Ask HN: What Are The Costs of Living? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What Are The Costs of Living?

#11

Post by gareim » Tue, Nov 08, 2011, 12:33 AM UTC

alandjackson wrote: post #9

I lived on around 13k after taxes all through college, it isn't that hard. I still spent money on going out to eat, computers, etc. Assuming you are single (otherwise, this whole exercise changes), then they biggest factor is room mates. 2 people sharing a 2 bedroom apartment (and utilities/food/etc) can easily live comfortably on the $15k-$17k after tax income each. You can easily get MUCH cheaper by having 2-3 room…

I guess for all those people who can't figure out how to live on 20k a year, they should take a look at college students, haha. I've heard that a lot of money can be saved simply by never eating out, so if you can get by on 13k, then it should be VERY doable on 20k, especially without eating out.

Thanks for the reply!

Re: Ask HN: What Are The Costs of Living?

#12

Post by gareim » Tue, Nov 08, 2011, 1:12 AM UTC

JamesPeterson wrote: post #6

It depends on a bit on both luck and work done to reduce living costs. For example, in my city home prices average ~$500,000 (AUD is currently roughly on parity with USD). Yet I, renting, live off roughly what you describe. Yep. I spend ~$380 each week total; ~$380 includes (shared) rent, food, (considerable) entertainment, health care & cover, gym, mobile, broadband, travel and whatever miscellaneous expenses come u…

Wow, that's some really good numbers you gave me! Your costs per week doesn't seem very high at all considering you have things like gym membership, mobile and broadband, entertainment, and eating out. I'm starting to think it's very hard not to be able to live on 20k a year unless the person had a large medical problem.

Re: Ask HN: What Are The Costs of Living?

#13

Post by gareim » Tue, Nov 08, 2011, 1:15 AM UTC

_delirium wrote: post #7

For the tax question: If that's earned income (rather than from investment income, say) you'll pay federal payroll taxes of 7.65%, and, if you don't have anything but the standard deductions, federal income tax of a bit over $2500, so you'll have about $16,500 after federal taxes. Then you'll pay somewhere between $0 and $1000 in state income tax, depending on your state. So a range of ~$15,500 to ~$16,500 post-tax.…

Finally, an answer to the tax question! I don't have much experience with taxes so far, but $15,500 after taxes seems pretty livable because even in higher cost cities, there are still low cost areas. Health insurance seems to be a problem for everyone, but the guy mentioned in another comment claims he can do health insurance for a couple hundred per year, so there's that I could look into.

Re: Ask HN: What Are The Costs of Living?

#14

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Nov 08, 2011, 2:42 AM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What Are The Costs of Living?

#15

Post by JamesPeterson » Thu, Nov 10, 2011, 10:26 AM UTC

gareim wrote: post #12

JamesPeterson wrote: post #6

It depends on a bit on both luck and work done to reduce living costs. For example, in my city home prices average ~$500,000 (AUD is currently roughly on parity with USD). Yet I, renting, live off roughly what you describe. Yep. I spend ~$380 each week total; ~$380 includes (shared) rent, food, (considerable) entertainment, health care & cover, gym, mobile, broadband, travel and whatever miscellaneous expenses come u…

Wow, that's some really good numbers you gave me! Your costs per week doesn't seem very high at all considering you have things like gym membership, mobile and broadband, entertainment, and eating out. I'm starting to think it's very hard not to be able to live on 20k a year unless the person had a large medical problem.

I think it also very much depends in what 'tier' you do your spending. For example, I bought a Samsung laptop. It's great. My housemate bought a Sony laptop that's slightly shinier but has similar features and a pricetag 2.5x higher. I buy $30 shirts. Provided they fit me properly, they look great. A friend of mine frequently spends $200 on each shirt. His are a little shinier, but for a price tag of 6-7x more. And I still look great ;)