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How much money do you want to earn


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For the folks at college, or around college age, a question.

 

How much money do you think you realistically need to earn to live the life you want to?

 

Of course we'd all like 1 million dollars a year, but I am curious to hear what salary, say by the time you are 40, would you like to be on - to live the life you foresee for yourself?

 

Realistically

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I'll be lucky to pull 40k, honestly. It's not about that, though.

 

No, I know life is not about the money, but if you have in mind some things you wish to do in your life. Lets say you want to have 5 kids, and travel a lot, and set up your own little recording studio etc...whatever...you need money to do these things.

 

I'm curious to know how much people think they need to do what they want.

 

This might be 10k it might be 500k...just curious.

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I couldnt really put a number on it. I just want to be able to live comfortably. I dont want to worry hard about bills and such, and be able to treat myself to something every now and than, even if it means I have to save up a bit.

 

so the question is, how much do you think you will need to earn to live that life?

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yeah bro

 

Yeah, cool mang.

 

I guess its trickier to have an idea of how much you need when you're not paying the bills, mortgage etc.

 

Wanting the same standard of living as your folks makes sense.

 

A dear friend of mine came from a super wealthy family, mult millionares, and they lived at home until they were almost 30. They were dating a friend of mine, who had just started working as a teacher, and she dumped him, partly because she wanted the same standard of living as her parents provided and felt a partner who was a teacher wasnt up to par. Lame but true.

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My parents each make $40,000-$65,000 a year, but with a house, bills, car payments, kids, etc they're pretty much living paycheck to paycheck. I don't plan on getting married until my 30's, IF ever or have any kids. I'd say $40,000 can run me a long away. Give me a small house or apartment with a room to jam and a job that allows me to take time to tour and I'm happy

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Somewhere between 50-80k AUD. I live pretty frugally - I don't drive much, I eat pretty lean, don't blow money on drugs or alcohol, rarely spontaneously buy things, travel via volunteer work. Spare time is mainly music and sport - and they can be as cheap or expensive as I like. So mainly housing and bills really.

 

The odd music toy here n there.

 

With the price of housing in Melbourne though, well, who knows?

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Yeah, cool mang.


I guess its trickier to have an idea of how much you need when you're not paying the bills, mortgage etc.


Wanting the same standard of living as your folks makes sense.


A dear friend of mine came from a super wealthy family, mult millionares, and they lived at home until they were almost 30. They were dating a friend of mine, who had just started working as a teacher, and she dumped him, partly because she wanted the same standard of living as her parents provided and felt a partner who was a teacher wasnt up to par. Lame but true.

 

that's really pathetic. :facepalm:

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I think it depends on a number of factors, one being where you live. Living in San Francisco or NYC is a lot more than say Alabama. So making $80k in a cheaper location might be enough, but $80k in NYC won't be nearly enough.

 

Factor in any school debt, kids, cars, mortgage, etc. Whatever it is, you'll almost always need more, trust me :)

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Somewhere between 50-80k AUD. I live pretty frugally - I don't drive much, I eat pretty lean, don't blow money on drugs or alcohol, rarely spontaneously buy things, travel via volunteer work. Spare time is mainly music and sport - and they can be as cheap or expensive as I like. So mainly housing and bills really.


The odd music toy here n there.


With the price of housing in Melbourne though, well, who knows?

 

Thats cool dude, what travel have you done thru volunteering?

 

And yeah, Melb house prices are freakin insane. I was lucky enough to get in the market 5 years or so back, I'd really struggle now I think.

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I think it depends on a number of factors, one being where you live. Living in San Francisco or NYC is a lot more than say Alabama. So making $80k in a cheaper location might be enough, but $80k in NYC won't be nearly enough.


Factor in any school debt, kids, cars, mortgage, etc. Whatever it is, you'll almost always need more, trust me
:)

 

I know NYC is expensive, I'd have thought 80k there would be doable tho? sans family of course.

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Thats cool dude, what travel have you done thru volunteering?

 

Just a few trips here n there, nothing major.

 

Next year is 6 months in Mexico or Guatemala teaching English. Then after that maybe a different location, depending on how I cope, maybe Mongolia or Cambodia.

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I know NYC is expensive, I'd have thought 80k there would be doable tho? sans family of course.

 

I'm not the expert on NYC, but it is expensive. Depends if you want to live in Manhattan or one of the other burroughs. Manhattan is pricey, housing mainly. Forget owning a car too. Rent if you want a one bedroom (nice place) is probably $2-5k/month. Sure you can do less, have a roomate, but at a certain age, that {censored} won't cut it. Brooklyn is a little better. Owning is very pricey, I think the average 1 bedroom condo in Manhattan is $1mil or more. Prices haven't dropped much. Parking space is $400+/month.

 

If I were to live in NYC, in Manhattan, I don't think I could do it now for much less than $200k/year, and kids raises the ante. Private schools run about $30k/year. I know people that spend $100k/year just on private schools. Nice 3 bedroom units are $2-5 million.

 

But that's living nice. Not Donald Trump nice, but it's not living in Queens, and not living like a pauper with 3 roommates in a 1 bedroom frugal either.

 

But that's also why I like upstate NY - a lot more open space, and a helluva lot cheaper too. Both have pros and cons. I can live (barely) on $80k a year here in upstate, I couldn't do it in NYC.

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I graduated from undergrad almost 2 years ago. When I was in school I already had a good idea of what I'd be making coming out (mostly as I already signed with a firm). Still, my goal coming out of undergrad was $1M/year by age 30-32 (10 years of FT work or less). I'm off to a decent start but living in LA is pretty expensive. I live modestly too (don't scoff due to my 2 amps and 2 guitars lol) and think it's still pretty tough to be in decent financial shape.

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