Ah yes....yet another pilot who judges from his moms rent-free basement.

If you think you will have 8.5K avail to keep up with the Joneses on 150K you may want to consider a few things you missed that most in the real world have to contend with:

- State taxes
- County taxes?
- City taxes?
- Property taxes (House/car/boat)
- Sales taxes

You are now down to about 50%

How about these:

- Retirement (oh yeah, that)
- Savings (got 1 years cash on hand?)
- College fund (little Johnny gonna get a scholarship?)

Now this:

- do you have any hobbies?
- do you eat?
- Do you wear clothes?
- have any pets?
- Cars break? (lets assume mommy bought you them and no payments)
- Do you buy gifts? (kids events, birthday, xmas?)
- Do you ever take a vacation?
- do you give back some to charity?

etc...etc.

Hold off on that new BWM Captain, lots to consider before worrying about keeping up with the Joneses. You should think more about keeping up with the migrant farm workers...as what they make in cash is about what you will have after you, the wife, and kiddies live like responsible SoCal citizens.

SoCal makes even other metro area look expensive as the semi-nice areas are right next to ghettos. Ghetto areas mean private schools, add 10K+ to your above notes. There is no driving a little further to live better/rural as I can reasonably do in the NY area etc. Taxes are horrendous compared to most. Any idea what it costs to register a car in SoCal? Its not my idea of a family area on 150K, not by ANY stretch.

Yes I think one CAN live on 150K anywhere...maybe not how I want to live, hence we (like most pilots?) have other income means...but the idea that you pay minumum federal tax and have the rest for a nice house and a golf club membership is a bit of a stretch.

Good Luck.