You see, they don’t live the way you and I do.
There are certain lifestyle choices they are expected to make or else they risk being seen as dangerously eccentric. Things like private schools for the young ones, penthouse apartments in a certain part of Manhattan, suitable wardrobes, and on and on. The pressure can be fierce. The prices they must pay also are beyond what we hicks in East Texas are used to. A public policy group last year estimated that it takes $123,322 to maintain the same lifestyle in New York that $50,000 will buy in Houston. Private school tuition Try $32,000 a year. Does St. Cyprian’s charge that much The Manhattan apartment will carry a mortgage of $8,000 a month or more, with maintenance fees equaling that. That’s per the Times. I think you can find apartments with a lot lower maintenance, but that’s just from glancing every now and then, out of idle curiosity, at the paper’s real estate listings. New York is famous for its endless round of charity balls and parties. The self-respecting CEO’s wife needs a new gown for every event, and she is willing to pay $10,000-15,000 per gown per party. It adds up. Hubby’s tux just needs a trip to the dry cleaner’s, but in his everyday wardrobe he can’t be seen wearing the same suit to work over and over again. The CEO shops in the $1,000 range for his suits. No two-for-one for $199 Men’s Wearhouse sales for guys on Wall Street. Just putting the car in a garage at night is $700 a month.
Then there’s the vacation home. My mother once bought a beach house at Crystal Beach for $20,000, but in the Hamptons of Long Island, the middle of the market is $4 million. At that price, the mortgage is around $240,000 a year. And second home mortgage interest isn’t deductible.