Fake news. If you want to live in burbs, home ownership is cheaper
That childcare figure of $42k for two children is low if you live in a big city. Actually I only really know about NYC - that’s low for NYC assuming kids are young enough to be in daycare or old enough to be in private school. Whether or not kids should be at a $40k-50k/year private school on a $500k/year salary is another question.
post a location where this is the case :).
$45k sounds about right for NYC. That’s about what you’d pay for a nanny. Maybe it’s cheaper if you get those who only speak Chinese or Spanish.
This is a hell of a troll job. A half mill a year family is going to spend $9.6k/yr to drive a 5 series and a land cruiser? At a 5 year loan that’s a total paid back of $48K - let’s hope to God they didn’t go beyond 5 years and aren’t financing below 80% LTV.
Which, implies, they bought used cars, and it’s even further exacerbated by the fact they took home something with less power than BMW’s 4.4L V8 (aint no way in hell you’re going to buy a $30K 5 series with the big engine).
A financial advisor would laugh those cucks out of his office. I cannot believe people are so bad at money management.
From the data points I’ve seen/heard, that’s low for 2 children. Nannies aren’t dumb, they know you’ll pay (almost) double at day care for two kids, so they up charge for 2 kids as well.
I think I misspoke above. I really like home ownership. I got a great deal and it’s a nice house. I have an issue with upgrading a house when it’s not necessary. Fancy houses are really f’ing expensive to buy and maintain (I also hate home maintenance).
nannies in nyc are expensive unless you get one with cash under the table
gotcha
i’e always wondered. say u are an illegal immigrant. and a family pays for you to come here, and ur the maid. and say they pay you less than minimim wage. do you have any legal rights? and is there any type of recourse available to you?
My daycare is at 14k a year
Actually, that’s a good point. Some people do this, and I doubt that they respond to nanny cost surveys.
I’m not surprised at all that a 500K couple blows most of their money. People who live without some kind of a budget/ long term vision are almost destined to up their spending as their salary increases. Most people are also financially illiterate so they make really stupid decisions such as this one couple in a WSJ article last year who took out a loan 60K @7% to renovate their house. I almost spat out my coffee when I read that.
In nyc or Jersey?
Life-style inflation creeps up on ya!
If you struggle to make ends meet while making 500k, you’d need to take a long hard look in the mirror.
I make way less than these two clowns but manage to save almost more than those two combined. Then again, I don’t have kids, don’t own a car and my vacations cost (max) $1k per year.
If you’re only saving ~1.5% of your gross income, ex retirement funds, some of that money should go towards a rusty hacksaw.
Ok I track my expenses to the penny and am in the same tax bracket and NYC region so I can draw some reasonable comparisons to my numbers:
-401ks: both my wife and I get company matching so add another $10-15k here
-Childcare and other kids expenses: seems about right. I pay our nanny about $40k per year and she gets extras like free meals, all-expenses paid vacation when she travels with us, etc. There’s also preschool costs, summer camp, and sports, which gets us to around the same number as this couple.
-Food: seems about right. For a family of 5 we spend about $2000 a month on food which includes ordering out or going out a few times a week.
-Housing related stuff: mortgage and maintenance sound about right. Property tax sounds right for living within NYC. Since I live in the burbs, my property tax is double theirs.
-Vacations: three big vacations a year seem a little far fetched if you’re talking about two lawyers. However the cost per vacation that they incur seems about right or even a little low. I did one big vacation last year which cost about $12k all in.
-Car payments: I paid cash for my two cars so no payments for us.
-Clothes: this is absurd. We spend maybe $1000 all-in per year which gets us, among other things, custom tailored clothes for me, shoes for everyone, and new clothes for 3 kids who are constantly growing.
-Charity: agree with other people here, kind of stupid to be donating this much to charity when you’re trying to stay afloat yourself. Do you first and then when you have a lot of money down the road then make more generous donations.
-Student loans: seems pretty steep but not unreasonable if you’re talking two schools per parent. We paid off all our loans over 10 years ago.
-Misc: seems about right, maybe even a little low since lots of random expenses come up.
-Other income: they neglected to mention any type of investment income, interest, etc. At that type of earnings and savings level (including 401ks) they should be generating at least low 5-figure muni and other income from cash and investments.
Overall assessment is that they are much less efficient than they could be with their budget. At $500k a year they could be easily saving $100k+ if they adjusted their lifestyle and behavior to closer to my household’s.
In Manhattan? Not employer subsidized?
Who said Manhattan? Not Manhattan, Jersey. But a lot of people who work in the city dont live in the city. This couole has house for 1.5m. That cant be city
I was specifically talking about NYC daycare costs and you provide a retort with a non relevant data point. I’m sure daycare is cheaper in Alabama too.