转贴：年薪50万美元在纽约的悲惨生活

用50万美元年薪在这个城市生活

私立学校：每年每个学生32000美元

房屋贷款：每年96000美元

社区物业维护费：每年96000美元

保姆：每年45000美元

我们已经花了296000美元了，而还没算交的税呢。

50万美元是奥巴马总统想要给那些接受国家救援的银行的管理人员的最高年薪上限。看上去好像很多，事实上的确很多。对于很多地方的很多人来说，这笔钱可以过上贵族般的生活。但是在成功的银行家居住的纽约城及近郊地区，一年50万美元可以用得很快。

“人们可能难以相信，住在纽约上东城年薪两三百万美元的银行家们在支付完必需的信用卡和房屋贷款账单后，年底的积蓄也基本为零。” "The Manny“（描写上东城生活方式的小说）一书的作者Holly Peterson说。Holly Peterson也是私募基金黑石集团创始人Peter G Peterson的女儿。“50万美元的年薪意味着要他们的孩子离开私立学校，并且抛售他们的房子。”

当然，解决方法可能看上去很简单：搬到Brooklyn或者Hoboken区，让孩子在公共学校入学，坐地铁出行。但是对于那些即将被限制最高收入的纽约金融界高层们，相当多的人的身份是跟第三大道以西高档社区的某种生活方式交织在一起的：这种有着私立学校，度假别墅和慈善晚会的生活方式，只有一份七位数的收入才能负担得起。

如今没有人会悲悯这些金融高管的命运，特别是在他们管理的金融机构崩溃酿成了无尽的金融苦果后。但是，位于曼哈顿的非赢利研究集团，城市未来中心（The Center for an Urban Future)估计在纽约需要花123,322美元才能享受到在休斯顿50000年薪可以享受的中产阶级生活，而令他们从繁重的账单中解脱出来的确很困难。

因此，即使不是出于同情，也请三思一下这个金额。

就如那些税务。Martin Cohen一位曼哈顿的会计师说，对于婚后育有来两个孩子的人，50万美金的年薪每周要交的税包括所得税2645元，社保税596元，医疗139元，州所得税682，城市所得税372元。那此人实际的周收入为5180美元，年收入大约为269000美元。

接着来看生活支出

地产经理人Babara Corcoran说大多数的小康家庭每年至少有2次外出度假，冬季的阳光之旅和春天的滑雪之旅。

最少花费：16000美元

购买一套价格150万美元的中等三室公寓，算不上市面上最好的，需要每月支付房屋还款8000元和8000的物业维护费，总计192000每年。一间在南安普敦的度假别墅，仍然算不上市面上最好的，需要花费400万美元，每年的还款为240000美元。

许多公司高管有车和司机。一位开豪华轿车的司机说，司机的薪水在每年75000美元至125000美元之间，有些之前做过警察的司机可以同时担任保镖的职务，所以薪水相对较高。这位司机不愿意透露自己的姓名，害怕因此疏远他的客户。

“他们有些人希望司机佩枪。”这位司机说。“于是你的司机又是你的警察。”而车辆的停车费每月大概700美金。

80美元一小时的私人健身教练，以每周三次计算，一年需要大概12000美元。

对于那些必须身着正式的礼服出席慈善晚会的人在健身房锻炼是必须的。纽约社会日记(newyorksocialdiary.com)的编辑 David Patrick Columbia说：“出席那些派对，女士们需要花10000或15000美元用来置装。如果她每年要参加三至四次的话，不可能穿同样的衣服去。”

三套晚礼服共花费：大约35000元

不是每个银行高管都有学龄的孩子，但是对于那些有的人，支出是巨大的。除了付学费之外，你不可能不让私立学校的孩子接受课外辅导的。Sandy Bass，Private School Insider的编辑说。Private School Insider是一份关于纽约地区私立学校的时事通讯。而每周一小时的课外辅导需要支付125美元。“这还是低端的，”Sandy Bass说。“高端的价格是150或者175美元。”高考的课外辅导价格是大约250美元一小时。一年总共30周课外辅导的支出约为3750美元。

两个在私立学校念书的孩子需要64000美元。

保姆：45000美元

Bass女士的丈夫是一位有许多高端客户的会计师，她每10天用于购买家庭杂物的支出大约425美元，一年需要15000元。

还有更多？去餐馆吃饭，干洗，每件Brooks Brothers的西装需要大约1000美元。如果你在管理一家银行，你总不能穿得不修边幅吧。

以上所有的支出共计790750美元。还没有包括其他的花费比如，短暂的宠物寄养，夏令营，SPA和其他减压方式，慈善募捐，或是在Serendipity买的冰冻热巧克力。这需要每年160美元的税前收入才能负担。

顺便说一句，那杯冰冻热巧克力要花8.5美元。

原文：

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/fashion/08halfmill.html?_r=1&em

PRIVATE school: $32,000 a year per student

Mortgage: $96,000 a year.

