I dont own a car, we have talked about renting one, but it hasnt come about yet.
We eat at a restaurant maybe once every month, and we try to keep it under $50.
I take my own coffee to work(nice big starbucks mug though! haha... sigh)
No cable TV, we do have internet, thats $50 a month.
We dont live in america, its easier here in Japan compared to Australia where i came from, i get a comparable wage(about 2k per month AUD approx), and instead of paying 1200 per month in rent, i pay 870, so we can save now.
But we have public transport costs, food bills etc. Honestly i have no idea how anyone could survive if they had cable tv, starbucks coffee, restaurants too often AND a car. We could pick one, maybe two if we didnt want to save.
I think their idea of a standard wage is not accurate. IF you are programming in some big company, yeah maybe, but i earn less than 40k US per year (which btw is more than i was earning as a fully qualified chef in Australia, with over 10 years experience - when you consider the hours 50+ hours then vs 40 now).
As i said originally, i may be missing the point of the article, but for me, if i was earning enough to get what you mentioned, id be quite happy. Id have my house very quickly.
Side note: My apartment/house is my goal, a shitty little place that will allow me to save half my rent a month towards another shitty little apartment that i can rent out.
Again, maybe im missing something here?
I've come to think of that as a typical wage for an uneducated person in Australia...then I read what you earn as a qualified chef, and realize that Perth's economy is a bubble.
I wonder what the pay would be if the Australian mining industry wasn't so corrupt (this isn't a slight on your cousin in any way, it's those who arrange the tax breaks and lie about the economic impact of mining in Australia that are at fault)...
http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-25/nrn-dist-mining-sub...
http://m.theaustralian.com.au/business/mining-energy/mining-...
$40k is staggeringly crap pay for a chef; minimum wage for a full time job in Australia is about $34k ($17.29/hr minimum wage). Average salary is somewhere north of $70k and that's roughly what my brother in law earns as a full time chef.
Here's one scenario - you move to the US, and become nurses, both you and your wife. After a few years, that will give you at least $60k x 2 = $120k in income. But you only need about $70k in income to live well away from the coasts in the US (a little more with kids).
Also, whether this kind of transition is worth it depends on how old you are.
Please take this in the constructive manner in which it is intended:
Do you drive 2 cars newer than 2009? Paying a loan payment on both (or worse, leasing)?
Do you eat out at restaurants more than once a month [for very special occasions]?
Do you regularly buy Starbucks or the equivalent?
Do you pay $100 to your cable company and $120 to your cell phone company every month?
If you're anything like the average American, you are leaking a large amount of consumption that's on autopilot. Expensive, nearly new cars, in multiples, upgraded frequently, each with a loan or lease payment and expensive collision insurance required by the bank, paying an army of servants to cater to your food needs, buying $5 cups of hot water poured over roasted beans, etc.
"But, but, I need all of those things to get to our jobs reliably, to de-stress after so much work, etc!" No, no, you don't, but American marketers have convinced you that you do, and you see it reinforced by most of your peers, so you do.
For those who want to learn more, start with: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/04/22/curing-your-clown-... and http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-sim... and then randomly click around his blog)
Even if you don't want to buy a bike to commute with immediately, you can make small changes, like keeping your sensible, reliable car for 12 years instead of 4, cutting out $5 coffee runs entirely, switching to a $50/mo plan for 2 cell phones, cook at home more, etc.
(I have no connection to MMM and I don't follow all of his guidance, but I find his perspective to be amazingly helpful in challenging auto-pilot consumption. I use Ting [Sprint reseller] as my cell phone plan; wife and I pay $45-55/mo for 3 phones, two iPhones and a Nexus. www.ting.com is the non-referral link, [ https://z9prmb2f3t5.ting.com/ is my referral link, but I care more about you saving money than getting a referral credit, so I listed the other first ])