People acting high and mighty here over saving money are just so funny to me. "But if you put just a 100 on the side every month". Right. And if i put 200 I'll be twice better. Why not put 1000 and retire with 40?
Me and my wife are both average earners, no credit, low rent, 2 children. Last time we went on a vacation was last dummer. The time before that was 8 years ago. We're maybe able to put 200-300 on the side per month. Maybe. And once we get to about 2k (so about once every year), either the car breaks, or we need some new furniture or something else happens and it's all gone.
People need to understand that saving money for retirement has become a luxury, a lot of people can't afford. And not becouse they're bad with money or becouse they don't care about the future, but becouse it simply isn't affordable to do so.
Life isn't easy, and saving extra money for retirement is not feasible for many.
Some of us will die working. And it sucks.
Not because we are reckless, but because every time we get ahead, something kicks us back down.
"You don't need extras". What an inadequate statement from people.
Life is short. It's good to be smart with money, but being frugal to the point of not spending a dime of it on something that would make you happy is a sad way to live.
If the dollar crashes, all that money you saved up will be worthless anyways.
It is possible to enjoy the present without going into massive debt.
This is just my opinion. Feel free to disagree with me.
I hear a lot of excuses here and not a lot of “I’m going to figure out how to prioritize my future.”
Life isn’t easy. Something kicks us down. Life is short. Being frugal is a sad way to live. If the dollar crashes your money will be worthless.
Those are progressively more outlandish excuses for the same behavior - spending beyond your means and not saving something.
I get it that life is expensive and not everyone has it easy. But most people can adjust their lifestyle in some way so that they’re saving something each month. You can either spend less or work more to achieve a savings goal. And there is always some way to spend less than you do now. It’s a matter of personal will and prioritizing.
I hear a lot of excuses here and not a lot of “I’m going to figure out how to prioritize my future.”
It's always this. They come up with these excuses as a way of justifying their own poor choices and their lack of ambition. Building wealth is hard, and it requires work. You can't just say "Well, my wife and I make average salaries, so I guess we're just stuck". A person who was really trying would take some steps to increase their salary, or move to an area with a lower cost of living. There's always something you can do.
My best friend is a great example. He grew up somewhat poor - living in the upstairs of a duplex. He didn't apply himself in school and ended up working construction jobs with hispanic immigrants. Eventually he got tired of that, so he went back to school. He simultaneously got an entry level white collar job that paid shit, but it was better than working outside all day. When he got his degree, he used it to become a cop. After a few years, he decided to move to a rural area and become a state trooper. After a few more years, he became a detective. He now owns a modest mansion on an acre of land and has 3 cars in his driveway.
Dude didn't do anything special. He got a job that anyone can get (cop), moved to a place anyone can move to, performed well enough to get a promotion, and that's it. Now he's rich. What he didn't do was make excuses. He found an avenue towards wealth, and he took it. It was a struggle, and he had to make sacrifices, but there wasn't any invisible force stopping him from taking small steps to ensure his future. Took him a decade to get here, but he did it.
How to respond to this in a way that won't get me kicked off of Reddit...
No, not "anyone" can become a cop. Not "anyone" can afford to move to somewhere with a cheaper cost of living. Not "anyone" can afford to go back to school. Your buddy was lucky that he was in a position where he could do what he did, even cutting back, even exerting himself, even going nights without sleep.
Sometimes, you "do something" - maybe get a second job (because you and your spouse are already working full time), maybe work on your education, maybe sell something or move somewhere or do the big thing to change your life - and then your car breaks down. So you do something else. And then your roof starts leaking. So you do something else. Then your spouse's car breaks down. At this point, you're struggling to find time in your day to take a shit, let alone procure some additional source of income - and you're starting to run out of additional sources. Then you get sick - your doctor tells you it's caused by stress, which apparently you're supposed to just power through, and you do. You get sicker. Then one day you have a neurological event and end up in the hospital. And then you're looking at a choice between "just do something" and "just survive," and at the end of the day, your only option is to try to do whatever doesn't break your body to the point where it gives out entirely.
