What is a decent monthly income?

In your opinion, what do you think is a good, decent monthly NET
income? When I mean net, I mean both Husband + Wife's income put
together? When I mean decent, I dont mean Bill Gates, nor do I mean a
toilet cleaner! Just a normal family, middle class, with a computer or
two living in a good area. So in other words, a decent middle class
normal income. Not poor, not rich. Oh, and also remeber to try to
translate it into US$ if possible. Got to www.xe.com to do so.

My personal income is ?45 pounds a week, living on the dole (unemployment benifet for you yanks :smile: )

Its a very invasive question for most, but IRC people know my ins and
outs anyways. More importantly jimmi, either reply to things at the
same rate you post them or stop doing it, you sad, sad f**ker.

Mephs, Mephs, Mephs...

Im sorry, I was just interested :/ Didnt mean to be invasive or
whatever. Also, I didnt find a thread on this, so I just started one.

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I would love to change the world, But they would'nt give me the source code.

If both have degrees, I would imagine (unless they're teaching) they would make something in the 45-60K a year a piece. Let's just say 55K.

That's $110K a year. So ... $9.2K/Month After taxes that'd clear around $6,440, assuming taxes takes 30% of the money up.

If you take bills out of that too, they'd probably have about half of that left.

This would be, probably, a little above middle-middle-class. They could probably own a $250-350K home ... have a bunch of luxuries and what not.

Not too difficult to figure out. Most "okay" paying jobs do anywhere from 25-35K a year. (You will make $35K a year by being a nurse ... or a manager at Staples)

However, if you have a better degree, you'll get a s**t load more money. Look at Satch, I believe he said he, alone, clears an ass-load of money. But then again, he's in the medical field and filling people up on drugs they don't need.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Wages are 100% dependent on the prices/cost of living in any given region of the US.

Menial jobs such as Restaurants may pay as low as 3.35 an hour (or worse) in the south, where the same job may pay 10.00 an hour in the north or west.

Incomes are also a very private thing. As long as the answer can remain general it should pose no problem but any specific questions can become an issue.

Most in the world, myself included, do not really want to know how much other people make because it can lead to boundaries in associations. I detest spoiled rich people, and I am quite sure many others do as well so knowing they are one could lead to issues. For instance, people casually say "Ram is cheap go get you a gig" well money is hard to come by for many. A sentence like that hurts on many levels, most in ways that are not easy to put in forums, even among friends.

Anyway, salaries are subjective and should be taken into consideration when you make your list.

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There is no history until something happens, then there is.

The question wasnt "What is your salary?".

It was what you think is a good amount. So dont tell me what you earn!

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I would love to change the world, But they would'nt give me the source code.

People naturally want more. So how could anyone realistically answer.

I think that if you can make ends meet and still sock a bit away for a rainy day then you are making a sufficient salary. Most would disagree but thats their viewpoint and would need to post a contrary reply.

I cannot post a number, it would have to many variables to be realistic. Inflation, cost of living, natural disasters, unemployment, medical bills, old age.... The list goes on and on.

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There is no history until something happens, then there is.

Well lets see, I make $13.77 an hour.. And I think its decent for the
area I live in. Im not rich nor am I poor, I would like to make in the
34 to 48 thousand range a year. But I think most people would consider
the 60 thousand area to be their ideal pay range.

When my wife was an exotic dancer, she would make anywhere between
500-1000 a night with a couple nights a week over the thousand mark. So
we were rolling in cash. But sine she has retired, its been really
hard, once your used to that kind of income.

I have to agree with Underdog though, in his post above..

Yeah, I agree with UD's point about ideal wages being dictated by the
cost of living. Making X amount per year may not cut it in the
U.S. or U.K., but if you lived somewhere else where money goes further
(like the Philippines for example) you would be perfectly content with
that figure.

Since it's all relative, I think you answered your question in your
first post. A decent monthly income is whatever gets you "a
computer or
two living in a good area." That figure changes wherever you live.

Edit: M$, I was really surprised by those figures on how much an exotic
dancer makes. I never knew you could pull in that much
cash! Next time I take a road trip to Montreal I'll be looking at
the girls in a different light...

15 bucks a month on allowance...

Me pops makes 130,000 a year, but keep in mind 'tis Canadian, and we
have uber taxes. So in reality he only keeps around half of it,
and after property tax and s**t like that it's not an incredible amount
of money...

my parents make about $60,000 annually combined and we get by find

of course we dont buy a lot of extra stuff and we manage our money wisely

take into consideration that the cost of living in the ozarks is a little lower than other areas

I'd say 60K is a good round figure to pic for the average "middle class" family. It would be plenty to keep two people comfortable in most US cities (I'm not talking about LA here)

I make 23K as a graduate student, and while that isn't fabulous it's plenty to get by on for one person in Seattle. I don't live in luxury, but neither to I have to pinch pennies to pay my bills. Note that I don't own a car, so that takes a BIG chunk out of my expenses.

