There's a lot that needs to be taken into context.
As you both know, and has been mentioned on this thread, location is a huge factor. In places like CA, NYC or any of the major coastal metros the cost of living is incredibly high. In many of these areas, you are looking at an averaged sized house being 500k+, in fact closer to a million dollars or even more for some of them. You could easily be paying 10k per year in property taxes alone, a huge liability. For decent rent you are probably looking at a minimum of 2k per month, probably closer to 3k or even higher. You need to be pulling close to 100k or over this to be comfortable. However, add this with a higher income being taxed much more aggressively by the federal government and you are even tighter. In addition to this, many of these states also tend to have high state incomes taxes.
Obviously, if you are living in a lower cost of living state this changes, but you'll also find that you typically make quite a bit less as well. It depends upon a lot of factors. Many of the states that used to be very affordable not that long ago are becoming somewhat more comparable to that of the major metros. You can find that real estate prices in the major metros haven't changed that much over the last 20 years, but you'll also see that the once cheaper states have taken off dramatically. Places like NC, TX, NV, ID and AZ that were once fairly cheap and had mass migrations to for years are now getting up there in price, especially since the pandemic. Phoenix and Boise are two really good examples. A suburb of Boise, Meridian, had a population of around 10k in 1990 and now is something close to 200k. Phoenix and AZ as a whole has grown tremendously over the last roughly 30 years. You'll find that many of the homes are from the late 90s/early 2000s.
I live in AZ and bought my first home, a 2 bed/1 bath, that was in serious need of some cosmetic work for 75k in 2015. The market had still not recovered from the 2008 housing crash, so this was a golden opportunity. It was a solid house in a nice development but the broader area it was in was not the best. Approximately 4k was invested into the place to beautify it, just needed tile floor and some fresh paint. I sold it for profit and repeated the process 2 more times. That very same house is now estimated for around 230k or so.
Texas actually has very high property taxes, but you'll find that there plus with these other states you have the option to move further out and still get a lot of land, house, etc. Remote work is definitely one of the best answers to this, but also the willingness to commute.
I saw this video here and one of the towns he mentioned in the video was 50 miles away from St. Louis. I'm not saying you need to move to these places, they are cheap for a reason, but there are solutions.
Top 10 Cities to buy CHEAP HOUSES (less than $100,000) (youtube.com)
@CornbreadFed You bring up an interesting point about debt. I mentioned this earlier in the thread, but a dentist may make 200k+ potentially but it's also very normal for them to have close to a million dollars in student loan debt. Someone who is a doctor was more or less a professional student for over a decade and didn't get into their career until maybe their mid 30s, though I'm not sure what kind of debt they typically accrue in that time frame.
I also agree with you about lifestyle inflation. Most people honestly are terrible with money and spend frivolously on things they don't need. Our economy is based around excessive spending and endless cycles of debt, but it doesn't mean you need to follow along with it. I personally am extremely frugal and it can be difficult for me to spend money on myself. I never eat out and make everything at the house, which is the best way to save money btw. I literally just pay for essentials and invest a ton of my money. My hobbies are gym/working out, hiking, sauna, playing chess and just reading or watching youtube videos about things that interest me. These are things that are incredibly cheap or completely free, something that you'll find is a trend for the hobbies and pass times that are best for you.
@Solomon I enjoy your posts, man, but you don't need to spend much at all to have a great life. I don't believe in being excessively cheap but when you start getting into pointless spending on clothes, cars, jewelry, entertainment, etc. is when you get into trouble. There is nothing wrong with it, but as far as I'm concerned you are really only impressing people that you really shouldn'tou want around, especially gold digging women. It's insanely easy to get into a loop where you need to keep spending and spending to keep up with your appearances instead of focusing on building true wealth. I don't like phonies, so I'd rather not try to attract them.
