3 ms·

My cell phone bill (for my family of 4) would be around $120/month, but it's discounted down to around $80 because of my employer. There's no note on our car ca

by c22 5y ago

My cell phone bill (for my family of 4) would be around $120/month, but it's discounted down to around $80 because of my employer. There's no note on our car cause we could afford to just buy it with cash. We never spend money on doordash because we have plenty of time to go shopping and make our own meals. For the most part we have rent (mortgage), food, utilities, insurance, and day care (have you looked into the cost of this?) all locked up and well-budgeted, but sometimes someone leaves the door open or the hose on too long and we have an unexpectedly high utility bill. One time my wife left an entire bag of groceries behind the car and accidentally backed over it. When COVID hit and my dad was simultaneously suffering from a suppressed immune system we had to stop leaving the kids with my parents and up our daycare expenditures quite a bit. These sorts of problems aren't really problems for us, we can just cover the added expense out of our "emergency savings" bucket, but if two emergencies happen back-to-back sometimes that bucket gets depleted and we have to draw from "vacation savings" instead. Fortunately we're able to fill these buckets with hundreds of excess dollars a month, so they are usually adequate. I could see it being problematic if the buckets filled at a much slower rate.

c22 5y ago
Here's another way to look at it, we're grossing around $100k a year and only managing to save about $25k of it. I don't understand how a family that makes $60k a year (about 3 full time minimum wage jobs) manages at all. Our lifestyle is not opulent.
- godfreyantonell 5y ago
  In this country you are either rich or some flavor of poor. Simplistic as it sounds, I won’t be able to “exhale” until I am grossing at least $400k annually. I am far from it, and I feel it. I can hardly save at the moment. Health care is a big bite as well. Even w an employer plan. Still have to come up w a $3500 deductible before costs are shared. Not whining. Just saying that even though I have a decent monthly check, I am poor.
- nightski 5y ago
  That is entirely dependent on where you live. Plenty of people live quite well on 60k (which is the median household income in the U.S.). Obviously not in San Francisco or New York.
  - c22 5y ago
    This is absolutely true. I live in Seattle and housing is a huge part of this equation. It's worth noting, though, that even here we still see a large need for low-paying jobs (many have in fact been recently deemed essential). I know we would likely not be able to gross as much in another region either. Is it fair to say that low income earners in New York and San Francisco should move somewhere else to have kids? Will we only have McDonald's in Ohio?

by c22 5y ago

c22 5y ago

Here's another way to look at it, we're grossing around $100k a year and only managing to save about $25k of it. I don't understand how a family that makes $60k a year (about 3 full time minimum wage jobs) manages at all. Our lifestyle is not opulent.

godfreyantonell 5y ago
In this country you are either rich or some flavor of poor. Simplistic as it sounds, I won’t be able to “exhale” until I am grossing at least $400k annually. I am far from it, and I feel it. I can hardly save at the moment. Health care is a big bite as well. Even w an employer plan. Still have to come up w a $3500 deductible before costs are shared. Not whining. Just saying that even though I have a decent monthly check, I am poor.
nightski 5y ago
That is entirely dependent on where you live. Plenty of people live quite well on 60k (which is the median household income in the U.S.). Obviously not in San Francisco or New York.
- c22 5y ago
  This is absolutely true. I live in Seattle and housing is a huge part of this equation. It's worth noting, though, that even here we still see a large need for low-paying jobs (many have in fact been recently deemed essential). I know we would likely not be able to gross as much in another region either. Is it fair to say that low income earners in New York and San Francisco should move somewhere else to have kids? Will we only have McDonald's in Ohio?