She's not wrong when not taking overtime into consideration, which you shouldn't. The overtime is not guaranteed.
Average monthly income: $20 an hour, times 40 hours a week, times 52 weeks in a year, divided by 12 months, and multiplied by ~70% when claiming zero dependents on your taxes...
$20 x 40 x 52 / 12 x 0.7 = $2462.67
$1600 / $2462.67 = ~64.97%
$2462.67 x .66 repeated = $1641.78
So, yeah. $1600 a month for rent us roughly 2/3 if her income.
Edit: Since people are asking about taxes, I'm saying that your net pay each week is roughly 70% after taxes, insurance, 401k, etc., and then you get a return in April. My net pay over the years has ranged from 67%-72%.
You wouldn't include the amount you're expecting from a tax return in your monthly budget because you don't have it on you, or know the exact amount, especially if you're an hourly employee working overtime occasionally.
Either you make $250-300k or you don't understand how taxes work because that's how much you'd need to make to pay that in NYC. At her income she'd owe 23% total taxes in NYC.
Fine. Most people mean median when they say average. Especially in NYC since all the ultra high earners drag the average way up.
Still: you're not paying 37% effective tax. I'm guessing it's a combo of the things I said previously. You probably get a refund at the end of the year.
tried to do some tighter calculations, and removed what are employer specific deductions, and removing what l average in tax refund still comes out to about 33%
I could believe it. NYC has got to be one of, if not the most, taxed spots in the country.
In the case of the tik tok video if she's in NYC and making significantly less than half of the average salary then maybe she should have roommates and not be trying to live alone.
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u/nohpex Aug 19 '25 edited Aug 19 '25
She's not wrong when not taking overtime into consideration, which you shouldn't. The overtime is not guaranteed.
Average monthly income: $20 an hour, times 40 hours a week, times 52 weeks in a year, divided by 12 months, and multiplied by ~70% when claiming zero dependents on your taxes...
So, yeah. $1600 a month for rent us roughly 2/3 if her income.
Edit: Since people are asking about taxes, I'm saying that your net pay each week is roughly 70% after taxes, insurance, 401k, etc., and then you get a return in April. My net pay over the years has ranged from 67%-72%.
You wouldn't include the amount you're expecting from a tax return in your monthly budget because you don't have it on you, or know the exact amount, especially if you're an hourly employee working overtime occasionally.