Save more, spend smarter, and make your money go further
Over the past five months, I’ve had the unexpected pleasure of traveling the country with Mint to talk in 11 different cities about money in celebration of the book my company recently released, The Financial Diet. My partner Lauren and I, along with our spouses or other members of the TFD team, joined Mint up and down both coasts and in the middle of the country to speak honestly with our audience about what money means to them, and the unique challenges that their city brings, financially. (Oh, and we also drank awesome wine and had tons of great finger food — but that joy was somehow secondary to the genuine love we felt being with the community we have grown over the past few years.)
And talking about money, for us, isn’t just a hashtag, or a way to promote our book. It is the very reason we have done what we do these past few years, the thing that motivates us when we get up each day for work. Because if I hadn’t been lightly pushed by my exasperated then-boyfriend to download Mint four years ago, and forced myself into a conversation about my finances that has grown past anything I could have ever conceived, I would still almost certainly be in a position where money alternately terrified and bored me. I was terrible with money because I refused to talk or even think about it, and everything from ruining my credit score to going into credit card debt felt completely irreversible because of that fundamental fear. But I know now that in talking about money, in confronting it head-on and making it a value-neutral, ongoing conversation in your life, you can overcome any obstacle or fix any mistake, financially. Life is long, and today is always the best day to get started living it well.
It was interesting, though, seeing that even amongst the groups of women who came to our events, who came from incredibly diverse backgrounds and approached their individual finances in entirely different ways, that there were themes which kept reappearing over and over. Yes, there were unique challenges to each city (Austin is growing much too quickly for its residents to keep up, Atlanta is in desperate need of improved public transportation), but there were also common threads that we heard almost without exception at each stop. Here, the four things we heard most frequently while talking about money on the road.
“My partner and I don’t agree about how to deal with money. How do we overcome that?”
One of the biggest recurring themes at our tour events was the idea that couples fundamentally disagreed on how to handle, or even talk about, money. And that’s not surprising — everyone comes to a relationship with money baggage, whether it comes from being raised with a lot of it, very little of it, or something in-between. Some people were raised to avoid the topic entirely, others were taught to micromanage every detail. And as our money and relationships expert Olivia Mellan explains in our book, the most common dynamic in relationships is a spender who is married to a saver, in whatever form they may take. One person simply plays closer and more conservatively with money than the other, and from that fundamental disagreement can stem near-endless problems.
But two fundamental components of any healthy, long-term relationship from a financial view are 1) speaking openly and frequently about money, so that secrets cannot accrue or small cracks cannot expand, and 2) having a separate, independent bank account for each member of the couple which is totally their own. Even if it’s just a very small amount, a tiny discretionary fund, it is so important for each person to feel empowered and fulfilled by what they want to spend (or save) on without having to ask the other person for permission.
In your “fun fund,” you might want to devote half to saving for a girl’s trip and half to spending on skincare products. Or you might want to use it to take yourself to movies and dinner sometimes, or just save for something big you can’t even imagine yet. But having money that is entirely individual provides a release valve for all of the other compromises that will be made on the money you share.
Two people never have to fully agree on money, but they do have to learn to live with one another’s money baggage and differing approaches. Having the topic be an open, value-neutral one, and having that separate money for individual spending, allow that to happen.
“What do you do when you earn much more than your friends, or much less?”
One story I found myself telling over and over on the tour was the experience I had through high school and college, when I was a decidedly middle-class person in an undeniably rich-kid town. I socialized with many, many people whose parents earned (literally) ten times what mine did, and whose lives and access looked wildly different as a result. And aside from profoundly skewing my idea of what “normal” was — I didn’t know then that it wasn’t normal to have many friends who went to a $30,000-per-year high school — it also led me to spend money I didn’t have in an effort to keep up appearances.
I went into credit card debt, tanked my credit score, and drained eight years’ worth of summer job savings all in the span of about a year, wasting that money on a lifestyle that never belonged to me. And from that experience, I learned that the most important thing anyone can do for their mental health when it comes to the finances of your social life is to make sure that you have at least some friends who are close to your level, financially, because being the only one on one side or another of the spectrum will only lead to a distortion of perspective and deep self-consciousness.
Beyond that, it is up to the person who is more comfortable financially to lead the conversation, offer options, be candid with costs, and not expect the other person to follow suit. Having more money in a friendship is a great place of privilege, and one that requires both sensitivity and understanding that the conversation might not come easily to the person with less. But above all, no matter how much you earn, the phrase “it’s not in my budget” needs to be in everyone’s vocabulary. There is nothing chic about going into credit card debt to pay for someone else’s idea of a social life.
“Do I really have to have a retirement account?”
At the risk of sounding like your parents, yes. Absolutely yes.
And although the women at our events were almost universally savvy, motivated women, this question came up again and again. Having a retirement account can feel like that sort of vague, important-in-theory thing you can easily put off, but every day you are not putting that pre-tax money away (and particularly if you are missing out on an employer match) is a day you will be kicking yourself for later.
Although it may not feel that way, we will all want to retire one day, and not having the option to leave our jobs is something that no one should have to face. The younger you start saving, the more time you have to let that money grow and work for you, and although it may not be as immediately-satisfying as spending that money on something you want in the short term, once you start your retirement saving, there is a profound comfort to be found in watching it grow over time and knowing that that money is the nest you are building for yourself, because you care about yourself enough to take care of Future You.
“How do I balance paying off my loans with living life?”
Ultimately, the biggest question that most people face when it comes down to the day-to-day of personal finance is how to live the life you want while doing what is right for you. And for many people, that means balancing their loan payments (which for many people can feel overwhelming) with the other things you’d frankly much rather be doing with your money. But something we have learned over the years at TFD is that, first of all, you probably need much less than you imagine you do to be happy.
When we were first starting the company and could not take a salary for over a year, Lauren and I suddenly saw our household incomes drop by nearly half, and had to severely reduce our lifestyles as a result. And though it was self-imposed in starting a business, it taught us that so much of what we were spending on, so much of what we felt was necessary to our happiness or fulfillment, was really just mindless buying.
Lauren as an example lived at home until she was 25 in order to help pay down her loans, and though she certainly longed to live on her own earlier, she was able to find a readjusted idea of happiness while living with her parents. When I went to community college instead of the four-year schools I dreamed of to save money, I wished I could sign on the dotted line to go to those dream schools, but I learned to be happy in the life I was living.
The greater the gap you can create between “what you could technically afford to spend” and “what you need to spend in order to live well,” the wealthier you will feel, regardless of what you earn. And if repaying loans is part of your day-to-day money life, you must learn to treat that money as never yours in the first place — you can’t count what your life would be like with that loan money and then watch it go out the door, or you will be full of resentment and envy each month.
You have what you have, you owe what you owe, you are who you are.
