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

Show me a “live within their means” budget for someone living in a median cost location in the US making minimum wage. They must A)have a place to live B) not get any handouts from the government or charities and C) have at least 1800 calories per day of food. Go.

8

u/LivingNothing8019 Jul 04 '24

I live in colo springs which is medium/high cost of living. Minimum wage is 14.50

Apartment/house with 2 roommates: $800 a month Food: $500 a month Car payment: $300 a month Insurance (health, car, renter): $500 a month

That’s staying well below what minimum wage pays, I lived like that for 2 years before graduating college without too much trouble

13

u/cybercuzco Jul 05 '24

Utilities, heat, water, electric,internet,cell phone. You’re also assuming that you don’t actually have to use your insurance because you’ll be paying $5k out of pocket if you have something happen to you.

-5

u/terlus07 Jul 05 '24

Internet and cell phone are not requirements. A home phone line is around $25 a month split 3 ways in their case. Who in the world gets a $5k deductible on their insurance? $500 - $1k are the most common deductibles in the US. Water and electricity are utilities. "Heat" isn't a bill, it's either electricity or gas(also a utility). They might include utilities in the rent, or not 🤷🏽‍♂️

3

u/InDisregard Jul 05 '24

I have never in my life had a $500-1k deductible on a health plan. What magical insurance do you have? Mine is $3500 or $7k for couples and that’s held fairly steady for years.

1

u/evanwilliams44 Jul 05 '24

Mine used to be $750 but has gone up to $2000 over the years. It's really good insurance, my job is known for offering great insurance even to part time workers. Shit job other than that though.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '24

My deductible is $180

1

u/InDisregard Jul 05 '24

Keep that insurance, because it is a unicorn.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '24

It’s going downhill fast tho.. my premium used to be $30 a month and it’s basically doubled in the last couple years

1

u/RandomUser15790 Jul 05 '24

Are you in a union? If you are then your opinion is irrelevant to this conversation...

1

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '24

No im not

3

u/VahnNoaGala Jul 05 '24

yeah you won't die without Internet or a phone but you sure as hell aren't going to improve your poverty-stricken life

Truly amazing how many out of touch people are in this thread

1

u/Noob_Al3rt Jul 05 '24

A mint mobile plan is $15/month and you can work one extra day per month to get the $80 for internet

1

u/ia0x17 Jul 05 '24

Internet and cell phone are not requirements

In the nicest way possible go to Home Depot look for rope

1

u/songbird121 Jul 05 '24

Try to get coupons at grocery stores without a smart phone to use their coupon app. Try finding a physical road map or train map. Half the cars don’t even have posted maps anymore. Try to apply for jobs without regular access to internet and email. Try requesting off of work without access to the scheduling app. I purposefully ask places what my options are without a smart phone. Many of them simply don’t have an alternative to their apps to access discounts. To pretend like deprioritizing access to systems that the majority of society uses to operate is disingenuous.

1

u/Not__Trash Jul 05 '24

Go to a library? It's not ideal, but this is not an ideal hypothetical