re: What's Your Ideal Salary/Life balance?

quote:

---

BR is pretty expensive for a medium sized city I gather (home prices, I mean)?

---

Less than Dallas but not by as much as it should be. You have to pay to not be close to the ghetto. You can buy a 1700 sq ft cookie cutter home in a decent area for 250k. You can find some older homes for less per sq ft.

ETA - that's minimum prices for a decent area. If you want a 2500sq ft house in a nice area it will be 350k. It really defies logic.

Wife and I are taking a different approach, we are working out butts off to earn and invest so that our investments are earning enough for me to be retired mid 40s and she will be at 40. Then we can do what we want and travel.

quote:

---

Wife and I are taking a different approach, we are working out butts off to earn and invest so that our investments are earning enough for me to be retired mid 40s and she will be at 40. Then we can do what we want and travel.

---

You better both be making several hundred thousand dollars and saving alot of money. You'll need several million dollars saved to retire at 40.

quote:

---

That's a stat from US census and wage data. Whether I'm smart or dumb doesn't have any affect on that particular post so I'm not sure what you're trying to get at.

---

A) I never said 100k makes one poor. Nonetheless, you've falsely and stupidly claimed that twice now.

B) Your data must be outdated. 2014 data shows the top 10% at 155k, and more recent estimates have it at 165-175k.

Ideal salary IMO is $400k per year combined income for 30 years and average 30 hours per week. I would have zero financial worries.

It is cheaper than Baton Rouge. I am not sure why the homes are so big. I would love to downsize to a 1800-2000 sq foot home, but they are extremely hard to find in this area.

quote:

---

Wife and I are taking a different approach, we are working out butts off to earn and invest so that our investments are earning enough for me to be retired mid 40s and she will be at 40. Then we can do what we want and travel.

---

Good luck, especially if you're retiring to "travel" in your mid 40s.

I was fine making 70+ single in Addison, Tx.

Now my wife and I make north of $150,000 and seem to be broke

Maybe we are not good with money

quote:

---

You just said that you couldn't live comfortably in a city on that amount, which is asinine statement

---

I don't know hoe people define "comfortably," but the median household income in NYC is like $55k. Median income in Greenwich Village and Soho is $120k.

That's median too. It can obviously be done.

100k doesn’t go as far as some people on this board make it seem like it does. By the time you pay taxes and put away money for retirement, you’re looking at about 5k a month take home. If you live in a decent area, rent or mortgage can run you 1600-2500. 100k is not a lot of money unless you want to live in a shite part of town or a 30 minute drive from all the good stuff.