Breadwinner
Clackport
Washington
This is a little off topic, but in today's society what is considered a good salary for a man that has a wife and kids? Basically the man is the breadwinner in this situation.
I was thinking six figures, but then I saw the percentage of people making six figures isn't very high, so I don't know.
Thoughts?
I was thinking six figures, but then I saw the percentage of people making six figures isn't very high, so I don't know.
Thoughts?
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I grew up in the 1950's and 1960's when most wives did not work (outside the home), and I was always the principal breadwinner for my wife and children. I was able to provide a nice life for my family and send my children to college. Not everybody is so lucky.
To put it another way, way back in the day, my starting salary after college exceeded my 4 years tuition COMBINED. Today, a college graduate's starting salary equals 1 to 1.5 years of tuition (with a few exceptions).. Anticipate 20 years of depressed housing values as the next generation of wage earners will NOT be able to afford what we are going to want to sell. A million dollars is NOT a million dollars. Millionaire's (in other words, those with $1 M net worth) will soon be defined as middle class, if they aren't already.
Inflation is a mother fucker.
The point of the above discussion is that our life style in DC would cost almost double what it would in SC.
@pensionking- that's interesting you say $250,000 is the new $100,000. I know a few Pharmacists that are probably making around 150K, but yet they work 2 jobs, 70 hours a week, just to be able to provide for their family.
I agree $250K is a very workable gross income for a family of 4 where you can take family vacations, have nice cars which are maintained, adequate medical care, and money left over for eating out a lot and strippers on the side..
http://humourspot.com/wp-content/uploads…
Only in the Mid-Atlantic Megapolis, Miami, ATL, and the Left Coast, does it take $250,000, or more, to live comfortably and enjoy extra entertainments. When you can buy a very nice home for $150,000, and purchase groceries for those four people with less than $500 a month, then it IS possible to live the dream on $70,000 a year. And than can be done in over 80% of this country. It does take actual brainpower and an education, but for most of this country, life can be pretty good with less than $100,000 a year.
You certainly don't need 250K a year seeing as how only a few percent of households bring in that kind of money.
Some of the variables that and the hardest to deal with are housing costs and property taxes. State taxes also come into play as some states have very little or none at all.
For example, my yearly property taxes are less than what a friend of mine pays for in New Jersey for one month. My house would be worth $100,000 less if it was located in the next county.
Best place to compare all of this is here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_…
According to US Census data (2010):
Roughly 21% of United States households make $100,000 or more annually. The interesting part of this is that the vast majority of these households, both husband and wife are workers.
I live in "flyover country" and I was skimming through the classifieds at lunch today and there was a large "Help Wanted" ad for production workers in a well known factory. $10,50 per hour. Sure, I bet the guy that takes that job struggles to make ends meet, but he's making it on far less than 250k per year.
You guys sound like some of the strippers I talk to. One veteran told me she made $150k in her best year. I believe it -- she was a workaholic. But then she listed her expenses. She was spending over $600 per month just on cable TV. $500 a month on phones for her houseful of teenaged kids. She bought her babydaddy a Mercedes.
None of those things are necessary. She could cut her cable and phone bill to less than $100 per month each.
BJ $120, FS $200. Maybe I should relocate to TJ. LOL
http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2014…
Guess RickyBoy and I can relax now knowing we don't have to be Gordon Gekkos to be doing alright.
I thought I read in South Carolina, the medium family income was in the 50k range. If you're not wasting your money, you can live pretty decent on that at least in my local area. Some people waste money like crazy and then don't seem to understand why they have money problems. I bet my older brother, married used to make 6 figures before medical issues forced his retirement and yet he always seemed to have money problems with his wife spending money like a drunk stripper. Meanwhile I bet only five years ago I probably only made about half of what he used to and felt like I was a whole lot better off than him. My car is now 13 years old but I'm saving money for a replacement and bought one that was reliable.
Add in name brand clothing, vacations to keep up with your friends and having to have a house that matches some "reality" house on tv and you're spending $6K/month easy just to impress others. Now you're starting the year off $72K in the hole. Hope you make at least $100K/yr if you plan on eating.
Mrs sea has a friend who was single until she was about 35 and made more $$ than we did. Yet, she was always broke and saddled with bills. Personally, I could care less which one of us makes more money or who is considered the "breadwinner". Nowadays you both really need to work. There is no more Mayberry or Leave it to Beaver for the majority of families.
