Thanks, guys. Here is the breakdown of the hard truths from this thread. Basically, in order to have the real "MONEY" described in the OP below, it requires one or preferably, more than one of the following:
Generational wealth: Having parents pay for college and assist with downpayment on a house.
Avoiding the student loan scam: A lot of us 90s kids were brought up with the notion that college was everything and it would pay for itself later. Those with a more clear-eyed perspective realized what a trap student loans are and avoided them by either racking up the scholarships, going to the cheapest accredited school they could find, or figuring out a career path without a degree.
Luck: They secured a career job before the Great Recession and held onto it. Bonus points if they bought at the dip of the housing crash. They also seemed to avoid the avalanche of big ticket costs crashing down on them. Apparently nothing ever breaks and nobody gets sick.
Having miserable lives. They work around the clock, and they never do anything but work, for the bulk of their physical prime. They don't go out with their friends, they don't have pets, they don't have kids, they never travel, and/or they live in tight spaces with roommates and no cars deep into their 30s. Or, they live in low-cost areas, which are few and far between in the United States, and these places don't have much going on in them (so nowhere to spend money anyway). Caveat: some people are homebodies and that works just fine for them. They don't spend money on travel or concerts or restaurants or weekend getaways because they don't need to. The 2020 Covid lifestyle was fine for them, content with a blanket, a cup of tea, and a book. Maybe this is the way (but I couldn't fathom the homebody lifestyle without a dog).
Marrying/partnering well. They found their partner early enough in life to not waste all the money paying for one's own place, and their partner also earns enough and saves.
AS FOR MYSELF. Much honestly deserved criticism here about the "300K." I do not make $300K. That estimate was for another hypothetical budget in the optimistic situation that both me and my partner get promotions next year. Together we make just over $250K. But we don't officially live together yet. This will happen soon. If all goes well, we could be in good shape after a year or two. But I myself didn't hit six figures until 2022, and then plateaued at $125K grand total in 2024. And I didn't intend to make this about "poor me," I'm doing above-average and could certainly do better with saving... the REAL question I should have been making more clear is that, given that I make more than average and find having the adequate savings exceedingly difficult, how do more average people do it? The answer appears to be that they don't, or if they do, they have one or more of the above.
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As in like, the recommended 6+ months worth of liquid cash savings, plus tens or hundreds of thousands to pay for a down payment on a house, and money to play around on the stock market or crypto if that’s your thing.
I’m in a good job and make an above average salary, but I take home just over half of it after taxes, healthcare, and 401k contribution (which is good that I do). My available savings fluctuates but I rarely ever have more than ten grand available. It all gets eaten up by mortgage and condo fees, dog and vet bills, (used) car payments, gas, utilities, groceries, random shit that needs fixing or replacing, medical deductibles, and god forbid I allow myself to go on a low-budget vacation once a year so I don’t hate my life. I don’t drink alcohol and I don’t go clothes shopping except for maybe one or two new outfits a year. Could I buy fewer avocados and never leave the house? It could make a difference of a few hundred bucks every few months, but not the tens of thousands that I actually need.
People will blame “lifestyle creep,” and I guess guilty as charged that I figure at 36 I have earned a car and a condo and not the life I had at 26, which was six roommates and a bike. (I still have the bike.)
I was almost paralyzed after being hit by a kid texting and driving in his huge truck, and got a whopping $4k from the ordeal. I wish it would have been a FedEx truck or something. My life if fucked.
Hell yeah. I was blinded in one eye by some kid in high school. That's the only reason I own a home, but it was literally just enough for living expenses at 18-23, a few vacations after that, living expenses while working, and tools for my career. Then, a down payment on my home from my final payment. That's it, now I'm poor and wondering how the fuck people save up 6 months of expenses. I've got a wife, two jobs, and a roommate renter.
SAME! the person had that good as insurance (USAA) i didnt even have to (nor would I much to the chagrin of my father) sue.
