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Comment by grumblestumble | Hacker News Reader

My wife and I work full time, combined income is just below $400k. With a mortgage on a 3 bedroom in Oakland, daycare and after-school care costs, student loans, et al, we have never been more broke in our lives. I was living large when I was making $75k and not living in the Bay Area... now, it's beans and rice most nights, and hoping the early 2000's honda doesn't break down on the way to school.

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Wait a second. You and your wife pulled in ~$30K per month pre-tax, so I'll be generous and say $15K per month after tax. Any you have never been more broke? Even with kids I'd be hard pressed to call that broke unless you had ridiculous student loans. And in that case, you're screwed where ever you live.

That's what I was thinking too. If your mortgage on your 3br in Oakland is $1MM, your payment is $4,728/mo (interest portion is tax deductible but let's ignore that). Let's say your place is $1.5MM, that's another $1500 in property tax (also tax deductible but again, let's ignore). If you're bringing home $15K/mo, then you're still left with ~9K per month. That's a lot of rice and beans.

yeah, ridiculous student loans (med school), and some of it is definitely unrelated to being in the bay - a lot of debt related to the substandard paid maternity/paternity leave when having a kid in the USA (shoulda got that job @ netflix in retrospect...).

but kid-related costs here are also out of control, accredited infant daycare is insane, and you pretty much have to take what you can get into. same with after school care. this alone is >$3k/mo.

CA self-employment tax is nothing to sneeze at either, especially if you're a contractor in an industry that makes having an s-corp unfeasible.

Coming from a state where even $50K/hh is quite comfortable (maybe slightly less so with a family of 4, but still beyond "rice and beans" level), I have to ask: how is this even possible? It strains credulity.

OK, sure, rents/real estate are higher. A LOT higher. But other than that, you're not going to pay substantially more for a car, computer, or any other consumer good in CA than anywhere else. Gas and food are somewhat higher, although some of that, based on my visits to and relatives in CA, seems to be based on more picky eating preferences than inherent logistical problems (but you say you don't do that).

It seems outlandish on its face: you know that a $400K household has to be way above the median, even in Oakland. So how is everyone else surviving?

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