struggling on $300,000 in SF.
How making $300,000 in San Francisco can still mean you're living paycheck-to-paycheck
With their feedback, Dogen broke down the budget of a couple with one to two children in San Francisco, Seattle or New York. He found $300,000 is the income necessary to put something away for retirement, save for your child's education, own a three-bedroom home, take three weeks of vacation a year and retire by a reasonable age.
"It's not an extravagant lifestyle," Dogen says. "It's a middle-class lifestyle if you consider a middle-class person should be able to afford a modest home, have at least one car, have a kid or two. There are no private jets in this budget."
Dogen has put together a detailed blog post where you'll find analysis and explanation on each expense, but here are a few points to note:
The $24,000-a-year childcare expense takes into consideration a babysitting rate of about $20 an hour, the standard charge in a city such as San Francisco. Preschool easily costs $18,000 to $20,000 a year in metro areas.
The mortgage is based on a $1.5 million, 1,750-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-bathroom home on a 2,500-square-foot lot.
The car expenses are based on a single larger car that accommodates a family.
Entertainment expenses include everything from Netflix to tickets to an occasional ball game to date night, which easily costs $200 in San Francisco when you consider expense for dinner and babysitting.
ALSO: Why a $400,000 income means you still think you're middle class
Dogen adds that at $300,000, a family is still living paycheck-to-paycheck and not saving outside their 401K and 529 plans.
"We're in this perpetual grind in San Francisco, and it's a city for people who are willing to hustle," he says. "At one point in the past, $300,000 was a lot of money. Now at this amount, you're probably always going to end up working a long time and having a constant struggle to keep up."
His recommendation is to make moving out of the region a goal.
"There's a moving truck shortage in places like San Francisco because so many people are moving out of this expensive city and other expensive coastal cities," he writes. "If you live in an expensive metropolitan area, consider relocating to lower your cost of living or at least try and take advantage of the valuation differential by investing in Middle America.
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/middle-class-budget-San-Francisco-300-000-13741570.php
I would say that this 300K couple is getting more nutritious food, better child care and a better standard of living than a 50K "pay check to pay check" couple.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Response to SammyWinstonJack (Reply #18)
Response to Demovictory9 (Original post)
Less expensive car,
less vacations,
less 'entertainment'.
Ditch the weekly date night and make it once a month, reduce the grocery bill.. c'mon now it can be done.
These kinds of pity parties make me want to vomit.
2,100 a month for groceries and eating out? 2 people and a kid. That is 500 a week. Where the hell are they buying their groceries and eating out? In France? Limit your eating out expense to 100 a week and groceries to 100 a week. That saves them over 15,000 a year. Which is more than what many people earn in a year.
500 a month for clothes? Do they ever do laundry or are they too busy eating out, going on vacation and weekend getaways.
Speaking of weekend getaways and other entertainment, 600 a month? Cut that in 1/2 and save 3,600 a year. in 30 years that is 600,000 in savings to supplement their retirement income. Just by cutting by half 2 budgeted items.
All I can say is, it must be rough for them to live "paycheck to paycheck"
For Christ's sake you'd think urban sophisticates living in SanFran would have a *little* automotive taste... 