If you have not experienced what it's like when your options run out, after you've kept fighting and fighting and fighting, thank your lucky stars. No one will notice the day your high horse finally bucks you.
Yes. I’m a physician and this is a common cognitive bias I see in people. When things are going well and stuff works out, we congratulate ourselves on our good choices and hard work. But bad news: natural selection, the universe, and fate do not care about you.
I’m a first generation college grad, one parent was incarcerated, and I’m a surgeon now. Did I work hard? Yep. Did some very specific things fall into place at very specific times that I had no control over to get me here? Absolutely.
Sometimes life kicks you hard. And sometimes there is nothing anyone else can do about it. We need to be willing to accept at least that. We can’t make everyone financially successful or even stable. Life can be unfair.
Do you not see the luck here? Dude wasn't disabled. Sounds like he's a cis het white guy, the one who statistically tends to get the job offer, the raise, the promotion, the favorable loan terms that come with it. He wasn't injured. Didn't have to care for any family members. Had the money and time to go back to school. Didn't end up with any big medical expenses.
Rather than look at the one person who managed get out and say hey, that shows it's good enough, maybe we improve the odds for everyone.
It's not "luck" to be an average person. It's unlucky to be disabled, or injured, or a non-English speaking immigrant to the US, etc.
When offering general advice, we can't account for every single disadvantaged person in life. If I were to do that, I'd have to account for all the people with no legs and arms, and all the people who live in the Philippines, and all the people who have very low IQs, and all the people who are deaf/mute/blind. At that point, the conversation just ends, because obviously a blind dude in the Philippines truly is stuck in life.
People like you like to throw around the word "luck" as a conversation stopper. You're not trying to discuss anything - you're trying to silence me. Your implied argument is that since avery small minority of people are very unlucky and can't get ahead in life, we shouldn't even talk about ways that everyone else could succeed. You'd have to be an incredibly miserable person to go out of your way to keep others from engaging in discussions that could be beneficial to their lives. The blind, non-English speaking midgets are not hurt by this conversation at all, so stop with the virtue signaling. It's pitiful.
If you want to give up on life, go right ahead, but don't stop others from trying to succeed. If you're a disabled person living in The Gambia, then this conversation is not for you in the first place.
Probably going to get downvoted for this, but some people who are in here are complaining about being tight are the same people with a new iPhone, Netflix and a less than 3 year old car.
Folks don’t know how to stretch or live within their means anymore
No doubt. It’s not easy and I’m a very undisciplined person. But at some point you have to be your own parent and force yourself to do the hard stuff or you’re going to be in the same rut forever.
I got in a car accident three weeks ago and my car was totaled. The other party’s insurance paid me a little over $11,000 for the car and “pain and suffering.” I really wanted to buy a nicer car than I had before but instead talked myself into a 2012 model with 160,00 miles for $4,900 because I know it will get me where I need to go safely and I’ll have no car payments. I can’t brag to anyone about my car. But I was able to up my 401k contribution by 2% more of my salary when I got my annual cost of living raise on October 1. Making these choices isn’t easy or fun for me.
Boom! Good call on the car! Sorry about the accident though. So many other people would put the money down on a $40k car and get a 8 yr term at 10% for the "fancy car with a sunroof". I congratulate you on your discipline. I drove my high school car well into my career while I watched coworkers dropping $60k on new trucks. I instead traded in my 20 yr old truck for a 10 yr old truck with a little cash.
Interesting. I could pay $40,000 I don’t have for a new car, put that $4,900 down and guarantee I’ll have a $650 car payment every month for the next six years, leaving me with a paid off used car in six years worth about $12,000 that actually cost me $52,000 after interest. OR I can make my $4,900 car work for the next two years, sell it for about $2,000 and buy a better car when the time comes. Hmm.
Let’s see which option makes more financial sense? $4,900 up front for a car that has at least 2 years of life left, that may or may not require serious repairs or maintenance and results in me getting to work and my car insurance remaining low.
Or a $52,000 car that is worth $12,000 when I’m done paying for it and gets me to work but requires a much higher insurance payment due to its high replacement/payoff cost.
How many repairs or replacement cars do you suppose I could afford with that $47,000 plus insurance costs that I didn’t spend?
