tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14245531.post3021302137399583807..comments2023-11-18T01:21:55.631-05:00Comments on My Open Wallet: Trying to Be Middle-Class on $500kMadame Xhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11536189690094235926noreply@blogger.comBlogger31125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14245531.post-67044594016569618402009-09-30T13:29:09.060-04:002009-09-30T13:29:09.060-04:00Even taking into account higher pay in NY, I think...Even taking into account higher pay in NY, I think the cost of living is much cheaper here in Houston, TX. My husband is a middle school teacher and I do glorified office work. We are 26 years old and make about $75,000 jointly a year, live a solid middle class lifestyle (house, fast food, restaurants, cars, etc.), and save more than 25% of our money between a pension plan, 401k, Roth IRA, and stock. Could we live the same kind of life by teaching and working in a cubicle in NY? It doesn't sound like it, but it also doesn't sound like New Yorkers even want that kind of life...it seems to balance out in the end. <br /><br />BUT, $500,000 a year, even working 100 hour weeks, is almost $100 an hour ($96.15)...isn't that alot even in NYC?Crystalnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14245531.post-69805062809758322952009-03-29T21:08:00.000-04:002009-03-29T21:08:00.000-04:00About the idea that it is "crazy" for a family of ...About the idea that it is "crazy" for a family of 4 to live in a city...I disagree. There is so much that a city has to offer children, such as cultural opportunities. Would you drive 3 hours to take your kids to a world-class museum? How often--once a year? What about ethnic diversity? Don't you think it is good to show kids that there are all kinds of people in the country, with different foods and beliefs and customs? I do.Walter Wind Chillnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14245531.post-8505359571994413552009-03-29T21:05:00.000-04:002009-03-29T21:05:00.000-04:00Thanks for the article. I enjoy reading blogs and...Thanks for the article. I enjoy reading blogs and books on personal finance but am dismayed that most are geared to suburbanites. I live in the great city of Chicago, which, while not nearly as expensive as NYC, is still expensive compared to lots of other places in the US. I figure that the saving grace is that I don't need a car. My monthly transit pass is currently $86 (though may go up in a few months). And I get to buy it with pretax dollars, so it really costs me 25% less than that.<BR/><BR/>It would be interesting to see a spreadsheet comparing normal living costs in a dozen or so different cities.Windy Citizennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14245531.post-17264578749936746772009-02-19T15:33:00.000-05:002009-02-19T15:33:00.000-05:00agreed, but everyone should have at least a one ye...agreed, but everyone should have at least a one year fund, preferably two, rather than buying $15 Chocotinis every weekend.<BR/><BR/>Fake it til you make it has got ushere.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14245531.post-86991212368266829632009-02-18T17:30:00.000-05:002009-02-18T17:30:00.000-05:00The "6 months" emergency fund advice was another n...<I>The "6 months" emergency fund advice was another nugget of stupidity, as we can now plainly see.</I><BR/>For many americans under 25 and those who make very little, 6 months emergency fund was better than nothing.matt williamshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14336864718324358033noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14245531.post-8379173696367298952009-02-18T16:15:00.000-05:002009-02-18T16:15:00.000-05:00up until this year I was saving 40% of take home n...up until this year I was saving 40% of take home normally, including 401k contributions, which now as we all know I shouldnt have made. but of course, the conventional wisdom, like the Suze Ormans and Carme Wong Ulrichs of the world advised everyone to do so. I hope that the least to come out of this is that people realize that those folks care zero about you. they care about making money for themselves.<BR/><BR/>In fairness, I did buy another property in 1004 which I then sold in 2006 for a $150,000 tax free gain. I put don $20,000 on it, or10% because at the time its what i could afford. I then plowed some of that ash into my house and a rental property in 2008, wen I though incorrectly that the housing market was bottoming. <BR/><BR/>Now I collect $405 per week, soon to be $430 per week I understand, in UE and run a deficit of roughly $3000 per month and daytrade (poorly) to scrape together some income.<BR/><BR/>One thing I will say is that when I bought my properties, I calculated what it would take to have rougly a 5 year emergency fund in cash in caseI got canned, which I did (for economic reasons). Yes, 5 years. The "6 months" emergency fund advice was another nugget of stupidity, as we can now plainly see.<BR/><BR/>I am not immune to being on the street any more than the guy next door or my former secretary. That is the attutue that I think was lost on many folks in the years leading up to this debacle.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14245531.post-90288105735456972582009-02-18T04:20:00.000-05:002009-02-18T04:20:00.000-05:00Thanks for the response, Anon @ 1:20 pm.How much w...Thanks for the response, Anon @ 1:20 pm.<BR/><BR/>How much were you able to save per year? $/% etc.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14245531.post-51598819581660234702009-02-17T13:20:00.000-05:002009-02-17T13:20:00.000-05:00I am/was a wall street lawyer. Simple. I saved e...I am/was a wall street lawyer. Simple. I saved every dime I made. The only thing I spent money on outside investments was discretionary. Now I spend no money on discretionary expenditures. The absence of discretionary expenditures affects me very little. Thats why its discretionary. I have a rental property which is paid for by the renter. I am dipping into savings to pay my mortgage but I have substantial savings and thus it is not currently affecting me. Of course I cannot retire so i will need another job before long however I bought a house in NJ on a cheap block and can pay for it with a job making $65000 a year.