Why a middle-class lifestyle now costs you over $300,000 a year
In order to comfortably raise a family in an expensive coastal city like San Francisco or New York, you’ve got to make at least $300,000 a year. You can certainly raise a family earning less as many do, but it won’t be easy if your goal is to save for retirement, save for your child’s education, own your own home instead of rent and actually retire by a reasonable age.
In this example this family has a whopping $375/month left over each month. Granted the example exemplifies saving for the future but there’s some WTF number here.
$3900 mortgage with today’s rates=~$1 million dollar home with 20% down.
They have one car payment, don’t have cell phones, nor $175 cable/internet bills like I do? Two cells, internet and a buss pass will take care of that extra $375.
Regardless here’s a household making $300k, great at saving (don’t have internet or cable) can afford a million dollar home and just get by. I wonder how they saved a quarter of a million bucks for the down payment on their home?
Good luck. Where did you say Waco Texas is?
El Segundo Bubble 
This is the epitome of lifestyle inflation.
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Initially I thought they were inflating the numbers, but looking at it closer, they are actually pretty conservative. These expenses make sense and I think the taxes are kind of on the low side. So this might be even more than 300K.
The crazy part here is that it is only one kid. What happens if you want 2 or heaven forbid three?
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