Now with all that information, take stock of your life. Go through every purchase last month and highlight every one you don’t remember making. Realize how much of your spending is done without even thinking, and how many purchases really don’t bring you much happiness in the long run. And if you can start thinking about your money like that — reduced down to the essence of what matters, and what has real value — suddenly the balancing act won’t seem nearly as hard as you thought.
Crystal Paine on September 27, 2014 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.
Recently, I was honored to have the opportunity to be interviewed by WAHM.com — a site for work-at-home moms or those who want to be work-at-home moms.
In this interview, I share:
Read the full interview here.
Thinking of starting a blog? Check out my step-by-step post on how to make money blogging.
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From pillows and baskets to geometric accent rugs, these brands have what you need to dress your home in sustainable style. So grab the popcorn, cue up Netflix, and slip into your jammies. It’s time to get comfy under your new favorite throw. Ahhh—welcome home!
Note: Not all brands are 100% vegan. When shopping, be sure to check materials for things like leather, wool, etc.
This Black-owned furniture brand not only carries the furniture you need, but they also stock the perfect accompanying design pieces. Find everything from lumbar pillows and candles to square pillows in colors like Indigo, Amber, Seafoam, and more. Their 18 x 18 Square Pillow boasts 100% recycled water bottle filling and a recycled and upcycled fabric cover. Now that’s sustainable home decor!
Courtesy of Sabai
Nothing says sustainable design like an upcycled cotton throw from Hilana. The Fethiye Striped Blanket Throw is perfect for tossing over a chair or storing in a basket beside your sustainable sofa. Hilana also stocks tablecloths—like the Andana Striped and Kayseri.
Courtesy of Hilana
We love AmourLinen for their waffle design pillow covers and throws. Choose from muted shades like Sage, Cream, Mustard, Dusty Lavender, and Charcoal. If you like the drapey look, go with the blanket instead of the throw, and use it as a boho-style sofa cover. While you’re there, check out their sheet sets, duvet covers, and more.
Courtesy of Amour Linen
Take a look at Korissa’s accent rugs boasting natural or renewable materials. These eco-friendly designs are perfect for siding up next to the kitchen sink while you cook up all those delicious vegan culinary creations. The brand also stocks matching pillow covers. And that’s not all! You’ll find plant baskets, woven bowls, hampers, and more. While Korissa is working on phasing them out, please note that some products still contain leather tags.
Courtesy of Korissa
First, grab a good book. Next, choose a super-cozy, slub cotton pillow from Pillowpia. Lastly, enjoy the rest of your afternoon. You’re welcome. Select from the Minerva, Linus, Gemma, and others. The brand offers a variety of sizes, designs, and colors to fit your needs. They also stock baskets, wall art, and macrame plant hangers.
Courtesy of Pillowpia
Prepare to get your cozy on at Zuahaza. Find pillow covers, throws, rugs, and baskets that add a stylish, elegant, comfortable touch to your design. Try the Manglar Euro Pillow Cover, the Sumapaz Large Throw, the Bagotá Area Rug, and the Monserrate Basket Tray. And that’s just for starters! Next, we’re headed to the brand’s kitchen collection for placemats, table runners, and more.
Courtesy of Zuahaza
When it comes to sustainable home decor, find what you’re looking for at Variously. Toss a couple of their pillows on your sofa (like the Chokor Nira Brown), add a throw (Reyti Ochre Organic Cotton, maybe?), and you’re good to go.
Courtesy of Variously
This vegan-friendly brand stocks a good selection of recycled plastic and cotton rugs. Find runners and area rugs in addition to both indoor and outdoor designs. Some also have the convenience of being machine washable!
Courtesy of Fab Habitat
From throws and pillows to candles and diffusers, Sunday Citizen has what you need to complete your design look. Choose pillows in lumbar, mini, body pillows, and more. As for throws, we’re crazy for the Faces Throw in Grape-Lavender.
Courtesy of Sunday Citizen
Will & Atlas is the place to go for jute rugs, baskets, and storage. We suggest filling the Rectangle Tray Baskets with a collection of vegan cookbooks or adding some fresh fruit to the Palm Leaf Woven Bowl. Sustainable home decor for the win!
Courtesy of Will And Atlas
At Indego Africa, you’ll find everything from placemats and coasters to pillows and floor baskets. Check out their Ikat & Indigo Pillow, their Tall Banana Leaf Floor Basket, and others. All designs are handcrafted by groups of artisan women in Rwanda and Ghana.
Courtesy of Indego Africa
Celebrate color and design at Casa Amarosa! From their Aakar Modern Tiles Accent Pillow to their Celestial Throw Blanket, they have what you’re looking for. Need rugs? They’ve got those too! We’re looking at you, Triangle Jute rug.
Courtesy of Casa Amarosa
Keep your shelves cute with storage bins and baskets from Open Spaces. These work great in the bathroom for towels and toilet paper, in the bedroom for books, and in the living room for just about anything! We love this brand for sustainable home decor.
Courtesy of Open Spaces
Head to Azulina Home for bathroom design. The Cali Olive Bath Mat pairs nicely with your favorite plush towels and fluffy slippers. These handcrafted rugs look great and feel nice underfoot. The brand also offers pillows and door mats.
Courtesy of Azulina Home
At VegOut, we curate the best of the best vegan products, so you don’t have to. Our picks are all selected by our amazing team of writers and editorial staff. We may earn commission if you purchase one of these great products by clicking the links above.
Understanding the average salary of a profession can help you make a variety of important decisions, from what field you want to enter to where you want to live and work. In California, the average physician makes more than $200,000 per year. Knowing that, medical students have a better idea of what they could make when they get out of school. Likewise, physicians looking to relocate to a new state have a better sense of how their salary can change based on where they decide to move.
Here’s a closer look at how much medical doctors make a year in California, regional differences in salary, and the top-paying medical specialities in the state.
What Is the Average Salary for a Medical Doctor in California?
The average salary of a physician in the state of California is $229,420 per year, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). This figure doesn’t account for a physician sign on bonus, which some doctors receive. Interestingly, California is squarely in the middle when it comes to average physicians’ salaries, along with Oregon, Texas, Maryland, and New York. The average salary in California lags more than half of states, including Arizona, Florida, Wyoming, Kentucky, and South Carolina.
Though many consider anything more than $100,000 a good salary, California’s relatively low pay may come as a surprise to some. However, there are some possible explanations. For one, California spends the most on Medicaid among U.S. states. Medicaid — and Medicare, for that matter — both reimburse physicians at rates lower than their usual fees. Doctors who are seeing a lot of elderly or low-income individuals may see their incomes reduced.
Note that early in your career as a doctor, while you’re in your residency or fellowship, you’ll likely make considerably less than you will later in your career. Explore ways to get by on a medical resident’s salary.
