Your $250,000 A Year Salary Won't Make You Rich in New York

[dkf]

If New York's oppressive housing market wasn't enough to turn you off, now here's another reason to move: Your $250,000 a year salary won't go nearly as far in Manhattan as it would in Manhattan, Kan., reports Tom Foreman in a CNN Money video.

Foreman offers an illuminating comparison of each city's monthly costs, proving that no two salaries are alike in vastly different regions of the country:

New Yorkers earning $21,000 before taxes get to keep $7,066 of their income; in Kansas that number is closer to $12,370.

The average mortgage in New York, meanwhile, costs $4,997 per month, while in Kansas the same monthly payment is $1,126.

Health care costs are soaring, but that hasn't hurt Kansans, who can afford to pay $254 per month, as opposed to $541 in New York. 

Even the monthly cost of owning a car is significantly cheaper in Kansas: There, residents pay a mere $318 for their wheels; in New York, they pay $455.

http://www.businessinsider.com/your-250000-a-year-salary-wont-make-you-rich-in-new-york-2011-10

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. Oy!

[Fuzz]

6. It's true though. If I were to tell someone in say Alabama how much our family takes in per year in

NJ, about 1/2 hour from NYC, they'd think we were loaded. But the cost of living here is one of the highest in the nation and it just doesn't go as far. I'm not saying we're poor, we're lucky and more fortunate that many, but we're far from well off.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

8. No, it isn't.

That's top 1% in the World.

I think we can call that "rich."

And it's top 1% in New York.

[Fuzz]

47. Yes. I did not say we take in 250k though. I said we take in a decent amount, 6 figures, but that

amount does not go as far as it would elsewhere. For example, it compares to a salary that would be 40k less in Alabama.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

51. And $210K in Alabama is the 1%. eom

[Fuzz]

58. Wow, really? You are not reading what I'm writing or purposely being thick here.

Never mind.

[Bluenorthwest]

13. So would your family 'take in' the same money IN Alabama?

If not, the comparison is absurd.

[Fuzz]

46. No, we wouldn't, but that was the point, which you missed entirely.

[gratuitous]

12. Oh, but don't you see?

This totally settles the entire controversy, because if taxing the elite causes even one person who isn't wealthy to have to economize even one dime on their six-figure annual income, it completely invalidates the whole scheme. So it's far better to do absolutely nothing, and leave everything just as it is.

Whew! That was close. Tighten the belts another notch before asking Paris Hilton to kick in another nickel. Whaddya mean you ate your belts? God, you poor people just don't have any sense at all!

[leftstreet]

17. Reading those stats makes me wanna start a Help the 6-Figures Drive

:cry:

[valerief]

34. Yes, it's best to let millions starve and die than to force one privileged person to

economize.

The most important thing in the world for rich people to get richer, after all.

[yardwork]

37. Meanwhile, forget about trying to help the poor soul who makes $21,000 per year.

[Enrique]

2. Manhattan NYC much more expensive than Manhattan, KS?

thanks, CNN, I would have thought they'd be about the same, having the same name and all.

[KurtNYC]

16. LOL

If they have the same name, it must be a franchise.

[Glimmer of Hope]

45. I have been to both Manhattans and I found them to be a bit different.

Yeah.

[TheWraith]

3. This is news?

I hear people who live in the suburbs talking about million dollar house values like it's no big deal. Here in the sticks you could buy ten houses for that.

[Romulox]

4. Move.

:nopity:

[lapislzi]

48. Easy for you, violin sawyer

I have good work here, and my daughter has school. We have family. In my profession, you need to be near a metro area, so there's not much room for me to trade. And I'm one of the lucky ones. No, I'm not near a 1%er, but I worry about money like everyone else, and my health care costs way exceed $500/month, I assure you.

[Romulox]

50. Then deal with it. Either way, your choice to live in a luxury area is on *you*. nt

[lapislzi]

57. This is where I make my living.

If I could do it elsewhere, I would.

For the record, I don't live in a "luxury area." I live in an area that is mostly working class people and retirees. I don't even live in the suburbs. Where I live is semi-rural. But, I make my living in an urban satellite of NYC.

I "choose" to make a living. I'm only good at certain things, and the thing I'm best at is how I make my living. If I knew how to build houses, or be a plumber, I might have the option to move elsewhere. But, at 50, that's not likely to happen. So, pardon me for "choosing" to give my daughter a chance at a decent life.

Judge much?