Meanwhile, I’m putting some of that money im not spending on a $650 car payment and $100 a month in insurance into my 401k, where the return has been 11.5% over the last several years.
This is my entire point, and you made it for me. Your advice isn’t very sound and doesn’t get me where I want to be financially when I retire. My way works and has worked for me since 1999 - which was the last time I purchased a new car. I haven’t had any sort of car payment since about 2012 either. It was a long road to figuring out I was losing tens of thousands of dollars financing cars that I actually couldn’t afford.
Lol OK. My dad drives a 35 yr old truck he bought new that has 400k miles on it. He told me the biggest repair over the years was a new clutch for $800. My first truck had 250k miles when I traded it in, also bought new, had it for 20 yrs. Biggest expense was the central computer replaced for $1200.
Yes you can get a turd but take care of what you have and it can easily last years
I don't even see myself getting outvof debt. Graduated college into.com bust. Couldn't make anything out of my degree between that and rl situation with sole custody of my 2 daughters. Buroed in loan deby and save act is about to expire. Stable job for 8 years trying to figure out how not to starve in a cardboard box. I cant even put away 200/month now. After another 450 literally wtf. My pay already cant manage rent/food/bills. Have the nazis made homelessness illegal yet?
I’m sorry but I’ve been alive long enough to say most of the time it’s poor choices. Not just money choices but also directional decisions in life. Sometimes made out of comfort or lack of determination.
You dont save for retirement in dollars. You save for retirement with assets and stocks. Inflation with make your dollar weaker but your S&P 500 stocks will go up.
"Some of us will die working" that sucks, but its as intended. The original retirement age was set to 60-then 65 because life expectancy was around that. Humans just got better science and medicine since and raising retirement age is such a political taboo that it hasnt been raised, and somehow it became an expectation that people can have a couple decades of no-work retirement. So yeah it sucks, but the policy originally intended for general public to work till they die.
I don’t disagree with you, but I think it’s worth looking backwards in time and examining how life has changed. Nearly all of our great-grandparents grew up poor. Some of them made choices and took chances that worked out, and by and large, wealth has traversed the decades into what we now recognize as privilege.
Today, nobody wants to be their great-grandparents. Back then, making sacrifices was difficult, but didn’t carry the added burden of social pressure. EVERYONE was making sacrifices, often very visibly. Back to today, everything is broadcast to the world around us, both good and bad. It’s a lot harder to go without when it certainly seems like nobody else is doing so.
Saving money is really hard. Avoiding excess spending is really hard. But if you compare the luxuries we have today with the harsh realities faced by our family trees just a few generations back, there’s definitely a disconnect that can help anyone understand why things have changed for the modern proletariat.
Husband says we need about 5-6k a month just to get by. We have no car payments or debt and our mortgage is only 1,200 a month. Daughter is in public school and no after school activities. When you add in property tax, home and auto insurance, groceries and the cost of prescriptions which aren’t even that expensive and gas (about $150 a month) you get there pretty fast. It’s crazy. Even if I cut our grocery/house supplies in half that would only get us an extra $500 a month and we’d be living TIGHT trying to cover food and household supplies for 3 ppl and a dog on $500 a month.
I'm here to tell you that, all the [way] back in the 1990s, this was already understood through Future Studies computer modelling to be the overwhelming likelihood of ourcurrent time, for young Gen X & Elder Gen Y. The writing was on the wall... which means that governments of Developed or Developing countries, all around the world, chose for this to happen by not choosing to prevent it.
I am a handful of years your junior and in the same boat.
We didn't need modeling in the 1990s to know this. Politicians have known about this for a long time whether they have looked at statistical modeling or not. The issue is that we need a new system. Unfortunately, when you start a new system, it will be politicized. Nobody wants to be the one to jump on the grenade.
Don't even need to do the last 3 things, DINK life is just so much easier. Talking to her sister in law we realised everything is 4x more expensive for them whenever they go for a day out or on holiday or for something to eat.
No, we may as well live in empty rooms and eat on the floor. It may come as a surprise to you, nut as time passes stuff breaks and new needs come along.