You may also want to consider using a spending app, which can help you set financial goals and a budget and track where your money goes.
Recommended: Budgeting as a New Doctor
How to Become a Doctor in California
Doctors are health care professionals who are charged with meeting with patients, diagnosing their conditions, and managing their care plans. They perform tests and prescribe medications. And they must coordinate with a range of other health care professionals, including other doctors, nurses, and emergency medical technicians. That’s a lot of responsibility, and as a result, it takes a lot of training to become a doctor.
First, you’ll need to complete a bachelor’s degree in a field that relates to medicine, such as pre medicine, biology, or biochemistry.
Next, you’ll need to go to medical school, where you will receive classroom and practical training to advance your knowledge in the medical field. Medical school is typically a four-year program. While in school, you’ll complete the first and second parts of the U.S. Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE). The average cost of medical school can be high, running more than $50,000 a year at private institutions.
When you graduate from medical school, you’ll enter a residency program that helps you choose a medical specialty. These programs usually last three years, and under the supervision of an experienced physician, you’ll work full time as a resident doctor. You’ll complete your residency by passing the third and final part of the USMLE.
After your residency, you can choose to complete a fellowship that gives you further training in the specialty you’ve chosen. Though fellows tend to make more than residents, their salary isn’t as high as new doctors. The good news is, there are ways to budget on a medical fellowship salary.
Finally, you’ll need to obtain a California medical license from the Medical Board of California. You can renew your license every two years, which requires 50 hours of continuing medical education.
Recommended: What Is the Average Medical School Debt?
Reasons to Become a Doctor
Becoming a doctor can involve a lot of challenges, but it can also be immensely rewarding work. Here are a few reasons you might become a doctor:
• To help others: Doctors diagnose and treat medical conditions, helping to save and improve patients’ lives. They are often involved in ongoing treatment, ushering patients down the path to recovery. Being a physician is a people-centric profession that involves working closely with patients and their families to explain medical conditions and treatment options.
• To work in the sciences: If you’re interested in a variety of scientific fields, from biology to chemistry to anatomy to pharmacology, being a doctor is a way to explore these subjects while also helping others.
• To find purpose: The responsibility toward patients and coworkers and the ability to better people’s health and well-being often provide doctors with a sense of satisfaction and meaning in their work.
• To become a teacher: Becoming a doctor requires a lot of schooling and ongoing training. Doctors may pass on this knowledge by educating patients on how to lead healthier lives, educating medical students in teaching hospitals, and supervising residents.
• To have job security: The job outlook for physicians is relatively low, with the field expected to grow 3% through 2031. That said, there are still 23,800 openings for physicians projected each year, according to BLS data.
• To make a good salary: The annual average wage for all workers in the United States is $58,260, according to the BLS — quite a bit lower than the $229,420 average annual pay for physicians in California.
Best-Paying Medical Doctor Jobs in California
The medical speciality you pursue in California will have a big impact on your salary. According to BLS data, here are some of the highest-paid physicians in California:
Psychiatrist
Psychiatrists help diagnose and treat mental disorders. Unlike psychologists, they are allowed to prescribe drugs for medical treatment.
Average salary: $305,290
Obstetricians and Gynecologists
OBGYNs provide medical care related to childbirth and diagnose and treat diseases of the female reproductive organs. They also specialize in women’s health issues like hormone problems, infertility, and menopause.
Average salary: $309,610
Anesthesiologist
Before, during, or after surgery, anesthesiologists administer anesthetics (which reduce sensitivity to pain) and analgesics (which act as pain relievers).
Average salary: $318,030
Cardiologists
Cardiologists diagnose and treat conditions of the cardiovascular system.
Average salary: $343,370
Radiologists
Radiologists use medical imaging techniques, such as x-rays, MRIs, and ultrasounds to diagnose and treat diseases and injuries.
Average salary: $345,100
Pathologists
A pathologist helps diagnose diseases by running tests on organs, tissue, and bodily fluids, such as blood.
Average salary: $350,980
Surgeons
Surgeons are medical doctors that may have to perform surgery, a procedure that physically changes a patient’s body.
Average salary: $351,580
Recommended: Starting (and Keeping) an Emergency Fund
The Takeaway
Being a doctor can be fulfilling, as it allows you to help people through work in the medical sciences. It can also be monetarily rewarding, and understanding average salaries can help you make decisions about where you want to live and what you want to specialize in. Though income varies by speciality, the average salary for physicians in California is $229,420 per year.
As you build your practice and earn a salary, a money tracker app can help you get your financial house in order. The SoFi Insights app connects all of your accounts in one convenient dashboard. From there, you can see all of your balances, spending breakdowns, and credit score monitoring, plus you can get other valuable financial insights.
Stay up to date on your finances by seeing exactly how your money comes and goes.
FAQ
What is a doctor’s yearly salary in California?
In California, a doctor can expect to make $229,420 per year on average, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
What is the highest-paying medical specialty?
Among the highest-paid doctors in California are pathologists, surgeons, and radiologists.
Who earns more: a dentist or a doctor?
In California, doctors tend to make more than dentists, who earn $165,950 per year on average.
Photo credit: iStock/Drazen Zigic
SoFi’s Insights tool offers users the ability to connect both in-house accounts and external accounts using Plaid, Inc’s service. When you use the service to connect an account, you authorize SoFi to obtain account information from any external accounts as set forth in SoFi’s Terms of Use. SoFi assumes no responsibility for the timeliness, accuracy, deletion, non-delivery or failure to store any user data, loss of user data, communications, or personalization settings. You shall confirm the accuracy of Plaid data through sources independent of SoFi. The credit score provided to you is a Vantage Score® based on TransUnion™ (the “Processing Agent”) data. Financial Tips & Strategies: The tips provided on this website are of a general nature and do not take into account your specific objectives, financial situation, and needs. You should always consider their appropriateness given your own circumstances. Non affiliation: SoFi isn’t affiliated with any of the companies highlighted in this article. SORL0323016
Last April, Robie Lynn Morrison blew out the candles on her 50th birthday and decided to pursue her dream of opening a boutique focused on women and the home.
By November, she had opened Burlap and Daisies, a budding home décor and gift shop in Manassas.
“Everything goes back to women and being supportive of them because if they’re not healthy, the family then falls apart,” she says. “Everybody’s home should be a soft place to land.”
Building and Keeping Relationships
Her store at 13480 Dumfries Road is located in the Woodbine Shopping Center, right next to a Food Lion. Morrison says she wanted to occupy the vacant spot because she’s been shopping in that mall for 30 years.
“I had my 7th grade teacher walk through the door one day,” she says. “That’s what it’s about. It’s the connections, it’s the relationships because we have gotten away from that.”
Those relationships extend to strangers who become customers, sometimes even friends, she says.
