Reply to 40% of people making 500K/year are living paycheck to paycheck

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The entire premise of The Bonfire of the Vanities - both the book and the movie - was a man having a tough time making $950,000 in Manhattan - in like 1990.

The New York and San Francisco life with kids in 2026 is absurdly expensive. $500,000 isn't coming anywhere close to managing it for a family. [/quote]

It is possible if you don’t try to fit in with the wealthy families.  If you accept you’re not part of the Upper East Side crowd and you should be looking in Astoria or farther uptown Manhattan.    [/quote]

You don't even have to do that. If you have 500k/yr in Manhattan, you accept that you will live in a small apartment despite making a lot of money (or you move far out and commute) because you are living in one of the most expensive cities in the country. You limit yourself to one kid or you send your kids to public schools. If you have more than 1-2 kids, you will likely need to move out of the city for space just because it's at a premium. Instead of taking fancy vacations, you take advantage of the great stuff NYC has to offer. You do have some built in cost savings from living in an efficient city -- you have zero need for a car, there are lots of free or near-free entertainment options for city residents, living in a small home diminishes expectations for consumption and make it easier to buy less (people aren't amassing garages full of sporting goods they never use in NYC apartments, for instance).

You are still wealthy and can save and invest a lot on a 500k income in NYC. You can live in a nice apartment in a nice neighborhood, it will just be small. You can save for college. No, your life doesn't look like that of a UMC person in a suburb somewhere, but you ARE an UMC person, and you don't live paycheck to paycheck. You just spend an outsize percentage of your income on housing because of where you live, and your lifestyle looks different because of where you live. That's it.

Meanwhile someone making 150k would struggle a lot more to live in NYC with kids. As a single person you could make it work because you could make some extreme compromises about the size of your home, but once you have a kid it's harder. But there are still people who do it! And I know a number of families living in NYC (less expensive neighborhoods) on maybe 200-250k with one or two kids. At 300k it starts to get easier, and by 400k you are living a nice life and don't have true money worries, unless you are dumb and start trying to live like one of the very wealthy people you see around you there. But that's a danger anywhere. Keeping up with the Jones' will do in your finances in Manhattan, NYC, and in Manhattan, Kansas. That's life.[/quote]

Ugh…I would never want to live in NYC. So many better places to live than there. NYC smells like Mary Jane everywhere you go and it’s full of clueless liberals who elect socialist mayors. Crime is a real problem and COL and the taxes are insane. The exodus of people leaving NYC for better pastures isn’t a fluke.[/quote]

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