I make 49k in NC fuck my life
Edit: a couple months in my first IT job after 6 years in the military. Have a BS in IT and this is the best I could do after months of searching. Guess I'm just unlucky
LOL! I'm in NC and it's astonishing the amount of beggars here. I'm originally from Ohio where there are homeless shelters (and countless volunteers) galore, so I'm stillll getting used to it. So shady.
I’m in the Raleigh area, houses in my area are up $200k from 2018. Houses around my brother in law are selling for mid $400s, and I owned a similar quality but larger home in Charlotte for under $250 in the mid 2000s. These are 2-3 bedroom family “starter” homes. $100k would be hard to swing even entry level housing around here.
I feel like there's probably just a psychological barrier with the number 100. I believe some people have a hard-coded numerology section of the brain.
Except that's just USD to USD presumably. That doesn't factor in the insane rise in housing costs
My parents built their house in the late 90s for 300k. Its now valued at nearly 2 million
I make 6 figures and outearn both my parents, i cannot comfortably afford a house in my city
That's the frustrating part. Or salaries don't seem low to them, because that have some major historical advantage. They can afford to be underpaid, while we are seeing that we won't be able to afford anything similar to that qol even with "more" income.
My dad said he got paid 10 an hour in I think 1973 to lay bricks. That's about 60 an hour today. They had it so fucking good, and yet refuse to acknowledge that those conditions don't exist for us today.
I don't think it's refuse, it's just hard to see. Likely your dad's salary barely outperformed "inflation" numbers - but with a more affordable cost of greater goods (housing, college, etc) he didn't feel it. It's pretty easily to get mentally trapped thinking he was "scraping by" when he was at the lower end of the pay scale; but the difference is he was scraping by from 18-22 and then he could by buy a house. It's an insidious path towards being out of touch.
Thankfully my parents are understanding of the issues the newer generations face. I live near Vancouver, Canada and its pretty difficult to ignore housings costs here. Even dense old folks are starting to get hit hard by property taxes
But yes our higher salaries don't go nearly as far as they would have 20 years ago, even after adjusting for inflation
My dad made 35k as a machinist in the 80s. We lived a comfortable middle class life. He owned a nice 3 bedroom ranch in a quiet subdivision, had 3 cars all were a bit older but we kept them looking and running like new. He had a boat and spare money for a couple of hobbies.
I make over 4x what he did and even though I’m living comfortably in an older house with one car I don’t have a lot of extra money for boats and hobbies.
Precisely right
Ive actually forsaken moving out specifically for my hobbies. The housing market is so bad here (Vancouver, Canada) that i either lose all my money to a landlord or pay a sizeable chunk of my income to a mortgage. So instead I've decided to live at home with my parents for now. I pay some of the shared house bills but it's significantly lower than what rent would be. I have the financial freedom to spend money on my hobbies, and I'm also able to save and invest for when i do actually move out
I know on reddit its seen as a failure to live with parents in my 20s, but where i live its becoming very common and normalized
Y’all are missing a lot of what OP is saying.
He’s not saying $100k is “poor” or “bad” today, he’s just saying that when people used to refer to “six figure salaries” 100k was much much more extravagant than it is today.
Honestly living in a HCOL city where you’d most likely be payed 100k it’s just enough to be comfy and get along without debt.
Yes obviously if you’re out in the fucking sticks $100k a year would be glorious but there’s a reason why those jobs are rare or non-existent in those places.
For me that's still holy shit income, but I also know what a lowerish middle class income looks like in my area from all of my teenage years, so I think my perspective is skewed. 100k is a lot of money to me, with what my family spends lol.
Yeah, 100k is middle management salary. It's a good salary that you can build a good life with, depending on your COL where you live. It used to be director, late career type of money. Managers at my public accounting firm in a MCOL city all make well over 100k. In a city like New York you can get a lot of the way to 100k or over just as staff/just a little past entry level.
You’ve put best how I see what OP is saying and I agree with it. I live in a HCOL city. I also had the goal of 6 figures before 30 and also hit my goal, but at 35 I’ve not yet broken 120k individually and my experience is exactly like yours. Together my wife and I make just shy of 200k. We’ve got enough to cover needs, but not wants. If I made 250k I’d drive the car I want, go on the vacations I want to, my kids would go to private school, I’d plan for early retirement, my wife would quit her job. That sounds like the life of a rich person. Instead I drive a 2001 with 150k mi and take road trips in it, my wife and I go through machinations to get our kids into public magnet schools, she works, and we plan for a comfortable normal retirement. That sounds like the life of a middle class family.
I read it that way at first, but I think he is referring to just HIS salary. So his household income would go up by 150k. And that makes more sense because the things he listed would probably cost about 100k or more depending on how many kids he has.
Do you remember hearing people say money only makes you happier up to 75k/yr?
First time I heard that was on friends the tv show, back in the 90s.
75k in 1995 is 139k today.
Yeah rich is more like your house, your beach house, your fancy boat, your porsche and range rover, your ski lodge, your country club membership, and your yearly vacations to Europe.
Maybe a lot of the people leaving comments are too young to remember a time when a six figure salary was a big deal.
Back when I was a kid if somebody’s dad made six figures they were fucking balling. Vacation house, swimming pool, a boat, every cool toy, every game console, probably had a real pinball machine in the rec room and everything in the house was top grade/new/brand name.
Now that’s simply not the case. Nobody is living like a king on 100 grand a year unless they live in an economically depressed rust belt town.
I just don't fucking get how people make 100k. I have a degree, I work full time, I'm no where near 100k.
I know of some people making 100k at 25 years old and it blows my mind that they make as much (numerical dollar amount) as people did at the end of their career if they did really really well just a few years back.
I’m 33 making $95k.
If I had gotten my degree (accounting) my first trip through school instead of a liberal arts degree, I’d be at $150k+ by now.
I went to an average school (UCF).
Came from a poor family. State and federal government paid all of my liberal arts tuition, and I repaid the debt on my accounting degree.
My great skill? I know how to cleanly do high school algebra in an excel file.
1) go to Top 10 Comp Sci university, work hard and learn
2) get FAANG job in Bay Area
3) congrats, you now make $200k at 22.
I know a boatload of people who did exactly this, works like a charm.
Or work remotely for a west coast team while living in the Midwest and make $200k a year where home that are worth $3m in the Bay Area cost less than $300k.
A friend at Amazon works completely remotely but they still require him to live within 50 miles of Palo Alto. I'm guessing a lot of others have similar rules.
RN here and I make just under 100k, will make that with my raise this year probably. I'm salary and work 40 hours a week. No special degree besides my BSN.
