Stromprophet on 14 March 2007
Kwaad said:
28% of households make 250,000/year?
I know about 3 people that make more than that.
I'm thinking of around 40-50 households. and about 3 make more than 250,000/year. What america do you live in? becuase it's not mine!!! hot damn. I'd be happy with 25,000/year. screw 250,000!!!
(250,000$/year translates into a full time job makeing around 125$/hour, or 2 family members working full time jobs makeing over 60$/hour. The only person I know that gets paid that, is a multi-millionarie. (I think something like 20million, and makes that from investments)
Also, if 28% of households made 250,000$. There would be damn near close to 120million, millionaires. 
I can't remember if they were using a median number on that. I saw it on CNBC. Remember, just because a household makes that much a year doesn't mean they keep it. The 8 million people who are millionares was a number from 2004 I think, but it excluded their primary residence (which is most peoples worth in equity). It was purely in the value of their cash, bonds, and stock, not posessions.
There's only 300 million people in america, 28% is less than 33% so that number would in fact be less than 100 million (plus it says households, which includes wives, and children, and older parents who may now be living with them).
Regardless, just because you make so much doesn't mean you save so much. You tend to adjust to your pay. I make about 50k a year and I adjusted to it rather quickly. My bank account has been level for the last month or so. Sometimes you just don't save money, you have to consider how hard it is to actually save 1 million dollars, even in your 401k, IRA, both of which I invest in regularly.
If I break it down after taxes I'm around 2700-2800 a month after taxes. But
Rent = 569
Car = 312.13
College Loan = 56.5
Phone = 46.07
Cable = 102.12 (Internet, HBO, Showtime, Cable, HD box, etc)
Energy Bill = (variable but around 60-80 bucks)
Car Insurance = 63.45
Renters Insurance = 14
HDTV from BB = 15 (which I have on financing so I pay the minumum for now)
And those are my fixed expenses
Variable
Gas = 40 (I'm lucky to live 2 miles from work and not travel a ton with my car)
Car Maintenance = (which includes car washes, oil change, etc) = 25-30
Food = 100 (And that's cheap, I shop at Aldis and it still costs me 25 bucks a week to feed myself)
Eating out = 50
Household = (Cleaning supplies, Household items, like a coat rack, etc) = 25-30
Office = (Paper supplies, pens, etc) 10-15
Entertainment = (Now this one can vary so much, I go to bars, I play texas holdem, I go to movies) 200
Doctor/Dentist = (Despite having good health insurance, typically they still don't pay for 100% if it's beyond a cleaning or physical exam, they usually pay about 80% of more advanced stuff)
20-25
And 200 dollars goes in my IRA every month.
Add it all up and that's 1950. So I can only save around 700 bucks a month, which is 8400 a year, which is nothing in the grand scheme. Depending on what I do for the month entertainment can go way higher (for instance if I go to say the nudie bar, also texas holdem is a 60 dollar buy in every week for a tournament so yeah, it can go way higher)
If I was making 250,000 a year, it's likely my expenses would go up. I'd have a larger home, which means more insurance to cover the home, land taxes, home maintenance. I'd have a better car, higher car payment, more insurance for that car. Having a larger home I need to put more stuff in it, more furniture. If I have kids and a wife I will be getting them things, making sure they have what they need in the home, etc. Energy bill is higher, more phones more than likely so also higher.
If I make 250k a year, it's likely I keep different company, the kind that likes to golf, go to more expensive clubs, eat more expensive food, play more expensive games of texas holdem. I'd also be in a higher tax bracket, right now I pay about 27, 28%, at 250k I think that's approaching the 45% range.
Plus when you make that money it's more likely you spend money on things otherwise you wouldn't.
You can see, it would be hard to actually save 1 million in real terms outside your homes value.
