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

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 ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ 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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    TeddE@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    Unless you we’re born with an expensive physical or mental anomaly in a county that has poor healthcare support?
    
    Or you can’t be comfortable with the unhoused in your city and you build, run, and operate a private halfway shelter?
    
    Okay - okay - I’ll cede. I think were both being hyperbolic. I’m genuinely not convinced that a particular income level makes you a monster, but I can grant that it is a yellow/red flag.
    
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