A discussion thread where people who make 375k a year complain that they can't make ends meet.
http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/304867.pageHooooooo boy . . . parse through it. It's an eye-opener. I imagine this will be spreading like wildfire soon.
And yes, I KNOW D.C. is an expensive place to live in, but there ARE cheaper options in the surroundings. NO one's holding a gun to your heads . . . you're CHOOSING not to live among the hoi polloi in Silver Spring or Glenmont and take (shudder) public transportation.
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I bet that nanny is live in and actually makes minimum wage if not below when we look at the actual hours worked. 
They need to downsize their home. If you are working that much - you aren't there to enjoy it anyways.
As my husband and I say, "How much do we need?"
We are high earners in one of the wealthiest counties in America (Central NJ) and even here there are beautiful homes to be had for $400K and only $8 to $10 K in property taxes per year.
I say "only" because we ARE high earners (not being smug) and we live within our means. The woman on that thread wants to live like a billionaire (wealthy) on a rich persons budget.
Now my rant: Those are the people that fucked up the economy. I know - I work with them. They've walked away from $800K homes, but at least they still 
have their Beemer and Audi. Two of them laughed at me in 2007 for living in a $1300 a month one bedroom apartment and for driving a 2006 Nissan Altima made in the USA that I paid cash for. Making a couple of six figures a year and spending it all is obnoxious. Same people would never give to a food bank - be it time or money.
I won't laugh at them - but there were people six years ago AND today that would LOVE to have their problems. But in the examples I provided - they are too selfish to see that they did it to themselves.
I'll save my sympathy for the family of four in my community trying to get by on $60K a year paying at minimum $1800K per month for a two bedroom apartment.
I wanted to ask her exactly what kind of vacations they were taking that $2500 a month wasn't enough??? On that kind of "vacation savings plan", you could do a pretty intense week in Paris every two months. For a lot of Americans, that would be a once-in-a-lifetime trip if at all. Personally, I could think of a hell of a lot of fun things to do in the world with a $30K a year vacation budget, and I would be thrilled beyond measure to have money like that. My household has about $5K a year to vacation with, and I've always thought we were pretty damn lucky, and I've been grateful and happy for everything we've gotten to do with that money over the years. There are a lot of people out there who can't ever get away at all.
That poster is seriously deluded, or nuts, or something. 
HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM . . . WHEN, oh WHEN did that start declining? What year indeed, Oh "Defenders of the Faith-Based"?????
More proof positive that "Trickle On" is a loser of a plan.
"If your outgo exceeds your income, then your upkeep will be your downfall."
Sounds like they should visit a library (gasp.. there's poor people in those..) or a book store and check out Dr. Stanley's latest book.
at 8:58 this morning. Could this be credited to a DUer?
"Don't listen to those Redditors. They don't know what it's like living in the DC area. It's expensive. My husband makes $650K/year and we were having troubles making ends meet, what with day care, three car payments, country club memberships and our hat budget. But after taking a good hard look at our expenditures, we realized we needed to cut back. For instance, we paid our nanny Consuela $7.75/hr but she's from Guatemala, so she was getting paid a king's ransom. We simply cut her pay in half. She still makes more than her entire village and we saved some dough. Win-win.
For me, the problem became apparent when I realized the gold I dug wasn't nearly deep enough. I made the simple change of hooking up with various professional athletes in the area. Those Wizards and Redskins make plenty of money and that's really helped fill in the gaps...if you know what I mean. Sure you have to take a BBC now and again, now I don't worry about paying for oboe lessons.
Hope that helps you all. "
Anyone who cannot meet expenses on 375K a year needs some serious financial counseling. Or maybe just serious counseling.
People are just never fucking satisfied with what they have. They always want more...more...more...and then bitch when the wallet just can't take it anymore.
People like that just make me want to 
the seventh post - they clear $14,000 after taxes and 501, spend $2800 on mortgage, have "only" $2500 for vacations and shopping...and spend a whopping $25 on charitable contributions. 
Whatta ya think of my journal now??
I would honestly love to know.
Because I have a law degree and DH has a master's degree in physics; we're certainly qualified with good educations, but this country mercilessly tosses educated baby boomers in the trash heap. Because we have experience but refuse to work for minimum wage.
