Money, Money, Money $_$

[Rowan]

Why is there a stigma attached to how much people earn? I never understood it. But then again, my idea of social norms are perplexually skewed (any psychologists wanna jump in on that one?)

So basically,
-what is your job/role?
-how much do you earn?
-do you do anything 'on the side' to earn more?
-what are your overall yearly expenses?
-are you living comfortably?


Lemme get the ball rollin'

-I work as an I.T education support officer.
-I earn about 46k per year (considered below average)
-I dont do anything on the side, although I probably could.
-My yearly expenses roughly add upto about $7,000. This only includes phone, mortgage and board as im still at home. (house on the way)
-I would say im living comfortably. I see how others live going out getting pissed every weekend at bars paying for drinks, shots, transport etc and wonder how they have money for anything else since they mostly study, not work. It then occurs to me a lifestyle of studying allows for government subsidy. If I work full time and cant really afford to do that then why should my taxes support their habits? But thats another issue.

[Alpha]

I work as a programmer, focusing on building applications that are ultimately maps. So some sort of 21st century cartographer. It involves computers and some maths.

At the moment I earn the equivalent of US$47k. 12% of that is subtracted automatically to repay my $30k student loan. Then taxes get applied to the remainder. Unfortunately I don't actually earn US dollars.

On the side I've done small jobs, and have one contract with a government department that starts soon. They wanted someone to work on site, but they couldn't find anyone with the skills, so I said I'd do it if I could work from home, at night. I think that should be a few weeks' work at about NZ$20/hour, which is less than I earn in my day job, but nice to have on top. It's the most I've earned as a side scheme.

$7000 yearly expenses? What the ****. How is that even possible? I don't know about yearly expenses*, but every two weeks I manage to save about $80 into a government-supported retirement scheme which doubles as a savings vehicle for a first home deposit (my employer matches that $80 in addition to my normal income). I put $30 into a bank savings account, and I pay back $200 in interest-bearing debt (credit card gone, now just $1000 on the car... then $700 I owe my dad but he doesn't charge interest).

Once my debts are gone, especially my student loan, I'd feel comfortable. At the moment I feel barely above water, although on a stead upward trajectory. Mostly this is difficult because my partner is not working at the moment, and hasn't worked in over a year. That's what cancer can do. She's going to interviews now that she's better though, so once she gets a job as well, then I'll feel positively wealthy and will actually be able to make discretionary purchases. It probably doesn't help that I pay rent for a nicer house than I need, but that's only probably an extra $25 a week premium over what else is available in my town.

Excluding my student loan (which bears no interest and which I have no incentive to pay back faster than I have to), I have about $23k in net assets. I need about $40-50k for a solid home deposit though.

* Actually I do, I'm a massive nerd about personal finance and I could tell you all of these numbers to the exact cent. I've tracked every penny I've spent, earned, and paid in tax for about 16 consecutive months. I even wrote an extension to some personal finance software I was using that plotted handy graphs in a web browser.

[loaf]

Chatterbate

[Rowan]

$7000 yearly expenses? What the ****. How is that even possible?

Good old mortgage. To put into greater perspective, once my mortgage is finalized with the addition of the build loan of the house (and land), interest repayments monthly will be at the $1300 point which doesn't include anything off the principle of the loan. If we added up the by a total of 12 months, my minimum yearly interest only repayments would already equate to almost $15,600. House and land total = $385k, we have 75k deposit and still end up having to pay that much interest, despite interest rates being at a record low. Couple the $15,600 interest with the extra 12k we plan to take off the principle per year and we are sitting roughly at $28k expenses, couple 2 car insurance/rego (car rego in australia is about $750 per car, insurance for me is $450, for mrs is about $900) and then we also have food, council rates, phones, petrol, gas/water/electicity. We are certainly looking at having about $40k expenses per year.

Thats a spicy meatball

[Alpha]

Even without a mortgage I still can't get to $7,000 annual expenses with any kind of arithmetic. $200 of groceries a week is already more than $10,000 a year.

EDIT: "This only includes phone, mortgage and board as im still at home. (house on the way)"

Ah. So your parents are subsidising you and you're capitalising on that by saving for a house? Lucky for you man. Although I'm still confused because you said it both includes and excludes the mortgage?

[Rowan]

Even without a mortgage I still can't get to $7,000 annual expenses with any kind of arithmetic. $200 of groceries a week is already more than $10,000 a year.

