Their household income is roughly $500,000 per year. While they make a good living, they try to be frugal and are saving money to buy an apartment. They moved into their roughly 800-square-foot rental eight years ago when it was just them and their dog, Peabody, a Maltese poodle. Now their son’s crib is steps away from their bed. They installed a curtain between the bed and the crib to keep the light out.... Since they share a room with their son, he often wakes them up around 5 a.m. 'In the sweetest and most adorable way,' Ms. Gossai said.
They make $500,000! $500,000 and they've got a makeshift curtain separating their baby from their bed and are resorting to framing the situation as adorable.
I wonder how much thinking went into referring to the dog as a "Maltese poodle," rather than a "Maltipoo." Is this a sign of the great turn against the -oodle? Or is this run-of-the-mill resistance to cutesiness?
Posts
98 comments:
$50,000 a year on daycare. Ouch. $47,000 a year on rent.
The headline and premise are exactly why most normies hate the corporate media. The NYT cannot pull its own head out of its own ass.
My wife and I make good money, but not quite $500k a year. In our backwards red state that even Talarico may lose; you can easily afford a 2000 sqft home on enough land for the dog to run around out back and to park 2+ cars in the garage. At least both my daughters have pulled that off with their families making even a fraction of that. They also live debt free.
Half-a-mil to subsist for a year. In glorious NYC. Hopefully, they wouldn't dream of trading that for something different, somewhere else. Their tax dollars are important, there's a lot of people depending on them.
C'mon, man - It's only a little blood, it's not like they're taking all of it.
Why didn't the NYTimes mention the following?
Total Estimated Income Taxes (Federal + State + City)
Rough total: $175,000–$195,000.
Effective overall rate: ~35–39%
I am wet with compassion.
You're wondering about the dog? I'm wondering how much half a million is after taxes and how much they're putting away each year for the down payment on that $5 million condo in a doorman building they want to buy.
How that gets them into The New York Times tells me more about who they're friends with than what half a million a year gets you in NYC.
Those poor, poor, people.
The MSM in a SAVE Act story talk about how only half the population have passports. Then they run stories about airport lines and collisions as if most people are frequent flyers. And finally they run stories like this. CC, JSM
People here talking about what half a million would get them in their own city are missing a major point--the jobs that pay them half a million in NYC will not pay them half a million where you live.
You can't do a 1:1 comparison; you need to think of it as a different currency.
Outsiders make a huge mistake when observing the well-to-do or wealthy: One does not become rich by being a spender. One becomes rich by being a saver (or a miser).
When a saver has a mountain of gold to sit upon, they enjoy the feeling of having the moutain more than spending it and making the mountain shrink.
Hardcore savers often struggle to spend in retirement too, with half or more dying with more money than they had when they quit working. Some die with a LOT more, and this results in the joke "He sought to be the richest person in the graveyard."
They may still not even be savers. Doing the math, at $500K per year, 32% will be eaten by federal tax, and who knows how much more by their specific NYC state and local taxes. With a $350K income, one person may be priced out of 401k matching too. Let's say they net $250K per year. Of that, a big chunk will go to a modest mortgage/rent, a big chunk to daycare, and perhaps tens of thousands into savings. They may not have much left over.
Jacob Riis is spinning in his grave.
Welcome to New York.
Ah, I love stories of hardscrabble folks.
$500,000 and they've got a makeshift curtain separating their baby from their bed and are resorting to framing the situation as adorable.
Think how much more affordable the city would be if all the people like these recognized living in New York City isn't all that essential and moved out.
If you can make it on $500,000 a year in an 800 SQFT apartment, you can make it anywhere.
I've got family in Seattle, San Francisco, and New York. In all three cases we can only shake our heads at their insistence on living in 'the center of the universe' (in each case). We look at what we have here in Florida, the life we have the atmosphere around us, the space we have to live in, the weather...and then we look at them, and yeah....they have better bagels and croissants than we do. Or in the case of Seattle, better...uh...um....hot pot? But damn...800 sf for a family with dog? Even our poorest down here have more than that.
