Comment on Even households earning $150,000 a year are struggling with credit card and car payments

RoquetteQueen@sh.itjust.works ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

• pdxfed@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  • college debt
  • car debt (public transit has been actively dismantled by oil and car lobby in past 100 years) forcing most people to have to go into hock for a car.
  • medical debt because think of the profits
  • educational debt - public education that could lead to a populace making better decisions about finance has been deliberately and now almost completely destroyed. We’re going to put crosses in schools but definitely remove math requirements for HS diplomas.
  • predatory, colluding landlord practices combined with corporate funds now accounting for 30+% of all residential real estate purchases. Accelerates affordability crisis and related issues

  That’s just the starter pack for the US.

  Congrats on living in what is likely a low COL area, but many are concentrated in HCOL areas in yhe UD and elsewhere. Look at Vancouver BC and Toronto, same deal in Canada. US has that as well combined with above.

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• assaultpotato@sh.itjust.works ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Straight up no idea how you’re doing that - genuinely you should be proud of your budgeting.

  My partner and I live quite comfortably admittedly, but we rarely buy “things” - our biggest discretionary spending by far is on higher quality food. Our net expenses last year was around 65k CAD.

  24k went to housing, around 20k went into investments and savings, and the last 20k was on “everything else”, including discretionary spending. We live comfortably but not nearly extravagantly and our expenses floor for the two of us is probably 40k… let alone adding two kids.

  And we live in an incredibly cheap city compared to Vancouver/Toronto!

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  • Sanctus@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Take the 20k out of investments and savings and you have your answer for how they are doing it.

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    • assaultpotato@sh.itjust.works ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      … 65 - 20 = 45, which I explicitly called out as our lowest expenses for 2 people but their comment is about 40 for a family of four…

      Off by a factor of 2, bud

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      • Sanctus@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        Yeah bud and my point is they aren’t saving. Theres things they need to be doing that they aren’t that doesnt necessarily effect their month-to-month lives but will effect them in an emergency, or in retirement (lol)

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• Pyotr@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  In HCOL areas, 150k/yr can be barely above poverty level. (See SF as an example, poverty income for a single earner is ~118k USD)

  Given the number of those kind of areas, and the cost of rent now, it makes perfect sense.

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• JollyG@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  It is very difficult to do. You really do have to be over-leveraged and bad with money. Which is probably why 99.966% of households making 150k+ are showing up as not delinquent on loans in these data.

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• curiousaur@reddthat.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  I imagine a lot of people making that much did exactly what I did. Over-leverage but temporarily. House poor basically.

  When COVID hit I was renting in the bay area with my girlfriend. During lockdown I proposed, and after deciding we want a family, decided to take our bay area salaries elsewhere to buy a house.

  We traded our 3k rent for a 2k mortgage with 1k insurance and taxes. Even.

  But, leaving the bay we needed cars. My one little two seater wasn’t going to do it, we’re starting a family. So we got two larger cars, right when the market was inflated. Financed both of them.

  The new big property we got has a little barn, let’s renovate that into an ADU for guests and to generate rent. Didn’t have the cash on hand so took out another loan about the same as a car to fix that up.

  Now we’re strapped, basically living month to month. But those secondary loans were all 5 year loans, so in 2 more years they’re paid off, freeing up about $3k per month.

  I basically don’t think any of these articles about people making that kind of salary are taking into account how weird a time covid was. Lots of people made big changes while interes rates were low, purposely over-leveraging themselves. It also gave everyone this yolo attitude as well, like fuck it all, treat yourself.

  I’d be more interested to revisit this in 2027 when any 5 or 6 year car loans and secondary loans taken out during the record low rates are all paid off.

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  • ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Are the cars used? Early 2000’s Buicks with the 3.8l engine are incredibly cheap even with low miles (a really mint one is 5k, a good daily driver can be had for 2.5 to 3.5k).

    They’re extremely reliable and relatively safe cars. Not bad on gas either, and cheap to repair.

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• Fredselfish@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  We live off way less then that. And bills are getting paid. I want to see what they’re spending their money on.

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  • return2ozma@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Studios going for $3,400 in my area. Los Angeles

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    • Fredselfish@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Yikes! I pay 591 a month on my mortgage.

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    • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      LA is pretty expensive, the closer you are too hollywood?

      some are low as 2000/month, studio in bay area, but its pretty uncommon, i know a co-worker that has one.

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• BombOmOm@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Yeah, lifestyle inflation is a a problem that so, so many people put themselves into.

  They are living paycheck to paycheck, get that nice new job earning 3x as much. And instead of paying off their debt and getting into a very cosy financial space; they instantly start spending 3x as much money on stuff, and now they are suddenly living paycheck to paycheck again.

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  • RaoulDook@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    There is also a cultural lifestyle inflation that has infected society in the last 5-10 years. Everything that can be has been moved to subscription basis, and people all want to have the latest and greatest of everything. Hire a taxi for your burrito delivery and such.

    It’s hard to watch people that I know are struggling financially continuously blow money on stuff like daily food delivery and $200/month cell phone plans. I’m just fortunate to have the perspective that comes with growing up before all that was “normal”

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    • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      monthly cell phone plan bills pales in comparison to eating out daily. if your spending 70-100/day on eating alone that is more than any utility bill/cell phone plan combined.

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      • RaoulDook@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        Are people really spending that much on food delivery? That would be totally absurd.

        In my part of the USA, a family can easily obtain take-out meals for $10 per person or less. That’s not including a taxi for the food, but picking it up yourself. Takes me about 5-10 minutes in the car to do so.

        But also nobody needs a $200 phone plan. Mine is under $50/mo with unlimited data.

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• Tollana1234567@lemmy.today ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  most likely irresponsible decision: buying some expensive toys like new cars, shopping eating out everyday, it adds up, getting yourself scammed.

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