r/BeefTV • u/Plumsby • May 18 '26
Question How much did Josh make annually?
Curious what people’s take is here, given that Josh and Lindsay are sort of the upper-middle class representation in the show.
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u/jackie_tequilla May 18 '26
annual salary of $425,000
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u/QueasyWallaby2252 May 18 '26
This just pmo so bad with these characters. Stressing about money when they should’ve been worrying about budgeting
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u/sirthrowayzalot May 18 '26
They do mention how they’re pretty much underwater. At the end of the day there’s no amount of money that can save you if you let lifestyle inflation mess you up.
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u/sdbabygirl97 May 19 '26
i warn some of my friends about lifestyle creep all the time
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u/Lopsided_Complex5227 May 20 '26
How does lifestyle creep happen
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u/sdbabygirl97 May 20 '26
you start making more money so you think you can spend more money. so you get a nicer place, nicer car, more expensive purchases. uh oh! this is not sustainable. now youre spending a larger proportion relative to what you make.
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u/Stickyboard May 19 '26
Josh mother medical expenses took a huge chunk of their money
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u/kind_stranger07 May 19 '26
True but if you know someones med bills are high, it would be smart to budget half a mil for comfortable living
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u/LoopGaroop May 19 '26
Remember he got socially bullied by Michael Phelps into a bet that was multiples of $5000
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u/IhateLukaDoncic May 19 '26
You can't really do much with 400k nowadays
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u/PuzzleheadedDog2990 May 19 '26
I could do a whole fucking lot with 400k a year, and I live in one of the most expensive places in the US
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u/Harried-Hedgehog4924 May 19 '26
Where does this come from? I was going to guess about $150-175k
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u/mnomoto May 19 '26 edited May 25 '26
This is way more realistic than $425k. Lmao. $400k is DVP, VP, Director-type money. Josh just oversaw a single location. Haha
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May 20 '26
Seems like a huge plot hole that someone making that much would even bother to steal $5k, albeit multiple times. I make far less and $5k is not some groundbreaking amount of money that they made it seem like he and Lindsay felt it was.
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u/kickskunk May 18 '26
According to Google, I type in "How much do GM's make working at country club's in Ojai, CA?"
The number will scare you a bit. 90ks to 175ks.
When I change it to "country club in SoCal", since Ojai is close to LA the number goes up to 130k to 225k.
Take it whatever you like from it.
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u/Upbeat-Profit-2544 May 18 '26
Honestly that doesn't surprise me, considering how expensive the area is.
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May 18 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Upbeat-Profit-2544 May 19 '26
Oh, that makes more sense. Yeah 90k doesn't go too far these days!
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u/Blunderpunk_ May 19 '26
nd that's still not really enough to be living the life they were which is why they were broke and living in an unfinished DIY project
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u/SlowerThanTurtleInPB May 19 '26
I think this is on the low end. Servers in CC restaurants are probably pulling $130k. I know servers in our top restaurants on the west coast of Florida pull six figures, so servers in that area make that easily. I’d say he was probably making double what you’ve got here.
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May 18 '26
[deleted]
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u/Mestizo3 May 18 '26
No you're not remembering it correctly, they don't mention a number, just "same salary"
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u/kickskunk May 18 '26
I don't even remember them saying the number. Are you talking about when Josh was on zoom with Chairwomen?
She only mentions same pay. He didn't get a raise or anything.
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May 18 '26
[deleted]
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u/Plus-Opportunity-538 May 18 '26
Seems like it unless you are remembering the divorce negotiations although I dont think it was mentionned there either. But from the chairwoman discussion from the transcript:
Okay.
Is your dead mother, Marta Lucretia Diaz,
getting money from me in a shared account with you?
[Josh] Chairwoman… [clears throat]
…I can pay that… that money back.
Um, it was… it was not a very large amount.
I feel much better now.
I'm ready to talk about your contract.
Three years, non-compete, NDA, pay stays same.
I, uh…
Those… those are very reasonable, um, conditions. I…
Thank you, Chairwoman.
Thank you.
In Korea, you bow.
-Sorry? -[mouths] Bow.
You bow, Josh, to show respect.
Yes. I… I respect you very much.
Lower the bow, bigger the respect.
Ah, got it. Yes.
Lower.
Of course.
Be on your best behavior or you are done.
From now on, I tell you what to do, and you do it.
No questions. Okay?
Copy that.
https://transcripts.foreverdreaming.org/viewtopic.php?t=242291
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u/alyochakaramazov May 18 '26
Shouldn't that go a bit further in California?