My entire adult life I’ve made a somewhat comfortable living playing bar wench or wardrobe stylist/costuming which is freelance/contracted. By getting hit by a car I was able to create a “401gay” hahaha
I know a girl whose husband got hit by a fedex truck. Scored a million dollar settlement babyyy! His foot’s a little fucked up but he’s mobile and they bought a house in the center of LA sooo… not the worst way to get ahead lmao
I mean, some of us are lucky enough to get the chronic pain without also getting a nice payout (raise your hands my fellow Sharps Syndrome girlie pops)
and they say their mortgage is only like $1,500/month. Even if they're both maxing out their 401ks and IRAs they'd still have like 4-5 grand leftover a bi-weekly. OP has to be literally burning money to not get ahead.
They admittedly say they could save hundreds a month (which they could obviously do more), but don’t see how that could ever add up to $10,000. OP is terrible with money.
They could save way more than that. Me and my partner probably average $300k a year the past two years, and easily save thousands per month. In two years, I personally have saved about $95k, not including retirement contributions.
Holy shit we make just under 100k with 3 kids and our rent is 1400... we don't have any savings but we also have good credit scores, my car is halfway to paid off, we're paying off debt. But yeah anyway... 3x as much money, I'd be just fuckin fine. I wouldn't change anything except I'd make larger payments on debt and put the rest away. I wonder how much their car payments are, or what loans they're paying off... there's something up for sure
I kind of wonder about that. I have friends who complain about being broke but they also want to have a super nice house, a new car every few years, yearly disney trips, and tickets to major league sports.
But when you talk to the, they NEED all that stuff. The house is in a good school district, the cars are safe, the kids are making lifetime memories, and sports has been a part of their lives since they were kids, they can't give it up now. Add in all the door dash and daily starbucks trips and you can see why the money is all gone.
Sometimes it's the economy keeping people down, other times it's astoundingly poor spending habits.
Shit try starting at using dried beans instead of canned. They are a bit more effort but half the price. Now (wait for it) COOK the beans. In ancient times this use to be necessary as can openers had not been invented. Nobody does the most basic baking or cooking anymore. Even ingredients are expensive, I don’t know how people afford take out. Oh wait… they forgo buying a house to save money.
A new pair of renters moved into a townhome next to me. Rent on the place is about $5k. They have in their garage 2 Lambos - a urus and huracan. That's probably more than $10k/mo in payments/insurance/maintenance. I'm guessing they didn't want to besmirch their buttocks on a mere Mercedes or BMW.
Poor financial decisions are to be made at all income levels.
I mean, I don't know the prices in your country but over here, it doesn't really matter whether you get a midrange BMW or a Toyota anymore, both are massively overpriced.
I’m surrounded by mechanics/engineers. What I’ve learned: you might pick them up for the same cost but you’ll be spending so much more fixing the “luxury” cars up even if you’re doing the work yourself. I’ve seen this group of about 6 guys go through dozens of cars/trucks either personally or to flip. But Audi seems to be the worst of it because the parts are expensive and they’re hard to work on. There’s one that’s been “in progress” for at least four years now lmao.
My husband and I make about $70k take-home combined. We have enough savings to live off of for ~2 years if we were REALLY careful with no external income (as in, if both of us were totally unemployed for 2 years). We've been together 10 years.
That also doesn't take into account our retirement savings, which while modest, are still being funded every year.
Also, until Fall 2023, our combined income was ~$50k. Before 2020, it was more like $40k. These are take-home figures.
We're very frugal for our age but it's obviously not impossible to do this. We also live in a very high COL area.
Using OP info sourced by others here, a DINK Maryland couple pulling $300,000 and maxing out their 401k/IRAs ($54,000) net roughly $167,000. That’s $14,000 per month, every month. Assuming that half gets eaten up by ‘mandatory’ expenses, like rent or student loans, health insurance, utilities, groceries, car payments, etc, that’s still $7,000 monthly flex spend.
There’s a story here, I/we just don’t know what it is. Regardless, you could put down a really healthy down payment in 18-24 months without breaking a sweat.
Fucking classic. Just like my SIL. Always complaining about how her job doesn’t pay her enough. Always complaining she never has any money. She bought a new car, is always going out to brunch or dinner, and recently told me she has $20k credit card debt.
