What is a "good" salary?

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Re: What is a "good" salary?

^^ Chunky bonuses != 100%

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Re: What is a "good" salary?

yeah, but not in retail and commercial banking at a manager level. just does not happen.

investment banking, yes.

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Re: What is a "good" salary?


what world you live in! Believe me.. even a British 100K ain't enough for THAT life style. :)

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Re: What is a "good" salary?

$50,000 isn't enough at all in US.
If you are single, living with your parents who are paying for everything including utilities, cell phone etc. etc. Then yes, its goood.
If you are on your own then its not even reasonable specially in expensive areas such as NY, CA etc. where half of it goes to rent...

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Re: What is a "good" salary?

There is really no such thing as a "good" salary. There is market salary, which is dependent on your skill-set and geographic location. And then there are your expenses. Depending on which state of life you are in, your expenses vary. As a single, living with parents, your expenses are very discretionary. Once you are on your own, married or have kids, you ramp up your fixed expenses. Whats a good salary depends on your life-style and your spending habits.

Some people think happiness is the gauge to see whats a good salary. I have seen people extremely content and happy with $40k, and I have seen some seriously unhappy people with $250k. So I don't think thats an answer.

Median salaries in various geographic regions will give you a better idea, as that tells you about living costs too. In Northern California, for example, median salary is $73k. Of course, that assumes an average family with 2.3 kids too. If you are an MBA or a lawyer from a top-tier school you may expect a good salary to be above $200k. For someone with little or no experience and no fancy degree, a good starting salary could just be $45k. Thats a nice range for you, won't you say? :)

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Re: What is a "good" salary?

yea. I agree.

for a starter with 16 years of education in US, 45-50K should be good enough.

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Re: What is a "good" salary?

I think its the other way around. The more one starts making the expenses tend to go up with it and that person would generally be in the exact same boat.

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Re: What is a "good" salary?

Right. I'll vouch for that. The more I make the more I spend.

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Re: What is a "good" salary?

^ Yes, thats true. But you can only spend what you earn (theoretically, unless you are lover of credit cards). So earning a "good" salary come before living a "good" life. Although, after a certain point, the relationship begins to disconnect. Once you start making $250-500k or more, you don't really spend all that. It starts going to many different buckets, with expenses being just one of them. Anyone earning between $50k-$150k is probably just managing expenses.

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Re: What is a "good" salary?

^^ So then from ur comments we should infer that "good salary" is where you stop worrying about expenses (so that would be anything over $150k) and started putting them in other "buckets".

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Re: What is a "good" salary?

As I said before, I don't think there is any universal threshold of "good" salary. Each person will have to figure out his/her "good" salary. The point I was making is that its not necessary that a person will keep increasing their expenses to match their income. If you are lucky and good (from a skills standpoint), your income will out-run your expenses. For most people it may never happen, though.

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Re: What is a "good" salary?

What are the areas in the US where one can live well(ish) on $50-60K?

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Re: What is a "good" salary?

Q:What is a "good" salary?
A: if a man's wife is happy for him that means he's earning a "good" salary

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Re: What is a "good" salary?


I really don't know. Since you are talking of pre-tax gross salary, so assumring you are a single guy with minimal expenses, I'd say you are probably better off in a city in some smaller (less expensive) state. Rent will be the biggest fixed cost and if you end up paying $1,000+ (which is normal in Northern California), you can already see how much is left for all other expenses.

In any case, here are some typical expenses for a person

  1. Rent: 500-1000 (depending upon geography)
  2. Car payment: $200-$500 (depending upon the car and your credit rating)
  3. Utilities: $100-200 all inclusive
  4. Food: Approx $20-40 avg per day
  5. Car Insurance: Approx $500-1000 per 6 mos (depending on the car)
  6. Gas/petrol: Approx $200 per month.
  7. Entertainment/movies/etc: upto you.

Assume a tax rate of about 20-30% for a single person with no itemized deductions. Do your math and you have your answer.

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Re: What is a "good" salary?

So that I dont drive for moral reasons (cars hurt the environment, yes I am a member of greenpeace) would save me loads if I relocated to say one of the smaller less "popular" states.

The perception in the UK is that anywhere outside of the world cities of Miami, Chicago and the states of NY and California is cheap (by our standards).

True?

$$ Badmash Company$$
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Re: What is a "good" salary?

I would call them 'cheaper', and not necessarily 'cheap'. I have never lived in one of those so-called smaller states, so sI will leave it to more experienced folks to answer this, but my guess is that yes, the cost of living will be cheaper. You can also try places like Houston: its a very big city with a lot of land and that translates to cheaper housing.

By the way, some places/cities in the US are not designed for public transportation at all. So either get a bicycle and bike to work or hide your Greenpeace card.

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Re: What is a “good” salary?

With these calculations I am really thinking that how an average American Family lives…if they r not even college graduates..I read that an average income is somewhere in the 30K range?? I mean how do they survive..just basically living by the month:confused:

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Re: What is a "good" salary?

I really like that list. So let's calculate (per year)
1. 6000 - 12000
2. 2400 - 6000
3. 1200 - 2400
4. 7120 - 14240
5. 1000 - 2000
6. 2400
7. x

So that comes up to 20,120x - 39,040x (net income)
Assuming a tax rate of 25%: 26,827x - 40,053x (gross income)

So if you spend about (x) $7,500 ($10k gross) on entertainment, making $50k per year is "comfortable". So now you have it.

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Re: What is a "good" salary?

Yea but the cost of living I'd say is the same.

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Re: What is a "good" salary?

"!=" means not equal to
I'm starting to question ur banking connection Pir sahib!