Morrison started work in the real estate industry when she was 19 years old as a new home specialist.
“Even though every house is the same in a community, it’s always so neat to see people make it their own and create the memories,” Morrison says. “I’ve always loved seeing dirt become a house and so all of that spills into here, and this is why I wanted to do this, this is literally my dream.”
It was a career that Morrison says she loved. In fact, she says one of her biggest obstacles in starting her business was telling her former boss, whom she’s known since she was a teenager, that she was quitting and leaving her job and stable income in the dust.
Opening a Business During the Pandemic
“Everything that we have, we’ve poured into this purely on faith,” she says, adding that her husband has had her back in the business venture.
Several of her family members been a source of support, too.
“Our house became a warehouse for quite a while as I was starting to purchase,” she says.
Morrison’s parents helped prepare the store for opening by doing tasks such as painting. Her daughter also helps out with customers in the store, with her baby on her hip, and she runs errands.
Starting Burlap and Daisies while emerging from a global pandemic and while entering a recession wasn’t easy; offers from the bank vanished as the economic outlook worsened last spring.
“It’s one of those [things where] you’ve got to put your blinders on and go with the heart,” she says. “I thought if I have wanted this for this long, God is going to see a way.”
Coming out of pandemic isolation, she says she particularly wants to cater to mothers and other women who are trying to break away from the craziness of life for a few minutes. Those customers often turn into friends who offer hugs and words of support.
“They feel at peace here, they feel inspired, and that really is my whole goal, just for them to want to linger and feel that they can because it’s a safe space,” she says. “The whole pandemic, we would walk into places and you felt like you were rushed out.”
What’s to Come
Burlap and Daisies continues to develop. In addition to its home décor merchandise, it has added offerings such as weekly drops of fresh cut flowers on Fridays.
The store recently began hosting Sip, Shop and Craft classes, led by Carolyn English, who taught in Prince William County Public Schools for 31 years.
“A lot of friendships are being formed from this store,” Morrison says. “My mom refers to it like … [a] hardware store where all of the guys would get together, and that’s kind of how it feels in here.”
Next up, Morrison is planning to offer at-home design consultations.
“Let people shop in their own home,” Morrison says. “A lot of times, people already have what they need, they just need a fresh eye.”
Feature image by Jessica Kronzer
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Did you know that the average American has a nearly 70% chance of needing some form of long-term care upon reaching age 65? But did you also know that you may be able to prepare for the event by purchasing long-term care insurance? That’s why we’ve prepared this guide of the 7 best long-term care insurance of 2023.
Before getting into our reviews of the seven best long-term care insurance providers of 2023, scan the table below to see which company you think will work best for you:
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Our Picks for Best Long-Term Care Insurance
Dozens of insurance companies offer long-term care insurance, but below is our list of the top seven, and what each is best for:
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Best Long-Term Care Insurance – Company Reviews
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Maximum Benefits: Varies by provider
Benefit Period: Varies by provider
Waiting/Elimination Period: Varies by provider
GoldenCare, also known as National Independent Brokers, Inc, is a privately held long-term care insurance brokerage firm, and one of the leading such firms in the industry. They provide policies from the top-rated insurance companies in the industry. The company is based in Plymouth, Minnesota, and has been in business since 1976. Their plans are available in all 50 states.
The list of companies they work with includes the following:
GoldenCare also offers critical illness insurance, Medicare supplements and Medicare Advantage plans, prescription drug plans, life insurance, annuities and final expense policies.
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Maximum Benefits: Varies by provider
Benefit Period: Varies by provider
Waiting/Elimination Period: Varies by provider
Like GoldenCare, LTC Resource Centers is also an insurance brokerage specializing in long-term care insurance. Based in Cape Coral, Florida, the company has been in business for more than 40 years. They provide long-term care insurance, short-term care, linked or combination products, Medicare supplements, life insurance, critical illness, and annuities.
A specialization they offer is what is known as asset-based long-term care. It’s a strategy that uses a whole life insurance policy or annuity to provide long-term care coverage, which eliminates the need for an expensive, dedicated LTC policy. A pricing comparison is presented in the screenshot below:
As a broker, they work with multiple long-term care insurance providers. That means to get detailed information you’ll need to set an appointment with a long-term care insurance specialist and make the request. The company’s licensed to operate in all 50 states.
Maximum Benefits: Up to $400 per day or $10,000 per month
Benefit Period: Up to 5 years, or unlimited lifetime benefit
Waiting/Elimination Period: 0, 30, 60, 90, 180 or 365 days
Mutual of Omaha is one of the top individual providers of long-term care insurance. They offer some of the best plans in the industry, including lifetime benefits coverage, multiple elimination periods, and inflation protection. They are a full-service insurance company providing coverage in all 50 states, providing virtually all types of insurance policies.
Mutual of Omaha also offers premium discounts. For example, you can save 15% when you purchase a policy for both you and your partner. You can also save 15% if you’re in good health. There’s even a 5% discount if you are married but your spouse does not purchase a policy.
Maximum Benefits: Up to $7,000 per day, up to a $250,000 lifetime maximum
Benefit Period: Up to maximum daily or lifetime limit
Waiting/Elimination Period: One-time deductible of $4,500 up to $21,000
Like Mutual of Omaha, New York Life is a large, well-established and diversified insurance company. In addition to long-term care policies, they also offer virtually every other type of insurance policy available. Also like Mutual of Omaha, New York Life is a mutual insurance company, which means it’s owned by its policyholders, not shareholders. The company partnered with the American Association of Retired Persons as a preferred provider of long-term care insurance policies.
New York Life provides their NYL My Care long-term care policy. The basic parameters are as follows:
Like other direct insurance providers on this list, New York Life also offers annuities and whole-life insurance policies with long-term care riders.
Maximum Benefits: Up to $750,000 maximum lifetime benefit
Benefit Period: Up to 7 years
Waiting/Elimination Period: 90 days
Nationwide is one of the leading providers of long-term care insurance in America. With a maximum lifetime benefit of up to $750,000, they provide the highest lifetime maximum benefit on our list. They also offer a single, simple, 90 calendar-day elimination period. You can choose between two years and seven years for a maximum benefit period.
The policy will also cover home healthcare, hospice, adult day care, household services, home safety improvements, and even family care. And in a unique twist, nationwide also provides international benefits. If you live out of the country during the benefit period, the policy will pay 50% of the maximum monthly benefit.
Maximum Benefits: Up to $250,000 maximum lifetime benefit
Benefit Period: Up to maximum lifetime benefit limit
Waiting/Elimination Period: 90 days
Brighthouse Financial is an insurance provider that offers two types of products, annuities and life insurance. Either is available with a long-term care rider. The company has $254 billion in assets, serving about 2 million customers.