You buy furniture and then you have furnished rooms. Most people don’t “need” to keep buying new furniture. I rented in Boston and other Eastern cities for years and most apartments had some furniture and I would add pieces over time and bring those with me when I moved. When we got our house, we slowly added furniture when we could and our last two sofas came from family members who got new sofas themselves. It’s just a weird thing to choose as to why you have no money. “I keep having to buy new furniture”. I mean different people with different view points on life right? But I mean, c’mon… investing in the market, having a solid retirement … or buy new furniture instead. Priorities.
My first two homes were furnished with almost exclusively used furniture. The resale value is absolutely shit, so you can pick up really nice stuff for next to nothing.
Had an estate sale for my brother. Tried selling the bed and some couches that nobody wanted. A chair had a small rip in the arm. I was asking $3 for it.
Come on, even new couches at Big Lots (massive discount store where discontinued items go) are now $600 where they used to be $100. Even used off Facebook Marketplace is now $300 on avg.
Yes! My husband and I jointly make just enough to cover bills. He gets paid biweekly and I get paid weekly. We have maybe $10-30 left after paying bills and that money usually goes into one fun monthly outing with the kids.
The folks on here saying, “Oh it’s sooooo easy to save. If you don’t save you’re just foolish or lazy,” are just arrogant. Instead of offering kind solutions, they’re floating about how much better they are. Usually a sign that they’re insecure or alone. I feel bad for them
Instead of offering kind solutions, they’re floating about how much better they are.
I mean the thing about finical advice, is that good finical advice is going to be tailored to that person's individual situation. So offering any solutions in a thread like this were we know nothing about the person's individual situation is just going to come off as rude, as it probably won't help their situation.
Comfort is a word that could describe two people who value raising their kids so neither works a job that requires travel, and they don’t work side hustles because they are at sports and other youth and family events. I’m not sure these people like being told they are too comfortable, when they are often working just as hard to be good family members and support groups for others.
Or consider going through a divorce and you have to sell the house for a 50k loss instead of having 80k of perceived equity. Now you have half your income and are drowning.
I don’t think it’s that much harder to have empathy for endless situations that can hurt someone financially. I lost $1000 this summer having to rent a car to catch a plane the next day on the other side of the country because my first flight got canceled. I lost thousands more when my landlord decided to break our lease 3 months after moving because the husband lost his job and needed to relocate. I certainly wasn’t made whole on that one. It’s all to say a whole years worth of savings can evaporate from things outside of your control.
Some people are fortunate enough to have little or no troubles, and some are on the other side of that bell curve.
Would if we could. It took my husband two years to find a job, and 6 months to find one after he was fired. We have three kids, including a baby who is too young for daycare, so I need to work remotely to stay home with her. I’ve had one for 7 years and I love it, but I don’t get enough hours. I’ve been trying for years to get more, but I can only get what other people can afford. My husband is considering getting a second overnight job, and I’m trying to avoid that because he already works overtime. Often 12-14 hour days (9am-9pm or 9am-11pm).
We’re blessed to have the work we have. I’m not complaining about that. We’ve been trying our best to get more money, just no luck yet. I’m grateful to have something that keeps me home and pays our bills though. A lot of people can’t say that
Also, I would never be angry at someone doing better. My whole family is doing better and I hold zero grudges against them. My dad is an engineer and my mom has been a homemaker my whole life. My sister is a lawyer in NYC and is engaged to a lawyer herself, so she makes crazy good money. I don’t look at them in envy, I’m so proud of the amazing work they’ve done. They deserve the financial freedom, and I’m very happy for them. They know my husband and I often struggle and don’t make us feel bad at all. They gave us great financial advice that we took and things improved as much as they can. They could make us feel inferior but never have because they’re secure, kind people.
It causes damage to accuse someone of being lazy or incompetent when they’re already struggling. A little kindness goes a long way ❤️
It really won’t unless you’re too ignorant to invest that money.
But yes, people that literally just let in rot in a bank account, will lose money and will likely never have substantial savings.
