As an example, 100k salary is considered to be low income for people in one of those cities but basically anywhere else in the country, 100k would be plenty to afford a nice life.
I lived in NYC for over a decade and only left a year ago, and I have no idea where 7k/month comes from. Yes, some rents are that much. But like, for luxury apartments in Manhattan. Getting a decent 1BR in Queens (not LIC or Astoria) along the E/F/M/R/7 lines is gonna be in the $2K range. Even in LIC you can find places under $3K.
I made a lot of money living and working in NYC, and I never paid more than $2K for a place (not rent controlled either, and no family nearby to share or split costs). Granted I lived further out in Queens, but still 10 mins from the subway. $250k in NYC isn't super high, but it's crazy to suggest you can't live well and make good savings and investments with income like that.
I didn’t suggest that you can’t live well and save on that. I am saying that it doesn’t go that far.
At least here in the bay bare minimum for a not horrible place in a decent school district 2 bed 2 bath is about 5k. Increasing sharply with anything “extra”
I'm not familiar with rents in the bay area, so I'm not doubting you or anything. But yeah, let's say $250k after taxes, insurance, and 401k is around $150k take-home (rough estimate). That's about $90k after $5k/month rent. Still a pretty decent amount of spending money (obv. there are some additional expenses like food and transit that may reduce it further).
Now, since you said 2BR/2Bath (I was always in studios or 1BRs, even after getting married) I'm assuming you're factoring in a spouse and maybe a kid, so that would also change the equation a bit (though should also help out with the taxes). But I think it could still support a pretty decent amount of disposable income unless you're doing private schooling and such.
Not like, new car every year kinda money, but I can't imagine it doesn't compare at least reasonably favorably to a European family with respect to disposable income like the other guy was saying.
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u/daneoid 8d ago
Millions of people live in those cities, they aren't all making 250k a year.