Is a 50k job pretty much minimum wage for adults?

50K is fine if you live in lower coast-of-living areas and you're not trying to raise a family solely on that income. My wife and I combined make roughly 100k, but between the kids and the house, it feels like we make nothing. The kids are worth it, but you have to get used to not buying stuff for yourself and getting a few extra miles (100 more) out of your running shoes.

Have you seen some of the degrees they handout at colleges these days? Half these people are lucky they can even get a job, let alone make more than $20k. I recently went back to school for mechanical engineering and was stunned listening to what people where studying.

$50k is a decent salary in 95% of the country.

Powwop wrote:

jojobo wrote:

There are many college grads that cannot find work. Many others that have found work but settled for very little. People who have an average or above average salary are more likely to openly speak about it, causing the perceived average to be skewed. $50k is considered good in most of the US and even decent in many cities.

SPOT ON! critical thinking realist. I like your style. It's the truth though most people who boast are doing pretty well or fabricating their salaries to troll, the rest of the majority are just trying to get by.

This is accurate, but is also emblematic of a deeper trend. All the internet has done is create a system where people want to completely avoid interacting directly with strangers. So, they are content to just sit behind their computers and submit resumes.

Once upon a time, you had to pound the pavement to find a job. However, companies will no longer allow you to walk in and submit a resume. You have to go through their application software. The key is now either (1) knowing someone on the inside who can pick out your application and go to bat for you, or (2) meeting someone before a job is even posted.

It is a lot easier to know people inside, but it requires you to actually put in work to meet people and build meaningful relationships. Therefore, if you (1) have terrible interpersonal skills (which is more common in today's social media age), (2) are not a good person (i.e., act entitled or lazy), or (3) are not creative and can only directly follow rules or instructions handed to you, you will have a hard time getting a job.

Not all, but many, of the employment woes can be solved by teaching people from an early age how to build and cultivate meaningful relationships. Unfortunately, lazy teachers and parents would rather just teach kids to follow rules, keep their mouths shut, and not take control of their own destiny.

IBT but close!

50k is plenty for a single person in all but the most expensive cities in the country. Personally, I make $65k right now and live in Austin, TX. It's not among the most expensive cities but it's not a cheap city either. I've lived in Portland and Salt Lake City, for example, which are way cheaper, whereas Boston for example is a bit more expensive, San Francisco is way more expensive. Anyways, at $65k I make over double my cost of living, which means if I were married I could cover the cost of the two of us and most of the expenses of a kid all by myself.

At $50k I could probably cover myself and a wife if I were married. So yeah, $50k is much much higher than a minimum wage for an adult.

Cop with a graduate degree and 20 years experience: $70k. I started off at $18k. I live comfortably in the NE, but due in large part to my wife making even more than I do. A double income has become almost a necessity if you want to do more than simply survive paycheck to paycheck. Obviously $50k is going to work differently for you depending upon what part of the country you live in. Cost of living numbers differ DRASTICALLY which is something a lot of folks don't realize.

Ha. New teachers and social workers are not making 50k out of college.

My wife and I each make 100k. We have one kid in college and one junior in high school. We own a decent house in a nice town in New England. I figured out last year that if I add up all of then taxes we pay then one of us works to pay only taxes.

So it may sound great that we make 200k but most of that goes to the fed, state, and local government in one way or the other. We re trying to keep up with college payments and save for our other child. We have no savings at all. The more you make, the more you pay out. We were living practically the same quality of life when we were making 50k 10 years ago.

This is why people are so upset with how things are going and how someone as insane as Trump even has a chance to be president.

If you are struggling with $200k income you simple have too high an expectation of what you deserve to have. That is 4 times the median family income and you are acting like you've hit hard times.

Like the man said half of the money never touches your bank account.

always in debt wrote:

My wife and I each make 100k. We have one kid in college and one junior in high school. I figured out last year that if I add up all of then taxes we pay then one of us works to pay only taxes.

You need to stop doing your own taxes!

Some truth here. Most likely bought more house than he needed to. Kids, daycare suck up a lot too

You clearly dont know what its like to live a baller life style

I work closely with local university - and they state that their recent college BS Finance majors average $57K/year - not counting signing bonuses and year-end bonuses. Apparently the 'signing bonus' is about 5-10K.

So yes - I'd say $50K is about a starting wage for BS Finance majors. Now, it is a completely different story for those scholars majoring in sociology or 'womens studies' etc...

Ill chime in. I make 110k and my wife raises our 2 kids. We have pretty much no savings. All of our income goes to rent, student loans, car loan, health insurance, and bills. Whatever we manage to save always goes straight to incidentals like car maintenance, something breaking, traveling to. Family events like weddings, etc. We live in a large US city.

If you make 200k for a family of 4 and have no savings, it's because you have chosen a lifestyle that doesn't allow you to save.

Live in a modest house, keep your car til it has 200,000 miles on it, don't buy tons of dumb stuff that you don't need or even enjoy, don't buy things on credit, have your kids get part time jobs to earn their spending money and contribute towards school money... it's not that hard, just make different choices.

#YOBRO wrote:

Have you seen some of the degrees they handout at colleges these days? Half these people are lucky they can even get a job, let alone make more than $20k. I recently went back to school for mechanical engineering and was stunned listening to what people where studying.

$50k is a decent salary in 95% of the country.

As a current student, I have to agree that some of the degrees are hilarious, like "women's studies" or "African American studies." What job do they expect to get with a such bizarre degree.

I make $52K (graduated year and a half ago) living in one of the most expensive areas in the US. Rent takes literally half of my pay check (after taxes), plus student loans etc. I am barely able to scrap by some months, although I could probably spend my money a little more frugally. The way I look at it, it's preparing me for the graduate school lifestyle lol. What I find insane is that there are post docs where I work that make just a little bit more than I do, whereas I only have a BS. Academia is a tough road for sure

$90K and spouse (with 2 degrees) works 3/4 time as a teaching assistant at about $15K a year. Two in college one out-of-state one in, and we're paying about 1/3 of all that with scholarships and their money or loans taking the rest. Have some cash in the bank but have some loans and a big fat mortgage. We are not getting ahead.