You don’t have to click this, as it appears to have zero explanation for it’s findings, and is just a click-grab slideshow format. However, it was picked up by the local news.
Premise is: if we plucked you from your life, stuck you to rent somewhere in Seattle, all alone, and paid you $100,000 a year to sit on the West Seattle Bridge, you’d be short of what you needed to make to live in Seattle by $24,062.60 (it’s the sixty cents that adds legitimacy).
First, I was sad to think to myself, “$2,238 for rent in Seattle alone? That’s kind of cheap!” I once worked in a high-rise in Madison (and not the nice part) where new studios started at $3,000 a month... in 2015.
Secondly, I immediately thought that $100,000 as a renter is probably more than sufficient. Am I wrong? Probably. Let’s explore.
Income: $100,000
Disposable income: let’s say $70,000
Minus annual rent: $43,144
Minus food for one person: $100/week (learn to cook!) -> $37,944
Minus water/refuse/internet/power: like... $400/month? -> $33,144
Two big wild cards are: transportation and student loans.
New high rises in downtown? Many of those people don’t even own a car. That removes a car payment, gas, parking, registration, insurance, repairs, etc. Though cycling/buses/cabs are not cheap but I don’t know how to quantify that. And who uses what will vary greatly.
And student loans... I know people who owe zero dollars; I know people who own over $50,000. Whether someone footed the bill for their higher education or not is a mystery on a person-by-person basis.
So let’s say most people have at least one of either a car payment or a fat student loan payment (let’s be honest: there must be some with both). Let’s call it... $400 a month.
I’m not even going to speculate on credit card debt.
Minus misc. debt mentioned above: $28,344
So... you have $28,344 of disposable income leftover annually, before you buy a $7 dollar mocha every morning, go out drinking or use recreational drugs. That’s $2,362.00 in hand, each month, after overhead (maybe) to do with what you will, with no dependents. That doesn’t sound... terrible? That’s some serious YOLO money.
Am I crazy? Help me out here.