Recently, there was an article posted about Wall Street
bankers and their shrinking bonuses. The
article describes several who are now reexamining their lives now that their
six figure bonuses won’t be as big.
This article is about people who are clearly in the top 1%
of income in the country (or very close to it) whereas the median income in the
US was just under $50k in 2010.
The article is here.
Reading the comments people posted, of course it’s easy to
understand people who have no sympathy for these bankers and their “lavish”
lifestyles. Please note that I do not
make anywhere close to what these guys make, but I do understand their situation. I am most definitely in the other 99% percent
category.
Take a step back and think about the concepts here.
Can you related to feeling stuck and not being able to get
to the life you want to have?
Can you relate to the stress you would feel if your income
was cut drastically but your expenses didn’t go down?
Can you relate to the disappointment you’d feel if your
income was cut and you couldn’t go on vacation like you normally would?
If you have kids and the money to spend, wouldn’t you send
your kids to private school? I have two
sons, and as good as the public schools are in my town, I still would send my
kids to private school if I didn’t have to worry about money.
And last but not least, income levels are also
relative. The cost of living in NYC is
much higher than it is, for example Topeka, Kansas, so incomes have to be
higher. $50k a year in Kansas might be a
good income, but $50k/yr in NYC gets you a cardboard box on the street.
I once read an article asking people of different income
levels what they thought was “a lot” of money.
While I don’t remember the exact figures, it was something like this:
$20k / yr thought $50k/ yr
$50k /yr thought $75k / yr
$75k / yr thought $125k / yr
And so on.
At each income level, they all said exactly the same things
as in this article about people making $500k / yr. “I only make $20k / yr and get by. How can those people not survive on $50k /
yr?”
While I hope your income is never cut, what expenses would
you cut if you were in this situation?
For most of us, reduced income can be the result of reduced
hours, or a reduced bonus, or time away from work because of illness or having
to take care of a sick family member. Or
all of the above.
Regardless of your income level, how prepared are you in
case your income drops?
What have you done to protect your income and finances?
Answer to last week’s trivia question – C - $2.4 million. Yes, believe it or not, people actually contribute money to help pay down the debt in addition to whatever takes they may pay. Go figure...
This week’s trivia question – According to the Commerce
Department, today the US economy is twice the size of China’s. However, in 1870, how did the 2 countries’
economies compare?
A – US was 5 times the size of China
B – US was 2 times the size of China
C – US and China were about the same
D – China was twice the size of the US
