In the Los Angeles area, or any metro area I suppose, how much money do you need to roughly net a year to be able to afford an apartment at about $1500 a month?

Let's say your car payment + insurance is in the $600 range and your other expenses total about $1500 (entertainment, clothes, food, cable, internet, dentist visits, etc.)

What sort of money do you need to be netting a year and still save a bit? $50k?

What's a good general rule for this sort of thing?

 

About 94K

 

Also, anyone know how to figure out how much they're worth in terms of salary/pay?

I'm going through a transitional period in my life - out of sales and into a new industry... I'm trying to figure out what I'm worth in the labor market so I can know what to ask for and what's fair.

 

net?

/me goes back to school

 

Well, your expenses add up to about 43K
1500X12 = 18,000
1500X12 = 18,000
600X12 = 7,200
Total = 43,200


To pay for that plus save 50K is 92K. I added a couple thousand for unexpected expenses.

 

A little misunderstanding... I don't think he plans on saving $50k per year. That was his guesstamite on home much he needed to make. And $50k sounds aobut right to net, which means roughly $75k gross salary.

 

30% is generally seen as an upper limit to the amount of take home to spend on rent.

$1500 / 0.30 x 12 = $60,000 so about $80,000 pretax

 

Uncle Sam and the Governator take more than a 25% effective tax rate in that salary range.

Amis - don't forget health insurance and 401(k), if applicable.

 

^^ yup, don't forget taxes.

 

you're right, my bad

 

What does the marginal tax rate at $80,000 have to do with anything?

His overall tax burden is all that is relevant.

 

I wasn't talking about marginal - I'm talking about effective - including everything that comes out of the check - e.g. FICA, CSDI (Cali Disability insurance), Medicare, etc.

 

If his overall tax burden at 80k is higher than 25%, it isn't significantly higher. It's certainly not going to be 33% to where my 80,000 number has to move to 90,000.

I'd say about 4k on the 540, 12k on the 1040, 5k on FICA and the rest for 21k...I did rough calcs, but I can;t be too far off.

 

Well, I'm not going to pick nits, but I take home roughly 60% of my gross pay. Granted, some of that goes into 401(k), but I also claim 3 dependants and have no kids.

Oh, and I don't pay any health insurance - that's all through my wife.