[Spunger]

Well I'll share my deal, as it's been both good/bad at the same time, but I can't complain really. Everythings been for the better.

I made less than $29,000 last year. Year before that, $25,000, and before that, $21,000. You get the picture. I've consistantly made more each year. I have enough toys to keep me happy. Got my M1, My Cortina, got my 4x4 truck (91 pickup, lifted etc....), got a decent television and xbox and have always gotten what I wanted. I still, in So Cal. have been able to put away anywhere between $2500 and $5,000 per year in the bank. I am cheap yes, but I am cheaper now. I'd take my girlfriend out to eat, help with rent/grocerys/bills just dealing with us. I still had enough to pay for my own doings (bills, car insurance etc...) and have been fine. I think it has to do with managing your money. Some suck at it, others strive for it.

Granted I pay $350 a month including utlities to share a apartment with my girlfriend. Mind you her parents own it and all but still they charge her. $600 for a 2 bedroom, upstairs with no downstairs neighbors and I have a 2 car garage/workspace all to myself is a bargin. I left home knowing it would cost me money to live but the average place for a 2 bedroom apartment in Santa Barbara is well above the $1,000 mark, probably more like $1200-1500 a month!. Plus gas is super high, across the street at the gas station it's $2.39 for the cheapest, and that's like A.M P.M gas. Shell is $2.44 a gallon for 87 octane.

Everyone lives in different places. I'm sure $30,000 someplace else you'd live like a king, but you wouldn't have 250+ sunny/non-rainy days a year, plus the beach and everything else. I'd pay my premium to live in Cali. One day when kids come along and it's time to grow up, it might be time to move someplace else if my wife and myself couldn't afford to live and support kids with. Kid's are like a million pound weight on working people. I couldn't imagine living and supporting a kid. Atleast not yet.

I am cheap, so $30-50g would be fine. I'd be able to have toys and live very very well, given my living situation. I know people that make $60-90g combined and it's still hard. When a fixer home is $500,000+ it sucks. It'd take a while to save enough money to even put as a down payment. Most homes here are in the $700,000+ range. In Kentucky that's like a castle, here it's like the average home for someone.

I read those polls in MBA about how much MTB'ers make. I think and can agree XC and roadies probably make decent coin. DH'ers on the other hand seem like the "dirty" crowd. Young, reckless etc..... Road bikes and serious XC bikes aren't cheap, but neither are DH bikes. I'd give more props to myself and other DH guys that have 1/3 of what others make and still have what they want. In the end it's what makes you happy. Some it's cars, some it's toys, others.......it's bikes

So there ya have it. There's my take on what I make. Right now I make nada......hehe inbetween jobs but still.........thank god I'm not showering downtown with the homeless or having to ask my parents to live in their motorhome up at Cachuma lake. I'll take the downtown loft anytime

 

[Sherpa]

I am cheap, so $30-50g would be fine. I'd be able to have toys and live very very well, given my living situation. I know people that make $60-90g combined and it's still hard. When a fixer home is $500,000+ it sucks. It'd take a while to save enough money to even put as a down payment. Most homes here are in the $700,000+ range. In Kentucky that's like a castle, here it's like the average home for someone.

Holy shiz! Thats a ****load here in AR, man a $700,000 would be HUGE.

 

[Brian HCM#1]

Holy shiz! Thats a ****load here in AR, man a $700,000 would be HUGE.

The real estate market is nuts here in CA.

 

[-BB-]

I just got in trouble for LOL at work!
As for your BB, you actually take them out? I just take them home...

dude... I'm married... I take anything I can get!!
:nuts:

 

[-BB-]

I just got in trouble for LOL at work!
As for your BB, you actually take them out? I just take them home...

Oh.. and don't feel bad about being Po right out of college.
I was only making about $27k / year my first two years out of school.

 

[Brian HCM#1]

dude... I'm married... I take anything I can get!!
:nuts:

Just wait till you have kids

tumbleweeds

 

[Spunger]

spunger-
do you get any parental support?

I wish I did sometimes! I'm 22, just about 23 and since the day High school ended in June of 2000 I haven't got a dime from them nor have I asked for it. I was the child who spent every birthday/christmas/easter dollar within days of getting it. My parents can't believe how I've been able to save being on my own.

I know if I ran broke they'd help me but I try my best to not get into that situation. I've been lucky though to learn how to manage my $$$ being young, because I know most kids can't do it.