Brighthouse Financial provides long-term care insurance through its SmartCare plan. It’s a combination plan that adds a long-term care provision to a whole life insurance policy. You’ll get the benefit of long-term care if it’s needed, but you’ll also have a life insurance benefit to pay to your beneficiaries if it’s not, or if there are any funds left over after your long-term-care stay.
The policy will cover adult day care, hospice, and home healthcare, in addition to nursing homes and assisted living facilities, and skilled nursing care.
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Maximum Benefits: Varies by provider
Benefit Period: Varies by provider
Waiting/Elimination Period: Varies by provider
CLTC Insurance Services, or California Long Term Care Insurance Services, is a long-term care insurance aggregator, based in San Francisco. Aggregator is a fancy word for an online insurance marketplace. As an aggregator, CLTC will give you access to a large number of long-term care insurance companies. You can then choose the one offering the plan that will work best for you. The main limitation of this provider is that they offer policies only in the state of California.
In addition to long-term care insurance, they also offer annuities and life insurance policies, both with long-term care riders. These types of policies eliminate the need for a dedicated LTC policy, since the cost of long-term care is paid out of the proceeds of the annuity or life insurance. CLTC also offers critical illness insurance.
Long-Term Care Insurance Guide
What is Long-Term Care?
When an individual reaches a point where they can no longer care for themselves, long-term care becomes necessary. That care can be provided by anyone from family members to nursing homes.
The need for long-term care generally applies when the individual can no longer perform one or more of the six activities of daily living (ADL). This can include inability to dress, groom, go to the bathroom, bathe, eat, or even to move about freely.
In most cases, long-term care becomes necessary after a major health event, like a heart attack or stroke. But it can also be the result of an ongoing, degenerative health condition or simply advancing age.
In most cases, long-term care is provided by a family member. But institutional care may be necessary if the individual is unable to perform several ADLs, which may overwhelm the ability of family members to provide ongoing care.
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How to Purchase Long-Term Care Coverage?
We recommend contacting any of the seven best long-term care insurance providers in this guide. Otherwise, do a search and identify insurance companies that offer long-term care coverage. But be aware that not all insurance companies offer it, precisely because of the many variables. It involves.
When purchasing a policy, be aware of the following:
Like life insurance, it’s best to purchase LTC insurance when you’re young and healthy. That’s when the premiums are lowest.
Consider purchasing a long-term care insurance alternative, like a life insurance policy or an annuity with a long-term care rider (see below). It’s generally much less expensive.
Pay close attention to the maximum benefit paid, whether daily, monthly, annually, or lifetime. It should approximate nursing home costs in your area. (Be aware that these costs vary greatly from one state to another.)
Pay close attention to the benefit period. While the typical number of years an individual needs long-term care coverage is three years, there’s no way to tell what you may need. If you can afford the higher premium, it may be best to go with the longer benefit period, say, five years or longer.
Be aware of the elimination period. The standard is 90 days, but it can be as long as one year. This is not a minor factor, since nursing home care at $8,000 per month could cost you $24,000 with a 90-day waiting period before benefits kick in. The waiting period you choose should match the amount of liquid assets you expect to have available to cover it.
When you take a policy, be prepared to pay the premium for the rest of your life. If you take a policy at 60, stop making the payments at 80, then you need long-term care at 85, you’ll get no benefits from the lapsed policy.
According to the website Consumer Affairs, long-term care insurance premiums look something like this:
Now, the screenshot above reflects only sample averages for very specific policies at ages 55 and 65. The actual premium you will pay will be based on a combination of factors, including your age at the time of purchase, any health conditions you have, as well as the dollar amount and term of the benefits your policy will include.
Finally, given how complicated long-term care insurance is, it wouldn’t be overkill to have the policy reviewed by an attorney before accepting it. If so, an attorney who specializes in elder care will be your best choice.
Who Needs Long-Term Care Coverage?
The short answer to this question is everyone. The unfortunate reality is that people turning 65 have an almost 70% chance of needing some type of long-term care services during their lifetimes. Approximately 37% will require institutional care. And statistically, women and single individuals are more likely to require long-term care than men and married individuals.
If you’re unsure if you need long-term care, check out Jeff’s post, Long term care insurance: do you really need it?.
Though it isn’t well-known outside the industry, there are two basic types of long-term care coverage available. The first is a standalone long-term-care insurance policy.
Like a life insurance policy, medical underwriting will be performed. The insurance company will consider your age, your health condition, your family health history, your occupation, requested benefit levels, and other factors in approving your application and setting the premium level. This is the more costly of the two options.
The other is a hybrid policy. Most commonly, this is life insurance with long-term care benefits. You’ll purchase a basic life insurance policy, then add a long-term care rider to the policy. This will increase the premium on the life insurance policy, but it will be much less expensive than a standalone long-term-care policy.
Meanwhile, you’ll also have a death benefit from the life insurance policy, in addition to long-term-care coverage. But the policy may also include using some or all the death benefits to pay the long-term-care benefits. Your beneficiaries will receive only the amount of the unused death benefit upon your death.
Most of the best life insurance companies offer life insurance policies with this rider.
Another variant of this option is to use an annuity with long-term care rider. Annuities are designed to provide an income stream, very similar to a pension. But similar to a life insurance policy with a long-term care insurance rider, you can also add the rider to an annuity.
Again, it will be less expensive than purchasing a standalone long-term-care policy. And the long-term-care benefits may reduce any death benefit in your annuity. But the provision will be much less expensive than purchasing a standalone long-term-care policy.
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Finding the Right Policy
Long-term care insurance is one of the more complicated insurance types. It also includes more potential variables than other policies. For example, not only will you not know if you will need the coverage at all, but you won’t know when, to what degree, what level of care will be required, or how long it will be needed.
Because of all these variables, the cost of a long-term care insurance policy can be all over the place. But it may be better to pay a little bit more for a more comprehensive policy than to price-shop for the least expensive plan.
Before deciding to purchase a long-term-care insurance policy, first review Jeff’s Podcast episode: Long Term Care Insurance – How much do you need? Given how complicated long-term-care insurance is, it’s best to go in with as much knowledge as possible.
How We Found the Best Long-Term Care Insurance Companies
We used the following criteria to determine the best long-term care insurance companies of 2023:
Maximum Benefits: Given that the cost of long-term care can easily run into hundreds of thousands of dollars, we favored companies with the most generous lifetime benefits.
Benefit Period: One of the most basic problems with long-term care is the uncertainty. There’s no way to know in advance what level of care you might need, or how long it might be necessary. For that reason, we favor the companies that provide the most flexibility in this area.
Waiting/Elimination Period: Just as most insurance policies have deductibles, long-term care insurance uses the waiting period in much the same way. The standard delay on benefits is 90 days. But we prefer companies that offer longer waiting periods, since this will represent an opportunity to lower the cost.
