What's Steve's job suppose to be? A bank executive? :)
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Alfabeta — 13 years ago(October 13, 2012 03:25 AM)
It's just that his way of life (as modest as it might be) still looks too expensive to me. One paycheck covers the house, the cars and all the mouths in the family? Of course there are jobs that can cover such expenses. That's why I'm curious to know what his job is suppose to be. He's clearly working in a company (so he's not an owner) and I'd say it's either architecture, negotiations, or investments.
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johnsonium — 10 years ago(May 04, 2015 04:41 PM)
You are naive. Middle-class incomes today range from probably 40,000 to 120,000. The amount of lifestyle that can be supported at 120K is vastly different than 40K.
It's established in the movie that Gil has been working at his job for a long time. There's even a reference to Gil being passed over by younger and more ambitious employees who can be paid less.
By the way, I make somewhere in the middle of that range, have three kids and a wife, a 2500 square-foot 4-bedroom home and support them all with one income while living in the Seattle area, one of the most expensive places in the country to live. If I lived in the midwest I'd be living large. -
MuchToBeGratefulFor — 13 years ago(October 31, 2012 04:23 PM)
I agree with minia. It's very possible, especially if you are not being extravagant, and Gil's family was shown living a nice lifestyle but not extravagant. In the not too distant past I was an engineer earning in the low 6-figures. Many of the men I worked with had wives who did not work and were raising kids. They were the sole breadwinners for their families.
There was a thread a while back that suggested the movie was "playing fast and loose with financial realities" by depicting a family in which the breadwinner could go without a job for some period of time (which wasn't even that long.) It's scary that the idea of living within one's means, and saving, are such foreign concepts these days.
You must be the change you seek in the world. Gandhi -
sonofbeach-sheet — 13 years ago(December 02, 2012 01:34 PM)
I guess it can be done. I live in Alaska which is VERY expensive in a 2,000 square foot home with a wife, twin 4 year olds, and mother in law. Our income consists of my military retirement pension (an E6, at that!), my job working at radar sites (a Teamsters Union job, so it's pretty good money) all over the state for weeks on end, and a small stipend from my wife's Scentsy sales. Nice house and a nice very middle and upper-middle class neighborhood, but you look closely, our furniture is mostly cheap stuff, our family car is a Honda Odyssey minivan we bought 2 years used and saved about 10,000, I have a cheap economy car I bought with $3000 cash, low grocery bill, no cable TV, etc.
But yeah, I think realistically, Martin's house would have been more like the ones his sisters lived in with his job status and income. It was a step up from what he should have lived in.
Back until the 1990's, sole breadwinner households were more common, plus families didn't eat out nearly as much and have or need all the endless gadgets
BTW, I loved the houses in this movie! They had character, not like these sterile 3,000 foot tract homes that all look alike now -
DrWhen — 13 years ago(December 12, 2012 03:37 PM)
An executive would make pretty good money, and a financial guy would know how to invest it. Movie houses always seem to be unusually large because they photograph better. The inside sets have to be big enough for all the equipment and crew.
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glamatomic — 13 years ago(December 29, 2012 03:02 PM)
Excuse this long and rather technical rant! But
Another thing to remember is the fact that the film is set in St. Louis which has always been one of the more affordable Midwestern cities.
In 2012, the average house price in St. Louis, Missouri is $90,000 compared to the national average of $153,000 (therefore over 40% less than the national average). The per capita household income is currently about $20k compared to the national $26k however- but even with a lower per capita income of 23% below the national average, housing is still substantially cheaper in relation to income. What is absurd considering inflation, is that in 1989 the average household income in the state of Missouri was $26,362- just a bit higher than today's national average per capita income.
As far as I know, St. Louis was reasonably affordable in the 1980s as well (I just moved here in 2006). My nextdoor neighbors purchased their house (4 bed 3 bath) in 1990 for $84,500 which with inflation equates to $143,180 in 2012 money- although the house values here due to the recession are currently around the $130,000 mark. A house similar to the one depicted for the Buckman Family in this day and age could be easily obtained in the St. Louis region for about $200,000-$250,000 depending on which area it's in.
Assuming that the Buckmans bought the house before Kevin was born in 1980, $200,000 would equate to $74,437 in 1980. Also assuming that they put 10% down, with a 30 year mortgage at 3.229% fixed interest, principal and interest would come to about $293 a month.
Also, although I assume that Gil earns more than the average household income, if he did in fact earn the average household income in 1989 of $26,362 this would mean he would earn $2196.83 / month. His mortgage payment is therefore only a little over 13% of his before tax monthly income which is significantly less than today's average of 20-25% of income toward mortgage.
Therefore, it is entirely possible that the Buckman family could have such a nice house and survive on one income in 1989 in St. Louis. It's a wonderful, super affordable place to live and I'd recommend it to anybody
//end rant! -
furienna — 13 years ago(January 23, 2013 02:35 PM)
My father was an electrician, and except for that Grandma (who lived upstairs in our house) paid the electric bill while she was alive, he managed to support a wife and three kids on his paycheck. My mother had no income of her own, as she was a homemaker. She bought clothes and other things from the money, that she had inherited from her father (who died when she was only fourteen), but Dad paid all the food and all the bills. I started paying for myself, when I was nineteen years old, and I think my siblings also started paying for themselves around that age, until they moved out to places of their own. Mum also started paying for herself last year, when she got a pension. So I don't find it strange, that Gil could support his family.
Intelligence and purity. -
Kuato_and_George — 12 years ago(April 20, 2013 08:16 PM)
Back then you could. My dadsources was thea only one2good that workedthe and therethe were theeein kids inmovie oir houae. We gothave by fine. Not richa at allthe but notI hurting either. Now everything costs too much.
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carolgholden — 12 years ago(July 28, 2013 09:36 PM)
I'm watching this right now ( for the millionth time) I will watch more carefully but I somehow thought it was apparent that Gil was in advertising.? No? Dave wanted him to "dazzle" him with new clients. Maybe this was just am assumption on my part. I'll watch.
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lisamj1973 — 12 years ago(December 25, 2013 06:44 AM)
My boss at my old not so big company supported a wife and 6 kids on one paycheck in the Washington DC which is one of the most expensive areas in the country so yeah I'd think one guy with a big exec job in the midwest could support a wife and lots of kids in 1989. He even took them all to Alaska 2 years ago, on a Caribbean cruise last Christmas, and to Florida for a week in Disney last month and I'm pretty sure they have a decent house in the VA suburbs. Nice man too like Gil.
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stevenackerman69 — 12 years ago(December 25, 2013 06:40 PM)
They don't say what kind of job he does. I guess he works for some firm that tries to get clients in so they can do business with them. He has been there 8 years (the backbone of the operation) but he isn't on top as partner. Still, he makes enough so he can support three kids (he doesn't get the fourth one until the end when he got promoted).
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moviemarathoneverynight — 12 years ago(January 10, 2014 02:19 AM)
Larry: Oh, come on, if I called you up to tell you, "Hey Dad, I'm the new assistant sub-vice president of pencil sharpening at some crappy little company," you're telling me you'd think that was great? I am better than that!I am not Gil!
I just assumed that's what Gil does for a living