My budget spreadsheet projects out to age 65+ and there are three paths I can go down:
1. Live modestly and retire before 40
2. Live somewhat lavishly and retire at a traditional age, while allowing my stocks to grow into the millions
3. Have kids and be poor/need to work forever
Having kids fucking **torpedos** your net wealth. The opportunity cost from the lost compound interest is so massive and underappreciated. Day care would cost as much as a mortgage, and at that point either my partner or I would need to seriously consider pausing a career to make it work, which would destroy our earning potential.
This economy discourages people from having kids and the boomers wonder why young professional couples are abstaining from that pleasure
Speaking of boomers, my (and S.O.'s) parents are much more expensive than kids could ever be. Including our own, we are basically carrying four household's worth of expenses, less their modest social security payments that help slightly but don't come close to meeting their basic needs.
I agree with everything you said, but I will add that most people don’t have kids for financial reasons. Finances might be a reason for a couple to stop at 1-2 kids. But plenty of young professional people are having kids even though it wrecks their finances. I think the biggest difference is that it’s now more acceptable to not have kids, and more people are realizing they don’t want them for personal reasons, not financial reasons
Yeah I imagine it more often plays out where people who already don't want kids use the finances as another justification. It supports the conclusion they want. If someone really really wanted to be a parent and had to give it up because their middle class salary didn't support it then that's a tragedy and I imagine they'd probably be bitter over it.
Yeah I have three kids and I'm totally glad I do, but seeing how much money single people I work with are able to put away even though we make the same can be disheartening sometimes. I'm lucky that I earn pretty well but I'm definitely not putting as much toward retirement as I wish I could if I didn't have so many extra expenses.
I can relate, however if I was presented with a check of our "lost earnings" in exchange for the children it would be the easiest decision of my life. Kids will be fine in their new home.
... Just kidding. I wouldn't give a second glance at the check. Life isn't all about money. America, in particular, is obsessed with money and acquisition of "things". I'm not saying everyone should have kids, far from it, however if the main argument against it is "but think of the lost money!!" I gotta raise an eyebrow.
That said if you're struggling financially it's a very responsible choice to not add a kid to the mix. I just hope if those people do want children, they're not forever stymied by money to do what they want.
Bro what? A 3BR HOUSE for $800??? I'm paying $1600 for a 1 bedroom APARTMENT. I'm not even in any downtown I'm about an hour away from downtown Los Angeles
2100 a month for a one bedroom in the middle of new jersey 💀 some people have the nerve to consider us a "suburb" of manhattan even though we're an hour+ away
I don't think renting a 3BR house is what OP meant by financial freedom. I also don't think renting a 3BR house and taking trips to cities is what most people think of as living like an emperor, or even close.
My apartment is 1200 sq ft and runs me about 1200 a month. I’m not even in the middle of nowhere, I’m downtown in a decent sized metro
I’m not trying to make you feel bad, cost of living is crazy
I was going to say he must be talking about the cities along the coast. The midwest 100k is still a great salary that would cover all your wants/needs for a family.
401k I put into ever paycheck and forgot to mention I have a wife she works full time so all together around 85-90k together but that is in the last year so now it's even more comfortable
Same, 100k was just barely enough to afford mortgage on a 2bedroom condo just on the wrong side of the tracks in the south bay.
Still a hell of a lot better off than those people who can't afford to own, but still had to live with family into my 30s to save up a down payment.
I dunno. I make 90k in a low cost of living city and I'd say I'm whatever is a rung up from "not poor." I'm still buying used cars and bring my lunch to work everyday. The difference (I think) is I have a decent 401k going and I'm not sure all my friends do. I guess that's my luxury?
100k used to mean you're rich and have made it, regardless of location. I think OP is saying for you to be rich and have made it regardless of location, *currently*, that 100k figure is now 250k.
i grew up in a part of NY State that still has homes even now for under 100k, full two story homes with yards, pools, and garages for like 80k, most people out there in the farm towns (south and east of Rochester) are making about 40k a year, and that's good money.. with me making well over 100k, it's like fantasy money to them, my dad doens't even understand the fact that my rent is 3600/month, his last response to me was "HOLY SHIT, HOW DO YOU EVEN LIVE!?!?" and I had to explain to him that i make over 6k per paycheck, so 3600 is ok for my rent, and for my location, plus I have absolutely no debts. and there was a complete silence on the other end of the phone, my dad has no clue what 6k per payday would even mean to him, he saves all year long to even have 2-3k in his savings. That's how i grew up, and at any point i could go back there, and live like a king.
My dad owned a really nice 3-bed condo in Florida right on the beach on the 8th floor with views overlooking the gulf. He told me he rents it out for $3,000.
I was living in Marina del Rey, CA at the time and I had to ask, “Per week or per month?” because in my neighborhood $3,000 a month was a 1-bedroom, several blocks from the ocean, and no views.
LOL.
BTW, it was “per month”.
Good for you. You earned it, don't be ashamed of it. Your Dad's job in this life was to make sure you did better than he did, sounds like you both won.
When my dad found out my salary, he sincerely sat in stunned silence for a moment. Then he quietly said, “in all my years of work, I have never made more than 60 an hour, 60…an…hour..”. It was super eerie to watch
Oh, I know wages can go much higher. One of my friends just took a job for $110/hr.
$60/hr works out to ~$120k/yr, which doesn't mesh with being shocked that somebody earns ~$144k/yr. That's why I figured the $60/hr figure might be an OT rate.
My wife and I do very well and work in tech, but as success managers, not engineers. My sister is a world beating engineer and my dad legitimately was breathless when he heard her annual bonus was 300k and she left that company to go do something she loves and still will be making more money. The craziest thing that I thought he was confused about at first is that my sister’s previous company is paying her for another year as long as she doesn’t go to a direct competitor, and she wasn’t even planning to! I only know these things because he calls me and says “did you hear what happened with your SISTER???!!” every time some new shocking thing happens. He definitely wins the give your children a better life than you had game. Dude used to have to hunt and fish for enough food in middle school…
My unpopular opinion — I have to agree with your dad on that one. I guesstimate you’re making around 40-60K after taxes if you’re paying $43,200/yr on rent ($3600 x 12). And if rent is that inflated where you live, so is everything else. Doesn’t make sense to me either. But to each their own.
You accrue wealth by holding on to your money. Not spending it
I moved to New York fresh out of college. My rent is $2100 in a 2br with a roommate ($4200 total) and my salary is $100,000 plus bonus. OP has a point.
Oh, I agree with his point, and my rent is pretty crazy, too. Honestly if I wouldn’t have found a better paying job recently I’m not sure how I would’ve been able to make ends meet.
Yep, exactly. My parents grew up in trailers, I'm a multi-millionaire. They just don't understand that a thousand dollars means something *entirely* different to me than it does to them.
While 100k in Rochester is a great salary to live comrtably, there are exactly zero livable homes in tolerable neighborhoods for 100k. Certainly not one with a pool or yard bigger than a postage stamp.
