Obama - First Black President

[Ryany]

man if I made 250k a year, I'd budget myself 50k each year to get by, work for maybe a decade, and retire. fk yeah.

This took the words right out of my mouth.

I think too many people assume that the cost of living is the same everywhere. I realize that 250k a year in certain places might not make you stick out. I'd also bet many of the people that don't think 250k/year is that much money in comparison to the general public likely live in a very high cost of living area.

[Tristam]

Really.

100,000 - taxes ~ 60,000

Take home each paycheck/month = 2500/5000

House payment = 1200
Car Payment = 400 (My parents own one car now, and borrow one of mine)
Car Insurance = 150
Utilities = ~400
Internet/Phone/Cell Phones/Cable = ~250
Food = ~250/wk - 1000/mo
Supplies = ~200/mo
Gas = 175/mo
Health Insurance = 500/mo
Life Insurance = No idea
Home Owners Insurance = No idea
Debt owed to me = 400/mo
Credit Card bills from times where unexpected happened = No idea

That's $4675 gone each month before anything else really, and that's when my mom was working at the post office, which she hasn't for the last 4 months. She just now got a job again. During that time my dad borrowed more money from me and used his credit cards more.

But yeah, that's totally enough money.

Now divide the starting income in half, and begin to pick and choose which of those options you keep the same and which you scale back on.

Now you're middle class.

[Akiyama]

Those bills are a wee bit high, and that's a big house payment/car payment. o.o What's with the phone/internet/cellphone/etc bill being 250? Jeez.

[zoobernut]

I take home less than that per year and my mortgage payment is twice that a month and I still have $1k left over each month to put into savings.

Managing money is hard!

Edit: Beaten by a lot but those numbers are way out off, the health insurance number should be lower and the house payment should be higher, and you should take home much more than $60k a year if your base salary pre-tax is $100k. Also what the hell are they eating spending that much on food? This goes back to what I said earlier people cannot separate luxury from normal living anymore. Eating out is a luxury. My wife and I shop at expensive super markets and don't eat cheap and our budget is easily half that for food.

[Kiro]

Why the hell doesn't anyone save money anymore? Zoobernut is the first post I've seen in the thread mentioning putting money into savings.

[Seraph]

Now divide the starting income in half, and begin to pick and choose which of those options you keep the same and which you scale back on.

Now you're middle class.

Totally. Hard to afford all your shit? Imagine _not_ being able to afford all your shit. Welcome to life.

[SephYuyX]

House payment = 1200 wtf?
Car Payment = 400 wtf?
Car Insurance = 150 wtf for 1 car?
Utilities = ~400 a bit pricey
Internet/Phone/Cell Phones/Cable = ~250 wtf?
Food = ~250/wk - 1000/mo a bit pricey
Supplies = ~200/mo
Gas = 175/mo so it's a hummer?
Health Insurance = 500/mo wtf?
Life Insurance = No idea
Home Owners Insurance = No idea
Debt owed to me = 400/mo
Credit Card bills from times where unexpected happened = No idea

A lot of wtfs. Your parents need to reeval some shit.

[Churchill]

Pays for 4 cell phones, internet/cable is 110, that's 140 for 4 cell phones and two plans that are for work.

Has to eat certain food(s) because of his age/health/etc. (I admit, their food bill is higher than it should be, however I know that for myself I spend about 150 every two weeks, and I'm one person who doesn't even pay for breakfast foods)

Health insurance is high because of age and health etc, but I'm sure you know since you're a 46 year old overweight male.

Cooling bills in AZ are expensive, can't really get around that. Screwed on credit from when they were younger and he only made like 35k a year with more kids to support. They've also continually gotten fucked as I was growing up...every time they'd get ahead something would happen and they'd lose all that "ahead" money or they'd get into debt or something. I remember they bailed my grandparents out of a large credit issue because of their cosigning a loan with my pos cousin.

They're good with money, but they also have things they can't escape from. They aren't the exception either...many people in my hometown are in the same situation.

[Plow]

I wonder if you realize how many people in Arizona don't have air conditioning, let alone 4 cell phones internet cable etc.

[zoobernut]

If two of the cell phones are for work then they are tax deductible because it is a business expense or work should pay for them.

With regards to food my wife has food allergies and I am sensitive to what I eat. We shop at Whole Foods and Trader Joes and eat organic food and lots of expensive good for you foods and our food bill is considerably less than that. Is that amount of food feeding just your parents or a bunch of people?

I would be willing to bet a portion of that is pre-made foods from delis or eating out. You would be surprised how much you save by cooking for yourself.

Internet/cable are luxury items and can be cut back if the rest of life is such a hardship. At best if you need the internet for business reasons there is no way you can say that cable tv is anything more than a luxury. When we had to live frugally cable was the first thing to go and you can get a surprising amount of channels over rabbit ears or save money but renting movies and watching those instead of tv.

Edit: oh and home owners insurance is usually included in the mortgage. the money goes to your mortgage company and they send it to the insurance company.

