• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

400k and still be broke?

Page 5 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
Engineer said:
There are 3 houses in my neighborhood that have been or are on rent and every one of them has a rent payment much higher than you could get any of those homes for (including mortgage, property tax, insurance, maintenance, etc). The people living in them either can't get financing or need a short term place to stay (one man makes good money but is in the middle of a divorce for example).
Click to expand...

I own a few single family homes and none of my rent is less than the mortgage which includes insurance and property taxes. All of the rents run about 20-30% above the cost. If I cant cash flow the property I sell it. I'll be honest and say how surprising the demand is for these places. Put a house on craigslist and within hours I have showings and can usually get somebody passing a background check and have a signed lease within a week.
 
Genx87 said:
I own a few single family homes and none of my rent is less than the mortgage which includes insurance and property taxes. All of the rents run about 20-30% above the cost. If I cant cash flow the property I sell it. I'll be honest and say how surprising the demand is for these places. Put a house on craigslist and within hours I have showings and can usually get somebody passing a background check and have a signed lease within a week.
Click to expand...

Yeah, my mortgage/insurance/PMI/tax is $795/mo. I am renting a room to a couple now, and they said they house they were looking at renting before they went with me was $1550/mo plus utilities. So...not finding a house for under 800 out here.
 
Genx87 said:
Cars are probably the worst example of short term thinking. Go buy a 60K car that is worth 20K in 5 year. There are much better ways to spend 40K than to drive it into the ground.
Click to expand...

Who gives a flying squirrel what a car is worth if you don't plan on selling it? Could it be that people buy cars to enjoy them?

If it's a lease, they didn't spend $60k. Renting a car still allows someone to enjoy it.

You money people are absurd.
 
Last edited:
Seems as though a lot of people missed that the $25k/year in maintenance is on $1.2 Million home. I don't think that's really outlandish. It's about 2% of the value of the real estate. If you compare it to a $250k home that would be about $5k per year. Obviously, estimating the annual maintenance for a home is more complex than just taking a percentage of the cost/value of the property, but the simple point I'm making is that more expensive properties come with more expensive maintenance. The year that you need to put a new roof on a $1.2 Million home, you'll be spending WAY more than $25k for it.
 
rh71 said:
Who gives a flying squirrel what a car is worth if you don't plan on selling it? Could it be that people buy cars to enjoy them?

If it's a lease, they didn't spend $60k. Renting a car still allows someone to enjoy it.

You money people are absurd.
Click to expand...

The implication is that the majority of people driving $60k cars would be much better served by buying $20k cars and spending $40k on other stuff...some of which could be quite fun indeed.

And do you really think that MOST people buying expensive cars are doing so because they are motorheads, vs. as a status symbol?
 
jagec said:
The implication is that the majority of people driving $60k cars would be much better served by buying $20k cars and spending $40k on other stuff...some of which could be quite fun indeed.

And do you really think that MOST people buying expensive cars are doing so because they are motorheads, vs. as a status symbol?
Click to expand...

and that is still irrelevant to what rh71 was talking about.

the majority of anyone spending any money on anything fun would be better served by investing the money in something else to make money in the long run. that isn't always everyones goal, people like to enjoy their money on fun stuff. and many people can do both. that person spending $60k on a car may have $40k they are spending on other stuff already, you have no clue.

i would much rather have fun in my youth and have like 6 million when i retire than have no fun in my youth worrying about penny pinching while busting my ass at work but have 10 million when i retire.
 
jagec said:
And do you really think that MOST people buying expensive cars are doing so because they are motorheads, vs. as a status symbol?
Click to expand...

They're leasing or maybe even bought CPO. And we don't know, do we? Besides, you don't have to be a motorhead to enjoy a car. Christ.

I swear, people who don't care about cars care more about others' cars.
 
Last edited:
rh71 said:
I swear, people who don't care about cars care more about others' cars.
Click to expand...

It's like the "I don't have a TV" people.

Personally, I'm going to be in the market for a grown-up-toy car in a year or so. Probably not $60k worth though. More like $6k, but that should be enough for something fun I can insure in the summer.
 
rh71 said:
They're leasing or maybe even bought CPO. And we don't know, do we? Besides, you don't have to be a motorhead to enjoy a car. Christ.

