Have you ever done the math?
My bills are between $3,000 and $4,000 each month. Add to that $2,500 in monthly rent.
$3,500 x 12 months = $42,000
$2,500 x 12 months = $30,000
Total Annual Expenses = $72,000
At a 50% tax bracket, that would imply we need $144,000 of gross income JUST TO BREAK EVEN on the year.
Round down to say $130,000 - which I submit is what it costs in gross income to raise a family of four in 2008 Boston, Massachusetts.
Look at this chart below that I found. It pretty much corroborates my contention:
Now, mind you, we don't have any student loans, no car payments, no childcare expenses. I mow my own lawn, shovel my own driveway, and clean my own house. And what clothes I do own come from the sale racks at Old Navy.
I just don't know how EVERYONE can spend the money they spend.
There'll be no pensions when we retire. Social Security will be bankrupt - as will Medicare.
Y'all need to stop wasting money and start thinking long term.
Make poverty history?
Hah! We really ought to take a bite out of *luxury* as well.
4 comments:
I completely agree with you. I just look at people in stores, see what people are driving and just can't figure it out. Either they are way more successful than me or something. I don't know how people do it, I wish I did so I could do it too.
I am with you. My wife and I make a very good living. We are far from the bottom, yet we aren't rich. And you damn well know many people think we are. They are crazy. I have friends who make roughly half what we do and they seem to spend nearly as much. They have 2 car payments, the same size mortgage, student loans, and CC debt. We have none of that (but the mortgage=to your rent), yet we spend a smidge more. WTF?
Slow out.
Slow,
YOU ARE RICH.
Didn't you once tell me that you won't drink wine of vintages younger than the mid 1990s?
No no no no, I won't drink Budweiser with a born on date more recent than Kurt Cobain's death.
Wine, who drinks wine anymore? That is sooo 2003. I drink whiskey. moderately-most of the time.
And I want to be rich. And am actively trying to become rich. And I hope you are/or become rich too. In fact, I want all people to be successful as long as they don't take from me in the process.
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