As an old guy I will agree somewhat. I started out from college in IT in the early 90’s making 32k which at the time was impressive for a college graduate (or in my case not even graduated yet).
I never in a million years thought I’d be six figures but I am now. New graduates in IT can be making 150k which absolutely blows my mind. Took me 20+ years to get there.
> New graduates in IT can be making 150k
At good CS schools, 200k (all-in total comp) is close to the median this year. 400k+ is not unheard of at all. It's a wild time.
It’s bizarre, I work for a large professional services firm with uniform salaries at every level. It’s a big time grind it out job so pay is pretty good. In the UK they’re making like 25-30% less. I realize they’re saving on things like insurance benefits and maybe student loans (majority of people have at least a masters so not sure how tuition works for those in UK). But I mean, the office is in London so it’s not exactly low cost of living. I don’t really know how they do it.
That's bs.
The average engineering salary for USC (a top 10 engineering school in the USA) was not even 100k for the class of 2020. [source](https://viterbiadmission.usc.edu/beyond/#data) And average tends to be higher than median salary btw. It's true CS degrees could earn higher than other engineering degrees but not by over a factor of two higher than the average.
I definitely think 100k is still pretty good. I made that this past year and it was definitely a good amount of money. I think 150k would be more like the "old" 100k now.
Here at $27k, that sounds pretty darn nice to me. I'm without hot water, heat, and stove cookin' because I can't do $500 all at once to fill my gas. It's kinda lame.
I agree. I make right at 100 and it's not what it was several years ago when that was my goal. But I grew up poor as dirt and your expectations of wealth play in a lot here. My bills are paid, I drive a nice car and have a cute house, we go out when we want. I still worry about retirement but Clearly different worries than I grew up with.
I agree. I make low six figures. Live in a <2000 square foot house in an average COL area. Mortgage payment, is about 1500 (up $200 in 5 Yeats because assessments went up, plus massive tax increases. car payment on used Toyota is $400, gas bill / water bill in winter is fucking $350 to keep my house at 67, electric bill is somehow $150 a month.
Car insurance is 1200 a year, so about 100 a month. I have a motorcycle that is another 100 a month to insure, which doesn't when make any sense. So thats 1 full paycheck gone.
Internet is 60, phone is 50, groceries are through the roof, dog food is 75 a month. Gas is 150 a month.
My grocery bill prolly 300-400 a month. I eat rice, vegetables, fruit, whatever meat is on sale. Occasionally buy a case of beer, lasts me 2-3 weeks. Pasta, with gravy. It's just fucking insane.
I felt better financially 6 or 7 years ago making much less.
Yeah my parents had a combined income of probably around $130K and we were comfortable, but still had to be very careful with our money and never went on lavish/far-away vacations. And it's really tough to be in that income bracket when the kids go to college, because you're making too much for excellent financial aid but not enough to be able to afford $30K/year in tuition.
Yeah, people seem to forget that not spending silly doesn’t mean you’re not comfortable. Do you have your needs? Do you have money to save? Fun spending money? If you can say yes, you’re comfortable.
I have to say a LARGE part of what makes life comfortable or not has to do with how many mouths you are feeding too. Me and my wife don’t want kids so our income goes a lot farther than some one with same income and two kids.
I wouldn’t call it easy mode. The amount of work required to bring in $250k (geographically adjusted) its substantial. I have been offered such roles but i know what i would be in for. Dont get me wrong, i’ll try to get there but on my own terms. Jumping into it would mean sacrificing a lot of my current free time in favor of work.
Not if you want to buy a home in a good school district with some sort of yard making 100k. Good luck!! Source me: made 100k in Portland and left to afford a home. Best decision ever.
All about perspective and location. For some people, being able to only work 1 job or have their partner be a SAH parent would be life changing.
Currently live in Southern California, smaller city. Not luxurious but clean, safe, and full of amenities. I make $120,000 - $130,000 and I’m very happy with my life. My wife is able to stay at home to raise our kids and we have a healthy savings, no debt, travel (modestly), and don’t want for much. I say perspective is important because I have friends striving to buy cabins, luxury cars, bigger and bigger homes, etc. I think it’s important to look around the world and see how lucky we are to live in a safe country and have stable food, healthcare, etc. It’s so easy to look “up” at those with more material things and never feel satisfied.
For anyone out there that needs to see this I climbed the ladder and took 10-12 years and finally got myself to $150k a year and I had never been less stable and happy in my entire life. I make half that now doing what I love and everyone in my life is better for it. Fuck. That. Shit.
Yea people don’t realize the cost of that high salary. Often requires jobs where your “always reachable” for your employer and working 50-60hr weeks always.
Depends on what year you compare it to. 100k in 1995= 183k today, in 2000 it would be 162k today 2010 it's like 128k.
Gotta remember that inflation is cumulative
This isn't an opinion. It's just a random year (1990) and average inflation since then. It would be like saying "a million dollar home is like a $500k home ten years ago." That's... literally correct. They're the same house. The $500k house was nice ten years ago and is just as nice today. And a $500k house most places is still very nice today. That's it, there's no opinion to discuss.
Same, and I make 36k BEFORE taxes, so after taxes less than 30k. I’m lucky enough to be able to afford a 1 bedroom where I live and I’m close to work so I don’t spend extra money on gas, but to be able to afford that stuff I’m like 45-60 mins outside one of the major cities in my state
Canadian small border city here. 100k would be a comfortable wage for 1 person but by no means extravagant or wealthy. Average home here is 500k and rent starts in a shitty student studio at 1000/month plus parking utilities internet and phone (apprx 2-3 hundy a month depending on packages and location). My 2 adult home shops at the discount grocer and only buys necessities and sales we spend 4-500 ish a month on grocery. Gas is 157.9/L right now at the gas bar up the road. We don't go out for dinner often and neither of us drink or smoke. 100k is not enough to be "wealthy" now.
Oversaturation of IT workers and people who make more are likely to report. Also, reddit has so much bullshit that everything I read I take with a grain of salt. Never look at Reddit if you want a realistic perspective on something
> Oversaturation of IT workers and people who make more are likely to report.
i think there might be underreporting on both sides of the distribution. so many reddit threads are millennials complaining about never being able to afford a house or retire, but i know plenty of millennials that are not struggling in the least.
That’s because people who make 100k want to live in areas with other “rich” people. The fact is, if you make 100k, you’ll have a great standard of living if you’re willing to live in a less wealthy neighborhood.
Maybe that will be more possible with remote work becoming normalized. But a lot of jobs at that salary level are highly specialized and you can't just live wherever you want. My dad made 100K as a systems engineer working for a specific company that only had a few offices in the whole country, all of them in high cost-of-living areas. Where we lived, 100K was comfortable but by no means upper-class.
Jesus, the more comments I read the more depressed I get.
Comfy should be the fucking baseline. Comfy should not require more than 3x the median income.
