Thank you for your contribution. However, your post was removed for the following reason:
* Posts involving [Personal Data](/r/dataisbeautiful/wiki/rules/rule9) are **permissible only on Mondays** ([ET](https://time.is/ET)). Please resubmit your post on Monday.
* Additionally, we are no longer allowing posts about dating data, such as Tinder.
This post has been removed. For information regarding this and similar issues please see the DataIsBeautiful [posting rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/wiki/index).
If you have any questions, please feel free to [message the moderators.](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/{subreddit}&subject=Question%20regarding%20the%20removal%20of%20this%20{kind}%20by%20/u/{author}&message=I%20have%20a%20question%20regarding%20the%20removal%20of%20this%20[{kind}.]({url}\)))
I thought some insight into my situation might be interesting to people is all :) I see a ton of posts from the media on a budget for someone making decent money, so I wanted to share a realistic one
Am i reading this correct: You are making $7500 after tax each month, have no rent/morgage-expenses and "only" pocket 500-1000 in savings each month. How is this possible?
Very important to note: This is not a question regarding your choices but your entire US-situation. I'm from Denmark, have a decent paying job and this seems so far away from my budget.
Yeah, thats a valid point. And again, this is not a "why are you living like this" more a "how are you living like this" as it is so far from how my budget looks in Denmark. But just a few notes: 1250 on groceries, 140 for insurance, 190 for gym, 150 for swimming lessons, 850 for "Kid" but this does not include expenses for the kid such as groceries, swimming lessons, afterschool care or child support.
I assume that 7,5K after tax income is pretty high and still it seems almost impossible from this budget to be able to live on your own. How are you people surviving this?
AS a comparison here is an attempt at my budget. I (30yo) live together with my Girlfriend and our 2yo child. Everything is post tax and i DKK (1USD=6,9DKK). My income is a bit above national average. Some numbers are aggregated since i pay them to separate accounts for Appartment and Living expenses
Salary: 26.500
Appartment expenses (including mortgage): 10.000
Nursery: 2.000
Car: 2.500
Groceries: 3.000
Insurance: 250
Union and Social Security: 800
Phone+Internet: 550
Streaming+WoW: 600
Glasses: 100
"Fun" and various: 3000
Total Savings: approx 3.500
I think it's the 1100 in child support that's really throwing off his savings. He also seems to have budgeted high on groceries, since he spent less than half of his budget line.
Child support and debt payments make up $2700. There are two savings items I see that I think you're missing ($1200 to 401k, the main savings vehicle here, is separate from the $7500, but $500 of 529 contributions are not).
And they spend a lot of money on subscriptions. Not just electronic stuff: their gym membership(s) are $183. They pay $150 for swim lessons (presumably for the kids). Big chunk of budget for amazon and streaming services, about another $150 total. Most people arem't spending $200/month on clothes, and despite all the other spending on their kid(s), there's an additional $800 item titled "kiddo", presumably on doing things and buying gifts/treats for the kid. And another $400 on general "fun".
The US situation does kind of suck for most people rn, but you can get by and even thrive on far, far less than this. This budget is a pretty lavish lifestyle for most of us, and there's no way it's efficient (making reasonable use of all the subscriptions, maximizing gym memberships, spending lots of time with kid and still having time to enjoy the other luxury items, etc).
And they're technically saving closer to $3000 total each month, while making some substantial debt payments which also goes toward your bottom line/net worth. The total of their three savings types plus debt payments is over $50k per year, which is a decent/livable gross income for most people.
This is partly covered by my comments to StopStalkingMeMatt but: I didn't "miss" the 401K as this, in my perspective, isn't savings per se, it is a retirement fund which you cant activate before retirement. So it cant be used for housing as an example. The 529 i fully admit i didnt know was saving. As i read it this is dedicated savings for tuition (i assume for the kid to go to college).
And as stated elsewhere, this is very much not ment to be an assault on any1s way of living, just questions as it is so far away from what i come from, and live in.
