How am I still broke?
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I met with a few friends/co-workers from a job we had right out of school. We were making less than 20K, and were basically broke. fast forward 20 years, and we all seem to be making decent money. Across the board, we are basically broke. How is it possible that I'm making over 5X my salary from my 1st job, and I'm still broke? When you make 6 figures, you shouldn't be living paycheck to paycheck. In my case, I broke it down to 1 cause........marriage :laugh::laugh::laugh:
John is generally right. People tend to spend up to their income. On top of that, increased income leads to increased credit rating which means it's much easier to get lower interest loans. But, for us frugal types, kids are definitely the biggest money sinks ever devised. Nineteen years after the fact, I'm still shocked at how much our oldest [daughter] cost us when she was first born. Unfortunately, that amount has increased ever since. Now, no sooner do I get little-miss-expensive out of the house, but I have another about to get his driver's license (though he is still nowhere near as expensive as his sister was.) I also did myself in by trying to run my own business for five years and having some of the worse possible luck in picking companies to work for. Of the public companies I work for, I was able to sell a batch of options precisely once. (Contrast that to my younger brother who managed to create a very nice bank account out of his options.) Even worse, the 401k matching is lousy or nonexistent for companies I've worked for (including my own; I didn't even offer myself a 401k!) Add to that buying a house in a market that stagnated, getting laid off during the dot com bust, getting laid off again during a local high-tech downturn and I've just not had much luck. (Despite that, I've managed to pay the debts from running my own business down to very manageable levels.)
Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine. - P.J. O'Rourke
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I assume you have kids. I can't believe how much it costs to have kids these days--especially paying for college. Unfortunately a lot of people live beyond their means--getting a fancier car than they need, a larger house than they need, etc. They don't save when they should. I have seen families where divorce causes a huge financial burden on one spouse (sometimes even both). Maybe if couples who wanted to divorce saw the raw numbers they would maybe take a second look.
_________________________________________ You can't fix stupid, but you can medicate crazy.
leckey wrote:
I have seen families where divorce causes a huge financial burden on one spouse (sometimes even both). Maybe if couples who wanted to divorce saw the raw numbers they would maybe take a second look.
Ha! IF one side's getting crushed financially that means the other is making out like a robber baron. You'd just be encouraging that individual to keep going since in addition to a large personal benefit they get the opportunity to permanently ruin their ex.
-- CleaKO The sad part about this instance is that none of the users ever said anything [about the problem]. Pete O`Hanlon Doesn't that just tell you everything you need to know about users?
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Sounds like its time to put the broads to work! :laugh:
"If you drink, don't drive. Don't even putt." - Dean Martin
Incoooomiiiinnnggggg!
Software Zen:
delete this; -
I met with a few friends/co-workers from a job we had right out of school. We were making less than 20K, and were basically broke. fast forward 20 years, and we all seem to be making decent money. Across the board, we are basically broke. How is it possible that I'm making over 5X my salary from my 1st job, and I'm still broke? When you make 6 figures, you shouldn't be living paycheck to paycheck. In my case, I broke it down to 1 cause........marriage :laugh::laugh::laugh:
On top of the increased spending as John Simmons said there are more taxes... I can say at least for me the % of income that I take home is a lot less now than when I made around 35K ten years ago. Between Uncle Sam and my retirement account I take in less than 60% of my gross. However I admit if taxes were 0 I would still live paycheck to paycheck.
John
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I met with a few friends/co-workers from a job we had right out of school. We were making less than 20K, and were basically broke. fast forward 20 years, and we all seem to be making decent money. Across the board, we are basically broke. How is it possible that I'm making over 5X my salary from my 1st job, and I'm still broke? When you make 6 figures, you shouldn't be living paycheck to paycheck. In my case, I broke it down to 1 cause........marriage :laugh::laugh::laugh:
In my case, I'm married to someone who's bipolar :sigh:.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
we live by our means. Which basically equates to no matter how much you earn you will still spend it.
I agree with this logic. Therefor: donate half of your paycheck to charity. You will be equally broke, no change there, and you will filled with warm fuzzy feelings!
Visual Studio can't evaluate this, can you?
public object moo { __get { return moo; } __set { moo = value; } } -
In my case, I'm married to someone who's bipolar :sigh:.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
I met with a few friends/co-workers from a job we had right out of school. We were making less than 20K, and were basically broke. fast forward 20 years, and we all seem to be making decent money. Across the board, we are basically broke. How is it possible that I'm making over 5X my salary from my 1st job, and I'm still broke? When you make 6 figures, you shouldn't be living paycheck to paycheck. In my case, I broke it down to 1 cause........marriage :laugh::laugh::laugh:
I'll agree with what everyone else has said. After you make money it goes to: 1) Kids if you have them (myself one 2-1/2, and 8-month old twins). 2) Wife. 3) Pets if you have them. 4) Anything left is spent on yourself trying to maintain the sanity the above list is stripping away from you.:)
Brad "You know you're a geek when... You try to shoo a fly away from the monitor with your cursor. That just happened to me. It was scary." — Juuso Heimonen.