EDIT: "This only includes phone, mortgage and board as im still at home. (house on the way)"

Ah. So your parents are subsidising you and you're capitalising on that by saving for a house? Lucky for you man. Although I'm still confused because you said it both includes and excludes the mortgage?

When you say you dont know how I reached $7,000, are you reffering to that being an unusually low amount or high amount?

And yeah, both of us are really lucky we are still living at home with parents that way we dont have to worry about rent/bills etc until we finally move in. This way we are able to save a lot. TBH, i really dont know how people are able to afford a home without this method.

[Meier Link]

My annual varies. Depends on the amount of overtime. I've seen 86k one year and the following making more hourly but less overtime put me at 59k.

I am a process specialist with an aviation manufacturing company with many years in the industry.

Now my funds out going are up in the air every year so I can not give a base line to annual expenses. A few years ago I was the sole income with 8 people living with me, then it went back to me and the boys and Pam. Now I have me, the boys, Pam and her son. His girlfriend is staying with us at the moment because she is visiting from england.

I am back to being the main bread winner in the house. Pam was laid off from her job and is having trouble finding employment seeing she is still going through medical treatment from a car wreck 2 years ago.

Her son works a part time job but doesn't make enough to contribute anything financially. ( he's 22)

As for side cash I do get paid when my band plays live, most of the time, but it's generally enough to cover the bar tab lol.

I do composite work from time to time when someone is in need of a good bonder.

Even been known to do tattoo design for a price.

[Clint]

I work at a pet store, where I'm currently a supervisor, but I recently demoted myself to an animal specialist so that I could transfer to a store closer to home. I make next to nothing, but I get health benefits, so that's cool. I have a second job, also, which I work once or twice a month, at a dog daycare. I don't get paid for any side work, because everybody I know is as poor as I am, and can't pay me with anything other than food. I recently bought a house and am living comfortably, because I'm cheap, I know how to budget my finances, and my mortgage is really low. My monthly mortgage is $769. It helps that the state I live in has one of the lowest tax rates in the entire country.

I have no idea how you guys make so much money a year. Where the **** do you even find a job that pays $40,000 a year? Even with my college degree, the highest paying job I could find paid hourly, and it was only $13.50.

[Pete]

I get paid to watch other people work and make sure buildings don't/ won't fall down. Noxy can thank me for her house, stop and shop and YMCA not falling down.

I make about 63k a year, salaried at this current company, which is nice. Even better, we have a job minutes away from my house that I'm going to at noon.

As for expenses, I have my car insurance, credit card and typical day to day shit like food, parking and gas, because I don't do public transportation. #bougie

Saving up for the future. Have some grand plans coming up

[Unknown Entity]

At the moment, I'm a deputy manager in a game shop. I've been working for the company I'm at for just over five years now, working my way up. It's definitely not what my original plan was - I was applying to software development jobs when I got this, but I settled. It's still part of the gaming industry I suppose. With a bit of luck and hard work, I could be a store manager this time next year. But I definitely want to move on in the next few years, and work for Sony, possibly in the PR department.

I don't do anything on the side for money. I care for my nan. That's it. Sometimes I'll do an odd job or favour and she'll buy me dinner or something, for helping clean her room (sheets, laundry, dusting, hoovering, etc). I'm genuinely happy to do it for free because it doesn't take up too much time and makes her happier, but then she gets upset. Bottom line: you do not argue with grandma.

I make £19k a year. It's not LOADS, but for a first time deputy? Very good. It's usually £16k, and I was originally offered £17k. I'm still living at home and my outgoing a are minimal (I don't have a phone contract, mum owns the flat and rent is cheap). After taxes, rent and travel, I have about £950 to play with. Travel is my biggest outgoing, at over £2100 a year at my current store.

I'd say I was pretty comfortable. I mean, I have a cramped bed room, and would feel a million times better with my own place. But mum, although she won't admit it, would struggle without me around. My brother is a lazy piece of work most of the time, and nan still needs care. Even if I did move out, I'd be home more often than not helping out. Between me and my boyfriend, we could afford to move out tomorrow. ._.

[Lily]

I just work in a warehouse, so does he, dunno what I earn annually, about £17,000 maybe...which incidentally is less than what we are paying on the mortgage a year. Holy shit.