Speaking of cost, as much as we would like to provide a list of average costs per provider, this information simply is not available. That’s because long-term care insurance is highly customized. There’s nothing approximating a “one-size-fits-all” policy, as each policy premium is determined by a multitude of factors.
These include your age at the time you purchase the policy, your general health condition, your family health history, the length and amount of coverage you need, and many other factors. The only way to get a reliable premium figure will be to contact one of the companies above and get a quote.
Best Long Term Care Insurance FAQs
What is long-term care insurance?
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Long-term care insurance is a type of coverage that will provide benefits to pay for your personal care when you’re no longer able to do so for yourself. While the typical long-term-care scenario involves a nursing home, it also applies in lesser situations. That can include assisted living arrangements, home nursing care, and even family care. The policy will begin paying benefits when you qualify for care based on inability to perform several of the ADLs.
What does long-term care insurance cover?
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As mentioned earlier, long-term care insurance benefits begin to apply when you are unable to perform activities of basic living. Depending on the type of policy you have, you’ll receive benefits for a stay in a nursing home, an assisted living facility, skilled nursing care, an adult day care, hospice, and even home care provided by your family.
Some policies will even provide for the cost of modifying your home to better accommodate your capabilities, or the purchase of certain helpful equipment.
How long does long-term care insurance work?
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A typical long-term-care insurance policy will pay benefits between two and five years, though some will go as long as seven, and a few providers offer lifetime benefits. You should be aware that you will need to qualify for whatever coverage term you prefer, and the longer the term, the higher the premium will be.
Is long-term care insurance worth it?
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It really depends on your perceived need for the coverage, and your ability to pay the premiums. Need can be determined by your family history. If you have multiple family members who require long-term care, having the coverage for yourself will be highly desirable. But if you’re in excellent health, and there’s little history of a need for care in your family, you may want to pass on the coverage.
And of course, given the high cost of the premiums, your ability to afford coverage can never be ignored. But if you have very limited financial means, Medicaid may provide benefits for long-term care. However, to qualify your total assets must generally be below $2,000.
Summary of the Best Long-Term Care Insurance Companies
Let’s wrap up this guide by giving you one more look at our list of the seven best long-term care insurance companies of 2023:
Long-term care insurance isn’t inexpensive. But given the unusually high likelihood that will be needed at some point in your life, it’s a policy worth having if you can afford it. And if you can’t, consider taking an annuity or a whole life insurance policy with a long-term care provision.
Northwestern Mutual Recognized by Forbes as one of America’s Best Employers for Diversity for Seventh Consecutive Year MILWAUKEE, April 26, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Northwestern Mutual, a leading financial services company, announced that it was selected by Forbes as one of America’s Best Employers for Diversity for the seventh year in a row. This honor – … [Read more…]
You were running around doing errands all weekend. From the field at your kid’s soccer game to the mall, it seems as though you covered every square inch of your town. You get home and check your pocket; your wallet is missing.
Don’t panic. In addition to calling your bank and credit card companies to report your cards lost or stolen or using your banking app to turn off your cards, you can take other steps to protect yourself from identity theft and credit card fraud.
In fact, if you have any reason to be concerned about identity theft or fraud,there’s a free service all three major credit bureaus (Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax) offer that can help you protect yourself: a fraud alert.
What Is a Credit Report Fraud Alert?
A credit report fraud alert tells creditors you may have recently been a victim of identity theft. Once you add a fraud alert to your credit report through one of the three major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion) that credit bureau also alerts the other two organizations. When potential lenders and creditors see a fraud alert, they should take additional steps to verify your identity before granting credit.
Credit report fraud alerts are different from other types of alerts, such as credit freezes or identity theft reports. A credit freeze prevents anyone, including you, from accessing your credit report without your permission. An identity theft report, as the name suggests, shows creditors that you recently fell victim to identity theft.
If you file an identity theft report, you should also put a fraud alert on your credit report or even freeze your report to make it harder for criminals to open new lines of credit in your name. As an added benefit, when you place a fraud alert on your credit report, you’re eligible to get a free copy of your credit report from all three credit bureaus twice in that year instead of just once.
Types of Credit Report Fraud Alerts
Consumers can rely on three different types of credit report fraud alerts, depending on the situation. They vary in duration and who qualifies for each type of alert.
Initial Fraud Alert
If you worry you’ve been a victim of fraud or just want an added layer of protection for your credit and identity, you can easily apply for an initial fraud alert. This alert lasts for one year. It encourages companies to take an extra step, like calling a phone number you provide, to confirm you filled out a new credit or loan application.
An initial fraud alert doesn’t prevent you from applying for new credit. (That’s the job of a credit freeze.) It also doesn’t prevent criminals from using your existing credit cards if they’ve gained access to your account number.
Extended Fraud Alert
An extended fraud alert lasts for seven years. It takes a little more paperwork to apply, but it’s also free.
You can only apply if you’re a victim of identity theft and file a police report or a report at IdentityTheft.gov. Since gathering all the documentation takes time, you can file an initial fraud alert in the meantime.
In addition to receiving an additional free copy of your credit report from all three bureaus the year you place the alert, you will also be removed from marketing lists for unsolicited credit card and insurance offers for five years.
Active-Duty Alert
Members of the U.S. military can protect their credit for added peace of mind while they’re deployed. An active-duty alert functions just like an initial fraud alert, making it harder for someone to open a new account in your name. Like an initial fraud alert, an active-duty alert lasts for one year.
How Credit Report Fraud Alerts Work
When you file a credit report fraud alert, banks, credit card companies, and lenders should take an extra step to verify your information before approving your credit application.
Often, that means they must call a phone number you provide to verify that you really completed the application. A fraud alert also allows you to secure a second free credit report from each of the three bureaus in the year you initiate the report.
Keep in mind that a fraud alert does not stop criminals from using your existing credit cards to make fraudulent purchases.
Placing a Credit Report Fraud Alert
Fortunately, it’s easy and free to place a fraud alert on your credit report. Once you place the alert with one credit bureau, they share the information with the other bureaus. The steps you take depend on whether you want to place an initial fraud alert or an extended one.
How to Place an Initial Fraud Alert
You don’t need to be a victim of identity theft or credit card fraud to request an initial fraud alert. To place one, reach out to one of the three credit bureaus. Each has a slightly different process.
Equifax
Visit Equifax’s fraud and active-duty alert page to place a fraud alert with Equifax. You must log in to your account and provide your name, address, and Social Security number. You can also call 800-525-6285 to request a fraud alert by phone.
Experian
To place a fraud alert with Experian, you can visit the fraud alert center and select “Add a fraud alert.” Choose the type of alert, and then fill out the information requested on the form. You need a valid email address and your Social Security number. You can also call to place a fraud alert at 888-EXPERIAN (888-397-3742).