[LinktheDeme]

If two of the cell phones are for work then they are tax deductible because it is a business expense or work should pay for them. .

UNLESS HES A DRUG DEALER!

Sorry I'm a random internet guy who only reads the first and last page

[Headspace]

So they have an extra 325 after all the bills and groceries have been gotten for the month? Aren't they lucky.

[Correction]

Drug dealers don't pay much. Prepaid phones cost only about 8 bucks a month.

[Churchill]

Nah they feed four people, shop at costco/trader joes/AJ's/sprouts/world market...so some is cheaper, some is not. I don't know the story, but his work doesn't even pay for the internet, which they should since he needs it to work / compute his data, they only pay for an extra phone line in the house.

And I agree, some things could be cut back, but it wouldn't mean he'd be rolling in expendable cash...he'd be paying off bills and then in which case he'd be saving money for the next time something unexpected happens and he's forced to fork over his savings again. It's just not a lot of money, especially once you're in a situation you can't escape from without declaring bankruptcy. You have a car/house payment and a lot of times there's really not much you can do. He can't sell the house, what's he going to do...pay cash in the 85,000 difference between what he might get for it and what he refinanced it for? lol.

So they have an extra 325 after all the bills and groceries have been gotten for the month? Aren't they lucky.

even if they had 1000 extra each month, they'd inevitably have to pay for something that broke or came up or pay their credit card bills and in the end, they live paycheck to paycheck save for a few months when they catch up until the next time they do it all over again. I hardly think that's middle class, and they've never been upper-middle class status their entire life, to be there you need to make about 130+ a year in "south" north phoenix...with it getting higher as you go north, and lower as you go south.

[Plow]

If all your calculations are correct (which, they're bullshit, lol@ only being able to afford 1 400 dollar a month car, golly gee I can only afford 1 lexus what ever shall I do) they could be investing $200 a month, saving up for a thousand dollar vacation every year, and having money left over still.

I grew up surrounded by people that work sunrise to sunset every day of their lives who are lucky if they ever get a single vacation.


And they're the people that really make America possible.

[Izzy]

bullshit

I've pretty much decided that you're just trolling at this point. You can obviously see that you're a VERY SMALL minority, and that's assuming all the stuff you're telling us isn't complete bullshit.

Someone said it best a few post back when they said "Take 1/3 of what you make, and decide which of those luxuries you're paying bills for that you can cut." Now welcome to the fucking middle class.

[Churchill]

yeah I forgot there for a second that my mom and dad are the corporate elite, i will relay to him that his love for america and his fellow man and their liberties is foolish because he works from 6-1600 every day and there are people who work from 430-2000 and they are the real americans. they are the ones who make the profits happen, not ideas.

Also, this is getting pointless. I already said the last four months my mom hasn't worked, which has taken what they used to make per month and cut it down probably 1000? 1500? Not sure, post office can't be that good lol. You're trying to tell an old man who was poor all of his life, got an education after his military service, worked his ass off and is absolutely brilliant at what he does, and by the time he's recognized/rewarded for his ability a year later the economy turns what few luxuries they did have into huge burdens, his wife has to work for the first time since the 90's (We had pretty much lived cheaply when I was a kid) that he now has to give up cable, stop eating the foods that he needs to actually not die before he has grandkids, or get rid of his car which was his gift to himself (which is a used Cadillac btw) for succeeding in life. I'm sure it kills him he has to borrow from his oldest son as well.

But yeah, they aren't middle class. They're upper class, right? I remember when he gave me my first porsche, then i wrecked it while drunk and killed a guy, so i got a rolls.

[Valkrish]

If all your calculations are correct (which, they're bullshit, lol@ only being able to afford 1 400 dollar a month car, golly gee I can only afford 1 lexus what ever shall I do) they could be investing $200 a month, saving up for a thousand dollar vacation every year, and having money left over still.

I grew up surrounded by people that work sunrise to sunset every day of their lives who are lucky if they ever get a single vacation.


And they're the people that really make America possible.

to this, i agree 100%, its too bad conformity to social roles is totally *beep beep* like :D

[Day]

Someone said it best a few post back when they said "Take 1/3 of what you make, and decide which of those luxuries you're paying bills for that you can cut." Now welcome to the fucking middle class.

^

[Tyche]

That's just fucking nuts. Here's my bills.

Mortgage (included property taxes and insurance) - 800ish/mo
2 Cars - 1 paid off, 1 @ $180/mo
Gas - ~$100/mo (Honda I drive to work gets over 40 mpg!)
Car Insurance - ~$150/mo
Cable/Internet - ~$100/mo
Daycare - $450/mo <--- fuck this
Utilities - ~150/mo in summer, 350ish in winter
Food - ~250/mo <---that's for a family of three, what the fuck do you eat?
Cell Phones - ~$100

There's other misc odd and ends shit, but I own my house and feed my family. We own 2 cars and we don't have nearly those kind of expenses.