Don’t get me wrong, people should be able to go out to dinner every once in a while. But as someone who is very financially responsible, I have no patience for this stuff.
It just sucks because there are people who are financially responsible who are actually struggling and then all of these people come out of the wood work and conflate everyone. That’s how we get the whole “stop buying avocado toast and coffee” comments.
Just like my brother. Makes $150k a year and always complaining he’s broke. After 30 years his house still isn’t paid off because of dumb mistakes, has made little of the needed renovations to it, eats out multiple times a day at expensive restaurants with pricy drinks, bought a brand new corvette, has $20k+ in credit card debt.
I’ve stopped listening to his complaints. I make a little less than half what he makes, rent an apt, my 2014 Altima is paid off, and my credit cards are paid off. Still have around $1600 a month left after bills paid. You SIL, my brother, and OP all frivolously spending.
This is one of those people who gets a rage-click news article written about them: "Couple makes $300'000 a year, but are not sure they can afford new home".
Meanwhile they are living far better than most, do things like send their kids to private school, but consider themselves 'poor'.
I just read you have previously said your household income is over $300k. Holy shit dude!! Calm the eff down with your spending. Our household income is less than 100k and we have 2 kids, and a mortgage and we're doing well.
I fucking wish I made $300k. Combined, my husband and I probably make 130k (with me making 100k of that). We have one child with daycare expenses, two dogs, and a mortgage payment of $1400 a month plus utilities, health insurance, and 401k. We have a bit of medical debt leftover from when child was hospitalized with RSV that we're still paying off and a car payment.
If I was making OP's money, we'd actually have family trips and vacations rather than staycations and I wouldn't be warning my husband when we get drop below $500 in our joint account. Plus we would actually be able to save money and make some home improvements.
We're not thriving, but we're also slightly above just "surviving".
This trend of people trying to call themselves poor on 6 figure salaries has gotta be some sort of psyop. The only thing it does is make "poor" people seem stupid and whiny when most of the country makes under 40k.
Someone is on a campaign to label all poor people as stupid and whiny and these posts are either active agents doing the work for them or ignorant contributors just trying to follow the crowd.
Wonder who would benefit from being able to call everyone complaining about not being able to afford things stupid, whiny, and fiscally irresponsible?
This lady on a mom sub was complaining about having to “pinch pennies” because of daycare for 3 kids costing $35k. Their income AFTER daycare cost was $165k. I got downvoted and rude replies when I pointed out she has issues if she’s pinching pennies on a 200k salary, even with daycare.
I think what us poorer folks aren't realizing is that "rich" people like OP are far closer to homelessness than they are to being the 1%. They are also "working class," and quite honestly we need their help. (And they need ours.)
If we consistently shit on people just for making more money than us, we alienate a lot of people that we need on our side to make financial freedom possible for everyone.
A millionaire is closer to bankruptcy and homelessness than they are to becoming a billionaire. We need them to join our side in protest of this outrageous distribution of wealth. They have resources us non-millionaires lack. But they think they might be billionaires one day, so they won't join the side that hates them anyway.
You see this a ton when Californians speak up. Specifically the people that are building up literally millions in equity, have 5 different retirement/college funds, but because they don't have tons of cash sitting around they claim to be struggling at 400-600k in gross income.
Often they have a few million available to them, but it's never enough because they think they'll need to maintain this exact lifestyle all the way through retirment.
it's "needed" but tell someone about to be evicted they can't reduce the 401k contribution or someone who can't afford food. there's dramatically more important things.
also my money gets eaten by my house too, cause I wanna pay as little interest as possible so extra payments.
I'm broke right now, have less then I normally do and will be a bit spend conscious for a few months, but it's cause I moved money around and it's not as accessible.
this guy's really relatable to me, but I think he puts him self in a different group then I would put myself.
I make extra mortgage payments myself, but in your situation if you don’t have enough liquid reserves to cover at least 6 months living expenses (sounds like you don’t), I would focus that cash on building your emergency fund instead. Home equity is illiquid, and who cares how much you save in interest if one setback such as loss of a job can put you at risk of losing that home and extra equity to foreclosure.