[Name removed]

60. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[devilgrrl]

61. That is something Ron Paul would say.

eom

[RoccoR5955]

5. These numbers are quite extreme

Take it from someone who lives in NY. How many people in NYC even own cars? The mortgages in Manhattan are an awful lot more than those in Rochester. To portray all of NY like this is really crappy. Manhattan may come close to these figures, but I believe that they are even high for Manhattan. They probably took the high numbers from NY, and the low numbers from KS, and made a story out of it, the dirt bags!

[pnwmom]

25. Mortgages in Manhattan ARE an awful lot higher than in Rochester.

So is the price of real estate.

This article seemed to be clearly comparing the two cities, not the two states.

[firehorse]

42. I agree. I've lived here for years. Nobody I know owns a car, we ride bikes,

or take the subway. And we walk A LOT.... We don't buy food at fancy stores, we shop frugally from the street vendors or at places like Essex market. We buy our clothes from local designer market on Mulberry Street where clothes, jewelry, and t-shirts are made locally and sold at wholesale prices or we shop vintage. I don't know anyone with $4,900 mortgage. I'm sure they exist, but its not like everyone walking around that you see is paying that. The bulk are sharing tenement walk-ups even if they have roommates at age 30, 40, 50 years old. Or they are shacking up and sharing expenses with their significant others in spaces in Queens, Brooklyn, or rent stabilized apartments in Manhattan.

[Shagbark Hickory]

43. Yeah it was part of a CNN video or some crap. They had to fill the 90 second gaps in between commer-

-cial breaks.

[Bluenorthwest]

7. Who has 'wheels' in Manhattan?

What cars are they buying? Strange piece. That is not the average NY mortgage, but NYC mortgage. Try comparing State to State or State to City, but the alternating just make the stupid too stark.

[hfojvt]

9. I cannot seem to get your link to work

so I am not sure about the details. Why start with $250,000 and then switch to $21,000? And why the $5,000 difference? City taxes?

I pay much more than $254 a month for insurance in Kansas. In Fact, I pay more than $541 a month, if you include what my employer pays, I paid $619 a month and $31.72 for dental.

Who pays $318 a month for a car? Doesn't that depend on what kind of car you drive?

[October]

15. Maybe they meant car PARKING - that's $350-500 a month. /nt

[AndyTiedye]

10. It Would be Worth All That Extra Money Not to Have to Live in Kansas

Facing Cuts, a City Repeals Its Domestic Violence Law (Topeka, Kansas)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x5023667

[Ragrum]

11. paradigm shift

Ask someone subsistence living in NYC that another making $250k is not rich. I’ll bet that poverty family could really make that $250k go far with their paradigm shift.

[hobbit709]

14. Even in NYC that's a lot more than most people there make.

[AndyTiedye]

20. Some Long-Time New-Yorkers Still Have Rent-Controlled Apartments

They pay about 1/2 to 1/3 of what other renters do.

[jpbollma]

21. I don't mean to step on any NYC DU'ers

I've been there a couple times to visit several of my best friends who moved there. I am myself considering moving with my partner. Here in Mid-Michigan we have a nice 3 bedroom 1200 sq ft home for about $700 a month but we also have to pay utilities which total around $300 a month and our combined car/insurance/gas costs are around $725 per month. We are considering renting our home here and moving there. We can get a very nice updated apartment with all utilities included and drop our car/gas/insurance costs for a 1 bdrm apartment in Manhattan completely updated for around $1500.00 (much smaller space of course). I suppose it all depends on the type of lifestyle you want. We would be paying about the same, but for a smaller space. We would prefer the lifestyle though. It only makes sense that it would cost more to live in Manhattan and you would have less space, the area is more in demand...but over all 250k would still make you well off even there...people live in different areas for different reasons. My friends who live there share a 3 bedroom apartment are servers at a chain eatery in Time Square and do well enough to come home 1-2 times per year and take a nice vacation to Mexico...it certainly is not impossible to live there. That is just my observation for which I could be completely wrong.

[October]

27. $1500/month in Manhattan? Where??? Seriously. Where???

[dmallind]

18. That net income is bullshit

I made way less than 250k (not much more than half that!), in NY, and netted more than 7k/mo.

[KurtNYC]

19. If I made $250K I would live very well here

and I wouldn't take any financial advice from a guy who compares the mortgage in Manhattan to one in Kansas. Or who thinks that the effective tax rate on $250K is 66%. Actual rate is around 40% (fed + state + city) so this person would have to scrape by one $150K take home; $500 per day. Boo-hoo.

