Living in Chicago, to not utter the phrase "I can't afford that" on reasonable shit, I'm shooting for an income of 125k at least. Not even considering the missus. My ideal income might be skewed because I'm tossing out 550 a month in college loans, but I need to ramp that up. I'm at 60k now and its nowhere near enough after taxes. I'll probably be up 5-10k in the next year when I move jobs.
If you need $125k/year to afford "reasonable shit" then you don't know how to manage your finances. I mean, it's cool if you want to live in some trendy $3k/month condo, but that doesn't mean it's what you need. $6,600/year in college loans doesn't explain it, either. I suspect your definition of "reasonable shit" is completely screwed up. Nobody suggested that $75k was enough to afford everything all the time, just that it was a completely comfortable living in most places in the country.
In many major cities, $3000 won't get you a trendy condo. It will get you a 1 bedroom, maybe a small 2.
I consider Houston to be a relatively cheap city to live in. But even in the nicest parts of downtown and the trendy neighborhoods, you can easily drop 2 grand a month for rent. Houston is cheap if you average in all the po'dunk shithole parts of town and the meth lab trailer communities in the outskirts.
$3000 here will get you rent or mortgage, car payment, groceries, savings, and fun happy times. I love Texas. Goddammit. I'm preemptively homesick.
Re: Re: 11/1/13 WDT NSFW This is what I run into here in Charlotte all the time, people with MASSIVE homes and no real reason to have such an amount of space. Also they run into issues cooling the place in the summer, my friend pays 425 a month just in electric durning the summer. The wife and I are actually downsizing from our current rental, we have too much space that we really don't use, I have a nice bonus room upstairs that I have been in twice since June.
Re: Re: 11/1/13 WDT NSFW Thats why I want a full finished basement to live in during the summers. I remember a few of my friends had them and they were always 20 degrees cooler in the summer.
Re: Re: 11/1/13 WDT NSFW Thank you. I find it maddening, this whole "bigger is better" motive on homes. All new houses being built in my city now have two central air and two furnaces to account for their size. They're fucking castles. Why do you need to live in a castle? Especially if its you or one other person, there's no need for more than three bedrooms and two baths. I've been in a house in this city that has 44 bedrooms and ten baths. Why?!?!?!
Every house up here has one. My basement is a double-edged sword. It's the best place to be in the summer but is also frigid in the winter. 70-75 degrees in the summer, 45-50 degrees in the winter.
I didn't use the word big. I specifically used the word trendy, in that mostly it's location-driven and not a necessity. Also, I get that there are a few places that have hugely inflated property values, but it's still a choice to live there. Again: it's not a judgement. Everyone should spend their income how they want. Just understand how much choices and wants impact that equation. If you want to live in downtown because you don't like riding the train, great. If Manhattan is your mecca and you wouldn't live anywhere else, fine. If owning a new Audi is something you enjoy, awesome. Just don't conflate that with what you need. When people start using the word "struggle" because they like to go out to eat 5 nights a week or drive a nice car, well...
Re: Re: 11/1/13 WDT NSFW $425? That's nuts. Our house is 5 bedrooms and 100 years old and is about as well insulated as a screen door and it doesn't cost us that much to keep the house cool in a New Orleans summer.
No. Maybe in the panhandle. Maybe... Definitely not by the Red River, I grew up there and basements are mythical to us. The house we are buying in Maryland has a basement. I'm somewhat terrified by this thing.