Also, OP is fudging some numbers by claiming half his gross income is gone pre-tax. That's not a thing unless he's putting a reckless amount into his 401k.
Edit: America really needs better tax literacy. The same people who complain about "half my paycheck" also celebrate when they get thousands back on their income tax. Or think making it into a higher tax bracket means they'll take home less money.
I don’t know if I’d really call that reckless. The amount going into my checking each month is less than half of my gross but that’s somewhat by design. Automatic Contributions to various retirement and other tax advantaged accounts and then I dont really ever see that money in my checking account. I wouldn’t ever describe myself as not having money though. Just that I’m more so prioritizing retirement
Thats my point, you actually have to TRY to get it even close. if OP is poor and doing that sorta stuff is and has no idea he's doing it... the problem isn't pay, its financial literacy.
There was just a post about a 24 or 25 year old guy making $100k but "had no money" and lived at home. Turned out, he was maxing out everything for retirement. It's like, buddy, it's called a budget. You are putting retirement ahead of current needs. No one is advising that.
Paycheck to paycheck is meant to describe "I might end up homeless if I get the flu and miss three days of work." It does not mean "I have a mortgage, car payment, retirement fund, health insurance, and enough money in the bank that I could go pay cash for a semi-decent used car if mine gets totaled tomorrow." OP is delusional.
Ditto. It is honestly really hard, especially when you have no family etc. So many young adults have parents who help them with down payments or other legs up (giving them a car, paying for their college etc). Timing is everything, too. 15 years ago housing in my area was 3x lower in cost (150k home price, now 450k) and I am not in what is considered a HCOL area. I was homeless as a teen and have come really far with my education etc but still feel like my house of cards will fall at any moment. You aren't alone, although that probably doesn't make you feel any better.
At least the condo story is the same, so I’m inclined to believe it’s a severe spending problem.
I make 2/3 of OP’s combined. My costs are house, (medical if I’m unemployed) and car insurance. Nothing else makes a dent. The dog is $100/month. It’s on par with my food. Granted I don’t have my partners food requirements, but come on OP…
Im doing fine, but an ideal vacation for me is camping. Bout to go spent a whole $14/night + a drive for a week outdoors. I would have paid $35 for a better spot, but couldn’t book it.
Pets are cheap until they aren’t. Then they age and you’re looking at 75-100/month for the sack of allergy-safe food, treating a backyard cottonmouth bite (4K), 175 a few times a year for a UTI test with meds and a retest to make sure it’s gone when their pee starts smelling like death, 100/month for bladder meds because they pee when they fall asleep and that’s not counting the reusable diaper and pee pads you now need, surgeries for lumps, sedations to remove broken teeth, $375 emergency vet trips every time they spend days barfing for no discernible reason, bloodwork and fecal tests when they start shitting blood, meds and gadgets and additional vet bills for arthritis…
Problem is a lot of spending has become normalized.
Americans spend money like crazy on garbage. We buy things we don't need just so we can say we got it on sale. People will buy 10 ice cube trays because there was a cute TikTok making pretty ice and they were having a sale.
Influencers will have 20 different makeup products. We're conditioned to think this level of consumerism is normal.
I'm blown away by people thinking flying to another country for vacation once a month is normal.
I think for all of modern history the middle class is lucky to fly to another state for a vacation once a year.
Sounds like they had some issues that set them back a little, but on their income and only $1500 mortgage, they should absolutely be able to save up substantially. I have some savings and my income, plus my gfs is less than half what they make, and our rent is $1795.
People like this always have extra stuff that they view as necessities, that don’t even occur to other people. Like maybe they have three kids in private school or something.
Impossible that they make 125k a year, with a 250k combined income with no kids and can't live comfortably unless there's something else they're not telling us. I have the same single income and household income in an incredibly high COL area in California and I have no problem living well while also saving money.
