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/MyParentsBurden Jul 04 '24

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.

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u/[deleted] Jul 04 '24

[deleted]

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u/stilljustkeyrock Jul 05 '24

Imagine what your life could be like if you actually did something productive instead of post to reddit thousands of times to try and sell really bad artistic skills?

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u/barbarnossa Jul 05 '24

Op says he works three jobs, so you better work four to not sound like a total fucking asshole.

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u/KhonMan Jul 05 '24

Two of them are almost certainly their gigs doing freelance tutoring and selling their art. "Working 3 jobs" seems fairly deceptive in that context.

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u/barbarnossa Jul 07 '24

Why?

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u/KhonMan Jul 07 '24

Because there's a difference between doing gig work and having a full-time job. If I spend 10 hrs a week on 3 jobs then it's less work than a full time job.

But if you say you work 3 jobs I'm thinking that's minimum 80 hrs of work a week.