3 ms·
From the past tense in that post, I'd guess this may have been a few years ago. Today, the white-hot realestate market means living expenses are much higher.
by 1024core 9y ago
From the past tense in that post, I'd guess this may have been a few years ago. Today, the white-hot realestate market means living expenses are much higher.
At $120K, you're looking at a tax rate of close to 30%, which puts the usable figure at $80K or so. You want to maximize your 401(K), so your salary goes down to $65K, which is about $5K/mo. A decent 3BR with good schools (Cupertino) will run about $3500/mo (1), which leaves $1500/mo for everything else. Not doable, unfortunately.
(1) https://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/apa/d/1500-off-move-in-book-your/6402874114.html https://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/apa/d/1500-off-move-in-book...
- moeamaya 9y agoAppreciate the concrete math, it helps ground the abstraction of living expenses. The missing piece here is the salary inflation over a very short period of time. As a Stanford engineer, one should use the leapfrog technique (stay at a job no more than 18mo) to increase your salary by 2x in 5 years. That would mean by 27-years-old, this person should be in the $250k range, 35% tax = $160k usable, $15k 401k = $12k/mo. YMMV, but this is should be entirely doable by the median Stanford grad.
- austenallred 9y agoWas last year. 2 BR was/is $2500. Also if you’re maxing out your 401(K) I’d call that “saving”
- collinmanderson 9y agoKeep in mind though, you're putting away $5K/mo towards retirement. You're _saving_ 60K every year, which is no small number.
- hikarudo 9y agoActually that would be only $15k/year or $1.25k/mo towards retirement.