My personal outgoings are my phone which is a meagre £12.50 p-m because I am a skin flint, £46.15 every week toward the mortgage and £276 a month toward the mortgage as well (don't ask why I pay it like that, I'm not sure myself lol) Uh, oh le husband conned me into paying for Amazon Prime, and I had to do an emergency Subscription to Now TV so we could watch Game of Thrones as our internet provider blocked the streaming sites we use. mofo's v_v I also accidentally subbed to BNow TV movies. Le sigh. Cancelled that as soon as the first payment of 10 whole english pounds was taken from my account, so now I need to get my monies worth for the month. Might cancel the Now TV package now there's only one ep of GoT left.

So uh yeah, that was a roundabout way of saying I don't get paid much, but le hubby takes care of most of the expenses and I put away what is left of my wage for emergencies/nights out/when the dog forgets how to dog and has to go to the vet

Oh I donate to Cats protection monthly, think it's about 6 quid. 30 to xmas savings and 10 to the spawns trust fund per month

[noxious.sunshine]

Ummm..

I'm a "Housewife".. I freeload off of my fiance and take care of the house and the animals. It just works better for us that way. Otherwise, the place would always be a wreck cuz I'm the only one that does any cleaning.

SO. My dude's money is my money.

- His Job: College Student, Army Veteran
- Income: $84,000/yr, $7,000/mo (He's fully disabled and gets $3,000/mo for that and his BAH is $4,000/mo cuz we live in NYC)
- No side or extra jobs, though he's considering driving for Uber. Since we have a BMW X5 with all leather interior and whatnot, he'll get paid a bit more than regular Uber drivers.

- Our monthly expenses are roughly $40 - $45k-ish/yr for the basic essentials We pay $1,000 for rent, about $800 for car & insurance, $200 in gas (maybe a bit more than that. This damn car is a -major- gas guzzler 'cuz it's a V8 and it only takes premium gasoline >.<), $450 phone, and $250 for cable/internet/house phone, and we try to stick to $400/mo for groceries. .. And then there's things that we have to pay for less frequently like car maintenance, vet appointments for the animals, the times when I have my daughter here (I know that's more of an "optional" expense, but she comes up here several times a year and stays for a month in the Summer so our grocery, gas, and electric bills go up a bit during those times plus the costs of whatever we do for entertainment).

So yes, we live extremely comfortable. Since his disability was increased, we've been able to start saving for a house ($2,000/mo in savings) and each of us get $1,000 to blow on whatever we want. I try to send my dad a couple hundred every month to help him out with things he needs. We're able to go out to eat and do fun stuff pretty much whenever we want, we have money to go shopping, I don't have to worry about having to tell Parker "no" when she asks for something when she comes up to visit. After years and years of busting ass just to try and keep my head above water, it's nice to be able to stay home. We're planning on trying to get preggo soon and after the whole situation with Parker, I'd like to be a Stay At Home Mom. We're moving my dad in with us when we move back to the Nashville area, so it'll be good for him as well that I'm not working. He's mostly paralyzed on his left side and his health is slowly getting worse and worse. So, it'll be good for him- me being home in case something happens.

I know. I probably sound like I'm bragging >.> ... I apologize.

[GypsyElder]

I live in California and it is outrageously expensive to live here. The perk is that plenty of jobs exist that offer high rates, but only if you have lots of expensive education (unless you have completed a technical undergraduate degree like engineering), skills, the appropriate certifications to show it (or a homie-hook-up).

Right now, I am working as a clinical trial enrollment (recruitment) coordinator. It's a consulting position with contract research organizations that pays pretty well (45/hr), but the position is temporary. I only plan to work one more project until my graduate program begins in September. If this were full-time permanent position, that would be about 86,400.00 a year.

My overall yearly expenses are probably around 13,296.00 (rough estimate) but this is including very cheap rent for California (aka renting a room) at 695.00/mo. Rooms are generally 650.00-950.00/mo. You can find cheaper if you don't mind living in the hood lol or having a roommate. Apartments are anywhere from 750.00-2,500.00+ depending on location and apartment size.

So basically, I live comfortably now but not for long, since my rent will be about 1,050.00/mo and I will be working part time lol :'(

[Taco-Calamitous]

I'm a student and a substitute custodian right now; I ain't makin' SHIT. Damn VA needs to send me my check