TransUnion
To place your fraud alert with TransUnion, visit TransUnion’s fraud alert page. Log in to your TransUnion account and provide a valid email address and your Social Security number. You can also call 800-916-8800 to place a fraud alert by phone.
How to Place an Extended Fraud Alert on Your Credit Reports
Placing an extended fraud alert requires a few extra steps and some additional information. For example, you must file and submit an identity theft report. You can download the form to mail at these websites:
Each credit bureau has slightly different requirements to prove your identity and address.
Before mailing the form, gather all the documents you must mail with it, including the:
Police report, law enforcement agency report, or Federal Trade Commission identity theft report
Photocopy of documentation to prove your identity, such as your Social Security card, pay stub with your Social Security number, W2, or 1099.
Photocopy of paperwork to prove your mailing address, such as a driver’s license or state ID card, rental lease agreement, house deed, pay stub showing your address, bank statement with your address, or utility bill with your address.
TransUnion also accepts a canceled check with your home address, a stamped P.O. Box receipt, or a signed letter from a homeless shelter as proof of residence.
Once you’ve gathered this information, send it to one of the bureaus along with the extended fraud alert form you downloaded from the website. Experian allows you to upload the form and supporting documents electronically.
Once you’ve gathered the necessary documentation, mail the form you downloaded and printed to the appropriate address below.
Equifax Information Services LLC P.O. Box 105069 Atlanta, GA 30348-5069
If you’re wondering if you should place a credit report fraud alert, then you should. A fraud alert can help protect you from identity theft and credit card fraud, which provides added peace of mind.
If you’ve been a victim of fraud or recently lost your wallet or misplaced important documents like your driver’s license, it’s worth taking the time to place a credit report fraud alert.
Although a credit report fraud alert can’t stop thieves from using your existing credit cards (you have to report those stolen), it makes it harder for someone to open new credit in your name.
If you place an extended fraud alert, you’ll also be free from unsolicited credit card or insurance applications for five years. That means less junk mail and less chance thieves can open credit cards or apply for insurance in your name.
Final Word
While the Federal Trade Commission’s data shows instances of credit card fraud dropped slightly from 2021 to 2022, the amount of money scammed from consumers rose by 30% in the past year, up to a staggering $8.8 billion. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to protect yourself.
For instance, use virtual account numbers for online shopping, read your bank and credit card statements carefully, and sign up to receive notifications via text if a card shows unusual activity. Finally, set up an initial credit report fraud alert as an added layer of identity protection.
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Dawn Allcot is a full-time freelance writer and content marketing expert, specializing in personal finance, technology, real estate, and insurance. Her work has been widely published across the web, including on Bankrate, The Balance, Solvable, and the award-winning Chase News & Stories portal. Dawn is, additionally, the founder of GeekTravelGuide.net, a travel, technology, and entertainment website for the geek in all of us.
When J.D. announced that this week would be Book Week at GRS, I was excited about a set deadline for tackling a book from my ever-growing reading list. Since micro-finance and micro-credit have been of interest to me for the past four years or so, I decided to read Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and The Battle Against World Poverty by Muhammad Yunus. (J.D. reviewed the same book in 2007. Read his take here.)
Nobel Peace Prize winner Yunus is the founder of Grameen Bank, an organization that helps the world’s poorest, especially women, escape poverty through micro-loans, which are small loans given to start a business.
Banker to the Poor chronicles Yunus’ journey from a “bird’s-eye-view economist, teaching elegant theories in a classroom, to a worm’s-eye-view practitioner” and the creation of Grameen, a bank owned by its poor borrowers that boasts a loan recovery rate of 97.29%.
Meeting Sufiya Begum In 1974, professor Yunus, then a Bangladeshi economist from Chittagong University, took his students on a field trip to a poor village. There they interviewed Sufiya Begum, a woman reluctant to talk to them due to the village’s strictly-observed custom of purdah, meaning curtain or veil, that virtually secludes Muslim women from the outside world. Eventually Sufiya came to the doorway and told Yunus and his students about the economics behind the bamboo stools she made. To make one stool, she had to buy 22 cents worth of bamboo with a loan from local moneylenders, who charged her 10% per week. Her net profit was just two cents per stool.
Barely able to feed herself and her family on two cents per day, Sufiya was essentially enslaved to the lenders. She couldn’t save money or invest in her business because she was barely able to eat. All for a lack of 22 cents.
Yunus was shocked to realize that if Sufiya just had access to a loan at a better rate, she could feed, clothe, and house her children and expand her business, raising her family above the poverty line.
The birth of Grameen Yunus collected data on the village to find out how many borrowers were dependent on the moneylenders, finding that 42 people borrowed a little less than $27. He loaned them the money. Yunus writes:
It struck me that what I had done was drastically insufficient…My response had been ad hoc and emotional. Now I needed to create an institutional answer that these people could rely on. What was required was an institution that would lend to those who had nothing.
Yunus fought through red tape from banking institutions, governments, and local customs. With great tenacity, he found a way around numerous roadblocks with a passionate devotion to the people he was serving.
In 1983, Yunus formed the Grameen Bank. Grameen now has 2,564 branches, with 19,800 staff serving 8.29 million borrowers in 81,367 villages. Despite the warnings from traditional bankers, 97% of the loans are paid back. Yunus wasn’t surprised by this, as he knew the poor, who had no cash cushion and no other options, would not blow their one chance to get out of poverty.
A focus on women From the start, Yunus wanted to focus granting loans to women, with a goal of having 50% of the borrowers be female. It was an uphill battle to say the least. Yunus had to fight against customs, religious zealots, and banking institutions that effectively excluded women (they could make deposits, but couldn’t get a loan without the presence of their husbands). From birth, these women are routinely told they are unwanted and should have been killed at birth or starved — that they are just another mouth to feed and dowry to pay.
Additionally, Yunus saw that starvation and poverty were more of a woman’s issue than a man’s. If one family member has to starve so that the others can eat, it’s an unwritten rule that it must be the mother. A man also can throw his wife out at any time, simply by repeating “I divorce thee” three times, leaving her unwanted in her parents’ home or begging on the streets. But when a woman is given the means to support herself, her success focuses on her children and household. Yunus writes:
Though they cannot read or write and have rarely been allowed to step out of their homes alone…they pay more attention, prepare their children to lead better lives, and are more consistent in their performance than men. When a destitute mother starts earning an income, her dreams of success invariably center around her children…When a destitute father earns extra income, he focuses more attention on himself. Thus money entering a household through a woman brings more benefits to the family as a whole.
It took six years to reach the goal of 50% female borrowers. Today women make up 97% of Grameen borrowers.