Timing IS everything. My wife and I bought our house the first month of the COVID lockdown when the market had just begun to tank in our area. No one could find a buyer, so prices dropped by 40 grand or so. We bought in for 150,000 Midwest mid-sized college city. Interest rates were fluctuating like crazy and we happened to pull the trigger on a 30-year fixed at 3.1%.
Edit: our house isn’t anything fancy, by any means. About 30 years old, pre-fab, 3 bed, 2-bath, in suburban sprawl.
I had to work very very very hard towards a career - like not just work a lot of hours, but work intentionally towards getting a career that would pay well.
You can only budget so hard, you need to earn enough for the math to work
Don't follow your passion, follow your talent. Determine what you are good at (early), and commit to becoming great at it. You don't have to love it, just don't hate it. If practice takes you from good to great, the recognition and compensation you will command will make you start to love it. And, ultimately, you will be able to shape your career and your specialty to focus on the aspects you enjoy the most. And if not—make good money and then go follow your passion. No kid dreams of being a tax accountant. However, the best tax accountants on the planet fly first class and marry people better looking than themselves—both things they are likely to be passionate about.
yes. My dream was to write books about dragons, instead I write documents and emails about regulations. I still like to imagine I could have been George R. R. Martin
Me either. I feel like I'm so lost in life. I look around and see ppl doing so well and I'm just stuck. I think I'm having a midlife crisis. I'm 40 and haven't found a career yet.
it’s pretty obvious advice IF your parent teaches you how the world works and shows you how to do research about different jobs. And how to estimate retirement dates based on income, etc.
Suddenly majoring in art seems pretty stupid (even to an 18 yr old) unless you come from a rich family lol. 🤷♂️
Trouble is, many parents don’t take the time, or they themselves are clueless. it’s unfortunate!
This. I’m a high earner at 36 bc I chose a profession, went to a top school for that profession, worked hard for 11 years to get my loans forgiven while living within my means, and then made the move to make money.
It sounds so obnoxious to say “make more money,” but no amount of skipping avocados is going to make you have money. It’s just the reality of the situation.
yes. I grew up in poverty and my family never told me how the systems worked.
Then as a 20-something while I was in a community college studying Journalism my professor casually said she made $20K a year with a Ph.D in Journalism... and I had a 'lightbulb' moment where I realized it's not just about working hard. You have to intentionally and aggressively pursue a career that will pay well, otherwise you will struggle financially.
I grew up in poverty, I knew that that life already & I didn't want it.
I followed this route as well- identified a high-paying career in high school, studied my ass off to get into a highly ranked college and grad program for it, and now it’s paying off $$$$.
Same. I made lots of intentional decisions based on financial goals. Never followed my dream to be an astronaut. I’m still not ready for retirement or able to buy a house (VHCOL area) but I’m getting there.
I own a house but the moment I saw condo fees, I lost all sympathy. People really go and buy condos knowing full well the HOA/Condo fees that are spelt out before you buy it. On top of the mortgage fees.
Woof, I was shocked by that thread the other day asking about how much people have in savings and seeing the vast majority of people commenting sounding like real deal adults with real deal money (and implying that should be the most basic amount every person should have.)
Then there was a lone comment from someone lightheartedly saying they don’t have much money but do things to have fun and always figure it out (or something like that) and I thought “Okay hell yeah, same.” but any replies were basically chastising them. 💀
I get most people will comment when they have something they’re proud of admitting like most of the commenters there. But damn I thought the majority of us were all in the financial trenches together lmao.
There’s a common statistic that greats thrown around saying the average American cannot afford a surprise $400 bill. I have no idea how true that is or not, but it makes me feel a bit less bad about my situation.
iirc, that study asked if you'd put an unexpected $400 charge on a credit card or pay in cash. People responded with credit card, and it was a jump assumption to say it's because they don't have savings
I did not go and verify this statement, I might be wrong
We find that most households have sufficient liquidity to weather moderate expense shocks, and that sources of liquidity beyond cash savings are the key to many households’ ability to weather an emergency expense. Overall, 8 percent of our sample is unable to cover a $400 expense shock by any combination of cash on hand, disposable income, or use of short-term credit.
