12.8%!!! 12.8%!?!

OK, I've got to stop laughing at some point. I'm just glad that my rent is now no longer 1/3 of my gross.

Wow, I just did the debt tally again. About a grand more total than I make in a year.

My rent is currently 15% of my pay, pre-tax. (Which will get worse if my roomate moves out, but manageable if I slow down payment on aforementioned debt.) It seems like I won't ever be able to dig out from this!

I'm going to go see Bride and Prejudice very soon! With my aunt! Yay!

I have no idea how much I make a year. Maybe $3000ish? I make $9 an hour, but I only work 11 hours a week, and I've had an incredibly hard time getting a summer job, in the past few years, so that doesn't extend through the summer months. I also have a nice chunk of debt, and I need to go take out another loan, actually, which sucks. And my rent sucks, and just adds to my debt, since I basically have enough to feed myself, and do little things, like movies and books and occasionally eating out-- also known as mental health activities, but that's about it. But I have no car payments, because I have no car. So, that's an unfortunate plus, of some sort.

I swear, for most of my working life, my rent has been very close to half of my take-home, and it's been OK. That's what I get for living in eastern cities.

Well, they were teasing because properly Jamaican would mean three jobs. It's one of our stereotypes in the US, I came to learn.

There was a skit on In Living Color: "I got four jobs, mon!" "Four? Mon, my cousin's got six jobs!" Like that.

you can see something's wrong just from the averages, where the median salary for a single male is $26,700 and for a single female is $18,160.

And I must be East coast-spoiled (and middle-class spoiled), because I cannot concieve how anyone can survice on $18K, much less that it's a national average.

I make $29K right now, but that comes with a footnote because I took a big paycut when I started this job. (Different industry, plus I had been fired, and any job beats no job.) My husband makes more than twice as much, which makes me feel guilty. Our rent is $1600 a month. I have no idea what our total debt is.

ok I did the math, my housing costs are 26% of my gross and 35% of my take home.

2 years ago I was paying 17.5% of my gross but I think that is the best ratio I have ever had in NYC.

From flickr, mappr: [link]

My college friends and I have always talked about what we make -- what's been interesting is seeing how different industries work. One friend was making money like non-profit me for years and years before she finally got the big bump. And it was BIG. I know I'll likely never match my for-profit friends, salary-wise, but I also know I make way more than most people, and I live a perfectly comfortable life.

This is part of why it pays to change jobs.

Believe you me, I have tried. For some reason, I have had the worst luck ever in the LA job market. My review is in March and there will be a serious talk. If they don't cough up the dough, I am finally in a place to say, "Take this job and shove it."

My rent is 22% of my gross, 30% of my take home.

I was surprised just now when I did a mortgage calculation of a hypothetical $150K 2BR condo only a few miles from work, and saw that if I could come up with a $5K downpayment, at today's rates (if my credit rating would get me those rates, which is a big if), the mortgage payment would only be an additional $125 a month. Of course, that doesn't include the condo association fee, which is usually another $100-200/month, nor any repair costs that are currently covered by my landlord.

I think I'll keep renting for a while...