Question of living comfortably and salaries

[Synapses]

So I was reading a post on the Diablo 3 forums today... The subject was towards people building 5 thousand dollar computers to run D3.

So here is my question, a poster commented saying that making 75k a year he thinks its unreasonable to spend more then 1000 on a computer every 3-4 years... due to money being tight. Guy says he is single, no debt, 2 dogs, typical car, living in a small home, with typical bills.

I am sorry but... at 75k, even 5k on a computer every 2-3 years is going to break your bank?

I went through an added up a guess on all my bills in the future living VERY well... It came to $32,040 and that was me adding in additional 800 a MONTH in extra expenses. I never spend more then 300 a month in extra stuff after all my bills.

So if I were making 75k a year, and 32k in bills per year give or take a few thousand due to emergency's ext.... I still CANNOT see how it would hurt the bank to spend 2-3 thousand every 2-3 years on a new computer.

Even living with my girlfriend, and her not working I would still come out on top with almost $30,000 extra going in to my savings account... per year..


Now I am only 23.... is this unreasonable to believe? Am I missing something??

I would ask what you guys make and how well off you are per month/year but I don't want to get personal. As a student in full time college (go GI bill money) I currently make around 1100 a month from the Veterans Affairs Department, and in 2 years ill be making 45 thousand a year... I still cant see how I couldn't live reasonably off that, and that's only my ENTRY level pay.

[Hamma]

One thing to consider is where is this guy living. 75k may be allot in one place but in another you could be barely scraping by. He could be living somewhere in Metro California and barely scraping by

[Synapses]

Originally Posted by Hamma

One thing to consider is where is this guy living. 75k may be allot in one place but in another you could be barely scraping by. He could be living somewhere in Metro California and barely scraping by

I guess that's true Hamma, I wouldn't have thought it would be THAT big of a difference in living cost. I mean I live in Utah, which is more expensive then Texas... were talking like 900 a month for a two bedroom apartment, probably 1000 for a really nice one.

And I agree Skitrel. I put one together the other day on Newegg for fun (LGA 2011) and hit about 3.5k and that was me building TOP OF THE LINE. It is my dream someday to build one thats just overkill for fun if I have the money, but as it is now I cant see spending over 2k.

[Hamma]

Just a quick search for a cost of living calculator (which is by no means scientific)

If you make 75k in Salt Lake a comparable salary in San Francisco, CA is $128,990

http://cgi.money.cnn.com/tools/costo...tofliving.html

If you move from Salt Lake City, UT to San Francisco, CA....
Groceries will cost: 23%more
Housing will cost: 201%more
Utilities will cost: 18%more
Transportation will cost: 15%more
Healthcare will cost: 17%more

[Synapses]

Originally Posted by Hamma

Just a quick search for a cost of living calculator (which is by no means scientific)

If you make 75k in Salt Lake a comparable salary in San Francisco, CA is $128,990

http://cgi.money.cnn.com/tools/costo...tofliving.html

If you move from Salt Lake City, UT to San Francisco, CA....
Groceries will cost: 23%more
Housing will cost: 201%more
Utilities will cost: 18%more
Transportation will cost: 15%more
Healthcare will cost: 17%more

Whoa, thats eye opening. Then again that is San Francisco (Hamma I hate you right now, thats when my girlfriend is pushing to get me to live with her.... and she dosent want to work... she wants to be stay at home mom type lol) And im a helicopter pilot >.>

[Hamma]

Honestly I'd never move to Cali. There are much better places to live where cost of living is much lower and you can still make reasonable salaries.

[CyclesMcHurtz]

Originally Posted by Synapses

I guess that's true Hamma, I wouldn't have thought it would be THAT big of a difference in living cost. I mean I live in Utah, which is more expensive then Texas... were talking like 900 a month for a two bedroom apartment, probably 1000 for a really nice one.

And I agree Skitrel. I put one together the other day on Newegg for fun (LGA 2011) and hit about 3.5k and that was me building TOP OF THE LINE. It is my dream someday to build one thats just overkill for fun if I have the money, but as it is now I cant see spending over 2k.

I can say that an 850 sqft 2bd 1ba apartment in a FAIR (not GREAT, not BAD) San Diego neighborhood rents for around 1700/mo.

