How to Earn $100,000 and Still Feel Poor

[jeffrey]

Our family income recently topped $100,000, but we aren't spending as though we make six figures. We don't sip Mai Tai cocktails at resorts or buy pricey tech toys.

According to recent data, incomes are rising and consumers have more money to spend. They are also taking on more debt for the first time in three years. Financial experts say the increase in borrowing can be attributed to buying cars and paying for college . We bought a new car this past year so our son could earn money for college delivering pizzas. He may need to borrow money for grad school...

First Person: How to Earn $100,000 and Still Feel Poor - Yahoo! Finance

[bjl584]

I see a lot of room for improvement in this person's budget. I wish that they would come here for advice.

Buying stock to pay for college?

I'm not sure why they are sacrificing their own finances so that their kids won't need student loans?

The house is now a liability? I bet they didn't put 20% down.

$1000 a month on food for 4 people? Seems way out of whack to me.

[jpg7n16]

Agreed with Brian, this person doesn't have a good grip on finances.

It was just a random contributor, not a staff article or anything. But the way she talked was like there was nothing she could do about it. How about cut back on spending? Switch to a cheaper car? Pay less for food?

If you look at just the retirement savings and college spending, they are using at least $25k/year on those two alone. So they're nowhere near broke.

And you can tell the lack of financial knowledge when saying that the house moved to the liability side of the net worth. Obv new to finances.

[disneysteve]

Just another ridiculous article.

$1,000/month on food which "just provides the basics for four people." Really? Apparently this person has a very different definition of "basics" than I do.

They bought their son a new car so he could deliver pizzas. They have a $300 monthly car payment but she goes on to say, "we have managed to stay out of debt." I'm not sure which part of 'new car loan' qualifies as being out of debt.

[SeanH]

I spoke to a co-worker the other day about my interest in switching to Straighttalk which is either $30 or $45 a month. She said me that her cellphone bill is "$100". I said - that's a big monthly bill to which she replied - "its for the year". She uses some variety of google voice at home, and keeps her cell phone off most of the time. Now most people wouldn't want to live like that, but I think most people don't question their baseline spending either. Then you end up with thinking having a car payment is normal or believing as I did that $600 a year for a cellphone is absolutely necessary when you could adapt. Last comment - I finally got rid of U-verse which cut my AT&T bill from $125 to $38. My wife grumbled for a week and then promptly found that 75% of her shows are freely available on the internet and that there is stuff to see on Hulu and Netflix. She just needed a reason to look.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

I wonder who put together the headline about making $100K and feeling poor. The writer sounds like she and her family are doing just fine, aside from spending too easily. They could ratchet down the spending if they want more security. I never had the impression that Tampa was a high cost of living area. Am I mistaken?....Good grief....I'm a bit annoyed.

[Naples09]

I wonder who put together the headline about making $100K and feeling poor. The writer sounds like she and her family are doing just fine, aside from spending too easily. They could ratchet down the spending if they want more security. I never had the impression that Tampa was a high cost of living area. Am I mistaken?....Good grief....I'm a bit annoyed.

Insurance is much higher than most areas. When we moved to Tampa, our car insurance doubled. We are now under contract on a home and insurance will run close to $5k for a $310k home. Our home in Ohio was worth $200K and insurance was only $800 a year. If that's not high cost of living, I'm not sure what is....

[MonkeyMama]

I wonder who put together the headline about making $100K and feeling poor.

I was wondering the same thing on the headline. I figured the point of the writer was "things are tighter than you would imagine." I doubt the author chose the "poor" wording - which was a ridiculous headline.

Having lived in a very expensive area, I can relate to $100k not stretching very far, but this hardly sounds like a high-cost area (try living in Hawaii). They always interview people who sound whiny and out-of-touch for these things. But even if I could produce a story that would pull on your heart strings a bit more, the word "poor" would still be absurd.

That said, the author of the article did say they were living on $19,000 not too long ago. My impressions was that author has forgotten what exactly that was like. Though my lifestyle is not dramatically different on many levels though I make 8 times what I did in college, the truth was in college I could only afford to live with roommates, I could only afford a car I had paid $1,000 for, and I could not afford any insurance (aside from auto insurance/rental) - certainly had no life insurance, disability insurance or health insurance - not if I had to pay for it myself. I certainly wasn't *saving* anything. Sure, on many levels my lifestyle isn't that different - I don't have a ton of money to blow - but I am well aware that I have about 100 luxuries that I didn't have a decade ago - a savings account (that is being added to), retirement investments, money for the kids' college, a nicer car, a home of my own, ample insurance, and I could go on. I might not have more spending money to blow on whatever, but to say I have not much more, today, would be ridiculous. I suppose I find it hard to believe that living on $19,000 was *really* comparable on any level.

I suppose he may have been trying to say, "I thought $100k would be 5 times easier," but throw in taxes and lifestyle creep and inflation, of course it is not 5 times easier.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Kiplinger magazine last year said the Tampa metro area has a lower cost of living than the US average. They also say the Tampa area's median household income is $46,315.

Kiplinger.com

Anyway, I agree that it is easy to lose understanding of just how much one has.

[timothygroom]

It sounds strange. Why do we have to feel poor when we make $100,000 a year. You should live on what makes you feel comfortable, you should get everything from the life, just do not worry and be happy!