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What salary would you consider sufficient to live comfortably?
- Thread starter ShamePain
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WolfForager
Member
I'm on 37K (Net) a year and have all my accommodation + transport costs paid for. Been told it's pretty good for someone whose just turned 24 and less than a year out of college.
Living pretty damn comfortably and saving a good bit too.
Living pretty damn comfortably and saving a good bit too.
Phat Michael
Banned
i guess it also all depends on what people define as "living comfortably" - i think living comfortably is an absence of debt and the ability to basically buy anything that isnt a mansion or an expensive car without a loan and without having to budget for it.
this is an important point.
I'd argue I live more comfortably now than when I lived on my own in a basement flat with no dependents. But my income then was way lower. It all scales as you and your responsibilities grow, and also what your life view is regarding material possessions and what is 'enough'
Sparrowhawk
Member
I work at a gas station making chump change and am pretty comfortable. Of course, if I were making more money I'd be far more comfortable, but I can't complain. I have tons of games, eat good food, and have a roof over my head. It also helps that even though my job doesn't pay much, they provide me with insurance.
Theonik
Member
Precisely. It's a very nuanced discussion for this very reason.
There's a lot more than mansions and cars that add up.
Take for example house renovations. That can REALLY add up.
This.
I'm going to have a kitchen reno done (next year probably), and I could probably buy multiple vehicles for what it will cost.
burnside13
Member
My idea of living comfortably is knowing how far I can live if I was to fall out of employment and how much money I will have in retirement
Theonik
Member
To a person earning 20 or less it is. I have noticed GAF has a lot of college students and people working retail.
Lifestyles actually scale a lot with income increases and so do income expectations.
Im going to say 40k as well, even though I make more than triple that. Though this would be if I didn't travel but you could even make that work in some places.
I lived in San Francisco for a number of years building up income until deciding to sell or donate everything and just freelance while not really have a permanent home. I mostly visit friends and family in various cities for extended periods and trek to a studio back in TN when I have to work extensively.
I lived in San Francisco for a number of years building up income until deciding to sell or donate everything and just freelance while not really have a permanent home. I mostly visit friends and family in various cities for extended periods and trek to a studio back in TN when I have to work extensively.
DoktorEvil
Banned
Expectations >! Reality.
Paying health and dental insurance is expensive. Paying for home renovations or major surgery is expensive. Paying for things that being young takes for advantage isn't cheap.
PistolGrip
sex vacation in Guam
I used to think 200K pretax was what I needed. Now that I make close to 300K, due to taxes and other cost (mortgage, car, wife!), I hardly have any money left.
Byakuya769
Member
My family is good at 260k, besides us not being able to buy a house anytime soon.
PistolGrip
sex vacation in Guam
Look into FHA. You don't need 20%
Phat Michael
Banned
I don't think this can be true unless you are living seriously outside your means.
DoktorEvil
Banned
A very good option for most people. However, I'm not sure buying a brownstone/house in a major metropolitan area such as NYC/LA/SF is a good idea unless you can afford to put 20% down.
Byakuya769
Member
Yep. And I'm not returning to that driving everywhere lifestyle.
Ray Wonder
Founder of the Wounded Tagless Children
I think $70k would be good for me.
LoveCake
Member
It depends on how much work you have to put in to get that salary, no good saying $200k a year net is enough if you are working 70hrs a week, or is it no work at all & just receive the salary gratis?
As i am now i could live with the salary i get currently but without actually doing the work, otherwise if i am having to do a normal weeks hours say 40hrs then $1m a year.
As i am now i could live with the salary i get currently but without actually doing the work, otherwise if i am having to do a normal weeks hours say 40hrs then $1m a year.
Not a Jellyfish
but I am a sheep
100k, with student loan debt and being newly weds living in MA (who taxes the hell out of everything), this is the minimum.
not even half way there :/
Nappuccino
Member
The question isn't "what salary would you live at to attain a specific lifestyle and have no cares in the world."
The question is "what salary would you live sufficiently." It's not being pedantic to answer that question differently, accordingly.
Currently I've been living on < 10,000 and next year I'll have about double what I do now. Thanks Gradschool/PhD.
Nealand Liquor
Member
My wife and I combined earn well over 150k, but we still live paycheque to paycheque. Having a mortgage, two car payments (nothing close to luxury cars btw), insurance home & car, private school for two boys, sports, before/after school care, groceries, utilities and everything else, we're still just barely making it.
Funny to think we earn 200% more now than when we first were married, but back then we felt we had all the money in the world.
Funny to think we earn 200% more now than when we first were married, but back then we felt we had all the money in the world.
ChanDangle
Member
because I don't want to work full time and enjoy my life but for real $40k is enough to live comfortably IMO
travisbickle
Member
you're stretching the term "paycheque to paycheque" here. You're practically saying after I spend my wages on an upper-middle class lifestyle like a house, private education, cars and insurance I have little money left over
AstroNut325
Member
Get ready for an onslaught. Neogaf can't process such statements. Good luck.
And BTW, I agree.
David Incorporated Esq.
Member
You're paying for a lot of stuff. You're not "living" paycheck to paycheck, you're "doing pretty dang well" paycheck to paycheck.
Where does all the money go?! Oh yeah all my nice stuff and my children's private education. All that stuff that people poorer than me don't have. That's where it goes.
I don't mean to call you out, but people with good incomes complaining about paying for all the very nice things they have is pretty tone deaf. If you consumed what the average family making $50k did, you'd be flush with cash. You've just chosen to reallocate that cash to other things.
This is a good point as well.
My wife is close to making partner at her firm, so her income (while already good) will stand to improve quite a bit in the future. That being said, she routinely works 70+ hours a week, and is currently on a three week business trip (to two locations) which means I am caring for our two sons on my own. I can manage, but it is not an easy task and I sometimes wonder if it is worth it.
Nappuccino
Member
People need to learn not to over-spend. Just because you make 140k doesn't mean you need that complete middle-class lifestyle--and then get to complain about not having money to do it. Not to mention that is getting more expensive every year.
PipefishUK
Banned
Pay cheque to pay cheque is -
You lose your job or your pay is delayed = you can't eat/you can't get to work/etc.
But, if you had a big cut in wages or lost your job at 300,000, whilst it wouldn't be nice - I'm sure you could just send one of the cars back or send your kids to a regular school, get a smaller house? And be OK.
At that level of salary, it's unlikely that if you did lose your job you wouldn't be paid off somehow and it's unlikely that you'd have too much trouble finding another job relatively fast.
I have nothing against people working hard and earning a lot - but a bit of perspective
Also, I know in some circumstances you may be instantly bollocksed (from 300k) - but you'd have to be pretty bad at money management for that to happen.
Working for myself in property. By the time that much is coming in I can stop actively working and let it come in through rent, interest etc.
D
Deleted member 59090
Unconfirmed Member
$24k/year after taxes would be more than enough.
My friend is a foreman or something for the power company. He is single, no kids, 34 years old, and makes $200k a year. He only works about 9 months out of the year. That son of a bitch was complaining about money to me on Facebook. Some people are never satisfied.
The more money you have, the more you tend to spend without thinking about it.
For me, I would say $120k pretax would be fine. I live in the Bay Area so it's pretty shitty for me. I would love to move out if I could find a job in another state.
Marty Chinn
Member
$40k wouldn't cut it in the Bay Area, so it's extremely location dependent. Plus honestly, I don't think at $40k people are planning properly for retirement, investments, having money available for a lapse of employment, emergencies and so forth. That may be fine for day to day short term, but I have a hard time believing it's appropriately viable for long term financial stability.
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