What would you do with a $124,000 Annual Salary

You privileged brats think that's not a lot of money. When I went to Poland, I met people living on half that.

Runningart2004 wrote:

Pay more taxes.....:)

It’s interesting to me as you progress through life how your standards or benchmarks change. Coming from a dirt poor family I thought 30k a year was something special.

I’ve realized as my job and salary changed that all I do is have more money to buy more useless stuff to throw in a house that I only really use about 60% of. Who TF needs a formal living and dining room? Two extra rooms full of crap. 4th bedroom is a multipurpose room. Who needs that?

Even those making 100k are living “week to week”in some instances because of the false idea that they need to constantly increase the amount of useless crap in their lives.

Alan

Yep, I never understood that concept of a formal living and dining room. And I don't understand why most people still have them and of course don't use them.

I’d spend most of it on wild women and whiskey. The rest of it, I’d just waste.

Joe400mFast wrote:

124k is what I made when I came out of college with my bachelors degree, back in 99. I'm pushing six figure salary now.

124k is a six figure salary

Really Bro wrote:

You privileged brats think that's not a lot of money. When I went to Poland, I met people living on half that.

Good point, a vacation to a Slavic country like Poland would be one of the things I would do if I was making six figures a year.

Buy a couple pairs of Nike's 4%

Down here in the south that takes you decently far. I don't know where the dumba$$ from above lives that mentioned the beach house and sports car needing to be sold, but if he would need to sell those then that means he's not doing as well as he wants people to believe. If he were doing well then he wouldn't have to worry if he lost his job anyway, because he would have been able to afford the beach house without worrying about whether he lost his job or not due to very solid financial security that would see him through unemployment. His post wreaks of insecurity and financial instability. It pays to have a father who graduated with an econ degree from Stanford and an MBA from Wharton, because at least you can see through the actual financial success of someone or lack there of, like the above poster that would need to sell of his beach house.

Lesson to be learned, don't buy vacation houses if you can't afford to have them if you lost your job. Also, people who grow up around wealth don't feel the need to buy sports cars because wealth isn't foreign to them.

Young_Guy wrote:

Something to strive for?

Strive for? That's less than half the salary required for the letsrun trifecta:

1. Sub 14 5k.

2. $250k salary.

3. Super model wife.

Please refrain from posting until you have completed the above trifecta.

Save aggressively for 4-5 years, then take a couple years off to go hiking.

Really Bro wrote:

You privileged brats think that's not a lot of money. When I went to Poland, I met people living on half that.

Seriously? In Poland, you'd think $62,000 USD would be like earning $300k in the states. It's all about where you live.

OP

Totally depends on your life circumstances. That is like $7500 per month take home. Not bad, but not a fortune either. It’s a good early career salary, but a middling mid or late-career salary.

Are you a single 20 something? If so, then rent a nice one bedroom apartment downtown, lease a BMW or something, go out every weekend picking up on girls/guys, and still save a couple grand a month.

Are you in your late 30’s with 3 kids? If so, then pay your mortgage, pay the note on your minivan, pay for daycare/preschool/the nanny, buy groceries, and then cross your fingers you have anything left over at the end of the month.

The average national wage is $44,564.

If people are that miserable living on $124k no wonder the US is so fvcked up when the average is 1/3 of that.

adamBomb1234 wrote:

Pray that I could make more money. That's about what I make now. With a wife, 3 kids, house, and cars 125k is nothing. Its barely middle class imo.

This is very true!

When I was younger, I made do with much less. Now that I have a family, a home, and lots of expenses, I wonder where all the money goes. I thought making more than $100k would have me living large, but I just get by.

But it is a good trade off. Family is better than a boat!

These thread are always hilarious, really brings out all the snobs who claim it's a pittance and impossible to live off.

Wake up and smell the coffee rich boys, that's a LOT of money by the vast majority of people's standards, significantly over double the national average

I'd rent out a permanent space in line at my local soup kitchen

They won't recognize it and probably don't need to. If you make $500k, $124k probably seems like a small amount. My wife and I make significantly more but have always maintained the same lifestyle as when we were making significantly less. People tell us to live for the day but I get pleasure in saving. It is a form of self discipline and anticipation. I think some of the unhappiest people are the ultra wealthy. There always seems to be a suicide happening or accidental drug overdose.

Agreed that Alan's post is spot on.

The other thing you can do is come up with ways to raise your top line. If you have an extra room in your house, rent / Airbnb it. Extra space in your garage? You can charge other people to store their excess stuff there. Etc.

adamBomb1234 wrote:

Pray that I could make more money. That's about what I make now. With a wife, 3 kids, house, and cars 125k is nothing. Its barely middle class imo.

Wow- where do you live? I make about half that and have a house and had two kids and a wife and was comfortable but far from wealthy.

With 124K I can have everything paid off in no time!!! Oh wow. I might even buy a pair of Vapor Fly 4%!!!!

Young_Guy wrote:

Something to strive for?

How much salary seems like a lot to you completely depends on: 1) how much you make now, 2) where you live.

If you're 24 and living in the MidWest (or South), then 124k seems like a dream. All your problems will be solved.

I live in SoCal and I'm 55+. 124k is decent. It puts you solidly in the middle class for SoCal. However, I currently make considerably more. While I can certainly live well on 124k and I'm old enough and have accumulated enough that taking a payout would not hurt me, it would not cover my current cash flows. I'd have to decide if I wanted to cut back on investing/savings or try to cut back certain expenses (pay off the solar loans, cut back on cable/internet, be more cost conscience on groceries or eating out, etc).

A lot of people in NorCal and NYC would have to cut back a lot on 124k. It'd be a massive pay cut.