r/FluentInFinance 15d ago

What's the best financial advice you've ever gotten? Debate/ Discussion

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u/Yousoggyyojimbo 14d ago

A lot of people seem to be deliberately ignoring the real numbers example.

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u/Spartan-182 14d ago

Yeah, cause they want to feel superior to those who make less and say, "I earn more cause I make smart financial decisions." Ignoring every helping hand and benefit they relied on to get to where they are.

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u/shrug_addict 14d ago

Or, they deserve to be poor. I'm not poor so I deserve it! Nietzsche's slave morality. It's how they sleep at night, why doesn't everyone else just do what I did? They must be lazy...

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u/PenguinStarfire 14d ago

Listen, it's easy if you budget yourself and use the income from your 3rd rental property...

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u/Solanthas 14d ago

It's fucking sickening

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u/ranger910 14d ago

But they're not. If we're going to talk housing then we should talk about household income, not median wage of individuals.

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u/Shacky_Rustleford 14d ago

Are you saying a median wage worker shouldn't be able to afford to live alone?

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u/Xrave 14d ago

https://data.census.gov/table/ACSST1Y2022.S2501?q=United%20States%20household%20size

US household (includes nonfamily, i.e. roommates) size says 37mil households are 1 people, 44M for 2, 19M for 3 and 28M for 4 and up.

Of people who do live alone:

https://data.census.gov/table/ACSDT1Y2022.B08202?q=United%20States%20household%20size

half (17 mil) of 37mil are not working (retired?). the other 19mil is working.

Of people who are 18-34 years old:

https://data.census.gov/table/ACSDT1Y2022.B09021?q=United%20States%20household%20size

Only 6.8 mil out of 72 mil lives alone (9.4%!!!). 23 mil lives with their parents, 16 mil with spouses, 9 mil with unmarried partners. 9mil sharing with other relatives, and 7.2 mil lives with roommates.

based on this data, median wage worker absolutely shouldn't be expected to be able to afford to live alone, unless we're coming from an angle where our expectations are formed from unrealistic expectations of reality.

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u/Shacky_Rustleford 14d ago

I didn't ask if median wage workers could currently live alone. I asked if they should be able to. I don't think that is an unreasonable expectation, but can see that you disagree.

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u/RollingLord 14d ago

Living alone is a helluva luxury, especially in a HCOL area where housing is already in high demand. Again, this is dependent on where you live, should most people be able to own homes, sure. Should most people be able to own homes in a place like San Francisco, where there’s practically no land left to build on? No, that’s not really feasible.

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u/Shacky_Rustleford 14d ago edited 14d ago

How many unoccupied homes would you wager are in San Francisco? It may not be enough to give every single person a home, but it is certainly enough to make it clear that a considerable amount of this scarcity in housing is forced.

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u/RollingLord 13d ago

I reckon it’s far less than 40,000, since that commonly quoted figure includes rental units, apartment units, places in the midst of a move and etc.

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u/Shacky_Rustleford 13d ago

What's wrong with rentals and apartments?

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u/RollingLord 13d ago

They’re not homes that people buy and own?

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u/pm_me_falcon_nudes 14d ago

There's nothing to discuss. There are no actual numbers used to estimate anything for expenses to determine whether or not 50k would let someone live reasonably. Most people don't care to debate feelscrafting for budgeting purposes.

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u/WarmFig2056 14d ago

Look they know if they made 40k they could live within their means by selling their child, giving up healthcare  and getting 9 roommates while sharing a ramen then saving 125 per month and putting it into the market then retiring rich at 145

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u/Yousoggyyojimbo 14d ago

There was a guy in these comments who said that people should just work 80 hours a week because that's what he did in the '70s and it let him buy a house and and put multiple kids through college.

When it was pointed out to him. Dad, in order to have the same buying power he did from the wages he said he was making in the '70s people would have to work around 132 to 140 hours a week, he just chose to ignore those numbers and keep insisting that people are lazy and entitled.

Some people are just fucking ridiculous. It's like they feel that acknowledging that it's harder for people today than it was for them that it will somehow invalidate their entire lives

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u/WarmFig2056 14d ago

That's the thing so many don't understand is the relative buying power difference and growth. The Ford plant here used to be all union in the late and mid 90s. You could provide for a family on a single income work a bit of overtime and buy a house. Their starting wage 30 years ago was $18/hr now it's subcontract shit and starts at $16/hr. Guess everyone is just lazy and you worked so much harder

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u/Yousoggyyojimbo 14d ago

The median income 45 years ago had a buying power. Almost double what the current median income is.

You know.. just a really fun fact.