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I met with a few friends/co-workers from a job we had right out of school. We were making less than 20K, and were basically broke. fast forward 20 years, and we all seem to be making decent money. Across the board, we are basically broke. How is it possible that I'm making over 5X my salary from my 1st job, and I'm still broke? When you make 6 figures, you shouldn't be living paycheck to paycheck. In my case, I broke it down to 1 cause........marriage :laugh::laugh::laugh:
Horizon! Did that convey the meaning? We ave a song in Tamil Film 'Muthu' which conveys this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBW0Bi761yk&search=rajini[^]
Vasudevan Deepak Kumar Personal Homepage Tech Gossips
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But I live frugally. Plus when you have a little bit it seems like everything you want runs a few thousand dollars. Personally, I don't even hesitate on a $100 purchase any more. More money gets spent! The best advice, watch your diet (eating out is expensive so are groceries), budget your kids, and remember 100 years ago people didn't have fully furnished houses, they had a kitchen table and a few beds with only one set of linens.
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re: budget kids Doh! Car #1 has 192K, car #2 has 163K, car #3 has 89K, all bought used. House is in average neighborhood, not living lavishly at all.... but the kids... I think you identified my problem, that and my 15 year old son eating everything in sight....:laugh:
Charlie Gilley Will program for food... Whoever said children were cheaper by the dozen... lied. Yeah, whatever....
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My feeling is that for the average man with normal materialistic desires, an annual income of at least 4-5 million dollars (after tax) is required so he won't need to get into debt of any sort (including mortgages and car loans). So while a 100K salary is 5x a 20K salary, it obviously won't be enough if you want to buy an expensive car with full down-payment. Or if you want to travel first-class all the time. Or buy the most expensive gadgets. Or buy clothes for your wife/girlfriend without looking at price tags. Or... you get the gist. I am materialistic too, but over the years I've learned to suppress my more extravagant desires. So for me, a 1 million dollar salary sometime in the far future may be perfectly sufficient for all my needs and dreams. But as I said, for most others it'd be 3-4 times that much.
Regards, Nish
Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
Currently working on C++/CLI in Action for Manning Publications. (*Sample chapter available online*)but as we established you're running a betting syndicate then you shuold be sorted and a million dollars probably pales in comparison to what you're making on the side ;) - or is the coding the "side" ? Bryce
--- To paraphrase Fred Dagg - the views expressed in this post are bloody good ones. --
Publitor, making Pubmed easy. http://www.sohocode.com/publitorOur kids books :The Snot Goblin, and Book 2 - the Snotgoblin and Fluff
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I met with a few friends/co-workers from a job we had right out of school. We were making less than 20K, and were basically broke. fast forward 20 years, and we all seem to be making decent money. Across the board, we are basically broke. How is it possible that I'm making over 5X my salary from my 1st job, and I'm still broke? When you make 6 figures, you shouldn't be living paycheck to paycheck. In my case, I broke it down to 1 cause........marriage :laugh::laugh::laugh:
You might be making 5 times more than 20 years ago, but I'd imagine the cost of living is 3-4 times more than it was back then. Plus 20 years ago you might have been happy with some greasy ribs when eating out, and now you want fancy french cuisine (and even if you are still happy with greasy ribs, your wife probably isn't ;P).
"For fifty bucks I'd put my face in their soup and blow." - George Costanza
CP article: SmartPager - a Flickr-style pager control with go-to-page popup layer.
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I met with a few friends/co-workers from a job we had right out of school. We were making less than 20K, and were basically broke. fast forward 20 years, and we all seem to be making decent money. Across the board, we are basically broke. How is it possible that I'm making over 5X my salary from my 1st job, and I'm still broke? When you make 6 figures, you shouldn't be living paycheck to paycheck. In my case, I broke it down to 1 cause........marriage :laugh::laugh::laugh:
Track your expenses for a month then you can budget.
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John is generally right. People tend to spend up to their income. On top of that, increased income leads to increased credit rating which means it's much easier to get lower interest loans. But, for us frugal types, kids are definitely the biggest money sinks ever devised. Nineteen years after the fact, I'm still shocked at how much our oldest [daughter] cost us when she was first born. Unfortunately, that amount has increased ever since. Now, no sooner do I get little-miss-expensive out of the house, but I have another about to get his driver's license (though he is still nowhere near as expensive as his sister was.) I also did myself in by trying to run my own business for five years and having some of the worse possible luck in picking companies to work for. Of the public companies I work for, I was able to sell a batch of options precisely once. (Contrast that to my younger brother who managed to create a very nice bank account out of his options.) Even worse, the 401k matching is lousy or nonexistent for companies I've worked for (including my own; I didn't even offer myself a 401k!) Add to that buying a house in a market that stagnated, getting laid off during the dot com bust, getting laid off again during a local high-tech downturn and I've just not had much luck. (Despite that, I've managed to pay the debts from running my own business down to very manageable levels.)
Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine. - P.J. O'Rourke
Joe Woodbury wrote:
(though he is still nowhere near as expensive as his sister was.)
With the exception of needing the latest/greatest tennis shoes, boys don't care as much about wearing the latest clothes, and if they are, those clothes should be purchased from Goodwill so they look "used". They also don't need to experiment with makeup, or purchase additional underwear components as they get older. Hygiene is generally a no-brainer for boys as well with no real changes occurring over their life time. All of this means a lower initial outlay of disposable income until they get to driving age (IMHO, "driving age" should be defined as "18 and over", but I'm old and don't generally tolerate childhood absurdity).
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001
