This is Ashley from Store #344.
Store number 344 is n Paramus, New Jersey. I decided to see how feasible Ashley's plans to hit her fitness goals were. So first I had to locate store #344. Google got that right away, It took a little longer to figure out the cost of living in Paramus.
I do some bankruptcy law so I started by trying to find the allowable expenses in Paramus. Bankruptcy allowances are not particularly generous but seem like they would be on track for a young single person. So is Ashley single? Well assuming she follows normal American conventions and customs she is not married or engaged.
Ashley is expected by the Bankruptcy Trustee to spend $315 a month on food, $30 on Housekeeping supplies, $68 on clothing and laundry, $34 on personal care products and services, and gets $115 for miscellaneous expenses.
That miscellaneous is really necessary. A woman cannot get her hair to look like Ashley's on 34 bucks a month. But in any event Ashley is expected to spend $583 dollars a month on personal expenses. Of course she has to have a place to live so let's look at that.
Unless she has aged preternaturally well she is under the age of 30. Kids these days don't strike out on their own because Baby Boomers have screwed up the world too much for basic economic necessities like rent, utilities, and food to be affordable if you are on your own. At least this is what I read from Millennial writers. For purposes of our hypothetical we will assume she is living with two roommates, Kristen and Mary, and they are sharing expenses.
Ashley probably isn't renting from Louie Kritski. Apartments.com did not have anything below $1350 a month, and that was a one bedroom apartment. Ashley and her two roommates probably want two bedrooms and those were north of two grand. To simplify things we'll say she pays $700 a month in rent because Ashley looks like a bright gal and a tough negotiator so Joe Pesci gave her a good rate.
I decided I did not want to spend more time than I already have trying to figure out what things cost in New Jersey. They cost too much and once again I am glad to live in the Midwest. So we will be once again using figures from the Trustee's Office for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. In Bergen County where Paramus is located Ashley is expected to have $546 in non rent/mortgage expenses for her residence,
Ashley has to get herself to work. Here we are going to assume she is a scion from moderate privilege and she still has the Subaru her parents got her and it is in good mechanical condition. Once again we turn to the Trustee and are told that Ashley can have $319 in transportation expenses.
Barring support from her parents, a boyfriend without the good sense to lock her down, or a sugar daddy, (I know i am being hetero-normative.) Ashley is getting by on what she makes at Best Buy. But what does Ashley make? The good people at Indeed.com can give us some help. (Well I don't know if they are good or not but they have numbers we can use so we'll continue to operate under the assumption that the employees, management, and investors at Indeed.com are good until we have evidence indicating otherwise.)
The ad doesn't tell us what Ashley's job is so we will have to figure it out for ourselves. Ashley looks happy so she doesn't deal with the customers all day, I think we can rule out low end sales. They want us to think she is an every-person so I think we can rule out General Manager and Store Manager. This leaves us with Sales Manager. As sales Manager Ashley is spared from the constant drone of the customers who have not figured out how to buy from Amazon and she is definitely qualified for the position with her double major in English Lit and History. So we can assume she is making $49,228 a year or $4102 a month.
We have totaled Ashley's expenses at $2,148 a month so far. But Ashley exercises and eats fresh veggies so she is planning for the future. That means she is setting back at least 10% of her income for retirement and has insurance. So we'll need to take out another $410 for retirement and $50 a week for insurance. I know $50 a week seems low but I am tired of looking things up and even though I keep referring to we and us throughout this post, we know I am doing all the work on this project. So Ashley has expenses of $2608 a month. Taxes are going to eat up about 35% or $1435. Adding her totals Ashley is spending $4043 a month. This does not leave her with a lot of room in her budget for a $2000 exercise bike.
But if Ashley is really dedicated to fitness and hitting her goals she can probably use the financing option. She can probably afford another $56 bucks a month, so it is feasible.
And now having spent way too much time on this I am done.
Later,
Bob