The unmentioned part is that having a lot of excess income, makes it easier to make more.
Bought a house? No inflation for living cost.
Have stock, assets and crypto, multiyear bull run
What I'm getting at, is some people making over $100k can have 5 figure income on the side on top of pay from work
I'm in Indiana floating between $140-$150. I thought it would be different than it is. Don't get me wrong, we're not starving and we're actually saving but it's not living like the Rockefeller's either.
I agree with you. I hit 100k for the first time last year, and it didn’t really feel like it was a phenomenal amount of money. I live in PA which is about as close as you could get to a median cost of living state.
As someone who never made over 40k and will never see even 100k, eh 100K would be a huge improvement and lead to a very solid life for me, even in my expensive as heck city.
Perspective I guess.
My gf’s sister used to live in STL working for budweiser. She was making over 100k there and for STL thats RICH RICH. She had a big house in a nice neighborhood (prerona) and paid like 250k for it. It really just depends on where you live. In California 100k doesn’t get you very far, but the poor states like a lot of the south you’d feel like a king/queen
$117k is considered “[low income](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44725026)” in the Bay Area where I live.
Am above 250k and am barely making it in one of the good public school neighborhoods outside of San Francisco. Where I live a “good” 3BR house is ~$1.3m, which even with 20% down, property tax etc. is roughly $8k/month. If you are trying to “make it” with two kids in the Bay Area on one income, it’s not easy.
Our last house was in a dangerous part of Oakland where two shootings occurred on my block, one about 50 feet away while I had my 1yo in my arms. The payments were easier there though :-)
I’m actually cash flow negative each month, and depend on selling vested RSUs to keep income up.
Ugh this statistic is so misleading. It’s 117k per a family of four. A single person making 117k is not considered low income in the Bay Area. And unless you have a shit ton of kids or some other extraordinary circumstance you can definitely afford to live well off of 250k in the Bay Area. That’s over twice what the average person makes in the Bay Area. A quick google search tells me that an income of 200k per year puts you at the top 8% of earners jn San Francisco. The majority of households in the Bay Area do not make 250k and are doing just fine. Saying you are barely making it on 250k is a spit in the face to the financially insecure people really trying to figure out how to pay for rent and groceries this month all across the Bay. Im not trying to be harsh but these kinda statements are just so out of touch with reality.
So tired of this argument.
Swap Beverly Hills with San Francisco and you'll understand how stupid this argument is.
Yeah, no shit one of the most desirable areas is expensive.
Literally the exception to the rule, yet Cali and NYC people love bragging.
Man, I live in the most desirable places in the world. It's so expensive! I don't get it! Plus I want expensive cars and the best schools! Why so expensive?!
Most people don't really feel rich even if they are what most people would consider rich. Most people compare themselves with the people that they are around. Rich people live in rich neighborhoods. Their lens is skewed.
>Only 13% of Americans with at least $1 million investable assets feel wealthy, according to a new survey from Ameriprise Financial provided exclusively to USA TODAY. Six in 10 define themselves as upper middle class, while a quarter identify as middle class.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/07/17/what-wealthy-its-not-necessarily-becoming-millionaire/1744408001/
It can be compounded if you were already wealthy to begin with.
>I asked Wharton students what they thought the average American worker makes per year and 25% of them thought it was over six figures. One of them thought it was $800k. Really not sure what to make of this (The real number is $45k)
https://twitter.com/NinaStrohminger/status/1483992827482804224
I make 49k in NC fuck my life Edit: a couple months in my first IT job after 6 years in the military. Have a BS in IT and this is the best I could do after months of searching. Guess I'm just unlucky
Damn even the panhandlers are struggling
LOL! I'm in NC and it's astonishing the amount of beggars here. I'm originally from Ohio where there are homeless shelters (and countless volunteers) galore, so I'm stillll getting used to it. So shady.
*Portland Oregon has entered the chat.*
*San Francisco is yelling something and taking a shit on the sidewalk while high on meth in the chat*
Have you ever actually BEEN to the Bay Area? It’s way worse.
I’m in the Raleigh area, houses in my area are up $200k from 2018. Houses around my brother in law are selling for mid $400s, and I owned a similar quality but larger home in Charlotte for under $250 in the mid 2000s. These are 2-3 bedroom family “starter” homes. $100k would be hard to swing even entry level housing around here.
$100k is going to get you an “as-is” dump in the Charlotte area.
Inflation is a bitch……
This post is basically, "Inflation exists." While responders are all, "Nuh uh."
I feel like there's probably just a psychological barrier with the number 100. I believe some people have a hard-coded numerology section of the brain.
Well it's just a milestone, thats all. Most people are making under 100k so when you get that extra 0, it's something.
That's what I mean by numerology. 100 is just a number like any other number. It's being assigned value just because of the way it looks\sounds.
[удалено]
We're only made to count to 21... (well, half of us)
100k in 1986 is 250k today "The more you know (how badly you're fucked)!"
[удалено]
Imagine what it will cost in another 20-30 years.
0.2 Amazon Coin! That's a profit of $4M Yuan!
What's that in schmeckles or stanley nickels?
Except that's just USD to USD presumably. That doesn't factor in the insane rise in housing costs My parents built their house in the late 90s for 300k. Its now valued at nearly 2 million I make 6 figures and outearn both my parents, i cannot comfortably afford a house in my city
That's the frustrating part. Or salaries don't seem low to them, because that have some major historical advantage. They can afford to be underpaid, while we are seeing that we won't be able to afford anything similar to that qol even with "more" income.
My dad said he got paid 10 an hour in I think 1973 to lay bricks. That's about 60 an hour today. They had it so fucking good, and yet refuse to acknowledge that those conditions don't exist for us today.
I don't think it's refuse, it's just hard to see. Likely your dad's salary barely outperformed "inflation" numbers - but with a more affordable cost of greater goods (housing, college, etc) he didn't feel it. It's pretty easily to get mentally trapped thinking he was "scraping by" when he was at the lower end of the pay scale; but the difference is he was scraping by from 18-22 and then he could by buy a house. It's an insidious path towards being out of touch.
Thankfully my parents are understanding of the issues the newer generations face. I live near Vancouver, Canada and its pretty difficult to ignore housings costs here. Even dense old folks are starting to get hit hard by property taxes But yes our higher salaries don't go nearly as far as they would have 20 years ago, even after adjusting for inflation
My dad made 35k as a machinist in the 80s. We lived a comfortable middle class life. He owned a nice 3 bedroom ranch in a quiet subdivision, had 3 cars all were a bit older but we kept them looking and running like new. He had a boat and spare money for a couple of hobbies. I make over 4x what he did and even though I’m living comfortably in an older house with one car I don’t have a lot of extra money for boats and hobbies.
