scot47

Paycheck To Paycheck: Why Even Americans Who Earn $100,000 Struggle With Bills : NPR

Many people in the UK look to America as "The Land of Milk Honey",
As a cynical outsider I suspect that Charles Dickens had a better perspective. See the controversy around "Martin Chuzzlewit" and his attitude in later life. As we say in Caledonia "Fur coat an nae nickers!"

Former Lancastrian

Well if looking for a good supply of milk then live in California but for honey then North Dakota. Isn't the grass always greener when you don't like living in a country and think of moving to another but doesn't always turn out that way.

ddsrph

A lot of these financial problems are related to a total lack of knowledge. Our education system should make knowledge of money and finance one of its biggest priorities. The perils of living beyond your means should become obvious to everyone.

Rete

It might not the land of milk and honey for persons from first world nations with stable economies, living conditions, etc. However, for people from second and third world nations or nations torn apart by war and civil unrest, it is still the land of promises.

Boomhauer

I would suggest Wisconsin for a good supply of milk.

scrubbedexpat091

But California has more milk.

California is the largest milk producing state, and happy cows come from California....



I am just being funny.....

markonline1

In my part of the world, $100k wouldn’t get you very far at all.

scrubbedexpat091

Looking at the graph seems healthcare costs are a big reason why, right along with college with housing coming in 3rd, kind of the opposite compared to Canada where the problem for most is high housing costs, we have lower healthcare costs, but housing is insane, and college can be lower by a good chunk.

But when there are city's with median household income of 85,000 and income needed to buy a house with 20% down is 150,000 there is clearly a wage vs cost of living gap.

civilservant

Where as in county, $100k is the top 10% of wage earners (I'm pulling that figure out of my ar*e, but you get the idea)

ddsrph

I think that is true for 90% of the country.

robin1234

Median family income in my county is $49,000. I doubt if many families earn 100k, I suppose a few physicians and college professors...

ddsrph

The main difference is cost of housing in certain areas. Whenever I was faced with having to live in a city my first thought is get as far out as possible and drive 40 or 50 miles one way daily as needed. I had good income potential as a dentist and pharmacist but never chose to work that hard. I can count on one hand with a few fingers to spare the times I made 100k even counting my wife’s income. However by living below our means both my wife and I could independently come up with a million each if needed. It’s all in how you manage your money. The last time either of us owed any money or paid one dime in credit interest was 1990. Too many Americans gauge financial success by whether or not they can pay all their bills each month with little regard for how much credit is costing them.

scrubbedexpat091

Median household income in my area is 68,000 CAD ($52,000 US$) with median house price of $$769,000. ($599,000 US$) and its not a big metro area by any means, but when nearly 40% are retirees many of them quite wealthy, it inflates the cost of houses beyond what local incomes can support, rent is also high so its a double whammy.

According to the Canadian Housing and Mortgage affordability, to buy a median priced house on a median income in this area, one would need a 200,000 down payment which isn't likely doable for a household making a median income, assuming no debt.

It's why we don't even plan to try to buy a house, its not remotely possible for us unless our income went into the low 6 figure range and that ain't happening.

Next city over only has 40,000 people, its a little over an hour away, but still looking at 400,000+ for a house with a median income of $59,000 (46,000 US)

ddsrph

What is the cost of an acre of land far out from town? 20-40 miles out? The problem of not owning a house is almost impossible retirement as rents seem to go up much more than wages. When you look at the square footage of your apartment a similar size small house is probably no more than a three car garage. I build the smallest house in our neighborhood not because I couldn’t afford a McMansion but we didn’t want a McMansion. I just have the best built house in neighborhood sized to meet our desires. If you have any average credit i would be looking to build that apartment size house.

scrubbedexpat091

It depends, 40-50 miles out of say Vancouver, an acre of land is going to cost a pretty penny.

This is the closest to 1 acre I could find within 1 hour and some change of Vancouver, 1.28 acres.

$299.000.

Once you get out of commuting distance of Vancouver things get cheaper.

These are near Merritt, approx. 160 miles from Vancouver. It's a small town of about 7,000 people, closest bigger city is Kelowna which is a metro area of around 200,000, and about 78 miles (about 2 hour drive today due to weather conditions, the highways in this area in winter are quite dangerous)



$105,000 for 1.33 acres.

This one is about an hour from us, but no electricity service available, no municipal water, it would be good if one desires off grid living though. 41 acres but it does border crown land, so eventually the area around it would be logged and has no water access to currently.

https://www.realtor.ca/real-estate/2...eaverdellcarmi

Have to keep in mind BC we have 5 million people, of that 2.5 million live in the lower mainland basically the area within 1 hour of Vancouver.

The red area is where roughly 50% of the population resides.

I should also point out we have no city's with even 1 million people, our largest city is Vancouver with roughly 685,000 people followed by Surrey 40 minutes away with 485,000, then it drops quickly, the 9th largest city only has 145,000 people and 3rd largest only has 250,000 so once past the top 2, things drop off very quickly population wise.

We cover about 365,000 square miles go from the pacific ocean bordering Washington working eastward BC also borders bits of Montana and Idaho and we also border a bit of Alaska, we are a big place with a tiny little population.