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Do you not save any money when you work? If you are not saving 10% - 15% of your paycheck into an account where the money is immediately accessible, you are liv
by YuriNiyazov 11y ago
Do you not save any money when you work? If you are not saving 10% - 15% of your paycheck into an account where the money is immediately accessible, you are living above your means.
- timjahn 11y agoI'd venture to guess you're single, a renter, and have no children or relevant financial obligations?
- YuriNiyazov 11y agoOnly "a renter" is true. I have one kid. We have one family car instead of two. The three of us live in a one bedroom apartment. I carry no credit card debt, but I don't buy any toys. I paid off my college loans in the first two years out of college because I worked like a dog and lived with my parents.
- bryanlarsen 11y agoHaving children and/or other obligations makes it more likely you're living above your means. It doesn't change the fact that if you're not putting money aside for emergencies & retirement you are living above your means. Sometimes it's OK to live above your means. I'd willingly go into major debt for my children. But not acknowledging you're doing so while you're doing it will cause problems.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- mathgeek 11y agoYou don't need to be single or a renter to save. You just need to make it a priority. I'm the sole breadwinner with a wife and two kids, and we pack away 20% out of every paycheck. We own our home and both cars. Do we live a garish lifestyle? Certainly not, but we travel a lot and adhere to our budget (thank goodness for remote jobs).
- mistermann 11y ago> We own our home and both cars. Whether that is possible depends a lot on where you live - from what I can tell, outside of a few major cities there are plenty of places in the US where you can buy a house for <$200k in the US, good luck with that anywhere in Canada.
- brianwawok 11y agoBut you choose where you live. I do not live in SF, despite the nice weather, because I am not willing to spend a million bucks for a basic house.
- mhurron 11y ago> But you choose where you live Given that it takes money to move, no, you do not always have a choice in where to live.
- Killswitch 11y agoBullshit. Nobody forces you to live in an expensive city. Nobody makes you buy a million dollar house. You chose your own destiny. Stop putting the blame on others. I lived in Chicago on a $800/mo salary for a year and a half. Yes eight hundred dollars a month, in the city of Chicago. I had no money, but I made it work, then I moved back home to small town Iowa and make a lot more now, and live a better life. Nobody made me do either of those things.
- mhurron 11y ago> Nobody forces you to live in an expensive city. It takes money move, to or from any city. It's nice that you were able to make it work, and yes, it means others could as well but you wold look like a little less of an asshole if you would consider not everyone is in the same situation as you were. Were you single Did you have kids Did you have any medical conditions that needed care Did you use to have a better job before That's just a few things that are part of everyday, normal life that can make the cost of moving and living on very little somewhat difficult. > Nobody makes you buy a million dollar house I don't remember saying anything close to that.
- johnward 11y agoTIL I live beyond my means. Welcome to America. Having 10-15% cushion to save is a luxury for a lot of people. Probably not most people on HN but still.
- YuriNiyazov 11y agoYou do. Either that, or (if you are in tech) you are massively underpaid at your job.
- johnward 11y agoIt's both. I've worked on fixing the latter. However, living beyond your means isn't always that easy to correct. I can't just stop paying student loans for example. It's not like I'm dropping $300 a month on starbucks. It's student loans, mortgage, utilities, and other debt that takes up my entire paycheck.
- YuriNiyazov 11y agoI completely agree with you that correcting "living beyond your means" is a very hard thing to do.
- hunterloftis 11y agoDefinitely. Some types of living beyond means (buying expensive toys, regularly flying to expensive vacations, eating out a majority of the time) are easy to correct. Loans and depreciating assets will be much more difficult.
- caseysoftware 11y ago@johnward More likely you have a lot of optional things that you can trim away. Do you have cable? How often do you eat out? Do you smoke? Do you have a budget that you stick to? It's all about priorities. If you don't prioritize it, it won't happen. It's not easy and emergencies and unexpected bills come up but the freedom is amazing. Check out the Ramsey Plan. We wiped out most of our debt in about 2 years while saving for a house. And that's while renting, 3 kids, and living just outside DC.
- nkohari 11y agoI really have no idea why you're getting such bad feedback on your comment. It's kind of terrifying to see such negative responses to the idea that people should save money.
- gregd 11y agoIt's because of his assumption that if you aren't saving a specific amount (some arbitrary amount that made sense to OP), then you're living beyond your means.
- YuriNiyazov 11y agoI don't even know where to start with this comment. If you read any "how to plan your life financially" books which are not written for multi-millionaires, but the average "Working Greg", you will see that the agreed upon advice is that you are supposed to save about 25% of your after-tax earnings. I didn't make up 10%-15%, I intentionally lowered the amount from the standard advice because I knew that 25% would elicit responses like yours. Fine, forget the 10% - 15% number. Let's see if you agree with the following: If tomorrow you are fired from your job, and you can't afford to live on your state's unemployment aid for six months (that's not an arbitrary number, most states' unemployment period is 6 months) then you are living above your means.
- gregd 11y agoYou are still not understanding me. You know nothing about me or my living situation. My state's unemployment maximum amount per week is $538. That barely covers my rent each month.
- YuriNiyazov 11y agoSo, basically: if you got fired tomorrow, four people would be homeless, and 2 people would be foodless because you don't have any savings, and you consider yourself to be a responsible human. Bravo.
- hoorayimhelping 11y agoI save a good portion of every paycheck, and I've slowly watched my savings grow. There's no way I would quit a job without some kind of way to pay my day to day expenses or some kind of prospect to be able to do it in the future. The angles I look at this raise the same question: how can people do this? If people have no savings and no job lined up, how can they put food on the table? If they have savings, and know the value of safety net and how unpredictable financials are, how can they do this? It's not unreasonable to think they might have some kind of outside assistance.
- YuriNiyazov 11y agoIf I saved up to live for six months, there's nothing crazy about taking a three month break and using up about 50% of one's safety net.
- sleepychu 11y agoParticularly if you're unhappy working where you are. I think using rainy-day money when it's sunny and you fancy sitting outside is a dangerous habit though.
- sleepychu 11y agoParticularly if you're unhappy working where you are. I think using rainy-day money when it's sunny and you fancy sitting outside is a dangerous habit though.
- kdamken 11y agoRight? You should have at least a 6 month emergency fund, and if you're saving properly then you'll find it's not much of an issue. People love to complain about their money as they spend most of it on dumb things they don't really need. Also - that percentage should be a minimum of 50%. More info on why here - http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/02/22/getting-rich-from-zero-to-hero-in-one-blog-post/ http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/02/22/getting-rich-from-...
- noobermin 11y ago10% of my pay check for a year would allow me to survive for two months without a job, baring I don't have a severe accident.