It has come to knowledge that a few of my coworkers are living in situations where they’re not buying for their lodgings for various reasons. While this doesn’t really peak my interest, they seem to blow through money very fast. I have to wonder on what since rent/mortgage/property taxes usually take up the bulk of the salary. I pose this to the dope: If you didn’t have to pay for where you were living how much would you need to live? Also, do you have kids?
Poll to come!
You know what this question needs? A timeframe. What did you have in mind, a month, a year, forever? I assume year, but you never know.
A year.
Excluding savings and mortgage, our monthly expenditures come to $1900, so that’s a little under $23K. I suppose that’s the bare minimum we need to survive, take-home. There are always emergencies, however, and I bet we’d need to save at least another 7K a year to be sure we could cover those without any problem.
That’s for two adults. We are adding a baby here in a bit, but I don’t think our expenditures will go up as much as is typical for that: my husband is quitting his job (we already save that income: it’s not included in the expenditures I quoted), so we won’t be adding childcare expenses. I mean, I know it’s going to cost a lot, but not the $15K or whatever a year in child care expenses a lot of people have.
ETA: That’s “need” to maintain our current lifestyle. “Need” to survive would be much lower, obviously.
The other thing this poll needs is a quantifier. I could (and have) gotten by nicely on under $10K… But now I have a family … $20K would keep us alive, but it would be pretty grim. I am assuming that the OP meant the bare minimum.
Right now I need $13K to survive. That doesn’t include future maintenance.
…and a location.
On 50k/year I could be the richest guy in town, should I be in a small Indiana city. Near Chicago, I’d be fairly middle-class. In Chicago, I’d be near homeless.
My monthly nut is about $8,000, some months a little more, some a little less. If I didn’t have to pay for lodging, which I assume means I wouldn’t have to pay property taxes either, I’d save about $3,600/month. So my answer is $60,000 annually.
<nitpick> It’s “pique” your interest, not “peak” (or “peek).” </nitpick>
I can actually answer this question, because I get housing benefit due to a low income, so in a way I don’t pay rent. I live on a little over 8,000 quid a year, post-tax and including all benefits, for me and one 12-year-old in central London.
I not only could live on $10K ex-housing, I currently do live on about that (slightly more, but way less that 20K). I just don’t have time to spend all my money.
I need higher options
And a currency.
Seriously. Does the OP expect us to shit in toilets made of something OTHER than gold? I can’t live like that.
To maintain current living standards including retirement savings levels, etc. it would be a number a lot higher than the top end of this poll for us. In 2010 our total mortgage payments for the year were only a little more than 7% of my total gross compensation. Housing isn’t the worry for us…we have a nice place no doubt and it is a fraction of our monthly expense. It’s raising three kids, saving for three college educations and a comfortable retirement on a timeline of our choosing that takes most of the money.
Having said that, if we had to, we could “survive” on very little. Been there and done that. Don’t plan to go back.
I pay $6500 per month to my ex wife. That adds up pretty fast.
Ok, so your ex-wife gets to shit in a golden toilet.
Are we talking “life or death” or “to maintain current lifestyle?”
To live like I do right now, under 10k.
To live like a normal human being with insurance and emergency funds, maybe 20.
20k, no kids.