5 ms·

> Spending 80% of your income on housing is just poor budgeting no matter how you look at it. 77% of take-home pay is closer to 40% of income. It's only a litt

by myhf 7y ago

> Spending 80% of your income on housing is just poor budgeting no matter how you look at it. 77% of take-home pay is closer to 40% of income. It's only a little higher than sustainable levels. When housing costs grow 5-10% per year and PhD programs last 3 years longer than they need to, anyone who had a reasonable budget at the beginning could end up with an unreasonable budget by the end.

GuiA 7y ago
I’m not sure how you budget, and whatever works for you works for you, but 77% of the money that hits your bank account every month going to housing when you’re a grad student is insanity, not “a little higher than sustainable levels”. Especially when there’s a kid in the picture.
- alpha_squared 7y ago
  According to the US government's definition[0, 1], affordable housing is less than 30% of income. Which type of income it is is up for debate but it seems the general consensus is gross income, though I can't find an authoritative source on that. If it is gross income, then it stands to reason that 77% of net income may actually be fairly close to 40% gross income. And, while 33% above the affordability limit (30% of gross income), it's not terribly outside "a little higher than sustainable levels" -- though that's a very subjective phrase. [0] https://www.huduser.gov/portal/pdredge/pdr-edge-featd-article-081417.html https://www.huduser.gov/portal/pdredge/pdr-edge-featd-articl... [1] https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/comm_planning/affordablehousing/ https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/comm_planning/affordable...
  - GuiA 7y ago
    I’m not sure what sort of accounting tricks you are doing. 40% of gross income becomes 77% of net income given 48% of deductions. 48% of deductions for a grad student making $25k a year would also be insane.
    - mrep 7y ago
      Yeah, for a take home income of 2,200 per month in santa cruz, your before tax income would be about 2,666. 1,700 of that is 77% pretax and 64% after tax.
  - ASpring 7y ago
    As a PhD candidate in my last years I was paid 2500 gross per month (for 9 months of the year), take-home was 2250 or so. 70% of net is 1575. 1575 is 63% of my gross pay. Remember, these workers are paid so little they are in the bottom tax brackets at 10-12%.

by myhf 7y ago

GuiA 7y ago

I’m not sure how you budget, and whatever works for you works for you, but 77% of the money that hits your bank account every month going to housing when you’re a grad student is insanity, not “a little higher than sustainable levels”. Especially when there’s a kid in the picture.

alpha_squared 7y ago
According to the US government's definition[0, 1], affordable housing is less than 30% of income. Which type of income it is is up for debate but it seems the general consensus is gross income, though I can't find an authoritative source on that. If it is gross income, then it stands to reason that 77% of net income may actually be fairly close to 40% gross income. And, while 33% above the affordability limit (30% of gross income), it's not terribly outside "a little higher than sustainable levels" -- though that's a very subjective phrase. [0] https://www.huduser.gov/portal/pdredge/pdr-edge-featd-article-081417.html https://www.huduser.gov/portal/pdredge/pdr-edge-featd-articl... [1] https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/comm_planning/affordablehousing/ https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/comm_planning/affordable...
- GuiA 7y ago
  I’m not sure what sort of accounting tricks you are doing. 40% of gross income becomes 77% of net income given 48% of deductions. 48% of deductions for a grad student making $25k a year would also be insane.
  - mrep 7y ago
    Yeah, for a take home income of 2,200 per month in santa cruz, your before tax income would be about 2,666. 1,700 of that is 77% pretax and 64% after tax.
- ASpring 7y ago
  As a PhD candidate in my last years I was paid 2500 gross per month (for 9 months of the year), take-home was 2250 or so. 70% of net is 1575. 1575 is 63% of my gross pay. Remember, these workers are paid so little they are in the bottom tax brackets at 10-12%.