How much is 'mad money'?

legoboy

Rym and Scott sometimes use the phase 'mad money' or 'mad moneys'. I am curious about how much would 'mad money' be and have estimated it to be about $70,000US dollars per year, before tax.

Zeehat

Have your parents never told you it's extremely rude to ask how much someones income is?

MitchyD

In an unrelated matter: Who cares? It's their cash, not yours.

lackofcheese

I find this amusing, both the original comment and the level of aggression against it.

Apreche

Enough to make people angry.

Rym

Have your parents never told you it's extremely rude to ask how much someones income is?

Frankly, I never really understood why so many people consider it so rude. It might be slightly rude, but people really seem to get bent out of shape over money in a hurry.

Our household makes a bit over $140 000 per year, with a substantial increase expected next year. ^_~

...

Have your parents never told you it's extremely rude to ask how much someones income is?

Frankly, I never really understood why so many people consider itsorude. It might be slightly rude, but people really seem to get bent out of shape over money in a hurry.

Our household makes a bit over $140 000 per year, with a substantial increase expected next year. ^_~

I think it's considered rude for you are giving a person rights to brag about their income. Which makes the people, who find it rude to ask, feel like crap for not being able to obtain said bragged about amount of money in a year, yet.

It's just bolocks if you ask me.

Rym

I think it's considered rude for you are giving a person rights to brag about their income.

I think it has more to do with people caring a lot more than they should about how much money other people make, as opposed to simply looking at what they make and asking if it's enough to do what they want.

If you make $40k, but you're happy and saving for the future, great! If you somehow feel less happy because someone else is making $80k, yet you're still making the same $40k and your life hasn't changed, that's not so great.

HMTKSteve

It's all about class warfare (and taxes).

If you were to suddenly find out the person you have been friends with for years has an income 10x your own would the relationship change? Would you become jealous? Many people do not want their friends to know how much they make because either a. They don't want to be hit up for loans or b. They hang out with people of a lower income bracket and do not want to put tension on the relationship.

Income does not matter that much in the grand scheme of things. What good is that $150K salary if you never see your family?

Apreche

See the Seinfeld episode with the Cadillac.

HungryJoe

I thought this topic would be about how much money you stash away as "mad money", i.e. money that you save for an unforeseen occurrence such as being left stranded in the city. For example, I keep a twenty in my briefcase just in case I forget my wallet and my Metro card at home.

Railith

I'm ashamed in all of you.

Neito

I'm ashamed in all of you.

Chase

Wouldn't mad money be in the millions? Anything less is either good, comfortable, just making it or bad money....well in my opinion.

Zeehat

See the Seinfeld episode with the Cadillac.

Good reference.

Erwin

One hundred trillion euros. Dollars are just not enough anymore :P

legoboy

Well, I am sorry to offends some forum member. It was not my intentions to be rude or make people unhappy with there situation. I sometime don't think of the ramifications of my actions. I respect the members of this forum and look forward to reading many more discussion topics in the future.

Zeehat

Well, I am sorry to offends some forum member. It was not my intentions to be rude or make people unhappy with there situation. I sometime don't think of the ramifications of my actions. I respect the members of this forum and look forward to reading many more discussion topics in the future.

Don't worry about it. No one is perfect, and you are by far not the worst to have roamed the boards.

Sail

I'm ashamed in all of you.

My mom loves that show.

HungryJoe

Our household makes a bit over $140 000 per year, with a substantial increase expected next year. ^_~

. . . which is about 500 euros.

Seriously though, it's nice to be making so much in dollars, but when a cup of coffee at Starbucks can cost six dollars and a comic book averages $2.99-$3.50, I'm somewhat suspicious of how much that $150,000.00 or so a person might have in income actually is in non-crazy dollars. As in, say, 1965 dollars, when a cup of coffe costs five cents and a comic book cost ten cents. Oh, I see: this website says that $150,000.00 in Monopoly money is about $22,000.00 in non-Monopoly money - about what I figured.

Rym

when a cup of coffee at Starbucks can cost six dollars

Or $3.25... for the fancy-pants garbage I drink.

a comic book averages $2.99-$3.50,

Or $0.75, since we buy them from the ultra-discount place.

