What It Costs to Live Well - Northeast

Forbes ^

[Selkie]

It's a question that plagues the successful and the aspiring: How much does a family need to net each year to lead a comfortable affluent life?

We are not talking about great riches; there are millions of Americans who work hard to be able to afford the best for their families--and themselves--but who don't entertain notions of owning private jets, sprawling country estates or closets full of the latest fashions. Their goals are more grounded: a good education for their children, a nice house, a weekend place, the occasional trip, a night out once a week and a little money in the bank.

We attempted to tally what it would take for a family of four to live well in different parts of the country, starting with every state in the Northeast. We looked at one city in each state and factored in a range of costs, including housing, cars, education, dining and health care.

So what does it cost to live well? We have the answer--or at least some ballpark figures. And it isn't cheap.

Our totals ranged from about $215,000 (for Portland, Me.) to a whopping half-a-million dollars (for, not surprisingly, New York City). And that's the net of local, state and federal taxes, and includes very little savings. Less-urban upper New England tended to be the least expensive place to live well, while medium-sized cities such as Baltimore and Philadelphia ranked in the middle, and the big metropolises and surrounding areas, such as New York, Boston and Greenwich, Conn., were tops when it came to costs.

[Selkie]

Forbes is running a four part series on what a family of four would need for income to live "a comfortable but not lavish lifestyle"

The first part of series covered Northeast, next the South, then Midwest and lastly the West (covered next month)

These estimates seem extreme to me.

I don't call their idea of of typical expenditures "comfortable" I call them gauche and nouveau.

My family has some money and I have a bit myself, but as much as I enjoy shopping and the good life, Forbes estimates seem over the top to me.

Maybe it's because my family is sort of what you ight call "old riches", we may live in nice houses and wear good clothes but we all buy generic at the super market and drive older American cars. ROFL

Thoughts ?

[jveritas]

This is a very extreme analysis by Forbes on how much money is required to live well in the Northeast. In the vast majority of the NorthEast people can live "well" with $ 120,000 household income.

[Palladin]

Old money is smart money.

I see plenty of very expensive cars parked outside of the Walmart.

[Selkie]

Yeah that's about the $$$ amount I was thinking was sufficient to live 'comfortably'

Since Im single and unmarried though, I don't know exactly how much is needed, so the Forbes article freaked me out for the future.

lol

[Iris7]

"I call them gauche and nouveau."

You are very polite. I prefer "vulgar and grasping".

[GSlob]

Well, probably they should define "comfortable" with more precision. The description of the lifestyle they were pricing is beyond "upper-middle" class existence, and tends to "lower upper" [nice sounding name: "lower upper class". Still beats "upper lower", though].

[JohnLongIsland]

coming from the combat zone of suburban nyc, if you read the article of what they are considering for manhattan it is not over the top. the average two bedroom closet is about a mil, a decent dinner for two is a c note, private school for kids (mandatory in 90% of nyc due to the liberal siege of the public school sysytem) is between 5,000 and 20,000 dollars, every time you cross a bridge its eight bucks, parking in manhattan is thirty bucks, yankees and mets tickets for box seats are a hundred, and the subway ain't a nickel anymore, etc. etc., my real estate taxes are 14Gs a year and i live in a four bedroom house, start doing the math ladies and gents.

[ChicagoHebrew]

I live in NYC and make somewhere between $100-150k a year. I rent atiny studio apartment, don't have a car, buy much of my clothing at TJ Maxx etc. Forbes estimates might be extreme, but even $250k barely buys a "middle class" lifestyle in Manhattan.

[sphinx]

Foolish list or, more precisely, a foolish title. Forbes should have called this "How Much Does It Take to Live a Fortune 500 CEO Lifestyle?" All of the examples not only assume two homes; in most cases, both homes are assumed to be in the seven figures. Plus luxury rates on cars, tuition, travel, etc.

I suppose Forbes knows its readership. The demographic described in the article is the top one-half of one percent or so of the income distribution. The typical Forbes reader is probably in the $100-200,000 range and aspires to much more.

[EdHallick]

..to a whopping half-a-million dollars (for, not surprisingly, New York City)


..and mysteriously where I live for some reason, I must be out of my mind. Half a mill, I believe it. If there`s anything that drives me crazy, is when they call New york city the "greatest city on earth". How the hell is it the greatest city on earth? You got freggin` RINO`s and a psycho liberal as Senator trying to take every last cent you got 24 hours a day 7 days a week, and the idiots who live here keep electing them like zombies every election day. Every district all liberals except two or three in Staten Island, then everyone complains why they take home nothing on payday.


List of Current Council Members:


Joseph P. Addabbo, Jr. 32 Queens Democrat
Tony Avella 19 Queens Democrat
Maria Baez 14 Bronx Democrat
Charles Barron 42 Brooklyn Democrat
Tracy L. Boyland 41 Brooklyn Democrat
Gale A. Brewer 6 Manhattan Democrat
Yvette D. Clarke 40 Brooklyn Democrat
Leroy G. Comrie, Jr. 27 Queens Democrat
Bill de Blasio 39 Brooklyn Democrat
Maria del Carmen Arroyo 17 Bronx Democrat
Erik Martin Dilan 37 Brooklyn Democrat
Simcha Felder 44 Brooklyn Democrat
Lewis A. Fidler 46 Brooklyn Democrat
Helen D. Foster 16 Bronx Democrat
Dennis P. Gallagher 30 Queens Republican
James F. Gennaro 24 Queens Democrat
Vincent J. Gentile 43 Brooklyn Democrat
Alan J. Gerson 1 Manhattan Democrat
Eric N. Gioia 26 Queens Democrat
Sara M. Gonzalez 38 Brooklyn Democrat
Robert Jackson 7 Manhattan Democrat
Letitia James 35 Brooklyn Working Families
Allan W. Jennings, Jr. 28 Queens Democrat
Melinda R. Katz 29 Queens Democrat
G. Oliver Koppell 11 Bronx Democrat
Andrew J. Lanza 51 Staten Island Republican
John C. Liu 20 Queens Democrat
Margarita Lopez 2 Manhattan Democrat
Miguel Martinez 10 Manhattan Democrat
Michael E. McMahon 49 Staten Island Democrat
Gifford Miller 5 Manhattan Democrat
Hiram Monserrate 21 Queens Democrat
Eva S. Moskowitz 4 Manhattan Democrat
Michael C. Nelson 48 Brooklyn Democrat
James S. Oddo 50 Staten Island Republican
Annabel Palma 18 Bronx Democrat
Bill Perkins 9 Manhattan Democrat
Madeline T. Provenzano 13 Bronx Democrat
Christine C. Quinn 3 Manhattan Democrat
Domenic M. Recchia, Jr. 47 Brooklyn Democrat
Philip Reed 8 Manhattan Democrat
Diana Reyna 34 Brooklyn Democrat
Joel Rivera 15 Bronx Democrat
James Sanders, Jr. 31 Queens Democrat
Larry B. Seabrook 12 Bronx Democrat
Helen Sears 25 Queens Democrat
Kendall Stewart 45 Brooklyn Democrat
Peter F. Vallone, Jr. 22 Queens Democrat
Albert Vann 36 Brooklyn Democrat
David I. Weprin 23 Queens Democrat
David Yassky 33 Brooklyn Democrat

[Selkie]

I'm in the NYC vicinity too.

The Forbes article states 483k is needed "after" taxes for NYC living.

The Gothamist blog was talking about the article and said this would mean a 900,000 a year pre tax income would be needed.

I know how astronomical NYC and near by areas are but still the places they picked for their imaginary family seem well beyond "comfortable":

Net Income After Taxes $483,800

Primary Home Cost $3,900,000

Vacation Home Location Hamptons, N.Y.

Vacation Home Cost $1,900,000

;-)

[Paul Atreides]

Something that I have always thought interesting, is the couple, with children, who live in a tract house until the kids all grow up and leave home; after the last child has left, they proceed to build a gigantichome for just the two of them.

[Think free or die]

We're in suburban Philadelphia. I can believe that the cost of living well, as defined by Forbes, is really this high in the northeast. The cost of living is high and heading ever higher.

I'm glad I read this article. I had no idea we were slumming. We only have one residence, the boys attend public school, and we don't take 3 vacations each year. I'll have to speak to my husband about our sub-standard lifestyle. I thought we were living well, but obviously I've been mistaken . . .

[Selkie]

Ah excellent point, but still it's given several friends of mine and their poor beleaguered husbands semi heart attacks.

I tried to ressure them that the Forbes article was fairly ludicrous but they're convinced they now need much more money.

Think I'll show them this thread to calm them down.

[Paul Atreides]

I live in the South. I once knew someone who moved here from NYC. This person told me that the homes we have here, that sell for about $75,000-100,000, would sell for about a million, in NYC. That floored me.

[Capriole]

Paul Mellon used to drive a 1967 Chevy BelAir station wagon around Fauquier County. When you have a certain amount of confidence, you don't have to try to impress anyone with fancy clothes and cars. It's mostly new money who buy the Lexuses and Escalades.

Of course, Bunny Mellon always had pretty nice clothes, and she never drove that old station wagon that I can remember. Ladies tend to drive slightly nicer cars. Not a question of trying to impress anybody but not wanting to get too dirty and covered with shed hound-fur.

[Selkie]

I'm from Philadelphia's Main Line and moving back home there is looking better every day.

Believe me, suburban Phila. is a quite a deal compared to most of NJ.

If I move home, my yearly R.E taxes will be half as much !

[Zeppo]

Not really Fortune 500 CEO territory... For example, I have a friend who happens to live in Greenwich, CT, and interestingly enough, has a vacation home on Martha's Vineyard just like in the article, and a family of five, with all of the kids going to private schools, and a couple of cars, and a boat, and while he does work for a Fortune 500 company, with a decent position, he is taking home nowhere near what the top guys make, or the tier below that, or probably even the four or five tiers below that (and yes, I'm sure that it's a struggle to pay the bills for all of that, but it's not a lifestyle that only the few at the very top are living)...

[little jeremiah]

The little jeremiahs live on less than $20k per year. We don't starve, go naked, and we don't walk to the store. And we're not cold in the winter. Of course, wood heat. Oh, and no kids.

[EdHallick]

Just to give an example of out of control the spending is here in NYC, here is the voting record of my rep, David I. Weprin- Democrat..100% affirmative on every single thing, and guess what? It`s like that for every other district as well..They`re like freggin` robots, if someone wanted money to see if water was wet, they would vote affirmative, everything is affirmative affirmative...spend spend spend spend....

http://www.nyccouncil.info/constituent/member_details.cfm?con_id=54&VOTE=YES