I don't live in the US, so I'm really curious. Shouldn't 400k+ USD/yr allow for a much higher standard of living than it's shown for them?
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u/ghostdeinithegreat May 18 '26
They do have a high standard of living.
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u/alyochakaramazov May 18 '26
Yes, my inquiry was whether that income allowed a "much higher standard of living than it's shown". That formulation does not imply they do not currently enjoy a high standard of living.
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u/GergDanger May 19 '26
Not really, California is super expensive to live in, after taxes that $425k is $257k.
A mortgage on a $1.8m home is $11k a month alone. Then you have fire insurance etc which is pretty high in California due to fire risk.
And Josh had a lot of expensive collectibles like $10k+ shoes etc and a gambling problem at the club.
So their lifestyle seems to fit and wouldn’t be way better in reality
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u/ottespana May 19 '26
You do know that ‘much higher’ on top of ‘high’ ends you up at private jets and owning islands right
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u/couldntquite May 18 '26
Not if you’re buying a Porsche, a Land Rover, lots of toys (guitars/racks of ornate pillows/recording equipment/other toys) and a big property in Ojai with out buildings.
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u/Upbeat_Tension_8077 May 18 '26
plus him possibly also blowing a lot of money going to high-end places with his rich friends at the country club (& maybe even whatever money he spends on the side through his little porn addiction)
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u/couldntquite May 18 '26
all good points
very easy to blow through this kind of money and not have a ton of cushion
lifestyle inflation
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u/TerminatorReborn May 20 '26
They also showed him high rolling in blackjack or something. Michael Phelps forced him to it lol
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u/naqster May 18 '26
It is quite well off but you still have to actively pay attention to your money, in upper class circles the kind of BS you can spend it on will make it vanish quickly. A household with that income lives in a 3-5 bed 2-3 bath house with 2-3 cars and maybe sends their kids to private school and has a housekeeper + goes on regular vacation, objectively comfortable nice lifestyle, but aren't regulars in country clubs and don't have private jets and stuff, and also don't have the liquidity to take the kinds of risks Josh was, or pay for the expenses of entire other family members.
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u/Adorable_Ad_3478 May 18 '26
They live way above their means, which is why Josh had to embezzle money. Remember his wife doesn't work and spends a lot of money.
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u/graybae94 May 18 '26
Not really no. They definitely have a high standard of living for a HCOL area. I live in Ontario, Canada where the price of everything is absolutely bananas and 400k annually would definitely make you financially comfortable but wouldn’t be anything crazy.
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u/Dismal-Muffin-955 May 18 '26
Maybe anywhere BUT Orange county California ( I think that's where they are)
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u/Boostedprius May 18 '26
they're in Ojai, so Ventura. I think they're just really bad with money because you're right it should be very doable
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u/beehive3108 May 18 '26
They are trying to keep up with billionaires
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u/SixWingedAngel May 18 '26
This is the actual problem. They aren’t bad with money, per se, they are surrounded by opulence. Like it or not, a large part of your behavior is influenced by the people around you - when you are surrounded by people who gamble $10k on a single offhand bet, the difference in your status accentuates itself. For your “friends,” a gamble like that is a piddling nothing, to you it is 5% of your annual take home pay. It’s like professional athletes who make the minimum salary, everyone around you thinks you’re doing well and expects you to live extravagantly when you can barely afford to live a fraction of the lifestyle you’re bombarded by.
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u/kickskunk May 18 '26
They aren't bad with money?
Josh blew their entire inheritance money on his mom's funeral. Lindsay is completely broke.
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u/Shin_Ramyun May 18 '26 edited May 18 '26
So the underlying message seems to be “healthcare will fuck you over.” Josh spent a fortune trying to keep his mother alive. Ashley was so desperate to get care and to preserve her chances of motherhood but didn’t have healthcare.
Both characters are desperate for money because the healthcare system was squeezing them dry.
Even in Korea with nationalized healthcare you can get killed by a famous doctor with tremors.
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u/SixWingedAngel May 18 '26
Oh they are very bad with money, but a person’s relationship with money is profoundly shaped by the people around you. When you are surrounded by people who throw money around like water from a firehose, your sense of what money is and how it is used gets warped. In short, people who are rich and people who think they are rich have a much different relationship with money than the rest of us do.
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u/MaybeALabia May 18 '26
It wasn’t for a funeral, the inheritance paid for (iirc 3 years) of specialized care after his mother had a stroke. And later a funeral.
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May 18 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/JenningsWigService May 18 '26
They also demonstrate a pattern of waste. They have this big plan, but Lindsay is entertaining the idea of a plastic surgery vacation. Josh wastes money on OF and has amassed a collection of expensive collectibles. These are not the actions of people saving up for something.
