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Lots of talk about that. And I've been curious as well, given that I have people that work for me.

I mentioned in that other post, I was trying to get one of my techs to $50k per year. I thought that was a pretty respectable wage. Is it? Can a family live on 50k per year nowadays?

In Detroit, yes. In NYC or SanFran, no.

Also they need to have mature spending habits.

So, maybe?

Cakedaddy wrote: Can a family live on 50k per year nowadays?

Not where I live. Or maybe barely. I could live on $50k... by myself. Probably.

I would guess a decent middle class life for family of four around here would be $75k to $100k.

Why so much? Food that much more expensive there? Clothes? Utilities?

Cakedaddy wrote: Why so much? Food that much more expensive there? Clothes? Utilities?

Well, our city doesn't look like a nuclear bomb went off, so....

Housing is not crazy here, but it's more expensive than most of the midwest. Median house in Raleigh is $230k. Utilities here are pretty moderate. A lot of things were just a bit cheaper when we went through the midwest 1.5 years ago. Like 10-20%. Restaurants were noticeably a little cheaper.

Usually it's housing that's the biggest factor, region to region. Small apartments in Manhattan start at about $3k, as I understand it. It's worse in SanFran.

GORDON wrote: Usually it's housing that's the biggest factor, region to region. Small apartments in Manhattan start at about $3k, as I understand it. It's worse in SanFran.

I was looking at properties in Cambridge, MA as I'm interviewing for a (remote) job up there Wednesday. I saw a house that looked decent, and it was only $650k, which seemed oddly low.

Turns out it had been subdivided, and a single 1k sq ft apt was $650k.

Yeah, fuck that. I wouldn't even attempt one of those areas until I could just drop $2mil on an apartment without flinching, and then be able to hire a full time driver and not deal with the traffic.

Cost of living is different in different places.

$50K could support a family around here. They wouldn't live like Trump, but not everyone deserves or gets to do that.