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[+] -33 points 1 year ago (40 children)

My point is that $160k is enough for anybody. That much per person would give any household a very comfortable lifestyle even in a HCOL area.

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  • [–] 58 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    You'd think that, but hcol is hcol. Then add kids. Now those kids can drive, go to college and need a lot of shoes (seriously, I feel like I should get a part time job at a shoe store). Gotta put some up for retirement too.

    It goes faster than you'd think, and that's with buying used cars, no luxury vacations, little travel, bargain shopping and doing a lot of my own home/car repairs.

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  • [+] -12 points 1 year ago* (2 children)

    I'm living very comfortably with my partner in a desirable part of Seattle with a mortgage and high medical bills for just over $120k annually.

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  • [–] 24 points 1 year ago (14 children)

    I have to disagree with this unfortunately. Myself and many of my friends all make $160k or more each, but when it comes to life's debts and surprises, family, medical bills, etc. - $160k is not enough. And that's with me renting a room from family and not even really saving for retirement yet.

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  • [–] 8 points 1 year ago

    Yup, we make in that neighborhood. We live comfortably and frugally, and we still can't just do what we want. We don't sweat small purchases as much, and are upgrading things quicker than when we made less than half of that. But we still need to be smart about what we spend, especially with inflation the last few years.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (8 children)

    The fuck are doing with your money? Ive never made more than £35k a year. And debt free at 47 with a fully paid off 3 bedroom detached house and fancy as fuck german car.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    See that euro symbol in front of your currency those of us with dollars do not have good public transportation, we have to pay extreme amounts for health care and health insurance, we dont have public college for free or low cost, our housing is predatory, car centric infrastructure design necessitates car ownership with another high cost insurance, the car market has become predatory and ridiculously priced to the point its even inflated the used car market to match the prices of what new cars should be. There are numerous reasons the US salaries look better on paper than they do in reality. Should $160k a year be a great salary that leaves you with surplus, it really should and i wish that were the case. Even if you were to be able to secure a salary like that in a low cost of living area in the US it would go a decent distance but the problem being the places where that is the case usually have bad health care, shitty public schooling, lack of access to quality food, etc. which means most of those areas arent ideal for those with families unless they want to pay exorbitant amounts for private school, transportation costs to get to a location with quality health care access in the event they need it etc. Its not as straightforward as you think. We need major help across the pond here, and most people have become so brainwashed and dumbed down from our shitty education systems that they are willingly voting against their own interests because they believe the propaganda that one day they might be a billionaire.

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  • [–] -3 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    Thats a pound sign, not a euro sign.

    We have healthcare, but we pay for it in taxes. Our housing costs are just as fucked as yours.

    Stop making excuses for being shit with money.

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  • [–] 0 points 1 year ago

    a) I am shit with money. I admit it. I need help. I spend on cards because it is an addictive tactic when dealing with depression, adhd, and an alcoholic wife and the related shit home time, etc.

    b) compared though, our US healthcare is so disgustingly expensive compared to other countries. I would love to be taxed more an not have to worry about healthcare. :/

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  • [–] -1 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Listen if you want to just ignore the realities that make income differ geographically and rely just on your expectations then so be it play fucking dumb. the us is notoriously fucked with its high cost of living. Your taxes pay for a functioning healthcare, you can talk when you medications costs thousands a year, a trip to the er puts you in multiple thousands of dollars in debt, when you arent getting subsidized education, when you have non existent public transportation in low cost of living areas. I guess with your demonstrated lack of critical thinking its no wonder the UK is turning into a fucked fascist place like the US.

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  • [–] -1 points 1 year ago*

    I tried to start / invest in 4 businesses prior to COVID and lost everything and then some.

    That's part of it. I'll be paying for that the rest of my life probably.

    But even ignoring most things related to that, $160k wouldn't be enough and my wife and I don't even have kids.

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  • [–] -5 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    What's the net income? $160k after paltry long-term capital gains tax is going to go a lot further than a single person being taxed fully.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    What’s the net income? $160k after paltry long-term capital gains tax is going to go a lot further than a single person being taxed fully.

    • Federal Income tax of $160,000/year from long term capital gains: $24,000
    • Federal Income tax of $160,000/year from ordinary income (without FICA and Medicare): $ 27,938.50

    So in this case its only a $3938.50 cent difference between federal taxation on ordinary income vs capital gains income.

    State and local taxes are all over the place for capital gains. My State, as an example, treats any capital gains income as ordinary income at the full tax rate.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    FICA and Medicare count. But then so does health insurance premiums.

