Author Topic: CNBC: Scraping by on $500,000 a year.  (Read 4046 times)

Matthew82

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CNBC: Scraping by on $500,000 a year.
« on: March 28, 2019, 12:52:12 PM »
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/06/budget-breakdown-of-a-couple-that-makes-500000-a-year-but-cant-save.html

If anyone's wondering how you might cover childcare for less than $42,000 a year, I'd be happy to offer round the clock service.

PoutineLover

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Re: CNBC: Scraping by on $500,000 a year.
« Reply #1 on: March 28, 2019, 01:14:47 PM »
Wow life sounds so difficult for them. It's so terrible, that they can't even afford "fancy bags, shoes or threads" and only get to go a paltry 3 vacations a year. They should make a go fund me.
/s

the_gastropod

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Re: CNBC: Scraping by on $500,000 a year.
« Reply #2 on: March 28, 2019, 01:32:33 PM »
Wow life sounds so difficult for them. It's so terrible, that they can't even afford "fancy bags, shoes or threads" and only get to go a paltry 3 vacations a year. They should make a go fund me.
/s

This doesn't pass the smell test. $9,500 / year on just clothes, and they claim "no fancy bags, shoes, or threads"... right.. $23,000 for food? Many on this forum spend less than that per year on everything to live. That's ~$500 per person per month.

$5,000 for gas? At 25mpg and ~$3/gallon, that's 40k miles of driving per year. For people allegedly living in NYC. Nope. This is a made-up couple (comically both earning exactly $250k/year) with a made-up budget.

fattest_foot

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Re: CNBC: Scraping by on $500,000 a year.
« Reply #3 on: March 28, 2019, 02:23:49 PM »
I feel like pretty much everything on Financial Samurai is unrealistic clickbait designed to be as outlandish as possible to generate revenue for his blog.

And it apparently works quite well.

Just Joe

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Re: CNBC: Scraping by on $500,000 a year.
« Reply #4 on: March 28, 2019, 07:24:51 PM »
Maybe the budget failed to mention the driver and the nanny?

Bloop Bloop

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Re: CNBC: Scraping by on $500,000 a year.
« Reply #5 on: March 28, 2019, 07:33:20 PM »
I feel like pretty much everything on Financial Samurai is unrealistic clickbait designed to be as outlandish as possible to generate revenue for his blog.

And it apparently works quite well.

Yeah. I don't rate the blog at all.

cloudsail

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Re: CNBC: Scraping by on $500,000 a year.
« Reply #6 on: March 29, 2019, 10:46:21 AM »
Ummm.... if this kind of lifestyle is "scraping by", I don't know what kind of lives we're all living here. Abject poverty???

OtherJen

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Re: CNBC: Scraping by on $500,000 a year.
« Reply #7 on: March 29, 2019, 10:59:53 AM »
Ummm.... if this kind of lifestyle is "scraping by", I don't know what kind of lives we're all living here. Abject poverty???

Apparently. Their food budget alone is just under half of our take-home income for the year. Silly me, I was under the delusion that all of our bills are paid and we live very comfortably.

Cassie

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Re: CNBC: Scraping by on $500,000 a year.
« Reply #8 on: March 29, 2019, 11:26:56 AM »
One of the most ridiculous articles I have ever read.

Maenad

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Re: CNBC: Scraping by on $500,000 a year.
« Reply #9 on: March 30, 2019, 04:53:42 PM »
And it's from 2015 or something, so CNBC just recycles the same old clickbait every year or so to stir up outrage.

calimom

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Re: CNBC: Scraping by on $500,000 a year.
« Reply #10 on: March 30, 2019, 05:36:33 PM »
It's not at all believable. Sure, urban life for 2 well paid professionals with young kids can be expensive and aspirational, but I seriously doubt even then a NY family would have 2 cars. And they each make 'exactly' $250K per year. Uh huh.

ducky19

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Re: CNBC: Scraping by on $500,000 a year.
« Reply #11 on: April 04, 2019, 11:28:47 AM »
Soo.... $200/person/mo in clothes - I didn't realize I was supposed to throw them away after wearing them for a month! Not sure how you do that, even with kids that grow out of clothes.

I also have their effective tax rate at 22.8% - not 40% (apparently they forgot deductions outside of their 401ks... Still have no idea how they would have gotten to an effective tax rate of 40%!). Total taxes should be around $92,000, not $185,600, which frees up around $93,600/yr ($7,800/mo) they could throw into a taxable account.

It would be rough to have a $10,000/yr slush fund for when "things come up". Yeah, overall I'm not buying it.

ETA: If you're making that kind of money and you find yourself with an effective tax rate of 40%, you should really consider hiring some sort of tax professional...
« Last Edit: April 04, 2019, 11:30:36 AM by ducky19 »

PDXTabs

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Re: CNBC: Scraping by on $500,000 a year.
« Reply #12 on: April 04, 2019, 12:08:12 PM »
Soo.... $200/person/mo in clothes - I didn't realize I was supposed to throw them away after wearing them for a month! Not sure how you do that, even with kids that grow out of clothes.

My 17 year old daughter would be happy to show you. However, not with my money.

Goldielocks

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Re: CNBC: Scraping by on $500,000 a year.
« Reply #13 on: April 04, 2019, 06:19:55 PM »
Ummm.... if this kind of lifestyle is "scraping by", I don't know what kind of lives we're all living here. Abject poverty???

Emotionally -- they are "just scraping by"... emotionally.

All of that spending must be related to needing to externally fill a deficiency in one's life / happiness?  They did not sound like they were happy right now.