Income czech
mannybolone
Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
F*ck it, let's get real with it. No fake flossers allowed!(Individual, not family incomes)
mannybolone
Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
Comments
Either below 20k or 6 figures is the only way to roll
Ha well, my household income helps up the total amount but I figure household income would skew things out of proportion given the 40-60% of folks here who are partnered up.
What I would like to know is of you married folks with children, are either one of you not working so you can raise your kids??
my wife stays home, but she does baby sit a friends baby for about $90 a week..
Whoa. That's like...1/3rd of my rent, not including other expenses. Damn.
Loaded question Rock
Just running a quick check, $1800 a month is about the equivalent of a $320,000 mortgage for 30 years at 5.50%.
WTF is wrong with you?
Actually that's not really a completely fair comparison because you would have real estate taxes and insurance to factor in. So you're probably in the mid to high 200's. Of course, you do get a deduction for real estate taxes and mortgage interest.
A second thought - WTF is so special about some of these ridiculously high cost of living places like CA? My toilet paper would have to be made of gold and be having wild orgies every day for me to want to be holed up in some apartment. In a lot of the Midwestern states (and I guess a lot of southern and western ones too these days) $300,000 would buy you a small mansion.
Are you asking why people in CA put up with the cost of housing? Well, I think it's because we like living here even if we don't have gold toilet paper (which doesn't sound very practical anyway) or have wild orgies every night (well, maybe in the Valley).
Believe me, I wouldn't mind living in a bigger place but given the choice between, say, 1200 sq. ft in Los Angeles vs. 3000 sq. ft in Peoria? No offense to Peoria, but I'll stay in LA, thanks.
Once again though, I'm amazed at someone having monthly expenses of $600 in 2009 in America. I'm assuming that factors in: food, utilities, entertainment, etc. PLUS rent. For real: salut!
Peace,
Big Stacks from Kakalak
I'm sure it's all relative to your particular situation. I've not been to California so I can't speak from experience; although others I am familiar with that are "talked about" (i.e. South Florida) I wouldn't hurt myself to try to live in. I'm sure some places probably have enough benefits (i.e. parts of NYC) to where it may be worth it.
But just in general, unless you're in some hot shit part of San Francisco (or LA, or whatever) I just don't get it. Prior to the real estate market imploding I couldn't get what was so attractive about paying 4 or $500,000 for some cheesy 1200 sq ft ranch house in the suburbs out there. Even factoring comparable weather I do believe I would prefer 3000 sq ft in, say, Charlotte or Atlanta (not my favs either, but for example) to the 1200 sq ft ranch in suburban California.
So that would be more of my line thinking - I don't get it.
Hey Graf,
I guess he could pull it off living on Madison or Wildwood Aves. on the Westside of Akron (Ohio).
Peace,
Big Stacks from Kakalak
Ohio Player.
well, that doesnt include food nor entertaiment(I also forgot gas in my accounting, which totals about $15 a week)...my half of the food bill would add $100-$150 to that and entertainment wise I get free movie tickets from one of my jobs and I buy records with the money I make selling records; and since I work from time to time as a DJ and security at the venue in town where all the shows are, I get in free there and get $2 beers(free beer when Im working) so I can go see some bands and buy 5 beers for only $10. The $600 is rent/bills. We're lucky, my girl is a dept. manager at the local hoity toity "foodie" grocery store, so we get top shelf food at a nice discount. But Ill break it down...
and house wise we are in a very fortunate situation, the owner has 2 other houses in other states...she lives in CA at the moment. They dont want this house to not be occupied so they gave us a very good deal and we have the house for at least 5 years...she is literally a "rocket scientist" for the Navy so she travels all over. She bought this house when she was teaching at the University and doesnt want to sell it, so she asked us to move in. If it was "on the market", this house in this neighborhood would be at least $1200 a month...like I said we are very fortunate.
my half of rent $375
my half of utilities $75
renters insurance $25
car insurance $75
phone $40
my half of interweb $10
that is what I based my accounting on, but since the audit...my expenses with food, gas and entertainment will be $760-$800. Still not bad.
There are no shortage of drawbacks of living out here: earthquakes, smog, traffic, people still wearing Uggs...but shit man, we're talking about one of the most diverse and cosmopolitan cities in the world with a Mediterranean climate. Of course, it's not just climate; it's primarily been economic opportunity driving people to the region but regardless, up until more recent times, California - and Los Angeles in particular - has experienced positive population growth via migration (as opposed to birthrate) for well over 50 years straight.
One of the prices for its popularity, especially in LA which has some of the worst urban planning policies in the U.S., especially when it comes to low or mixed income housing, is a highly impacted housing market, which contributes to Angelinos paying a higher % of their income for their homes than in other places. For some, that trade off isn't worth it, especially during the housing bubble and you began to see negative migration flow out of the most expensive parts of Cali (the Bay and LA).
But for me, while I'm painfully aware that my housing dollar would stretch 2-3 times as far in other parts of the country, the size of my domicile just isn't as high of a priority for me compared to what I see as other benefits of living here.
laid off? if so, what did you do?
Or are you doing the (voluntary) stay at home dad thing?
I used to think the same way. I lived in NC for about 37 years and when I was living with my ex-wife, we paid a $750/month mortgage on a 3-bedroom house with a deck. It was nice.
When we got divorced, I moved into a $660/month 2-br apartment. It was nice too.
Then I moved to Los Angeles 7 months ago and now I'm paying $1175/month for a 1-br apt.
And I couldn't be happier.
Granted it's mostly because I'm in a good financial position: I found a job that paid me $8000 more a year for the same job I was doing in NC, which made up for the rent difference between the states. And my health insurance kicks in next month, which my NC job didn't cover.
But like mannybolone said, Los Angeles has a lot going for it:
- HIGHLY diverse communities
- Every kind of cuisine you can imagine (including vegan)
- Cultural/club/film events so varied and numerous that I have multiple amazing entertainment options almost every night of the week
- Perfect weather
- Beaches, mountains and parks within 5-20 minutes drive
- Lots of like-minded friends to kick it with
and quite important for me right now:
- Lots of attractive young single women who don't mind dating someone 10-15 years older than them.
LA can't be beat in those aspects.
Don't get me wrong: I still have MUCH love for North Carolina and the south in general. The cost of living is dirt-cheap while quality of living is high, the people are friendly, the landscape is beautiful, and it's an amazing place for those who want to raise a family. Plus it doesn't have the smog, overcrowding, and bankrupt state government that L.A. has.
But for a single guy like me who isn't ready to retire yet, the tradeoff in cultural aspects vs. cost of living is well more than worth it. Moving here was one of the best things I ever did, and as long as I can keep a good job, I plan on staying for awhile.
Thanks for the perspective!
Speak on it, Marco! You need to start bringing your pretty young things + their friends to the Shortstop (just not on the nights you got your thing going on).
Voluntary. I worked in newspaper production/systems for 24 years. I don't think my job would have still been there in a year. I could have waited around for some kind of severance, but my sons needed me now, so the point was moot.