WI Crippler

Yeah, in certain areas one can live comfortably on 40K a year. But its not what I would consider being prosperous. If you don't live beyond your means, you could enjoy a quiet and unassuming life without struggling to get by.

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"Fatigue makes cowards of us all" - Vincent T. Lombardi.

Panache

Nonsense. Someone who is even moderately sensible with their money can retire as a millionaire after forty years of making $40k/yr.

Vacations in Hawaii have very little to do with how much you make, and a lot to do with how much you save.

new coup for you

you DO NOT need a masters to teach elementary school.

"education" majors are the only majors anyone ranks beneath psychology majors or business majors.

you really don't need a four year degree to teach, we just force them to pretend they do.

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======OBAMA
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And why does your tone suggest that you do not care about children?

Panache

People get by just fine on 20k, which means that someone making 40k could lead the same sort of lifestyle and tuck away an extra 20k every year by putting it in a tax deductible IRA.

The S&P has been averaging a 10% annual return for over 50 years, so 20k/yr invested over 40 years of work would let you retire with a total of $9,737,036.

Ten million is fairly prosperous by pretty much any standard, so the answer to the question "Can you prosper with a teacher's salary" is clearly yes.

If the question was "Will most people prosper on a teachers salary?" then the answer would be no.

independent_thinker2002

What do you think a moderate mortgage payment +taxes+insurance costs?

Car payment/maintenance?

Energy costs?

Gorceries?

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new coup for you

it's all about lifestyle. you probably can't have a suburban ranch style, or a condo downtown, but you can live in a decent working class neighborhood and go down the shore on summers.

independent_thinker2002

Where do you live that you think people can get by on 20K a year?

According to the 2008 federal poverty guidelines, a family of 4 would be in poverty in the continental US. $21,200 is the line.

2008 Federal Poverty Guidelines

Panache

Seattle. I worked a minimum wage job for one year, and at the end of the year I had saved up enough to make a 20% down payment on a condo.

That's pretty cool. If you are below the poverty line, it means you hardly pay any taxes at all. I am actually making pretty good money now, but I keep myself below the poverty line through a combination of 20% salary contributions to my 401K and tax deductible interest payments on 3 condos.

$482.52

In case you are wondering where I got that figure, I just copied and pasted it from my last mortgage payment.

$495.00/yr for an annual environmentally friendly, cost effective, earth saving, tree hugging bus pass.

Browsing Twelve Month PugetPass

I pay around $40/month

I can get a dozen eggs for $1.25, or about $.10 per egg. A full dinner of top ramen costs me about $.50. I can get several months worth of pasta at costco for $10. And I can make a mean pasta sauce out of a $1 can of Alberstons brand tomato paste, and appropriate seasonings.

Cereal is pretty cheap when you get the big bags of it instead of paying for the stupid little boxes, and sometimes I splurge on bacon at $2.49/lb and milk at 2.99/gal.

Altogether I would say I spend about $5/day on food. That would be about $150/month.

Gipper

And Panache wins with a 2nd round KO.

Teachers are fine where they are, and probably could deserve to go down some in salary. It'd help weed out the field some.

Better yet, increase salaries for math/science teachers and decrease for history/social studies/etc.

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A government big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take it all away. - Barry Goldwater

Zyphlin

ahhh, good old ramen. Its always been a friend.

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"Perhaps instead of bickering like fourth graders exchanging “Your Momma” insults on the school playground, the two campaigns should focus on substantive and pressing issues like the solvency of Medicare and Social Security." - The Bare Knuckled Pundit