Yeah, I have issues with property taxes too… but not enough to complain too bad. They were VERY low when I bought my house 13 years ago. They have basically doubled over time. I intend to have my house paid off in my 40’s, unless I move. I have about 15 years left on the loan, and I’m 39 now. I have been paying a few hundred extra towards the principle each month for the last 2 years, which should chop a few years off the end if I continue doing this.
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Yeah, we are a DINK household and both work in software fields. We are well above the medians and averages for our area as a result. We tend to travel a lot - 2/3 weekends a month we’re out and about somewhere. I’ve gotten comments on it from some friends and family, but hey… that’s what we choose to do with ourselves.
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I haven’t spent $1600 month going out in my entire life.
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I don’t either. But i suspect if you are starting out in Manhattan, and trying to have a social life, dating etc, this is what it will probably cost. I am actually curious if anyone has some numbers on these – what does it cost to have a reasonable social life in a big city these days for an unmarried person?
This is incredibly subjective, but I’d say that as long as you are able to pay your bills and have everything you need and at least some of what you want, you’re doing pretty okay.
$75k per annum is plenty of money for some people, and not enough for others – just depends on how much is going out each month in bills/mortgage/rent, how many mouths must be fed, etc.
Also – cost of living obviously changes things: $75k in Iowa buys quite a bit more than $75k in San Francisco. (…which is why we should be careful when comparing colleges based on the average salaries of grads, as so many end up working relatively close to where they got their degree.)
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I would include in that all the miscellaneous expenses as well-hair cuts, laundry, dry-cleaning, etc
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S’s post-graduation budget is about $1000-$1200 per month for social activities, travel and other fun stuff (base salary of $60K, so about $3700/mo after tax, rest goes to rent, food, utilities, clothes and savings). He decided to live in DC instead of LA as it will be much easier to do without a car, and that will give him an extra ~$500 per month. It’s about twice what he spends at the moment as a student in LA.
Compared to your estimates above, an evening at a bar is more like $40-$50 pp, not a $200 pp high end restaurant. But he spends a lot more on food to cook at home, probably $400 per month.
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Thanks. I started going into work in Manhattan post covid and found that pick up lunch has gone up to 17-20. So I just extrapolated. I am also assuming that the kid pays on a date for two people.
Depends on how well you operate within your means, I guess. I spent most of the 2010s as a PhD student in LA on a stipend of about $21-24K a year, and I was able to have a reasonably good social life.
There’s a lot of free or cheap entertainment options, and public transit is readily available albeit not the fastest mode of transportation.
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I hope they only pay for half their dates 
And I can’t imagine four dates a week (or even going out four nights a week)…
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I don’t know how these things work :-). Maybe you go out twice a week, and you pay for two people each time for men. Women may have other expenses. In my day dating was pot luck dinner in grad school. Free.
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Who doesn’t love a pot luck dinner?! Lots of great food for relatively little expense.
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My high school kid went into the city last year and ended up spending $90 for dinner and Karaoke. He actually took a visiting cousin along with him for a total of 180. This was a bit of a sticker shock for us. I just thought this is what expenses run for kids that are not sensitive yet about sending their (future) kids to college at 80k a year.
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I am not sure the reformation in gender relations has come that far.
Our local kids buy $10 fish and chips at Ivars and hang out on the grass by the lake. 
Entertainment does not have to cost that much. I hope those $180 he spent were his own, earned $$.
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When they are spending their own money, my kids are reasonably careful. If they go to a nice place they pick a cheaper/more limited amount of food (it helps a lot that they are vegetarian) and just have one drink. Or they go somewhere less expensive. Even in LA, a night out would be unlikely to cost them more than $60 pp unless they have an expensive Uber home. A good reason to move somewhere with a decent metro system.
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He was threatened that it will be taken from his account, but we never carried through. The problem is there are kids in the cohort that he went out with that have parents that make 3mm a year. Those kids also think they are being very careful :-). Anyway he has money in his account but has to clear each expense and justify as if the money didn’t belong to him. He has no allowance. The older guy in college also has no allowance. He spend whatever he needs on my card, and has a sense as to what we deem reasonable (<100/month).
When he starts earning, I have no view on what he should spend. Both kids are sufficiently careful. But peer pressure exists to some extent. This is the part that I am curious about, as to what young people are spending these days.
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In SF without car DD spends $300-$500 on Uber, $50-$100 in bars when she is not with her BF otherwise he will pay, about $200 on entertainment an about $300 in restaurants. It’s more for guys
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Exactly. Personal maintenance is very expensive. DD spends $350 on haircut before tip, $100 on waxing, $85 for manicure
Please excuse me. I am truly ignorant. Does it cost 350 per haircut for women?
I was upset when my barber went up from 15 to 17.
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