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Thread: How Much Does a Six Figure Income COST ?

  1. #1
    heydude
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    How Much Does a Six Figure Income COST ?

    Let us assume a corporate style job. Let us assume your salary is 100,000 dollars. How much would this stereotypical six figure job cost you?

    Taxes?
    Clothing?
    Lifestyle (bigger car, house, dinner parties, eating out, manditory company trips, etc.)
    Overtime?
    Stress?

  2. #2
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    It totally depends upon the actual position, and upon how much one likes the work. If one enjoys the work, all those things you list could be seen as benefits - well, except for maybe taxes!

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    Let us assume a corporate style job. Let us assume your salary is 100,000 dollars. How much would this stereotypical six figure job cost you?

    Taxes?
    Unless you are using a lot of deductions, you'll pay A LOT in state and federal!!! However if you have a 401k you can shelter some there.

    Clothing?
    really depends. Doesn't have to be a lot. It depends on how visible your position is and thus how much image matters.

    Lifestyle (bigger car, house, dinner parties, eating out, manditory company trips, etc.)
    it depends. You might be assuming 6 figures is all management, yea management can earn that definitely, but so can very well paid non-management people (at least around here). Not the *average* corporate non-management person but ....

    But noone needs to buy a bigger car, noone needs to buy a house (but if you really have the income ...). Much work doesn't involve dinner parties. Eating out is tricky because there is pressure on anyone at almost any job to eat out for lunch to maintain relationships with coworkers, but I'm not sure higher paid people really have it that much worse. They are probably less able to be the strange loner employee who eats their paperbag lunch alone in the park every day (that would be me) but . There may be some company trips, and companies generally PAY FOR them, but if you hate doing them there is the non-financial cost.

    Overtime?
    Oh for that salary you'll probably do boatloads of overtime. Ha, you might be pressured to work a lot of overtime on less salary than that! In fact with overtime the norm it's almost an exception not to work it! But when you are up at that level it will generally be a baseline expectation.

    Stress?
    Depends, the overtime will probably be stressful. OTOH sometimes it's more stressful to be at the bottom of a hierarchy than further up.

    As for people who enjoy it, yes some people really do seem to enjoy massive overtime and the whole thing. But really you either are a type A person or you are not ,and if you are you'll love it, and if you aren't ....
    Last edited by ApatheticNoMore; 4-14-11 at 1:54am.
    Trees don't grow on money

  4. #4
    Senior Member herbgeek's Avatar
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    Its not at all uncommon for senior level engineers in the Northeast (and West Coast for that matter)to earn > 100K. We all know how sloppy engineers dress, with jeans and company issued Tshirts from former projects. And no one expects an engineer to have to entertain clients, in fact, they usually keep us away from clients because we tend not to lie or sugar coat progress. Yes, there is routine overtime, but you tend to be doing that with other engineers, and we know how to take breaks and throw nerf balls around. Stress? Well yes sometimes when management doesn't listen when we say something will take 6 months, and they promise the customer it will be done in 3 months, and then ride herd on us, and its still done in 6 months. But the work itself is often fun, and other engineers share our twisted sense of humor, and that counteracts some of the stress. In today's environment, a lot of people are being asked to do more with less, at least as an engineer there is some level of autonomy.

    So I take exception to your generalization.

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    Well, I never made a six figure salary, but when I was part of corporate America, I found that we spent more on food. Going out because I was too tired to cook (or buying expensive convenience foods to cook at home), being persuaded to eat out with co-workers at lunch, etc. I also felt pressure for things like gifts for co-workers (we were all expected to pitch in around $10 or so serveral times a year plus did the Secret Santa thing) and buying from whoever's kid was fundraising at the moment.

    That job "cost" me in terms of health (stress) and family (less time with them).

    I feel it is only fair to mention that I am not cut out for a high-driven career. I know a lot of people who work where I used to and are very fulfilled and happy. It just wasn't for me.

