I do want to own a home at some point before death, so I’ve cut back spending across the board. I wouldn’t say I’m financially worse off, just working as many double shifts as possible (I work in healthcare, this is easy to do right now…also not a good thing) and not enjoying life at all for…3 continuous years now.
$115k needs to be your annual salary in USD to buy a home right now, supposedly, I read that somewhere (maybe CNN?) in the past 2 weeks. I make nowhere near that.
Factor in inflation on grocery prices & everything else, an mind you I shop at an Aldi’s and a wholesale club, it’s not a very easy time out there. Sometimes it feels like I’m saving for something totally unrealistic.
That’s the average salary needed to afford the average home.
But the average home in Miami or San Francisco is much more expensive than the average home in Wichita. And while prices are inflating everywhere, that does not mean you can’t afford a home without earning that much. The only thing that number tells you is that you need to earn more today than you did ten years ago.
I would talk to a bank about what kind of loan you can qualify for, and assume you can afford about half of that. Because they’ll absolutely lend you more than you can reasonably afford.
I found out my wife was pregnant about a week before shit really hit the fan. We were completely prepared, had money saved up and everything.
The covid hit. We both lost our jobs, and unemployment wasn’t nearly enough to cover the bills. I couldn’t find another job anywhere.
We lost everything. Both of my cars got repoed, I get eviction notices every single month because rent is behind. We pulled out credit cards for food because we don’t qualify for assistance.
Slowly, we both got jobs, I got lucky and jumped right back into my career that I love, and we’re still trying to get on our feet. The credit cards are killing us.
Oh, and when our daughter was born, she had to be life flown to another city because she almost passed away (long story). 150k bill. After insurance.
There was an (executive order ?) during covid where you weren’t allowed to receive a large bill from medical emergencies and be required to pay it, if you had insurance.
Have you heard of/looked into this?
They could send a bill, but they would call it ‘an accident’, and then ask if you wanted to pay it out of the kindness of your heart. If you don’t, they just write it off on their books and call it a day.
I wanna say part of the stipulation was that it couldn’t be a surprise bill. Like I had a surgery that the insurance said they would cover 100% after my deductible. I have the surgery, and get bills from every mf in the building that day, basically, 'cause everyone billed individually as contractors in some way. Some contractor nurses they had called in to fill in, the anesthesiologist, supplies used by a doctor, the homeless guy panhandling outside, I forget what else, all billed separately. None of it pre-authorized, and I had already contacted the hospital and my surgeon’s office previously to try to prevent some nonsense like this. Anyway, I called and bargained some of it down, as insurance gets a higher bill, which they passed onto me as it wasn’t pre authorized, then spent months trying to save up to pay this additional burden of debt. I was looking into getting cheap legal counsel 'cause it was gonna be near impossible, it was a struggle, etc. etc. So I called them back one day seeing if I could negotiate further, got transferred a few times, until someone was nice enough to explain to me what I said earlier, and that if I just ignore it, they’ll write it off before the end of the year, but if I could make any kind of payment, as everyone put work in and it leaves “them” high and dry. Just to highlight the gouging, one of my bills before the surgery was over a thousand bucks for some gauze, bandaids, and a cane from my initial emergency visit (also billed separately from the rest of the visit). I saw how much insurance had already paid the surgeon and hospital, and shrugged my shoulders and slept fine that night not giving them another cent. I thanked the Ctulhus for liberals.
Edit: some further advice for the commenter and anyone else, Reddit was a good place to learn tactics on how to negotiate medical debt down, it also gave me a bit of hope, knowing there were plenty of “success” stories. I’ve been able to negotiate other medical bills down by massive percentages.
I would say yes, but I am drowning in debt now. Always a month behind which brings late fees which makes things harder to keep up on.
Also, pg&e burnt the town next to us entirely down (today is the anniversary!) and their solution to dealing with all the lawsuits, was to raise everyones utility bills. My bill was $50 to $100 before the fire. Last month it was $400. I haven’t been running heat or AC and the app says my energy usage is consistent for my home size.
I don’t believe it. Anyone who’s in a career position has probably been getting a raise the last couple years to combat inflation and retain during the great resignation. I’m sure plenty of people are worse off but 80%? No way
I’m better off, but not by much. I’m working from home now so that helps. I spend less on gas and work clothes (since I’m mostly dressy casual now instead of dress clothes/shoes). I’m also spending less on food because COVID forced me to get serious about meal planning. (Every trip to the store was a possible exposure so I had a big incentive to get everything I needed, and only what I needed, get out, and not return until next week.
