6 ms·

So I think you missed the point of the article, this is a very modest "middle class" kind of budget. Yes you could save a little more here and there, but the po

So I think you missed the point of the article, this is a very modest "middle class" kind of budget. Yes you could save a little more here and there, but the point is to have even a modest lifestyle in San Francisco you would need to be making 300k a year. Even if you cut back on a few of the discretionary categories ( food, car, 401k, ... ) and lived like a miser you are going to have 20k of disposable income a year. Like you said that still means you need to have two incomes, and two really well paying incomes. I think the point the author is getting across is that due to the exteremly high fixed costs of living almost anywhere in the country ( but specifically in big coastal cities ), its impossible to have that kind of "middle class" lifestyle that was the majority of the population in these places a few decades ago.

danaliv 8y ago
A Volvo XC90 is not "modest middle class." It's a luxury vehicle. And a car payment that high is insane.
- warbaker 8y ago
  300k is usually considered to be upper middle class, if not upper class. The threshold for being in the top 1% of earners is 420k (https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/19/what-you-have-to-earn-to-be-in-the-1-percent-in-america.html https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/19/what-you-have-to-earn-to-be-...).
  - dragonwriter 8y ago
    > 300k is usually considered to be upper middle class, if not upper class. The threshold for being in the top 1% of earners is 420k If being an “earner” is a major source of your income, you aren't in the upper class (haut bourgeoisie) in a capitalist society. If being an “earner” is the major source of your income, you aren't in the middle class (petit bourgeoisie) either, just a (potentially highly paid) member of the proletariat—a wage laborer—even if you might happen to be from the proletarian intelligentsia rather than a manual laborer.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
  - hellisothers 8y ago
    You can’t have absolute salary numbers be attached to a lifestyle since 300k/year is like Royalty in Virginia but just “comfortable” in SF or NYC.
- dkhenry 8y ago
  Your right, so go ahead and get a more modest car, save 600 a month, or 7200 a year, That will buy you exactly two weeks of living expenses per year you could save. Do the same with food and save another 1300 a month and you can get up to six week of expenses saved per year. Then if you manage to do that for five years straight you will have the six month cushion that you should have in savings, and this is on a salary that would put you in the top five percent of all earners in the country. Think about that this is the best case scenario for people making more then 95% of all other Americans, and we are having a discussion if they should be able to drive a Volvo, or eat more then beans and rice. The point your missing is that to even have that discussion you need to be in the top 5th percentile. How are the other 95% of people making ends meet?
volkk 8y ago
i understand the point -- that SF is ludicrously expensive. however that point is muddled when you see the budget breakdown. show me a reasonable budget where youre not spending 6K a year on CLOTHES and then i'll be better suited to argue the original point of the article

danaliv 8y ago

A Volvo XC90 is not "modest middle class." It's a luxury vehicle. And a car payment that high is insane.

warbaker 8y ago
300k is usually considered to be upper middle class, if not upper class. The threshold for being in the top 1% of earners is 420k (https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/19/what-you-have-to-earn-to-be-in-the-1-percent-in-america.html https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/19/what-you-have-to-earn-to-be-...).
- dragonwriter 8y ago
  > 300k is usually considered to be upper middle class, if not upper class. The threshold for being in the top 1% of earners is 420k If being an “earner” is a major source of your income, you aren't in the upper class (haut bourgeoisie) in a capitalist society. If being an “earner” is the major source of your income, you aren't in the middle class (petit bourgeoisie) either, just a (potentially highly paid) member of the proletariat—a wage laborer—even if you might happen to be from the proletarian intelligentsia rather than a manual laborer.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
- hellisothers 8y ago
  You can’t have absolute salary numbers be attached to a lifestyle since 300k/year is like Royalty in Virginia but just “comfortable” in SF or NYC.
dkhenry 8y ago
Your right, so go ahead and get a more modest car, save 600 a month, or 7200 a year, That will buy you exactly two weeks of living expenses per year you could save. Do the same with food and save another 1300 a month and you can get up to six week of expenses saved per year. Then if you manage to do that for five years straight you will have the six month cushion that you should have in savings, and this is on a salary that would put you in the top five percent of all earners in the country. Think about that this is the best case scenario for people making more then 95% of all other Americans, and we are having a discussion if they should be able to drive a Volvo, or eat more then beans and rice. The point your missing is that to even have that discussion you need to be in the top 5th percentile. How are the other 95% of people making ends meet?

volkk 8y ago

i understand the point -- that SF is ludicrously expensive. however that point is muddled when you see the budget breakdown. show me a reasonable budget where youre not spending 6K a year on CLOTHES and then i'll be better suited to argue the original point of the article