The flip side of this is me wondering why regardless of income people set up their lives so that expenses are 99.5% of income and then be surprised when the slightest wobble or non-routine expense causes a crisis.
And not becouse they're bad with money
Those living lives on the razors edge of spend every cent they make while knowing there will be surprises and retirement needs are exactly that.
Expenses always magically matching income regardless of income number is the outcome of choices made not some universal law of nature
(Poverty levels excluded ofc - below a certain level stuff like body needs enough calories is very much not a choice)
I’ve met homeless by choice folks who have really good retirement savings. They work occasionally and absolutely minimize their expenses. One can usually always meet their calorie needs quite cheaply via food banks, church potlucks, and homeless services. Takes a certain amount of grit to live day to day without the modern comforts but its a lifestyle choice more people should consider if they can’t actually put money back.
I’ve met homeless by choice folks who have really good retirement savings.
I could kinda see the camping/hitchhiker life as a choice. Not sure about straight up homeless hobo by choice? Do people do that?
One can usually always meet their calorie needs quite cheaply via food banks
Agreed. I mostly brought up the food thing to highlight that I think at the very bottom rungs of economic survival telling people "just make better choices" ain't it...
I’m probably biased but I hang out with a lot of well educated folks that study and practice applied anthropology and teach survival and primitive skills to laypersons.
These are people who actively study how humans lived before the written historical record. This time period lasted for hundreds of thousands of years with only stone tools. So being “homeless” is an academic exercise most of the year. They travel all over the country teaching and living with very little. They probably wouldn’t spend much more if you gave them a $100k salary. A good time is taking goats out into the wilderness and living off the land for a season or spending time at camp tanning deer hides.
There are whole books on how to live this sort of lifestyle outside the usual grind but it isn’t comfortable. The folks that master It are able to save a lot of money because the don’t really spend it to live.
Humans knew how to meet all their needs with what was around them, but that knowledge is mostly lost to most people now.
You never “need” new furniture. I’ve managed to save quite a bit and I haven’t been on a vacation in 20 years. Saving for the future requires sacrifice. At 47, I’ve never owned a new car and I’ve only paid cash for cheap ones. Saving takes sacrifice.
The future isn’t a guarantee, sounds like you’ve had a miserable life scrimping away, and I wouldn’t want to be you on your death bed, looking back on your wasted existence
I agree, but then put aside 10$ or 1$ or whatever you can afford, everything counts when you have 20-30 years of compound interest and the will to no dip into it.
Maybe that'l be the 1000$ that saves your ass in 10 years or it might be the meaker 10k you were able to save for retirement.
Sorry, but the truth might hurt here. The U.S. median salary is $65k per year.
If you and your wife are both working and are anywhere near that as “average” earners, and you can’t save more than $2k on a $130k household income, you might be an idiot with your money.
It doesn't add up at all unless he is very heavily mistaken with the word "average".
Middle income (Median) for one full-time working person was at 54066 p.a. last year in Germany. That's net 2918 p.m. times 2 (which excludes Kindergeld). Net 5836 should make it very possible to save 100 (more likely 1000+) per month on a low rent with no credit.
After -1/5 for Kindergarten that would still be 4668 p.m.
Stuff got more expensive, but people also got used to seeing all the luxuries we have nowadays as the bare minimum.
My mother grew up in a 3 room apartment with 3 siblings, the, heated with coal and only bathed on sundays in one washtub you had to fill up by hand.
A nice snack they like back than was bread with butter and sugar.
And that with my grandfather having a fine job at an insurance company.
We go on vacation, get the nicest tech, order food, eat meat everyday and live on more squaremeters than ever before, but people still act like we are the poorest, most hard working people to ever exist.
Old age is when wealth really matters. Life gets more expensive when you're old because you may have medical issues which leads to medications and hospital bills. Eventually you won't be able to work anymore but the bills will still need to be paid. Your children taking care of you isn't a certainty nor is it fair to expect that of them.
I understand things are much tighter right now than what we’ve been used to for the last several decades. Those same decades were the greatest economy in the history of the world, that became our normal so anything worse than that feels really bad. There is a solution. Don’t be average. The average person is terrible with finances and career decisions. The individual is still the biggest factor in the success or failure of their finances. Blaming the system is easy and I agree that the system has TONS of faults, corruption, unfairness etc… but looking more internally will be the thing that actual helps. I know that’s not a popular thing to say, but it’s the truth.
