30 pounds of fresh produce a week for? Seems like a lot given the other foods on the list.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

Just curious, but what do you use 30 pounds of fresh produce a week for? Seems like a lot given the other foods on the list.

People eat about 5 pounds a food a day, so 2 people X 7 days a week X 5 = 70 pounds of food a week. I don't weigh the produce I buy, this is just a spreadsheet template I made up thinking about how we could eat healthy and optimize our grocery expenditures. I have a more detailed list with calories, not pounds, but it is too detailed to put in post here.

A shorter version I saw on Reddit from a poster who had very low grocery expenses was something like "produce from the ethnic markets, brown rice and meat on sale".

 

[aja8888]

People eat about 5 pounds a food a day, so 2 people X 7 days a week X 5 = 70 pounds of food a week. I don't weigh the produce I buy, this is just a spreadsheet template I made up thinking about how we could eat healthy and optimize our grocery expenditures. I have a more detailed list with calories, not pounds, but it is too detailed to put in post here.

I didn't know that people eat an average of 5 pounds of food per day. I know DW and I don't. Five pounds seems like a lot. No wonder the U.S. population is so obese and unhealthy.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

I didn't know that people eat an average of 5 pounds of food per day. I know DW and I don't. Five pounds seems like a lot. No wonder the U.S. population is so obese and unhealthy.

A pound of apples has 237 calories and a pound of lettuce is 63 calories. 5 pounds of lettuce would only be 315 calories.

 

[Music Lover]

A pound of apples has 237 calories and a pound of lettuce is 63 calories. 5 pounds of lettuce would only be 315 calories.

There are 8000 calories in 5 pounds of bread or pasta, so obviously it depends on a person's diet.

 

[aja8888]

There are 8000 calories in 5 pounds of bread or pasta, so obviously it depends on a person's diet.

If you look around when you are out shopping or at the Mall cruising, the bread and pasta is winning the weight game.

 

[Nemo2]

There are 8000 calories in 5 pounds of bread or pasta, so obviously it depends on a person's diet.

And, as RobbieB would likely tell you, there are 5,987 calories in 5 lbs of caviar.........(or, as a shipboard Australian commented, some 50+ years ago, "This jam tastes fishy".)

 

[Luvdogs]

Whereas my wife and I rent in Mountain View (it costs more than it cost us to rent in SF!!), and so our current housing costs us $49,800 a year.

Just amazes me the difference in housing costs. My son lives in Mountain View. He is in tech, mid 20's. It's a really nice area. But he lives in a 700 square foot, 1-bedroom 1970s apartment that is dumpier than his old college apartment. It hasn't been updated in 20 years or more. He's paying 30K a year in rent.

OTOH just three years ago I bought a 3 bedroom, 1400 square foot condo in our area for 60K that I rent out.

 

[athena53]

A pound of apples has 237 calories and a pound of lettuce is 63 calories. 5 pounds of lettuce would only be 315 calories.

Yeah, we're a little OT but I had to chime in because I just got back from grocery shopping. In a typical week I go through 2 lbs. of brussels sprouts, 2 lbs. of cabbage, 3 lbs. of onions, 6 sweet peppers, a few pounds of bananas, and 2 lbs. of baby carrots. I also have a cauliflower in there that will be gone in a week. I stir-fry a lot so add the broths and sauces and it ay be that I take in 5 lbs. of food per day. I'm 5'7" and weigh 128.

 

[W2R]

I didn't know that people eat an average of 5 pounds of food per day. I know DW and I don't. Five pounds seems like a lot. No wonder the U.S. population is so obese and unhealthy.

+1

It is after 4 PM. So far today, I have eaten one fairly small sandwich, perhaps 8 oz. Also, one of those tiny bags of chips, another 2 oz. Tonight for dinner, Campbell's soup.

Altogether, maybe 1-2 pounds. And this has been a high calorie day for me, that will probably result in weight gain.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

A nice big Salad is pretty heavy.

 

[YVRRocketSurgery]

Vancouver is outrageously expensive. The rich immigrant Hong Kongese were said to drive up real estate prices, but I am sure there are other factors.

Honk Kong immigration pre-handover back to China, drove the market in the 90's. The surge in the 2000's to today is from mainlanders, some of which with a lot of dubious cash and ways to skirt capital controls.

 

[Mulligan]

From all of the "reports" I have seen lately, $500k is way high for 90%. I have read where 70% have less than $100k....

I just read today the bottom 40% have an average net worth of negative $8600.

 

[kcowan]

Does that penthouse have water views or something?

Oh yes. 180 degrees from downtown and Stanley park through English Bay and Vancouver Island to Bowen Island and Hollyburn Ridge (Cypress). No high rise obstruction of views. Attached is a sampling.

 

[Scuba]

Oh yes. 180 degrees from downtown and Stanley park through English Bay and Vancouver Island to Bowen Island and Hollyburn Ridge (Cypress). No high rise obstruction of views. Attached is a sampling.

Beautiful!

 

[Dreamer]

Gorgeous! I could get used to that view immediately and never want to leave.

 

[Amethyst]

I'm a size 4 and I could duplicate this list, sans the cabbage (which I don't like) substituting real carrots for the baby carrots, and adding a couple of apples per day (to keep two doctors away). I also eat a lot of chocolate

If you move your body a lot, you need fuel.

Yeah, we're a little OT but I had to chime in because I just got back from grocery shopping. In a typical week I go through 2 lbs. of brussels sprouts, 2 lbs. of cabbage, 3 lbs. of onions, 6 sweet peppers, a few pounds of bananas, and 2 lbs. of baby carrots. I also have a cauliflower in there that will be gone in a week. I stir-fry a lot so add the broths and sauces and it ay be that I take in 5 lbs. of food per day. I'm 5'7" and weigh 128.