That being said, I’m also facing prices that have risen about as fast as my salary - if not faster. I’m also getting to that age where retirement isn’t some nebulous future concept. I’m likely going to want to retire in 25 years or so, but I’m not anywhere close to having enough money. Nor can I afford to put away what I should be putting away.
I’m living somewhat comfortably (if frugally) today, but one major medical issue or job loss and I’ll be in serious financial difficult. And if things don’t improve significantly for me soon, I’ll be working until I die.
Increasing the money supply would have been fine if it had gone into working people’s pockets, infrastructure, jobs, housing, and other productive uses. But yeah, when it’s just pumped into the stock market or funneled through business via PPP then, go figure, the rich get richer while everyone else suffers.
Rent price coordinator website says I can get $6,922/month for my shed that’s partially submerged, I’ll be fair and ask $6,900/month as that’s a nicer number!
It’s rather negligent of the article to ignore inflation on other areas such as basic needs as well such as price gouging for toilet paper, the immediate war with Russia that suddenly caused gas spikes, and the continuing shrinkflation of basic necessities to be considered ‘luxury’. Bread for the fam shouldn’t be considered a luxury.
rather negligent of the article to ignore inflation
Also, while we note that high prices hurt directly, in major ways the Fed’s response to that (it’s been raising interest rates to reduce the money supply) is a major source of the pain associated with the high prices/price gouging we’re calling inflation.
Higher interest rates mean higher mortgage payments (or rent pressure), etc. This way, price gouging leads to higher profits, and if you hold bonds, also higher profits there- while consumers of those things are doubly-fucked
Undoubtedly. Many PPP loans were taken fraudulently as well (how many “businesses” do MTG and Matt Gaetz operate exactly?) so that had to have negative repercussions.
Meanwhile, comparing 2019 with 2023, Elon Musk had an increase in net worth of about 707%. That’s a plus of ca. $157.700.000.000. Yes, that’s 157,7 billion.
Yeah, I think about this a lot. I tend to think of myself as a good person (making other people happy makes me happy) but if, somehow, I was made Queen of Earth the first thing that would HAVE to happen is I’d need a panel of people who aren’t afraid to tell me “no”. I would absolutely be a dictator otherwise
I know it’s hot to blame price hikes rn, and there’s some bullshit going on with housing prices, but I’m going to need to see some household budget details before I break out the violin.
I’ve seen so many otherwise-defined-as-adults make very poor financial decisions for decades. Lifestyle creep is real.
Everyone has a budget they stick to, right? This isn’t a years-long delay on an inevitable recession due to tonedeaf revenge spending to counter existential depression, right?
I think the biggest factor is probably the hyper inflationary period we’re exiting (have exited?) which many companies used as an excuse to jack up prices much further than they needed to. Anyone who did not receive a raise in the last 24-36 months has effectively received a 10-20% paycut.
I can feel it in my own families finances. I went back to college and now make as much as my wife and I did combined in 2020 while my wife is now a stay at home mom and the money isn’t stretching as far as it was in 2020. On the upside my income ceiling is now significantly higher than it was, and my wife wants to start working again once the kids are in school
there is SO much money, as Levene in Glengarry Glen Ross says, “Just lying on the ground!”
However, we only allow certain people (businesses) to pick it up. We could give it to poor people and let the support of Ukraine continue. But we don’t. Because we ideologically have the position that businesses are people, and more important people than people people.
All it takes is the admission that “line go up” could be “line go up a little bit less steeply” and we can do it.
But no, the steepness of the line is more important than anything else.
Or, instead of that, we could spend just want we need to in order to literally defend our own shores and let our people have the abundant, full lives they deserve.
Canada only spends 26 billion a year on their military.
Mexico spends 8 billion.
All we’re doing is making a few warmongers rich and coming upw ith excuses to justify it.
No saying you are incorrect but the obvious conclusion to Russia -> Ukraine is North Korea -> South Korea, China -> Taiwan, etc etc. I have a problem letting more democratic countries fall to dictatorships. We’ve been here before and ended up losing 500,000 American lives to defeat (temporarily) fascism.
It doesn’t make that claim. It’s just that if you were wealthy between 2020 and now you can more easily navigate the price hikes by refinancing during the housing boom, sellings off assets, and shifting investments around.
But people in lower incomes don’t even have assets/savings to fall back on so they just lose harder when the prices hike.
Actually they are saying that if you were wealthy then you spin that wealth to increase your wealth. Whether that is drastically increasing profits. Using your connections to get free PPP money from the government. Etcetera…
We did not all lose something during Covid. The richest among us got a lot richer, and they continue to do so.
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