[SunRescue] Monthly living expenses Was OT: natural gas prices

[Dan Lane]

Hmmm, I'm 20 years old, For being a sysadmin (including being on call) I
get paid less than 20k (UKP) a year... I pay more than 550 UKP a month
rent for a pokey flat that I share with two other people, I can't afford
to drive and I can't remember the last time I was out of my overdraft!

And to top it all off I spend about 800UKP on the phone to Australia each
month :(

at least you get paid to live somewhere nice (I looked at the pictures,
hell if I got paid what you do, I'd spend all my money on a place like
that!)

-- 
Dan Lane (d at x11.net)

Web: http://www.logicbomb.net
PGP Key: http://www.logicbomb.net/pgpkey




Christopher Byrne sent the following on Tue, 9 Jan 2001...

> You know I never though I'd be thrilled to have electric heat, but since I
> never use it it's not a problem. And I live in the bay area, so the summer
> heat, while still requiring air conditioning, isnt as bad as say someone in
> San Diego. That being said, our living expenses are just INSANE.
> 
> Okay, we are not in any way shape of form high rollers. We live in a
> reasonably nice appartment. She drives a jeep and I drive a saturn. We eat
> out about once a week, order in about once a week, and do a movie about once
> a week. We have a cat,no kids, no other dependants.
> 
> Our monthly bill breakdown looks a little bit like this. All amounts are in
> US funds, and rounded to round numbers.
> 
> Rent on 2 bedroom condo $2300
> Medical insurance		$500
> Car payment #1 		$450
> Car Payment #2 		$250
> Electric 			$250
> Food				$400
> Insurance on car 1	$185
> Insurance on car 2	$135
> Renters insurance		$100
> Cable 			$80
> Cell phone			$80
> Internet			$70
> phone				$40
> Assorted other bills	$700
> -----------------------------
> Total monthly appx.	$5500
> x 12 for the year		$66,000
> 
> Now, living in the great state of California, I get to pay one of the
> highest tax rates in the country (admitedly nothing compared to say Denmark,
> 70% tax <shudder>), and as a small business owner I pay my own social
> security at 15% of my income, as well as various business taxes and fees.
> 
> Essentially if I get REALLY creative with my bookkeping, I get to keep about
> 50% of what I earn gross.
> 
> What all this means just to pay my bills every month, I need to make about
> 135k a year. Thankfully I do make this, and if it's a good year, quite a bit
> more than this, but that really is just a ridiclous amount of money to be
> paying out every year.
> 
> BTW, in my county the federal government considers you low income, and
> therefore eligible for federal assistance if you make less than 50k a year.
> 
> My wife wants to move back to her home town of Lexington KY. Were we to do
> so our expenses would look a little more like this
> 
> Rent on 2 bedroom condo $600
> Medical insurance		$400
> Car payment #1 		$450
> Car Payment #2 		$250
> Electric 			$100
> Food				$250
> Insurance on car 1	$100
> Insurance on car 2	$100
> Renters insurance		$50
> Cable 			$40
> Cell phone			$80
> Internet			$50
> phone				$30
> Assorted other bills	$500
> -----------------------------
> Total monthly appx.	$3000
> x 12 for the year		$36,000
> 
> The tax situation wouldn't change much, I'd still be paying about 50% to the
> government, but it'd be 50% of a much smaller sum. SO to live in the same
> style in Lexington, KY as I do in Fremont, CA I would have to make about 75k
> vs 135k.
> 
> Same cars, same cable, same internet, same living conditions, only the
> average salary of two average american familys seperation in cost. In fact I
> could live in KY for barely more than my rent here in CA. Does anyone see
> anything wacky here?
> 
> Lets break it down a bit more. If I were to have a "normal" job where I
> recieved health benefits and what not, and I would only end up paying 30% of
> my money to the government, I would need to earn the following to maintain
> my living standard.
> 
> California	$86k
> Kentucky 	$45k
> 
> Gee thats only a 48% difference in cost of living. No problem there
> ;-)Somehow I think I'm in the wrong business, in the wrong state.
> 
> 
> Chris Byrne
> =======================================
> The eyes may be the windows on the soul
> But the word is the doorway to the mind
> =======================================
> 
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