What salary makes one wealthy in Iowa?
- Thread starter Chipper
- Start date
Interesting choice of numbers there. I'm not trying to rip you on this, but I am curious. Is this really what lenders are recommending these days or is it just a number you thought sounded reasonable?
I believe ISU's costs are around $16,000/year if you live in the dorms and I'd guess the other state schools are pretty similar. It would be less if you lived in an apartment, but then you'd need to buy your own food so it might even out. Even bump that number up to $20K for ease of calculation and to add some padding for any extra fees or tuition hikes that may come up. Even assuming they take 5 years to graduate that's only $100,000 for tuition and living expenses. Should you really need to double that to include books and entertainment?
If that's really what people recommend taking out for a student these days, it makes me wonder if people are borrowing too much. I just graduated last May and I don't know anyone who had to do that.
I think you just proved cydkar's point... almost every single expense there you've scaled up with the salary; most families could easily get by on payments half (or less) of everything listed above. $2,700 for a mortgage payment? I'm going to go out on a limb here and say the average house in the des moines area is not $350,000.
If you wouldn't consider 200k at a level to make you wealthy, you wouldn't consider 300k wealthy if you were at that point either, because instead of the $1200 car payments, you'd be upping that to $2000, the same with the mortgage and everything else.
Live boring life but you're debt free. Get hit by bus tomorrow say to self, "Self why didnt we do more fun things in life?" Costs too much
Just have to find the right balance. You can have fun today while planning for tomorrow.
200,000 wasn't the total costs, I was saying at 200,000 plus income financial aid is very hard to come by
Just because you spend doesn't mean you don't save. Believe me I save plenty, I will be fine when I am older. I also, do not think it will be a responsibility of mine to fund a kids education. Will I do it? Maybe, but it isn't something I have written in. In that situation, I have found that if someone is paying for their own education, it ends up costing less. I paid for mine and I was out in 4 years and I transferred. I have two buddies that have had it paid for and will be going into their 5th or sixth year. There is incentive to be done with it. I am not saying it is wrong to pay for it, just that there are positives to both sides.
Yeah in some ways, but what I tried to lay out was not "excessive" car payments etc., just what you see as typical in the burbs. 1200 combined gets you car payments on a van and a $25,000 car, so we aren't talking high end luxury cars, but we are also not talking buying high mileage cars either. I was not trying to make the point that it would be tight at 200+, but that you don't have to live very "extravagantly" by US standards to be tight at the end of the month.
Unfortunately you are right that most will spend up to their income however.
I believe I could have sold it for more. Hell I think I could get close 6 months from when I bought it. This isn't every car, or even very many of the same make and model.
Cool. It just sounded to me like you were saying "screw retirement, I'm spending everything I have while I'm young".
Oh, no, I was just saying that I don't want a bunch of money when I get older, more than i need and regret the things I didn't do or try.
Props here. It has been said before but to each there own and what one family could do with $100k and be "wealthy" another might need $250k. It is all in your balance and the lifestyle you are accustom to.
"Oh, no, I was just saying that I don't want a bunch of money when I get older, more than i need and regret the things I didn't do or try."
I'm 7 months from retiring. I'm going to get a decent pension. I saved my whole working career. I'll be fine. I just chuckled at the idea of having "more money than I need" at any age in my life. If nothing else, you could give a couple million to bowl in JT stadium if you end up with too much.
I don't mean to pick on you, I just had a bit of a chuckle.
I'm 7 months from retiring. I'm going to get a decent pension. I saved my whole working career. I'll be fine. I just chuckled at the idea of having "more money than I need" at any age in my life. If nothing else, you could give a couple million to bowl in JT stadium if you end up with too much.
I don't mean to pick on you, I just had a bit of a chuckle.
I see your point. Look, I am a pretty simple person really who likes nice things but not extravagant over the top things. I spend little on clothes, little on shoes and that type of things. I spend more on vehicles and living. I consider it a wash. I save a bunch on some things and spend maybe a little much on others but in the end, they wash.
I was just saying I don't want to have a bunch of money when I am older and wish that I had done more when I was younger instead of doing those things and still being comfortable when I am older. I suppose that is the whole argument huh. "How much do you spend now to be happy, but yet have enough to be happy later." I used to be a big saver and I rarely did a lot of the things I wanted to. Sometimes it was because of money. There was something that I went through three years ago that changed my whole attitude on that.
Like I said I wasn't picking on you. My dad was a depression era kid and he could not get any enjoyment out of spending money for anything. It was always more of a feeling of "what is this costing? and the associated panic and fear of not having enough. He remembered not being able to get tires during WWII so he had a whole shed full of worn out tires. He wasn't going to be without again! Sad to see in a way. But I think it's just as sad to see people spend all their money and be miserable and also broke because "spending" and having doesn't really bring happiness.
+1 My grandparents were that way. Died with a bunch of money that they never spent and just got passed down. We appreciated it, but are good savers, so really didn't need it that bad. Would have made us much happier if they would have spent more on themselves.
Conversely I have a cousin who doesn't make much money and is always worried about spending. It hurts him enough, that he's walked away or never looked at opportinities that could improve his lot in life. That is one path I choose not to follow.
These costs are huge, sorry to say. I could go through and debate every line item but I won't. There are so many people that are happy with so much less than this. 200k in Iowa could be very wealthy, but not with this kind of lifestyle. There are many places to trim this budget. Just saying.
While I personally think some of the expenses are a little over, some are also quite a bit under. $750/month for groceries? With kids in high school? NWIH.
Wealth is an extremely subjective subject, and one that is also fluid depending on your life circumstances. When you're single and only have yourself to account for, you may be able to spend (or save) quite a bit. When you start adding in other factors (marriage, kids, pets, etc...) those financial priorities change. There are definitely ways to budget and make the most out of your income without sacrificing your personal lifestyle goals or putting yourself in the poorhouse through bad financial decisions. And in the end if you're happy with what you're doing, that's all that matters.
