It's tough living on $500K a year:

[amborin]

"PRIVATE school: $32,000 a year per student.

Mortgage: $96,000 a year.

Co-op maintenance fee: $96,000 a year.

Nanny: $45,000 a year.

We are already at $269,000, and we haven’t even gotten to taxes yet.

Five hundred thousand dollars — the amount President Obama wants to set as the top pay for banking executives whose firms accept government bailout money — seems like a lot, and it is a lot. To many people in many places, it is a princely sum to live on. But in the neighborhoods of New York City and its suburban enclaves where successful bankers live, half a million a year can go very fast...."

<snip>

"The cold hard math can be cruel.

Like those taxes. If a person is married with two children, the weekly deductions on a $500,000 salary are: federal taxes, $2,645; Medicare, $139; state taxes, $682; and city, $372. With an annual Social Security tab of $6,621, the take-home pay is about $293,000 annually, said Martin Cohen, a Manhattan accountant.

Now move to living expenses.

Barbara Corcoran, a real estate executive, said that most well-to-do families take at least two vacations a year, a winter trip to the sun and a spring trip to the ski slopes.

Total minimum cost: $16,000.

A modest three-bedroom apartment, she said, which was purchased for $1.5 million, not the top of the market at all, carries a monthly mortgage of about $8,000 and a co-op maintenance fee of $8,000 a month. Total cost: $192,000. A summer house in Southampton that cost $4 million, again not the top of the market, carries annual mortgage payments of $240,000.

Many top executives have cars and drivers. A chauffeur’s pay is between $75,000 and $125,000 a year, the higher end for former police officers who can double as bodyguards, said a limousine driver who spoke anonymously because he does not want to alienate his society customers.

“Some of them want their drivers to have guns,” the driver said. “You get a cop and you have a driver.” To garage that car is about $700 a month.

A personal trainer at $80 an hour three times a week comes to about $12,000 a year.

The work in the gym pays off when one must don a formal gown for a charity gala. ..."

<snip>

<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/fashion/08halfmill.html?scp=1&sq=try%20living%20on&st=cse>

[kdmorris]

1. It's over 5X as much as my family makes per year

And we manage to eat and pay our mortgage. No private school for the kids and we have to actually raise them ourselves, but...hey, we are doing OK.

[devilgrrl]

2. This is just heart breaking - I'm typing through tears - how will they ever manage?

:sarcasm: :nopity:

[Double T]

6. Let me get the mop before your feet get wet.

[PM Martin]

3. These wealtyh executives live in wealthy towns.

Surely their public schools are top rated. I do not see any need for them to send their children to overpriced private schools.
Also, it is not the the job of the working classes to prop up your exorbitant life style.

[amborin]

11. NYC public schools are terrible...except for a few magnets like Bronx HS Science

[htuttle]

17. Maybe they wouldn't suck so bad if the rich were willing to fund them

...instead of insisting on Private School Vouchers that stole funding from the public school system.

[amborin]

26. these guys aren't using vouchers, though i agree with you that vouchers are terrible

and they are paying lots of taxes toward the public school system in nyc

[Raine]

4. I'll volunteer

to give it a try, you know sacrifice myself to the deprivations. :yoiks:

[aquart]

5. TWO vacations? House in the Hamptons? LOL!

Some people don't. They should try it.

On edit: Does anybody believe that's really the nanny's salary?

[KamaAina]

7. "Nanny: $45,000 a year."

Seems to me there would be quite a few Americans who want a job that pays more than mine yet requires no education. Yet many of these fat cats hire undocumented foreign workers under the table. :eyes:

[sandnsea]

12. The jobs Americans won't do - $80 hr PT

and $45,000 a year nanny. :crazy:

These people are insane and what's worse are the every day people who believe their shit and help perpetuate it.

[amborin]

31. did you read "the Nanny diaries" hilarious and true...

the nannies are typically not illegal immigrants...


have you seen the job requirements for nannies?

[Igel]

21. That's probably the gross figure for the nanny.

Take out of that employer's FICA, unemployment, and anything else that the employer has to pay before figuring the final amount actually paid to the nanny. It might also include her room/board.

Had a friend that was a nanny. Her pay wasn't great, but they had an allowance for routine health care, they paid their portion of FICA, and gave her room and board as part of her salary. She had use of the car on her days off and had to pay for her car insurance anyway, since it was a job requirement. The room was ok, and she ate what they ate.

[BlooInBloo]

8. Fuck them. Every second they whined, my offer would go down $50,000/year.

Fuck them.

[MrSlayer]

9. I'd like to give it a try.

I could live like a king on 300K take home pay.

[amborin]

10. $1.5 million for an apt----many sold for well over $20 million

not defending their excess, but NYC is/was a very costly place to live

[Nevernose]

13. They're stupid for paying that much then, aren't they?

They can live in Scranton and ride the freaking train like everyone else.

[amborin]

27. that's the rental and sales market there...

incredibly expensive, though prices are falling fast

[sandnsea]

15. Move and Rent

http://www.bestaptsnyc.com//index.cfm?page=searchresults&search_Type=2&cat=-1&rooms=3&priceRange=0%7C99999&x=107&y=4

Like the people they've displaced are going to have to do.

[htuttle]

16. If fat cats couldn't afford them anymore, the prices would go down

That's the MAGIC OF THE FREE MARKET, right?

[amborin]

28. they are falling fast

otherwise, you're being sarcastic, right?

[Nevernose]

14. If their kids had to go to public school...

I wonder how fast the quality of a public education would go up?

[Political Heretic]

18. Is this some sort of a fucking joke??

[htuttle]

19. Nope, no joke -- It's the upper crust's "Let them eat cake" moment

Let's see if it ends the same way...

[fishwax]

20. guess they'll have to tighten their designer belts

:eyes:

:nopity:

[Evoman]

22. New Slogan: "500 000.....sure beats your head on a fucking pike"

[FKA MNChimpH8R]

23. Some recommendations for these treasonous, parasitic swine

First this:



If they are still whining after that, it is then time to bring in a permanent remedy:

[Incitatus]

24. NY fucking TImes? I thought this was going to be from the Onion.

Then these same people fight tooth and nail against raising the minimum wage.

[Wiley50]

25. `No it's tough living on $500/mo n/t

[JI7]

29. send kids to public school, don't get a nanny or don't have kids if you can't raise them yourself

[amborin]

34. did you read Wolf's "Bonfire of the Vanities"? hilarious and compelling...

[JI7]

30. stupid motherfuckers, i hate these people

[JI7]

32. problem is these assholes think they DESERVE these things because they work HARDER than

those who make far less.

[QC]

33. Where's Robespierre when you need him? n/t