Unrealistic money numbers

I didnt see the movie at all, so take this with a grain of salt.

I think what the movie tries to show by throwing these numbers at you is to not only show the greed of corporations but to show how some, if not many, are living outside their means of their income. 110k plus is enought to support a family and also maintain some savings but what they are showing is how people can not be responsible with money. Much like people owning homes they cannot afford in theory as well.

You're right!
The numbers don't make sense on the face of it.

However, I used to ride the train in to NYC with 4 younger men who worked in "finance". From their conversations, I'd say that they were on a level with Ben Affleck's charcter. Same things - big house, fast car, country club.

One by one each of the 4 disappeared from the train.

The movie may have exaggerated to emphesize the situation, but they got the point across.

I felt sorry for Phil (Chris Cooper). Not only was he downsized after 30 years, the woman at the search service effectively told him that much of his experience didn't count.

BTW I would have hit the "cheerleader" at the same service square in the face in that "motivational" session. I know many self-starters who don't take to the motivational speakers.

I caught that, too, HBL, although those bonuses were probably pretty generous (near the end of the movie, he described $80,000 as "half what I was making").

The numbers might have worked in a lower-cost area, but in Boston even a guy earning $160,000 would have a hard time affording that lifestyle, especially such a nice house in what I'm sure was a very nice suburb.

First of all, I think we were supposed to see the family as living beyond their means. They had basically no cushion at all and apparently had significant credit card debt.

Also, I think the filmmakers deliberately understated his income because they didn't think people would be sympathetic to someone earning a lot of money. As some of the threads on this board demonstrate, there are people who think that, if you make a good salary, you're apparently not entitled to sympathy if you lose your job. That problem would only be worse if they had given the character the income a RL version would probably have had.

He could have been leading the Posche.
He could have lived in a commuter community so his house would have been that expensive.
The wife was very conscious of being on a budget, since he was a workaholic she probably did
all the budgeting and knew more about where they were.
I did not find it that unrealistic, there are a lot of people who live in the edge like that, it's
scary, because that is what our society tells people to do - go shopping, buy, buy, buy!
My neighbor has a Porsche like that I think he said it was between 50-60K.

That is what I couldn't figure out. YOu cannot live in an 850,000 on that salary. I don't care WHERE you live, and they lived in Boston one of the more expensives areas....East coast???

She did mention the AmEX bill so obviously they were over charging.

Was this movie written 10- years ago and they just never updated it?
That part about the X-box being taken back was stupid.

And no one plays with Xbox anymore, it is now Xbox 360!! and KInect.

Some bonuses can be double or triple the base, particularly in sales and marketing. But I think he said $80,000 would be half what he was making, so $160,000 could be the ball park figure.

Also he was underwater with his house. Typically he was probably using the house as an ATM machine. As the house appreciated, he just refinanced and took out more equity. Everyone knows real estate never goes down because they aren't making anymore.

That's the point the movie was clearly making. They were living far beyond their means.

He was in sales and he didn't mention what his "incentives" were. He might have been downplaying them, but it wouldn't have been uncommon for a regional sales director to double his base or maybe more. Of course, he was living an aspirational lifestyle...based on what he expected to make.