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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

#91

Post by blencdr »

jedberg wrote: post #12

If you're making $500,000 a year anywhere on the planet and struggling you've most likely let your lifestyle get the best of you. Sure, maybe there are a few circumstances where that's not the case: a major medical bill that you're paying off, caring for your parents or other loved ones. But otherwise, there would be lots of places to cut back without a notable change in quality of life.

God, this is insane. I live in France, I earn 30k€ net worth a year, my wife is 23k€ and we feel well. We're far from rich, but at no time in those last 12 months I asked myself "can I buy this ?".

Last year I had to go to the hospital for an emergency, I stayed 3 days and paied... nothing. I'm thankfull for this even if I pay for that service.

What you earn is fondamentaly dependant of the place you live. It seems like SF is quite a hard place to live.

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

#92

Post by war1025 »

deathanatos wrote: post #79
manfredo wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So after daycare a couple making $0.5M/yr would "only" have $423,000 left to work with. What does rent cost? A 6 bedroom house can be rented for $11,500 a month [1]. So after rent and daycare the family has $285,000 to work with. Still very very far from struggling. 1. https://www.apartments.com/1934-powell-st-san-francisco-ca/e...

And that's giving each child their own bedroom and saving one for guests! I grew up with me and two siblings all in the same bedroom. (And honestly, it was alright, I'm probably better for it, and we definitely weren't poor by any measure. So, the figures above should be read as "if we spoil the children", IMO.)

A thing I think is funny is that so many people feel like their kids "need" their own bedroom, then as soon as college rolls around, "dorm life" is completely fine where they have one or more roommates living in a space that is often smaller than what their bedroom back home was.

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

#93

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#94

Post by tdhoot »

manfredo wrote: post #36
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.

So after daycare a couple making $0.5M/yr would "only" have $423,000 left to work with. What does rent cost? A 6 bedroom house can be rented for $11,500 a month [1]. So after rent and daycare the family has $285,000 to work with. Still very very far from struggling. 1. https://www.apartments.com/1934-powell-st-san-francisco-ca/e...

I think you're forgetting tax but I generally agree with your point.

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

#95

Post by jccalhoun »

I'm in a small Midwestern city so my cost of living is very low compared to some places in the USA. I make less than some of my colleagues in larger cities but even with student loans and getting ready to buy a house, I am quite comfortable. Even still, I look at some of my coworkers who are making what I'm making and were freaking out when they changed our pay schedule so we would get paid a week later. What the hell are they spending their money on that one week is a huge deal for them but it isn't for me? Sure some of them have medical bills and children but I was still surprised that it was such a big deal to so many people.

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

#96

Post by commandlinefan »

jedberg wrote: post #12

If you're making $500,000 a year anywhere on the planet and struggling you've most likely let your lifestyle get the best of you. Sure, maybe there are a few circumstances where that's not the case: a major medical bill that you're paying off, caring for your parents or other loved ones. But otherwise, there would be lots of places to cut back without a notable change in quality of life.

I find it hard to imagine making that kind of money and blowing through it all, but I do know that my wife and I put together make 3x what I would have considered more money than I would have known what to do with when I was a teenager… and we still end up every month with nothing left over.

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

#97

Post by bluGill »

jshaqaw wrote: post #87
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…

Do you have kids? Maybe not 8500 but there is always something from summer camp to orthodontics etc... Life with kids is worth it 200 percent but expensive.

IT doesn't have to be that expensive. Plenty of families have children on $30k/year (one income). Their kids don't get to go to summer camp, nor do anyone get a lot of nice to haves.

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

#98

Post by ido »

easytiger wrote: post #85
ido wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi! My wife & I are raising 2 children in Berlin (a major world city) & earn a lot less than $500k while not struggling at all (in fact I save about 1/3 of my net pay even after deductions for both private and public retirement funds). Sending your kids to private schools is hardly a must, especially if you live in at least a middle-class neighborhood (which I assume you do on a $500k income).

> Berlin (a major world city) No. In fact not at all. It is one of the only capital cities in europe that is a cash drain on the nation it resides in. It is in no way a "major world city". It is not a business centre, a financial centre or a cultural centre. It is not even the most interesting or beautiful city in Germany, Europe mostly has a much better school system with predictable outcomes that can't be achieved…

According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_city:

Global Power City Index

The Institute for Urban Strategies at The Mori Memorial Foundation in Tokyo issued a comprehensive study of global cities in 2018. They are ranked based on six categories: economy, research and development, cultural interaction, livability, environment, and accessibility, with 70 individual indicators among them. The top ten world cities are also ranked by subjective categories including manager, researcher, artist, visitor and resident.[13]

Global Power City top 10: 1. London, 2. New York City, 3. Tokyo, 4. Paris, 5. Singapore, 6. Amsterdam, 7. Seoul, 8. Berlin, 9. Hong Kong, 10. Sydney.

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

#99

Post by bluGill »

koolba wrote: post #65
p1esk wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know about that family, but if I was making 500k my kids would probably be going to a private school.

At that income level your neighborhood is likely affluent enough that the public school would be very well funded as well.

Not always. Some are well funded. Others the rich kids from the nice neighborhood go to private schools, so the rich parents don't care about public school funding. Often poor parents don't care about school other than a cheap daycare and so they don't fund the public schools well either.

Note that school funding and outcome is not well correlated.

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

#100

Post by kangnkodos »

Here is a detailed list of the missing $103.5 K, from another article with more details on this couple:

Childcare (Two Children)- $42K

Food for four (includes date night every two weeks) - $23K

Home Maintenance - $5K

Property Insurance $2.5K

Gas - $5K

Car insurance - $2K

Life Insurance ($3 million term) $2.5K

Clothes for four people (no fancy bags, shoes or threads) $9.5K

Childrens Lessons (sports, piano, violin, academics) $12K

Total - $103.5 K

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

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