4 ms·
I'll bite. A lot of the questions are "do I have enough disposable income" where the answer is yes. Specifics: > How long does it take to get to work? Do I ha
by usaar333 15y ago
I'll bite. A lot of the questions are "do I have enough disposable income" where the answer is yes.
Specifics:
> How long does it take to get to work? Do I have to drive to work? If my car breaks, could I buy/lease a late model new car (one that I expect will not have problems)?
~10 minutes on bike, slightly quicker in car. I guess I could buy a new car, but I've never thought that was a good move financially over getting one a few years old. (Then again, I could just rely on zipcar living here)
> Do I live close to friends
Almost anyone I know in SF is within a 20 minutes by bike or car. Most are within 10 minutes.
> Can I walk to the supermarket, cafe or restaurant,
Other than the supermarket, yes; smaller grocery stores are a block away.
> How large is my home, in sq. ft? Do I have a yard?
130 sq feet personal room, 2 roommates, substantial common space (500 sq feet maybe?), additional storage space. minimal yard.
Admittedly this is where you are going to save huge. Living with roommates over a 1 bedroom can save $12,000+ a year.
>General savings
Have a positive savings rate already while making well below $100k.
Honestly, the big expenses are just house and car. As long as you don't splurge on those, you have tons of cash left.
(This is coming from the perspective of a single guy in SF. For a family of 4 consider that down in Sunnyvale, you can find 3 bedroom houses for $2,200. If that household made $200k, they would have very high amounts of disposable income.)
- kree10 15y agoI don't know; this hypothetical family of 4 making $200k would have about $12k/month in take-home pay. After rent, utilities (including cell phone bills with data plans for 4), food and clothing, 2 cars (loan payments/gas/insurance/maintenance), college tuition (paying it or saving for it), orthodontics, etc., it could be near "living paycheck-to-paycheck" territory.
- usaar333 15y agoCan you provide a breakdown there? I'm doubtful it is that bad, from both how high this income is compared to the median as well as personal numbers. I blow $1,650 a month, before auto/rent, with my pretty comfortable life. Even if children were at the same level of expenses (they are realistically maybe half that), family non-auto/rent is $6,600. The two cars throw in another $1000/month; housing is $2,200. That's about $9800 a month or $2,200/year in savings (18% rate)
- kree10 15y agoI think you're underestimating child-related expenses. Since we're talking about both parents working full-time, just take the cost of child care: http://www.naccrra.org/randd/data/docs/CA.pdf http://www.naccrra.org/randd/data/docs/CA.pdf says this California family with 2 kids could be spending over $2000/mo on this alone, depending on how young they are. I'm not saying they won't necessarily have anything left, but $12k/mo still may not leave them much.
- usaar333 15y agoI agree the family is taking more of a hit when the kids are young. However, this should amortize away as child care costs drop radically once the child is in school. I checked http://www.babycenter.com/cost-of-raising-child-calculator http://www.babycenter.com/cost-of-raising-child-calculator and they shoe cost of raising a child to be $1,525/month for 18 years for the highest income.
- true_religion 15y agoIs 500 square feet really considered substantial? My first place in a college town was 900 square feet for a studio and the landlord said many people turned it down because it was too small. My next place up was a 2 bedroom with over 4x the size.
- usaar333 15y agoBy SF standards, it's large. A 900 square foot 1 bedroom would be absolutely huge here; a studio that large would be insane. (example: 800 sq foot luxury 1 bedroom http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/apa/2814694274.html. http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/apa/2814694274.html.)