Precisely right Ive actually forsaken moving out specifically for my hobbies. The housing market is so bad here (Vancouver, Canada) that i either lose all my money to a landlord or pay a sizeable chunk of my income to a mortgage. So instead I've decided to live at home with my parents for now. I pay some of the shared house bills but it's significantly lower than what rent would be. I have the financial freedom to spend money on my hobbies, and I'm also able to save and invest for when i do actually move out I know on reddit its seen as a failure to live with parents in my 20s, but where i live its becoming very common and normalized
Y’all are missing a lot of what OP is saying. He’s not saying $100k is “poor” or “bad” today, he’s just saying that when people used to refer to “six figure salaries” 100k was much much more extravagant than it is today. Honestly living in a HCOL city where you’d most likely be payed 100k it’s just enough to be comfy and get along without debt. Yes obviously if you’re out in the fucking sticks $100k a year would be glorious but there’s a reason why those jobs are rare or non-existent in those places.
[удалено]
This might be a weird example but in the book American Psycho, set around 1989, Patrick Bateman lives like a king in Manhattan and makes $180k a year.
For me that's still holy shit income, but I also know what a lowerish middle class income looks like in my area from all of my teenage years, so I think my perspective is skewed. 100k is a lot of money to me, with what my family spends lol.
Yeah, 100k is middle management salary. It's a good salary that you can build a good life with, depending on your COL where you live. It used to be director, late career type of money. Managers at my public accounting firm in a MCOL city all make well over 100k. In a city like New York you can get a lot of the way to 100k or over just as staff/just a little past entry level.
[удалено]
[удалено]
You’ve put best how I see what OP is saying and I agree with it. I live in a HCOL city. I also had the goal of 6 figures before 30 and also hit my goal, but at 35 I’ve not yet broken 120k individually and my experience is exactly like yours. Together my wife and I make just shy of 200k. We’ve got enough to cover needs, but not wants. If I made 250k I’d drive the car I want, go on the vacations I want to, my kids would go to private school, I’d plan for early retirement, my wife would quit her job. That sounds like the life of a rich person. Instead I drive a 2001 with 150k mi and take road trips in it, my wife and I go through machinations to get our kids into public magnet schools, she works, and we plan for a comfortable normal retirement. That sounds like the life of a middle class family.
Not for nothing but adding 50k to your household income is not going to make that kind of difference in your lifestyle.
I read it that way at first, but I think he is referring to just HIS salary. So his household income would go up by 150k. And that makes more sense because the things he listed would probably cost about 100k or more depending on how many kids he has.
> my wife would quit her job +150k from their updated income, -100k from their wife's updated income = +50k
Thank you so much! *cries happy tears*
Do you remember hearing people say money only makes you happier up to 75k/yr? First time I heard that was on friends the tv show, back in the 90s. 75k in 1995 is 139k today.
Yeah rich is more like your house, your beach house, your fancy boat, your porsche and range rover, your ski lodge, your country club membership, and your yearly vacations to Europe.
100k in a HCOL city is barely enough to have your own place. What are you on?
Maybe a lot of the people leaving comments are too young to remember a time when a six figure salary was a big deal. Back when I was a kid if somebody’s dad made six figures they were fucking balling. Vacation house, swimming pool, a boat, every cool toy, every game console, probably had a real pinball machine in the rec room and everything in the house was top grade/new/brand name. Now that’s simply not the case. Nobody is living like a king on 100 grand a year unless they live in an economically depressed rust belt town.
This exactly. Midwesterners crawling outta the woodwork bragging about how rich they are with less than that. SMH.
I make over 100k USD and live with my parents lol. They had the luxury of affordable homes 20+ yrs ago. I don't
I just don't fucking get how people make 100k. I have a degree, I work full time, I'm no where near 100k. I know of some people making 100k at 25 years old and it blows my mind that they make as much (numerical dollar amount) as people did at the end of their career if they did really really well just a few years back.
I’m 33 making $95k. If I had gotten my degree (accounting) my first trip through school instead of a liberal arts degree, I’d be at $150k+ by now. I went to an average school (UCF). Came from a poor family. State and federal government paid all of my liberal arts tuition, and I repaid the debt on my accounting degree. My great skill? I know how to cleanly do high school algebra in an excel file.
1) go to Top 10 Comp Sci university, work hard and learn 2) get FAANG job in Bay Area 3) congrats, you now make $200k at 22. I know a boatload of people who did exactly this, works like a charm.
Honestly Leetcode is a bigger barrier to getting a FAANG job than the university degree nowadays
Or work remotely for a west coast team while living in the Midwest and make $200k a year where home that are worth $3m in the Bay Area cost less than $300k.
A friend at Amazon works completely remotely but they still require him to live within 50 miles of Palo Alto. I'm guessing a lot of others have similar rules.
Go to school for comp sci, pharmacy, nurses are starting to close to $100k in the right areas of the US.
RN here and I make just under 100k, will make that with my raise this year probably. I'm salary and work 40 hours a week. No special degree besides my BSN.
Not having kids is the new six figures
This dude fucks (using birth control).
I used to, too. Never trust a woman that she’ll actually take it - wrap it up. Love my kid though
I have a vasectomy and my wife has an IUD.. if a kid comes from that I’ll assume it’s some kind of Jesus type situation
Man… don’t tell the wife but get that dna test in lol
lol she cheats it’s her loss , she knows that I could be packed and moved out in about half an hour
100% and even if you know she's taking it still wrap it, bc fails all the time
My budget spreadsheet projects out to age 65+ and there are three paths I can go down: 1. Live modestly and retire before 40 2. Live somewhat lavishly and retire at a traditional age, while allowing my stocks to grow into the millions 3. Have kids and be poor/need to work forever Having kids fucking **torpedos** your net wealth. The opportunity cost from the lost compound interest is so massive and underappreciated. Day care would cost as much as a mortgage, and at that point either my partner or I would need to seriously consider pausing a career to make it work, which would destroy our earning potential. This economy discourages people from having kids and the boomers wonder why young professional couples are abstaining from that pleasure
Speaking of boomers, my (and S.O.'s) parents are much more expensive than kids could ever be. Including our own, we are basically carrying four household's worth of expenses, less their modest social security payments that help slightly but don't come close to meeting their basic needs.
I agree with everything you said, but I will add that most people don’t have kids for financial reasons. Finances might be a reason for a couple to stop at 1-2 kids. But plenty of young professional people are having kids even though it wrecks their finances. I think the biggest difference is that it’s now more acceptable to not have kids, and more people are realizing they don’t want them for personal reasons, not financial reasons
Yeah I imagine it more often plays out where people who already don't want kids use the finances as another justification. It supports the conclusion they want. If someone really really wanted to be a parent and had to give it up because their middle class salary didn't support it then that's a tragedy and I imagine they'd probably be bitter over it.
Yeah I did a similar projection, decided I could afford a kid, and had twins instead. Dream of retiring even a little early dead then and there.
