Reply #139: Do you own a home?

[MissB]

Do you pay taxes? Do you have children?

If you own a home, you pay a mortgage. You also pay property taxes and insurance. If you don't own a brand-spankin' new home, then you're replacing minor and major things each year. Just those first three items - mortgage, property taxes and insurance cost me (with a much less than average local first-time home buyer mortgage) nearly $25k per year.

I spend $1k on school fees each year for my kids. These are basic things that the school does not cover and the parents have to cough up money for.

I spend $3k each year on food costs (and that is conservative for a family of 4, because I'm growing some of my own food and cooking from scratch). If you think this is high, check out the USDA's charts on food costs. It is actually much less than the frugal option on their charts.

I'm paying nearly $20k a year in taxes.

Car insurance runs me $1600 a year. (No car payments because the cars are paid for). Maintenance on the cars runs me an additional $1k each year, if I'm lucky.

So far, we're up to over half of my yearly income. And that's just the basics of owning a home and having a small family of 4.

That doesn't include anything like gas, clothing and shoes, medical costs and emergency costs (like when the furnace goes out in the wintertime and you have to plunk down $4k). It certainly doesn't include the non-existant club membership or that payment on the non-existant shiny BMW.

Class warfare amongst the middle class and the upper middle class is stupid. Get disgusted by those dropping $150k in six months at a single boutique, not those of us making $100k a year. $100k isn't much, unless you're a poor college student with no family and no house.