It is tough barely squeaking by on 400K a year

According to the Wall Street Journal 400K a year ain't all that it is cracked up to be!

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/11/wall-street-journal-video-400000_n_5805998.html

First of all slice that in half after income taxes. Take a mortgage for probably a million dollar house (a nice house but not a palace in California), add it 20,000 of property taxes, college funds, payments to SEP's or retirement funds, and other costs of living and you are not living as glamorous of a life as some think you may. Mind you, you still have a nice life, but you are not necessarily a jet setter.

It's all about your expectations and how you choose to live. I am sure I would put the authors of that article into a blubbering fit of indignation. Yet I have at no time in my life "felt broke", even when I was.

It is not what you earn, but how much you spend......something our local, state, and federal governments just don't get!

The housing estimate is correct for a family in SF or NYC, and a bit high for LA(unless job is on the Westside). It's ridiculous in the Midwest.

The vacation, restaurant, and car estimates are insane.

$400k is a very high income no matter where. You have to have very out of whack life expectations to believe a $400k income means you pay $1000 per month in car payments and $2k per month eating out.

Monthly payments for a luxury car could easily be $1,000. If you are leasing they could still be 600 to 900. $2,000 eating out is very possible if you are eating out two to three times a week at nice restaurants.

$1000 a month is a pretty low estimate for a luxury car. Think about it a car that cost 60k with 50k financed for 4 years is over 1k a month. It is very easy to spend 80k on a luxury car these days.

The old saying is true, the more you make, the more you spend.

My point in posting this was that it got me to thinking how out of whack the people on Wall Street are. These are the guys that will go out and spend $1000.00 on dinner and drinks think it is normal.

This is the same bunch whose bonuses averaged $165,000 last year (a 15%) increase. Most American families don't even have a family income of 165k.

I don't begrudge anyone getting paid all they can get, even an athlete making 10 million a year who can't hit his weight, but don't be spending 25k a year on vacations, 10k a year on kids sports and 12k a year on club dues and tell me you feel broke. Give me an effing break.

Costs of everything keep going up, up, up. The Vietnamese lady who does my pedicures just increased her prices.

Damn I had better hurry up and get mine done in a hurry. We are going on a cruise next week and I want my tootsies to look good in flip flops.

You can easily hit $1mil or more in certain areas of Ohio for a house.

I recall paying about $180/month for a $10k car @0%APR so that's $50k, which is rather cheap for a luxury car.