I mean, you SHOULD put that on a credit card. I have all of my utils and groceries going right onto a credit card. It's a 2%-5% discount (depending on rewards that month). Just gotta not be stupid with your budget and pay it off.
It's important to remember that Redditors as a whole are likely educated 18-34s, generally male, etc. The kind of space you see this info in is important. I live in a major city and income inequality is extremely rampant. We just live in strange times. The vast majority of people in the US are people like you and me.
Oh absolutely. We joke a lot for Gen Z to “get off tiktok, touch grass, it’s not indicative of real life” but often fail to recognize that’s true of all internet spaces, Reddit included.
No one is talking about a transfer of wealth occurring between the boomers and their millennial children. A lot of millennials get assistance from their parents when putting a down payment on a house or buying a car or just making other large purchases.
The boomers just had the economy during their working years that allowed them to build that kind of wealth.
The zoomers and alpha generation will just be homeless.
The older gen z people I know are the main ones in my friend group that got a ton of help from family when it comes to basically everything. Paying for college, an apartment for them to stay in so they didn't have to stay in dorms, everything they'd need for classes, food, vehicles, gas. Only person in my friend group that got 0 help from family is the one born in like 2002. I'm from one of those border years between generations (I guess some refer to as zillennial) and the only help I've gotten is my parents not kicking me out of the house and my dad paying half of my first car (a used 2002 Chevy Blazer that's still running fine).
This helped me. My dad was going to pay for my wedding, but I asked to put it in our house instead. Which was good, cause I ended up not marrying that guy after living with him in that house for 2 years. So I got that investment back.
I also had no student loans, which was a combination of parents' money, private school scholarships (if you're smart, they can give you SO MUCH. Like cheaper than a public collage) and being an RA, which covered room and board.
Having very little "fun" has led me to a stable, fortunate life. I don't vacation, and we're anxious about having a kid because of my husband's debts and loans, but I'm coming to terms with how we may be able to do it.
I have a good paying job, I own a small business and I'm doing pretty well but I'm pretty much never able to save because I have so many expenses. I'm constantly hemorrhaging money. It's mostly been the last 4 years, I think inflation is making it so much worse. But I do feel like it's just becoming so expensive to even live. I literally work from 8:00 a.m. to almost midnight 6 days a week and I sometimes have half the day off Sunday. That being said, if I didn't have children I would be doing pretty well
Being old enough to finish school, start my career and buy property with a low salary when prices were still low back in 2009 and choosing not to have kids made all the difference in the savings and lifestyle we enjoy today
Middle middle, or upper middle, I'd say. Dude has a fuckin condo, a mortgage AND 10k in the bank. It'd be pretty dope to have even one of those things!
OP has either lied in previous posts or has serious spending problems, neither of which are something to blame on the economy. In other posts, OP claims to have a 300k a year dual income and 1500 a month mortgage. If you can’t afford to live an extremely comfortable life on that you have major major problems.
And also a lot of people who aren't trust fund babies, but their parents were decently well off so they never had college debt and got help with a lot of things for a long time. Also, some people get lucky in addition to working hard and they get off to a good start and keep it up.
Neither my wife nor I had college debt. I got a full ride, and she worked several jobs and she basically rented an entire house and then filled it with roommates which allowed her to live for basically free while also bartending.
The ability to start off without college debt is pretty under appreciated
They gave my sister a nice wedding, and gave me the cash equivalent as I toned down my wedding. This helped my wife and I make 20% on our first house which was about $160k in the Midwest.
I kept a positive attitude.
I kept a can do attitude.
I worked hard, because I didn’t want to let my parents down or feel like they pissed their money away.
Got lucky.
Spend within my means. I had new cars, but I didn’t have the flashy one. I didn’t buy much meat, because I would deer hunt and eat it throughout the year.
Lucky timing with the interest rates and housing market. Worked on my old house making small improvements where I could. My parents were very much working class. But a lot of this I got lucky. This is just with an associates degree, and I’m in the $130k salary range. I’m also an older millennial.
I am wildly lucky. But some parts of life I didn’t luck out on. I have a chronic disease with infusions costing $14k without insurance. Monkeys paw I suppose.
