FWIW here is my (rough) monthly spending for a family of 3 (husband, wife, 2yo son) in NYC. My income is in that range, but I've always been a saver (and I've had more than my fair share of lucky breaks) so I do not live paycheck to paycheck.

https://gist.github.com/harryh/970743e082bc7c9857ac9149997cc...

(I'm going to delete this gist later. Maybe silly but I don't feel 100% comfortable posting this data on the internet forever).

I live a nice life and have nothing to complain about. Last year 40% of my AGI went to taxes (fed, state, local + fica). There are plenty of good reasons to think that number should be higher.

Can't speak for those people but our household makes roughly $200,000 and after paying:

- Taxes

- Mortgage

- Interest on the mortgage

- Property insurance

- Our child's daycare so we can both work

- Payments on loans for every appliance that unexpectedly broke

- Saving

Half those costs would go away if we didn't buy a big house. For example, we have two air conditioning units and the heaters and both heaters died in the past year and costs $2,000+ to repair.

More money = more money tied up in assets and "good debt" = less actual discretionary money at the end of the mont

It ends up being about the same as someone who makes significantly less BUT we have equity in our property and money in our retirement funds at the end.

And I'm not going to lie. I enjoy a nice dinner ($500), a broadway play ($1,000 for good seats), or a Red Sox game ($900) once and a while.

Housing costs for a place in the nice part of town plus sending a couple of kids to the 'right' school will eat up much of that. Plus then (of course) you need the clothes and cars and vacations to match the the above lifestyle and that will eat up the rest of it.

Let's see. Taxes take around 1/3 of it. Rent takes 1/6. Schools, kindergarten, nannies takes 1/6. That leaves around 1/3 for food, clothes, insurance, phones, cable, heat etc. for a NYC family.

A family I know in the East Village says they spend $12,000 per month. They live 2 parents, 2 kids in a 500 square feet rent stabilized apartment (a walkup). The 140 square feet living room has a kitchenette in the corner. I believe rent is $2,200 monthly. Last time we visited, my one year old found a syringe outside their door. Don't know what they make before tax but it can hardly be less than $200,000. I asked why they didn't just move away from Manhattan, but they would have to commute 1-2 hours more per day to find a cheaper solution. They were already aways from the kids 10-12 hours a day as it were so that was not an option.

Families in such situation is a big part of the so called upper class.

Paying interest payments it seems.