Just think of how nice a home in Madison one could have with a family income of $500,000.
Welcome to New York, $500K a year is immediately due
Welcome to New York, 800 square feet is the best you can do
Welcome to New York, you get just one Multipoo
Welcome to New York, welcome to New York
"Since they share a room with their son, he often wakes them up around 5 a.m. 'In the sweetest and most adorable way,' Ms. Gossai said."
They also wake him up in the sweetest and most adorable way, with her her ass up and her face biting a pillow.
New York City - Where trust is just a name on a bank.
I guess they couldn't find one of those nifty rent-stabilized apartments, like Mayor Zorhan had.
Enigma said...
Hardcore savers often struggle to spend in retirement too, with half or more dying with more money than they had when they quit working.
I'm not hardcore anything, but mindful of money stuff. When I retired, it was a struggle to abandon socking money away for retirement.
They'll get old and move out, just like we all did.
Here's what I get from this post; the New York City metro area economic bubble is absurdly expensive and the people that remain there might be insane.
Think about the dollars; $500,000 a year times 8 years is $4,000,000 (that's 4 million dollars). Lets just say that them being frugal means that they save $200,000 of their $500,000 income every year, that means they have saved $1,600,000 over the last 8 years. So using my estimates, they've saved $1.6 million dollars and they still haven't purchased an apartment, let me say that again, they still haven't purchased an "apartment"! Apartments in the New York City metro area bust be absurdly expensive!
I know from my south central Wisconsin perch this looks absurd, but seriously, folks this is wildly absurd! WTF?!?!?!?!?!
Aren't the people that live in New York City metro area aware that there is a real world, a relatively reasonable world, outside the absurdly expensive economic bubble they're living in in the New York City metro area?
Insanity is repeating the same actions while expecting different results. There must be something wrong with the water in the New York City metro area that causes people to flush their intellect down the porcelain God and choose to remain in that absurdly expensive economic bubble.
Clearly, I don't get it.
My family room is over 600 square feet.
I cannot tolerate being in New York City for more than 36 hours. To actually live there sounds like living in hell, especially with this enemy communist foreigner in charge now.
I’ve lived in big cities, small cities, and the country. I can tell you fancy, I can tell you plain: You give something up for every thing you gain.
How mych is spent on taxes and fees, directly and indirectly. How much of their rent goes into taxes their landlord pays, their childcare provider pays. And do they get services in return: crime free city, clean surroundings, well managed transportation systems?
It will not get any easier in 800 sq ft as the child grows. The dog deserves a better life.
Maltese poodles are running about $3000 in New York. Maybe they should have considered a rescue.
For a while, I owned houses in Idaho and Arizona. I bought the second one when I was making $40k/yr. Half a million dollars and living like that? Knock yourself out.
@Steve Witherspoon: Aren't the people that live in New York City metro area aware that there is a real world, a relatively reasonable world, outside the absurdly expensive economic bubble they're living in in the New York City metro area?
Having lived in some of these absurdly expensive areas myself:
1. Everyone is aware that they are in top most expensive communities. This includes NYC, DC, Hollywood, and Silicon Valley. These are generally "where you must be" for top finance, politics, entertainment, and tech jobs.
2. They often have management careers that are only available in a handful of cities. With $500K in NYC, the odds suggest Wall St. and finance. Remote work is not accepted in the face-to-face management meeting culture.
3. They can either be "lifers" who thrive on competition and love the thought of living among the power players in the upper crust, or they can be short-term mercenaries who indeed stay for 5, 10, or 15 years and then cash out.
4. Some swing from branch to branch in unstable roles (e.g., tech and entertainment) until they land a stable job, and then change their patterns.
The dumb ones spend everything they earn thinking that the gravy train never ends, while the smarter ones hold some savings in reserve. Silicon Valley advice was to save 25% of gross income because new start ups fail so quickly. They are then able to float for a year with $0 income until the next start up job came along.
Maltese Poodle sounds like a sequel Disney would make.
