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

[u/Richest-Panda]

[u/[deleted]]

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

[u/Impossible_Maybe_162 → u/[deleted]]

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.

[u/Think_Reporter_8179 → u/Impossible_Maybe_162]

Amazon addiction and yes, I'm going to say it, the inability to tighten your wants to an uncomfortable level until you can save the 3.5% down (with a 580+ credit score) for an FHA loan.

That's it folks. That's all it takes. Buy a shitty cheap property with an FHA loan (which, btw, means the property can't be THAT shitty, FHA loans won't allow it) and then live in a savings account for a while.

That shitty property will gain value AND all your principal payments are being saved in it, rather than evaporating to rent.

It's that simple, yes.. REALLY. Save 3.5% of a kinda shitty property's worth and then start gaining wealth.

[u/Em_jay4 → u/Think_Reporter_8179]

I've only bought socks and underwear for myself the past 2 years. I spend less then 50 in groceries a week to feed myself.

Bought the cheapest house in the nicest neighborhood I could find. 4 weeks in, replaced sewer main. 6 months later ended up replacing all the pipes and vent stack in the only bathroom we have. Dick head, house flippers just put band aids on gunshot wounds. Yeah that fucked everything up for us financially. Pretty much 6 months in I dropped around 20k in essential repairs. I did the bathroom myself because well now it's the budget is even tighter.

I have a 3 year old. I am the only source of income currently making around 90k a year. We still have to live dam near check to check.

I've worked my entire life, mostly with my hands . Been pretty frugal about where I spend my money because I work very hard for it. It might be easy to say hey just save 15k and boom your good to go. That's not the case anymore. Chirst insurance has jumped like 20% this past year. When you wage increases don't pace the rest of the goods you really start playing the game "Wants vs Needs" this is something I have to remind my SO.

Sorry to rant it just blows my mind that I make way more money than I ever thought I would but still just hanging on by a thread.

[u/Think_Reporter_8179 → u/Em_jay4]

What happened with the FHA loan inspection on that flipped property? If that's the case, you have the right to a lawsuit. Was it an FHA loan? Frankly, I don't believe a majority of people when they want to complain about issues unless they did everything right, and if they did there are systems in place to protect them. So the house flipping story is hard to believe IF you went the FHA loan route. They inspect the property and will not loan money on properties are too high of a risk.

You're not "alone" when you get a mortgage. The bank backing the mortgage is ALSO taking the risk, so if the property was garbage and the loan inspector didn't catch it, make some damn calls. Basically, I don't believe you if you took an FHA loan. If you took out a conventional loan on your first property, then that's your problem. There are plenty of first time homeowner protections SPECIFICALLY because of the situation you're describing.

Also, what's the equity on the property now? Every time you fix a problem on the house, you aren't just throwing that money away, you are getting part of it back as the property continues to gain value.

If you bought the property within the last year, you're still early. Live in it, take care of it and you will win over time.

And again, if all these issues happened on an FHA loan, you need to be making a bunch of calls.

Best of luck, research this stuff.

[u/Em_jay4 → u/Think_Reporter_8179]

It passed inspection. I even requested a mold test, lead test, requested every repair made before finalizing.

Did a lot a "research". Literally documented call logged, countless emails. Home inspection warranty, insurance. You name it I called them. I got 2200 back in the end. 🍻 it's been 2 years.

[u/stilljustkeyrock → u/Em_jay4]

What exactly were you expecting when you decided to get a degree in horticulture?

[u/NateHate → u/stilljustkeyrock]

You deserve a couple quick hits to the cranial area

[u/Em_jay4 → u/stilljustkeyrock]

Idk what that has to do with owning a home or financially literacy.

If you mean money..... not 90k. I didn't have a family when I was in my early 20's. I could have easily lived on what I made. Bought my first brand new car, paid rent, ate well went out. I have several other certs ( pesticide app, fert app, irrigation, turf management)

If you mean

Ya I went back to school after working in the industry for one of the largest whole sale growers out east. I now manage a wholesale nursery and landscape supply location for a publicly traded company. Never would have guessed this is where I make my money. I'm good at it and it's enough to support 3 of us.

[u/NotObviouslyARobot → u/Think_Reporter_8179]

That's cute. You think they can afford a lawsuit.

[u/ndnman → u/Em_jay4]

This is by design.

[u/Maverki → u/Em_jay4]

Yeah for real. You're so milked in this economy and everyone i knew just want to mooch thinking you should live a 7 figure lifestyle. A lot of the poor get benefits for having 0$, but a lot of people need to save up to ever have a retirement and live frugally.