 

[Kornphlake]

Sheesh if we're going to throw around numbers... I was making less than $500 a month when I was going to school. My tuition and books were covered by grants and a nice little trust fund my grandparents set up, my wife's parents owned the apartment we lived in so we didn't pay rent or utilities, only the phone and internet, I rode my bike everywhere, a tank of gas would last us 14 days solid, we could essentially spend $500 on whatever we wanted. Then we had a child and got that massive tax credit, combined with the earned income credit I got like $3000 from our tax refund so I bought my AS-X. Then I graduated and now I'm working with a descent salry. Our rent is pretty cheap, for San Diego County, we pay $650, what kills us is almost $400/month for health insurance after the contribution from my employer, $100/month for the minimal coverage auto insurance, $200 in gas, ~$200 for utilities, since our car is 7 years old we've been having the monthly $100 repair bill, plus registration is coming due next month so there goes another $240, even without that my monthly scheduled expenses are $1650. That comes to somewhere in the $25000-$26000 range before taxes I'd need to make for just the scheduled expenses, I'm not even counting things like clothing, shampoo and soap, food, and the little things that always sneak up on you like registration. Can anybody guess how much I make?

As far as the kids thing goes, I think it's moot. We only pay for diapers and food, just about everything else comes from the grandparents at christmas or birthdays or just about any time inbetween. Even the food isn't really an issue because we pretty much just stuff whatever leftovers we have into it's piehole and she's happy. So really all kids cost is a $8 bag of diapers every two to three weeks, once we get her potty trained it'll be less than that.

 

[Brian HCM#1]

Sheesh if we're going to throw around numbers... I was making less than $500 a month when I was going to school. My tuition and books were covered by grants and a nice little trust fund my grandparents set up, my wife's parents owned the apartment we lived in so we didn't pay rent or utilities, only the phone and internet, I rode my bike everywhere, a tank of gas would last us 14 days solid, we could essentially spend $500 on whatever we wanted. Then we had a child and got that massive tax credit, combined with the earned income credit I got like $3000 from our tax refund so I bought my AS-X. Then I graduated and now I'm working with a descent salry. Our rent is pretty cheap, for San Diego County, we pay $650, what kills us is almost $400/month for health insurance after the contribution from my employer, $100/month for the minimal coverage auto insurance, $200 in gas, ~$200 for utilities, since our car is 7 years old we've been having the monthly $100 repair bill, plus registration is coming due next month so there goes another $240, even without that my monthly scheduled expenses are $1650. That comes to somewhere in the $25000-$26000 range before taxes I'd need to make for just the scheduled expenses, I'm not even counting things like clothing, shampoo and soap, food, and the little things that always sneak up on you like registration. Can anybody guess how much I make?

As far as the kids thing goes, I think it's moot. We only pay for diapers and food, just about everything else comes from the grandparents at christmas or birthdays or just about any time inbetween. Even the food isn't really an issue because we pretty much just stuff whatever leftovers we have into it's piehole and she's happy. So really all kids cost is a $8 bag of diapers every two to three weeks, once we get her potty trained it'll be less than that.

I didn't know you had kidlets

 

[Acadian]

Oh.. and don't feel bad about being Po right out of college.
I was only making about $27k / year my first two years out of school.

that is still descent...I was making like 15k CAN / year when I got out.

I still don't know how someone can afford a house in the Bay Area unless they inherited it from some relative.

 

[Sherpa]

The real estate market is nuts here in CA.

Jesus, the house across the street was brand new in 2003 and it went for about $400,000 and it's huge, like 5,000 square feet, 2 stories and a huge finished basement. Know i know why when people from CA move here and buy $500,000 and say there 3x as big as there has in CA. Everyone come move to AR, its central and the riding is decent.

 

[Beyr]

Everyone come move to AR, its central and the riding is decent.

Yeah... but them you would live in AR

 

[Sherpa]

Yeah... but them you would live in AR

Ever come to NWA? It's pretty nice, half of the top 10 richest people in the world live no more than 60miles from my door. So yea, it's a tad bit different then the Deliverance/Slingblade AR your thinkinh of.

 

[Brian HCM#1]

Jesus, the house across the street was brand new in 2003 and it went for about $400,000 and it's huge, like 5,000 square feet, 2 stories and a huge finished basement. Know i know why when people from CA move here and buy $500,000 and say there 3x as big as there has in CA. Everyone come move to AR, its central and the riding is decent.

