$174K Congressional salary ($14500/month) is nothing to sneeze at, but with median rent being $4480 in NYC and $2549 in DC, she’d still manage to be “overburdened” (i.e. spending more than 30%) on housing costs.
Although I know I (being a FIRE type of guy) could max out tax-advantaged investment space ($23K 401k + $7k IRA = $30k, or $2500/month) from the $7k/month left over after housing, I don’t know what other high expenses a Congressperson might have that could make it harder (lots of travel costs, etc.).
Not to mention that the government takes 24% of that in taxes, and she might be paying income tax in two different states. Add on sales tax and POOF, there goes half her money.
An IRA. Same tax treatment as a 401k, but potentially better investment choices because your employer isn’t picking the set of options (and expense ratios) for you.
She makes 147k and lives in the Queens/Bronx where avg rent is ~2000 for 600 sqft and also has to have a place in Washington DC where average rent for a 1bd 1ba in ~2300 for 700 sq ft. She probably pays above average in for a larger place due to her job so let’s say 2.5k in her district and 3k in DC. After tax she has 1.85k/mo to spend on non-rent expenses including her student loans.
This is all napkin math and while she also probably has some paid speeches her overall budget after 2 rents isn’t too different from an average college grad without family help even if she makes decent money.
The most telling number is the 401k one. If she was the wealthy sort, she’d probably be exploiting that sort of thing as much as possible.
Or maybe not, because she knows it will be in the disclosure. But most wealthy people follow professional advice on how to pay the least taxes, and that includes exploiting retirement fund tax breaks.
But how many gold bars has she had sewn into her work attire?
The shocking part of this is the up to 15k in a 401k after 5 years. Like… That’s surprisingly low.
She has to maintain a residence in both DC and NYC. That could be a big factor in not having money to invest.
$174K Congressional salary ($14500/month) is nothing to sneeze at, but with median rent being $4480 in NYC and $2549 in DC, she’d still manage to be “overburdened” (i.e. spending more than 30%) on housing costs.
Although I know I (being a FIRE type of guy) could max out tax-advantaged investment space ($23K 401k + $7k IRA = $30k, or $2500/month) from the $7k/month left over after housing, I don’t know what other high expenses a Congressperson might have that could make it harder (lots of travel costs, etc.).
Thanks for putting some numbers to my theory.
Not to mention that the government takes 24% of that in taxes, and she might be paying income tax in two different states. Add on sales tax and POOF, there goes half her money.
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What are these ways which beat a 15-40% tax rate (depending on the state)?
An IRA. Same tax treatment as a 401k, but potentially better investment choices because your employer isn’t picking the set of options (and expense ratios) for you.
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She makes 147k and lives in the Queens/Bronx where avg rent is ~2000 for 600 sqft and also has to have a place in Washington DC where average rent for a 1bd 1ba in ~2300 for 700 sq ft. She probably pays above average in for a larger place due to her job so let’s say 2.5k in her district and 3k in DC. After tax she has 1.85k/mo to spend on non-rent expenses including her student loans.
This is all napkin math and while she also probably has some paid speeches her overall budget after 2 rents isn’t too different from an average college grad without family help even if she makes decent money.
Perhaps she invests elsewhere; where one can better control which entities they are funding. She’s a principled person.
I don’t think they should be allowed. Principled she may be, but most of them aren’t.
The most telling number is the 401k one. If she was the wealthy sort, she’d probably be exploiting that sort of thing as much as possible.
Or maybe not, because she knows it will be in the disclosure. But most wealthy people follow professional advice on how to pay the least taxes, and that includes exploiting retirement fund tax breaks.
401ks have specific limits on how much you can contribute. Most big wealth comes from ownership of stock and other assets.
Yeah, but the 401k limit is 22.5k (for 2023). You max the tax advantage before investing in non-advantaged stuff.