Co-op maintenance fee: $96,000 a year.

Nanny: $45,000 a year.

We are already at $269,000, and we haven’t even gotten to taxes yet.

Five hundred thousand dollars — the amount President Obama wants to set as the top pay for banking executives whose firms accept government bailout money — seems like a lot, and it is a lot. To many people in many places, it is a princely sum to live on. But in the neighborhoods of New York City and its suburban enclaves where successful bankers live, half a million a year can go very fast.

“As hard as it is to believe, bankers who are living on the Upper East Side making $2 or $3 million a year have set up a life for themselves in which they are also at zero at the end of the year with credit cards and mortgage bills that are inescapable,” said Holly Peterson, the author of an Upper East Side novel of manners, “The Manny,” and the daughter of Peter G. Peterson, a founder of the equity firm the Blackstone Group. “Five hundred thousand dollars means taking their kids out of private school and selling their home in a fire sale.”

Sure, the solution may seem simple: move to Brooklyn or Hoboken, put the children in public schools and buy a MetroCard. But more than a few of the New York-based financial executives who would have their pay limited are men (and they are almost invariably men) whose identities are entwined with living a certain way in a certain neighborhood west of Third Avenue: a life of private schools, summer houses and charity galas that only a seven-figure income can stretch to cover.

Few are playing sad cellos over the fate of such folk, especially since the collapse of the institutions they run has yielded untold financial pain. But in New York, where a new study from the Center for an Urban Future, a nonprofit research group in Manhattan, estimates it takes $123,322 to enjoy the same middle-class life as someone earning $50,000 in Houston, extricating oneself from steep bills can be difficult.

Therefore, even if it is not for sympathy, consider the numbers.

Like those taxes. If a person is married with two children, the weekly deductions on a $500,000 salary are: federal taxes, $2,645; Social Security, $596; Medicare, $139; state taxes, $682; and city, $372, bringing the weekly take-home to $5,180, or about $269,000 a year, said Martin Cohen, a Manhattan accountant.

Now move to living expenses.

Barbara Corcoran, a real estate executive, said that most well-to-do families take at least two vacations a year, a winter trip to the sun and a spring trip to the ski slopes.

Total minimum cost: $16,000.

A modest three-bedroom apartment, she said, which was purchased for $1.5 million, not the top of the market at all, carries a monthly mortgage of about $8,000 and a co-op maintenance fee of $8,000 a month. Total cost: $192,000. A summer house in Southampton that cost $4 million, again not the top of the market, carries annual mortgage payments of $240,000.

Many top executives have cars and drivers. A chauffeur’s pay is between $75,000 and $125,000 a year, the higher end for former police officers who can double as bodyguards, said a limousine driver who spoke anonymously because he does not want to alienate his society customers.

“Some of them want their drivers to have guns,” the driver said. “You get a cop and you have a driver.” To garage that car is about $700 a month.

A personal trainer at $80 an hour three times a week comes to about $12,000 a year.

The work in the gym pays off when one must don a formal gown for a charity gala. “Going to those parties,” said David Patrick Columbia, who is the editor of the New York Social Diary (newyorksocialdiary.com), “a woman can spend $10,000 or $15,000 on a dress. If she goes to three or four of those a year, she’s not going to wear the same dress.”

Total cost for three gowns: about $35,000.

Not every bank executive has school-age children, but for those who do, offspring can be expensive. In addition to paying tuition, “You’re not going to get through private school without tutoring a kid,” said Sandy Bass, the editor of Private School Insider, a newsletter that covers private schools in the New York City area. One hour of tutoring once a week is $125. “That’s the low end,” she said. “The higher end is 150, 175.” SAT tutors are about $250 an hour. Total cost for 30 weeks of regular tutoring: $3,750.

Two children in private school: $64,000.

Nanny: $45,000.

Ms. Bass, whose husband is an accountant with many high-end clients, said she spends about $425 every 10 days on groceries for her family. Annual cost: about $15,000.

More? Restaurants. Dry cleaning. Each Brooks Brothers suit costs about $1,000. If you run a bank, you can’t look like a slob.

The total costs here, which do not include a lot of things, like kennels for the dog when the family is away, summer camp, spas and other grooming for the human members of the family, donations to charity, are $790,750, which would require about a $1.6-million salary to compensate for taxes.

By the way, the frozen hot chocolate costs $8.50.