[WiteBeam]

Originally Posted by CyclesMcHurtz

I can say that an 850 sqft 2bd 1ba apartment in a FAIR (not GREAT, not BAD) San Diego neighborhood rents for around 1700/mo.

Yup. I just recently lived up the street from you in Laguna Niguel and our two bedroom apt. was about $1650 a month. The same place in Texas would have been $900.

[Eyeklops]

I bet some of you are forgetting about taxes. When most people say "I make $75,000" a year they are talking before taxes are taken out. Subtract 25% right off the bat for fed/state/ss, then start figuring in any local taxes, sales taxes (if applicable. $75,000 may not go as far as you think. And yes, where you live can mean a huge difference in cost.

[Sardus]

Originally Posted by CyclesMcHurtz

I can say that an 850 sqft 2bd 1ba apartment in a FAIR (not GREAT, not BAD) San Diego neighborhood rents for around 1700/mo.

The rents are crazy down there, but you have to admit- it's a really nice place to live. Better to buy a townhouse if possible.

[Synapses]

Originally Posted by CyclesMcHurtz

I can say that an 850 sqft 2bd 1ba apartment in a FAIR (not GREAT, not BAD) San Diego neighborhood rents for around 1700/mo.

Whoa.. this makes me sad. I wanted to move to Cali but probably not anymore lol.

[CutterJohn]

Originally Posted by CyclesMcHurtz

I can say that an 850 sqft 2bd 1ba apartment in a FAIR (not GREAT, not BAD) San Diego neighborhood rents for around 1700/mo.

I can buy a nice little 2-3 bedroom house here in a decent neighborhood for 50k or less. With a garage.

How do people live in those cities? >_<



As for the PC, 5k is complete overkill, but if its your primary hobby, not egregious. Especially if you want something that can run 3 monitors at 5760x1080.

People easily spend that much on other toys. Boats, jetskis, motorcycles, etc. My brother spends 3-5k a year going on hunting trips.

[Crazyduckling]

Originally Posted by CutterJohn

I can buy a nice little 2-3 bedroom house here in a decent neighborhood for 50k or less. With a garage.

Where do you live? I need to move there when I graduate.

[Firefly]

Originally Posted by Synapses

I guess that's true Hamma, I wouldn't have thought it would be THAT big of a difference in living cost. I mean I live in Utah, which is more expensive then Texas... were talking like 900 a month for a two bedroom apartment, probably 1000 for a really nice one.

And I agree Skitrel. I put one together the other day on Newegg for fun (LGA 2011) and hit about 3.5k and that was me building TOP OF THE LINE. It is my dream someday to build one thats just overkill for fun if I have the money, but as it is now I cant see spending over 2k.

Where I live, if you want to be single and living comfortably on your own, without any roommates or debt or whatnot, you need to be making well above 85k. In fact I'd suggest a six-figure income unless you want to live in the projects (hint: nobody wants to live in the projects, especially not people making six-figure incomes). Conversely, if I were to move down to South Carolina where the average comfortable single-person middle-class income hovers around 40-50k, a six-figure income would be obscene and, moreover, highly unlikely.

One thing that people seem to forget is that "rich people" don't get rich by blowing a bunch of frivolous money. Just because a guy makes 500K a year doesn't mean he spends 500K a year. Yeah he could probably easily afford a 5k computer rig, but that is irrelevant - it's his mindset, and that's probably why he's well-off.

[Skitrel]

Why would anyone build a 5k computer? It's ludicrous overkill and completely unnecessary.

i5 2500k. Extremely overclockable. $180

4GB RAM, you're not going to need more for at least a couple of years, regardless, ram is cheap. $30

Corsair 120GB SSD $120

Radeon 7970, more than you'll need for years and years. $600

Motherboard, case, hdd, cooler, psu, roughly $300-600

You're looking at $1500-1800 for the dogs bollocks of gaming computers. The only possible thing you could need more for is video editing, add an i7 and get some more ram, $2000.

5000 is utterly ridiculous and there's no way anyone needs that kind of power unless they're doing some serious, serious editing and media work related tasks. If they're not using the power then they've just got more money than sense and suffer from the issue of wanting more power in their machine for no reason at all other than to say they've got a powerful machine. Compensating for something syndrome.