Manhattan is quite livable if you’re staying in a midtown hotel on an expense account.
There are easier places to live than NYC.
The NYT . Mike Wolf has it
1/2 a million a year is chump change to the elite communists who would love to impoverish all of us and turn us into Cuba .
Btw F code punk , all heartless posh communists, soros and sell out mtg
To be fair, they've got a great location, right across from Central Park and close to the Museum of Natural History. These places are an extension of their enclosed private space, their apartment, and it makes a huge difference in how you feel. You can go right out the door and feel that all this great stuff is part of your space. I'm saying that based on living in Greenwich Village for 5 years in the mid-1970s and in Park Slope near Prospect Park in the early 80s.
I've got great outdoor public spaces all around me where I live in Madison too. There's that concept of the "borrowed scenery" — known in Japanese as shakkei (借景).
Apparently, about $300,000 goes to taxes, daycare, and rent, in that order. Of the $200,000 that’s left, I imagine that they would only be able to save at most $150,000, and that’s living on rice and beans—in which case, why bother to live in Manhattan?
Having a son and DIL living in Manhattan now on about $250,000, I have a decent idea of costs. They spend $4000/mo for a pleasant but not upscale one-bedroom apartment in Chelsea. They looked at a roomy, charming 2-br right across the river in Hoboken for about $4200. Point being, the couple in the article could get a second bedroom if they were willing to move out of Manhattan.
But it’s crazy how little room there is in our son’s budget after taxes, rent, and 401k. Plus, his fiancée has student loans to pay off.
How much of their income goes to student loans? If one of them is an MD, those loans could be $400-500K.
I imagine that they would only be able to save at most $150,000, and that’s living on rice and beans—in which case, why bother to live in Manhattan?
They are not living on rice and beans if they spent $3000 on a dog (although those dogs are damn cute).
Enigma wrote, "Having lived in some of these absurdly expensive areas myself..."
Thanks for providing your perspective.
From my upper midwest perch perspective, all that money changing hands for basic accommodation necessities seems quite absurd, to the point of insanity.
It seems like a vicious unending circle of supply and demand; the salaries are so high because the cost of living in the NYC metro area is absurdly high, and the cost of living is so absurdly high because there are people making loads and loads of money that are willing and able to spend absurd amounts of dollars on everything, thus driving up the cost of everything even more. Etc, etc...
I'm interested in watching what happens in that metro area with Zohran Mamdani as Mayor of NYC. Sure NYC metro area is a really f'ed up economic bubble, but are Mamdani's socialistic policies going to turn the tide and save it in the long run or will they destroy it like they have done all over the world? I'll definitely be watching the NYC full blown "socialist experiment".
My wife lived at Central Park West for a couple years. Got purse snatched twice, and was a colleague of Trisha Meili. Look her up if you don't remember.
No Bonfire of thd Vanities tag?
[Sherman McCoys] spirits plunged even lower. One breath of scandal, and not only would the Giscard scheme collapse but his very career would be finished! And what would he do then? I’m already going broke on a million dollars a year!
And that was early 90 when a million was still money.
John Henry
I worked for a company that moved from my slightly smaller city to New York (for various reasons, but mostly because the owners thought they'd get more respect). I stayed behind to run our original office as a temporary satellite location. We were surprised to see that the new NYC hires were paid nearly double our salaries (and yes, our cost of living was lower than theirs, but not twice as low). And it was clear from emails that these New Yorkers all thought the original employees were rubes and that they were saving the company -- despite the fact that we had run it successfully for many years.
Impoverished poverty.
John henry said...No Bonfire of thd Vanities tag?...that was early 90 when a million was still money.
Even earlier--mid-80's. I loved how Wolfe detailed where the million went, explaining that that's the minimum livable salary for the upper crust.
These comments are interesting--the people outraged that someone would live in Manhattan when their half a million could get so much more somewhere else without considering that that half a million job either doesn't exist or doesn't pay nearly so much anywhere else.