My idea of wasteful spending is visiting strip clubs and buying myself and ccassionally dancers expensive club prices for drinks. bud lite is often on sale for $3, but miller lite is often 5 and dancer drinks can be over $8. wasteful. The whole cost of everything except free admission with the member pass would be considered extremely wasteful by my old living standards before I started visiting strip clubs. It still seems expensive but I allow myself to splurge and have fun once a week. I could be wasting money on golf or some other expensive hobby.
It indicated I would need at least a 40% salary increase just to maintain my standard of living if I moved from here to new York city. I think if I moved to California, I might need a 100 to 200 % salary increase to maintain my standard of living.
You look online at the salaries making over 100K, and it's pretty much lawyers, pharmacists, doctors, and dentists. Some technology guys can be making over 100K.
I know nurses making 100K+ working for Uncle Sam. It's all about finding the right position and putting in the time.
If I know what I know now, I would have become a pharmacist or an air traffic controller. Those seem to be the least stressful high paying jobs. Yes, I know they say air traffic controllers are very high stress jobs, but I have a friend that is one, works at a rural airport out in the middle of nowhere and he's pulling low 6 figures. He works odd hours (days one week, afternoons the next, nights the next) but it would be worth it to me. I think his biggest challenge is staying awake while at work.
I'd say that's a lot better than just "decent"
Point is our income is way above average, however when we get set to hang it up in retirement we will only need about half our current income. Everyone's situation is different so you should never compare yourself to averages. Should I take a group insurance policy when I'm in better health than the group? I think individuals need to focus on how much they can get by on and consistently set aside some cash for future obligations.
By the way GACAclub, not sure who is helping you out with your finances, but you can't be hiding any money away into an IRA for current year tax deductions if you are also putting money into your 401k. Someone in your income bracket is shut out of making taxable deductions into IRAs if u contribute it a 401k. Better hope the IRS doesn't catch your flaw, or better yet hopefully you meant the ROTH IRA, because u will be eligible contributing into the ROTH as that doesn't have current year tax deductions.
Don't get how GACA club thinks that's "decent"
Net-net, everything is so much cheaper in the South and Midwest that it is hard to fathom how anyone could struggle on 100k, but in places like the northeast, California and I'm sure some other areas, the cost of living is so much more expensive that it is the same as making a much smaller salary in lower cost areas.
I've been retired since I was 52 years of age and about to get married.Lovedart hates the prenup while my will states upon my demise she gets everything,(She never was any good at math)
So the moral of my story is money is a tool,money is a vehicle.Don't work hard,work smart.
It is not what you make, it is what you keep!! Words to live by. By the way, IMO, contributions to IRA or 401(k) counts as part of what you keep.
In another sense, all money is spent. Some is well spent, some is poorly spent. Even savings left for one's heirs is spent in the sense that a portion may be taxed upon death and a portion is willed to one's heirs (where it eventually gets spent again). The REAL key is to minimize the money poorly spent, however you choose to define the term "poorly".
Of course where I am housing costs are so high that I really don't know what the income level would have to be.
Whether the wife works or not makes no difference, as this is not about living, it is about holding one's head up. So the more money the wife gets paid, the more she will expect the husband to get paid. Otherwise she will shit on him 365 days per year.
So of course given this crazy state of affairs, we are all right to prefer strippers to wives or girlfriends.
The high point in purchasing power for the working man was sometime between 1969 and 1972. Since then it has been dropping steadily.
And then as James Carville says, they're ain't no line of those wanting to marry guys who can't pay the bills.
So anyway, the time for revolution is now, but not to restore the old order, to make something entirely different.
SJG
http://www.amazon.com/Were-Right-Theyre-…
"And then as James Carville says, they're ain't no line of those wanting to marry guys who can't pay the bills."
Marry? No. But if they have plenty of weed and a big dick, there's a long line of strippers that will live with 'em!
It's your town, how do you not know?
when you were saving up your pennies to send away for your mail order bride did it not occur to you that there would be ongoing costs? you know things like clothing and feeding her.
you didn’t really expect her to live off of cheetos and gravy did you? what did you think would happen when she found out your only source of income was your weekly allowance from mom and that is the best you are capable of?
no wonder she dumped your ass
SJG
well i can certainly understand that after your experience with the first one.
but just between you and me, what the fuck were you thinking? i mean sure she was from the third world and all but did you really think you could keep her in your mother’s basement eating nothing but cheetos and drinking gravy?
btw did you get any of your money back when she dumped you or was it one of those cheap “As Is” sales?