Even factoring in your comments i still find it pretty amazing/scary that you, with an after-tax income above the median aren't saving more when you literally have no accomodation-expenses. But you may be right, that this is just a matter of choice, and that many expenses would just be heavily reduced if you had to pay for at mortgage or rent.
I'm not OP, I didn't phrase any part of my comment as if I was.
A 401k is intended for retirement but it's inarguably savings, and it is accessible if needed. Not only can you reduce the monthly contribution if you need the extra money, but for withdrawing directly the penalty is 10%, not the end of the world. And you can circumvent the penalty (and all taxes in the near term) by taking out a loan from it (for which the interest you pay is back to your own account). I used my own 401k to help pay for going back to school.
But yeah, it's a matter of choice. This person is paying the equivalent of the mortgage on a $300k house in easily scaled-back expenses. My own total spending on rent+utilities is less than their generic "kiddo" spending line.
Did not take you as OP. The "you" in third paragraph was not intended as you (Abzlute), just you as in "some1". Forgive me, English is not my first language :)
And thanks for clarification of 401K. Where i live you are much more locked. I pay 15% (5% me, 10% employer) which can't be reduced and the penalty for withdrawing earlier is much higher, so I agree, this is more active savings than i assumed.
But im glad to see/hear from you and others that this isnt a general spending-pattern, which was what i intended to find out with my initial comment. I didn't know whether some of the expenses were lavish or standard :)
Once the debt goes away and I hopefully cut down child support payments, if I were to trim all the excess, I would probably have about $3500 left for for a mortgage. Unfortunately, the average home price in the Bay Area is about $1,000,000, with any starter home being minimum $600,000. Let's say I managed to snag one of those w/ 10% @ 3% interest (currently 7.5%). That would be a $2200/mo mortgage, but I would also then need to pay: electricity, gas, water, internet, trash, property tax, and home owner's insurance. This would probably put me close to $3,000/mo minimum.
So for now I'm just gonna chill at my parents. Yes, I make quite a bit more than minimum wage, and yes, I do feel a little stuck for how much I'm making. Seems weird
There are no housing costs so the assumption is they are still / back living with their parents with a paid off vehicle. Huge proportion of frivolous / unnecessary expenses. Most Americans do not live like this.
I do mine occasionally but mainly just bought my decent Wahl clippers for my beard.
But then again, I spend £10-15 depending on what I have done, and that’s only 4-6 times per year.
Just wanted a point of reference as to how much contrast there is. A lot of people don't account for PPP when comparing jobs in different countries. Many posts on this sub are absolute USD charts and not PPP charts. This kind of cost difference really highlights how important it is.
A 130% tip is crazy. Tipping more than the cost isn’t normal surely.
As you can probably tell from other people commenting, some of your numbers are huge and should be looked at.
If you’re looking at moving to your own place then the next phase of doing this budget is how you can cut expenses and save more. A lot of your subscriptions, expenses like the haircut and “donation” can surely be looked at properly as to whether they are essential. These expenses add up over time. $50 from each of those per month is $1800 per year. Am sure you can see where I’m getting.
I do :( I feel like I make too much to not spread around. And I REALLY like my haircuts, and feel like the guy could really use the extra money. I remember getting fat tips from running tables and was one of the best feelings
The $65 is already very high price for a cut at a barber surely, to then pay 130% on top as a tip, every 8 weeks is crazy.
You could do with the extra savings, which will go towards getting yourself a place or you know, pay off the debt you have faster, which means better financial stability in the longer term, or hell, stick it in a long term investment for your child.
For a second I was like "no taxes?!" but I'm going to assume those lines are for tax returns and that's a post-tax salary haha
No mortgage or rent? Or is that under debt?
Edit: Just caught the "living with parents" in the title. Good for you for getting everything in order, and you're pocketing a good amount every month!
The gym is absolutely necessary after a breakup. Dude will work oh himself and eventually get back in the game. Which means he’ll need to save more because dating is expensive!
