What full-time wage do you need to cover current expenses?

[black_son_of_gray]

So for the next year I'll be applying for new jobs, and I was thinking about absolute worst case work scenarios. To me the worst case scenario is working a minimum wage fast food job (there is a 99.9% chance this won't happen, but I've worked fast food before so I know that experience)- and I got to thinking about what hourly wage I would need to make my current lifestyle possible. Assuming 2000 hours a year and very basic math (I'm not accounting for taxes, SSI, etc), I'd need a $10/hour job.

This is a pretty big slice of humble pie for me, considering millions of people get by on minimum wage or close to it, which is less than $10 in many places (in my area, it is $8-9 per hour). It's just very difficult to maintain an image or yourself as 'frugal' when you know there are millions of people getting by on much less - not in another country, but literally down the street.

What hourly wage do you need?

*Apparently the US federal minimum 'base' wage for people who are tipped (restaurant servers) is $2.13/hour. Can anyone here live off of that? (I know tips add on top of that, I just put it out there to see how extreme you all are? )

[IlliniDave]

To replicate my current spending net of taxes ("current" = average of actuals for the last 3 years) I'd need about $21.60/hour pre-tax. What I anticipate once I ER would be covered by $14.28/hour pre-tax when dialed down to my lowest comfort level. The $14.28/hr gross would also cover my 2015 YTD spending, as I hit a series of "unexpected" expenses in 2013 and 2014 that bias my 3-year average upward.

Realistically, I expect my long term average spending during ER to correspond to something in between the $14.28/hr rate and the $21.60/hr rate once I factor in the vagaries of life, probably closer to the former, maybe $16/hr-17/hr. So I've got to be careful moving forward--I don't think finding full-time employment that pays that well for an old guy that's been out of the workforce for a number of years is a trivial undertaking.

[jacob]

Currently, $2.75/hr.

(At level EITC would be added on as well.)

It's my understanding (I know a couple, so only anecdotal) that waiters are paid close to the normal min wage of $7-8/hr before tips.

For an alternative, ...
http://www.thesimpledollar.com/can-you- ... ical-turk/

Also see, http://earlyretirementextreme.com/how-t ... -wage.html (ancient article)

[Gilberto de Piento]

My spending last month was $1775.41, so $1775.41 / 160 hours in four weeks of work = $11.10 per hour. Not counting taxes or healthcare.

[Ydobon]

My spending last month was $1775.41, so $1775.41 / 160 hours in four weeks of work = $11.10 per hour. Not counting taxes or healthcare.

Don't you need to annualise those calculations? You would have thirteen four week periods a year, but 12 months.

[dalralmi]

Based on Last years calculations I'd need 21.38/hr. (and that's after taxes and savings and such) However once the house is paid off and if i didn't have some medical drama last year I could probably get it closer to 12 or 13/hr after taxes. AS of the start of this year (I start my years in September) I'm on the same pace as last year. Granted this is based on one income to support my husband and I. So if we broke that into two jobs and each of us covering our share closer to 10-11/hr.

[George the original one]

Oh, this one is tough to answer right now due to transition to single paid-off house (from two mortgaged) & exiting workforce & getting Obamacare... so I'll answer with a single anticipated "post retirement" figure for the two of us: ~$10/hr. Or ~$5/hr per person.

[Gilberto de Piento]

Don't you need to annualise those calculations?

Sure, but I wasn't taking this exercise that seriously. I'm also not including healthcare or taxes

[enigmaT120]

Don't you need to annualise those calculations?

Sure, but I wasn't taking this exercise that seriously. I'm also not including healthcare or taxes

Or the excess over expenses that you'll use to amass a stash?

[henrik]

Based on 2000 paid hrs/year, it would currently be €5.10 ≈ $5.80

[GandK]

$24.04/hr. This is for a household consisting of an average of 4.5 people (stepkids sometimes), and includes things like paying child support and G's required pension contributions that we will not have anymore in a few years when G retires. I included all taxes, and this is a 40 hr work week for one person.

Edit: If I don't include child support payments and G's pension payments, our family's necessary wage drops to $14.91/hr. That's a better reflection of our actual consumption.

[cb1504]

You've got to know your numbers.

$4.63 per hour for the monthly nut.

All else is gravy & taxes.