Tracer, you're getting ripped off!!

I know a guy at work (Fatstrings knows him) and he makes $31,000 with benefits straight out of a bachelors in business. HE WORKS AT A SCHOOL. The same school I work at.

Tracer, you are the "steven hawking" to his "lobotomy patient." Seriously, you could have a lot more money, I bet....

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I tried sniffing coke, but the ice cubes kept getting stuck in my nose.
http://www.dimebowl.com

He probably chose his work based on its interest to him rather than the payment?

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http://maze5.net

could be

that's a smart thing to do. That;s why I am changing from Psychology to Linguistics... :smile:

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I tried sniffing coke, but the ice cubes kept getting stuck in my nose.
http://www.dimebowl.com

I make 23K as a graduate student.

I made allot more when I was working... Grad school is a matter of indentured servitude. That is really quite high for a graduate stipend, particularly considering the low cost of living in Seattle (relative to California).
I get full benefits, and if you were to include the tuition (payed by the department) I make more like 50k.

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Some people are like slinkys...

They aren?t really good for anything, but you can't help but laugh when one tumbles down the stairs.

Here a decent normal middle-class salary is about US$30'000 seeing that
here living is pretty cheap (Cheap food at low tax), but my dad earns
about US$70'000 annualy, but lots of it goes towards my Brother and
sisters Universaty which is <span style="color: red;">NOT cheap!</span>

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I would love to change the world, But they would'nt give me the source code.

You should earn (in my opinion) twice as much money as your rent costs if you want a good enough life.

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-[Better to be Honest than Kind]-

I doubt it. My brothers rent is R3000 a month, and his salary is R18000
a month. So he earns 5 times what his rent costs. And that is a top
class apartment!

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I would love to change the world, But they would'nt give me the source code.

... Six times ... 3 * 6 = 18.

Like I said, upper middle class would make somewhere around the 100K bracket a year. (In the US ... not really imperative on where you live if you make that amount period)

30K a year is what a lot of people make if there's no extended education background (in general) and the entire US has some similar system of wages, otherwise certain things wouldn't work (California, Washington, and New York don't count :razz: ) Depends on your expenses, right?

It does depend on where you are, but, anyway.

Working in South Africa would be different ... I would imagine.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Don't quote me on this because I am not sure but, I read once that the average income in the US is now around 60 thousand.

I am not sure of the 60 grand figure but whatever it was, it was about or nearly double what I figure the average should be.

Seriously, I know perhaps 10 people who actually make that much. I know about a thousand who make less than 30 however.

Either I live in a very low rent part of the world or, the people who got these averages are cheating somehow.

Averages are tricky things. To average 60 grand, a lot of people would have to be making in excess of 250,000 or more to compensate for the people who make minimum wage, which is still very much a reality.

I realize that there are people who make 250 grand or more, but its probably 1 in 100 compared to those making 12 to 15 thousand, which is poverty level.

I wonder, do we have any mathematicians here who could figure out how many rich people it takes to offset the vast majority of poor people enough to make an average of 60,000 annually?

I wish I had the article I read. :sad:

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There is no history until something happens, then there is.

As others have said before, a "decent" income depends entirely on where you live.

For example, if you live in rural China and make $10 a month, you would be the richest person in the village. People would look at you with envy, and think you're a rich bastard.

In the States, and especially in a nice (read fancy) neighborhood, you can barely survive with $150,000 a year. The mortgage itself would be $10,000 a month, plus other expenses.

Most of my friends make between $2,000 and $10,000 per month. I know it's a big discrepancy. Some of my friends are surgeons and lawyers, and others are just school teachers.

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"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge

satchmo said:
Most of my friends make between $2,000 and $10,000 per month. I know it's a big discrepancy. Some of my friends are surgeons and lawyers, and others are just school teachers.

...and all are well above poverty level. Not necessarily a bad thing but on the other side of the coin, I know no one at all who makes 10,000 monthly and many who make a whopping 2,000. I am not saying there are no high income people around, I just do not associate with them.

Says a lot about the dividing lines of the US that are still present. :sad:
Teachers, now thats a thread we should begin.

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There is no history until something happens, then there is.

You must see a "nice" neighbourhood as a helluva fancy one!

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[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting ReNo</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>You must see a "nice" neighbourhood as a helluva fancy one!
</DIV></DIV>

Me?

I was raised to believe that "Nice" meant neighborly, not fancy. I assume you mean fancy? Ritzy?

I once met the man who now owns the biggest house in Arkansas. When he asked what I thought of his home I didn't know exactly what to say. I couldn't think of one "nice" thing anyway.

In the end I settled for "Embarrassed"

He asked "Why are you embarrassed?" I told him "Because you obviously are not aware that you should be you have 1 wife and 2 very small children, why do you need all this?

At that time I lived in a modest home. 3 bedroom 2 bath. His living room alone was as big as my entire home.