<BR/><BR/>Fr years, everyone always said oh, put down at least 20% on a house or more. IMHO that is the worst advice ayone could take. If you cannot aford th payments on a house with 10% down, you should not buy that house. Minimum equity contribution is they key to prosperity, but it must be done correctly. Now those folks who put down 20% on their houses in the last 2-3 years have no equity. I refer to risk 10% equity rather than 20% equity.<BR/><BR/>Buying a house you cannot afford is your fault, not a bank's fault, no matter how predatory the banks are/were. Come on. These folk knew or should have known that they could not afford those houses.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14245531.post-59077918262909009182009-02-16T19:34:00.000-05:002009-02-16T19:34:00.000-05:00Anon @ 7:02 PM,Care to describe what you did befor...Anon @ 7:02 PM,<BR/><BR/>Care to describe what you did before and after work-wise?<BR/><BR/>What about where you stay?<BR/><BR/>Some more color so we can understand how your quality of life remains the same on one tenth the income.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14245531.post-44559428293594944282009-02-16T19:32:00.000-05:002009-02-16T19:32:00.000-05:00Laura,Sorry, your argument is daft.Just make two p...Laura,<BR/><BR/>Sorry, your argument is daft.<BR/><BR/>Just make two people work half the number of hours instead of paying a single person ten to hundred times as much.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14245531.post-25828527349098998842009-02-16T19:02:00.000-05:002009-02-16T19:02:00.000-05:00I made $310,000 and $205,000 in 2008. I now earn ...I made $310,000 and $205,000 in 2008. I now earn $405 per week (roughly $20,000).<BR/><BR/>Apart from paying my mortgage, my standard of living is the same.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14245531.post-80600852660538991182009-02-16T11:33:00.000-05:002009-02-16T11:33:00.000-05:00To clarify my position: it's not that I don't thin...To clarify my position: it's not that I don't think executives make a ton of money... it's that I think without that kind of incentive, no one in their right mind would want to spend hours toiling over spreadsheets and financials. Without the promise of a big reward, why make that kind of life sacrifice? I have plenty of friends who are in banking (not execs though) just for a few years - their plan is to basically have no life now in exchange for retiring in 5 years to enjoy themselves later. Quite a trade off (and not one that I was willing to make, which is why I had no interest in i-banking), and one that unfortunately has not been a good gamble due to the collapse of the former i-banking model. But if someone told them they had to work all those hours and get paid a "normal" salary, they'd be out of there in a heartbeat. It's just not worth it.Laurahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17100746061554733157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14245531.post-60206654361049682032009-02-16T11:25:00.000-05:002009-02-16T11:25:00.000-05:00I think the cost to survive in NYC is all relative...I think the cost to survive in NYC is all relative. You can live in NYC and not live in Manhattan. There are places in the outer boroughs that can get you to lower Manhattan for work in under an hour. These are places that are going to be wayyyyyy cheaper in terms of rent and or mortgage. <BR/><BR/>The parking garage would be $150 and not $300. I live in one of the outer boroughs, and with my car I have no problems finding parking. There are areas around me where you can get a huge house and not have your mortgage be that high. Then you will have a driveway which eliminates the need for the parking garage. <BR/><BR/>In reference to Laura's comment on executive pay, most of these guys are rediculously overpaid. It does not matter how many hours you work, alot of them are overpaid.Tired of being brokehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02026029030939029254noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14245531.post-61655045862820811202009-02-12T20:19:00.000-05:002009-02-12T20:19:00.000-05:00I call bullshit on the 'lots of hours = higher pay...I call bullshit on the 'lots of hours = higher pay' argument for finance people. Plenty of people work huge numbers of hours and are constantly on call. What matters is value created, and how many hours you work or do not is absolutely irrelevant. As a whole finance has created trillions of dollars of negative value in the last few years, and should be compensated accordingly. Also, in normal companies your pay depends on how well the company does -- everyone is not a lone gun, so the argument that just some other department caused the problem, while yours was profitable, also doesn't hold water. At a normal company, if the marketing department does well but the technology department causes it to crash, everybody loses. If you want to be paid as lone gun, go work for yourself.Leehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12026426700872813445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14245531.post-51539852666728458412009-02-12T15:10:00.000-05:002009-02-12T15:10:00.000-05:00Isn't a smaller living space and no car just part ...Isn't a smaller living space and no car just part of living in a denser city? I just don't think it's that good of a comparison because you may be able to get a lot more for you money in Houston but... you're living in Houston. I'm not saying that NYC isn't overpriced but a lot of the amenities you're paying for aren't tangible. I pay extra for my small apartment and forgo a car because I have different values than the folk living in the suburbs.Emily