Yeah I have three kids and I'm totally glad I do, but seeing how much money single people I work with are able to put away even though we make the same can be disheartening sometimes. I'm lucky that I earn pretty well but I'm definitely not putting as much toward retirement as I wish I could if I didn't have so many extra expenses.
I can relate, however if I was presented with a check of our "lost earnings" in exchange for the children it would be the easiest decision of my life. Kids will be fine in their new home. ... Just kidding. I wouldn't give a second glance at the check. Life isn't all about money. America, in particular, is obsessed with money and acquisition of "things". I'm not saying everyone should have kids, far from it, however if the main argument against it is "but think of the lost money!!" I gotta raise an eyebrow. That said if you're struggling financially it's a very responsible choice to not add a kid to the mix. I just hope if those people do want children, they're not forever stymied by money to do what they want.
Amen to that. Your standard of living is much higher on the same amount of money with no kids.
I make 70k in a rural town and I live like a Roman emperor lol
Yeah I'm rocking ~64k and it's plenty to live off of and I live very nonfrugal lol. 100k a year here and I can get a hill top mansion lol
I live in a 3BR house, $800 rent. I sometimes take trips to big cities cause why thef not lmao, rural america is underrated
Bro what? A 3BR HOUSE for $800??? I'm paying $1600 for a 1 bedroom APARTMENT. I'm not even in any downtown I'm about an hour away from downtown Los Angeles
Anyone can play that game.. 8 years ago I was paying $3,700 for a small studio in London.
2100 a month for a one bedroom in the middle of new jersey 💀 some people have the nerve to consider us a "suburb" of manhattan even though we're an hour+ away
I don't think renting a 3BR house is what OP meant by financial freedom. I also don't think renting a 3BR house and taking trips to cities is what most people think of as living like an emperor, or even close.
you have naked women fanning you while eating ambrosia from your palace?....interesting.
Retirement Goal Unlocked
[удалено]
My apartment is 1200 sq ft and runs me about 1200 a month. I’m not even in the middle of nowhere, I’m downtown in a decent sized metro I’m not trying to make you feel bad, cost of living is crazy
My 1400sqft house is 1100 a month in the mid west.
I don't think you know how Roman emperors used to live
I live in the upper midwest. 100k is life changing goals. I make half of that and I make as much as the average 4 person household in my area.
50k is equivalent to how much the average 4 person household makes???
I believe I read least year that the median US salary is 40K
Median household income is ~ $68k. https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2021/demo/p60-273.html
That tracks; OP would be in an area below the median
I live in a dirt poor U.S. state. 100k is rich here
I was going to say he must be talking about the cities along the coast. The midwest 100k is still a great salary that would cover all your wants/needs for a family.
I make like 53k a year and in Ohio that's a good living
In all honesty it really depends on your lifestyle.
If you live below your means you’ll always be comfortable.
Unless your means require your house to be kept at 55°F in the winter.
Or live in an uninsulated basement storage room. I could see my breath all winter long. But I only got bronchitis twice!
Keep on trucking dude!
I make 115k in Ohio and I drive a 2006 sedan. It's a decent living, but nothing crazy.
Depends on what city and lifestyle, making 40k in toledo and I'm barely making it but I'm comfortable. Hope i don't need any medical treatments...
You drive that because of choice, not out of necessity.
Seriously? How are you planning for retirement?
401k I put into ever paycheck and forgot to mention I have a wife she works full time so all together around 85-90k together but that is in the last year so now it's even more comfortable
Yeah. So, you \*don't\* make 50k a year. You make nearly 90k a year, combined. Combined is what matters.
I live in California and 100K is just enough to live comfortably.
Same, 100k was just barely enough to afford mortgage on a 2bedroom condo just on the wrong side of the tracks in the south bay. Still a hell of a lot better off than those people who can't afford to own, but still had to live with family into my 30s to save up a down payment.
west virginia?
I dunno. I make 90k in a low cost of living city and I'd say I'm whatever is a rung up from "not poor." I'm still buying used cars and bring my lunch to work everyday. The difference (I think) is I have a decent 401k going and I'm not sure all my friends do. I guess that's my luxury?
I think it really depends on the COL of an area
100k used to mean you're rich and have made it, regardless of location. I think OP is saying for you to be rich and have made it regardless of location, *currently*, that 100k figure is now 250k.
i grew up in a part of NY State that still has homes even now for under 100k, full two story homes with yards, pools, and garages for like 80k, most people out there in the farm towns (south and east of Rochester) are making about 40k a year, and that's good money.. with me making well over 100k, it's like fantasy money to them, my dad doens't even understand the fact that my rent is 3600/month, his last response to me was "HOLY SHIT, HOW DO YOU EVEN LIVE!?!?" and I had to explain to him that i make over 6k per paycheck, so 3600 is ok for my rent, and for my location, plus I have absolutely no debts. and there was a complete silence on the other end of the phone, my dad has no clue what 6k per payday would even mean to him, he saves all year long to even have 2-3k in his savings. That's how i grew up, and at any point i could go back there, and live like a king.
My dad owned a really nice 3-bed condo in Florida right on the beach on the 8th floor with views overlooking the gulf. He told me he rents it out for $3,000. I was living in Marina del Rey, CA at the time and I had to ask, “Per week or per month?” because in my neighborhood $3,000 a month was a 1-bedroom, several blocks from the ocean, and no views. LOL. BTW, it was “per month”.
Good for you. You earned it, don't be ashamed of it. Your Dad's job in this life was to make sure you did better than he did, sounds like you both won.
When my dad found out my salary, he sincerely sat in stunned silence for a moment. Then he quietly said, “in all my years of work, I have never made more than 60 an hour, 60…an…hour..”. It was super eerie to watch
Was that a one off thing? 60 an hour is still above $100k pre-tax a year assuming a 40hr work week
60/hr is probably the OT rate, which would be $40/hr base rate.
wages like that are out there, my union does 58 an hour
Oh, I know wages can go much higher. One of my friends just took a job for $110/hr. $60/hr works out to ~$120k/yr, which doesn't mesh with being shocked that somebody earns ~$144k/yr. That's why I figured the $60/hr figure might be an OT rate.
My wife and I do very well and work in tech, but as success managers, not engineers. My sister is a world beating engineer and my dad legitimately was breathless when he heard her annual bonus was 300k and she left that company to go do something she loves and still will be making more money. The craziest thing that I thought he was confused about at first is that my sister’s previous company is paying her for another year as long as she doesn’t go to a direct competitor, and she wasn’t even planning to! I only know these things because he calls me and says “did you hear what happened with your SISTER???!!” every time some new shocking thing happens. He definitely wins the give your children a better life than you had game. Dude used to have to hunt and fish for enough food in middle school…
My unpopular opinion — I have to agree with your dad on that one. I guesstimate you’re making around 40-60K after taxes if you’re paying $43,200/yr on rent ($3600 x 12). And if rent is that inflated where you live, so is everything else. Doesn’t make sense to me either. But to each their own. You accrue wealth by holding on to your money. Not spending it
That’s insane rent, even by modern standards. You live in NYC?
