The 99% earns less than you might think.

[Jamastiene]

39. Right.

The cost of living, rent, utilities, even how utilities are handled can make analyzing the results even more complicated. Where I live, you pay for power and water separately and most anything you get, you pay for each thing. In other places, you can pay for all of it rolled into one payment and even in some cases rent places that are furnished. Here, you rent and still have to get your own furniture, pay for water and power separately. Each of those has a security deposit to go along with the security deposit for renting.

We also pay by the month for things like rent. I keep hearing about some people who pay by the week elsewhere, and some even by the day. And you are right, $50k wouldn't last a minute in NY.

Where I live, $50k would buy an older house or pay for over half the price of a newer house. $100k would literally buy a mansion where I live, but if you are buying land in my area, get ready to pay about $10k per acre, depending on the area. For this area, that is considered the highest it has ever cost.

In some areas, the land is worth more than others. It all depends on location and timing. My .684 of an acre is listed as worth $7803. The 1.0 acre behind me is listed as $3800. The only difference is a tiny 8' x 10' shed that I have built on my property. It only ups the value by $300 though. Another $100 is the deck. That's it. The property behind me is a little lower in elevation, but still well above the elevation of the pond and the dam down the road from here.

The home I live in counts as a vehicle because it is a mobile home. I have a concrete block foundation under it though and I have made lots of improvements on it. Because I did not remove the wheels and just built the foundation to replace crappy skirting that had holes all in it, looked horrible, and let too much HVAC escape, it still doesn't count as "real property." I pay a lot less in taxes because of that, but I pay separate taxes for each. I pay a lot less for HVAC bills since adding the foundation. It already wasn't very much for power per month compared to most in this area anyhow. I paid over what the "rent to own" monthly price was from the beginning and paid it off 2 years early. So, $350 a month for 10 years and it is now mine. What started out by most people's standards as a dump (I've written about my step dad's take on the place on DU before and about the neighbor up the hill, was told it was hilarious) is now a nice place and other people are painting their houses now to match the color scheme the guy at Lowes helped me choose for it. I just told him I wanted a dark forest green type trim and some wood like color. Ended up with Molera Vaquero Red and Green Gables green trim and even though the guy that painted it, who does that for a living, wasn't sure about that color combo, he now uses a picture of my place in his advertising on what he can do with a place to make it look great. It's not Better Homes and Gardens like I always joked I would be in one day, but it's still nice to know that a simple hovel can be made nicer.

The house up the hill next door to me is listed as worth $56k, including the house and 1 acre of land. It is two stories and one of the nicest houses in this part of the neighborhood, very old, nicely built, a money pit though as far as heating and cooling and maintenance. The guy that lived in it has moved and he only comes up here occasionally to irritate and annoy everyone in the neighborhood. It's quiet when he is down at the beach, which is most of the year nowadays.

A family member of mine had her house built custom with a panic/tornado warning room and all low sinks for handicapped accessibility and a large custom garden tub and it was right around $100k. It's the nicest house in the whole entire neighborhood by most people's standards.

I'm happy in my hovel though. $50k and most of my savings from lower utility bills (cheaper to cool and heat because it is smaller and now even cheaper because I replaced the hideous skirting) and I could buy the nicer house up the hill. I'd rather not though. I like my little hovel. It looks nicer than half the other houses in the neighborhood because I take care of it. It gets regular maintenance, paint before it really needs it, and anything else I can think of to make it more cozy. At my income, if I tried to buy a house even at the $50k price, I would be paying for years and years longer than it took to pay this place off and get it fixed up to look nice and be more energy efficient than it already was. That $56k huge named (it has had that name since the early 1900s) mansion of a house up the hill next door to me would be a nightmare to heat and cool, cost a lot more to keep up, and I would never be able to afford to maintain it.

I also wouldn't enjoy it because his backyard is a car graveyard full of rust buckets and junk, an eyesore to the rest of the neighborhood. My backyard is a rich lush jungle full of some of the most edible wild vegetation and pecan trees and amazing beautiful wildlife imaginable. Wild rabbits live here, eastern cottontails, but I won't let anyone hunt here. People who visit can look and marvel at all my mourning doves and eastern cottontails but they cannot hunt them. $350 a month for 10 years was worth it for that alone.

I've started documenting as much of the wildlife here as I can manage to ID as only an amateur and I don't think the rest of my life will be long enough to ID the rest of the species of animals, insects, arachnids, and plants and trees. I love it here. I had identified several hundred species of birds, mammals, trees, plants, insects, reptiles, amphibians, and reptiles so far and there are so many more to go. Sadly, I lost my ongoing list with the dates when I first spotted each species. It was on my old computer and that hard drive is dead. So, I am having to start over. I had wanted all of those first dates spotting each species on record for some kind of journal to leave my kids if I ever have any.