Author Topic: Vancouver couple can't make ends meet on $25,000/month  (Read 3950 times)

elysianfields

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 511
  • Location: Asia
« Last Edit: January 23, 2015, 01:37:01 AM by elysianfields »

PEIslander

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 168
  • Age: 62
  • Location: Prince Edward Island, Canada
Re: Vancouver couple can't make ends meet on $25,000/month
« Reply #1 on: January 23, 2015, 02:58:50 AM »
This was the subject of a another recent thread...

http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/antimustachian-wall-of-shame-and-comedy/couple-earns-450k-year-and-can't-make-ends-meet/

(It still boggles the mind: One-day-a-week job with $200k in pay! And not only that he has a second one-day-a-week job that pays an additional $100k a year!)

MgoSam

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3684
  • Location: Minnesota
Re: Vancouver couple can't make ends meet on $25,000/month
« Reply #2 on: January 23, 2015, 03:28:38 AM »
This was the subject of a another recent thread...

http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/antimustachian-wall-of-shame-and-comedy/couple-earns-450k-year-and-can't-make-ends-meet/

(It still boggles the mind: One-day-a-week job with $200k in pay! And not only that he has a second one-day-a-week job that pays an additional $100k a year!)

I wonder if he worked a third day, would that pay an additional $50k?

Pooplips

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 462
  • Age: 37
Re: Vancouver couple can't make ends meet on $25,000/month
« Reply #3 on: January 23, 2015, 01:08:46 PM »
O the struggle is real. Haha

MandalayVA

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1569
  • Location: Orlando FL
Re: Vancouver couple can't make ends meet on $25,000/month
« Reply #4 on: January 23, 2015, 01:45:42 PM »
What got me is that they have five kids but ZERO life or disability insurance.  That's idiotic.

A cautionary tale about that situation--a friend of one of my cousins was a stay-at-home mom to four kids.  Dad was making big bucks as an investment banker.  They lived in a huge house, had huge SUVs, spent a ton of money taking expensive vacations, basically had all the things ... except life insurance.  They were in their mid-thirties and their reasoning was that they were young, he was making money, they'd be okay.  What could possibly happen?

Um ... how about September 11, 2001?  Dad worked for Cantor Fitzgerald, which lost TWO THIRDS of its employees that day.  Dad was sadly in that number.  Mom quickly found out that they were in massive debt.  Did she make plans to sell the house and downsize, try to find a job, etc.?  Of course not.  She sent emails to people begging them for money.  I know this because my cousin gave her my email address (and earned a virtual facepunch from me when I found out).

Since Cantor Fitzgerald gave a ton of money to the families and she almost certainly got a chunk of change from the fundraisers, maybe everything worked out.  If Dad had had life insurance, however, which can be had stupid cheap when you're young, the debt could have been wiped out and she would have had a decent nest egg.  But I still remember sitting in front of my computer reading that email and saying out loud "are you fucking KIDDING me?"   


dandarc

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 5433
  • Age: 41
  • Pronouns: he/him/his
Re: Vancouver couple can't make ends meet on $25,000/month
« Reply #5 on: January 23, 2015, 01:49:56 PM »
+1 Mandalay - it is one thing to eschew life insurance if you have very low obligations, or a large net worth.  But 5 kids and a lot of debt is not a good situation to roll the dice.  Life insurance is particularly important for the non-mustachian majority.  Long-term disability is probably even more important.

zephyr911

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3619
  • Age: 45
  • Location: Northern Alabama
  • I'm just happy to be here. \m/ ^_^ \m/
    • Pinhook Development LLC
Re: Vancouver couple can't make ends meet on $25,000/month
« Reply #6 on: January 23, 2015, 01:51:32 PM »
The Sun pokes some fun with the by-line, "Shed a tear for Eric and Ilsa, the one-percenters who can't catch a break"

http://www.vancouversun.com/business/affordability/Vancouver+couple+struggles+make+ends+meet+only/10742014/story.html

Edited to point to the original article in the Globe & Mail:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/personal-finance/mortgages/debt-doubts-cast-a-shadow-for-this-professional-couple-with-five-kids/article22496585/
Oh those poor things. Send the waambulance with a load of lavender-scented hankies so they can cry themselves to sleep without staining their silk pillows.
If I made that kind of money I'd retire somewhere inside the second year... just buy an apartment complex, move in, pay it off and *poof* you're done. Free housing plus at least 30k/yr nearly tax-free... <3 depreciation.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!