Look what you get for just under $1mil

 

[scurban]

so how do you guys afford bike parts? I feel like I am constantly on the verge of homelessness, so often times I can't even ride for weeks at a time because I can't afford to buy a new (insert broken bike part) It sucks, I guess if I moved to an area outside of the "Bay Area" I might have better luck especially if I went somewhere with a better job market then the one here in Santa Cruz. But then I wouldn't have 5 different spots to dirt jump with in a 5 mile radius of my house, I wouldn't have endless miles of singletrack, and I would have tons of great downhill trails to ride on a daily basis.

 

[Dylan]

can u put a "NEGATIVE" section in the poll??

since i've been doing my own biz, i've come nowhere close to making any money. my expenses TREMENDOUSLY OUTWEIGH my sales.

< -$10,000 would work just fine!

 

[BMXman]

50,000 and up is semi-trump....wow then why am I still poor

 

[Sherpa]

Look what you get for just under $1mil

Damn, thats a rip-off.

 

[narlus]

I've started using work stuff as a means to compensate for my ot (lack tehre of). I use the laptop as semi-personal. I dl music (at coffee shops), do my bills, budget, email, etc. I take it on the weekends, just so I can have a comp, as I don't get paid enough to afford one.

what works well until the IT gestapo lock you out of admin rights, and you can't install squat. which is the situation on my new machine.

I still don't know how someone can afford a house in the Bay Area unless they inherited it from some relative.

stock options, i'd say. that helped me get a foot in the door of the boston real estate market.

half of the top 10 richest people in the world live no more than 60miles from my door.

yeah, but they are all from the same family, right (assuming you are talking about sam walton's clan).

 

[Brian HCM#1]

Damn, thats a rip-off.

Yep, its all about location........I guess. This area has some of the best public schools in CA, so thats where the huge sacrafice is.

 

[Brian HCM#1]

that is still descent...I was making like 15k CAN / year when I got out.

I still don't know how someone can afford a house in the Bay Area unless they inherited it from some relative.

If you really wanted to, you could get into the real estate game in the bay area. There are ways.

 

[Kornphlake]

I didn't know you had kidlets

One's two and another one is on the way.

As bad our collective situation might seem, my kids will have more than I had growing up even if I can't afford to buy my own home. My family didn't have a computer growing up, we didn't have cable TV, no PS2, none of the stuff that kids have today, the only thing I had was a bike that my dad got me from a yard sale. For some reason even though we can't afford to buy a house, consumer goods (read toys, and electronics, excluding the high end items of course) seem to have hit rock bottom prices.

 

[Brian HCM#1]

One's two and another one is on the way.

As bad our collective situation might seem, my kids will have more than I had growing up even if I can't afford to buy my own home. My family didn't have a computer growing up, we didn't have cable TV, no PS2, none of the stuff that kids have today, the only thing I had was a bike that my dad got me from a yard sale. For some reason even though we can't afford to buy a house, consumer goods (read toys, and electronics, excluding the high end items of course) seem to have hit rock bottom prices.

You're still young, however you need to focus on trying to buy a house, or at least a townhouse.

 

[Kornphlake]

You're still young, however you need to focus on trying to buy a house, or at least a townhouse.

Like you say I'm still young... No matter what sacrifices I make, I won't be able to afford any house in the county, not even a townhouse. I'm not in love with San Diego anyway since I didn't grow up here. I plan on renting for 5 years while I get enough work experience to be able to get a job somewhere else where housing is more affordable. Even if I could afford a third of a million dollar home it would put me in the worst neighborhood in the county, with the worst schools and the longest drive to work. I'm not ready to degrade my quality of life just to own a dumpy shack on the bad side of town.

 

[narlus]

I am IT, therefore, I am t3h win.

i thought you were a broker?

 

[SLAPSHOT]

The original question posed was "what do you think is the average income...", so are you looking for what we guess is the average income or do you want us to vote per our actual income. From my experience there is a wide range of incomes in the in downhill/freeride community.

 

[Enginerd A2]

This is good thread. However, it sort of makes me want to move to Canada or some other slightly more socialist country (Western Europe) with free healthcare and a strong middle class. I understand salaries are much higher in the U.S., but so is the cost of living. Also, it seems that a lot of employers in the U.S. nowadays really take advantage of their salary employees. 50-60 hour work weeks with only 1-2 weeks vacation per year? Is that really how it has to be? I would be willing to take the pay cut to move to BC, Montreal, or Toronto area now, since I'm fresh out of school and not making much anyway. I can't imagine the job market for engineers is any worse in those places than it is here in the Detroit area. Speaking of Detroit, the cost of living is pretty cheap, but the quality of living is pretty lousy as well. Tons of sprawl, retarded traffic, rapant materialism, devoid of culture, the list goes on... Ann Arbor is actually an oasis of liberal thought in SE Michigan. But the only reason I can even make ends meet here is because my dad owns my apartment and hooks me up with cheap rent.