I look at my house, main floor 3br 2 bath, living /dining room, kitchen in 1,000 sq feet. (another m of basement)
We raised 2 kids here and it has never felt small. We never felt like getting anything bigger.
How bad can an 800 sq foot apt be?
John Henry
Why do I suspect they are good Democrats who voted for Mamdani in hopes he would help victims like themselves?
someone would live in Manhattan when their half a million could get so much more somewhere else without considering that that half a million job either doesn't exist or doesn't pay nearly so much anywhere else.
Anyone smart enough to have a Masters of the Universe job on Wall Street is smart enough to go to medical school and take a specialty residency for a career that will pay more than $500K almost anywhere in the country. In fact, if you're from North Dakota or rural Texas or some other place in flyover country that you'd be happy to live, the medical jobs in these underserved areas often pay BETTER than in "desirable" places like NYC, California, or Miami.
However, there is some opportunity cost to spending 11 to 13 years after high school getting ready for such a career.
the jobs that pay them half a million in NYC will not pay them half a million where you live.
I mean sure, they could make less money in Texas than NYC. But I know families making just under $100k combined incomes doing better in Texas.
Payscale.com says the cost of living in NYC is 157% higher than Houston, which is comparable to pay (hence the websites name). But the same website notes that Housing is 540% higher in NYC vs Houston. I think it is fair game to note that discrepancy. A similar discrepancy in cost of living (138%) and housing (429%) with NYC vs Dane County.
“1. Everyone is aware that they are in top most expensive communities. This includes NYC, DC, Hollywood, and Silicon Valley. These are generally "where you must be" for top finance, politics, entertainment, and tech jobs.”
“2. They often have management careers that are only available in a handful of cities. With $500K in NYC, the odds suggest Wall St. and finance. Remote work is not accepted in the face-to-face management meeting culture.”
For how much longer? Company HQs do seem to be fleeing more quickly from CA these days than NYC. BUT it’s only a matter of time before NY discovers Wealth taxes. Corporate back offices have long fled. Why keep the top tier of a company in NYC? Finance, maybe. The lawyers and finance people for these big companies will follow.
There are still some industries where face to face is important. I can see Fashion and Art being stuck there for the immediate future. But with high speed Internet across the country, it makes less and less sense to pay the steep premium for face to face.
protip:
IF you are making half a MILLION a YEAR,
and are living in squalor in NYC.. it is BECAUSE you WANT TO.
you can work remote..
the taxes you save (in one year) will pay for a nice house in in Northeast Iowa.
(well, a MUCH nicer house than your hovel in NYC)
Professor? how much was Your rent in NYC back in the day?
just approimately, no fine detail
Sure salaries are lower outside of the golden glow of San Fran or the Big Apple. But the costs are more than proportionately higher. Just imagine your marginal Federal income tax rate at 22% instead of 32%. Or day care 1/4th of theirs. Not to mention local taxes (why did even "R" congress critters from these areas squeal like the piglets they are when the Salt deduction was capped?). And on and on.
Me? I'll stay, happily, in my paid for 2,000+ sq. ft., paid for home in a nice neighborhood. I'll even, reluctantly pay the $600 per YEAR property tax. Life is good here in the sticks.
YMMV
"..With $500K in NYC, the odds suggest Wall St. and finance. Remote work is not accepted in the face-to-face management meeting culture..”
it's going to become harder and harder to do face-to-face meetings when the rich have all moved to Florida
Our first place in the big city was 950 square feet. Our five young children slept in one bedroom and we slept in the other. Without a doubt those twelve years were among the happiest of our lives.
I know a director at a firm that operates strategic peer-consulting meetings for CEOs and C level executives. Pre-covid those meetings were all in person. Post covid, 90% are on zoom, and former members who moved out of the area have rejoined. So now they operate globally.
NYC has little to offer today to compensate for the costs of doing business there.
'To be fair, they've got a great location, right across from Central Park and close to the Museum of Natural History.'
Nuff said.
@Bruce Hayden and @gilbar on jobs being tied to big blue cities versus cheaper remote and redder places.
