$500k a Year yet Struggling? Let's Do a Double Take • Hacker News Board

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

#41

Post by astura » Thu, May 16, 2019, 8:01 PM UTC

p1esk wrote: post #37

astura wrote: post #15

103,500/year on unexplained "other expenses??" Over $8,500/month?!! Which is almost double their mortgage payments Um.... What the hell? Their biggest line item is completely unexplained yet they are trying to explain where their money goes? I live a fairly indulgent life and I spend less than that on everything in a year. I can't imagine spending six figures on "misc" unless there's a lot of hookers and blow involve…

Private school for two kids could be that much in NYC.

If its private school tuition then it should have been under the line item of "private school tuition," not "other expenses."

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

#42

Post by bunderbunder » Thu, May 16, 2019, 8:01 PM UTC

wilg wrote: post #25

cableshaft wrote: post #14

"Some of these payments are applied to the principal on their loans, which increases the couple’s net worth by either building their home equity or by reducing their student debt. So that’s also savings." I don't count paying down a debt as "savings". It might be an increase in net worth but not savings. If paying down debt is considered "savings" now, then the entire USA is "saving money". But I think that not only…

Can you explain in more detail why you don't consider it savings? Maybe it is obvious but I am curious.

At least to me, it's about how things are ordered in time.

Paying down debt is setting money aside to pay for something you bought at some point in the past.

Saving is setting money aside to pay for something you might buy at some point in the future.

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

#43

Post by [deleted] » Thu, May 16, 2019, 8:01 PM UTC

astura wrote: post #15

103,500/year on unexplained "other expenses??" Over $8,500/month?!! Which is almost double their mortgage payments Um.... What the hell? Their biggest line item is completely unexplained yet they are trying to explain where their money goes? I live a fairly indulgent life and I spend less than that on everything in a year. I can't imagine spending six figures on "misc" unless there's a lot of hookers and blow involve…

[deleted]

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

#44

Post by lutorm » Thu, May 16, 2019, 8:01 PM UTC

nopriorarrests wrote: post #31

wilg wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you explain in more detail why you don't consider it savings? Maybe it is obvious but I am curious.

If you have used debt to buy a deprecating asset (car or almost anything you can buy with credit card, like iphone) you are not saving. In a long run, your asset will cost 0, and you haven't saved a penny.

I thought they were referring to principal payments on a house mortgage.

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

#45

Post by cableshaft » Thu, May 16, 2019, 8:01 PM UTC

I took a look at the article they're sourcing, and that article actually has mentioned the counterpoints it expects to see about the various line items and has an argument about why they think it's reasonable that it's on there. I don't entirely agree with it, but I think the article is more nuanced than the bloomberg article suggests by just including the chart without any commentary from the article.

https://www.financialsamurai.com/scraping-by-on-500000-a-yea...

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

#46

Post by turtlegrids » Thu, May 16, 2019, 8:02 PM UTC

SolaceQuantum wrote: post #40

astura wrote: post #15

103,500/year on unexplained "other expenses??" Over $8,500/month?!! Which is almost double their mortgage payments Um.... What the hell? Their biggest line item is completely unexplained yet they are trying to explain where their money goes? I live a fairly indulgent life and I spend less than that on everything in a year. I can't imagine spending six figures on "misc" unless there's a lot of hookers and blow involve…

Eating all organic, fresh-from-farm food, eating at luxury restaurants, attending internationally acclaimed shows in the best seating, and maybe even investing in a little bit of modern art? Oh, and purchasing all the best in skincare, makup, spas, saunas, cryotherapy, light therapy, etc? Personal trainers, coaches, cleaners, cooks? I could imagine a combination of all of those could be 8,500$ a month. (EDIT: And I b…

Don’t forget the weekly transfusion from your personal blood boy.

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

#47

Post by southphillyman » Thu, May 16, 2019, 8:02 PM UTC

aantix wrote: post #6

When my wife and I had our first child, we lived in SF. The neighborhood daycare in the Excelsior charged $1600/mo. This is five years ago. We're about to have our fourth child. With the upcoming summer, if we still lived in SF, we'd have four children in daycare. $6,400/mo.

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

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

#48

Post by perfmode » Thu, May 16, 2019, 8:02 PM UTC

wilg wrote: post #25

cableshaft wrote: post #14

"Some of these payments are applied to the principal on their loans, which increases the couple’s net worth by either building their home equity or by reducing their student debt. So that’s also savings." I don't count paying down a debt as "savings". It might be an increase in net worth but not savings. If paying down debt is considered "savings" now, then the entire USA is "saving money". But I think that not only…

Can you explain in more detail why you don't consider it savings? Maybe it is obvious but I am curious.

If I have a personal savings goal, and on a particular month I miss it, do I suffer the same consequences if I instead owed the bank?

Debt is tied to enforcement, often punitive enforcement.

There is an element of freedom buried in these that I am trying to suss out. I am reluctant to use evocative words to describe what lies beneath the obligations of debt, but I sense there is a qualitative difference under the surface.

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

#49

Post by bumby » Thu, May 16, 2019, 8:02 PM UTC

cableshaft wrote: post #14

"Some of these payments are applied to the principal on their loans, which increases the couple’s net worth by either building their home equity or by reducing their student debt. So that’s also savings." I don't count paying down a debt as "savings". It might be an increase in net worth but not savings. If paying down debt is considered "savings" now, then the entire USA is "saving money". But I think that not only…

My guess is the author considers it savings because you are contributing to net worth presumably by:

1) increasing home equity, which increases your net assets 2) increasing earning potential via education, which increases your ability to acquire future assets

Both come with assumptions of course (like the home value stability/appreciation or the education actually resulting in higher earnings).

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

#50

Post by mikestew » Thu, May 16, 2019, 8:02 PM UTC

resters wrote: post #18

Try raising a few kids in a major city and paying private school tuition and child care fees. It easily eats up most of $500K of income.

Holy smokes, with those kinds of expenses, you might have to hang on to that BMW 5 series a few more years before replacing it. I don't know how people are supposed to get by these days.