Quote:
Originally Posted by bnk
A Single person 80-100K/year gross vs net
Family of four 200-250K/year
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By your standard the vast majority of people living in the City of Chicago are not living comfortably, I mean upwards to about 90% of the population.
But yes, this topic is about as subjective as you can get, to some people living comfortably is just being able to pay your basic rent, food and bills without worrying about it month to month and maybe a little left over just to eat out at a cheap buffet or fast food restaurant before or after going to the free day at the museum or going to some other free or very cheap attraction in the city. Right now in my life I would define this as comfortable. If I was suddenly given $80-$100K a year right now as someone unmarried and without kids I would feel like a bleeping Rockefeller and not merely "comfortable". Its all through the prism of your socioeconomic background and current financial status by which we define comfortable.
Now if you must live alone in a minimum large one bedroom apartment in the heart of downtown Chicago in a full amenity highrise (swimming pool, health club), utility costs including decked out cell phone/blackberry whatever, highest speed internet available, Cable/satellite TV with hundreds of channels to watch on your jumbo plasma screen TV, self storage for your extra junk. Granite countertop state of the art kitchen where you cook meals where you don't care what kinds of groceries you buy. Then you have to pay $300 plus dollars a month to park your new SUV in the highrise garage plus city sticker in addition to the $85 monthly CTA pass (maybe even a Metra pass to depending on where you work/know people) to maximize your options for your nights out on the town (maybe include generous cab fare money as well) and you just have a cow whenever you want at bars and restaurants with generous tips for all. Add in generous amounts for savings, 401K or whatever and a payment plan for significant student loan debt for your multiple college degrees and then yes you would probably need $80-$100K a year even as a single person. However most single people don't fall under all of these criteria even if they have a few or some of them.
On a tangent I would actually argue it is cheaper to live comfortably in the city than in the suburbs. This is taking into account the cost of owning a car alone. If you are lower class to middle class this is especially true, because sure in the suburbs you may pay lower rent but the cost of owning a car would offset any advantage you would have over living in the city with higher rent but WITHOUT A CAR. If someone is making minimum wage or near minimum wage you are kind of screwed no matter where you live but I would say much less so in the city where jobs are transit accessible and an $85 a month transit pass is much cheaper than the month to month transportation costs of a car no matter how you cut it. I mean heck even if someone like my parents gave me a car free, even a car in decent shape the costs of state minimum insurance, gas, city sticker, and parking costs alone would be much more than riding than walking, biking or taking the CTA everywhere, add in the variable of car maintenence costs and it becomes even more so the case. So really the suburbs are only cheaper than the city if you are working under the assumption "I will have a car".
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I don't think it's fair to count what you choose to SAVE as a "living expense". I agree that travel adds a lot to the pleasure of living, but it too doesn't count in my mind as part of the "experience of" the city in which you happen to live (it's the experience of somewhere else--weekend or day trips excluded because those ARE part of Bay Area living).
[Heads to Chicago craigslist to look at apartments...]
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