[jumptheshadow]

36. +1 (nt)

[jaysunb]

22. California either ! n/t

[Earth_First]

23. Anyone care to fund a case study? I bet my wife and I could make a go at it... n/t

[fishwax]

30. I'd be willing to give it a shot too :) n/t

[MadHound]

24. Please, let me try out this experiment

I think I could get by handsomely on $250,000/year, even accounting for the differences in the cost of living.

[kentuck]

26. How many people in NYC make less than 250K ??

How do they survive??

[Enrique]

28. the vast majority of them

this is Manhattan, by the way:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan

The Manhattan ZIP Code 10021, on the Upper East Side is home to more than 100,000 people and has a per capita income of over $90,000.<124> It is one of the largest concentrations of extreme wealth in the United States. Most Manhattan neighborhoods are not as wealthy. The median income for a household in the county was $47,030, and the median income for a family was $50,229. Males had a median income of $51,856 versus $45,712 for females. The per capita income for the county was $42,922. About 17.6% of families and 20% of the population were below the poverty line, including 31.8% of those under age 18 and 18.9% of those age 65 or over.<125>

[closeupready]

52. Yes, the vast majority. They survive by taking roommates.

Not very Sex And the City, is it, but it is reality.

[taught_me_patience]

29. 250k does not go far in manhattan nor SF nor LA

500k doesn't go far in Manhattan.

[Luminous Animal]

41. In San Francisco median household (2.41 persons) income is $70,247

I'd say that an additional $179,750 a year ($500 a day!) could go very far.

[Gormy Cuss]

53. 250K is enough to live quite well in SF, LA or NYC.

The OP is right that it isn't enough to be rich but it is enough to afford decent housing, food, clothing, transportation, day care, and even more. IOW, it goes pretty far. As others have pointed out many DO live in these areas on far less.

[Skidmore]

31. Jeepers, what size house is that in Kansas with a $1k/mo mortgage payment.

We pay $700+/mo for a 2 bedroom home w/2 baths, a 2 car garage, and a half acre of land. Rent in this village for an apartment runs $250/mo for a 2 bedroom apartment, which means half of someone's house.

[Eric J in MN]

32. Obama never said that everyone who earns $250K or more is rich.

Obama only wants to raise taxes on people gettting more than $250K/year in income AFTER deductions.

$250K/year makes one AFFLUENT in New York and other places, regardless of whether it makes the person RICH.

Furthermore, a person makes exactly $250K/year after deductions would see no increase in taxes under Obama's proposal, since he just wants to raise taxes on income above that.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

33. I remember seeing a NY Times article about twenty years ago about a family

that claimed they couldn't make it on $100,000 a year. It turned out that they were sending three children to expensive private schools.

[Ikonoklast]

35. Business Insider thinks people making 300K are peons.

What a steaming pantsload, those poor, poor 1%ers, we need to feel sorry for them.


Swing and a miss, try harder.

[devilgrrl]

38. This was true back in the mid-80's

eom

[bluestateguy]

39. Is that with or without a family?

A single person in NYC making that much, I would call lower-upper class.

But even for a family of 4 in NYC, $250,000 may not be rich, but it is certainly quite comfortable.

[frylock]

40. so move out of the city. buy an alarm clock, get up early and take the train..

whatever it is you decide to do, quit your fucking whining about how harrrrrrrrrrrrrrrd it is to live in manhattan ffs.

[lifesbeautifulmagic]

44. people that say $250,000 "doesn't go far"

do not have a fucking clue.

i don't care where you live.

Most jobs being created in the US pay under $25,000, with little or no or worthless benefits. Or sick leave.

Jeezus h Christ.

on edit, if you think that $250,000 "doesn't go far", go to this page, read the stories and cry me a fucking river.

http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/

[trackfan]

54. +1

It's ridiculous.

[neverforget]

49. What about Manhattan, Montana? They're always forgotten.

http://www.townofmanhattan.com/

[KamaAina]

55. Horse hockey. No one pays two-thirds of their income in taxes

unless their tax accountant got his degree from a gumball machine. :dunce:

[Jello Biafra]

56. Try to find a job for $250,000/yr....

in Manhattan, Kansas...Good luck....and let me know about it.....

[kentuck]

59. Is it 50% that make less than $25K per year?

Good thing they don't live in NYC. NYC!