IMPORTANT INFO re US income tax: A rough rule of thumb is that if you are making $50,000 per year gross salary in the USA, you'll be taking home roughly $3000

IMPORTANT INFO re US income tax: A rough rule of thumb is that if you are making $50,000 per year gross salary in the USA, you'll be taking home roughly $3000 per month in net pay. This number changes a bit if you are married, have kids, have an expensive house, and so on. If you are making $100,000 gross per year, especially in NY or San Fran, you realistically might have a take home net monthly pay of $5700 or even a bit less as a non-married human. Realistically, mandatory expenses like rent and commuting (unless you are sleeping under your desk in the office!!!) will be about $1,000 to $3,000 per month, most people around $2,000 in those cities. And yeah, lifestyle creep is totally a thing in the USA. There are people making $5700 a month who are spending $5700 per month, certainly. Also, minimum wage is $1600 per month full time post tax at places like burger king and mcdonalds.