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CNBC: Budget breakdown of a couple making 500K a year who still feels average.
- Thread starter Regulus Tera
- Start date
So they kept buying nicer and more expensive junk as they made more and more money... It's embarrassingly vain. Imagine the truly luxurious life they could have if they were living even somewhat reasonably. They should feel average, they are average maybe even less than average.
That's probably similar to what you'd pay in the Netherlands on that income. Health care is not included, but that would too out at 280 or so a month for a family.
Personally I pay about 25% income tax. This includes our social safety net. My wife has had complications from a pregnancy and was paid 100% of her old income for the first year that she couldn't work. After a year it's been a scaled back to 70%.
VAT is high here (21%) and there's a lot of taxes on cars/gas. On the other hand property taxes seem much lower, I pay about 850 a year on a 275k house. And most of that is actually for garbage and sewage.
In the end, it's hard to compare because of the complexity of the tax systems.
Depends on the country. In the Netherlands school is free. Childcare is subsidized.
That's where I stopped. $63 a day. (date nights at 5 star restaurants?)
Sorry, my objection was that this is a rehash of an article that has already been done to death. All the meaningful discussion about this particular load of shite has already taken place. I don't disagree with you that this story just goes to show that there are some people so completely out of touch with reality who feel that 500k p.a. isn't a fuckton of money, or that wealth disparity is horrendous.
But 10 pages dissecting each line on the ledger here is kind of missing that point.
It sounds high but then I run the numbers and I think my family of 4 spends about $18,000 and that doesn't count eating out or the kids' lunches at school. I think we usually spend $300-325 per week at the grocery store plus a trip or two to Sams per month. Our grocery is sorta expensive because the higher end stores bought the budget stores here and closed them. Neat trick. We also have some food allergies/intolerances though, so some of the items we have to buy are priced higher than otherwise.
There is definitely some crazy stuff in the breakdown but I think some of the things that jump out at people might be regional differences and such.
If I had to guess they're baking in some extraneous costs into some of those numbers.
Goddamn they need to manage money better. 42k for childcare? Send them to cheaper daycares...they're out there. Date nights are horseshit. Drop the kids at mom and dad's for the weekend and have the house to yourself. Sell one of the vehicles..you can't drive 3 at once.
Jesus fucking Christ.
.
I'm glad someone brought it up. The Land Cruiser retails for $85K and that's the BASE model
I'm glad someone brought it up. The Land Cruiser retails for $85K and that's the BASE model
Their priorities are messed. They overstretched themselves with that house. They should just
-downsize and open up more potential savings
-donate less
-2 vacations per year
-reduce those clothing expenses, 9.6K isn't reasonable unless you are trying to keep up with trends all the time
-downsize and open up more potential savings
-donate less
-2 vacations per year
-reduce those clothing expenses, 9.6K isn't reasonable unless you are trying to keep up with trends all the time
This always makes me laugh.So many candles.
The breakdown has their home value for property taxes at $1.5 million and the article says they live in New York City. Can someone from New York give an idea what size of home that would be?
Good on them for donating, but their food, clothes, and vacation budgets are out of this world. Amazing. And by amazing I mean horrifying.
Fair in NY then on taxes. The immediate counterpoint is that if you live in the city you do not need two cars. Let alone two luxury cars. Let alone lease them. It still seems to me cherry picked to hell and back and fairly irresponsible budget.
In the US? Yeah. Absolutely. If you go cheap each kid could cost like $15-$20,000. Obviously people like this aren't going to go cheap.
That's per year.
yes, children are very expensive! Especially early childhood care. It was more than our home mortgage.
I don't know about child care regional variance, but one thing that's important to note is that people that drop kids off for daycare need to do this in some logical place, either in relation to their home or their work (or in between). So if you live and work in a nice area it's likely going to be more expensive.
But in general childcare is so expensive that it makes sense for many households to roll with a single income because the second income would be negated fully or significantly enough that it makes sense for one parent to stay home.
Right, there's obviously some variance, but I doubt you find much outside of very unofficial stuff or family members for less than $15k.
