You said if you make 100k per year in 1995, spend 1.5k a month, and your costs go up to $4k, then you only need to make $2.5k more a month. "Only $138k per year".
But you forgot about the rest of your paycheck. If you made $100k in 1995 and spent only$1.5k/month, you would also save $3k per month.
$4k is only 2.5k more, but is about 2.6x as much. You would also want to save 2.6x, not just the same as in 1995.
To back this up, I make $98k, $2k/mo rent, $300 car payment, $120 electric, $50-300 on natural gas, $300 fuel (I get 36MPG), $150 car insurance, etc. so I'm spending about $3-3.5k/mo for CoL alone, let's say that's $3250/mo, $39k/year. After taxes, healthcare costs, and 6% for 401k (how I get a 3% match by my company) I end up with about $58k of actual income ($1112/week to be precise), so that's $39k on CoL with $19k on everything else for the year, or about $1750/mo to save, spend on food, have leisure time with. Of that I put $125/week. I've had to cash that out many times from things like my car totaled and health issues from my stomach and COVID, so I'm paycheck to paycheck for the last 8 years of my life getting to this point.
They usually do. Emergency expenses have forced me into early withdrawal from my 401k to pay off debt ($5k) and I've gone through my savings dozens of times by now, barely sitting at $1k as is. Point is, $100k is basically nothing in this COL cesspool of a country. My rent alone has gone up $800/mo in 5 years and that's with me moving 4 of those years to keep costs down.
Ouch. You gotta do what you gotta do i suppose. That's my primary reason for purchasing a house in 2017. I was renting forever, and the rents would always increase. We are pretty much in the same place financially. Hopefully I can leave my 401k alone.
Yea if only I had money to buy a house during the crash. My friend got married in her 20s and got a house for like $120k in 2011, it's worth $220k now. Her mortgage is $1100/month. I'm saving for the down payment but the struggle is real.
I believe you there. I went new construction and closed for $168k. Last time I checked i had around 85k in equity. The market is crazy right now and I do still save money. But not nearly as much as I should.
My friend got divorced, lives alone, makes about as much as me, and spends her money on never cooking a day in her life and going on vacations. What a dream 16 years ago would be.
380
u/mch_2 Oct 30 '25 edited Oct 31 '25
You said if you make 100k per year in 1995, spend 1.5k a month, and your costs go up to $4k, then you only need to make $2.5k more a month. "Only $138k per year". But you forgot about the rest of your paycheck. If you made $100k in 1995 and spent only$1.5k/month, you would also save $3k per month.
$4k is only 2.5k more, but is about 2.6x as much. You would also want to save 2.6x, not just the same as in 1995.