Scraping by on $400,000 (DI, 2 kids, full-time nanny, private schools)

[Amiens]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/ar...d-incomes.html


Interesting article. I guess I don't know what to say to this, because you never know what someone is really dealing with financially. There is a link in the article to Urban Baby that shows the full posting.

Ok, discuss..... what are your thoughts?

[moonlight]

Not that I think its right but I can see how someone bringing in 400K could be barely getting by when they choice to spend 399K per year. Is public school in NYC that bad?

[Pollyanna]

In NYC after taxes (just the ones taken from your paycheck not the extra taxes you will owe in April and they will owe more) $400k gives you a net of $250k. Minus $50k for a nanny and if they have two children another $50k for private school. So they are down to $150k net. Housing in NYC is going to be crazy expensive and then you still have utilities, healthcare, retirement, student loans, clothing, gifts, groceries, a high cost of living, etc. So I can see how $400k can disappear in a blink. Beyond that I make no judgements on how the family should spend their money.

[diggitydot]

I'm not about to count someone else's money. COL varies ridiculously in this country and what $400K could pay for in Podunk, IN is vastly different than how far it will go in NY or LA.

[poky]

I'm not about to count someone else's money. COL varies ridiculously in this country and what $400K could pay for in Podunk, IN is vastly different than how far it will go in NY or LA.

Right, except the impression I get is not that they can't afford it, but that they don't WANT to have to, because they think the tuition is artificially high because of all the "poor" families whose kids get scholarships.

I also thought FAFSA probably shouldn't take my husband's parents' possible contribution into account when he applied to med school, either, but they did, even though he was in his mid-30s and married and they hadn't paid any of his expenses in over 15 years. I didn't whine about it, though. School tuition/scholarships at all levels isn't really "fair". *shrug*.

[SoonerTexan]

What Pollyanna said. NYC will be at the bottom of our rank list if it is even there at all. I don't know how you afford it with kids. I can't speak for the schools personally but I wouldn't want to send my kids and I am pro public school. Watch Nursery University for how crazy preschools are there!

[GrayMatterWife]

Am I the only one thinking this??? Shut the f**k up you stupid, whiney b*tch with a badly miscalibrated sense of personal entitlement!

Maybe I'm just the only one.

[alison]

It's pretty nuts here, too. I started dd's hunt for a preschool 13 months before she was set to start, and have tours and interviews for 2013-14 for pre-k next week(!!!). There's one preschool here that suggests you get on the wait list as soon as the kid is born. Ayaiyai.

[diggitydot]

Am I the only one thinking this??? Shut the f**k up you stupid, whiney b*tch with a badly miscalibrated sense of personal entitlement!

Maybe I'm just the only one.

Nope, not the only one. I actually think the writer is a troll. But I'm also not going to judge or nitpick how someone else wants to spend their own dough.

[SuzySunshine]

My experience with private schools it that a lot of the financial aid is raised from fundraisers, not supplemented by the other parents, so they probably have no idea what they're talking about there.

Otherwise, I agree with DD - we all make choices, if you don't like the choices you've made make different ones.

[ladymoreta]

Since we're in the debate forum...

I agree with the person who said that private school should be considered a luxury, and if it's not in someone's budget, they shouldn't expect someone else to pay for it. I went to a school rated 2 out of 10, and DH's was 4 out of 10 on GreatSchools.org, so I understand how bad it is going to a poorly performing school, and I don't fault anyone who wants to prioritize private school in their budget. However, I think the OP had a good point that due to tuition alone, she could stop working and their family would have a similar or higher standard of living. I would like to hear from the school how much, if any, of the subsidies come from other students' tuition, but if she's correct that that much does, it seems a little too skewed.

[HouseofWool]

Am I the only one thinking this??? Shut the f**k up you stupid, whiney b*tch with a badly miscalibrated sense of personal entitlement!

Maybe I'm just the only one.

I'm with you, but at the same time, as someone who has lived in NYC, the cost of living is beyond imagination. Those were very bad days because we were living on the edge, all the time.

[Phoebe]

I think people always want more when they have more. COL is definitely an issue.

[spotty_dog]

There was a similar article about a family in Boston a few months ago -- I think it might even have been discussed here, because the family was a doctor and a lawyer? (I got the impression that the doctor may have been a fellow.) Their combined income was $250K and their argument was that after the nanny AND day care for their two small kids, the gardener and housekeeper and tuition, they barely had a few hundred dollars per month left over for luxuries! Sometimes they even had to choose NOT to eat out, or to eat at a less expensive restaurant, when they didn't feel like cooking! Thus, they were offended to be included among Obama's "rich" income households.

Um, yeah. I think some of these folks need to read The Millionaire Next Door. You don't make money by spending it, and you might be surprised by the lifestyles of the people who are truly financially independent, as compared with the "wealthy" lifestyle these folks seem to be trying to achieve (and feel entitled to). I don't care how much tax is taken out. I don't care how high the COL is. Some family in NYC is making $360K and not crying about it. Some family is making $200K and using public schools and not driving and living in rent controlled housing and socking away half of their income. I'm sure of it. Wealth is what you make of it.

[ides]

Am I the only one thinking this??? Shut the f**k up you stupid, whiney b*tch with a badly miscalibrated sense of personal entitlement!

Maybe I'm just the only one.

This would be my short answer. She shouldn't be bitching.at.all.

I don't think the person in this article clearly knows what "scraping by" means. Can you live like you could with 400k pretty much anywhere else in the country? Hell no. But you will be living much better than the majority of those in NYC. That is for sure.

I've spent a total of 11 y ears in nyc. Yes, it's freaking expensive and your money does not go far. My question is how does this person expect to be living? You comprise lifestyle for living in the city. The last five years we were in nyc we were in a one bedroom apt (subsidized), ordered in dinner about once a week, never did anything - movies, shopping, etc. I couldn't afford a babysitter, tot classes or any sort of entertainment other than the occasional movie rental and we were still going into debt. It's not easy to get by but with $400k you are NOT hurting. Suck it up! And yes most of the public schools in nyc suck. The ones that don't, have waiting lists that contain people who are zoned for that school but that their isn't room for. Waiting lists can be 600 kids long. If you can't get into your zoned school you will be sent to a far off, most likely in the ghetto, school. I can see how unappealing that would be. If we were still there O would not be in preschool. There is only private preschool available and it's around $15k for part day preschool. If we had stayed we planned to pay high rent and hope that the zoned school would have room. It's hope most people ride on when it comes to public services in nyc.