Someone Stop the Train (or, Don't Read if You Don't Want to Read More About $$)

[thejessecougar]

I should probably stop PF-blog-reading.  I just get like this once every 6 months and hem and haw and chart and list and read and point-fingers at money stuff.  I just do.  It's because I can't be inspired 24/7 to deal with this crap and every once in a while I do get inspired -- and if we all know anything about me, it's that I have an addictive

Comments

[sholanda]

wow. i followed that link to another link and found my net worth to be NEGATIVE 62k! haha. that is because my house has declined in value a lot. i like to think california will recover from that but if not i'm totally screwed. me and everyone else.

[thejessecougar]

Jeez. I usually never calculate mine because I don't have any property or debt so it's basically my emergency savings added to my retirement funds. But I just set up an account anyway - maybe the numbers will keep me motivated.

Yes! That will all turn around. You are not going to be NEGATIVE forever!

[thejessecougar]

Woah, by calculating it I realized that the mean for all people logging their net worth is $20k over what I've saved (retirement and savings)! I didn't enter an age so it didn't sort by age bracket but STILL. (For NYers, sadly, it's about $6k LESS than I've saved.)

[throwingmarbles]

I haven't been in NY forever, but 100k seems like a whole lot more than "middle class" to me. The new Mercer survey is coming out this month, but on last year's survey Amsterdam had an index of 97 (compared to NY's base 100), which means the cost of living in both cities is close to equal. By the NY Times article standard however, I'd be living in the gutter with my < 40k salary (and that's BEFORE 42% taxes). The opposite is true, although that might partially have to do with my "spend little, save lots" attitude.

Either way, I always think that people who write articles like those have never heard of a supermarket, bicycles, seasonal food, etc. To consider everyone who doesn't live in a mansion and doesn't go out for lunch/dinner a few times a week "lower middle class" is absurd in my opinion.

[thejessecougar]

Yeah, I know that cost of living here is high and all but COME ON.

[throwingmarbles]

Also, I like $$ posts!

[thejessecougar]

Hah! I like that you do but I feel like you're in the minority!

[throwingmarbles]

I suppose it takes a special kind of person to like being reminded of their bad money habits.

I tried calculating my version of Elizabeth Warren's model, but the fact that I am an expat for 4,5 days out of the week throws everything off currently. Also, "needs" and "wants" are relative terms. Is all food I buy a need? Absolutely not. Are all clothes a want? Nope. Taking that into account, when I live and work in Amsterdam full time it boils down to this (calculated from net income):

needs: 67% (hi, mortgage interest!)
savings: 15% (I try, but sometimes fall short. this is excluding payments for my retirement plan, as those get taken out of my gross income and I pretend that plan is non-existant which it might very well be when I turn 60-something).
wants (apparently I *want* my windows to be cleaned) and losses: 18%

When I grow up...

[thejessecougar]

Yeah, that happened to me also. I tried to do mental trade-offs like the food being a "need" 100% (when it's not) and clothes being a "want" 100% (which they're not; in that sometimes I do need them but mostly I want them). I figured that evened out.

Same thing with the cats and the food I buy for the feral colony outside. Is that a want? Yes. But it's an ongoing want I consider part of my responsibility and thusly a need!

[dogpound]

I actually thought it was higher than that to be honest.
NY has a weird swing of incomes and one of the most unique housing situations.

[thejessecougar]

I guess considering the top-level earners we have here, I can see how it'd end up making a weird curve but you'd think they'd guage it on cost of living instead.