- Insurance, health especially
From a former LHE semipro to full time NLSH pro, all these numbers are a bit skewed and I'll give my opinion.
Health insurance isn't as expensive as you would think. In fact, insurance IN GENERAL isnt as expensive as you guys are making it out to be. Here is what I pay, granted, I'm a single 23 y.o. male, driving a 2006 Cobalt SS, living in a 1000 sq ft apartment in the middle of central illinois:
Car Insurance: $140/month
Renter's inurance: $15/month
Life Insurance: $25/month (150k benefit)
Health Insurance, w/ BCBS Selectblue advantage: $77/month
Total insurance cost: $260 per month.
Girlfriend, to wife, to kids
I'm single, but I live a pretty decent life. I spend lots of money on food and xbox stuff. Also, let the gf get a job and pay for herself. If you want to buy her something, $50/week would be plenty. I won't include this in my monthly cost but if you want to add it in go ahead.
Easiest answer to this question is to not Buy a new one. Leasing is a better option and it has a lower monthly payment than owning. I took a loan on my car tho so I pay $420 per month for my payment. Remember i got mine brand new and I'm 23, so this could very easily be 1/2-1/3 as much if you're not a baller like me
.
This is a bit gray area, but $4k/year into an IRA aint all too shabby, at the time being this is my only retirement savings. I'll have other SEP plans available for me later but at the time being I'd rather not have money set aside for retirement and leave it in my BR for now. But frankly, thats my own plan and if you want money in retirement thats okay too. (I do have 50% of my BR though actively in the stock market).
This is again another muddled area. With neteller on the fritz its a little more difficult to get money to the checking account. But i usually have enough for 1 month's expenses in there but can get money in there quickly from either the market or my poker accounts. You need to have a budget and be able to plan out effectively.
Not necessary. Also, online poker allows you to travel and play at the same time so this isnt that big an expense.
- Elder parents
- Stability
Now your just making up stuff....
Okay, so what's my bottom line? My estimate is that I spend ~1700/month on all expenses sans food. I also live by myself paying $750 rent (where I could easily find a place 1/2 as much). With food, fun, and other expenses (including student loans) I'm looking at roughly $2700 in expenses alone each month. This has to be after taxes, so roughly I need to make $3600 a month just to get by. I played 110-120 hours of poker last month, so roughly $30/hour is the bare minimum for me.
$30/hour sucks ass guys if you're playing online poker. I would say $50-$60 per hour after rakeback is the minimum you should make if you don't want to spend nights worried about how things are going to work out.
And finally, stay away from the crypto LHE games, both in any currency. Tons of proppers and they rake the crap out of the gdp games (3 units of gdp = 5 units of usd). Figure out that math and its so so so sick.