  6. #6
    Senior Member jennipurrr's Avatar
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    Neither of us makes six figures, but DH and I have joked that we are glad to be in IT...we get a decent income without the pressure to buy a fancy car, house, etc...our joneses are a bunch of computer nerds! DH's best friend is an attorney and his lifestyle has grown to include all the typical trappings of a lawyer's life...he has a huge mcmansion, drives an expensive car, etc etc. I know its not required, but I do know he feels a lot of pressure to maintain a certain status.

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    My boss makes well over six -figures, easily 5x my salary. I have often pondered the differences in our lifestyles, expenses and salaries. He has a 2 mil house, travels and entertains extensively, and garners oohs and ahs over his illustrious achievements. In the end, I imagine he pays a huge amount for his lifestyle but it is all worth it to him because of the circles he runs in. I do have to say though that most folks earning the big bucks have very little free time and that is worth more to me than all the money in the world. In that category, I am far richer than my boss.

  8. #8
    Senior Member madgeylou's Avatar
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    i made over 6 figures for a few years. it's not at all uncommon for an early 30s professional in new york. i was able to save a bit, though i could have worked harder at it. nyc just has a way of draining your bank account. my 6-figure salary cost a lot.

    between federal, state, and city, i paid almost 40% in taxes.
    half of what was left went toward housing.
    half of what was left after that went for utilities/cell phone/etc.

    now that didn't leave me broke, but it did leave me with less wiggle room than you'd think. outside of having a really great (expensive) apartment, i didn't live a particluarly extravagant lifestyle. i wasn't buying $400 shoes or taking cabs every night or going out to spendy places all the time. but i did eat out a lot, and spent more on booze for sure.

    at this point i'm living on like 20% of what i was making when i had that job. my half of the mortgage is 10% of what my most expensive nyc rent was. somehow life still seems worth living.
    Wear the Shift: Dresses for everyone!

  9. #9
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    6 figure incomes needn't be anymore stressful than others- in fact sometimes they are LESS stressful. And they needn't require any overtime. You can live a happy balanced life and still make a good income. Sure the tax is higher but our tax is graduated, so you only pay the max on a certain portion.

    People who earn 6 figures-that's not really that much in these days. I guess I am biased because an annual report that I own shares in came out and man, those CEOs earn 3 million a year.....so 100k doesn't seem that much

    Many people who earn a great income still dress the same way, live modestly-it doesn't have to take over your life
    Last edited by Mighty Frugal; 4-14-11 at 10:56pm.

  10. #10
    Senior Member RosieTR's Avatar
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    >Taxes?

    One could put something like $16500 per year into a 401(K), if one owns a house the mortgage interest is deductible, most corporate employers would offer flex spending accounts for health issues and childcare, and any donations would also be deductible. Never mind a host of other more esoteric deductions (rental home depreciation, putting money in a fund for kids' college etc) so there's a reduced tax burden.

    Clothing?

    You could dress yourself in clothes from Goodwill or at least Ross/TJ Max, maybe Target. Unless people really notice your clothing. In that case, a few suits or outfits from a fashionable place once or twice a year will suffice though that might run into the low $1000s.

    Lifestyle (bigger car, house, dinner parties, eating out, manditory company trips, etc.)

    Only someone like a realtor really needs a super-duper car, and in that case it's probably tax-deductible. Company trips and business meals would be paid for unless it can't reasonably be construed as a business expense. In that case, it's a choice.

    Overtime?

    Lots of this in most jobs that pay over $100K, and many that don't. If you work 80 hrs/wk it means you're effectively halving your salary time-wise.

    Stress?

    Variable. My boss makes over 100K. He works all the time and there is some stress but I think he really enjoys it most of the time. Other people are different. I don't know as you can put a price on stress from a job: it really literally eats away at your well-being from your brain to your blood vessels. How much is that worth? But whether that's a cause or consequence of the job is sometimes murky.

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