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Living on $100k a Year

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Re: Living on $100k a Year

#51

Post by killercup »

rayiner wrote: post #40

Recently, the news media seems to have developed a weird fetish for the petit bourgeoisie. The U.S. is highly atypical in how we treat the upper middle class. In Germany, for example, a two-income couple making 84,000 Euro ($100,000) in Bavaria nets 57% of their income: https://www.icalculator.info/germany.html . In Maryland, a relatively high-tax state, they net 76% of their income. And that doesn't adjust for the a…

Just a heads up: The numbers for Germany on that page include all social security contributions, including health insurance (4.7k€) and pension contributions (6k€). (Not sure if you accounted for these in your number for Maryland.)

Re: Living on $100k a Year

#52

Post by notyourday »

d4mi3n wrote: post #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…

> 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?

I work in a typical liberal as hell company in a very expensive city. The level of hate/class superiority towards the unwashed masses from my co-workers is absolutely mind blowing. It is casual hate that shows up everywhere, every day in a unrelated conversations. If one was to do s//gay|minority/g they would be terminated on the spot. It goes all the way up the corporate latter. All of them are card carrying progressives.

Re: Living on $100k a Year

#53

Post by Spooky23 »

tedivm wrote: post #36
mberning wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes we were on food stamps and WIC for several years when my two youngest siblings were born. Never on welfare. We got reduced lunch at school. It was about $0.50 if I remember correctly. What’s the point though? If anything there are more benefit programs today than were available then. At $100k/yr you really should not be eligible for much benefit when you consider how much better you are doing than average.

Food stamps and WIC are welfare. What exactly do you think welfare is?

Usually temporary assistance, which is when you get cash is considered welfare.

Most people who understand this stuff don’t consider safety net programs like food stamps or WIC that way. The difference is that the Food stamps/WIC allow you to work, and most people on them do. “Welfare” requires you to not work in order to get a benefit.

The most vociferous disgust regarding people on welfare usually comes from people who you would consider to be on “welfare”.

Re: Living on $100k a Year

#54

Post by azinman2 »

killercup wrote: post #51
rayiner wrote: post #40

Recently, the news media seems to have developed a weird fetish for the petit bourgeoisie. The U.S. is highly atypical in how we treat the upper middle class. In Germany, for example, a two-income couple making 84,000 Euro ($100,000) in Bavaria nets 57% of their income: https://www.icalculator.info/germany.html . In Maryland, a relatively high-tax state, they net 76% of their income. And that doesn't adjust for the a…

Just a heads up: The numbers for Germany on that page include all social security contributions, including health insurance (4.7k€) and pension contributions (6k€). (Not sure if you accounted for these in your number for Maryland.)

Not to mention high quality education through university.

Re: Living on $100k a Year

#55

Post by jandrewrogers »

I read the article and I still don't know why these people can't live comfortably on $100k. It is never explained, and I have lived reasonably comfortably with a household income of It is also hard to be sympathetic given that $100k is substantially higher than the median income in many of these areas, and while not wealthy by any means, many people living a little closer to the median have a pretty decent standard of living simply by managing their finances wisely.

I have many friends in this situation. Too many people refuse to live a lifestyle afforded by their income even though it would be pretty comfortable if they did. My lifestyle, which is far from austere and in Seattle, easily fits into $100k income (though I'd probably have to cut back on the luxury a bit if I had kids).

Re: Living on $100k a Year

#56

Post by MisterKent »

flatline wrote: post #43
ivraatiems wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My father raised a family of 6 making ~$30k/yr at his peak. When your father was working and you were growing up, $30k was worth more (perhaps much more, depending on how old you are) than it is now. His job probably had benefits and protections modern jobs don't have. What used to work for people increasingly doesn't work, in large part because benefits are disappearing, government programs and subsidies are being…

Crap cars are also expensive as hell to keep running nowadays. Buying new or nearly new, if you need the transportation for your job, can be more economical. That wasn’t the case 40 years ago. That labor that his mom presumably put in is also not without monetary value - two working parents cost a fortune in childcare, and many people need both salaries to make the equivalent of what just one used to.

Crap cars are a poor tax. They can't afford the lump sum payment for a nice car, so they basically pay the same amount or more but spread out over the life of their crap car.

It's not that they don't know it's a terrible financial move, they just don't have any other options besides high interest loans or not owning a car (which likely means not being able to get to

Re: Living on $100k a Year

#57

Post by azinman2 »

notyourday wrote: post #52
d4mi3n wrote: post #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…

> 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? I work in a typical liberal as hell company in a very expensive city. The l…

I live in SF, work in tech, and do not share this experience at all. Not sure what environment you’re in but that’s far from ubiquitous.

Re: Living on $100k a Year

#58

Post by cperciva »

jorblumesea wrote: post #15

The middle class has been unfairly burdened with paying for the expenses of the entire country. The poor, unable to, the rich, unwilling to. Tax breaks are at best a very short term proposition, and if the numbers are to be believed, the current tax plan only serves to widen the gap over time. Unfortunately, many Americans have been convinced to vote against their best interests since in many places, D means Devil. H…

The middle class has been unfairly burdened with paying for the expenses of the entire country. The poor, unable to, the rich, unwilling to.

That's not really supported by the data. A more accurate summary would be "the poor, unable to, the rich, not numerous enough to". Raising taxes on the top 1% or the top 0.1% or the top 0.01% has very little impact on total revenues simply because you need to raise taxes 50x, 500x, or 5000x as much in order to extract as much revenue as you would get by raising taxes on the top 50%.

Re: Living on $100k a Year

#59

Post by Consultant32452 »

abalashov wrote: post #27

As someone with a six-figure self-employment income, I can also say that cash flow is a very important part of the equation. If you take an appropriate discount for bad/unsteady cash flow (and few of us do), one is led to the conclusion that $100k+ in SE income can often afford one a ~$40k lifestyle at best, in terms of recurring expenses one can reasonably commit to and consistently afford. That's something a lot of…

It sounds like you are not budgeting appropriately for the amount and variability of your income. I just recently left the consulting game, but did so for nearly a decade. If you're truly interested in making a change I recommend reading The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey.

Re: Living on $100k a Year

#60

Post by larrykwg »

Oh so terrible, how can they even survive, really heartbreaking. Meanwhile the UN is investigating the extreme poverty in the US, you know the people that don't even have their basic human rights guaranteed by their hyper capitalist government.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/01/un-extreme-pov...

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