People wondering should divide that out. $15,000 is $277 per week to watch your kid ~5 days. That's $55 per day. $6.90 per hour. They've gotta pay (hopefully good) staff, licensing, housing, etc.
What average is meaning to someone depends probably in what circles they live in.
If they have friends/colleagues that make millions(which is likely given their jobs) they are probably average in their world.
Their friend circles and colleagues probably aren't comparable to someone working at a gas station and you always compare to those around you if you have to.
If they have friends/colleagues that make millions(which is likely given their jobs) they are probably average in their world.
Their friend circles and colleagues probably aren't comparable to someone working at a gas station and you always compare to those around you if you have to.
OH absolutely. Just trying to paint a woe is me type of picture. Not sure who is falling for this nonsense though
Seriously, lol. I'm spending $1200 this year and feel indulgent.
I remember doing that math every couple of years to remind myself it wasn't a ripoff. Then I remember doing it every year again for "summer camp" which was basically just 10 or so weeks of daycare when they weren't in grade school. It really doesn't seem unreasonable when you break it down.
I also remember thinking it was going to feel like I got a big raise when all of that was over but the money just seemed to channel into different things rather than surplus.
When I was living in NYC I realized that the cost of living was way higher than I wanted to spend. I figured I would move out to a commutable suburb when my kid was born until I realized those were priced way too high as well. That's when I noped the hell out of the NY market. Took a salary hit, but overall cost of living dropped significantly.
For real. "Lifestyle creep" isn't an excuse. Be in charge of your life. They can easily cut several of those categories by half or more.
They feel average because they're a small-minded insecure couple who are reckless with money. They need to be putting money towards their kids' college tuition and future therapy sessions.
I'm not sure you could do that where they live. I think that's part of the point of the article (besides being clickbait) is that all of us consider 500,000 a lot of money and that would definitely significantly change our lives, but you're not going to live like a king. Well, unless you consider this living like a king, I guess.
So many bullshit items.
If you are paying for daycare, then the food isn't for 4, it's basically 20k for 2 people. So what the fuck are they eating that costs $400/week if they aren't eating out? Easily could be -10k there.
3 vacations per year at 18k? What are they doing, flying to Australia each time? How about 2 staycations and a 4 day cruise or something. -15k there.
$9500 for clothes? Bullshit. -7k there. Shop at Kohls and stop being pretentious.
Don't need the 1.5M house. Get a 500k one or rent. -50k
Tax wise they are either lying or are overpaying the IRS.
Basically high income idiots that can't budget.
If you are paying for daycare, then the food isn't for 4, it's basically 20k for 2 people. So what the fuck are they eating that costs $400/week if they aren't eating out? Easily could be -10k there.
3 vacations per year at 18k? What are they doing, flying to Australia each time? How about 2 staycations and a 4 day cruise or something. -15k there.
$9500 for clothes? Bullshit. -7k there. Shop at Kohls and stop being pretentious.
Don't need the 1.5M house. Get a 500k one or rent. -50k
Tax wise they are either lying or are overpaying the IRS.
Basically high income idiots that can't budget.
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What? Daycare doesn't usually supply their breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
Hahaha what? You think there are 70k houses in their area when they're paying $1.5 million for one?
Come on, there is shit on there that is legit to complain about but some of these counter complaints are just as ridiculous.
Whoever is in charge of these bullshit "breakdown" pieces is an asshole of the highest order. They have no purpose other than upsetting the underprivileged.
Do you live in NYC with cars costing over 60k? shits expensive there.
I don't live in NYC, but I live in a place where buying a salad at lunch can cost fifteen bucks. Times two is almost half of that a day and that's just grabbing lunch from a "cheap" place in NYC.
That's only 7.2% for each of them assuming it's 250K each and that percentage is considered low.
All this being said, as a "Woe is me" thing, they won't garner much sympathy, but some parts of this country are expensive.
Chicken, rice, and vegetables are dirt cheap.
No, but there's either a 500k one or rent. -70k to their spending, not the house amount.
Edit: er, -50k I didn't see the numbers correctly.