re: Cost of Living & Salary Requirements

It's all perspective. When I was young and poor, I worried about not having enough money.

Now that I am old and successful, I still worry about not having enough money.

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my firstborn was born at Lafayette General, a long time ago, the wife's room overlooked the doctor's parking lot, there were four brand new Lambos parked side by side there everyday she was there, you could tell there was a little keeping up with Dr. Jones competition going on

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Yea, there are a few of those around our hospital, but most people are “relatively” down to earth.

By that, I mean, they only purchased the $150k, fully decked out Suburban or Ram.



Scruffy isn’t a car guy at all and he doesn’t want to impress anyone.

The marriage already happened.

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Why the frick do I need an 80k vehicle to drive a few miles everyday?

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Why are you applying your driving situation to everyone?

A $25k car loan is going to cost about $480/month with today's rates. A $10k beater will not be just as good as an $80k vehicle, and what you get for $10k these days is going to cost money in repairs and probably break down on the way to work because you bought a 10 year old Chevy Sonic with 100k miles on it since that's all you could afford.

I'm not complaining about cheaper vehicles. I'm pointing out that a lot of the pushback in here isn't factoring in how much more expensive everything is than it was a few years ago. People are suggesting moving from BR to fricking Topeka in here. Because that's reasonable.

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A $10k beater will not be just as good as an $80k vehicle, and what you get for $10k these days is going to cost money in repairs and probably break down on the way to work because you bought a 10 year old Chevy Sonic with 100k miles on it since that's all you could afford.

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As someone who has always driven sub $10k vehicles, I disagree with this.

New vehicles have problems all the time.

I know a guy with a brand new Duramax (4k miles) and his transmission just went out.

Give me a well maintained $10k car vs a brand new $80k vehicle any day of the week.

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They probably wouldn't have a $1.400 mortgage.

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So $1400 seems pretty close

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However, a more accurate measure of what the typical American spends on their mortgage each month would be a median: $1,672 in 2021, according to the US Census Bureau.

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LINK Updated Jan 5, 2023, 4:08 PM

Here's how all 50 US states stack up:

State Median monthly home payment
Alabama $1,223
Alaska $1,926
Arizona $1,544
Arkansas $1,147
California $2,523
Colorado $1,962
Connecticut $2,083
Delaware $1,585
District of Columbia $2,639
Florida $1,616
Georgia $1,501
Hawaii $2,584
Idaho $1,425
Illinois $1,717
Indiana $1,195
Iowa $1,328
Kansas $1,446
Kentucky $1,227
Louisiana $1,349
Maine $1,464
Maryland $2,013
Massachusetts $2,323
Michigan $1,348
Minnesota $1,667
Mississippi $1,200
Missouri $1,316
Montana $1,558
Nebraska $1,491
Nevada $1,625
New Hampshire $2,004
New Jersey $2,458
New Mexico $1,354
New York $2,199
North Carolina $1,387
North Dakota $1,488
Ohio $1,293
Oklahoma $1,295
Oregon $1,835
Pennsylvania $1,505
Rhode Island $1,932
South Carolina $1,289
South Dakota $1,415
Tennessee $1,333
Texas $1,765
Utah $1,671
Vermont $1,664
Virginia $1,818
Washington $2,110
West Virginia $1,071
Wisconsin $1,464
Wyoming $1,490

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What I'm reading is if you make 50k/year, you need to live in a trailer or a shack in the country, drive a piece of shite or something modest for under 25k (not easy in today's dollars), no cable, entertainment, savings, or spending money for anything above bills. Quite the American dream for an income that was the national average not long ago.

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the same people will constantly bitch about everything going to shite for the average american but do this in the same breath

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The elitism on this board cracks me up.

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explain how exactly i am wrong

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explain how exactly i am wrong

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If you think a person's only choices are a +$200k house or a shithole then you're completely out of touch with reality.

Or an extremely high maintenance person.

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It costs more/just as much to rent now than it does to have a mortgage

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The main issue is, if you are making $50K a year, the chances you have enough saved for a down payment are slim to none.

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If you think a person's only choices are a +$200k house or a shithole then you're completely out of touch with reality.

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the median existing sale home price is about $360,000 and idk if you've looked around at this country recently, but given that fact i'm pretty comfortable with my statement.

what non shithole areas are you finding livable houses for less than 200k?