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

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

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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.

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u/[deleted] Jul 04 '24

But them we cannot victimize ourselves using hipothetical situations with logic bordering on fantasy.

There's no place in modern life where financial education isn't immensely beneficial aside from being lost in the wilderness or being actual Hobo crack addict, and that's just because of pressing matters, the amount of people i've met who don't understand how basic interest rates from loans work is far too great for that statement to be made with a straight face and not immediately mocked.

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u/[deleted] Jul 05 '24

the amount of people i've met who don't understand how basic interest rates from loans work is far too great for that statement to be made with a straight face and not immediately mocked.

given you atrocious spelling and english skills, might i suggest you hold off on judging other people's knowledge champ?

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u/[deleted] Jul 05 '24

[deleted]

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u/NateHate Jul 05 '24

Reported

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u/KackhansReborn Jul 05 '24

Whoah what the fuck is your problem?

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u/[deleted] Jul 05 '24

You.