4 ms·

Honest question: What normal circumstances would lead to anyone making six figures being broke that doesn't involve bad adulting?

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
nedwin 9y ago
Paying off student loans, medical bills, emergency car repairs... basically anything that might deplete an emergency fund or where you might have dipped into this on the assumption your job wasn’t about to be made redundant.
- t3chn0SchO0lbus 9y ago
  Children.
  - beobab 9y ago
    Are you calling these people children, or suggesting that children eat up emergency funds? I suspect the latter.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
chucky_z 9y ago
Not having much of a savings, and moving to the bay area after getting a bay area job with a bay area salary (wow!!), only to realize that you also need to pay for bay area rent (WOW!!!). If said person has animals, children, or a spouse it becomes even more complicated.
amazingman 9y ago
This question makes it hard to believe you’re of adult age. Just about any adult should be able to imagine reasonable circumstances in which they could make “six figures” and still struggle to (e.g.) make rent.
- brucephillips 9y ago
  This is almost the definition of bad adulting. If you make six figures, there's so many ways to live in the US within your means. Of course you can create difficult circumstances for yourself by paying 4k in rent as the sole provider, but this is irresponsible.
  - ballenarosada 9y ago
    What's the deductible on your health insurance, my dude?
    - x0x0 9y ago
      protip -- that fucking deductible resets 1 January, so if you were to get hurt in late 2017 and the treatment spanned calendar years, surprise, you pay it twice! One of the reasons I left my last shitty startup job is the deductible was $6k, ie a month's take home wages. That's not real health insurance.
  - amazingman 9y ago
    That’s a nice hill and all, but you don’t have to die on it.
  - vinceguidry 9y ago
    I don't think you appreciate just how crazy Silicon Valley, and by extension, most of the rest of California, is. You don't really get an option to not participate in the craziness if you live there. Your only real choice if you want financial sanity is to not live there. Naturally, it's difficult to work in a SF-SV-based startup if you don't live there. So we're not talking about responsibility anymore, you're moralizing on people's life choices. There's no way to responsibly live in SV without being already rich.
  - jsgo 9y ago
    Location, location, location. Now, if you can get into a remote position, awesome, but I could see living in SV or NYC or similar and feeling middle class pangs at low 6 figures.
koko775 9y ago
I've been one of those people. Sending money home to parents who were barely holding on to their home, and with health conditions that insurance terminated coverage for, combined with rent getting jacked up, a $4000 emergency room bill I couldn't even pay, and my own health issues creating a vicious cycle of lower productivity, more stress, worse health. This isn't even an uncommon occurrence. I had coworkers (at one of the big 5) who were making pretty decent money who were still in the hole for similar reasons. Have some compassion man, jeez.
x0x0 9y ago
A good friend's brother was badly hurt. Insurance is fighting paying for things. My friend has paid about $40k so far, and he was laid off two weeks ago. Even if you earn $150k in the valley (which btw is really only $95-ish k after taxes), that's a lot of money. The dirty secret to health care in the united states is the good providers can not serve you if you don't have the right insurance. My partner worked in an industry that laid off 50% of their employees. It took her 8 years to get close to her old salary. No matter what anyone says, the reality is very few of us are truly prepared to have our jobs/industry vanish. My brother who doesn't earn much money had significant health bills for one of his kids. I hadn't planned to spend that $10-$15k. My idiot nephew road a dirt bike on a road (against all his parents' rules) when he was 15 and didn't have a license. He didn't look both ways, there was a truck coming, and he was hit by the truck. His parents had to buy the guy a new truck because my nephew wasn't licensed to drive, and pay the deductibles for several surgeries.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

nedwin 9y ago

Paying off student loans, medical bills, emergency car repairs... basically anything that might deplete an emergency fund or where you might have dipped into this on the assumption your job wasn’t about to be made redundant.

t3chn0SchO0lbus 9y ago
Children.
- beobab 9y ago
  Are you calling these people children, or suggesting that children eat up emergency funds? I suspect the latter.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

chucky_z 9y ago

Not having much of a savings, and moving to the bay area after getting a bay area job with a bay area salary (wow!!), only to realize that you also need to pay for bay area rent (WOW!!!). If said person has animals, children, or a spouse it becomes even more complicated.

amazingman 9y ago

This question makes it hard to believe you’re of adult age. Just about any adult should be able to imagine reasonable circumstances in which they could make “six figures” and still struggle to (e.g.) make rent.

brucephillips 9y ago
This is almost the definition of bad adulting. If you make six figures, there's so many ways to live in the US within your means. Of course you can create difficult circumstances for yourself by paying 4k in rent as the sole provider, but this is irresponsible.
- ballenarosada 9y ago
  What's the deductible on your health insurance, my dude?
  - x0x0 9y ago
    protip -- that fucking deductible resets 1 January, so if you were to get hurt in late 2017 and the treatment spanned calendar years, surprise, you pay it twice! One of the reasons I left my last shitty startup job is the deductible was $6k, ie a month's take home wages. That's not real health insurance.
- amazingman 9y ago
  That’s a nice hill and all, but you don’t have to die on it.
- vinceguidry 9y ago
  I don't think you appreciate just how crazy Silicon Valley, and by extension, most of the rest of California, is. You don't really get an option to not participate in the craziness if you live there. Your only real choice if you want financial sanity is to not live there. Naturally, it's difficult to work in a SF-SV-based startup if you don't live there. So we're not talking about responsibility anymore, you're moralizing on people's life choices. There's no way to responsibly live in SV without being already rich.
- jsgo 9y ago
  Location, location, location. Now, if you can get into a remote position, awesome, but I could see living in SV or NYC or similar and feeling middle class pangs at low 6 figures.

koko775 9y ago

I've been one of those people. Sending money home to parents who were barely holding on to their home, and with health conditions that insurance terminated coverage for, combined with rent getting jacked up, a $4000 emergency room bill I couldn't even pay, and my own health issues creating a vicious cycle of lower productivity, more stress, worse health. This isn't even an uncommon occurrence. I had coworkers (at one of the big 5) who were making pretty decent money who were still in the hole for similar reasons. Have some compassion man, jeez.

x0x0 9y ago

A good friend's brother was badly hurt. Insurance is fighting paying for things. My friend has paid about $40k so far, and he was laid off two weeks ago. Even if you earn $150k in the valley (which btw is really only $95-ish k after taxes), that's a lot of money. The dirty secret to health care in the united states is the good providers can not serve you if you don't have the right insurance. My partner worked in an industry that laid off 50% of their employees. It took her 8 years to get close to her old salary. No matter what anyone says, the reality is very few of us are truly prepared to have our jobs/industry vanish. My brother who doesn't earn much money had significant health bills for one of his kids. I hadn't planned to spend that $10-$15k. My idiot nephew road a dirt bike on a road (against all his parents' rules) when he was 15 and didn't have a license. He didn't look both ways, there was a truck coming, and he was hit by the truck. His parents had to buy the guy a new truck because my nephew wasn't licensed to drive, and pay the deductibles for several surgeries.