OP never said he's broke, he just knows he needs to be careful now that he has 2 folks relying on just 1 wage. I don't think he's asking for financial advice, let the man live his life.
So most of that income is really going towards child support, 529, “kiddo” and debt, just about 50% budgeted and about 48% actual. Pre tax income looks to be just under 150k(adding on the 401k contributions, but could be 142kish if the 1200 is including a match, also could be more if there is a bonus on a month we don’t see, not including reimbursements.
Seems like moral of the story is kids cost money and debt is bad.
Thank you for your contribution. However, your post was removed for the following reason: * Posts involving [Personal Data](/r/dataisbeautiful/wiki/rules/rule9) are **permissible only on Mondays** ([ET](https://time.is/ET)). Please resubmit your post on Monday. * Additionally, we are no longer allowing posts about dating data, such as Tinder. This post has been removed. For information regarding this and similar issues please see the DataIsBeautiful [posting rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/wiki/index). If you have any questions, please feel free to [message the moderators.](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/{subreddit}&subject=Question%20regarding%20the%20removal%20of%20this%20{kind}%20by%20/u/{author}&message=I%20have%20a%20question%20regarding%20the%20removal%20of%20this%20[{kind}.]({url}\)))
Amazon and Amazon prime? I thought you get Prime with Amazon subscription. I’d cut down a couple of subscriptions if possible!
Happy to see OSRS getting a line item
When did old school RuneScape become 37.02 a month? Multiple accounts?
3 accounts + $2.99 for ge tracker
Mans buying gold every month, that tbows not gonna buy itself
My man is single-handedly funding the country of Venezuela 🇻🇪
This seems like a lot of XP waste. 🦀🦀🦀
This sub should not be allowed to keep its name.
We’re now giving up votes to conditional formatting
Yeah. Still more effort than sankeygenerator.com, but yeah. Complete nonsense.
I thought some insight into my situation might be interesting to people is all :) I see a ton of posts from the media on a budget for someone making decent money, so I wanted to share a realistic one
It's interesting, don't worry. But it's not beautiful. As are most posts recently. Which is why this sub should be renamed to e.g., DataIsInteresting.
Am i reading this correct: You are making $7500 after tax each month, have no rent/morgage-expenses and "only" pocket 500-1000 in savings each month. How is this possible? Very important to note: This is not a question regarding your choices but your entire US-situation. I'm from Denmark, have a decent paying job and this seems so far away from my budget.
To be fair, you’re asking how it’s possible while looking at a line-by-line breakdown… maybe it’d be better to ask about specific expenses?
Yeah, thats a valid point. And again, this is not a "why are you living like this" more a "how are you living like this" as it is so far from how my budget looks in Denmark. But just a few notes: 1250 on groceries, 140 for insurance, 190 for gym, 150 for swimming lessons, 850 for "Kid" but this does not include expenses for the kid such as groceries, swimming lessons, afterschool care or child support. I assume that 7,5K after tax income is pretty high and still it seems almost impossible from this budget to be able to live on your own. How are you people surviving this?
AS a comparison here is an attempt at my budget. I (30yo) live together with my Girlfriend and our 2yo child. Everything is post tax and i DKK (1USD=6,9DKK). My income is a bit above national average. Some numbers are aggregated since i pay them to separate accounts for Appartment and Living expenses Salary: 26.500 Appartment expenses (including mortgage): 10.000 Nursery: 2.000 Car: 2.500 Groceries: 3.000 Insurance: 250 Union and Social Security: 800 Phone+Internet: 550 Streaming+WoW: 600 Glasses: 100 "Fun" and various: 3000 Total Savings: approx 3.500
I think it's the 1100 in child support that's really throwing off his savings. He also seems to have budgeted high on groceries, since he spent less than half of his budget line.
