3 ms·

> So we're talking what, $200,000 for a house and a couple acres. You can afford that on $35-40k a year, which you can make at walmart or Amazon This is misgui

> So we're talking what, $200,000 for a house and a couple acres. You can afford that on $35-40k a year, which you can make at walmart or Amazon This is misguided. When you are making that little it is extremely difficult to save enough money to buy a house. Most of your income will be going to expenses, and pray you don’t get hit with health complications, periods of unemployment, broken down cars, or any number of other rolls of the dice that could zap any/all savings you’ve managed or drive you into debt. Not to mention, even if you manage to buy a house you can still get screwed by a period of bad luck making it impossible to keep up on your mortgage.

citilife 4y ago
The average income in my area is less than $35k / year. ~80% own homes. I find it funny when people tell me "this is misguided" and they have no idea what they're talking about. I've lived off <$35k / year for about a decade; really not that hard. You don't take trips, you limit purchases. It's the way most of America works. Let me breakdown the math: - $600 taxes / month (often get decent returns at year end, put that into emergency fund) - $600 food / month - $600 rent / month (1 - 2 bedroom) - $200 gas / month - $500 emergency fund / month - $220 house fund / month In 2 years, you'll have $5,000 saved for a house and $12,000 in an emergency fund (assuming nothing happened). That's for one person, and I assume you can either take public transit OR you already have a beat up car (you can often get those for free, I had a couple cars for <$1000 that worked fine) If you're married (ideally, you would), you'll have $10,000 for a house and that's enough for the 5% down on a $200,000 property. Alternatively, you can drain some of the emergency fund (provided you have some) and you can put that down. Now, with inflation and increasing gas prices; yeah these people are going to be screwed for the time being. That means, either multiple jobs, cutting rent costs, cutting the emergency costs, what have you.

citilife 4y ago

The average income in my area is less than $35k / year. ~80% own homes. I find it funny when people tell me "this is misguided" and they have no idea what they're talking about. I've lived off <$35k / year for about a decade; really not that hard. You don't take trips, you limit purchases. It's the way most of America works. Let me breakdown the math: - $600 taxes / month (often get decent returns at year end, put that into emergency fund) - $600 food / month - $600 rent / month (1 - 2 bedroom) - $200 gas / month - $500 emergency fund / month - $220 house fund / month In 2 years, you'll have $5,000 saved for a house and $12,000 in an emergency fund (assuming nothing happened). That's for one person, and I assume you can either take public transit OR you already have a beat up car (you can often get those for free, I had a couple cars for <$1000 that worked fine) If you're married (ideally, you would), you'll have $10,000 for a house and that's enough for the 5% down on a $200,000 property. Alternatively, you can drain some of the emergency fund (provided you have some) and you can put that down. Now, with inflation and increasing gas prices; yeah these people are going to be screwed for the time being. That means, either multiple jobs, cutting rent costs, cutting the emergency costs, what have you.