undefined | Better HN

0 pointsmorgante9y ago0 comments

I make substantially less than 400k and I assure you that I do not live in a cardboard box.

$5k is high for monthly expenses. I rented a single bedroom in Manhattan for $1850 and you can save even more if you're willing to live with roommates.

I'm not sure what I can do to convince you I'm not lying, but consider that median household income is less than $100k in both SV and NY. If the average person can get by on <$100k, why wouldn't you be able to save tons of money if you're making $200k? I have friends getting by on $40k in NYC. Can you imagine how easy it is to save if you match your lifestyle to theirs?

Of course, it's not going to buy you a luxury lifestyle. But personally I'd rather maintain a high savings rate than live in a glitzy apartment and spend thousands on bottle service.

0 comments

8 comments · 1 top-level

dvt9y ago· 7 in thread

Ok, so maybe I'm just bad at math. I know that if you make 200k as an engineer in NYC (which is STILL high[1]), you make around 10k a month after taxes.

10k - 2k for rent - 1k for expenses = 7k saved if you don't go on vacation, and literally do nothing that costs money for ten years. Even saving 7k a month, you won't save 100k a year.

[1] https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/new-york-city-software-en...

mercutio29y ago

You are exaggerating NYC income taxes. At $200k, your effective income tax rate if you file single, including FICA, is 33%, not 40% [0].

Heck, your marginal tax rate isn't even 40%, and all those numbers are without taking a 401k tax deduction.

People get this crazy idea that $200k isn't rich in NYC or SF. It is very, very rich, even for the area. COL adjustment for rent and groceries shaves off $15-30k, but it doesn't keep scaling up from there.

[0] https://smartasset.com/taxes/new-york-tax-calculator

winter_blue9y ago

> Heck, your marginal tax rate isn't even 40%

That's wrong. The marginal tax for even a $50,000/year earner in NYC is over 42%.

Source: http://arjun-menon.github.io/taxes-in-nyc/?income=50,000

1 more reply

morganteOP9y ago

7k is about right. My average savings rate over the past 3 years has been $6k and it's increased as my salary has.

You're forgetting to include investment gains. With them, I can go on regular vacations and still reach $1m within 10 years.

Also, since someone else mentioned it, my model conservatively assumes a 4% inflation rate. Over the 3 years I've been tracking, my model has consistently underestimated the growth in my savings.

riboflava9y ago

$1k for other 'expenses' is huge. You can drive that down at least by half with wiser spending.

foldr9y ago

It's not huge. That's bills together with all of your everyday spending. It's certainly possible to get that down to less than $1000 a month but you can easily spend $1000 a month without doing anything extravagant.

dvt9y ago

Food, insurance, gas, water, electricity, student debt, etc. At least by half? Come on. Let's be real.

eru9y ago

You might want to save, but there's no need to be a total miser on any >100k salary.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse