Is $200K enough?

[Jolly]

Down here, most would consider that a little better than good.

[89th]

What an American question... is $200,000 a year good enough? LOL

Umm, yes it's more than good enough. Even in the most expensive areas (NYC, San Fran, Horace's neighborhood) if you "had" to live there in order to keep a household income of $200,000 you would be fine. Even if you <dramatic pause> couldn't live in the perfect house or have 10 media subscriptions... life would be fine.

[LuFins Dad]

@George-K said in Is $200K enough?:

https://ofdollarsanddata.com/is-200k-a-year-good/

Only part of the way through, but something grabbed me.

In all of these datasets, income was maximized 45-54 with a pretty sharp decline from 55-64. Any ideas why such a significant drop? Industries value youth over experience? More single income households ie divorce? Early retirements? I can imagine a little bit of a drop off, but in the bottom two, they seem significant.

Another interesting (and frightening) thing I saw was just how low the 65 and above incomes are. Dangerously but understandably low for the HS Dropouts and HS Graduate levels, but unreasonably low for the college grads. At those median incomes at younger ages, their SS income alone should be $40K single income and $70K two income households. A $71K Median shows way too little invested for retirement.

[89th]

@LuFins-Dad Yes I suspect it's a combination of what you mentioned. Early retirement, divorce, maybe (as in my case) conversion to single-income for other reasons, maybe health?

[Jolly]

Government employees and public school teachers tend to retire in their mid-fifties to early sixties.

Would that account for some of it?

[LuFins Dad]

@89th said in Is $200K enough?:

@LuFins-Dad Yes I suspect it's a combination of what you mentioned. Early retirement, divorce, maybe (as in my case) conversion to single-income for other reasons, maybe health?

I don’t think too many households 55-64 are converting to single income households for the same reason you did, 89th…

[89th]

@LuFins-Dad LOL true

[LuFins Dad]

@Jolly said in Is $200K enough?:

Down here, most would consider that a little better than good.

And that’s the issue not addressed nearly well enough… Good enough for where? I could live like a king off of $200K a year in Southwestern, PA. And I mean like a king…Cleaning/Cooking staff, live in nanny, 5000 square foot home, etc…

In Norrhern, VA? Not so much…

[Axtremus]

Have not found the definition for "income" yet for that article. E.g., is it the AGI figures from US tax returns, is it Social Security wages or Medicare wages off your tax forms, does it account for employer sponsored/subsidized benefits (employer paid portion of medical insurance premiums), etc. ?

Regardless, when you read the word "income" in this sort of discussion, what definition of "income" comes to your mind?

For W2 employees, would that be your pre-tax, pre-deduction (for things like healthcare insurance premiums, retirement savings) income, post-tax income, or just the net take-home pay? Do you mentally add in (or deduct as the case may be) bank interests or investment dividends? Capital gains?

For the self-employed, it may just get even more complicated.

How about retirees? What definition comes to your mind when you read the term "household income"?

[Copper]

I think $200K would be considered very good in these parts - almost rural southern Virginia.

Half that would probably be considered at least good.

[89th]

Somewhat related:

[George K]

@89th "Happiness with your body" peaks at 74?

Woohoo! Almost there. Adonis, am I...

...at least to myself.

[jon-nyc]

I guess a Nobel prize winning discovery isn’t in the cards for me.

[Aqua Letifer]

@jon-nyc said in Is $200K enough?:

I guess a Nobel prize winning discovery isn’t in the cards for me.

I've got 6 months left, I'm gonna pwn the shit outta you.

[LuFins Dad]

It was a privilege just to be nominated.

[89th]

@Aqua-Letifer said in Is $200K enough?:

@jon-nyc said in Is $200K enough?:

I guess a Nobel prize winning discovery isn’t in the cards for me.

I've got 6 months left, I'm gonna pwn the shit outta you.

I only have 4 months left. Ugh, really ought to spend time proving out my perpetual motion machine. I still remember freshman year when Aqua told me my idea was impossible. Little does he know the machine hasn't stopped in 23 years! Hahahaha

[Horace]

@89th said in Is $200K enough?:

@Aqua-Letifer said in Is $200K enough?:

@jon-nyc said in Is $200K enough?:

I guess a Nobel prize winning discovery isn’t in the cards for me.

I've got 6 months left, I'm gonna pwn the shit outta you.

I only have 4 months left. Ugh, really ought to spend time proving out my perpetual motion machine. I still remember freshman year when Aqua told me my idea was impossible. Little does he know the machine hasn't stopped in 23 years! Hahahaha

Aqua is going to be so embarrassed.

[89th]

Totally. You see, I placed a device in Papau New Guinea where gravity is the strongest on earth, what it does is a marble drops into a shoot that uses the extra strong gravity to accelerate its decent until it hits a ramp that shoots the ball back up and then back into the same shoot. This repeats over and over. The trick is I placed a small windmill of sorts that the ball hits and rotates the blades. The reduction of energy from the ball hitting the blade is less than the gravitational strength gained in this part of the world so the ball never slows down enough to stop. Therefore there is a net positive amount of energy produced each cycle. Then I placed 10 billion of these devices across the country, and placed them so that the wind produces from the first windmill generates actual wind to aid the windmill of the second loopty-loop device thereby increasing the net energy produced for the 2nd device. So on and so forth until the 5,001,618th device is able to run without a marble at all! So far this has generated enough power to create one bitcoin, which has since lost $50,000 in value since its creation.

[Mik]

Cyber Rube Goldberg.

[Aqua Letifer]

Just put liquid nitrogen inside a steam machine and call it a day.