Banker makes 350,000 a year says its not enough.

[Regs]

Try telling a starving kid that you could not feed him because you had to pay a vet bill for your cat. Same concept.

 

[Jeffg010]

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/dail...-schiff-understands-why-people-210703011.html

I can't see the vid blocked at work but he is quoted as saying.

"He recalls growing up in a "very nice two bedroom apartment" on the Upper East Side. "We went to summer camp, we took vacations," he says. "To match that kind of lifestyle now takes an absurd amount of money and more money that most people think. That was the point I was trying to make."

I call BS on that he is making 6 times as much as me and can't take a couple of vacations? This guy needs to keep his mouth shut he is a real idiot.

 

[Phokus]

I call BS on that he is making 6 times as much as me and can't take a couple of vacations? This guy needs to keep his mouth shut he is a real idiot.

He can't take vacations... on a gold plated cruise ship.

 

[DrunkenSano]

He can't take vacations... on a gold plated cruise ship.

And riding a gold plated pony.

 

[reallyscrued]

Quick question:

If money is so corrosive to morality and virtue that we need to take it out of politics, when will we realize that we should take it out of society for the same reasons?

🙂

 

[Fingolfin269]

I think when you make $30k/yr it probably makes a lot more sense to live like you make $30k/yr. The same may be true for 40k and 50k. But at some point of earnings you have to be smart and draw a line in the sand and remember that it could all go away just like that. Every person/family is different but just to give an example, we're building a house and ensuring that we would be ok if the higher wage earner lost their job and couldn't find work. That doesn't mean we're living to 50% of our means in everything we do but it does mean that our fixed monthly debt wil lbe sustainable if monthly wages suddenly dropped by 50%. When you live like this you can still afford to go on awesome vacations, fill your home with nice stuff, go out to eat, etc. without much worry. It's all about control.

And we don't make $350k/yr, not even close...

 

[homercles337]

Most people making 6 figures have college debt to pay back and live in high cost of living areas. Making 100K+ isn't the care-free life you think it is.

From where does this rubbish idea come? If you make $100k a year, you can live very comfortably in any city in the US. With that salary, you could live in Manhattan, in a decent building, pay back said loans, and still have tons of fun money for dining/drinking. Are you going to live in luxury building? No. Are you going to have a doorman? No. Are you going to have a brand new BMW? No. Who needs one in the city? I think this stupid idea is the result of too many people living a lifestyle they can not afford. They graduate and think they should immediately be living "the lifestyle."

 

[rh71]

^ 100k in NYC is not much. It's all about cost of living... they pay you comparitively higher to make up for it.

 

[BoomerD]

One thing that strikes me as odd...if living in NYC is too expensive...move the fuck out of the city. I'm sure many of those millions of people who commute INTO the city every day would prefer not to have to commute...but do so because they can't afford to live in the city. (or prefer to live some place where the crime rate is lower)

Personally, $350K/yr isn't enough to get me to live in NYC...$500K isn't enough...I HATE big cities. Too crowded, too much crime, too much traffic...but, on a positive note, big cities tend to have lots of fun/interesting things to do/places to visit.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

And riding a gold plated pony.

While eating Pizza covered in Caviar and gold sprinkles.

 

[Homerboy]

I will admit I skimmed the article, and the thread, but to clarify, these are FINANCIAL PLANNERS complaining they can't manage their money?

 

[homercles337]

^ 100k in NYC is not much. It's all about cost of living... they pay you comparitively higher to make up for it.

Hundreds of thousands of people live in Manhattan on far less than $100k. The median income in Manhattan is $47,030. If you include the other 4 boroughs that drops to $37,435. $100k a year is a lot regardless of where you live. Come on man, lets be realistic here.

 

[IAteYourMother]

One thing that strikes me as odd...if living in NYC is too expensive...move the fuck out of the city. I'm sure many of those millions of people who commute INTO the city every day would prefer not to have to commute...but do so because they can't afford to live in the city. (or prefer to live some place where the crime rate is lower)

Personally, $350K/yr isn't enough to get me to live in NYC...$500K isn't enough...I HATE big cities. Too crowded, too much crime, too much traffic...but, on a positive note, big cities tend to have lots of fun/interesting things to do/places to visit.