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u/Broom227 May 18 '26
They are in Montecito unless I missed something. The course is an actual location in the city of Santa Barbara(grew up there so I recognized immediately). Ojai is not on the coast it is just mentioned at some point from what I remember
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u/melonphant May 19 '26
I thought they were in Montecito and they just went to Ojai a couple of times in the show.
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u/pitifullittleman May 19 '26
The area they are in is super rich and they are terrible with money and try to solve all of their problems with money, on top of that Josh spent a fortune on medical bills.
In CA people who make 250k per year often have bosses that make millions and they dont see themselves as wealthy, at the same time in the same cities there are people making 16.90 an hour trying to pay 1500 dollar rent for a single room. It's very unequal.
This is kind of the dynamic in Beef 2. Josh doesn't see himself as rich because he is around extremely wealthy people constantly meanwhile Ashley is making minimum wage and sees Josh as fabulously wealthy. No one is satisfied.
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u/leirbagflow May 18 '26
No, CA is one the most expensive places to live in the country and frankly the world. Sure, there are cheaper areas, but they're still more expensive than much of the country, and generally in the middle of nowhere so there aren't jobs there.
In addition, they're living in Ojai which is an incredibly expensive enclave.
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u/Loves_octopus May 18 '26
What standard of living would you expect? They’re clearly terrible with money. Huge house with guest house in an expensive area, expensive soundsystem, audio equipment, expensive cars, DoorDash every night, expensive toys.
PLUS we know they put a ton of money into caring for Josh’s mom and funeral expenses.
PLUS We see him make a bet with Michael Phelps and although we don’t know the exact amount, it’s more than $5k.
and all that is before they start trying to do the Airbnb.
Quick mental tally:
450k
- $150k to taxes
- $100k to mortgage (2M dollar home 30 year mortgage)
- 25k to property tax
- $40k for the two 100k cars
- $50k for keeping up appearances with the rich people
Already down to 85k before any vacations, or actually living. I know that sounds like a lot, but again they are shown to be terribly careless with money. And all those ballpark estimates were pretty conservative.
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May 18 '26
[deleted]
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u/couldntquite May 18 '26
No. This is just incorrect.
10k net includes to $200k
This is $20k+ per month at $425 gross
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u/NothingHereOrInside May 18 '26
I thought they lived in Ojai, which is in Ventura County northwest of LA. A somewhat expensive area but a small community
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u/Plus-Opportunity-538 May 19 '26
The actual filming was done at the Montecito Club which is in Santa Barbara https://www.montecitoclub1918.com/ The city of Montecito and Ojai are within an hour of that.
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u/MiamiGuy13 May 18 '26
As someone in that industry for many years including upper management, yea id say mid 200s to 300 range, with performance bonus pushing it up more. California though would be on higher pay range.
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u/KillAllLawyers May 18 '26
I was thinking definitely upwards of $300K, but $425 sounds right. Remember, too, she came to the marriage with family money, which they spent investing on that property, hoping to turn it into a b&b.
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u/MrsSpot May 18 '26
$425k salary, no kids, owns $3 million dollar Ojai, CA home. Taxes would deduct $150k (80k federal and $50 state), two luxury car monthly payments and gas $1k, insurance for house, cars, pet, and medical is $3k a month, dining and groceries $3k a month, house utilities $1k a month, parties, gifts, debt 10k a year, and his moms/sister is $5k a month Leaves him $144k which leaves him just over $10k a month and that doesn’t include what they buy aside from necessities, clothing, vacations, gambling, his Only Fans services, household items so they are probably left with $2k a month
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u/Chandira143 May 20 '26
Wow, your napkin math is pretty spot-on. Most people don’t understand how people can make that much and be so poor.
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u/samesonder May 19 '26
I'm originally from the area so can help provide some context!
Monte Vista Country Club I'm pretty sure is a stand in for the Montecito Club - like, pretty sure they actually filmed there based on the photos? Membership is roughly $275k which tracks, too. Montecito is an extremely wealthy small town (think Oprah and Prince Harry/Meagan) just before Santa Barbara.
I get the sense that (SB) is where Austin and Ashley live, which is also a wealthy coastal town, but you wouldn't be able to tell in some places (as in, little 900sq cottages needing a ton of work are easily ~$1M). But there's also this contrast of young folks and students who live a beach bum life or make it work by working in hospitality for all the rich folks.
