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$350,000…and STILL Struggling refers to a viral tweet by MarketWatch, explaining the budget of a family four living on $350,000 a year. People responded negatively to the tweet, expressing that $350,000 should be enough to live off.

Origin

On September 14th, 2019, MarketWatch[1] published the article "This budget shows how a $350,000 salary barely qualifies as middle class." Two weeks later, on September 29th, the publication tweeted[2] the budget with the caption "$350,000… and STILL struggling." The post received more than 1,500 likes and 350 retweets in three days (shown below).

MarketWatch MW@MarketWatch $350,000... and STILL struggling on.mktw.net/2nEoYuj How A Family Of Four Survives Off $350,000 Living In An Expensive Metropolitan Area Annual Monthly Gross Income $350,000 $29,167 401k Contribution $38,000 $3,167 $26,000 $312,000 Taxable Income After 401k Contributions Taxable Income After $24,000 Standard Deduction and 401k Contributions $288,000 $24,000 Tax Bill (24% Federal, 9% State , 7.65 % FICA , 32 % Effective Total) $92,160 $7,680 $18,653 Net Income $4,000 Child Tax Credit+ $24K non-cash standard deduction $223,840 Annual Expenses Monthly $2,450 Childcare occasional baby sitting for 2-year-old $29,400 Preschool for 4-year-old Food for four ($70day on average, includes weekly date night) 529 Plan (K-12+ college savings plan) Morlgage ($2,000 principal, $1,900 interest) Property tax (1.24 % on $ 1.8 million home vs $1.6 million median home price) $24,000 $25,548 $2,000 $2,129 $12,000 $1,000 $46,800 $22,320 $3,900 $1,860 Property insurance $1,560 $130 Property maintenance $3,600 $5,100 $300 $425 Utilities (electric, water, trash) Life insurance ($2M term) Umbrella policy ($2M) Health Care (employer subsidized) Baby items (diapers, toys, crib, stroller, play pen, etc) Three weeks of vacation per year (two destinations, one staycation) Entertainment (Netflix, shows, sporting events, social functions, we getaways) $2,040 $170 $456 $38 $10,200 S850 $4.200 $350 $7,800 $6,000 $4,560 $1,800 $650 $500 $380 Car payment (Toyata Highlander instead of a Range Rover Car insurance and maintenance $200 $3,000 Gas $250 $1,800 Mobile phone (family plan) $150 $4,800 $1,200 $400 Clothes for four (Old Navy not Gucd) Personal care products Charty (foster care, nystagmus vision research, UNICEF) Student loans (husband paid off $50K at 30) $100 $3,600 $0 S300 $18,532 Total Expenses Cash Flow After Expenses To Pay For Miscellaneous $222,384 $1,456 $121 Relevant cities: SF, NYC, Boston, LA, San Diego, Seattle, DC, Boston, Miami, Denver, Vancouver, Toronto 2:04 PM Sep 29, 2019 SocialFlow

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Following the post, people began mocking the budget on Twitter. On September 30th, 2019, Twitter[3] user @The_Law_Boy tweeted, "every 'can't live on $400k a year' chart has some absolutely wild expenses on it. $24k preschool for a 4 year old, they got Yale for babies now what the fuck is this." Within 24 hours, the tweet received more than 32,000 likes and 4,600 retweets (shown below, left).

Additionally, United States Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted[4] the budget with the caption, "'Struggling' 🤣 with what? Math?" Her tweet received more than 62,000 likes and 7,000 retweets in 24 hours (shown below, center).

Throughout the day, others mocked the budget (example below, right).

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$350,000...and STILL Struggling

Updated Jan 29, 2025 at 09:48PM EST by LiterallyAustin.

Added Oct 01, 2019 at 08:57AM EDT by Matt.

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About

$350,000…and STILL Struggling refers to a viral tweet by MarketWatch, explaining the budget of a family four living on $350,000 a year. People responded negatively to the tweet, expressing that $350,000 should be enough to live off.

Origin

On September 14th, 2019, MarketWatch[1] published the article "This budget shows how a $350,000 salary barely qualifies as middle class." Two weeks later, on September 29th, the publication tweeted[2] the budget with the caption "$350,000… and STILL struggling." The post received more than 1,500 likes and 350 retweets in three days (shown below).



Spread

Following the post, people began mocking the budget on Twitter. On September 30th, 2019, Twitter[3] user @The_Law_Boy tweeted, "every 'can't live on $400k a year' chart has some absolutely wild expenses on it. $24k preschool for a 4 year old, they got Yale for babies now what the fuck is this." Within 24 hours, the tweet received more than 32,000 likes and 4,600 retweets (shown below, left).

Additionally, United States Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted[4] the budget with the caption, "'Struggling' 🤣 with what? Math?" Her tweet received more than 62,000 likes and 7,000 retweets in 24 hours (shown below, center).

Throughout the day, others mocked the budget (example below, right).



Various Examples




Search Interest

External References

Recent Videos

There are no videos currently available.

Recent Images 13 total


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