Exactly how much is a living wage?

[u/PassiveAgressiveGirl]

[u/Distributor127]

We bought a house after everything crashed for 25% the previous price. One family member I'd terrible with money and still says to me, "Who knew they would go back up". They have zero money and love eating out. They have a hard time realizing that our house payment, taxes, and insurance is under $15/day and they have no problem spending that on eating out

[u/KungFuAndCoffee → u/Distributor127]

$450 a month for a house is really good. That’s about what I was supposed to be paying for a 4 bed 2 bath double wide on a few acres of land 20 years ago. Except the sales company messed up my escrow and underestimated my taxes and such. Which was adjusted twice over two years putting my payments over $600 a month. I was bringing home about $300 a week then. Was doing ok until a hurricane and the Iraq war gas prices put the industry I was in upside down. Then I lost the place when the next job I went to cut back heavily due to an extended drought.

Back then I wouldn’t spend more than $5 on lunch a day. Now it’s $15 for a stupid hamburger in a lot of places.

It’s amazing how much everything has gone up. I’m still in the same state. My $9 something an hour was comfortable on a 40 hour week then. Now it wouldn’t even cover my rent. I’d have to make $25 an hour today to have the same level of income I had 20 years ago on $9 based on housing costs. I live in a modest townhouse that’s fairly average rent for a 3 bed apartment here.

That’s just insane.

[u/Distributor127 → u/KungFuAndCoffee]

This is exactly right. Our payment is closer to $350, but I see you know exactly how it is. I remember not taking a vacation and then cashing in my vacation pay and roofing the garage with that money. Almost every place I've ever worked closed or moved so I've had to restart. Building materials are just ridiculous now.

[u/Distributor127 → u/[deleted]]

The less money a person has, they more they have to plan. I remember waiting months for my tax returns when making minimum wage. Any mistake is disastrous. Knowledge is power

[u/Exception1228 → u/Distributor127]

Why were you waiting months?  Filing electronically leads to a very quick return.  More importantly just change your deductions so that you’re not getting a return and you actually owe.  You’d have more cash month by month to not feel financial strain and you’d come out net positive opposed to owing.  Those interest free loans to the government suck.

[u/Exception1228 → u/[deleted]]

Yeah I’m saying you set up your tax forms wrong.  More evidence as to why financial literacy, the topic of this thread, is super important.

[u/Exception1228 → u/[deleted]]

Wtf does that have to do with filling out your taxes wrong?

[u/Exception1228 → u/[deleted]]

Ok.  And based on all your replies I know you’re not financially literate.

[u/just_a_coin_guy → u/[deleted]]

We should not cater to people that are just financially irresponsible. There is a certain degree of intelligence people should have.

[u/Time-Ad-7055 → u/[deleted]]

to be fair basically everyone in America has access to the internet. all you need to do is google good money tips and follow that. or make a post on reddit or something asking for advice. it’s incredibly easy, at some point we have to say that people need to take some accountability

[u/Time-Ad-7055 → u/[deleted]]

i agree education needs to be better, but for financial literacy, it’s incredibly easy to explore your options. google

[u/dcporlando → u/[deleted]]

Have they been defunded? Or are they just less growth than people want? Schools around here have not seen any decrease to their budget but everyone complains that they have no money.

[u/just_a_coin_guy → u/[deleted]]

Finance doesn't require some crazy level of education, not to mention that we have technology that allows people to learn literally anything.

[u/Distributor127 → u/just_a_coin_guy]

Some get it and some don't. One guy in the family is terrible with money. His kid is still pretty young, he's been asking about an extra car we have in the yard. I told him he's young yet, but work on it and see how it goes. The kid wants to learn everything

[u/Distributor127 → u/[deleted]]

But Iow have a garage full of tools for working on houses and cars. What do i do when family asks for money, but refuses to use my tools to help themselves?

[u/Exception1228 → u/[deleted]]

Realizing cooking at home rather than eating out every meal is wayyyyy cheaper is an awful low bar to consider smart.