Why is that odd? You'd get paid less money outside of the city. So your standard of living doing the same job is roughly comparable whether you live inside or outside the city. It just so happens that a lot of people enjoy living in NYC

 

[sactoking]

This discussion is incredibly uninformed, and thus the anger is a little misplaced.

Right away, let me assure you that I am not going to defend someone making $350k. But I want to illustrate what is happening to the average joe in banking... the guy making I dunno 50-75k, with a good degree, experience, a mortgage, etc.

That's the profile of most banking officers, and yes, there are thousands of banking officers in a typical large bank, avps vps, etc in a bank, and yes the title system is stupid and mostly meaningless.

The higher you climb that officer ladder, or the more sales oriented your job is, the higher the % of your compensation is incentive (bonus) based.

This year, the average joe at a bank, with limited, if any, options to find a job at a competitor, has had to absorb two unannounced double whammies to their "total compensation" packages (TC = Salary+ benefits + incentive):

1) Most of the banks (and many other corps) have move from traditional insurance plans to high deductible HSAs and HRA plans, which would be fine, but they cost the same as last year's zero or low deductible insurance plans. The reason the cost is the same isnt just the rising cost of healthcare, it's because the bank used to buy down those deductibles, and it was a form of compensation. They stopped doing that, and it caught most of the employees off guard (most thought they'd have slightly higher deductibles or like a 10% price increase on the same old plans). What this means is that the average primary wage earner under one of these plans, now has to meet a deductible of up to $6,000 annually for a family plan. Grossed up, that is equivalent to about a $7500 compensation cut. A "pay" cut.

2) Then, the banks, despite posting record profits, have cut bonuses, by anywhere between 20 and 40% on average. On a $10K bonus (and realize, the employee performance to earn that bonus hasn't dropped in most cases, the employees have met their goals or at least worked like dogs to get close), that's another $3k or so cut.

Add those two up - that's a $10K+ compensation cut to the average banking employee. $10k out of maybe $70k or $80k previous total compensation. Not a complete blindside because some was expected, but the scale certainly wasnt. And after they worked just as hard (or in many cases harder) as previous years.

That hurts. That's not about "rich" folks. That's a hit to hundreds of thousands of families all across the country, and that's money that is not going back into their local economies for consumer goods (cars, appliances), contractors (we're finally getting a new fence/AC unit/water heater this year), modest beach/mountain/disney vacations, etc. So it in turn radiates outward to other industries/families/communities. You can bet it will have a measurable effect on both contractors and any tourist or vacation destination,a s well as all retail.

The kicker is that aholes at the top of the food chain will still get taken care of. Oh no, the CEO only got a $10Mil bonus instead of $20Mil. Scale does matter. He's not going to spend that money in the ecnomy the way that that $10Mil would have been spent if it was distributed out to his average paid employees (and the myth of high bank wages is a myth - most of the overpaid types are all on commission or very high incentive pay).

Sorry to rant about this, but I have a lot of friends and family in the industry, working at several of these banks and they all have the same story to tell. They're getting nailed by huge medical costs for routine stuff under those high deductible plans, while simultaneously getting no raises and having their bonuses chopped, sometimes entirely. It's easy to sneer at them, but it hurts. Some are diving into their savings just to pay necessary medical bills.

Hey, guess what, you just described pretty much everyone in America right now! There is an understandable lack of compassion from the "common man" when the industry largely responsible for the economic mess has to share in the pain it has caused.

 

[Anonemous]

I will admit I skimmed the article, and the thread, but to clarify, these are FINANCIAL PLANNERS complaining they can't manage their money?

Kinda explains the financial crisis doesn't it...

 

[momeNt]

If Peter Schiff's brother is this retarded I can't understand why he would let him get anywhere near a microphone.

 

[ImpulsE69]

I think the people debating in favor for the guy are a bit confused. No one is faulting him for how much he makes. Kudos to him that he gets paid that.

What IS wrong here is him complaining about relying on his BONUS for his yearly living expenses and the fact that him being a banker he should know better than to count on a bonus.

His line about the "poor people not understanding the stress" didn't help his case either, but I imagine he was just venting through his frustration.

