Sometimes, "Keeping up with the Joneses" is just toooo funny!

[Farang]

Originally posted by: DrPizza

Originally posted by: Farang
lol.. seems like I touched a nerve with people here. Not surprising considering the demographic that comes to a tech forum. Not that either lifestyle is better, living in a big house with lots of things has its benefits. But yes you can vacation 90% of the time and work 10% and live comfortably. You'll have TV, internet, a comfy bed in a temperature-controlled home, if you're lucky you'll even have a balcony with a view. I'm surprised how harshly some of you attack me for this, calling me an idiot and whatnot.

Shens on the 90% vacation time and still being able to pay for electricity, internet, etc.
Oh, wait a second, you still live with your parents? That explains it.

Actually, just got back from living in Thailand for a year Far from a third world country in Bangkok.

My room/board was actually more expensive than it could've been.. but $220/month including internet, utilities, satellite television in a furnished apartment with a balcony. An English teacher working 2-3 hours a day is not uncommon. Admittedly in Thailand you work a bit more. Also to the other response I got to this, you are only calculating working hours. 10% of a week's hours is about 17 hours.

 

[TheSlamma]

My LOL at people who keep up with the Joneses is the two in particular I know are always buying new shit and and selling their old stuff for cheap or giving it away. Infact thanks to one of them I have never paid for my two lawnmowers (sure one was electric but hey.. free was cool with me) and the TV my wife has, she got that from Jones follower number two before I met her. It's a decent TV, but wasn't good enough for them. Now we are just waiting for one of their four HDTV's to get replaced with one of those new 120Hz LCD's or whatever I heard about last week.

 

[tfinch2]

Be thankful it's your neighbor and not your fiancee's dad... :roll:

 

[mordantmonkey]

Originally posted by: Farang

Originally posted by: DrPizza

Originally posted by: Farang
lol.. seems like I touched a nerve with people here. Not surprising considering the demographic that comes to a tech forum. Not that either lifestyle is better, living in a big house with lots of things has its benefits. But yes you can vacation 90% of the time and work 10% and live comfortably. You'll have TV, internet, a comfy bed in a temperature-controlled home, if you're lucky you'll even have a balcony with a view. I'm surprised how harshly some of you attack me for this, calling me an idiot and whatnot.

Shens on the 90% vacation time and still being able to pay for electricity, internet, etc.
Oh, wait a second, you still live with your parents? That explains it.

Actually, just got back from living in Thailand for a year Far from a third world country in Bangkok.

My room/board was actually more expensive than it could've been.. but $220/month including internet, utilities, satellite television in a furnished apartment with a balcony. An English teacher working 2-3 hours a day is not uncommon. Admittedly in Thailand you work a bit more. Also to the other response I got to this, you are only calculating working hours. 10% of a week's hours is about 17 hours.

I have to agree. It all depends on perspective and what is important to you. I have lived in the US on 5k for 5 months while not working and had probably the best time of my life. only took me a few months to save it up. but then i don't have the expenses (or wants) a lot of people do. no cell phone, no cable (no tv), no car, no insurance for non existant car, etc.
If you want to spend a lot of your time working to own a house and a car or two, nice furniture, etc. feel free. but don't pretend that those things are necessary. or that they are necessary to enjoy life.

 

[Ns1]

Originally posted by: Farang

Originally posted by: DrPizza

Originally posted by: Farang
lol.. seems like I touched a nerve with people here. Not surprising considering the demographic that comes to a tech forum. Not that either lifestyle is better, living in a big house with lots of things has its benefits. But yes you can vacation 90% of the time and work 10% and live comfortably. You'll have TV, internet, a comfy bed in a temperature-controlled home, if you're lucky you'll even have a balcony with a view. I'm surprised how harshly some of you attack me for this, calling me an idiot and whatnot.

Shens on the 90% vacation time and still being able to pay for electricity, internet, etc.
Oh, wait a second, you still live with your parents? That explains it.

Actually, just got back from living in Thailand for a year Far from a third world country in Bangkok.

My room/board was actually more expensive than it could've been.. but $220/month including internet, utilities, satellite television. An English teacher working 2-3 hours a day is not uncommon. Admittedly in Thailand you work a bit more. Also to the other response I got to this, you are only calculating working hours. 10% of a week's hours is about 17 hours.

For sake of discussion there are 8064 hours in a year. Assuming 40 hours/work week, one would spend 24% of your life working and 33% of your life sleeping, leaving you with 42% of your life to do whatever you want.

So, if you are referring to 90% of the year, as a whole and working 10%, you are working 806 hours a year vs 1920 hours a year. A 13% savings, really.

So, for comparison purposes

10% year based on total time, 2.2 hours/day, 15.45 hours/week
806@10 = $8,060 (maggot working retail)
806@50 = $40,300 (massage therapist, independent)
806@500 = $96,000 (partner at normal sized law firm)

10% of time awake, working
538 hours, 10.34 hours/week
538@10 = 5,380
538@50 = 26,900
538@500 = 269,000

24% of year working (based on total time), 40 hours/week
1920@10 = 19,200
1920@50 = 96,000
1920@500 = 960,000

So in summary I guess your conclusion is feasible, if you're making 30-40+ an hour and know how to scrape by. For the rest of us, there's mastercard.

 

[oiprocs]

Originally posted by: Ns1

Originally posted by: oiprocs
I think your neighbors are losers if they are purchasing things just because you are purchasing them.

Why don't you experiment? Buy something unorthodox, something unnecessary, like a small fountain and put it in your front yard. If you see the people across the street do the same, then they're just annoying losers who aren't happy with who they are.

In fact, it should be something more subtle, like wind chimes. That way they really have to be paying attention to your estate to notice something that small, and if they are, then label them douches and move on.