I swear, people who don't care about cars care more about others' cars.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but even if they were leasing, that's still less than the 60k that the article is quoting. A $60k car would be under $1k a month. And for people who were that disposable with their cars, my guess is leasing.
 
I see little old ladies in SL55 AMG's around here. I am willing to be it's not motorheads at all, but entirely status.
 
400k per year would be considered poverty stricken by some people's standards. It's all about perspective.

Me personally I'd feel like a damn king. Would probably only have to work a few years before I had enough of a pile to call it quits forever.
 
monkeydelmagico said:
400k per year would be considered poverty stricken by some people's standards. It's all about perspective.

Me personally I'd feel like a damn king. Would probably only have to work a few years before I had enough of a pile to call it quits forever.
Click to expand...

QFT, assuming my fiancee keeps a $40k ish type job, I'd just bank $250k a year and life a nice life at $200k. Retire at 55 with about $4-5 million in the bank at least.
 
seepy83 said:
Seems as though a lot of people missed that the $25k/year in maintenance is on $1.2 Million home. I don't think that's really outlandish. It's about 2% of the value of the real estate. If you compare it to a $250k home that would be about $5k per year. Obviously, estimating the annual maintenance for a home is more complex than just taking a percentage of the cost/value of the property, but the simple point I'm making is that more expensive properties come with more expensive maintenance. The year that you need to put a new roof on a $1.2 Million home, you'll be spending WAY more than $25k for it.
Click to expand...

I think the reaction is because "maintenance" is poorly defined

if they are included paying someone to clean it and others to take care of yard work its more believable. but if not im not seeing it.

If everything is in working order you should not have to do 25k worth or work every year

sure things break, appliances, and such but not 25k of them per year.

that's all most people are saying
 
I think the story is supposed to be a lesson to everyone who thinks "If I just made a little more money, everything would be okay."

Money doesn't solve financial problems. Your spending does.

It doesn't matter if you're making 400k a year or 4k, there' someone who's making less than you and doing just fine.
 
Anubis said:
I think the reaction is because "maintenance" is poorly defined

if they are included paying someone to clean it and others to take care of yard work its more believable. but if not im not seeing it.

If everything is in working order you should not have to do 25k worth or work every year

sure things break, appliances, and such but not 25k of them per year.

that's all most people are saying
Click to expand...

Because most people have no clue.

Maintenance costs become an average. Some years you may get lucky and spend next to nothing, then one year you have a pipe burst, a/c failure, or the true maintenance things like fencing and roofs that just run out of usable life.

On a 1.2 Million dollar home a roof can run $100k or more easily and fencing can be brain damage.

And in lawn care and the factor that most 1.2 million dollar homes have high maintenance landscaping, one could be paying $500 a month just for that.
 
They should refi their house. They must have a very high rate to be paying as much mortgage as they do because I did on online calculator and it showed a yearly mortgage bill of only $73370.16.

This whole thing is bs because all the costs they list a very high. 1250$ per month in utilities? Ridiculous. A 1.2M$ house is not that big and doesn't costs nearly that much to heat. Property tax rates are unusually high at 2%.
 
Last edited:
monkeydelmagico said:
400k per year would be considered poverty stricken by some people's standards. It's all about perspective.

Me personally I'd feel like a damn king. Would probably only have to work a few years before I had enough of a pile to call it quits forever.
Click to expand...

If they do then they are way out of touch with reality. That's in the .02% income bracket.
 
alkemyst said:
Because most people have no clue.

Maintenance costs become an average. Some years you may get lucky and spend next to nothing, then one year you have a pipe burst, a/c failure, or the true maintenance things like fencing and roofs that just run out of usable life.

On a 1.2 Million dollar home a roof can run $100k or more easily and fencing can be brain damage.

And in lawn care and the factor that most 1.2 million dollar homes have high maintenance landscaping, one could be paying $500 a month just for that.
Click to expand...

Exactly. $25k/year maintenance costs on a $1.2million home seems perfectly reasonable to me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top