I certainly and sincerely agree with you about demands for budget efficiency and transparency. > [...] you only need to make like $250k total. It's a good amou

I certainly and sincerely agree with you about demands for budget efficiency and transparency. > [...] you only need to make like $250k total. It's a good amount, sure, but if you compare cost of living... it's still hard to live on. This reminds me of the famous "Let them eat cake" [0] by queen Marie-Antoinette. A statistical point of comparison. California median gross individual income is under $64k, or $78k [1] household income. "Easy to live on" scales superlinearly from there, so by significantly more than 3.2 or 3.9 times respectively. Two anecdotal points of comparison. I enjoy a comfortable life on 1/6 of that threshold amount pre-tax, albeit in a HCOL western European city. My marginal tax rate is... 53.5%, not including real estate ownership tax, and some other minor taxation. And though it may surprise you, friends of mine living in the very LCOL eastern European countryside live on a 6k€ pretax income. 6k€ a year that is. With a family of four, soon five. They consider their living conditions comfortable and wouldn't want to change them for the world. Do mind this is 40 times less than the "hard to live on". A recommendation Please grow your awareness of the material situation of others. Being more anchored in reality will benefit you. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_them_eat_cake https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_them_eat_cake [1] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEHOINUSCAA646N https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEHOINUSCAA646N