What's your ideal salary to live comfortably?

<p>"alwaysleah didn’t say i had to have it, just that it was a bad decision not to buy it given my 30k salary (or, she said it would be wise to focus on making more than that so i could pay for it).</p>

<p>^ it doesn’t follow from believing everyone should have health carethat you believe everyone should be forced to have health care at a cost to them, so i’m not sure alwaysleah would agree with that…"</p>

<p>^This is right. I’m not sure how I feel about universal healthcare, I just think it’s stupid for people who CAN afford it to not get it. </p>

<p>“yeah ideally humans shouldn’t have health problems if they don’t want them.”</p>

<p>If only we could eliminate health problems by not wanting them.</p>

<p>People can live on all different amounts of income. If you want to make your money go further, it is smart to live in the outskirts of a major city, so you can easily hold a nice paying job in the city, while paying a smaller amount for rent.</p>

<p>Quite a few posts back, someone though living on $50k is unheard of. Making $50K right after undergrad isn’t always easy. I majored in marketing, and my entry-level job pays $40K a year. I live in Brooklyn, and only pay about $620/month (all-inclusive). I work in Manhattan though, (about a 40 min. train ride), and feel like I have the best of both worlds. </p>

<p>It’s all about how you budget. I don’t spend money on frivolous things. I’m also single with no kids too, so my expenses aren’t too high. I just have to worry about unlimited metro card to get me to/from work, food, rent & utilities, school loans, and I still have a little bit of money left to go on mini vacations- obviously not Cancun or Cozumel or anything, but my point is to live within your means. </p>

<p>If you can make $500k + good for you! If not, budget well and look for a surrounding neighborhood of a large city so you will not have to be what my mom calls “house poor,” meaning you have a nice house/condo but no furniture and eating Ramen Noodles every night for dinner because you can’t afford anything else. </p>

<p>If none of the above is for you, then I guess just marry rich lol jk</p>

<p>It’s “house rich, cash poor”. You have a nice house but no money.</p>

<p>Disregard my previous post, both are true.</p>

<p>We over here think the US is incredibly backwards for not having an NHS. Basic healthcare really should be a right that everyone has access to, however rich they are.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>i know! :).</p>

<p>Prevention is better than cure.</p>

<p>This thread is literally so funny</p>

<p>glad you think so :).</p>

<p>I’m just wanted to know why someone brought this thread back to life…</p>

<p>I thought this was a serious thread until I remembered that this was in the High School Life forum, hahaha.</p>

<p>Useful reference, average salaries for people out of MIT: <a href=“http://web.mit.edu/facts/alum.html[/url]”>http://web.mit.edu/facts/alum.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Hmm. Where I live, you could live very comfortably with a salary of around $80,000 combined household total and a family of 4.</p>

<p>hahaha my family of 4 lives comfortably on about $200,000 per year in one of the most suburban and richest locales in the US. I don’t know what y’all are on, saying one kid and $250,000 is typical.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Agreed…</p>

<p>@Reabhloidi The US health care system is exceptional by any standards, if you can afford it. Seriously, it’s way better than any other countries healthcare, and take that from an exceptionally clumsy traveller :)</p>

<p>well the world average life expectancy is 67 years … so the difference in lifespan between someone with average health care (which is not much i would imagine) and someone with the best health care is 10 years. but you have to subtract the time is takes to make the money to pay for the excellent health care i guess. </p>

<p>health care does more than extend our lives though. it can also reduce out pain.</p>

<p>then again the cost effects the benefits</p>

<p>i was rather shocked when i read how much cheaper health care costs are in some south american countries (or in mexico even…)</p>

<p>the main reason might simply be that americans have more money to give up so we get charged more, whereas to get enough customers in, say, mexico you have to charge less. </p>

<p>also in south american countries a much smaller percentage of the population tends to receive health care, which might make things cheaper. maybe you have to charge less to get more of them hooked - and then once the population believes health care is essential by virtue of everyone else having it you can raise the prices …</p>

<p>health care costs as a percentage of the average person’s income across nations might be rather stable for instance…</p>

<p>I think like 80k would be really comfortable, even in a big city like Chicago, if you’re single. And if you have roommates/a spouse, then you can get even better living accommodations.</p>

<p>I live with my mom and my fifteen year old brother. She had a 30k a year salary last year, but since she had to get brain surgery she was forced to quit her job. So far this year we have made 9k.</p>

<p>My dream salary would be a modest 50k.</p>