    I don't think there's anywhere in the world where you can't get by on $160k. There are plenty of places where it can be tight, especially if the comparison is just a number of your choice.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    "can't get by on $160k" is changing the original premise. The original claim by that poster was: "My point is that $160k is enough for anybody. That much per person would give any household a very comfortable lifestyle even in a HCOL area."

    "get by" ≠ "very comfortable lifestyle even in a HCOL area"

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  • [–] 19 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (13 children)

    EDIT: corrected post with biweekly to monthly pay

    My point is that $160k is enough for anybody. That much per person would give any household a very comfortable lifestyle even in a HCOL area.

    $160k/year is way low to live a "very comfortable lifestyle", even more so especially in a HCOL area.

    Lets use NYC as an example of a HCOL area. Here's what that looks like for take-home pay:

    source

    Lets call it $8,800/month to make it easy.

    So a person needs to house themselves. Lets look at NYC rents. Here's median prices:

    And here's some specifics from a few places in the city:

    source

    So looking at the cheapest of the 3 listed here, the small 1 br 1 bath place in the East Village will set you back about $3200/month. Of our $8,800, we now have just $5,600/month for every other living necessities including food, transportation, clothing, and the big budget killer we haven't talked about yet...health insurance/healthcare.

    All of this also assumes a person would be single. If they have children a 1br apartment isn't going to cut it, and the costs for raising children are also a large increase in monthly money burn. People still have to save for retirement too.

    $160k/year is way low for: "That much per person would give any household a very comfortable lifestyle even in a HCOL area."

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  • [+] -9 points 1 year ago (12 children)

    $160k / 12mo. ≈ $13k / mo.

    You threw away $100k annually, chum.

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  • [–] 12 points 1 year ago (11 children)

    First, thank you for pointing out I made a mistake. I didn't see the calculator broke it into twice a month paychecks.

    Take home for one month for $160k/year would be: $8,784

    I'll correct my post, but $160k/year is still way too low to meet your “That much per person would give any household a very comfortable lifestyle even in a HCOL area.”

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  • [–] -5 points 1 year ago* (10 children)

    You're taking out too much tax. Closer to $9,300.

    A household of two adults would have $320k gross annually, so twice that.

    Also, I'm comfortably supporting two adults in a HCOL area, with a mortgage and high medical bills, for under $125k annually.

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  • [–] 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    A household of two adults would have $320k gross annually, so twice that.

    You don't think that's moving the goalpost just a bit by doubling the number of earners?

    Also, I’m comfortably supporting two adults in a HCOL area, with a mortgage and high medical bills, for under $125k annually.

    I'd be interested to hear how you're accomplishing that. At a minimum, can I ask what your housing costs are?

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  • [–] -4 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    I changed nothing about my original comment. I said per person, not household.

    Mortgage payment is currently $5,500 / mo. Note that this is not an income of $125k annually, but net expenses as recorded over the past few years.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    Max out a 401k and IRA and lmk how much is left

    (less than 8k/mo)

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  • [–] -4 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    What does that have to do with living costs?

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Because you can't work forever. Burnout, aging, illness, etc. Life happens. Or do you plan to live paycheck to paycheck into your 70s?

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    I'm just thinking about the "take home" figure! 160k doesn't stretch as far as I thought it did when I was a kid

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago*

    I thought $40k was more than enough when I was a kid. But that was when you could buy a house for $30k to $50k. By the time I hit my 20s, inflation already had homes at closer to $100k, and the cost of everything much higher than when I was a kid.

    When I was growing up I didn't know anyone making more than $50k, most made less, and they were doing fine, owning homes, etc. $160k was wealthy.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

    Can you just let this story be a good thing? In a sea of shit there was a nugget of uplifting news. Go be negative in one of the bad-things posts.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago*

    Actually it's not. I used to live in a moderately HCOL area (Denver metro, Colorado). Not even the highest. On a low six figure salary I was worried about rising rents and couldn't afford to buy a home anywhere around there, they were all like $400-$650k.

    Mind you, this is just me and my wife, no kids, and few debts, the costs were just extreme. Looking at the costs I was looking at a mortgage of $2500 to $3200, and that was when the interest rates were only a bit over 3%, they're much higher now.

    I've moved to the boonies and had a cheap home built for around $200k, and I'm on track to pay it off while also saving for retirement since I'm in my 40s and can't do this shit forever. Thankfully, my job is fully remote and I've built my skills to be able to be fully remote, but not everyone can do that.

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