Yes, both CA and NY (plus WA) seem to be hunting the geese that lay golden eggs. Ego, denial, greed, corruption, and pride go before destruction. There is a lot of resistance to remote work with both the (presumed conservative) office-owning real estate class and blue city politicians. The far left Democrat Mayor of DC Muriel Bowser and real estate developer Donald Trump both wanted employees back at their desks. This despite solid evidence that many jobs work just as well remotely, and that remote work brings in marginal participants (e.g., older; disabled).
Large scale remote work would indeed crush the economies of costly blue cities, and we'll see soon what it does to CA and NY. CA has a weather and nature buffer, but NY beyond Manhattan and Long Island is nothing special and may weaken first.
Anyone smart enough to have a Masters of the Universe job on Wall Street is smart enough to go to medical school and take a specialty residency for a career that will pay more than $500K almost anywhere in the country.
You assume that just because a couple makes $500,000 a year they are smart. Unfortunately, a lot of people who really aren't that smart (but went to the right schools or came from the right family, or just lucky or charismatic) make a lot of money.
They've voted to put the crocodile in charge, certain that he will eat the fat, rich ones first - but on the assumption that the fat, rich ones aren't smart enough to go elsewhere.
"...There's that concept of the "borrowed scenery" — known in Japanese as shakkei..." Oh - it's paid for, hon. It's paid for. Now, the putative owners of the scenery might not have made that connection, yet, but the newly-elected are under the distinct impression that the 'scenery' is under new ownership.
I can't wait for the Second act.
Ted said, "And it was clear from emails that these New Yorkers all thought the original employees were rubes . . . ."
A lot--I won't say most--of New Yorkers think that about anyone west of the Hudson. That Steinberg cartoon is a classic for good reason.
“ Anyone smart enough to have a Masters of the Universe job on Wall Street is smart enough to go to medical school and take a specialty residency for a career that will pay more than $500K almost anywhere in the country.”
Well, no. Very different skill sets and aptitudes. Med school requires good memorization, little sleep, and a lot of hard work. But not that much (comparatively) in quant skills or ability to think abstractly. In the Bell Curve, the average IQ of pretty much all doctorate degrees (excluding Dr Jill’s EdD) was roughly one std above the mean - maybe 123 or so.
This means that for the most part, the average MD is going to struggle in many other fields. My partner and her father would have had an easy time in Med School. They were high energy and had photographic memories. But at least she probably couldn’t have survived even a BS where my daughter got her PhD (MechE). Partner struggled with Algebra. I taught daughter Derivatives in middle school, and heavily used partial differential equations in her dissertation and at work. Her two best friends from HS ended up with medical field doctorates (DDS, PharmD). They both had to beg their way into the junior year Calculus class, but survived, thanks to my daughter, who topped the test.
In the finance field, at the top, you either need to be able to bring in well paying clients, or be very good with math. One of my best friends from college got his MBA from Chicago. Minor in Finance, where he hung around with Finance majors who ended up in NYC as quants. They all ended up either as billionaires or high centas. Being good at calculus was a minimum requirement to even understand it. (Chicago was at the forefront of that movement because of its Econ Dept).
As for me, math has always been easy. Math major because it took the least amount of work. Just think about things a bit. A lot of “Let’s Pretend”. Can’t memorize at all. Never could. Had several successful pre-meds in the fraternity house. They worked their butts off, but I had to tutor several of them in Calculus. They were reasonably intelligent, good at memorizing, grinds. One Chem major, whom all his profs expected to go to Med school, went law instead, struggled mightily, got little sleep, and barely survived. I worked 40 hours a week as a software engineer, committed another 20, and did much better. My old sleep doctor had dual doctorates. For him, his JD was much harder than his MD, because in the latter, he just had to memorize, while in LS, he had to think, and that’s harder when sleep deprived. And with practicing MDs, you see a lot of that - regurgitation from supposed experts, and little understanding of the underlying science. Not all, of course. Plenty of brilliant MDs out there. Bell Curve. And my partner was lucky enough to hook into a circle of them in LAS. And none of them liked the COVID-19 ModRNA vaccines.
