Five Myths of Divorce, CS, and Custody in the USA

We have many issues getting mixed here.

Are you debating a factual claim I made, a value I hold, or a conclusion?

But it's cool. Everyone walks their own path. Even frogs.

Of course.

I never claimed to associate with people rich enough to pay for two houses.

Are you denying that the female predominately gets possession, and flow of funds ties to possession and relative earnings (or lack thereof)?

The jig is up, Frogboy. I'm not buying it.

Can I sell it to you on credit?

OK, Froglet. I'm calling b.s. on all this.

I paid for two houses on a single person's modest salary (your numbers make no sense for me to track what you consider average, but I'm well under 6 figures) when I lived in the Seattle area, also not one of the cheapest housing markets. Granted, I used one as a rental, but I still had at least 4 months a year when the rental was empty and I did not charge enough to cover the entire cost of the mortgage in order to keep it rented as much as possible.

So, I had a 250K home I was making payments on, and a $125K house I was making payments on at least a quarter of the year with an additional $200 coming out of pocket even on the months it was rented.

I had a car paymnet.

I had the usual bills: cable, utilities, lawn service, maintenance.

I contributed about 20% of my salary to a 401K.

And ya know what? I had plenty of expendable income. I kept a checking balance of several thousand dollars, I bought what I wanted, when I wanted without looking at price tags. I took at least two vacations a year, I contributed to charitable organizations, I paid for half my dates, I threw dinner parties for my friends, and I don't ever remember having a week or a month where there wasn't money left over.

So, I'm calling b.s. on all your financial whining. Seriously, I genuinely admire most of what you post but on this one topic you are hopelessly irrational. Because if I can do that as a single-income household with just an Associate's degree and no professional certification, and you can't manage to live reasonably decently on what I can only assume is a decent salary as a CPA, you are seriously mismanaging your resources.

Or, as Faira suggested, you're just posting to stir things up.

The jig is up, Frogboy. I'm not buying it.

As an educated person, I consider it a reasonable baseline expectation that I live in a neighborhood where my neighbors are educated.

Currently, using the rule of thumb that houses are affordable at 2.5 times pre-tax income, my house requires about $150 k, however my neighbors are not educated, so I think I am not in an appropriate neighborhood. This leaves me to guess, but the guess is more than twice that salary.

***

To state it another way, my father told me he made “$60 k after taxes” when I was a child (about 25 years ago.) I checked in the internet, and he paid $63 k for his house (about 30 years ago.) Today, that is a $600 k house. Concordantly, I need about $570 k, net of tax effects, to replicate my father’s standard of living at today’s costs.

Logically, a two income couple is close to half that individually (then add $100 k for the second set of expenses; roughly $1.2 M pre-tax.).

This income would presumably provide for a family (assuming a non-materialistic partner, which is not the norm for my dating experience.)

Of course, my father had relatively secure employment, pension, and other benefits – all things which can no longer be counted on. I do not have readily an adjustment for these losses. Or the effect from longer work hours and the concomitant need to outsource domestic services at additional cost.

OK, Froglet. I'm calling b.s. on all this.

I paid for two houses on a single person's modest salary (your numbers make no sense for me to track what you consider average, but I'm well under 6 figures) when I lived in the Seattle area, also not one of the cheapest housing markets. Granted, I used one as a rental, but I still had at least 4 months a year when the rental was empty and I did not charge enough to cover the entire cost of the mortgage in order to keep it rented as much as possible.

So, I had a 250K home I was making payments on, and a $125K house I was making payments on at least a quarter of the year with an additional $200 coming out of pocket even on the months it was rented.

I had a car paymnet.

I had the usual bills: cable, utilities, lawn service, maintenance.

I contributed about 20% of my salary to a 401K.

And ya know what? I had plenty of expendable income. I kept a checking balance of several thousand dollars, I bought what I wanted, when I wanted without looking at price tags. I took at least two vacations a year, I contributed to charitable organizations, I paid for half my dates, I threw dinner parties for my friends, and I don't ever remember having a week or a month where there wasn't money left over.

So, I'm calling b.s. on all your financial whining. Seriously, I genuinely admire most of what you post but on this one topic you are hopelessly irrational. Because if I can do that as a single-income household with just an Associate's degree and no professional certification, and you can't manage to live reasonably decently on what I can only assume is a decent salary as a CPA, you are seriously mismanaging your resources.

Or, as Faira suggested, you're just posting to stir things up.

The jig is up, Frogboy. I'm not buying it.