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Comment by pikzen | Hacker News Reader

>My biggest expense is rent, which is about 25 % of my after-tax income.

Yeah, you're not on average wage. HN is awfully biased, and I'm certain almost none of us here have actually lived on minimum to average wage for a long time.

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Well, it is technically possible he is at the national average income (not the median wage) and lives in a place where rent is way more affordable than the cities most of HN lives in. U.S. GDP per capita is $55,836.79. That is $44,558 after taxes in Knoxville, TN (I am picking a city, but it could be more extreme, he could work remotely from a rural area in the U.S. or from, say, Belize). This means 25% towards rent is $1163. So, in Knoxville, Zillow says that is a 3 bedroom home.

More realistically, that same amount is a small studio in e.g. Austin, TX.

Now, the trick is that the average income might be $55,836.79, but the median personal income is ~$41,520 [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_income_in_the_United_...

Seems accurate to me. Local average individual income where I live is about $48,000 or $41,000 after-tax. 25% of that leaves you ~$850/month for rent. I see all kinds of listings at $575/month not including utilities. Assuming the parent is including utilities, $275/month for those should be sufficient.

I know that would not be possible in all markets, but it would take the same HN bias you mentioned to think that everyone lives in SF or NYC.

I'm on 55k USD per year pre-tax which is about average (mean) wage I believe.

I am not renting my own place, I'm in a share house. My rent is US$900 per month (including utilities).

A more accurate calculation shows that this is about 27% to 28 % of my after tax income.

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