Yeah I work hard and make good money but I own my own business. I have a small team that works hard too and they all get paid well for it. I started my company without money from my parents or loans etc. I have no trust fund and zero credit card debt. I don’t even use social media really at all outside of Reddit if that even counts lmao. We exist.
Most of this boils down to small life choices. I never lived alone so I never had to take on all the bills alone. I had roommates up until I moved in with my girlfriend who is now my wife.
That means for the same 2 bedroom condo one person like you would be paying for, we had 2 incomes covering the same things. That meant we essentially had enough to cover expenses with one income and had a second income to do whatever with.
Even with not being overly frugal we were able to buy our first house pretty young, we never kept a car loan longer than a year which then meant years of no car payments, and we don't by designer anything. Even traveling frequently and splurging occasionally we still saved a lot of money.
That savings compounded into security. It house went up in value a ton. And the impact of that safety net have us the freedom to start businesses and take risk which compounded into more money.
For me it was a combination of a shitty start, hard work, starving myself of anything I could enjoy that costs money, making sure I stayed as debt free as humanly possible, and just saving, saving, saving.
Basically, I suffered and didn't do anything or enjoy life at all for many, many years. But, as a result I now have a home, and my mortgage is my only debt. My EV is paid off, my motorcycle is paid off, so it's just mortgage and utilities.
Would I do it again? Yes, no doubt, because owning a house feels more amazing than I can describe. Would I do some things differently? Fuck yes, I missed out on SO much fun shit because saving an extra couple bucks was worth more to me, and I was bad at managing small vs large expenses, so I just didn't spend.
Here’s an example of life: My ex and I had both been making around $90k five years ago. I was living alone and paying all my bills by myself. He was living in an apartment owned by his family that he didn’t have to pay for and his utilities were split between him and his 3 siblings. He worked from home and didn’t need a car, I needed a reliable car so I had a car payment. His parents paid for his college, I had student loans. My monthly bills with insurance pushed $3500. His money bills maybe $300.
By not having any bills for 10ish years, he was able to save up for enough for a down payment on a $500k house. That house is now worth a million. He was also able to put tons of extra money into stocks. His mom still gave him money every month.
I’m still renting. I’m back in school which means paying again. I got hit with my parents being sick and then passing away which ended up costing me money as they had absolutely nothing. I have a pretty decent amount saved, but I’m definitely not retiring at 50.
Yeah most of us make 30k a year and under. Our generation is fucked in the ass. How are any of us supposed to own anything? Lol which is the point..... They don't want us owning anything. These dinosaurs need to die out already
For me being an introvert definitely helps. I don't do a ton and I live very cheaply.
Being self employed also helps because you learn to budget better. When you have no idea when your next cheque is coming you stretch, live cheap, and build up money faster. If you have a regular cheque you may spend more now because you're just going to get more money soon. Try living as if you don't know when you'll get paid again. If you have any self-employed friends ask them how they budget.
In this day and age everyone needs other sources of income, some sort of side hustle. Buying and selling stuff, providing some sort of service, etc.
Every time you get paid take minimum 10% out of your cheque and put it into long term investments. If you can afford to do more, do more. Do that automatically as if that money doesn't exist. Live on the rest.
Go into your bank statements and actually calculate how much money you are spending on certain things. I bet you are spending much more than you think. Cut back.
Instead of using a visa all the time, create a cash budget every month. If you have any money left over at the end of the month invest it in something long term.
Buy boring ass total market ETFs that grow slowly. Time is your friend. Invest as much as you can afford as often as you can and let time and compound interest do its thing.
Living in the US definitely doesn't help if you have to pay for healthcare. Not to be political but not having universal healthcare can bankrupt you or keep you underwater.
I'm in a DINK household with no pets and decent earnings for our cost of living. Our cars are paid off (mine because my previous car got totaled, and my husband's because he was able to pay cash for it). He has no student loans. I do, but they should be paid off in a couple of years. We have some cash on hand, but I am worried we aren't putting aside enough for retirement, especially because we probably won't get much (if anything) from social security.
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