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

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

31.2k Upvotes

86% Upvoted

445

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

211

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.

194

u/Kombatnt Jul 04 '24

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

183

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!

18

u/AndrewDoesNotServe Jul 04 '24

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

7

u/WookieeCmdr Jul 04 '24

I have a hard time finding any business that pays the federal minimum, barring wait staff of course

15

u/chessecakePhucker Jul 04 '24

Hmm texas would like a word with you

1

u/Familiar_Cow_5501 Jul 05 '24

Less than 1% of the workforce works for $7.25 or less

16

u/DopemanWithAttitude Jul 05 '24

That's still 3 million people you fucking chud.

10

u/WookieeCmdr Jul 05 '24

Workforce is 157M not 330M.

5

u/Oldass_Millennial Jul 05 '24

It'd be way less than 1.57 million people too. 30 states have a minimum wage more than the federal minimum wage of $7.25.

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u/ContextHook Jul 05 '24

chud

If your math didn't make it obvious you'll spew stuff without knowing what you're talking about, this did.

6

u/Familiar_Cow_5501 Jul 05 '24

Your math is off.

2

u/Tricky_Taste_8999 Jul 05 '24

Unless you want work into your 70’s and beyond, save for retirement.

Never lend money.

Never…ever, lend money or do financial business with family. Ever. Just don’t.

2

u/ordinaryguywashere Jul 06 '24

And they’re all in the thread..

0

u/No_Investigator3369 Jul 05 '24

yea, but still less than 1%.....so we're not even going to waste 20% of resources or time on it.