Living on $100k a Year
npr.org
Living on $100k a Year
1–10 of 195 posts
Re: Living on $100k a Year
#2I'm kind of disappointed by this article. As someone who makes a little over six figures (before combined comp.) in the Bay Area I expected to relate a lot to the individuals described in this article. Instead is just had 4 testimonials from individuals who weren't happy on a six-figure income, it failed to list any of the root causes either then a small jab at the tax code.
Re: Living on $100k a Year
#3> "And now I'm one of those coastal elites, a term, you know, that people in Middle America use. And it feels like betrayal," he says. "But what I've learned in moving to the coast is there's real inequality. And the biggest driver of that inequality is the tax code. The biggest social welfare has been to the rich and powerful, giving them loopholes and abilities to keep money from the government and keep money from the rest of us."
It saddened me to read that snippet. Growing up on the west coast, I was aware of some ideological/cultural differences between urban metros and the Middle America, but I was not aware of that sense of classism.
A take-away I had from Trump's election was that there still is a lot of economic struggle in the interior of the US. Nobody seems to be interested in improving the situation, and very few of these communities have the means and/or the willingness to move towards greener pastures. Is there anything that can be done to improve the situation?
Re: Living on $100k a Year
#4The article isn't great, but the audio snippets are a lot better.
I've posted this book a zillion times on HN, but "$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America" really changed a lot of my thoughts and feelings about what is going on in America today. Highly recommend reading it:
https://www.amazon.com/2-00-Day-Living-Nothing-America/dp/05...
Re: Living on $100k a Year
#5FYI I think $100,000 of income puts your household in the top 20% of earners in the US.
Re: Living on $100k a Year
#6I really cannot sympathize. My father raised a family of 6 making ~$30k/yr at his peak. Yes we struggled at times. Public school. Knock off sneakers. Cheap cost cutter food and small simple meals. Crap car. Etc.
When I started working in software I made way more money right out of school than my family ever made. And I developed a lot of bad spending habits as a result. After a few years I got my head on straight. Paid off all my debt, got disciplined about saving, and cut out unnecessary expenses.
It’s not that hard to live very comfortably on 100k. But you aren’t going to be eating out all the time, driving new cars, living in a gigantic mcmansion, etc.
Edit: My youngest sibling was born in 93. 30k in 93 is like 50k today. HALF of what the people in this article are living on. Give me a break! These people don’t need a raise or a hand out, they need a realistic budget.
Re: Living on $100k a Year
#7I would just like to point out that using median income to define the middle class is part of the problem. That's really poverty today. In the middle ages when nearly everybody was a serf, would you use median income to define the middle class? Of course not.
Re: Living on $100k a Year
#8I really cannot sympathize. My father raised a family of 6 making ~$30k/yr at his peak. Yes we struggled at times. Public school. Knock off sneakers. Cheap cost cutter food and small simple meals. Crap car. Etc. When I started working in software I made way more money right out of school than my family ever made. And I developed a lot of bad spending habits as a result. After a few years I got my head on straight. Pa…
>My father raised a family of 6 making ~$30k/yr at his peak
If you're in the US, how are your parents faring for retirement? Are you and your siblings helping out?
Re: Living on $100k a Year
#9FYI I think $100,000 of income puts your household in the top 20% of earners in the US.
That doesn't mean anything, it depends on what the distribution looks like.
Re: Living on $100k a Year
#10It would have been nice if they included anything about family size and details besides “kids”, budget, lifestyle, etc.