Comments on: Extreme Money Ultimate Kung-Fu Challenge

By: Todd Derscheid

Todd Derscheid — Mon, 14 Mar 2005 05:56:34 +0000

My wife and I live in Houston, and each of us spends about $40 on gas each month. Since we don’t have car loans, that’s $400 a month to spend.

If this were a real person, I’d grill them and get them take the budget numbers apart. In our experience, the more you lump numbers together on your Excel spreadsheet (or ledger paper), the easier it becomes to gloss over the excessive booze-and-cheese purchases, or cable bill, or phone overages, or whatever.

By: Darren R. Sussman

Darren R. Sussman — Fri, 29 Oct 2004 17:13:15 +0000

Maybe everyone in this area is just living beyond their means…. :P

By: Darren R. Sussman

Darren R. Sussman — Fri, 29 Oct 2004 07:48:04 +0000

Another possible solution is that those are unrealistic numbers. I mean, $100 for transportation for a FAMILY? I don’t buy it. Especially not with gas prices as high as they are. Maybe if you work right around the corner from your house and you never go anywhere except work, then maybe that’ll get you through the month.

I’m also wondering what “taxes” includes? Is that just property taxes or does that include income tax? If it’s the latter, then it’s a pretty low number for this area…

By: Flexo

Flexo — Fri, 29 Oct 2004 05:53:42 +0000

Well, the article did explain that the housing number includes property taxes while the taxes number includes federal and state income tax. But the numbers are definitely a little off with what you would pay in this area.