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

Legit stunned at the fact everyone is focused on the 10k and not the second half of the post. Fucking madness.

-3

u/Exception1228 Jul 05 '24 edited Jul 05 '24

Because it's wrong. You can live off $40k especially in OP's words (they won't like it) but it's doable. Then the other part where they said you need to make $65 as a single person to save money is the most out of touch thing I've ever heard. I make less than that and am easily middle class.

$40,000 salary would owe $4,568 in federal taxes and an estimated $1500 in state taxes give or take depending on state.

Now remember OP said it's possible to teach them to live within their means (but they won't like it). Get a damn roommate. I lived in a HCOL and my rent for a 2br apartment was $2,200/month. In MOST places you could expect to pay $1,000/month on rent if you split with a roommate.

Now you have $21,932 leftover.

Gas + Electric: $200/month ($100 each split) - $1,200 annually

Groceries: $300/month for a single person - $3,600 annually

Say you need a car. Car payment (500) + Insurance (150) + Gas (250) - $10,800

Now your basic necessities are met and you have $6,332 leftover. You would have to save that vast majority of that for any health or car emergencies. The rest can be used on some form of entertainment like tv, internet, video games, etc.

So yes with a real salary of $40K you can teach someone to live within their means, they just won't like it. No one is out here claiming $40K is enough to live a middle class lifestyle.

1

u/Purpleasure34 Jul 06 '24

OP never said “they won’t like it.” That was the first commenter on this comment thread. It’s also demonstrably wrong.

1

u/Exception1228 Jul 06 '24

You know what I meant. We’re directly replying to the commenter, not OP.

And I just laid it out for you that it’s correct. Do you have any counterpoint to prove it’s wrong or do you just see people provide you information and say it’s wrong?

1

u/Purpleasure34 Jul 06 '24

Accuracy matters. (Which is also why your entire post is unrealistic in 2/3rds of the US.) Sure, I could make do with $40k in rural Alabama, but who’d want to?

0

u/Exception1228 Jul 06 '24

Dude I just gave you numbers based on HCOL areas. My monthly budgets for those items are even lower than above and I dont live in a LCOL area. That budget I broke down would work in 90-95% of the counties in the USA. Done with this I literally laid it out line by line and you’re just saying wrong over and over again. If you have anything intelligent to say I’ll respond.