 

[spookydave]

KonaJosh, You're almost there. Just head north and all your worries should be over. Let us know how it works out.

 

[narlus]

konajosh, you'd be surprised at how low the cost of living actually is in the US, at least compared to my experience in various places in europe...however, i do agree w/ yr points about "Tons of sprawl, retarded traffic, rapant materialism, devoid of culture, the list goes on", etc.

 

[Brian HCM#1]

Like you say I'm still young... No matter what sacrifices I make, I won't be able to afford any house in the county, not even a townhouse. I'm not in love with San Diego anyway since I didn't grow up here. I plan on renting for 5 years while I get enough work experience to be able to get a job somewhere else where housing is more affordable. Even if I could afford a third of a million dollar home it would put me in the worst neighborhood in the county, with the worst schools and the longest drive to work. I'm not ready to degrade my quality of life just to own a dumpy shack on the bad side of town.

But what you have to remember is the hardest part of buying a house is just getting into the game, once you buy one you're in. You may not find not the ideal place to live for your 1st house, but in CA you wont lose $, its an investment. Live there for a few years and then get out and go to where you want to live.

 

[OGRipper]

I live in a nice two bedroom apartment in a duplex in a nice part of San Francisco. No garage, no parking. If it went condo or TIC it would cost about $750,000. No joke, there was a similar place for sale just up the street a few weeks ago. I am tired of renting but love my 'hood. When I decide to buy (which is probably soon) if I want to stay in the city I will probably double my monthly payment and significantly reduce my standard of living, either by getting a tiny place or something in a crappy area. The bottom of the market in San Francisco (for say a one bedroom with no garage, parking, or outside space) is roughly $600,000. Lots of my friends are tearing their hair out looking at places right now.

But I agree with Brian, once you're in, you're in.

 

[Kornphlake]

But what you have to remember is the hardest part of buying a house is just getting into the game, once you buy one you're in. You may not find not the ideal place to live for your 1st house, but in CA you wont lose $, its an investment. Live there for a few years and then get out and go to where you want to live.

I think you missed the part where I said I can't afford even a dumpy shack, even with good credit and a low interest rate I wouldn't be able to make the monthly payment, even if I didn't have any other expenses, my after tax income just isn't enough. I could ask my wife to go to work, she's got a BA so I'm sure she could find something in the $30k range but since we've got kids we really think it's best for her to be at home, but that's another topic. I totally agree though, as soon as I find myself where I am making enough money to buy a house I'll do it. Especially in CA it's the only investment guaranteed to earn a good return. I'm only 1 year out of college though, give me a couple years and I'll be able to afford a nice home. The nice thing about housing prices being so high in SD is that my salry is significantly higher than it would have been just about anywhere else so I'm not at a complete disadvantage.

 

[buildyourown]

This is good thread. However, it sort of makes me want to move to Canada or some other slightly more socialist country (Western Europe) with free healthcare and a strong middle class. I understand salaries are much higher in the U.S., but so is the cost of living. Also, it seems that a lot of employers in the U.S. nowadays really take advantage of their salary employees. 50-60 hour work weeks with only 1-2 weeks vacation per year? Is that really how it has to be?

I'm on salary but it was agreed when I hired on that I would only work 40. A lot of guys here have been doing the 50-60-70 thing and all that work is about to come down the pike and hit me. I know they are going to start asking me for more hours and I'm not really sure if it's worth it.
I can hear it now.
"Um, Yeah. I'm going to need you to go ahead and come in tomorrow. Why don't you just go ahead and come on in on Sunday to. Tha'd be great."

Me,
"Um, Yeah. You can this job and Shove it up your @$$"

Free time is too improtant to me.

 

[Orvan]

hotdangit.. the poll for "average" earning is closer that I thought it would be... if I say "we" earn at an average of $50K an year, gross, would that be fair? It's like grading on a curve.

 

[Enginerd A2]

KonaJosh, You're almost there. Just head north and all your worries should be over. Let us know how it works out.

I got semi-owned! At least my worries about how I'll be getting health care in the next year will be resolved. While I agree that Canada isn't quite the utopia that my first post may have implied, they truly don't have the same problems with poverty and crime that the U.S. has. My opinion is that this is due to the strong middle class, which is practically nonexistant in the U.S. these days. In this country, you are either one of the Haves or one of the Have-nots. Please forgive my jadedness, I've been having a really hard time transcending my current status of Have-not.