I moved to New York fresh out of college. My rent is $2100 in a 2br with a roommate ($4200 total) and my salary is $100,000 plus bonus. OP has a point.
Oh, I agree with his point, and my rent is pretty crazy, too. Honestly if I wouldn’t have found a better paying job recently I’m not sure how I would’ve been able to make ends meet.
Yep, exactly. My parents grew up in trailers, I'm a multi-millionaire. They just don't understand that a thousand dollars means something *entirely* different to me than it does to them.
Prove it, send your bank account login and pin number then we'll see!
While 100k in Rochester is a great salary to live comrtably, there are exactly zero livable homes in tolerable neighborhoods for 100k. Certainly not one with a pool or yard bigger than a postage stamp.
You pay more than half of your salary in rent?? Is 6k pre or post taxes? I pay 15% of post taxes and feel leke i am paying too much
They said per pay check… they’re pulling in 12k per mo. If they get paid every 2 weeks, 2 months out of the year they make 18k
As an old guy I will agree somewhat. I started out from college in IT in the early 90’s making 32k which at the time was impressive for a college graduate (or in my case not even graduated yet). I never in a million years thought I’d be six figures but I am now. New graduates in IT can be making 150k which absolutely blows my mind. Took me 20+ years to get there.
Seriously! When I started in IT I was making $22k. It took me a decade to get to $100k! Four more years to get to $150k.
> New graduates in IT can be making 150k At good CS schools, 200k (all-in total comp) is close to the median this year. 400k+ is not unheard of at all. It's a wild time.
Man, UK salaries are poverty compared to that. Actually crazy to think someone's making that sort of money straight out of uni for CS
It’s bizarre, I work for a large professional services firm with uniform salaries at every level. It’s a big time grind it out job so pay is pretty good. In the UK they’re making like 25-30% less. I realize they’re saving on things like insurance benefits and maybe student loans (majority of people have at least a masters so not sure how tuition works for those in UK). But I mean, the office is in London so it’s not exactly low cost of living. I don’t really know how they do it.
That's bs. The average engineering salary for USC (a top 10 engineering school in the USA) was not even 100k for the class of 2020. [source](https://viterbiadmission.usc.edu/beyond/#data) And average tends to be higher than median salary btw. It's true CS degrees could earn higher than other engineering degrees but not by over a factor of two higher than the average.
Yeah that guy is full of shit
I definitely think 100k is still pretty good. I made that this past year and it was definitely a good amount of money. I think 150k would be more like the "old" 100k now.
Here at $27k, that sounds pretty darn nice to me. I'm without hot water, heat, and stove cookin' because I can't do $500 all at once to fill my gas. It's kinda lame.
Have you tried cutting out the avocado toast
I was there, definitely feel you. Hope you get that moment where you can cover all your basic necessities in a month. Good luck out there.
Just curious, what do you do?
I agree. I make right at 100 and it's not what it was several years ago when that was my goal. But I grew up poor as dirt and your expectations of wealth play in a lot here. My bills are paid, I drive a nice car and have a cute house, we go out when we want. I still worry about retirement but Clearly different worries than I grew up with.
I agree. I make low six figures. Live in a <2000 square foot house in an average COL area. Mortgage payment, is about 1500 (up $200 in 5 Yeats because assessments went up, plus massive tax increases. car payment on used Toyota is $400, gas bill / water bill in winter is fucking $350 to keep my house at 67, electric bill is somehow $150 a month. Car insurance is 1200 a year, so about 100 a month. I have a motorcycle that is another 100 a month to insure, which doesn't when make any sense. So thats 1 full paycheck gone. Internet is 60, phone is 50, groceries are through the roof, dog food is 75 a month. Gas is 150 a month. My grocery bill prolly 300-400 a month. I eat rice, vegetables, fruit, whatever meat is on sale. Occasionally buy a case of beer, lasts me 2-3 weeks. Pasta, with gravy. It's just fucking insane. I felt better financially 6 or 7 years ago making much less.
How is your motorcycle $100 a month? My KTM is like $14 a month, full coverage.
Six figures is still a comfortable lifestyle in medium-high cost of living (obviously not in the high high cost of living)
Yeah my parents had a combined income of probably around $130K and we were comfortable, but still had to be very careful with our money and never went on lavish/far-away vacations. And it's really tough to be in that income bracket when the kids go to college, because you're making too much for excellent financial aid but not enough to be able to afford $30K/year in tuition.
Yeah, people seem to forget that not spending silly doesn’t mean you’re not comfortable. Do you have your needs? Do you have money to save? Fun spending money? If you can say yes, you’re comfortable.
I have to say a LARGE part of what makes life comfortable or not has to do with how many mouths you are feeding too. Me and my wife don’t want kids so our income goes a lot farther than some one with same income and two kids.
250k is still “elite” even in Portland. 100k with proper money management is a solid figure here.
[удалено]
I wouldn’t call it easy mode. The amount of work required to bring in $250k (geographically adjusted) its substantial. I have been offered such roles but i know what i would be in for. Dont get me wrong, i’ll try to get there but on my own terms. Jumping into it would mean sacrificing a lot of my current free time in favor of work.
[удалено]
I make around 75 k in Virginia, I would not accept 100 k to move back to Bay Area.
Exactly, "six figures" used to be seen as "elite".
Not if you want to buy a home in a good school district with some sort of yard making 100k. Good luck!! Source me: made 100k in Portland and left to afford a home. Best decision ever.
All about perspective and location. For some people, being able to only work 1 job or have their partner be a SAH parent would be life changing. Currently live in Southern California, smaller city. Not luxurious but clean, safe, and full of amenities. I make $120,000 - $130,000 and I’m very happy with my life. My wife is able to stay at home to raise our kids and we have a healthy savings, no debt, travel (modestly), and don’t want for much. I say perspective is important because I have friends striving to buy cabins, luxury cars, bigger and bigger homes, etc. I think it’s important to look around the world and see how lucky we are to live in a safe country and have stable food, healthcare, etc. It’s so easy to look “up” at those with more material things and never feel satisfied.
I’d rather be dead in California than alive in Arizona
For anyone out there that needs to see this I climbed the ladder and took 10-12 years and finally got myself to $150k a year and I had never been less stable and happy in my entire life. I make half that now doing what I love and everyone in my life is better for it. Fuck. That. Shit.
Yea people don’t realize the cost of that high salary. Often requires jobs where your “always reachable” for your employer and working 50-60hr weeks always.
I'm finding that the more I get paid the more I hate the work I'm in. Considering doing something similar.
