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$500k a Year yet Struggling? Let's Do a Double Take

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Re: $500k a Year yet Struggling? Let's Do a Double Take

#151

Post by alphagrep12345 »

throwaway0516 wrote: post #115

We make a little over $500K and I would not say we are struggling day to day, but we won't have so much saved as people expect. We lead a modest life (live in an apt, drive a compact) and live in SV. Monthly House rent is $3000, Kids schools is $2400, kids activities is $2000, groceries and eating out is $1500, travel expenses averaged is $1000, misc expenses (gas,utils,shopping,car maint) is $2000. We do not have an…

After your expenses, you still have 28k (post tax $ per month) - 12 (added all your expenses) ~ 16k per month = 192k per annum. 192 - 38 - 15 = 139k still left after taxes, expenses, 401k, and 529. Isn't that a really huge number?

Re: $500k a Year yet Struggling? Let's Do a Double Take

#152

Post by ralph84 »

shiftpgdn wrote: post #104
ralph84 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It absolutely is savings. Compare two people: Person #1 - Makes $6000/month - Has an interest-only mortgage payment of $1000/month (yes it's still possible to get interest-only mortgages) - All other expenses are $4000/month - Puts $1000/month in a savings account Person #2 - Makes $6000/month - Has a mortgage payment of $1000 interest + $1000 principal = $2000/month - All other expenses are $4000/month Person #1 and…

Can you give more details on the interest only mortgages? I haven't seen that offered anywhere.

You need a portfolio lender since the GSEs won't buy an interest-only mortgage. Union Bank, Navy Federal, and SoFi are some examples.

Re: $500k a Year yet Struggling? Let's Do a Double Take

#153

Post by michaelmrose »

toasterlovin wrote: post #126
michaelmrose wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think its OK to import people you can maximally exploit as live in slaves to safeguard the most important things in your life. The minimum wage for NYC is $15 an hour and ultimately if you pay the minimum you get your pick of the worst employees.

Uh, pretty sure the OP is not envisioning enslaving someone. And the compensation for the au pair includes a place to live and (not sure about this) food.

He said you ought to import a person like you would import an orange and specifically said it would be ok to pay them a substandard wage as it would still be a good deal to them so they could send money home for their family.

One doesn't acquire the services of mexican's to pick your fruit merely because they work hard. You do so because they will work hard for less.

Literally the only reason to bring in someone from out of country which is implicitly a larger effort is because you have implicit leverage over that person and can use that leverage to extract more work for less money.

Further the broader context was meeting budgetary constraints.

In brief he said that in order to save money you ought to bring someone in from out of country so that you can use your leverage over them to get more work for less money while ignoring your fellow Americans looking for work because they expect things like benefits and fair pay which cost money.

Re: $500k a Year yet Struggling? Let's Do a Double Take

#154

Post by deadc0de »

bluGill wrote: post #122
throwaway0516 wrote: post #115

We make a little over $500K and I would not say we are struggling day to day, but we won't have so much saved as people expect. We lead a modest life (live in an apt, drive a compact) and live in SV. Monthly House rent is $3000, Kids schools is $2400, kids activities is $2000, groceries and eating out is $1500, travel expenses averaged is $1000, misc expenses (gas,utils,shopping,car maint) is $2000. We do not have an…

Kids school could be zero if you would go to public school. You can eat out less and eat cheaper food at home cutting the grocery bill by a lot. You don't have to travel. Your misc expenses seem high as well, you could buy an older reliable car (some cars are much cheaper to maintain than others). You could probably get a cheaper house. You don't WANT to do those things - I don't blame you - but that doesn't mean you…

You can go to a public school but if you want it to be a quality one your rent of a house will not be a 3k.

