What's Steve's job suppose to be? A bank executive? :)
He has a nice house with a lawn, a car (or two), bunch of kids and a homemaker wife and he supports all these people and has all those things with his one paycheck? Wow...
It wasn't that uncommon in the old days for a father to support an entire family while Mom stayed home.For a time my dad supported five kids with one paycheck.
shareIn '89? In such a nice suburb? With such a big nice house? That's why I'm trying to figure out what Steve's job is suppose to be. He's either a small level executive or an architect or something.
shareAs someone who is not wealthy, I often wonder where other folks are coming (or their state of living) from with these questions. If someone has started their own business or has a certain degree(s), this is possible. Folks spend their money wisely and live within their means. They don't focus on getting the hottest new cars out or wearing designer clothes. Maybe they have one car or two with at least one paid off. It was a nice neighborhood, but definitely middle class. It wasn't like the Home Alone neighborhood by any means.
I think it's definitely possible. Is 1989 really the old days? I was 13 at the time, but I guess it's a nice reality check that a solid 20+ years HAS gone by.
You people are the disease, but I've got the cure. ~Morgan on "Chuck"
It's just that his way of life (as modest as it might be) still looks too expensive to me. One paycheck covers the house, the cars and all the mouths in the family? Of course there are jobs that can cover such expenses. That's why I'm curious to know what his job is suppose to be. He's clearly working in a company (so he's not an owner) and I'd say it's either architecture, negotiations, or investments.
shareYou are naive. Middle-class incomes today range from probably 40,000 to 120,000. The amount of lifestyle that can be supported at 120K is vastly different than 40K.
It's established in the movie that Gil has been working at his job for a long time. There's even a reference to Gil being passed over by younger and more ambitious employees who can be paid less.
By the way, I make somewhere in the middle of that range, have three kids and a wife, a 2500 square-foot 4-bedroom home and support them all with one income while living in the Seattle area, one of the most expensive places in the country to live. If I lived in the midwest I'd be living large.
I agree with minia. It's very possible, especially if you are not being extravagant, and Gil's family was shown living a nice lifestyle but not extravagant. In the not too distant past I was an engineer earning in the low 6-figures. Many of the men I worked with had wives who did not work and were raising kids. They were the sole breadwinners for their families.
There was a thread a while back that suggested the movie was "playing fast and loose with financial realities" by depicting a family in which the breadwinner could go without a job for some period of time (which wasn't even that long.) It's scary that the idea of living within one's means, and saving, are such foreign concepts these days.
You must be the change you seek in the world. -- Gandhi
We are currently raising 7 kids on one income. We are considered by the world poor, but we are doing it. We aren't living in a high income place but we are still able to do it.
shareI guess it can be done. I live in Alaska which is VERY expensive in a 2,000 square foot home with a wife, twin 4 year olds, and mother in law. Our income consists of my military retirement pension (an E6, at that!), my job working at radar sites (a Teamsters Union job, so it's pretty good money) all over the state for weeks on end, and a small stipend from my wife's Scentsy sales. Nice house and a nice very middle and upper-middle class neighborhood, but you look closely, our furniture is mostly cheap stuff, our family car is a Honda Odyssey minivan we bought 2 years used and saved about 10,000, I have a cheap economy car I bought with $3000 cash, low grocery bill, no cable TV, etc.
But yeah, I think realistically, Martin's house would have been more like the ones his sisters lived in with his job status and income. It was a step up from what he should have lived in.
Back until the 1990's, sole breadwinner households were more common, plus families didn't eat out nearly as much and have or need all the endless gadgets
BTW, I loved the houses in this movie! They had character, not like these sterile 3,000 foot tract homes that all look alike now
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An executive would make pretty good money, and a financial guy would know how to invest it. Movie houses always seem to be unusually large because they photograph better. The inside sets have to be big enough for all the equipment and crew.
shareExcuse this long and rather technical rant! But...
Another thing to remember is the fact that the film is set in St. Louis which has always been one of the more affordable Midwestern cities.
In 2012, the average house price in St. Louis, Missouri is $90,000 compared to the national average of $153,000 (therefore over 40% less than the national average). The per capita household income is currently about $20k compared to the national $26k however- but even with a lower per capita income of 23% below the national average, housing is still substantially cheaper in relation to income. What is absurd considering inflation, is that in 1989 the average household income in the state of Missouri was $26,362- just a bit higher than today's national average per capita income.
As far as I know, St. Louis was reasonably affordable in the 1980s as well (I just moved here in 2006). My nextdoor neighbors purchased their house (4 bed 3 bath) in 1990 for $84,500 which with inflation equates to $143,180 in 2012 money- although the house values here due to the recession are currently around the $130,000 mark. A house similar to the one depicted for the Buckman Family in this day and age could be easily obtained in the St. Louis region for about $200,000-$250,000 depending on which area it's in.
Assuming that the Buckmans bought the house before Kevin was born in 1980, $200,000 would equate to $74,437 in 1980. Also assuming that they put 10% down, with a 30 year mortgage at 3.229% fixed interest, principal and interest would come to about $293 a month.
Also, although I assume that Gil earns more than the average household income, if he *did* in fact earn the average household income in 1989 of $26,362 this would mean he would earn $2196.83 / month. His mortgage payment is therefore only a little over 13% of his before tax monthly income which is significantly less than today's average of 20-25% of income toward mortgage.
Therefore, it is entirely possible that the Buckman family *could* have such a nice house and survive on one income in 1989 in St. Louis. It's a wonderful, super affordable place to live and I'd recommend it to anybody :)
//end rant!
Thanks! Very informative. :)
shareMy father was an electrician, and except for that Grandma (who lived upstairs in our house) paid the electric bill while she was alive, he managed to support a wife and three kids on his paycheck. My mother had no income of her own, as she was a homemaker. She bought clothes and other things from the money, that she had inherited from her father (who died when she was only fourteen), but Dad paid all the food and all the bills. I started paying for myself, when I was nineteen years old, and I think my siblings also started paying for themselves around that age, until they moved out to places of their own. Mum also started paying for herself last year, when she got a pension. So I don't find it strange, that Gil could support his family.
Intelligence and purity.
There are a lot of jobs that people are making close to $100,000 a year. It looks like he works in an executive office.
shareBack then you could. My dadsources was thea only one2good that workedthe and therethe were theeein kids inmovie oir houae. We gothave by fine. Not richa at allthe but notI hurting either. Now everything costs too much.
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I'm watching this right now ( for the millionth time) I will watch more carefully but I somehow thought it was apparent that Gil was in advertising....? No? Dave wanted him to "dazzle" him with new clients. Maybe this was just am assumption on my part. I'll watch.
share