Comment on Survey: More Than 1 In 4 Americans Feel They Need To Make $150,000 Or More To Live Comfortably

Korhaka@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

• gadfly1999@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  There are a few expensive things I find necessary in the modern world. Those being food and a roof over my head. If you have suggestions for going without either of those, I’m all ears. Otherwise, fuck off with that nonsense.

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  • Korhaka@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Sure rent/mortgages are expensive, but not 150k expensive. Food costs fuck all in comparison to rent it may as well be a rounding error.

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    • weirdbeardgame@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Clearly you haven’t lived in any state that isn’t in fuck all Wyoming.

      Shits expensive as hell

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      • Korhaka@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        My use of £ might be a hint to where I live. Housing costs like 20x the amount I spend on food.

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• TeddE@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Or maybe you lived in an environment where some of those expenses were socialized via a broad social net - or you have connections via friends and family that you’ve underestimated the value of (a friend with a truck is cheaper to buy lunch for than renting movers). If I had reliable access to food shelter transportation and information at negligible costs (assuming ~$800/month constitutes low cost rent), I can totally imagine living within a budget of $15k/year (covering pounds to USD).

  However, I used to live in Phoenix but moved due to the rental crisis. Simple clean 1 bedroom apartments are going for $1600/month, which blows your budget in rent alone. (The lowest rate I could find was $750/month, but you had to be officially poor (“restricted income”) to qualify).

  But before I condemn you in assumptions, maybe I’m wrong - would you be willing to break down your living expenses for those who would follow in your path?

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  • Korhaka@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Didn’t even have friends when I moved, got a bedroom in a shared house. £425 and today with inflation you can find similar for £500-600 a month across most of the UK outside of cities anyway. That is bills included.

    So the only essential spending left really is food. Currently that costs me about £60/month from Aldi but I am earning more now. If I had to cut back I don’t know exactly how much I could reduce it to. £30-50 would be pretty easy to cut back to by cutting out meat and cheese while £10 would be high carb poverty food and possibly scurvy.

    The rest I saved or spent on fun things. Life was pretty good as I made friends with some of the other guys living there. Moving house I did with a bag and a few bin liners, I barely owned anything in the first place so I just carried stuff and took a train.

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    • TeddE@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      All said, respectable - “live with almost no property at the cheapest rate available” is not terribly bad advice. But again, I think even following that advise would be a higher cost for lots of people in many places in the world.

      But is that really the world we want to build? “Okay everyone, aim for the bare minimum?” I know I’ve been lucky in my life and haven’t had to struggle often - but I don’t think it’s unfair to assume that everyone should be able to enjoy luxuries from time to time.

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      • Korhaka@sopuli.xyz ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Nothing wrong with aiming for more but if you think you need 150k to be comfortable I think it says more about you.

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• Zenith@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  It’s funny people are so anti-consumerist then downvote comments like this… hypocrites

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  • RadioFreeArabia@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    When I lived in the US my biggest expenses were housing, healthcare and taxes. None of them were things I could reduce.

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    • Korhaka@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Only housing here as I live in the UK, healthcare is free. Tax exists but I earnt so little at the time I barely paid any.

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  • Korhaka@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Would love some proper anti-consumerism

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