C.https://www.blogger.com/profile/02962010381151505702noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14245531.post-49370802847106468302009-02-12T09:06:00.000-05:002009-02-12T09:06:00.000-05:00Chad, I think it makes perfect sense to judge peop...Chad, I think it makes perfect sense to judge people on what they produce, but I also think that the products of financial institutions take a LOT of time to produce, and therefore the people who make them should be compensated accordingly. I don't think it's at all accurate to say that the financial crisis is a result of overpaid executives sitting around doing nothing... or even having evil intentions. Sure, there are some greedy jerks out there, but I think it was a result of misspeculation across a lot of industries and people.Laurahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17100746061554733157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14245531.post-26734249743869978282009-02-12T07:30:00.000-05:002009-02-12T07:30:00.000-05:00@ LauraFinance executives are over paid. I don't ...@ Laura<BR/>Finance executives are over paid. I don't care how many hours someone works. I only care what they produce. In our current situation, we would have been better off if all the finance "professionals" would have stayed home and just collected their foolishly large paychecks. At least then they wouldn't have done all this damage. <BR/><BR/>I was an accountant who used to audit financial institutions, so it's not like I have no experience in this situation.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14245531.post-66014435826165198702009-02-11T22:15:00.000-05:002009-02-11T22:15:00.000-05:00One last thing - salaries in smaller cities like H...One last thing - salaries in smaller cities like Houston are NOT half the salary of New York jobs. At my old job (which was entry level, so it's easy to compare), the difference between a first tier salary city (New York, LA, San Fran, Boston, Chicago - all of which are clearly not equal either) and a second tier salary city (Dallas, Atlanta, Cleveland, etc) was only about 8%.Laurahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17100746061554733157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14245531.post-59943111465189731842009-02-11T22:13:00.000-05:002009-02-11T22:13:00.000-05:00Thank you SO MUCH for this! I've been really frust...Thank you SO MUCH for this! I've been really frustrated with hearing all the reports of people saying boo hoo to the execs making $500K, because I genuinely think that in NYC, it's pretty fair. Not just from the cost perspective that you talked about, but also from a value perspective. My boyfriend is an associate at a bank, and he typically puts in 70-100 hours/week - it basically equates to a ridiculously low hourly wage if you were to calculate it. Without the promise of a high salary in the future, no one in their right mind would work in finance.<BR/><BR/>I used to work in consulting before I got laid off, and it was always interesting to me to see how ridiculously tough people thought MY job was... and I was only working about 60 hours a week! The finance world is really demanding, and I think until you've worked in it, you can't judge how much it's worth. I'd love to see some of the people who currently work strict 9-5s (with NO Blackberries going off on Saturday evenings telling you that you have to come into the office immediately!) switch to the financial services lifestyle, and THEN tell me executives are overpaid.<BR/><BR/>My rant is over - I'm happy to listen to others' opinions :)Laurahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17100746061554733157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14245531.post-32402690986498479302009-02-11T22:12:00.000-05:002009-02-11T22:12:00.000-05:00If you are looking to do any advertising for your ...If you are looking to do any advertising for your website, check it out <A HREF="http://bankfinancerate.com" REL="nofollow">reading this</A> NY cost of living is high compared to most states in the USAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14245531.post-24932033480641551372009-02-10T21:39:00.000-05:002009-02-10T21:39:00.000-05:00However, if you do move further out from the City,...However, if you do move further out from the City, you no long have to pay NYC tax. All in, esp. given the cost savings in terms of cost of living, I would say it's a wash to a net positive moving out of the City. Of course, everyone's mileage will vary.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14245531.post-34147353994047370312009-02-10T20:47:00.000-05:002009-02-10T20:47:00.000-05:00Cost of living is more expensive in NYC than Houst...Cost of living is more expensive in NYC than Houston, but the Times implies that the bank executive lifestyle was unavoidable, just part of the job. That is false, and a lot of the upper class is going to find out firsthand that nannies, drivers, vacations, and gala dresses are optional.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14245531.post-53712305748577450152009-02-10T20:07:00.000-05:002009-02-10T20:07:00.000-05:00That's why I stay in Chicago. Chicago has much of ...That's why I stay in Chicago. Chicago has much of the same options as NYC, but people making between $60-$120k/yr can live in a nice, desirable city neighborhood, for a reasonable price. I'm ok getting my theater with the second run cast. I can afford to fly to NY if it's that important!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14245531.post-11442122784785020952009-02-10T17:35:00.000-05:002009-02-10T17:35:00.000-05:00Your movie figures are bad -- it costs about the s...Your movie figures are bad -- it costs about the same to go to the movies.<BR/><BR/>However, the popcorn and every other food product in the entire city will be cheaper. A lot.DogAteMyFinanceshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02571124283388079010noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14245531.post-72184904865899651532009-02-10T15:26:00.000-05:002009-02-10T15:26:00.000-05:00Well said EB.Well said EB.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com