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Comment by stadeschuldt | Hacker News Reader

When I was young I have been told that your rent should not more than 1/3 of your income. This was meant as a rule of thumb. Also this would apply for the majority of people. If you make 10 million a year and pay 5 million on rent you probably still have enough left to get by.

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I still run into (elderly) people who expect a mortgage to be about three to four times a person's salary. When the houses costs eleven times the median salary, that would require a deposit of seven times a person's salary. The past was a different (cheaper) world when it came to the largest expense most people have.

> I still run into (elderly) people who expect a mortgage to be about three to four times a person's salary

I'd argue that's still a reasonable target, most places in the US. The pockets where things are insanely, insanely expensive are smaller than you might think - especially if you spend time reading the comments here on these kinds of articles.

Not necessarily true, we've all heard about rock stars and movie stars seemingly blowing through millions.

You gotta budget; and if you can't make more than you spend you're going to have a bad time.

We'd think blowing through 5m a year would be hard, but I'd bet there's people out there doing it every day.

Without blowing it on drugs, gambling, cars, housing, or ridiculously priced hotels, I don't know how I'd spend $5 mil a year. That's about $13,700 per day.

Agreed, I think you really need most of those five things.

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