Dual income, no credit, low rent and 2 children, yet still struggling - sounds like either your child care cost is super high or something else is draining the money away
Childcare is expensive, i can't deny that. About 1/5 of our income goes to kindergarten alone. Cost of living has sharply risen though. Fuel is 50% up in the last year, 80 or 90 in the last 5. Food, energy, heating, the list goes on and on.
You only have one option now. You need to tell your children they need to look after you in a few years when your old or you can sell them now to help fund your retirement
We're not allowed to technically have slaves so they keep inching us closer and closer to it year by year. If we're working over what the human should to survive and barely able to keep up then are we really free?
“Need new furniture” you sound like my wife (who has 0 retirement savings and makes more than I do).
Live within your means; no one “needs” new furniture. Go to estate sales, good will, buy the shit you can afford.
Major car repairs are one thing, but I bet you pay a 40x markup to have someone else change your oil for you 4 times a year now don’t you? That’s what 3-4 hundred dollars/year that can go towards a major repair.
As someone on the “able to save” side of the fence, you sound like someone making excuses for why they’re on the “disadvantaged” (really just unable to save) side of the fence.
It isn't the reason you're insinuating. The most poverty stricken countries have the highest birth rates. Back in the first half of the 20th century in the US, when being at the poverty line meant something totally different than what it means today, people were still reproducing way more.
The reasons for the declining birth rate are cultural, not financial. I've spent a lot of my career working with grad students and young white collar professionals. Most of them don't even aspire to have families. It's not the case of "boy I'd like to have kids if I can afford it at some point." It's "kids? Who wants that? No thanks."
I'm no expert so take that with a pinch of salt: based on your income. We've looked tlinyo buying a house once and they had some formula that calculates your "spare income". So what's left after the minimum expenses a household has to sustain itself. Those expenses are defined by the government. That didn't go anywhere, but they approved us for up to 300k€. As for small credits, so like 20k for a car or such, again based on that formula i guess, can't really say as I've never looked into it and wherever there was a possibility to buy something on credit i would always be approved. Altrought I've never went with it.
That makes sense though. Debt ratio/income is a pretty universal indicator of risk. Although it is possible for someone to have the ability to pay and refuse. Lol.
Yeah it does. When was the last time someone required it from you? As I've mentioned above, i did got approved for 300k credit. The only thing they required out of me was paycheck history for the last 36 months, work contract and adress registration. Schufa never got into question.
People who have wealth from their family or people who got lucky in their lives financially, can't understand that most people are working 10+ hours a day to just be able to live.
You have to “pay yourself first” by contributing to a 401k or retirement account before your paycheck hits your bank. That’s the only foolproof way I’ve found to save. It’s also what all the financial advice gurus say to do.
The reason you get this advice from a lot of people who are able to save money is because they have a small handful of luxuries they pay for monthly that they could easily cut. Cutting 100$ of their budget is "easier" for them so they think anyone can do that.
People who generally live paycheck to paycheck just don't have those kinds of luxuries they can just cut like that without making their life significantly more miserable.
"You dont need that netflix subscription", you are right they dont. But what else are they supposed to do after coming home from work exhausted. Sit there doing nothing? Reading books from the library is just not relaxing to a lot of people. Yes there is public tv but losing the ability to watch a lot of content in order and however you want is a significant life downgrade.
The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.
Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.
But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.
My mom literally retired with 0$ savings and due to her stroke retired early with disability. She's housed and taken care of by the government. She says she's happy living simply and without a lot of money. You don't need a lot of money to retire just a healthy mental state.
It sucks but I feel like for many it needs to be pain now for security later. Like 10% goes into the 401k regardless of our financial situation and we figure out any issues that come up without changing that. It’s the only way or we’ll be screwed later on.
This is just not true btw. In America if you’re making 40k a year your can comfortably retire if you do it right. With kids that’s harder but if you’re both working then it’s not a “luxury” to save. It’s a mindset issue. Don’t make excuses for why you slacked off in your 30s. Make a change.
