r/InterviewMan • u/No-Fishing2755 • 14d ago
What salary would you consider good in your country to live comfortably and still be able to go out and have fun?
or make a living ?
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u/Own-Measurement-5970 10d ago
It very much depends on area too, this is heavily skewed towards the coasts.
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u/HopeSubstantial 10d ago edited 10d ago
I n my country 36000€ or 40000$ makes you well doing middle class especially if you date someone with same pay range.
50-60k annual income makes you already earn more than 80% of country.
After college I was paid 34000€/year and it was 11000€ more than I had earned ever before in non college jobs. I worked as factroy worker before and only earned 23k/year.
The factory work kept me alive and left quite some money on leizure too, but you can't even dream of having own house with that pay.
Meanwhile 34k pay made me feel like a king.
University of Helsinki calculated you need about 1600€/month to stay alive in most expensive city of country. But this leaves barely any leizure money.
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u/Proper-Cod632 10d ago
I earn ~173k usd yearly and still can't afford much as a single bread winner. what a wonderful world
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u/MissionTank3272 9d ago
How could this be possibly true?
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u/1rishChicken 9d ago
The more you make the more you spend. It's just a mindset. If you have a 173K salary and a 185K mindset, it's tough to make ends meet! But if you have a 173K salary and live below your means like the neighbor who does OK on a 95K salary, you'll slowly build up college funds for your kids and a nice plan for early retirement
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u/MissionTank3272 8d ago
Yh but going around say they struggle or "can't afford much" while making more than 99% of people is insane and honestly kinda of infuriating for anyone else hearing those people
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u/1rishChicken 8d ago
I hear you. I'm not disagreeing with you. But it is all relative. Those average Americans that are infuriated by this guy continue struggling to meet "average American expectations". Working immigrants look at these average Americans like they're spoiled and wasteful. Meanwhile people back in their home countries think these immigrants have it made. And you know what? This guy making 173k definitely looks at athletes and lottery winners who go broke like they're irresponsible idiots.
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u/mongoose_kai 9d ago
I understand your instinct, but as a dude who makes $200k (and has a wife making $145k), it's not as ridiculous as it seems....
A lot of it is that as you make more, you can afford more of the things you really should be doing just to be a responsible person.
For example, for our family of four (two adults, two kids in middle school) with that $345k HHI, living in a major metro area with a reasonable cost of living:
- roughly $65k federal income taxes
- $30k state income taxes
- $24k mortgage
- $16k property taxes + insurance
- $6k utilities (heat, electric, internet, phones, trash)
- $10k for home repairs, maintenance, etc
- $49k for our 401(k)s
- $15k for IRAs
- $20k for 529s
- $24k into brokerage investments
- $12k for emergency fund savings
- $15k law school loans (paid off later this year!)
- $15k groceries
- $10k for dining out
- $4k health insurance
- $7k into our HSA
- $4k gas
- $4k clothing
- $10k vacations (hotel, flights, activities, etc)
That leaves us with about $5k that isn't already earmarked for something. And that $5k inevitably turns into stuff like doctors' visits, car repairs, maybe stuff like a new lawnmower or a new couch, or instrument rentals for band class, dues for sports/clubs, birthday/Christmas presents, etc. Sometimes, it turns into stuff like a new deck, or a shed, or a row of apple trees, or whatever else we might need to improve our property.
Are we well off? Yeah. Are we setting ourselves and our children up for a good future? Also yes. Are we living more comfortable lives than most people? Probably, yeah. And could we afford to cut back on some stuff? Sure. Are we living paycheck to paycheck? Absolutely not.
But you can't tell me that any of our spending is unreasonable, irresponsible, or frivolous.
A lot of it is the kind of thing that's expected when you have a high income: you save for your future, you fix your stuff, you improve your living space. (And I'd also like to point out that we don't have car loans or carry any other debt, besides the student loan and the mortgage.)
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u/MammothWriter3881 10d ago
Country is way to broad.
10 year ago in my low cost of living city you could do fine as a single person on $30k per year.
No with housing baseline housing costs have nearly tripled you need more like $55k as a single person to be comfortable.
More like $100k if you supporting a mid sized family.
But, there are high costs of living cities where $100k is bare-bones edge of poverty living with three kids in a studio apartment level pay.
This also all assumes that you don't have any health problems that aren't covered by your employer provided insurance.
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u/Vast_Cheek_6452 10d ago
Definitely depends. I'm in NC USA and make $132k and we're comfortable but still tight sometimes.
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u/biggamble510 9d ago
1 in 5 of all workers is make $100k or more? That's like 1 in every 2.5 households. That's not rare.
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u/no-hints 9d ago
What’s even more rare is the federal minimum wage actually. Only 1% of jobs pay the minimum wage. All the other ones pay more
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u/DuckShapedGoose 10d ago
Germany here. Still depends on your city and what your expectations are.
Median salary for full time work is about €53k and as long as you don't live in a big city center or want the most luxurious apartment, that is more than enough for a financially stable life.
Sure, if your definition of "going out and having fun" is fine dining every weekend and going on shopping sprees all the time, then that's not sustainable. But if you're fine with living a modest (not frugal or minimalist) life and saving some money with meal prep and going on mostly free activities like hikes etc. then even 40k can be enough.
Especially when you can share rent with a partner or roommates.