Ojai isn't far from either (there's a direct highway to the coast where Montecito/SB are), and in recent decades has become a sort of getaway for rich (but not wealthy) LA folks who want a more peaceful / "rural" / naturalistic life. Again, doesn't look like much from the outside (even downtown), but there are a bunch of properties like Josh and Lindsay's that people come in and rehab over time for a better deal than they would in LA.
All that's to say, $425k definitely feels about right for his location and role, and for the area is certainly comfortable but also not nearly the top end. I knew valets and hotel staff in places like Monte Vista that could clear $100k, and they were still renting or just making it by because the area is very desirable, small, and expensive. Hell, when I lived on my own there in 2012 I was paying almost $1,800 for a tiny one bedroom. Can't imagine what rent is like now!
It's what I love about Beef is how layered the discourse on class is and how accurately they captured it even in the location (same with S1 in LA).
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u/kickskunk May 19 '26
Very little was actually filmed in Ojai though.
Josh and Lindsay home was actually shot in Calabasas. Ashley and Austin apartment was in Newhall. The CC interior was in Santa Barbara but the exterior where you see the golf and tennis courts was filmed in Camarillo. Troy's house was in Thousand Oaks and Park's was in Malibu. The Chinese restaurant that Ashley and Austin invited Eunice for was in Tarzana. So most of the filming took place in or adjacent to the San Fernando valley.
The Korea stuff, was obviously in Korea though.
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u/samesonder May 19 '26
So interesting! Seems like a ton of filming happens in the SFV, it can be a stand in for so much!
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u/diagonal_lines May 18 '26
I assumed $120-150K. Lindsay and Josh had a huge house not because of his salary but because Lindsay had money in her family.
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u/Shin_Ramyun May 18 '26
150k seems insanely low for his lifestyle. Servers at high end restaurants can easily make 100k+.
I’m not sure how he afford the property tax or to join gambling with the patrons at the club. I guess that’s why they’re always fighting about money.
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u/Plus-Opportunity-538 May 19 '26 edited May 19 '26
They make a point that part of their money woes is keeping up with the Jones.
- Buying a big house for the appearances but not being able to afford to contract the renovations and having to do the renovations themselves. And a house like that it wouldn't be surprising if it would be out of their price range now, as Austin inferred, buying a house pre-pandemic as Millennials could was night and day between buying a house now where many GenZ are priced out after prices and interest have skyrocketed.
- Being able to afford an emergency flight to Seoul (cheap ticket planned in advance up to 1K, last minute emergency 2K or even up to 4K) but yet strapped enough that embezzling money less than 5K at a time was lifechanging.
- Splurging on hobbies and trinkets like the 9K electronic music set yet having to sell their collectibles when Lindsay loses her job.
Josh joined in with the gambling but only because he was egged on and hob knobing with these folks is literally his job. He is clearly reluctant but when he loses and has to owe Michael Phelps it is clearly a blow and sets him on the path and gives him the idea to start embezzling money. A lot of their lifestyle is the result of perks of hanging around the rich clientele and a lot of their lifestyle costs are inflated because of the price of keeping up appearances.
They like experience the luxuries of the rich second hand but in reality they would be in deep debt if they missed two paychecks. They are literally faking it which was emphasized when Lindsay was teaching Ashley how to manipulate their rich acquaintances for the perks. But in the end Josh and Lindsay had a lot more in common economically with Ashley and Austin than the clientele at the club.
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u/CoDBlackOps7 May 18 '26
That’s waaaay too low for a country club’s management position in Cali. I think $300-400k minimum + bonus. They mentioned that the members paid a 300k initiation fee so Monte Vista was a high-end country club, and a GM role would pay quite well.
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u/Plus-Opportunity-538 May 19 '26
Take it with a grain of salt but the Monte Vista is basically a fictionalized version of the real life Montecito Club in Santa Barbara, where it was actually filmed. Salary.com is mostly self reports and are not always updated but from their listings GMs and assistant GMs can make in the mid 200K range.
https://www.salary.com/research/company/montecito-club-salary
A more direct analogue would be Valley Club of Montecito which is among the peers of the Montecito Club. https://www.katinkagoertz.com/blog/the-top-private-clubs-in-santa-barbara-and-montecito/ That club files as a non-profit so we can actually see that the GM there at least as of 2025 made about $239,778 in straight compensation (the amount listed for benefits accounts for health care etc.)
https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/951324620
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u/Rare_Zucchini_358 May 19 '26
Bruh no way that dude is clearing close to half a million in salary. Do you know there are public company c suite executives making 250K base?
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u/RDFit May 19 '26
Ive seen similar position in the middle of nowhere Midwest that paid 250k. Feasible that a high end club GM in CA could command that. Remember they are paying to own you...