Re: $500k a Year yet Struggling? Let's Do a Double Take

#155

Post by bluGill »

ralph84 wrote: post #150
bluGill wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't right. Over time Person #1 should have more savings. Loan interest rates are very low, person #1 shouldn't be putting the money into a savings account, he should be using a better investment. Person #2 is now forgoing the higher return of stocks to pay off the mortgage. It gets worse for person #2. The house is probably changing in value. If the house goes up in value person #1 is ahead because that money…

What does any of what you wrote have to do with whether or not it's savings. You're just saying you think some forms of savings are better than others.

I'm responding to the last sentience where you says person #2 was better because he was paying off the mortgage.

Re: $500k a Year yet Struggling? Let's Do a Double Take

#156

Post by deadc0de »

alphagrep12345 wrote: post #149
deadc0de wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not in SV. $400k gets you to the lower middle class. That is you probably have a tiny chance of buying some real estate in your lifetime. House and expenses related to maintaining it is a huge chunk of change.

Forget about buying a house part. Say the person can buy a house in texas and retire there. Would you still say it's lower middle class?

The definition of the middle class would surely depend on the cost of living in the particular area. You can make $30k and live like royalty in the 99% of the world.

Re: $500k a Year yet Struggling? Let's Do a Double Take

#157

Post by granshaw »

atwebb wrote: post #145
MuffinFlavored wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Making $10k/yr allows you to do very little. Make $50k/yr allows you to do more, but still not a lot. Making $100k/yr opens some doors you didn't have access to before. Making $200k/yr puts you in pretty good comfort overall, but doesn't enable you to go get that supercar/yacht/private jet you wanted Making $300k/yr-$500k/yr probably puts you in $1m home, $200k supercar territory depending on how badly you want to st…

In your experience, do people really inflate lifestyles like that? Doesn't 5 years at a high income level less mean "more stuff" and more mean "you can save to never work again". You need to earn 500k for a handful of years, save vigorously, and you're done. Am I missing something? I have seen both sides up close so I guess it's more a rhetorical question, but it's not pretty when you didn't save that 300k and approa…

I think often its both that wealth changes people, and its often a certain kind of personality that seeks and succeeds in obtaining high-powered, high-income positions.

Re: $500k a Year yet Struggling? Let's Do a Double Take

#158

Post by michaelmrose »

zulln wrote: post #112
southphillyman wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone living in a high COL city with multiple kids should look into importing an au pair. $2k a month would really help the au pair and her family back home and save the family potentially hundreds of dollars a month

> importing an au pair No idea if this is the right terminology or not, but it makes it sound really weird in a bad way.

Presumably because it refers to a person like a thing. Language often betrays our thoughts by being unnecessarily clear.

Re: $500k a Year yet Struggling? Let's Do a Double Take

#159

Post by deadc0de »

p1esk wrote: post #147
deadc0de wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not in SV. $400k gets you to the lower middle class. That is you probably have a tiny chance of buying some real estate in your lifetime. House and expenses related to maintaining it is a huge chunk of change.

According to [1] average income in SV is $140k, and median house price is $1.2M. $400k income would put you into upper middle class territory. [1] https://sf.curbed.com/2019/2/19/18229922/silicon-valley-inde...

140k is believable, but I think they mean it's per person. If you rent, it's very unlikely you'd be able to buy a 1.2M house on 140k if you started with 0 in savings.

EDIT: To clarify my previous post - I was talking about the household income.

Re: $500k a Year yet Struggling? Let's Do a Double Take

#160

Post by loco5niner »

throwaway0516 wrote: post #115

We make a little over $500K and I would not say we are struggling day to day, but we won't have so much saved as people expect. We lead a modest life (live in an apt, drive a compact) and live in SV. Monthly House rent is $3000, Kids schools is $2400, kids activities is $2000, groceries and eating out is $1500, travel expenses averaged is $1000, misc expenses (gas,utils,shopping,car maint) is $2000. We do not have an…

> kids activities is $2000

Woah... My wife is a teacher and grosses $2000/month.

This is a crazy thing to spend 2,000 on.

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