What’s a woman to do when she can no longer afford $114 a pair for her kids jeans and the cost of the pool man is putting a squeeze on the budget?  Oh, the agony of having to live on just $300,000 a year.   I know I’ll certainly spend a moment of silence wishing for better times for Laura Steins.

The divide between the haves and have nots is growing ever wider and the disconnect on the part of people like Ms. Steins is mind-boggling.  She says she doesn’t mind saying she is barely squeaking by with just $300,000 a year when she should be ashamed.  People all over the country are losing their homes to foreclosure, elderly people in particular are having to choose between food or medicine and this idiot is whining because she can no longer afford the $8,000 – $10,000 A MONTH that is required to keep her $2.5 million house going.  She says she can’t sell the house because it’s where her kids go to school and it’s where she works.  Really?  There’s nothing within a 25 mile radius of her work but a $2.5 million mansion?  Her kids would just die if they had to change schools?  Yes, the real estate market is slow but that’s not unique to her and many people have been forced to sell homes they can’t afford.

And bless her little heart she’s going to take a whole 10% cut in her bonus this year…..what a disaster that is especially compared to the millions of people who have found themselves with no job in the last couple of years. What’s being unemployed in comparison to her cut in pay?

Bravely Moving Forward

But, to give credit where credit is due, Ms. Stein is involved in a group called the Stephen Ministry who wrestle with how to help members struggling through the crisis.  They get together and talk about how tough it is to cut back on the gardener and do their own weeding.  They even encourage people to come to a ministry party wearing – gasp – old clothes and EVEN hand- me- downs.  One guest arrived in khakis anyway because his jeans were just too vintage.  I’m not sure I own jeans that aren’t “vintage” – but of course dressing to impress isn’t real high on my list nowadays.

But Stein is a fighter who displays a rare courage by forging ahead and buying a new sweater at Ann Taylor’s actually using a 20% off coupon, a sweater she just absolutely needs to wear to the party she was invited to in the Hamptons…..a party of 70 who make do with a recession meal of champagne, oysters and shrimp.   My God, don’t these brave little soldiers make you proud?

Laura Steins doesn’t mind saying that she is barely squeaking by on $300,000 a year. She lives in a place where the boom years of Wall Street pushed the standard of living to astonishing heights. Where fifth-graders shop at a store called Lester’s that sells $114 tween-size True Religion jeans. Where a cup of fresh spinach and carrot juice called the Iron Maiden costs $7.95.

By local standards, Steins occupies the lower rung of affluence — the rung where every dollar now matters.

As a vice president at MasterCard’s corporate office in Purchase, N.Y., she earns a base pay of $150,000 plus a bonus. This year she’ll take home 10 percent less because of a smaller bonus. She receives $75,000 a year in child support from her ex-husband. She figures she will pull an additional $50,000 from a personal investment account to “pick up the slack.”

The nanny and property taxes take $75,000 right off the top, but Steins considers both non-negotiable facts of her life and not discretionary. When she bought out her husband’s share of the house after their 2006 divorce, she assumed the costs of keeping it afloat — $8,000 to $10,000 a month. There’s a pool man, a gardener and someone to plow the snow from the quarter-mile-long driveway.

As tight as money is, she has decided that living in a 4,000-square-foot house on three acres is the practical thing to do. “A), I couldn’t sell the house right now,” she says, citing the slow real estate market. “B), this is where my kids go to school. And C), it’s where my job is.”

Rest Of Article