I left with a bad taste in my mouth.

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There is no history until something happens, then there is.

My wife and I visited one of my co-worker's house, and it could be described only as a mansion.

However, I've been to a gastroenterologist's house before during residency. He lives in BelAir, a gated community near Beverly Hills. His house has fourteen bedrooms, I don't even know how many bathrooms. His backyard has an orchard, two tennis courts, two swimming pools, a small house just for the servants, and he has more than a dozen vintage cars in his garage.

I used to live in Brentwood, where all the Hollywood stars live. I only rented an apartment there, for $1,500 a month. I had to split the rent with a roommate. But I'm used to seeing filthy rich people walking around. It's part of the LA culture.

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"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge

I was referring to Satchmo's post Underdog - your post wasnt there when I posted.

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[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

I doubt it. My brothers rent is R3000 a month, and his salary is R18000
a month.

This illustrates Addicted to Morphines posts's point.

In South Africa, however the quality of life is still racially
dependant to a large degree rather than how qualified you are (I don't
even need to ask if your brother is white or not). I used to joke about
saving up my dole money and building a palace in some of the Forsaken
countries in Africa.

However in the United Kingdom or Ireland, he you would not go far
financially if he wished to maintain the same lifestyle. He would have
to either be a businessman or something in the upper classes here.

@ Mephs: He's white! :biggrin:

Its not really wise to do direct translations (eg.$ - Pound) since
diffrent countries have diffrent income taxes and stuff. Here in SA
(Against the typical elephants-walking-in-the-streets theory) it is
becoming a 1st world country, and has a very high level of technology.
Food here is cheap, housing is not! We have a large number of very rich
people, and a huge number of poverty. If you came here, and you came to
a city such as Cape Town or Johannesburg, you would be impressed :biggrin:







Just a few pics of where I live :smile: (Cape Town)

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I would love to change the world, But they would'nt give me the source code.

Don't quote me on this because I am not sure but, I read once that the average income in the US is now around 60 thousand.
I am not sure of the 60 grand figure but whatever it was, it was about or nearly double what I figure the average should be.
Seriously, I know perhaps 10 people who actually make that much. I know about a thousand who make less than 30 however.
Either I live in a very low rent part of the world or, the people who got these averages are cheating somehow.
Averages are tricky things. To average 60 grand, a lot of people would have to be making in excess of 250,000 or more to compensate for the people who make minimum wage, which is still very much a reality.
I realize that there are people who make 250 grand or more, but its probably 1 in 100 compared to those making 12 to 15 thousand, which is poverty level.
I wonder, do we have any mathematicians here who could figure out how many rich people it takes to offset the vast majority of poor people enough to make an average of 60,000 annually?
I wish I had the article I read. :sad:

You hit the nail on the head with that part about how averages are tricky things. Thats exactly the reason why the average salary is 60k, whereas the "average person" makes less that.

There are people out there who make many million a year. For every person who makes a million a year, that compensates the average for 30 people that make 30k a year. For every person who makes 250k a year, that compensates for 6 people who make 30k a year.

If you take the entire distribution into account, I think you'd find that the median (how much the "average person" makes) is in fact a lot lower than the mean (60k).

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http://maze5.net

mazemaster said:
You hit the nail on the head with that part about how averages are tricky things. Thats exactly the reason why the average salary is 60k, whereas the "average person" makes less that.

There are people out there who make many million a year. For every person who makes a million a year, that compensates the average for 30 people that make 30k a year. For every person who makes 250k a year, that compensates for 6 people who make 30k a year.

If you take the entire distribution into account, I think you'd find that the median (how much the "average person" makes) is in fact a lot lower than the mean (60k).

Yeah, averages are nasty things. I wonder though, how many millionaires it takes to compensate poverty level incomes enough to make 60k feasible? I used to live in Dallas. The mean income was higher than the outlying areas but still 60k was not so common as be an average. I now live in a much lower income area. 60k would be an astronomically high average.

Personally, I think they should omit the high and low end pay scales and average whats in between to get a more realistic average. I don't know if that would work but I have seen companies do it to tally loss and gain.

All I know for sure is, 60k seems a bit high.

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There is no history until something happens, then there is.

I think they should not take the average, but find out what a low and a
high salary is. Then take the ones in between that, take their averages and you should have a accurate amount?

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I would love to change the world, But they would'nt give me the source code.

The median income is found by placing everyone in order of income, and taking the value in the middle of the list. So if the distribution is skewed towards one end (as you are suggesting), the median will make light of this. Hence this is a more meaningful measure.

To gauge income equality (which is the real issue here), the most common statistical method is to find the Gini coefficient. I forget the method, its something like the ratio of people in the top 20% income bracket with the bottom 20%. It gives a number thats a fairly good measure of how even the distribution of wealth is in an economy.

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"If you talk at all during this lesson, you have detention. Do you understand?"

• My yr11 Economics teacher