I know some people in China might be interested in the sort of lifestyle we have in the United States, how much things cost and that sort of thing. Here is our monthly household budget in RMB (Chinese currency) and NTD (Taiwan's currency):
My monthly salary
|
RMB 28,481
|
NT$ 131,579
|
Tax on our house (property tax)
|
RMB 1,912
|
NT$ 8,833
|
Illinois State Taxes on sales and income
|
RMB 1,653
|
NT$ 7,639
|
Federal Income Tax
|
RMB 2,289
|
NT$ 10,573
|
Medicare Tax
|
RMB 278
|
NT$ 1,287
|
House Payment for Mortgage
|
RMB 4,462
|
NT$ 20,614
|
House Insurance
|
RMB 646
|
NT$ 2,982
|
Electricity and water and sewer services
|
RMB 1,684
|
NT$ 7,778
|
Health insurances for family
|
RMB 1,335
|
NT$ 6,170
|
Car Payment or Savings to buy a car
|
RMB 2,532
|
NT$ 11,696
|
Gas for the car
|
RMB 759
|
NT$ 3,509
|
Save for car maintenance and repairs
|
RMB 570
|
NT$ 2,632
|
Car Insurance
|
RMB 1,829
|
NT$ 8,450
|
Retirement Pension Contribution
|
RMB 2,025
|
NT$ 9,357
|
Internet Service
|
RMB 297
|
NT$ 1,374
|
Phone Service
|
RMB 139
|
NT$ 643
|
Donations to charities, schools, and causes
|
RMB 392
|
NT$ 1,813
|
Education fund for sons (college savings)
|
RMB 1,424
|
NT$ 6,579
|
Savings for travel or paying off costs of travel
|
RMB 1,582
|
NT$ 7,310
|
Food
|
RMB 1,785
|
NT$ 8,246
|
All other expenses
|
RMB 886
|
NT$ 4,094
|
My wife earns money as well, and she helps pay for food and all the other expenses, so our household income and spending are actually about 115% more than what I have listed here, but I keep track of my own income and spending, and I haven't added in my wife's income or spending here. If we add her spending, I think our monthly food expenses are probably close to 4,000 Ren Min Bi or 18,600 New Taiwan Dollars.
Our transportation costs (owning a car, driving it, maintaining it, insuring it) are about 20% of our expenditure, and our housing expenses (mortgage, home-owners insurance, utilities, saving money for home repairs, etc.) is close to 25% of our spending. I think Americans enjoy some of the lowest food costs relative to their incomes. If our total household income is about 32,700 RMB per month (when you include my wife's income) and our spending on food is about 4,000 RMB (when you include my wife's spending), we're only putting about 12.2% of our income toward food. I believe in many societies households spend about 30% or more of their income on food.