Thing is 350k, while a larger salary than most does not go as far these days as it used to. He overbudgeted and he's feeling the pain.

 

[Gunslinger08]

What IS wrong here is him complaining about relying on his BONUS for his yearly living expenses and the fact that him being a banker he should know better than to count on a bonus.

While I agree completely with this, you have to understand that an annual large bonus is how the high-end banking/finance industry works. Salaries are typically moderate (high compared to the median income, but not outrageous), with the bonus typically being a minimum (large) expected amount each year (with the possibility of a large windfall).

Just like every other economic class, some upper class people live beyond their means and don't save for a rainy day. That's all this is.

 

[BoomerD]

Why is that odd? You'd get paid less money outside of the city. So your standard of living doing the same job is roughly comparable whether you live inside or outside the city. It just so happens that a lot of people enjoy living in NYC

You must have missed the C-O-M-M-U-T-E in my post, or it wasn't plain that commuting was what I meant...drive to the city, take the train, whatever...live outside the city like apparently millions of people do who work IN the city.
Does it make for a better quality of life? Fuck no...but it's more affordable.

 

[PingSpike]

One thing that strikes me as odd...if living in NYC is too expensive...move the fuck out of the city. I'm sure many of those millions of people who commute INTO the city every day would prefer not to have to commute...but do so because they can't afford to live in the city. (or prefer to live some place where the crime rate is lower)

Personally, $350K/yr isn't enough to get me to live in NYC...$500K isn't enough...I HATE big cities. Too crowded, too much crime, too much traffic...but, on a positive note, big cities tend to have lots of fun/interesting things to do/places to visit.

Its no secret that NYC is expensive. If it was cheap even more people would live there because it has a lot of awesome stuff in it. I don't care for big cities either but I'm not going to pretend I'm in the majority. All the entertainment and business opportunities are nuts. But is this guy expecting that he shouldn't have to pay the price? Lots of people commute a long damn way to that city or were priced right out of it.

He wants to live in NYC with none of the compromises other people make just to live there while also living a life of luxury. Sorry, you're only regular rich not mega rich so you still have to budget. You're a banker, so put on your suit and open excel.

And like some one else said, hot dog vendors aren't getting paid $350K/yr so save us the cost of living is higher argument. COL doesn't explain away all of that salary. Other people are doing it on way less.

 

[Engineer]

Here's a tip: Try living within (or below) your means asshole and quit whining!

If you can't make it reasonably well (especially without whining) on $350k, you're doing it completely wrong, period!

/thread

 

[PingSpike]

BTW the real story here is "Website harnesses the power of rich guy's obliviousness and converts them into page views". 😀

 

[QueBert]

Hundreds of thousands of people live in Manhattan on far less than $100k. The median income in Manhattan is $47,030. If you include the other 4 boroughs that drops to $37,435. $100k a year is a lot regardless of where you live. Come on man, lets be realistic here.

But come on, a person making $100k in NYC will be LUCKY if they can afford to take 2 worldly vacations a year! And shit, they might have to live in a building where they have to open the door themselves when they enter the lobby. That's some suffering right there. You're really being insensitive to the lowly NYC'ers who are only making a meager $100k a year.

 

[DrunkenSano]

Atleast the doorknobs are gold plated, can't live without that.

 

[GotIssues]

Look, 2 sides to the story.🙄

Thanks Boomer.

Edit: NY City is 64% more expensive than where I live now. Dang.
http://www.bestplaces.net/col/

Did you read the article? It really didn't help his cause. He comes across as even more out of touch with reality than the original article showed.

Second, Schiff says it takes a lot more money to live a "middle class" lifestyle in NYC today than it did when he was growing up there in the 1970s.

He recalls growing up in a "very nice two bedroom apartment" on the Upper East Side. "We went to summer camp, we took vacations," he says. "To match that kind of lifestyle now takes an absurd amount of money and more money that most people think. That was the point I was trying to make."

"What I thought I could've had at my [salary] level -- the reality is different; it's just not there," Schiff says, while conceding he doesn't have to live in New York. "It's a choice I'm making."

He's making a choice on what he's spending his money on and upset because he can't afford everything right now. He's just completely out of touch with reality and probably needs some education in the world of personal finance.