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Is this an accurate thought?
bill bradski
Member Posts: 30 ✭✭
I was thinking, 50 years ago the normal American family had a working Dad and a mom who stayed home, kids played outside. Divorce was uncommon(my understanding anyway).
Many of those children grew up and got married and both parents worked two jobs, most cases the Dad was still the primary bread winner and the mom had some sort of supplemental income and still took care of the kids. Divorce became more frequent.
I look around at everything these days, you can spend thirty grand on a used car, houses in most areas are well over the quarter million mark for the average home, many places offer "interest only", or 40 year mortgage payments. I was thinking in the reletively near future after I finish grad school I am going to be making some pretty reasonable money (70-80K in most areas of the country). Is that enough for a single guy to live off of or is society progressing to where a family has to have both a man and woman working themselves to death to be able to enjoy life? I'd like to have a car, truck, house, bla, bla, bla. Is a single income going to be enough in ten or twenty years to live decent?
Many of those children grew up and got married and both parents worked two jobs, most cases the Dad was still the primary bread winner and the mom had some sort of supplemental income and still took care of the kids. Divorce became more frequent.
I look around at everything these days, you can spend thirty grand on a used car, houses in most areas are well over the quarter million mark for the average home, many places offer "interest only", or 40 year mortgage payments. I was thinking in the reletively near future after I finish grad school I am going to be making some pretty reasonable money (70-80K in most areas of the country). Is that enough for a single guy to live off of or is society progressing to where a family has to have both a man and woman working themselves to death to be able to enjoy life? I'd like to have a car, truck, house, bla, bla, bla. Is a single income going to be enough in ten or twenty years to live decent?
Comments
If you marry the wrong woman, or listen to every ad you see, you could never make enough
Eventually everyone will be house poor and the only ones making any money will be the banks. Many californians are already spending 90+% of their income on living expenses.
You'd better invest wisely now while you have some disposable income because you will need it later in life.
To answer the question I think $70k - $80k in possible.
My Dad always said "if you watch your pennies the dollars will take care of themselves".
If you do these things you will retire young and wealthy. Do what the remainder of America is doing and die penniless having never retired.
The tax burden and the "I want it now" attitute is destroying the fabric of our financial freedom. The borrower is truly slave to the lender.
Visa is not good for life. Visa is a suck upon the blood of America. It's your money. Why give it to VISA?
a good cosumer economy
Is that a good thing? Don
depends on how much you want to consume.
If you marry the wrong woman, or listen to every ad you see, you could never make enough
That's the facts Jack!
Welcome to the future. Big Business, in collusion with the federal government, has seen to it that the Middle Class will be pulverized as they seek to pander to the low class welfare recipients and the fat-@$$ CEO's with our tax dollars.
here. food is so cheap I am now eating like a king.
I'm retired. One thing is the same( cars & trucks)
I graduated from USC in 1980 with a master of engineering degree and I was already married to my first wife, who held a PhD as a chemical engineer (petroleum). We were both working for Union Oil and we thought we had all the money in the world! Living in a home way too expensive for our incomes, new Mercedes for each of us, expensive vacations, season tickets to the Lakers (when they were worth watching), a big gun collection for me and enough clothes for the wife (who was a beautiful blonde) to fill up an overseas storage container- but she looked fantastic in all of them! We were deeply involved in the oil futures market and making a killing so we kept spending money like we had a printing press out in the garage. Sadly we did not have that printing press and when the oil bubble burst we were BROKE! I was laid off from Union Oil and our money issues hastened our divorce (which would have happenend any way).
I will tell you that same things the other members here did: Don't get too caught up in the idea of how much money it sounds like you are making. You need to take a realistic look at how much money you need to live a comfortable lifestyle and then invest the rest. Concentrate on getting your house and then wait several years before you go out and purchase all of those new toys. If you need a pickup truck go out and buy a good used one and drive it until the wheels fall off and invest the money you'll be saving instead of buying that brand new truck. I own my own engineering business and my wife also earns good money as a university professor so we have a very high combined income (although not as high a Mrs K seems to think) and don't lack for anything (my two daughters are spoiled rotten) but it took us quite a while to get where we are today and money was very tight for quite a few years as my business got started and we bought our new home. 25 years ago I wanted everything NOW and paid the price (flat broke and a ruined marriage). I learned from that mistake and it has paid off for my current wife and myself today. Don't be in a big hurry to spend your money right at the start. If you invest carefully and get your home squared away you will be living in fine style with plenty of toys several years down the road.