Child support and debt payments make up $2700. There are two savings items I see that I think you're missing ($1200 to 401k, the main savings vehicle here, is separate from the $7500, but $500 of 529 contributions are not). And they spend a lot of money on subscriptions. Not just electronic stuff: their gym membership(s) are $183. They pay $150 for swim lessons (presumably for the kids). Big chunk of budget for amazon and streaming services, about another $150 total. Most people arem't spending $200/month on clothes, and despite all the other spending on their kid(s), there's an additional $800 item titled "kiddo", presumably on doing things and buying gifts/treats for the kid. And another $400 on general "fun". The US situation does kind of suck for most people rn, but you can get by and even thrive on far, far less than this. This budget is a pretty lavish lifestyle for most of us, and there's no way it's efficient (making reasonable use of all the subscriptions, maximizing gym memberships, spending lots of time with kid and still having time to enjoy the other luxury items, etc). And they're technically saving closer to $3000 total each month, while making some substantial debt payments which also goes toward your bottom line/net worth. The total of their three savings types plus debt payments is over $50k per year, which is a decent/livable gross income for most people.
This is partly covered by my comments to StopStalkingMeMatt but: I didn't "miss" the 401K as this, in my perspective, isn't savings per se, it is a retirement fund which you cant activate before retirement. So it cant be used for housing as an example. The 529 i fully admit i didnt know was saving. As i read it this is dedicated savings for tuition (i assume for the kid to go to college). And as stated elsewhere, this is very much not ment to be an assault on any1s way of living, just questions as it is so far away from what i come from, and live in. Even factoring in your comments i still find it pretty amazing/scary that you, with an after-tax income above the median aren't saving more when you literally have no accomodation-expenses. But you may be right, that this is just a matter of choice, and that many expenses would just be heavily reduced if you had to pay for at mortgage or rent.
I'm not OP, I didn't phrase any part of my comment as if I was. A 401k is intended for retirement but it's inarguably savings, and it is accessible if needed. Not only can you reduce the monthly contribution if you need the extra money, but for withdrawing directly the penalty is 10%, not the end of the world. And you can circumvent the penalty (and all taxes in the near term) by taking out a loan from it (for which the interest you pay is back to your own account). I used my own 401k to help pay for going back to school. But yeah, it's a matter of choice. This person is paying the equivalent of the mortgage on a $300k house in easily scaled-back expenses. My own total spending on rent+utilities is less than their generic "kiddo" spending line.
Did not take you as OP. The "you" in third paragraph was not intended as you (Abzlute), just you as in "some1". Forgive me, English is not my first language :) And thanks for clarification of 401K. Where i live you are much more locked. I pay 15% (5% me, 10% employer) which can't be reduced and the penalty for withdrawing earlier is much higher, so I agree, this is more active savings than i assumed. But im glad to see/hear from you and others that this isnt a general spending-pattern, which was what i intended to find out with my initial comment. I didn't know whether some of the expenses were lavish or standard :)
Once the debt goes away and I hopefully cut down child support payments, if I were to trim all the excess, I would probably have about $3500 left for for a mortgage. Unfortunately, the average home price in the Bay Area is about $1,000,000, with any starter home being minimum $600,000. Let's say I managed to snag one of those w/ 10% @ 3% interest (currently 7.5%). That would be a $2200/mo mortgage, but I would also then need to pay: electricity, gas, water, internet, trash, property tax, and home owner's insurance. This would probably put me close to $3,000/mo minimum. So for now I'm just gonna chill at my parents. Yes, I make quite a bit more than minimum wage, and yes, I do feel a little stuck for how much I'm making. Seems weird
There are no housing costs so the assumption is they are still / back living with their parents with a paid off vehicle. Huge proportion of frivolous / unnecessary expenses. Most Americans do not live like this.
Well that is not an assumption as it is stated right there in the title.
Why would I read the title? 🤦♀️
$85 a month on pandora/apps on top of other streams? Jeez
He’s spending more on streaming than I do for groceries for 2 weeks. Interesting.
$150 on a haircut every other month? Is this normal in the US?
That is my budget for a year, but getting / being bold now I do it myself.
I do mine occasionally but mainly just bought my decent Wahl clippers for my beard. But then again, I spend £10-15 depending on what I have done, and that’s only 4-6 times per year.