I'm somewhat suspicious of how much that $150,000.00 or so a person might have in income actually is in non-crazy dollars

The thing is, the relative prices of goods and services within the US remains stable as the dollar falls to a large degree. Inflation is pretty low still, and my purchasing power is still very high. Other than for a few key goods, prices have not risen significantly for me, and aren't likely to in the near future. I minimize my reliance on these few key goods as best as possible, and thus get the most value for my money.

Someone of my equivalent wealth in Europe, despite their strong currency, has significantly less overall purchasing power in most arenas. I'd rather have my currently "weak" dollars within the US economy than strong Euros within the European economy.

(Don't take anything I say as investment advice. This is purely my personal opinion in regards to my personal wealth).

HungryJoe

I minimize my reliance on these few key goods as best as possible, and thus get the most value for my money.

Like when you pay more for your chair than some people pay for their cars?

Thaed

You can't live out of other people's pockets. There's always a man higher up.

Spend money on what's important to you. If that means and expensive chair, great! If that means $5 or 6k a year on computer equipment, great!

Rym

Like when you spent more for your chair than some people spend for their cars?

I don't rely on continually being able to purchase additional chairs. If the chairs had been made overseas, and the price had been higher due to the currency, then I would not likely have bought it.

HungryJoe

You can't live out of other people's pockets. There's always a man higher up.

Spend money on what's important to you. If that means and expensive chair, great! If that means $5 or 6k a year on computer equipment, great!

That's fine. I'm just saying that these outrageous six figure incomes people are reporting these days seem artificial to me. My household is making six figures as well, but it's gotten to the point that a six figure household income is what you expect. If a such an income is commonplace, then how "mad" is it, really?

Finally, although I'm sure that the inscrutable Scrym are untouched by the economic realities most of us mortals deal with, it does make sense to me that $150K in today's dollars is $22K in "real" dollars.

Apreche

If a such an income is commonplace, then how "mad" is it, really?

It's mad when have expenses as low as ours. A lot of other people making as much, or more money, than we are are not doing as well because they spend so much on SUVs, giant TVs, etc. It's not about your income, it's about income minus expenses.

HungryJoe

It's mad when have expenses as low as ours. A lot of other people making as much, or more money, than we are are not doing as well because they spend so much on SUVs, giant TVs, etc. It's not about your income, it's about income minus expenses.

That's certainly true. We're not doing too bad at keeping our expenses down. The problem is, the economy is not a race between individuals. There are a lot of people out there buying SUVs and $1000.00 dollar TVs. When enough of them falter, they're going to pull some of us down with them.

J.Sharp

I would consider an annual salary of over $100,000 to be "mad moneys".

Ten times that is "I'm rich, bitch!"

Ten times that is "Actually makes sense for me to vote Republican".

RedShirt

It's all perspective. In Zimbabwe, $100,000 Zimbabwe dollars buys a stick of bubblegum.

legoboy

The rise and fall of me.

2 years ago I was not married with no kids and living with my girlfriend in a 2 bedroom unit which was halved paid off. We made about 100K au per year approx.

Now, 2 years on. I am married, one kid with another on the way and my lovely wife has stopped working. Our income is now about 60k au plus government extras.

We made the tough call to rent our unit and move back with my parents.

Import note: Kids are super costly!

ps. Australia's dollar is about 60c to the us dollar.

TheWhaleShark

The rise and fall of me.

2 years ago I was not married with no kids and living with my girlfriend in a 2 bedroom unit which was halved paid off. We made about 100K au per year approx.

Now, 2 years on. I am married, one kid with another on the way and my lovely wife has stopped working. Our income is now about 60k au plus government extras.

We made the tough call to rent our unit and move back with my parents.

Import note: Kids are super costly!

ps. Australia's dollar is about 60c to the us dollar.

Put that woman to work! She may be preggers, but you can still strap her to a plow.

Sort of on the topic of mad money, check out See Through NY. This site allows you access to tons of information about the expenditure of tax dollars by the state of New York. Included in that is the ability to look up the salary of ANYBODY employed by the state. It's correct up to May 2008; there was a retroactive contract raise for a couple of unions after that, so my salary is actually higher than what the site indicates.