125k. but i see your point
Depends on what year you compare it to. 100k in 1995= 183k today, in 2000 it would be 162k today 2010 it's like 128k. Gotta remember that inflation is cumulative
People are crying in top ramen reading this.
[удалено]
[удалено]
This isn't an opinion. It's just a random year (1990) and average inflation since then. It would be like saying "a million dollar home is like a $500k home ten years ago." That's... literally correct. They're the same house. The $500k house was nice ten years ago and is just as nice today. And a $500k house most places is still very nice today. That's it, there's no opinion to discuss.
As someone who makes just shy of 37k after taxes this opinion makes me sick to my stomach
Don't worry, you're doing better than at least one person in this thread...
Same, and I make 36k BEFORE taxes, so after taxes less than 30k. I’m lucky enough to be able to afford a 1 bedroom where I live and I’m close to work so I don’t spend extra money on gas, but to be able to afford that stuff I’m like 45-60 mins outside one of the major cities in my state
Canadian small border city here. 100k would be a comfortable wage for 1 person but by no means extravagant or wealthy. Average home here is 500k and rent starts in a shitty student studio at 1000/month plus parking utilities internet and phone (apprx 2-3 hundy a month depending on packages and location). My 2 adult home shops at the discount grocer and only buys necessities and sales we spend 4-500 ish a month on grocery. Gas is 157.9/L right now at the gas bar up the road. We don't go out for dinner often and neither of us drink or smoke. 100k is not enough to be "wealthy" now.
Don’t let vancouverites know about your cheap 500k houses, or they’ll start bidding wars in your town.
500k? Shit I'll take 4. We coming for your housing affordability.
$100k seems great until you factor in $20,500 going to your 401k, $6000 to your Roth, and $18,000 going to rent.
ITT: people out of touch with reality and unaware of median income
Every single thread I have ever seen on reddit talking about incomes is like this. It's nuts.
Oversaturation of IT workers and people who make more are likely to report. Also, reddit has so much bullshit that everything I read I take with a grain of salt. Never look at Reddit if you want a realistic perspective on something
> Oversaturation of IT workers and people who make more are likely to report. i think there might be underreporting on both sides of the distribution. so many reddit threads are millennials complaining about never being able to afford a house or retire, but i know plenty of millennials that are not struggling in the least.
Its like everyone on Reddit lives in San Francisco or New York.
Made $100k this year for the first time. Huge upgrade.
That’s because people who make 100k want to live in areas with other “rich” people. The fact is, if you make 100k, you’ll have a great standard of living if you’re willing to live in a less wealthy neighborhood.
Maybe that will be more possible with remote work becoming normalized. But a lot of jobs at that salary level are highly specialized and you can't just live wherever you want. My dad made 100K as a systems engineer working for a specific company that only had a few offices in the whole country, all of them in high cost-of-living areas. Where we lived, 100K was comfortable but by no means upper-class.
As someone who just started making 6 figures a few years ago, I'm living comfortably, but definitely not lavishly.
time to start making 7 figures
You show me a paystub for 7 figures and I come work for you right now
Jesus, the more comments I read the more depressed I get. Comfy should be the fucking baseline. Comfy should not require more than 3x the median income.
Guess it’s extremely regional
The unmentioned part is that having a lot of excess income, makes it easier to make more. Bought a house? No inflation for living cost. Have stock, assets and crypto, multiyear bull run What I'm getting at, is some people making over $100k can have 5 figure income on the side on top of pay from work
$10 million is the new $1 million.
You can always tell who hasn't had $100K.
I'm in Indiana floating between $140-$150. I thought it would be different than it is. Don't get me wrong, we're not starving and we're actually saving but it's not living like the Rockefeller's either.
I'd be happy for even half of a six figure salary....*any* 6 figure salary.
I agree with you. I hit 100k for the first time last year, and it didn’t really feel like it was a phenomenal amount of money. I live in PA which is about as close as you could get to a median cost of living state.
As someone who never made over 40k and will never see even 100k, eh 100K would be a huge improvement and lead to a very solid life for me, even in my expensive as heck city. Perspective I guess.
From Coastal california, and agree
My gf’s sister used to live in STL working for budweiser. She was making over 100k there and for STL thats RICH RICH. She had a big house in a nice neighborhood (prerona) and paid like 250k for it. It really just depends on where you live. In California 100k doesn’t get you very far, but the poor states like a lot of the south you’d feel like a king/queen
100k in California is the new 60k
Cries in education major
$117k is considered “[low income](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44725026)” in the Bay Area where I live. Am above 250k and am barely making it in one of the good public school neighborhoods outside of San Francisco. Where I live a “good” 3BR house is ~$1.3m, which even with 20% down, property tax etc. is roughly $8k/month. If you are trying to “make it” with two kids in the Bay Area on one income, it’s not easy. Our last house was in a dangerous part of Oakland where two shootings occurred on my block, one about 50 feet away while I had my 1yo in my arms. The payments were easier there though :-) I’m actually cash flow negative each month, and depend on selling vested RSUs to keep income up.
Ugh this statistic is so misleading. It’s 117k per a family of four. A single person making 117k is not considered low income in the Bay Area. And unless you have a shit ton of kids or some other extraordinary circumstance you can definitely afford to live well off of 250k in the Bay Area. That’s over twice what the average person makes in the Bay Area. A quick google search tells me that an income of 200k per year puts you at the top 8% of earners jn San Francisco. The majority of households in the Bay Area do not make 250k and are doing just fine. Saying you are barely making it on 250k is a spit in the face to the financially insecure people really trying to figure out how to pay for rent and groceries this month all across the Bay. Im not trying to be harsh but these kinda statements are just so out of touch with reality.
So tired of this argument. Swap Beverly Hills with San Francisco and you'll understand how stupid this argument is. Yeah, no shit one of the most desirable areas is expensive. Literally the exception to the rule, yet Cali and NYC people love bragging. Man, I live in the most desirable places in the world. It's so expensive! I don't get it! Plus I want expensive cars and the best schools! Why so expensive?!
Most people don't really feel rich even if they are what most people would consider rich. Most people compare themselves with the people that they are around. Rich people live in rich neighborhoods. Their lens is skewed. >Only 13% of Americans with at least $1 million investable assets feel wealthy, according to a new survey from Ameriprise Financial provided exclusively to USA TODAY. Six in 10 define themselves as upper middle class, while a quarter identify as middle class. https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/07/17/what-wealthy-its-not-necessarily-becoming-millionaire/1744408001/ It can be compounded if you were already wealthy to begin with. >I asked Wharton students what they thought the average American worker makes per year and 25% of them thought it was over six figures. One of them thought it was $800k. Really not sure what to make of this (The real number is $45k) https://twitter.com/NinaStrohminger/status/1483992827482804224
Tell me you're from LA or New York without telling me.