They could add another $1,200/month back by getting rid of the car payments and driving good used cars.
Investors: (Stock Market, 401 Ks, Real Estate, etc.) How many of you are worse off now than four years ago?
- Thread starter noStemsnoSTICKS
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They both have jobs, you listed take home. Yet they still have medical insurance taken out of take home?
You can buy a new car for $15k, they didn’t need the double deep dish 4x4 king cab suv
$500 for utilities? They might want to check the thermostat.
Good lord we have 5 cell phones and hardly pay $200
You can commute to work from a dinky town and do a lot better for rent/buy
They made choices, it’s a failure of the school system when they don’t even know that. Instead it’s “well I have to have a car so I got what I wanted”. “I had to live in here and can’t commute”.
Sounds like they need a life coach since they skipped school the day they taught common sense.
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I live in southern Iowa, you can find a decent 2 bedroom apartment for $800 or a small 2 bedroom house for $1000 a month. Most of my rental properties have income of 4500 to 7500 for the year. So I am sure you can find a decent one for more money. So $5400 to $4400. You can find a usable car for $4000 to $6000. Not sure why need to have a car payment. Still at $4400. Now if renting some utilities are paid by the renter. Utilities for a rental property should be in the $300 to $400 range, so now down to $4000. If you have cheap cars insurance should be low. Health insurance sucks, if so remove $500 from take home pay (and that is being generous), and maybe at most $100 for renters insurance and car insurance. So down to $3400. If truly need 2 phones, with full internet and even youtube $300 a month. Down to $3100.
I can feed a family of 4 on easily $200 a week. If truly on a budget you can still eat well for less. For example, I buy a ham for $2.77 a lb - slow cook it, after bone removed over 7 lbs of meat. I buy red potatoes - 5 lbs for $5, butter cream cheese sour cream for $6. If you buy another vegetables $4. You can have several meals, have ham sandwiches ect, and that meal cost $35 and should effectively cover 6 to 8 lunch and supper meals, can do ham and bean soup, scalloped potatoes and ham, ham salad. You have to be smart, and try to find meat that isn't costing more than $4 a lb. Right now that would be pork and chicken primarily. I really think $600 should cover it. I am doing a lot of pull porked and ham meals. I have even made some of my own ground pork for pork burgers (those are damn good - kids like them better than hamburgers). I get whole cooked day old chicken at walmart in the cooler section for $3 and shred it and can do any number of casseroles. Hy Vee a couple weeks ago had chicken breasts for $1.88 a lb. Buy on sale and buy smart. Eggs, oatmeal are really reasonable and cheap breakfast meals. $3 for dozen, can get large container of oats for less than $5. Couple loaves of bread, misc other items and can still go out to eat for less than $150 a week. So down to $2500. Gas and credit card for other small items, $500 month and that should include for misc gifts. If you live in town, walk or ride a bike to work. You can be saving $2000 a month and still have all the entertainment you want through youtube TV, play games, play outside, frisbee golf, read, play chess. Learn to budget and be smart. Possibly lower it a little more by putting into retirement accounts and getting company match.
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Sharky as I said, they are idiots if they don't know how to live life cheaper or more simpler (and likely even better).
First off, not many 25 year olds will be making $80,000 in a place that has $800 rent. Des Moines yes, but rent there is going to be sky high. As far as food goes, how many 25 year olds (have the time at those wages) and the ability you cook the meals you described? There are some, but not many. But if you Google average cost (which is what I did for all I mentioned) then you will see what people are spending.
Just because people are spending X doesn’t mean they have to.
Like saying they are spending $400 a month on craft beer dining out and entertainment and somehow that’s part of their sob story.
And that rests on us. We didn't do well showing them the smart way. We made decent wages and had decent prices. They saw and now expect that way of life to be the norm. We also went through bad times and knew how to survive. Truth be told, not many 25 year olds are making even close to the wages to mentioned. Plus many of them have kids (several) by 25. In my line of work, I see the spending up and downs. Right now, the spending is close to 2008-09 numbers. People just don't have extra to spend.
Sharky you are an idiot. Case in point, East Penn in Corydon, is effectively paying people to go to Indian Hills community college to become repair techs, believe the salary is 60k to 80k a year (That is 1 person and they are begging for applicants). It is not difficult to find a good paying job. Anymore get into the trades, 60k to 100k easy. Cooking, watch the cooking channel (they got youtube tv), they have parents, without kids, they should have a ton of time. Checking what the average spending price, isn't showing what you can do. I gave you a simple example what to do (plus repair tech will be the last employee laid off in a downturn in the economy). Sharky if you are an ignorant fool and can't figure out how an average individual can make it work don't know what to say. Also their full family insurance cost less than $75 a pay period. Maybe it is up to $100. Extremely good benefits package last I was aware.
As to the time, it took almost no time to make those meals - left for a ball tournament put ham in the slow cooker on low. Peeled potatoes, boiled and mashed, microwave or cook some vegetables as a side dish (Maybe 30 minutes max for prep) (haven't even discussed have a small garden (can do in pots, raised gardens or on do herbs in stackable pots). Ham salad if you have a grinder, takes more time to clean the grinder than make the ham salad. Pulled pork, again, put in the slow cooker while at work, I like it to go 14 hours on low to make sure tender. All you need is some spices and decide what liquid to put in there, and whether put some honey or not.
As of July 15, 2024, the average rent for a 2 bedroom apartment in Corydon, Iowa is $851. https://www.bestplaces.net/cost_of_living/city/iowa/corydon
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Not surprised, shown facts and you are out. Guess you probably don't have as much wealth as you claim to have. Maybe I can give you some pointers as well.
I moved to California when I was 21. In my 50s now. Times were tough originally so I got a second job working part-time. And I'd pick up odd jobs on the weekends or days off. My "entertainment" budget was non existent and I recall eating a lot of fried rice. I drove a car that was 15 years old but I owned it outright. It sucked in a lot of ways but I never blamed the POTUS. Instead I looked inward and worked my ass off. I didn't "expect" any way of life that I couldn't provide for myself. A lot of folks bitching about the cost of living these days don't stray far from the couch. That's no one's fault but their own.
Well the average cost of living is up 20% and wages up about 3-4%. Not going to be long before everything is upside down.
Where are you pulling those numbers from, and what is your timeline point of reference?
Sharky you kept saying it couldn't be done. I gave you examples without even looking that hard. So for me to make the claim that your thesis is not good, its what I did. I showed how even a low income individual or an individual with a high school degree could get a very well high compensated job, live well and save a lot. At least admit I did that.
Yeah it's crazy.
Even little dinky houses in small town Iowa.
Prices have jumped a ton in the last couple of years.
If they are good at increasing shareholder's wealth then I see no problem.
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