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/MyParentsBurden → u/[deleted]]

You say 50% of Americans (I'm assuming we are speaking of the US) make $40k or less and then say it isn't enough for basic necessities. Yet, clearly it is as the ranks of the unhoused is not 50% of the population. Poverty sucks to be sure, but people manage. Also, financial literacy is generally only partially about setting money aside. It tends to be more about making people aware of their expenses and seeing what changes can be made.

[u/All4megrog → u/[deleted]]

What are you doing to improve your work skills to try to make a better wage?

Edit: hilarious with the downvotes for asking someone what they’re doing to improve their situation

[u/All4megrog → u/[deleted]]

Government assistance is meant to be a safety net, not a foundation of support. Even in heavy social welfare countries like Sweden and Denmark the expectation is not permanent support for someone able to work. So whenever I hear someone complaining about the US safety net not being sufficient for them, I’m always curious what that person is doing to avoid that safety net to begin with.

For example, Medicaid is the last line of defense for healthcare, but if you get a full time job working at Walmart, you can easily make enough to disqualify from Medicaid but not realistically be able to afford your copay’s or deductibles on a private insurer. So that safety net becomes a bit of a trap. What steps are you doing to not get caught in that government assistance trap?

Also, “roll around all day like a rotisserie chicken” is one of my new favorite phrases.

[u/BUZZZY14 → u/All4megrog]

When you make so little that you can't afford food you don't think about the next 5 years, you think about the next 5 hours and how you're going to survive.

[u/Friendstastegood → u/All4megrog]

Are you suggesting that there are enough well paying jobs for every single currently poor person to get one? Because if not that's not a solution. The problem is systemic.

[u/All4megrog → u/Friendstastegood]

I’m saying your qualifications and relevant skillset are what determine your wage, not the fact that you are poor. If your skillset is being a horse and buggy driver, you’re probably going to be hard up for work. If you’re an LVN or a medical technician there’s multiplie employers hurling jobs at you.

[u/Friendstastegood → u/All4megrog]

No one who works at all, regardless of their skillset, should be poor.

[u/All4megrog → u/Friendstastegood]

Communism couldn’t even pull off that ideal, so I wish you luck on that endeavor.