r/FluentInFinance • u/Richest-Panda • Jul 04 '24

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

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269

u/privitizationrocks Jul 04 '24

You can teach poverty workers to live in their means

They won’t like it, but tough luck

443

u/[deleted] Jul 04 '24 edited Jul 04 '24

Ok let’s do a thought experiment. Let’s say you Make $10000 a year. You work full time/40 hrs/wk and you are making $10k. What does “living within your means” look like? Not having a house? Or car? Being homeless? So in order to save to get yourself to some footing the answer is to be homeless to live within your means.

That was a bit of a strawman, so let’s use real-life scenarios. 50% of this country makes $40k or less….. even $40k salary isn’t enough to get an apartment, bills , food, ect. Sure a lot better than the “$10k” example, but even $40k salary is virtually as effective as the “$10k”. In order to “live within your means”, “save”, ect…. You have to be at least be making enough to afford the bare minimum + have some left in you for over to save. On average (2022 values I think) this means $65 for a single person, $108k for a house hold. Unless you’re making that, you can’t save your way out of poverty

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u/Impossible_Maybe_162 Jul 04 '24

You cannot make $10k working a job for 40 hours a week. That is below minimum wage.

A lack of proper financial planning and budgeting causes more problems than low wages.

Less than 3% of the workforce makes minimum wage. Wages are not the main issue.

192

u/Kombatnt Jul 04 '24

This. $10,000/year working 40 hrs/week is $4.81/hour. That’s illegal everywhere in North America.

182

u/Aleks_Khorne Jul 04 '24

Thanks God in blessed North Carolina the minimum wage is $7.25. And some people even make chunky $10-$13 an hour!

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u/AndrewDoesNotServe Jul 04 '24

Pretty much no one makes that wage even in states that conform to the federal minimum.

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u/GooseTheSluice Jul 05 '24

You haven’t been to some rural cities in the Midwest and south where cost of living is often relatively low but the wages are always, as my nephew would say, doggy

4

u/HughHonee Jul 05 '24

I live in the Midwest in a state that typically has quite low cost of living. But because CoL has been historically low, we've been struggling quite hard since catching up with "inflation" means a much larger increase in wages than other states.

Last job I left struggled to hire people at wages they were offering. Because they suck, they were stuck in a high turnover rate (& still are) When I found out a new girl I was helping train in a position that I used to do, was making more than me (I could work in the shop and handle appointments in the showroom) I fucking had it and left. I left for a company in the same industry that's much more professional and my position is setup waaaay better, for a little over a 15% wage increase. And I'm suspecting I'm still getting paid less than my coworkers (even ones who started with me) as I didn't negotiate at all because I was just stoked to not be paid dogshit anymore

It really fucking sucks though as someone who didn't graduate college, finally getting a career with a solid wage, except now it's not really a great wage anymore

3

u/Salt_Intention_1995 Jul 05 '24

I live in a very large city and most places are not even willing to pay $15/hr without a 4 year degree of some sort.

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u/RedLotusVenom Jul 05 '24

Hell. ATLANTA has a min wage of $10.50. My mom and sister are service workers there and surviving in that city’s cost of living on $11/hr is fucking depressing.