For added hilarity, borrow a friend's nice car for 3 weeks. See if they play catchup.

This idea is even better because you can pwn them at the same time. Once you see them driving the same thing, just give it back to your friend. Hopefully the neighbor didn't rent it (fat chance) and are now stuck with a car that they only got for image purposes.

:beer: for Ns1

 

[mordantmonkey]

Originally posted by: Ns1
So in summary I guess your conclusion is feasible, if you're making 30-40+ an hour and know how to scrape by. For the rest of us, there's mastercard.

lol, a single person "scraping by" on 24,180 a year (806@30/hr). I happy for you that you obviously have never had to scrape by.

FYI that's about the poverty line for a family of four. edit: (make that a family of five). not that i think that's an accurate measure of poverty.

 

[Ns1]

Originally posted by: mordantmonkey

Originally posted by: Ns1
So in summary I guess your conclusion is feasible, if you're making 30-40+ an hour and know how to scrape by. For the rest of us, there's mastercard.

lol, a single person "scraping by" on 24,180 a year (806@30/hr). I happy for you that you obviously have never had to scrape by.

FYI that's about the poverty line for a family of four. not that i think that's an accurate measure of poverty.

I guess they shouldn't have had that family of four if they're that close to the poverty line.

Oddly enough, after I keep looking at those graphs, 806@50 does look pretty good, if you have the skills/client base to back that up.

538@50 is below the means that I'd be comfortable living in. In SoCal, that would leave about 7 or 800 a month for everything after rent. Kinda pushing it. I mean FFS, if you had that much free time, you could safely assume (imho) that would at the very least be driving more. After eating away 2-300 in gas/insurance, that would leave some 4-500 left to do shit with.

But damn, 900 or so hours a year @50. Starting to look pretty damn good.

 

[MegaVovaN]

24k is not something to scrape by for a single person

Our family of 4 lived on 24k/yr for couple years

 

[Ns1]

Originally posted by: MegaVovaN
24k is not something to scrape by for a single person

Our family of 4 lived on 24k/yr for couple years

As noted above, it would depend greatly in your geographical location and what you would be willing to put up with.

Although I will admit, after putting the numbers to the figures, it does seem more plausible.

 

[mordantmonkey]

Originally posted by: Ns1

Originally posted by: mordantmonkey

Originally posted by: Ns1
So in summary I guess your conclusion is feasible, if you're making 30-40+ an hour and know how to scrape by. For the rest of us, there's mastercard.

lol, a single person "scraping by" on 24,180 a year (806@30/hr). I happy for you that you obviously have never had to scrape by.

FYI that's about the poverty line for a family of four. not that i think that's an accurate measure of poverty.

I guess they shouldn't have had that family of four if they're that close to the poverty line.

Oddly enough, after I keep looking at those graphs, 806@50 does look pretty good, if you have the skills/client base to back that up.

uh, that's the governments numbers for determining poverty... it's not a "real" family per se.
was just using it as a metric, which is what it is.

I'm just saying peoples needs are pretty basic. their wants less so. determine what your priorities are and that will tell you how much money you "need" to be comfortable.
This will obviously not be the same for everyone.

 

[Ns1]

Originally posted by: mordantmonkey

Originally posted by: Ns1

Originally posted by: mordantmonkey

Originally posted by: Ns1
So in summary I guess your conclusion is feasible, if you're making 30-40+ an hour and know how to scrape by. For the rest of us, there's mastercard.

lol, a single person "scraping by" on 24,180 a year (806@30/hr). I happy for you that you obviously have never had to scrape by.

FYI that's about the poverty line for a family of four. not that i think that's an accurate measure of poverty.

I guess they shouldn't have had that family of four if they're that close to the poverty line.

Oddly enough, after I keep looking at those graphs, 806@50 does look pretty good, if you have the skills/client base to back that up.

uh, that's the governments numbers for determining poverty... it's not a "real" family per se.
was just using it as a metric, which is what it is.

I'm just saying peoples needs are pretty basic. their wants less so. determine what your priorities are and that will tell you how much money you "need" to be comfortable.
This will obviously not be the same for everyone.

fair enough

:beer:

 

[mordantmonkey]

Originally posted by: Ns1


fair enough

:beer:

now that i classify under the "needs" category

:beer:

 

[Farang]

Originally posted by: Ns1

Originally posted by: mordantmonkey

Originally posted by: Ns1
So in summary I guess your conclusion is feasible, if you're making 30-40+ an hour and know how to scrape by. For the rest of us, there's mastercard.

lol, a single person "scraping by" on 24,180 a year (806@30/hr). I happy for you that you obviously have never had to scrape by.

FYI that's about the poverty line for a family of four. not that i think that's an accurate measure of poverty.

I guess they shouldn't have had that family of four if they're that close to the poverty line.

Oddly enough, after I keep looking at those graphs, 806@50 does look pretty good, if you have the skills/client base to back that up.

538@50 is below the means that I'd be comfortable living in. In SoCal, that would leave about 7 or 800 a month for everything after rent. Kinda pushing it. I mean FFS, if you had that much free time, you could safely assume (imho) that would at the very least be driving more. After eating away 2-300 in gas/insurance, that would leave some 4-500 left to do shit with.

But damn, 900 or so hours a year @50. Starting to look pretty damn good.

You're forgetting the entire premise of this which is living in a tropical paradise. A tropical paradise can be a crowded, polluted California beach or it can be an isolated stretch of sand in the Philippines.

 

[Finalnight]

did op ever say how neighbor found out about all their stuff?

 

[MegaVovaN]

Originally posted by: Finalnight
did op ever say how neighbor found out about all their stuff?

nope