So, no, different doctorates aren’t interchangeable. Some people excel in one area, while others excel in other areas. A top finance guy may not have been able to even get into Med school, and likely wouldn’t have been happy as a practicing physician. I would have hated it.
Living in the big city is like having kids: If you don’t get it you shouldn’t do it.
I spent 185K on a 1400 sq ft house in the North GA Mountains with 15 acres, two creeks, a pond, walking trails, gardens fed by fresh water (room for 7 acres of gardens), a ridge, house set well for drainage, and no visible human neighbors. I probably had to put another 175K into repairing and forest mulching it, even though I did much of the work. We have three decks, a giant workshop, a five-person sauna, a tai chi exercise drilled porch, and seasons. We are close to but far enough from traffic for upscale and normal grocery stores, farm stands, and doctors. Property taxes, $1200 a year; state income taxes 6%, with frequent $500 refunds from the governor. An electric collective that sends back hundreds a year and costs practically nothing. Well water, septic, a trip to the dump once a month that costs around $6, and cheap internet and phones.
I grew up in New York. One relative pays more in a month for property taxes on a 1/8 acre than I do in a year, and I pay no city or county taxes. Yeah, we have coyotes, and once two lunatic golden labradoodles trailing leashes chased my cat. I shot a shotgun far over their heads into a tree (I am not a bad shot), and they never came back. I do irrationally fear the occasional loose cow. This region is considered the least likely to experience a natural disaster.
It's good to live in a well-run red state.
Drop in the despicable chant coming from the fans and students of the University of Pennsylvania following their team's thrashing at the hands of Illinois and articles like this, it becomes easier and easier to understand how Trump got elected - generation E (entitled) at its finest.
"Leland said...
... In our backwards red state that even Talarico may lose; you can easily afford a 2000 sqft home on enough land for the dog to run around out back and to park 2+ cars in the garage. ..."
Correlation and causation.
Imagine what could have been done for your family with all the hundreds of thousands spent on nothing. New Yorkers have twisted values.
Meanwhile Hochul is crying and whining that all the taxpayers have moved out of her state and their is no one left to fund her and Mamdani's national socialism.
"Meanwhile Hochul is crying and whining that all the taxpayers have moved out of her state..."
They haven't all moved but since a lot of the richer ones are gone, half-millionaires like the folks in the article are going to have to pick up the slack.
If you are paid a lot of money, but most of it is taken by the high prices of the company store before you can use it as a tool to improve your life, then you really don't make a lot of money. You are almost a slave, just getting the basics of food and housing to keep you working. Why go to school or work hard for that?
“ Professor? how much was Your rent in NYC back in the day?
just approimately, no fine detail”
I think when we first moved there in 1973 it was under $200. In the end, when we had the ground floor of a brownstone in 1984, it was maybe $800.
I like visiting NYC, because it's different, and it's NYC. I don't see why people who like it, don't live somewhere more affordable and just visit. I loved Los Angeles when I lived there. It really has a lot to enjoy, but after moving away, I don't see it the same, and I have not been back in years. Some of this need to be in these large cities is an addiction to an illusion.
In 1983, I shared a 2 bedroom townhouse with 4 guys and 1 couch in L.A.. We slept on the floor. It was $625, and that was in a bad part of town. It was the same rent I paid for off-campus housing at Slippery Rock State College in PA in 1980, also with 4 guys. I had a lot of fun when I was broke, just not expensive fun.
"I loved Los Angeles when I lived there."
I loved growing up there. Well- OC actually (and nobody called it that then), but still... By the time I left (late 80's) a lot of what I loved was gone. Every trip back, I'm reminded how much less I enjoy the place than the last time I visited.
I made close to that amount when I lived in the Bay Area and I was living paycheck to paycheck. The cost of living in some places is unbearable. I was happy to put California in my rear view mirror. It made me a huge supporter of the working class. I don’t know how middle and lower class workers can exist in those places. The democrats used to be the party of the working class but they threw them under the bus. Sadly, republicans aren’t that much better.