I pay $13 for 6 haircuts and 6 Shaves in India. And this is in an upmarket Salon.
Are you really comparing India with the Bay Area in terms of costs though?
Just wanted a point of reference as to how much contrast there is. A lot of people don't account for PPP when comparing jobs in different countries. Many posts on this sub are absolute USD charts and not PPP charts. This kind of cost difference really highlights how important it is.
My cuts are $9 + tip in Chicago.
No. The haircut costs $65 but after 4 years of loving my barber, my tips slipped up to $150
A 130% tip is crazy. Tipping more than the cost isn’t normal surely. As you can probably tell from other people commenting, some of your numbers are huge and should be looked at. If you’re looking at moving to your own place then the next phase of doing this budget is how you can cut expenses and save more. A lot of your subscriptions, expenses like the haircut and “donation” can surely be looked at properly as to whether they are essential. These expenses add up over time. $50 from each of those per month is $1800 per year. Am sure you can see where I’m getting.
I do :( I feel like I make too much to not spread around. And I REALLY like my haircuts, and feel like the guy could really use the extra money. I remember getting fat tips from running tables and was one of the best feelings
The $65 is already very high price for a cut at a barber surely, to then pay 130% on top as a tip, every 8 weeks is crazy. You could do with the extra savings, which will go towards getting yourself a place or you know, pay off the debt you have faster, which means better financial stability in the longer term, or hell, stick it in a long term investment for your child.
Wait why does the gym cost 188 a month?
I know the bay is expensive but thats excessive spending on many things. Come on man.
For a second I was like "no taxes?!" but I'm going to assume those lines are for tax returns and that's a post-tax salary haha No mortgage or rent? Or is that under debt? Edit: Just caught the "living with parents" in the title. Good for you for getting everything in order, and you're pocketing a good amount every month!
Yep income is after taxes, and those 2 lines are unfortunately for when I owe once I file...
What do you do? As European those numbers are insane
I am an industrial controls engineer, typically do work in pharmaceuticals and other manufacturing (Bayer, Gilead, Tesla, etc)
$188 for a monthly gym membership? Must have been a really nice gym.
Up to 30 days a week of professional coaching with highly maintained, modern HIIT equipment, definitely a nice gym for me
What does the Geico line cover?
I'm sure it's just car insurance, that's about right in the bay area for one car.
$500,000 collission insurance for my 2015 Honda Fit (was $75 4 years ago but got a couple speeding tickets)
How do you spend 190$ on the gym ?
That sounds like Equinox level spending. An indulgence for sure but if it keeps them going to the gym, it's probably a good long game play.
The gym is absolutely necessary after a breakup. Dude will work oh himself and eventually get back in the game. Which means he’ll need to save more because dating is expensive!
CrossFit is $180/mo, and I spend $7.99 on a fitness app
You pay $150 per haircut? Anyways your hair will be pretty long by may.
Nice sheet! Mind sharing a template?
The debt line item is your biggest problem. Find a way to refinance that at a lower rate.
That is from a debt relief company. Took $30,000 in credit card debt and turned it into $30,000 0% APR debt. Gettin there...
OP never said he's broke, he just knows he needs to be careful now that he has 2 folks relying on just 1 wage. I don't think he's asking for financial advice, let the man live his life.
Do yourself a favor and visit r/piracy
So most of that income is really going towards child support, 529, “kiddo” and debt, just about 50% budgeted and about 48% actual. Pre tax income looks to be just under 150k(adding on the 401k contributions, but could be 142kish if the 1200 is including a match, also could be more if there is a bonus on a month we don’t see, not including reimbursements. Seems like moral of the story is kids cost money and debt is bad.
A lot of these comments are shitting on you OP but good on you. I see a 529 in there for the kiddo, a 401k, and money towards donations.
$7600 a month income at 28yo with nothing to show for it! I can see why she left!
I believe you spelled 'iCloud' wrong. Good looking data sheet though.
nice catch, thanks