Grameen around the world As Grameen and its methods expanded, Yunus would constantly hear that micro-lending wouldn’t work in another village or country. But to Yunus, people who were poor — which he defined as not having access to shelter, clean water, and a constant supply of food — had a lot in common no matter the geography.
One of the most touching stories in Banker to the Poor was that of an impoverished 40-something woman who made quilts. Through an interpreter, she told Yunus she was initially afraid when a bank staff member came to see her. Her husband didn’t like her talking to outsiders or leaving her home without him.
Though the staff member told her about the women in Bangladesh who were changing their lives, and she wanted to be like them, things where she lived “were so rough.” She didn’t dare do this herself, saying, “My husband would kill me if I created trouble for him.” The staff member introduced her to other women in the neighborhood, and eventually they formed a group. (Group meetings were a requirement for a loan through the local micro-finance organization, which critics said made it too hard for the poor to borrow money.) The woman eventually took out a loan, quickly repaying it and applying for another. Her quilts are in such high demand, she can barely fill her orders.
This woman, who spoke only Spanish, lived in Chicago, Illinois.
She never thought she’d earn her own money, she told Yunus. In fact, she never thought she’d have any money at all, since her husband never gave her any. In the 15 years that she had lived in America, she didn’t even have a friend until meeting the four women in her group, who she came to regard as sisters.
Today Grameen methods are applied in projects in 58 countries.
The politics of micro-lending Grameen and micro-lending have been criticized by the Right and the Left, and it doesn’t seem to side with either, despite Yunus’ praise for Democratic politicians and criticisms of Republicans. Grameen supports smaller government and criticizes welfare programs that don’t allow people to break out of the poverty cycle — yet it’s committed to social objectives and social intervention in the form of policy packages (without government involvement).
No matter your politics, Banker to the Poor is an inspiring memoir that will give you a new understanding of poverty around the world, micro-lending, and socially-responsible enterprises.
Note: You can read more about Yunus at PBS The New Heroes, a series about 14 social entrepreneurs.
Wouldn’t it be great if we could live comfortably in the biggest, busiest cities in the world with whatever we earn from our regular, underpaid jobs? Many of our favorite TV shows seem to insinuate that’s very much possible, leaving us to question our very existence and the choices we’ve made.
It just seems that some of TV’s most memorable characters can afford so much with their 9 to 5 jobs, without sacrificing too much. For example, Ross Geller lives in a two-bedroom apartment in New York and Philip Banks is happy in a 5-bedroom mansion in Bel Air – so what’s their secret?
Conservatory Blinds 4 Less, a UK company, has gathered some data regarding the realistic average wages of 5 of our favorite on-screen characters and matched them against real-life monthly expenses like rent, food, healthcare, child care, transport and other necessities.
The goal? To find an answer to the question: Could these pop culture icons live so comfortably in the real world? See below for a breakdown — or check out the interactive slideshow for a quick overview:
Homer Simpson
Homer Simpson is one of our favorite indolent characters. He lives with his wife Marge and his three children — Bart, Lisa and Maggie. Homer works at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant as a Nuclear Safety Inspector and he is the family’s main provider, as Marge is a stay-at-home mom.
Since we’re using real world averages for all the characters’ earnings, let’s assume that in the real world Homer would earn about $4,299/month.
Now, the median rent price for a 4 bedroom house in Springfield, Oregon was $1,297 per month in 2019, and real estate agents recommend that your rent should cost no more than 1/3rd of your monthly earnings.
Considering other expenses such as utilities, food, healthcare, transport and other necessities, the whole family would need around $5,788.76 per month to make ends meet. So realistically, they would have gone bankrupt in no time — or would have likely downsized to a smaller structure to serve as the Simpson’s house.
Ross Geller
A paleontologist by profession, Ross Geller from Friends has a Ph.D. from Columbia University. He’s the kind of guy who’d love to settle, but somehow becomes some sort of divorce champion among his friends that fathers two children with two different women.
Ross is responsible for all his expenses, so according to some recent calculations, living in a two-bedroom apartment at 19 Grove Street and having a pretty cool lifestyle (with incredibly frequent coffee breaks throughout the day), would cost him around $4,931.51 per month.
University Professors earn an average of $3,836.25 per month (after tax). You do the math, but if we’re right, real-life Ross would be unable to afford everything we’re presented with in the show. However, he could continue living in NYC if he’d choose a smaller apartment with a significantly lower rent.
Philip Banks
Philip Banks is a main character on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air – a strict man, yet a kind, loving husband and father. Philip is a federal judge which should normally have an annual income of $68,176 after tax, or $5,681 per month.
Considering that he lives with his family in a 5 bedroom mansion in Bel Air, their overall expenses should reach a monthly total of $10,696.
Banks would obviously need to double his income in order to afford such a lifestyle. While the family is likely to have some money saved up, without any lifestyle changes, the Banks would not be able to live in their gorgeous mansion for too long.
Sheldon Cooper
Dr. Sheldon Lee Cooper from The Big Bang Theory is a Caltech theoretical physicist, an unsung genius who started college at the age of 11, and received his first Ph.D. at the age of 16. Despite the fact that he has countless annoying habits, Sheldon still managed to get under our skin.
As a theoretical physicist in the real world, Sheldon would earn an average wage of or $7,225.50 per month.
Since the monthly costs of living in a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom apartment in Pasadena would reach an average of $4,882.29 (including bills and other necessities), Sheldon is more than capable of affording his lifestyle.
Not to mention than he also has a roommate for the biggest part of the show, so that should definitely help him put some money in the bank for darker times. We’re finally facing a realistic approach here (though I would love to see what the study would say of Penny’s entire living situation).
Walter White’s house
Walter Hartwell White Sr., also known as Heisenberg, is the main character in Breaking Bad. The former chemist drastically changed his life after being diagnosed with Stage 3A inoperable lung cancer. In order to afford treatments and provide for his family in the event of his passing, Walter starts cooking crystal meth.
In this particular case, we can only assume the amount of money Walter gets for meth cooking – a lot! It is crystal clear that he can afford just about anything his heart desires. But with a bunch of people wanting him dead or in jail, paying rent is Walter’s last concern.
Bottom line
The next time you see a character living “the good life”, try to consider things from a more realistic point of view. Living in the middle of a big city and having a cool lifestyle requires a serious monthly income, and sometimes a movie is just a movie.
Also, please don’t consider getting into the meth business – this kind of stuff never ends well.
More homes from popular TV shows
Is It Real? Charlie’s Beach House in ‘Two and a Half Men’ Tracking Down Barney Stinson’s Apartment from HIMYM? Challenge Accepted! Daniel LaRusso’s House on Cobra Kai: A Real-Life Tuscan-Style Villa Decoding the Mystery of Captain Raymond Holt’s House in Brooklyn Nine Nine