According to Google AI, a couple earning $500K in NYC would pay approximately 42% of that in state, local and federal taxes. That's $210,000.
According to Google AI, a couple earning $500K in NYC would pay approximately 42% of that in state, local and federal taxes.
If you include all taxes in California — sales taxes, property taxes, real-estate transfer taxes, taxes and fees on vehicles, gasoline taxes, hotel taxes, etc etc — you get pretty close to handing over half your income.
In a related note, JP Morgan now has more employees domiciled in Texas than in NY. The worm is turning.
NYC has city income taxes, county income taxes, state income taxes and, of course, federal income taxes. I learned this after 10+ years of 2 children living in the city.
If you are willing to live in a non-doorman, no gym, no package room, building you will pay less rent. You just have to decide what’s most important to you.
Ha. The story focuses on the insanely expensive real estate market in Manhattan especially for someone trying to buy but not having a similar but slightly smaller unit to sell. Althouse wants to talk about dog-naming protocols.
Okey-dokey.
If there is an affordability crisis in NYC and this is what a half million a year income can afford there, can we admit this a NYC crisis and not a national phenomenon?
One of the things I really enjoy about living in Las Vegas over L.A. or NYC is mobility. In L.A. you have to drive, but it takes forever to get somewhere, and it's a miserable drive in traffic, and when you get where you are going parking is always limited, and there are lines to get in everywhere, so you spend a lot of time getting to and in places.
In NYC you can't drive or park, so you transit, which is either expensive or dangerous or both, and often unpleasant.
In Vegas, I can drive in my own car to anything in town in 20 minutes or less, there is always easy parking, and rarely lines to get in. Best of all, is that I can be in the mountains, at the lake or on a trail in 30 minutes, no traffic or parking woes. Just go, and we do. We eat out most of the time, we go to the wilderness every week, we go to concerts or festivals and, and it's never crowded to the point of making you stand around. Even the Strip is easy, but we mostly avoid it, because it's just not a good deal. Vegas also has surprisingly little homeless and urban blight for a city. Tourist industry keeps it tamped down.
You can get by on 500,000 a year in NYC if you actually live in Pennsylvania. One of today's crazy things I never foresaw was that people are actually commuting from the Poconos to Manhattan.
Everyone whom lives in rural country thinks anyone from a big city is an overeducated moron with zero common sense. They're quite proud of being rubes because they're not rats in an endless maze. However, if they get cancer...
Everyone whom lives in a big city thinks anyone from rural country is an undereducated moron with zero common sense. They're quite proud of being superior because they're not bitter clinger deplorables. However, if they want to get something to eat...
Prole, Back when my wife and I were both well-employed, in the SF bay area, I calculated roughly 50% total taxes several years running. I bet it's worse, now.
If it's bad now, wait until Mamdani jacks up their taxes
There's a really nice condo complex in upper Manhattan called Hudson View Gardens with two bedroom apartments for well under a million - 675k for this one. Outdoor spaces, views of the river. Probably the neighborhood isn't chic enough for these morons.
People seem to overlook the network effect of having all the same sort of companies in the same general area. It's why sport shoe companies are all largely in Boston. Wall Street finance, publishing NYC. SV startups in SV! They all poach each other's employees and they steal each other's ideas. And then you have the schools acting as feeders for low level interns.
.."In the end, when we had the ground floor of a brownstone in 1984, it was maybe $800.."
thanx Professor! that seems like it was pretty reasonable.
we were paying (i think) $350/month for a 3 bedroom duplex in Ames back then.. Which was trivial..
It's easy to see WHY people USED TO live in the city
Ain't that the truth, Mason. Practical truth is people always say the grass is greener on their side of the fence while they suspect that it might be greener on the other side of the fence. In any event, comparison is the thief of Joy as much as satisfaction is the end of desire.
I love cliches because they are so true
The wife seems reasonably attractive, maybe she should supplement their income with an OnlyFans account. And no one banking less than a couple million a year should let the word "Maltipoo" pass their lips.
