12-12-2015, 07:04 PM
BoFox, you're just used to urban pricing and cost of living. A family with $70K annual income probably gets $55K take home because they're not in a very high tax bracket, and have 3 kids for deductions.
I picked a random town of 12,000 people in Wisconsin, and did a quick search, didn't even bother shopping:
http://www.firstweber.com/homes/1506956_...calculator
First house I looked at has 4 bedrooms, 3 full baths, 3 car garage, cul de sac lot backing up to woods, and costs $1000/month on a thirty year with a 10% down payment.
That leaves them $43K, and when you live on that you buy cars like this:
http://www.carsoup.com/details/used/2014...mwU9S_SkY0
Even at asking price, it's $223/mo for 60 with 20% down. Multiply that by two and add insurance/gas and that's another $1000 month. Those aren't POS cars, they're low miles used full size cars with lots of drivetrain warranty left.
Still have $31K a year left, which I think the family can live on pretty easily.
They're probably not flying to Disney World to stay a week at the Wilderness every year, but that's not everyone's idea of a good vacation either. It's probably my least favorite vacation, because when you're not from a high population density area going to Dizzy World's long lines and millions of people wandering around is sort of like what you imagine Hell will be like when you get there.
People in this bracket go camping for vacations, or do what I do less frequently.
I wouldn't consider a family living in that house, driving those cars, and going camping a week or two every year "poor". I'd consider them "middle class America".
They're probably not saving much for retirement, but frankly, most people don't.
I picked a random town of 12,000 people in Wisconsin, and did a quick search, didn't even bother shopping:
http://www.firstweber.com/homes/1506956_...calculator
First house I looked at has 4 bedrooms, 3 full baths, 3 car garage, cul de sac lot backing up to woods, and costs $1000/month on a thirty year with a 10% down payment.
That leaves them $43K, and when you live on that you buy cars like this:
http://www.carsoup.com/details/used/2014...mwU9S_SkY0
Even at asking price, it's $223/mo for 60 with 20% down. Multiply that by two and add insurance/gas and that's another $1000 month. Those aren't POS cars, they're low miles used full size cars with lots of drivetrain warranty left.
Still have $31K a year left, which I think the family can live on pretty easily.
They're probably not flying to Disney World to stay a week at the Wilderness every year, but that's not everyone's idea of a good vacation either. It's probably my least favorite vacation, because when you're not from a high population density area going to Dizzy World's long lines and millions of people wandering around is sort of like what you imagine Hell will be like when you get there.
People in this bracket go camping for vacations, or do what I do less frequently.
I wouldn't consider a family living in that house, driving those cars, and going camping a week or two every year "poor". I'd consider them "middle class America".
They're probably not saving much for retirement, but frankly, most people don't.