[thrifty++]

I have now gotten myself down to the minimum wage after tax earnings. Which is $14.75 gross before tax. However I feel quite frugal at this level as I live in Auckland which is a very expensive city and the minimum wage is the same for everyone in NZ. It is not broken down by state/province like in USA but I think its about time it should be. $14.75 would be a reasonable wage in some parts of NZ while its peanuts in Auckland. I still have work to reduce my spending though I think.

[rube]

€ 15,- / hour after tax for 2000 hrs a year to support family of 4 in current lifestyle.

We could get it as low as € 8,40 if no holiday, no car, no after-school care (not need if only one of us would work) and some othere small savings.

And it would be only € 3,80 if I use our current passive income too. Woohooo. But I guess that was not the original question

[7Wannabe5]

Less than $4.50/hr. and I've been pretty self-indulgent lately. I could cut $200/month out of my budget pretty readily, which would take me down to around $3.25/hr. I plan on cutting my food and housing costs down to net $100/mo. eventually with my vacant lot permaculture earth-ship
development project, so then I would be down to $2/hr.

[jacob]

I would be down to $2/hr.

Nnnnngggh!! As DW will happily confirm, I'm not at all competitive (okay, maybe I am ... just a little ... much) ... but I'd have to move to some western state to get rid of the eastern RE tax premium which currently comprises $1.05/hr of my $2.75/hr expenses to do so.

In terms of expenses I pretty much have my back against the wall here in IL. Our only frivolous expenses worth mentioning are the car (Subura Outback = 10 pts of hipster penalty ) and a food budget which is twice of what it needs to be, because lazy, so $125/person/month. The rest is taxes and insurances. Everything else is either cost neutral or positive.

[Jean]

I'm trying to get a job at 4.4
But to compete with jacob, I'm willing to spend the coldest month of the year living outside on salted peanuts.
20kg a month would cost me 60.- a month for 4000 kcal a day, I'de still need 20.-a month for health insurance (rest is subsidized).
So 50.- an hour should do it.
But what assets (public and private) are we able to use in this challenge?

Owned residence seems to be ok as long as we live in them, but if you sell the house and buy stocks, then you need a higher wage.
What if you sold a kidney and used the money to buy stocks?
....

[7Wannabe5]

@jacob

Yeah, my tax rate is really high too. My plan is only going to work if I keep my SEV low and/or find an earthship mate. I am starting construction of my mini survival model this week. It is only going to be 9 feet in diameter (not counting the space the tires occupy) with a 3 ft high tire berm to the north, wig-wam style dome structure to the south and a 3 ft diameter 30 inch pit in the center, with warm air piped in from solar panels made out of downspouts. I will not attempt to live in it myself this winter (although, perhaps, it will see occasional use as pied a terre), but I will test it with some other species. Kind of like sending a dog to space first.

[bryan]

Spend ~$8.80/work hour. $11 if I had to pay for the identical, "necessary" benefits I get through employer.

$4.21 of that is "Restauraunts, Fast Food, Coffee Shops, and Alcohol/Bars"

$1 for airfare to visit family. $0.66 for gifts.

I'm fine with the $8.80 number as it allows me to actually "have more fun" than a lot of my peers. If some frugal blogger/person just saw me out and about they would probably pin me as blowing through my paycheck buying unnecessary lattes, cocktails, appetizers..

Granted, I do plan on utilizing groceries more once I finish the van build (TBD).

[startbyserving]

Fun exercise:

The last two months I spend $547.43 and 520.57***. If I round that to $600 to cover any missed items and things covered by work. (I would still need to go to the dentist which is covered currently.)

I arrive at $3.6 per hour. - But I would rather not work full time. So 20 hours a week would require $7.20. That sounds okay to me.



*** I use a mix of cash and accrual when calculating expenses. When I go to the grocery or buy something I record that amount. For large long-term expenses like Utilities, Insurance, Car Purchase, Etc I break them down to how much I use per month.
If I prepay my Utilities 6 months in advance why does it make any sense to record $800 on one moth? It doesn't I look at my bill and write down the amount I actually used. Similar to auto expense. It's temping to write down "$4,000'" car expense when I buy the car. But the more meaning full number is how much I have 'used' the car. Each month I write down an estimate of "Auto Depreciation" based on $0.20 per mile. (Probably a little high for me, but I am trying to capture all risk and expenses.)

**** Wow, didn't realize how many multiples of my expenses I make. I need to rethink the income and expense items in my budget. What are all these other people spending their money on?