Google employee lives paycheck to paycheck while spending

A Silicon Valley CEO recently shared the story of a couple who, despite earning impressive salaries, live paycheck to paycheck due to their expensive lifestyle. Damon Chen, founder of Testimonial.to, said he was surprised when he learned that the couple manages to spend a staggering $30,000 per month (roughly ₹25 lakh) on mortgages, utilities, tuition and groceries combined.
Chen said he initially refused to believe his friend when he claimed to be living paycheck to paycheck as he is a well-paid techie in Google. However, a breakdown of their expenses convinced him that his friend was not lying.
Chen found that the Google employee and his wife were paying $17,000 every month as mortgage for their $3 million home in the San Francisco Bay Area. Property tax and private school fees for their child took up another chunk of their salaries at $3,000 each.
Utilities, eating out, groceries, travel and the upkeep of two cars brought their monthly expenditure to a staggering $30,000.

“My friend told me he and his wife live paycheck to paycheck. I don’t believe it because they both are high earners in tech, and he even works for Google. But after doing a little bit of math, I found out he didn’t lie,” the founder of Testimonial.to wrote on X.
Chen said that the couple spent USD 30,000 on their lifestyle, “not including other miscellaneous costs like house maintenance, paying for Netflix etc.”
The Silicon Valley CEO raised concerns about their lifestyle, with respondents noting how the couple barely have any savings despite earning better than the average American.
“W-2 employees usually take home only 50% of their salary, so they have to make $60k per month pretax, which is $720k in annual TC,” Chen wrote. “What’s the point of living a life like this?” he asked.
“This is why I left the Bay Area and will never move back. I grew up there, and the quality of life is so very low compared to every other city I’ve lived in (8 cities in total),” wrote one X user.
“People living ‘paycheck to paycheck’ don’t have a 3 million dollar home. You’re confusing the phrase with ‘living above their means.’ They put themselves in a financially difficult situation, but they also have the power to change that at any time,” another opined.
“This isn’t paycheck to paycheck; it’s lifestyle inflation and excessive spending,” X user Patrick agreed.