Why are teachers always complaining about being low paid?

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Originally posted by: soxfan

Originally posted by: BlancoNino
Since when is 40-60k a year not enough money to live off of? I lived on my own making less than 15k a year. Rent, car insurance, gas, food, bills....and I spared a little money each month.

And exactly where were you located? If you were in grad school, I'd say that comparison doesn't really work.

That said, 25k/year in el paso will do you just fine. 25k/year in Boston, New York, Washington D.C. or anywhere in California (except maybe ridgecrest) will be pretty hard to live on. Not impossible, but certainly not very comfortable either.

My $1500 / month 2 BR apartment spells $18,000 per year. That makes 24k left. Throw in expenses everyone has every month and you don't have much left. What about savings? Convert that $1500 into a $1500 mortgage payment every month and you won't have much of a life. Good God, you cannot survive in CA with that kind of salary. I don't know what you all talk about. Even 25k / year in a poor neighborhood won't do you any good.

There's a difference between SURVIVING and actually living decently. You can have an 80k income and just because of hte amount you FORCE yourself to invest every month, you won't have a huge disposable income. If you're talking about surviving, 80k is plenty, but at 40k if you can just get by that's great, but I guarantee there's no way you're going to be retiring at 65. Okay well.. pension plan is nice I guess so sure, seriously... the kind of savings you will have had at that point is virtually crap, and only the pension plan is keeping you alive.

 

[PrinceofWands]

Originally posted by: DLeRium

Originally posted by: soxfan

Originally posted by: BlancoNino
Since when is 40-60k a year not enough money to live off of? I lived on my own making less than 15k a year. Rent, car insurance, gas, food, bills....and I spared a little money each month.

And exactly where were you located? If you were in grad school, I'd say that comparison doesn't really work.

That said, 25k/year in el paso will do you just fine. 25k/year in Boston, New York, Washington D.C. or anywhere in California (except maybe ridgecrest) will be pretty hard to live on. Not impossible, but certainly not very comfortable either.

My $1500 / month 2 BR apartment spells $18,000 per year. That makes 24k left. Throw in expenses everyone has every month and you don't have much left. What about savings? Convert that $1500 into a $1500 mortgage payment every month and you won't have much of a life. Good God, you cannot survive in CA with that kind of salary. I don't know what you all talk about. Even 25k / year in a poor neighborhood won't do you any good.

There's a difference between SURVIVING and actually living decently. You can have an 80k income and just because of hte amount you FORCE yourself to invest every month, you won't have a huge disposable income. If you're talking about surviving, 80k is plenty, but at 40k if you can just get by that's great, but I guarantee there's no way you're going to be retiring at 65. Okay well.. pension plan is nice I guess so sure, seriously... the kind of savings you will have had at that point is virtually crap, and only the pension plan is keeping you alive.

Just like you need to adjust your views for location you have to adjust for lifestyle choices when talking about retirement. My father has become wealthy (in our view) since retiring without ANY investments at all; just because he knows how to live cheaply and never indebted himself. Likewise I will be able to easily retire on just my retirement because I have no real costs (everything is already paid for and I don't use credit). Just because you can't live on a certain income doesn't mean other people can't do it quite happily.