Didn’t read the article, but I don’t think living in an 800 sq ft place on the UWS can be considered squalor. As Anne said, you are right by Central Park and everything you need is in walking distance. I know someone who raised two kids in a 700 sq ft one bedroom. They can last awhile longer in that place.
Is that “great location” also rent-controlled?
The post-COVID CA and NY attacks on billionaires and the wealthy are backfiring -- their targets are leaving for Texas and Florida. This is not news, as the progressive tax system has done it for decades. Working harder is not rewarded, and you must earn a lot more to take home a little more.
Finance planning has become a period-by-period, year-by-year game of Frogger: Social Security get taxed, ACA (Obamacare) subisides disappear at 400% of the poverty level, earning a high income with Medicare results in IRMAA charges, 401k deferrals phase out with income -- and that juicy pre-tax retirement account is a timebomb for RMDs at age 73 or 75.
These rules were all meant to "tax the rich" for wealth redistribution, but end up being a disincentive to work and to earn income. Once you reach a certain point, logic calls for not earning any more money -- it'll just fall into a black hole unless you are truly wealthy.
The maximum a working couple can earn before the point of diminishing returns is the 22% tax bracket; early retiree couples get trapped at $85K income per year (ACA), and then the age 65+ taxes (Social Security / Medicare) make the "best deal" is if one stays in the 22% tax bracket or less.
If you have savings, plan ahead or you WILL get clotheslined before you notice and when it's too late to fix it. Start planning no later than age 55.
The thing wealthy bitches like ann most enjoy in old age is not spending their wealth or using it on philanthropy, unless you call putting a roof over the head of an undereducated divorced commoner and buying him a camper truck, bikes and water toys to keep him kept with her as his new old lady, is judging others. Snarking and laughing at those with less than her.
She cheers innocent death and stupid wars because she thinks it makes her strong and popular. Money wise, she is tighter than a clam sitting on her mountain of cash. She will never know the joy of opening her wallets surprising a hard working lesser with a tip or gift to help them when hope was almost lost... not to children even. She mocks poor children... " how did you get two laptops??" No paying it forward nor back. No interest in the field she once studied, professed on and made her wealth. No donations in the name of justice, no scholarships set up in her name. She just takes, slanders others and laughs at them confident she is superior in all ways,
I am reminded of the James Baldwin quote of most people in the end revealing themselves simply in the lives they lead. I forgive the professor for the lies in the isthmus article against me when she was growing her blogging career, as well as her disdain in the classroom for one who dared challenge her narration of the facts of a case about stacking on an interstate auto policy. She backed down, because I was correct in challenging her spin, and innocently, did not know my place in verbally sparring with her east coast vision of the facts... I questioned her authority in resetting an early morning test date on the university schedule to accommate the students who voted to sleep in that day and rewrite the rules the law school set out that were fair to all and known in advance... she never forgave me and set out to smear my reputation by making false accusations and tank my career before it even started.
But I survive, and every day she is growing older and closer to the grave... I won't be glad if I outlive her and read of her death. Just weep that she was unrepentant and so ugly in the end. She doesn't grow and she contopinually punches down at people like those in this story. Her loss, but that is the poor life she chooses to lead, as Baldwin noted. She weighs her worth in tip jar hits and the number of old man sycophants she collects. A poor person laughing and judging others as a grown is her legacy. No life wisdom, no kindness... ugly to the bone despite the outer upkeep. Oh... she spends on that with her expensive beauty cremedps and $75 lipsticks, but a pink pig is still a pink pig, as the expression goes...
Post a Comment
Please use the comments forum to respond to the post. Don't fight with each other. Be substantive... or interesting... or funny. Comments should go up immediately... unless you're commenting on a post older than 4 days. Then you have to wait for us to moderate you through. It's also possible to get shunted into spam by the machine. We try to keep an eye on that and release the miscaught good stuff. We do delete some comments, but not for viewpoint... for bad faith.