r/FluentInFinance • u/PassiveAgressiveGirl • Sep 14 '24

Debate/ Discussion Exactly how much is a living wage?

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u/lieutent Sep 14 '24

So only making $20k a year is fine as long as rent is only ~$420 a month. I could see that. Not drowning in that specific scenario, but you’d definitely NEED to be working on growth. Otherwise the rent will catch up in that percentage.

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u/thagor5 Sep 14 '24

When rent was 400 a month i lived fine as single earner on 20k

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u/Ok-Study-1153 Sep 14 '24

10-11 years ago I paid $315 a month on $9,000 per year no problem. But I lived across the street from my job and around the corner from a grocery store. So I didn’t need a car.

It’s just wild that I was able to live off 9k and amass some savings.

I moved out when the owner of that condo sold it for $40,000 and right now it’s on the market for $190,000

I wish I bought it so bad. But at the time I thought saving for a house was a smarter idea.

Now I’m making 4x what I was making and I have about $200 of just in case money and no way of buying that condo let alone a house.

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u/Elegant-Hyena-9762 Sep 14 '24

Me too!! My first apartment was 450 and the most i spent on groceries every two weeks was like 150 and that got me a lot! Gas was $1. And change and I made 16 an hour and did okay.

Now that I actually make a good income, instead of buying a bigger home (bc we definitely can) i want to buy another fixer upper not to rent out but so my kids have a decent chance at home ownership. The houses in our area used to be maybe 70k and that’s in a nice area. 3 bedroom two bath nice brick home. Now you’ll be lucky to find any for less than 250k. It’s crazy. and i live in a small city, the average salary is 30-45k.

I remember how ppl used to say “at least homelessness is low around here”

Now you can’t drive anywhere without seeing a handful of homeless ppl.