seems a bit steep if you’re still a little grounded. I’m 27 make 90k in the second most expensive city in the world apparently and after spending 1k a month on western decadence with a separate budget for drinks and eating out its still comfortable till the next pay check. If one cuts out that crap you can still live ‘well’ and save a respectable amount. Outside crazy expensive cities you could save much more.
Might be right, I never cooked much back when I was single on $90k, owned a car (a lot of urban dwellers don’t), traveled a lot and did a lot of outdoor sports. I was basically paycheck to paycheck. But if you cut back on all of those things you could probably be saving a good deal although you’d need to be doing at least some of them to qualify for “living well” probably. That and I was putting about 10% into my 401k, so I guess I did do some saving.
I do know the single income family budget #'s do still feel relevant today.
BS and krnyc2008 are spot on. Reducing costs are a much better way to improve your quality of life. You can control those, but revenues are much harder and can be unpredictable.
BS, it’s interesting that you note how expensive it is in MA, even in the suburbs. I’ve noticed the same in the suburbs of NYC and it really has me questioning why I would want to ever live there. Terrible weather half of the year and lost amenities of the city, yet still high costs and taxes. Makes no sense unless your job commands you to stay there and you have family.
The main answer is jobs. If you work in finance, you should be making a payout here to justify the disadvantages. If it’s twice as expensive to live here, it’s ok if you make three times what you might get in another job. Yes, it is possible to work at PIMCO or wherever and be paid a lot while living in a nice place. However, those are generally a minority of opportunities.
Speaking from my own experience, I would rather live somewhere else, all else equal. However, I’m not going to take a huge pay cut to live elsewhere. When total financial independence becomes a realistic goal, you will tolerate a lot of sh*t.
Young people might say they are attracted by the social life, which is probably reasonable. However, the main reason for high concentration of these people is also the availability of entry level jobs.
Think 300k is the sweet spot for a family of 4 living in a major city ( not San Fran, NYC).
LOL
I think it’s important to indulge yourself in early to mid twenties (provided no debt and 10% to 401k day one). Simply to get it out of your system. Once you get meaningful compensation increases, just reroute most of them to savings.
Lots of reasons: HIGHLY regulated states, anti-development local zoning boards are a couple main ones. The transpo systems allow a high number of commuters to urban cores from far distances. Southern NH for example is basically part of the Boston MSA because of the transportation system. Highly paid family men & women want a good school and a back yard in a safe (cough, white, cough) neighborhood for their kids so they trade the soul sucking commute for a nice expensive place in the burbs.
This lifestyle creep is real…especially when you know you have sick bonus coming your way in a few months. I definitely used to save more at the beginning of a raise…and then slowly kept increasing my costs because I could.
That’s true. It’s easy to say you won’t spend money, but is harder in practice. As you get older, you will be numb to many luxuries and will need more to keep yourself stimulated. Furthermore, more of your life has passed, so your future utility of savings will have decreased. Finally, the very fact that you have more money probably means that your marginal utility of money will have decreased; so it is actually rational to increase spending.
My marginal utility of money has definitely decreased as I’ve gotten older and my net worth has increased.
When you have kids and may have an unknown number more, it seems like you can never have enough money to sleep comfortably. Gotta hustle non-stop till I hit the big bucks!
i go through periods of high saving - followed by higher expenditures. I.e i saved up a good amount in 2016 only to buy a house, pay off my student debt, buy a ring, go on some exotic vacations, and eat like the animal i am. needless to say, my 401k is my saving grace bc once i save up a big chunk in my savings or investments, ill end up just buying something else.
speaking of which, my bonus hits in a few days and ill prob buy a few firearms. Any suggestions for a 9mm and a hunting rifle?
realistically 300k “jobs” do not exist… apparently a lot of people in NY/London type cities make that type of cahs and more ( including bonus) but it’s probably not going to happen in finance for most people. For every MD at Goldman there are 1000s of junior level employees including it/hr that are probably capped at something like 200 all in at the senior level and even that is the 1%
You see these 10bn + HFs and you do the math 2/20 and figure easily someone in there is getting very rich but no way in hell are you walking in there tomorrow and they are going to hand you a million dollar cut of the incentive fee for picking stocks.
show me one job posted right now on any site that you can confidently say is a 300k job… unless you are a trader with an independent PNL it’s not happening
You can’t hunt with a big bore rifle in MA apparently I’m told. So what would you be hunting for and where would you be doing it and when? It’s a hard sport to just get into if you don’t really know what you’re doing.
What’s the handgun for? If it’s for carry, then M&P Shield 9 hands down. If it’s for around the house then A) get whatever you want but M&P9 is awesome (not the shield version) but also B) consider getting something that’s not a handgun (like an over-under 12 gage). Those are great because they don’t jam, very low user error, very easy to use (even for your wife) and can be used for small game and fowl as well as clay birds.
^^wrong.
I would be hunting deer -hopefully anywhere quasi close to me. Im not into it for the sport (not into killing for fun) but im guessing this will help out with the sheer amount of meat i eat.
good question. i was looking at the glock 19 for dual purpose of carry and around to keep at home. I had it narrowed down to glock19 and a sig - M&P wasnt even on my radar.
Roughly a third of the jobs listed here pay over $300k.
Nice story though.
ok sure so maybe “senior portfolio manager” pays 300k + and I guarantee they won’t hire anyone without experience as a “senior portfolio manager” elsewhere so good luck
BS do you own the M&P Shield 9?