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I don’t think it’s unrealistic at all. My wife and I have always lived on one income. Before we had kids, we used the other to pay off our college debt very qui

by neap24 7y ago

I don’t think it’s unrealistic at all. My wife and I have always lived on one income. Before we had kids, we used the other to pay off our college debt very quickly and build as much savings/retirement as possible. It also taught us to narrow the set of physical goods we valued in life. We are now living very comfortably on one (modest) income with 3 kids. As far as never going into debt, I think you should interpret that a bit more loosely. Obviously, going to college has huge payoffs in a few short years. That is more of an investment as long as one chose and affordable college. Taking out a loan on a new BMW or Tesla is debt.

lordnacho 7y ago
> I don’t think it’s unrealistic at all. My wife and I... Come on now. It's about what is generally achievable. Imagine living in London on £25K, which is roughly the median. If you find another median salary, are you gonna save it all? Unlikely.
- gambiting 7y ago
  So you mention "generally achievable" and then bring up London in the same sentence? Really? Vast majority of British people don't live in London. It's like saying that home ownership is UK is unachievable because no one in London can afford to buy anymore. Which is true, but it has nothing to do with the rest of the country.
  - lordnacho 7y ago
    Well unless you talk about city states, the vast majority of the population of any country is not living in any particular city in that state. Salaries in the rest of the country are lower, so you'd be making a similar comparison with let's say $20K in eg Sheffield. Obviously there's people living on that budget, but the point of the advice was to not break that budget, even if twice the amount were available. Which even if you're very frugal you are unlikely to do. You're gonna think of something to spend that extra 20K on, and it's not dumb to spend at least some of it. To me the advice sounds like "if you and your wife are partners in law firms, save half the money".
- esotericn 7y ago
  So don't live in London. I'm moving out because it's an inheritance society. You need an income of more than 150-200K to buy a family home that isn't crap by the standards of anyone outside of the bubble. It really is that simple. London is closed to newcomers. Go and have your fun as a youngster - but setting up there is daft unless you're an entrepreneur and will actually make big money.
wil421 7y ago
Can you clarify modest income? The last time I read an article about living on one income the spouse was a high paid lawyer. The person in the article who talked about living on one income was a CEO.
- gambiting 7y ago
  I make about £40k a year which is neither low nor very high by British standards and we could survive on my salary alone. Take home per month is about £2300, the mortgage is £700 a month which leaves plenty of money for bills and food and other expenses.
  - Retric 7y ago
    That seems fairly high for the UK. “The median annual income in the UK, according to the most recent Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, is £28,677 for full-time employees.” 1.4x the median income is comparable to many dual income families in the UK. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Number_of_Individuals_in_the_UK_by_Total_PreTax_Income.png https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Number_of_Individuals_i...
    - sokoloff 7y ago
      That seems to me to fit with the characterization "neither low nor very high".
    - unityByFreedom 7y ago
      Not so high. Also, that includes younger people than a person with 3 kids, and people who chose not to attend higher education. Presumably the median for his age group and education level is higher.
      - deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
sunstone 7y ago
If you carefully run the numbers a model 3 will pencil out quite a bit better than F-150 unless the truck is for work. A few years ago I did the same with a Prius and surprisingly, if you drive a lot, a Prius was the cheapest car you could buy.

by neap24 7y ago

lordnacho 7y ago

> I don’t think it’s unrealistic at all. My wife and I... Come on now. It's about what is generally achievable. Imagine living in London on £25K, which is roughly the median. If you find another median salary, are you gonna save it all? Unlikely.

gambiting 7y ago
So you mention "generally achievable" and then bring up London in the same sentence? Really? Vast majority of British people don't live in London. It's like saying that home ownership is UK is unachievable because no one in London can afford to buy anymore. Which is true, but it has nothing to do with the rest of the country.
- lordnacho 7y ago
  Well unless you talk about city states, the vast majority of the population of any country is not living in any particular city in that state. Salaries in the rest of the country are lower, so you'd be making a similar comparison with let's say $20K in eg Sheffield. Obviously there's people living on that budget, but the point of the advice was to not break that budget, even if twice the amount were available. Which even if you're very frugal you are unlikely to do. You're gonna think of something to spend that extra 20K on, and it's not dumb to spend at least some of it. To me the advice sounds like "if you and your wife are partners in law firms, save half the money".
esotericn 7y ago
So don't live in London. I'm moving out because it's an inheritance society. You need an income of more than 150-200K to buy a family home that isn't crap by the standards of anyone outside of the bubble. It really is that simple. London is closed to newcomers. Go and have your fun as a youngster - but setting up there is daft unless you're an entrepreneur and will actually make big money.

wil421 7y ago

Can you clarify modest income? The last time I read an article about living on one income the spouse was a high paid lawyer. The person in the article who talked about living on one income was a CEO.

gambiting 7y ago
I make about £40k a year which is neither low nor very high by British standards and we could survive on my salary alone. Take home per month is about £2300, the mortgage is £700 a month which leaves plenty of money for bills and food and other expenses.
- Retric 7y ago
  That seems fairly high for the UK. “The median annual income in the UK, according to the most recent Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, is £28,677 for full-time employees.” 1.4x the median income is comparable to many dual income families in the UK. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Number_of_Individuals_in_the_UK_by_Total_PreTax_Income.png https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Number_of_Individuals_i...
  - sokoloff 7y ago
    That seems to me to fit with the characterization "neither low nor very high".
  - unityByFreedom 7y ago
    Not so high. Also, that includes younger people than a person with 3 kids, and people who chose not to attend higher education. Presumably the median for his age group and education level is higher.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]

sunstone 7y ago

If you carefully run the numbers a model 3 will pencil out quite a bit better than F-150 unless the truck is for work. A few years ago I did the same with a Prius and surprisingly, if you drive a lot, a Prius was the cheapest car you could buy.