I think you may have a misconception of what the bottom 25% of earners do. Or, maybe I do. I don’t know anyone that does that stuff regularly, not even the high earners I know.
Comment on Nearly a quarter of U.S. households live paycheck to paycheck, report finds
BombOmOm@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
Cutting out Uber Eats, restaurants, and bars goes a long way to paying those off(groceries are so much cheaper). Even the people in giant holes on Caleb Hammer’s show walk away with a budget to kill their debt.
If you are holding credit card debt, stop adding more and start paying them down. The interest is worse than many realize.
sobchak@programming.dev 6 hours ago
AsoFiafia@lemmy.zip 6 hours ago
Same. The majority of people I know cook at home, don’t even have a credit card let alone use one, have pretty old cars, homes and rentals that should be inexpensive, keep their same phone until it’s unusable. Pretty much every splurge they have is thanks to some amazing deal or find. And each year it gets harder and harder to save anything.
I also know a few people who regularly use food delivery services, live on pop and snack foods, refuse to learn to drive and get a cheap car making them reliant on either me(this is going to stop; I be damned tired) or Uber/Lyft(and they go to and leave from work at a very high traffic time making their rides more expensive), and they can’t seem to figure out why they don’t have any money.
I can see both sides of this coin, but if it is a two-sided coin, the first side I described is much bigger than the second.
the_q@lemmy.zip 7 hours ago
Or society dangles every kind of temptation in front of people then wags its finger at them when they partake. Your finance bro mentality is neither helpful or wanted.
BombOmOm@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
Don’t carry credit card debt, the interest eviscerates your finances. It is a fact much of America does not take to heart.
Zorque@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
When you’ve got rent to pay and mouths to feed, and paychecks dont arrive for another week (or more), sometimes it’s a necessity. And when emergencies arrive (as happens more and more often) people at this financial level generally dont have the “rainy day” fund to lean on.
This is not exclusively a personal issue, it is mainly a systemic one. Sure, many people could do with some better financial literacy and personal responsibility… but that’s nowhere near the epidemic of parasitic opportunists eager to squeeze dry every person they can. The desperate being the easiest to exploit, in most cases.
PP_BOY_@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
I agree. Even “lazy” home cooking (frozen meals, Ramen, frozen pizza) is always cheaper than restaraunts.
One of the best things I ever did for myself, IMO, was making a budgeting spreadsheet. Except for a basic =SUM() tile showing how much I’ve earned minus what I’ve spent, it’s all manual, nothing is automatically filled in and I have to really reflec and be honest to myself about every purchase I make. Everything gets logged. I don’t know how much I was spending/earning before the spreadsheet (obviously) but I just know that I’m budgeting smarter with one.
Zorque@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
Ohhhh, just stop buying iPhones and avocado toast, why didn’t I think of that? It seems so simple in hindsight!
pennomi@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
Depending on how often you buy iPhones, sure. But I think we all know it’s rent, health insurance, and rising food costs that kills most Americans.
Zorque@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
No shit? Almost like I was using a common allegory for being out of touch with actual poor people to critique that commentary “advice”.
BombOmOm@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
Agreed, that is very much a ‘it depends’. A $1000 pro max every year is opulent, a used SE every 5 years isn’t.