$1800 - $2200/month.
*The fourth floor Pasadena, California apartment where Sheldon and Leonard live has an open floor plan living and kitchen area with a breakfast bar, two bedrooms and one bathroom (with a cool periodic table shower curtain). Bill Podley, president of Podley Properties in that area, told Bankrate that the home would cost the two about $1,800 to $2,200 a month in rent. This would be realistically doable for university scientists. * From HuffPo.
Do they get a cut on the rent because the elevator doesn’t work?
In the episode where Sheldon loaned Penny the money, Sheldon said he uses half his salary for expenses, food, luxuries, etc. and banks the other half (or stashes it in peanut brittle cans and Green Lantern figurines). I think sometime ago, someone researched the salaries at Cal Tech and determined that staff researchers like Sheldon, Leonard, and Raj start with salaries in the mid $80K range. Don’t know about Howard, he’s not a Ph.D or Sc.D, but on the other hand, he probably helps bring in the grants from NASA, JPL, etc…
As for Howard not knowing he had a half-brother? All Howard knew was his father split when he was 11. He had lawyers track down his father to get him to sign off on the house and he probably told the lawyers he didn’t want to know anything about his father’s life or location, he just needed the signature on some paperwork.
The “load bearing blanket”? Hey, this is Sheldon we’re talking about.
Half of 80K divided by 12 is $3300 a month. Let’s say (because I don’t know the exact number and don’t really care) he pays 30% in income tax. That leaves him with $2300. $2300-900(his half of $1800)=$1400.
$1400 a month in disposable income seems pretty good for someone that doesn’t have a car or use public transportation and doesn’t spend any/much money on a significant other. AND he’s still banking what the average person makes in a year. So he should have plenty of money saved up for just about any emergency or special expense that he wants to dip into those funds for.
As far as I’m concerned, there’s no issues with them living in that apartment.
BTW, Kevin Smith really is making a Clerks III, so if Kaley Cuoco is cast in it, that’s really meta.
I hope she is, even if it is a tiny role that will be awesome.
The show contradicts itself whenever it feels like it, so no numbers can be absolutely right. Even so, they’re not starting out. They’ve been there for something like ten years. And it was established in one episode that they’re tenure track professors. It would be very hard to believe they aren’t making well over $100,000 by this point. Remember that they were planning on helping Stewart reopen his shop, and that requires a large six-figure investment.
That would push Penny up to maybe $300,000. My belief has large cracks in it. And it would be in tiny pieces on the floor if Bernadette weren’t making far more than Penny, because we would hear about it otherwise every time she opened her mouth. That beings her and Howard’s salary close to a half million a year.
Raj has always been wealthy. He was named one of the top 30 scientists under 30. Cal Tech would shower more money on him to keep him there.
This may be the highest-paid group of working people ever to appear on a sitcom. I think I’ll start a thread on that.
And here’s the thread.
I must have missed that episode. I remember one where they were all competing for a single tenure track position–don’t remember hearing if any of them got the spot.
Not if the owner knows why it doesn’t work.
I like a good fanwanking as the next guy, but I came here to say something else…
There have been several episodes recently where I don’t remember laughing out loud at all.
In “The Fortification Implementation”, I laughed out loud A LOT! I found this to be the funniest episode in a long time. I hope Chuck Lorre finds out what they did differently this time and keeps doing it.
That is all. 
J.
Nitpick: she’s Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting. (But she’s recently denied rumors of a divorce.)
Another craptastic episode. 3 separate story lines swept off the writer’s room floor and called an episode. Plus a bonus Cousin Oliver! Woo-freakin-ee.
The Leonard/Penny/Will thing was mildly okay. The others just sucked. They don’t seem to know what to do with Sheldon anymore.
The new Wolowitz was a complete nothing. Just occupying space for no good reason. Bad idea and then some.
Interesting how they avoided mentioning Penny’s last name in the podcast. E.g., they went from setting up for the podcast to well into it. No “Hi, this is Wil Wheaton talking to my costar in Serial Ape-ist 2, Penny ???.” No caller said her full name, etc.
Except an $80k salary doesn’t mean $80k of take-home pay. I’d cut those numbers by at least 33%, maybe even more like 45%.
I just assumed she had a 401k as part of her benefits, and part of that includes access to a financial planner. That’s they way it works at my job.
What’s perhaps unrealistic, given what we know about her, is that she chooses to save and invest part of her income, instead of blowing it on shoes.
JoeyP, please ignore my last post: I completely missed the part where you said, “Let’s say (because I don’t know the exact number and don’t really care) he pays 30% in income tax.”
So sorry. I’m…not smart today.
sigh
And Elias is back. He was one of the best things about Clerks 2.
I liked the episode. It’s nice to see Shamy advancing in their relationship, finally.
Leonard was being too whiny like he gets.
Was I the only one thinking that maybe the brother might have come around to stake a claim in the house?* I didn’t feel that as much by the end, but still.
The Wheaton was good in this episode he played his role perfectly.
Kevin Smith’s bit was my favorite. A pleasant surprise. “You’re cruising for a beatin Wheaton.”
*Yeah, where is Stuart?