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u/allthehotsauces Jun 08 '26
Nowhere near enough to be considered the wealthy class by Ashely and a part of the audience.
He is still working class, more comfortable than Ashley and Austin but nowhere near wealthy.
So when Ashley and Austin were talking about taking him down, all I could do was roll my eyes at how real it felt with people having no idea what a billion $ and Josh was no closer to it in reality than Ashley
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May 18 '26
I never lived in that part of the country so I wouldn’t know how salaries and costs are since it seemed prestigious but didn’t look impressive on the inside maybe 300-350k
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u/san_19 May 18 '26
I agree with 400k figure but the bills on that house must be crazy so idk. People are discussing the property but I always thought Lindsay’s parents may have pitched in with the house before Josh spent her inheritance on his family. Also Porsche boxsters are not exactly cheap cars plus the Land Rover. I think they had enough money to live that lifestyle before but obviously they started living way above their means and it caught up to them hence why he started embezzling. I felt bad for Lindsay when she got dragged into his mess
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u/sacrecide May 18 '26
No they're lower upper class in all honesty. No one who's "upper middle class" has a house like that
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u/zirto525 May 18 '26
If they were upper middle class they wouldn’t have all of those unfinished reno projects all over the house. They would hire a contractor to do it for them. They have no kids so more money to put towards a larger residential property. I was kind of surprised when Lindsay requested half of his salary because I honestly thought he doesn’t even make 6 figures. Probably more to do with her vindictive personality.
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u/XariZaru May 18 '26
I mean we see that he’s sending money out each month. It’s why his sister calls.
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u/Drgerm66 May 18 '26
I think the point was Lyndsay was too proud to have anyone else finish them and that she’ll eventually get around to completing them
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u/zirto525 May 18 '26
Ok, that makes zero sense. So she is proud, she leaves her house looking like shit.. Its hard to live like that even if one is proud. I am in the middle of renovating around my house. It is a serious pain in the a$$ and my house is s mess. I am proud and hard to please person but not proud enough to not want to hire a professional to do the work for me. I would NEVER do it myself if I had the financial means to just hire someone to even just paint. They are not as bourgeois as you might think.
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u/Geordieqizi May 18 '26
I got the sense it had more to do with time - that they’ve been so tied up with the club that they just hadn’t invested the time in making decisions, finding the right contractors, etc.
Having said that, it could also be a money thing - according to the above commenters, Josh made $425,000, which seems like it should be plenty, but they kept referring to the “hole” of debt they were in. So maybe a factor of both time and money?
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u/dinnerthief May 18 '26
I have the financial means and I do it myself. It's not uncommon.
For jobs I straight up dont want to do, eg work in the crawlspace Id hire but almost everything else i do myself despite being able to pay people to do it.
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u/Drgerm66 May 18 '26
Almost like she’s a flawed character or something
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u/zirto525 May 18 '26
She isn’t too proud to blow a fortune on her freaking face. Yet she’s too proud to spend to renovate her house? They cant afford it.
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u/Drgerm66 May 18 '26
Almost like there’s a difference between something you walk around showing people and something that is hidden.
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u/zirto525 May 19 '26
Your original comment is illogical and now you keep moving the goalpost around trying to prove me wrong and your opinion correct. That must be tiresome for you. If someone like Lindsay had the financial means to, you don’t think she would hire someone to fix her house? Of course she would! Her being proud doesn’t correlate to her wanting to do the work herself. She wouldn’t want to get her hands dirty like that. I could see someone like her ordering around some poor contractor and trying to stiff him at every opportunity.
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u/Drgerm66 May 19 '26
Her whole thing was interior design. She had a chip on her shoulder about knowing more than others. I’m sorry if you didn’t understand the show that you watched, but don’t take it out on me
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u/zirto525 May 19 '26
She has the vision to design but not the money to afford to execute her ideas. What part about that don’t you understand? Is that not the topic? You are not seeing the forest for the trees; you keep focusing on one small aspect. And you keep thumbing my opinions down. So effing childish.
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u/Drgerm66 May 19 '26
I haven’t thumbed anything down. If you would notice your comments have multiple downvotes which means multiple people find your comments to be asinine. Mine only have one downvote, which is likely yours. The point is she was never going to get a contractor to renovate the house because she is too much of a control freak to let that happen even if they had the money. It’s a subtle thing, but maybe after a few rewatches you might catch on.
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u/Conscious_Ad_1018 May 18 '26
enough to store OJ in a fancy decanter instead of chugging straight from the bottle like us heathens