... and people on Reddit falling back so hard on the oh woe is me bullshit, when they should instead be seeing what they can learn to better themselves and their situation. Nobody has everything figured out, even those of us now living comfortably. Many of us weren't always in this position, and some of us believe it or not want you to make it too. And you're sitting on a global website of people who will answer your questions.
I just ran the numbers in the immediate area around where I'm sitting. Houston area. To live reasonably, which means owning your own home and having enough money for a reliable vehicle, monthly expenses (actual, not fucking Door Dash), and a little extra to put away. $60,000/year gross. So basically $30/hr. I can already hear the scoffs and see the crybabies' eyes spinning like slot machines. Too bad that scoff does NOTHING to get you to $30/hr. The thought process really needs to be "That's what I want, and there's no reason other people can do it but I can't." Look at those homes and understand that real people, living real lives, reside in them. Own them. Keep up with the lawn. Put out Halloween decorations. You're no different other than you haven't put yourself out there and grabbed it for yourself. Believe in yourself. You can't walk into $30/hr. today? Start where you can, and look for opportunities. Sure I'll grab that extra shift. Sure I'll take on that extra responsibility. Oh now I'm a supervisor and got a raise. Ask for what you want, don't wait for the raise to be handed to you. Wash, rinse, repeat. You have to get started somewhere. Yes, boomers had it easier but does that mean we just sit in a corner and cry about it? No, we bust our asses for ourselves. For our life, and our future.
You do realize you're ignoring the other side of the equation, which is your income. You can increase your income if you're willing to put in the work. Complaining about expenses being high and doing nothing about it is foolish. Learn new skills, start a side hustle, make yourself more marketable and attractive to employers.
This is why we need a constitutional amendment to prevent deficit spending, except in times of military invasion, and/or the US dollar needs to go back on the gold standard. Otherwise they just kick the can until they simply can't any more.
No its not luxury. Retirement dont exist cause we stopped saying no to stupid stuff we dont need. You dont need newest iphone. You dont need newest car. You dont need spend 40$ a day for lunch in fast food restaurant.
We have issue of people not being educated how to behave like a normal human being.
Exactly, and I doubt these "high and mighty" people suffer from any chronic health issues. It's so easy to look down on people when you sit on a high horse. And don't get me started on people born into privilege. 🙄
We earn together low 6 figures with one child and one car, have about 100k in savings/investments that we do.not.touch.ever. Paid cash for our small wedding. Own our small home.
We are my mom’s retirement - housing, food, trips, some medical care, (as is my sister) as she never paid into SS so she is at poverty level (was self employed). So anything that could go to retirement for me or my sister is going to my mom’s and a little bit here and there to save for an aid when she eventually needs one because I can’t be a full time mom, full time employee and full time caretaker all at the same fucking time.
My in-laws head’s are also in the clouds and they will become a financial burden in the future as they refuse to acknowledge the cost of housing, assistance/care, or that we will have to fly back and forth to assist them as they live in the armpit of the earth (Florida) and refuse to move closer to us. There have been conversations where I explain the financial implications of medical emergencies because I have gone through them with my mom when she lived across the country….I’m met with “well that won’t happen or well we are going to move to assisted living on the beach (which they can’t afford) and will probably die by car accident at some point so noting to worry about”.
This is not my generation being irresponsible with money….this is my generation getting screwed. How are we supposed to get ahead?
Just wanted to add the that expensive things like cars and furnaces, which seem to break every time you’ve saved a little, were designed to fail because the older products were lasting too long and diminishing profits.
This system that squeezes every penny it can from us. It doesn’t care about your emergencies.
Im really curious about some of the details here. When you say you're both average earners, how much is that? What and how much are your expenses? You said you have "no credit" - you mean you have no credit card, a bad credit score, no debt...?
Tbf im a dude on the internet and you dont owe me this personal info. But im very curious how the math is working out when people talk about making good money and still living paycheck to paycheck. I can only assume it's because of crippling debt, but i have no way of knowing.
Not to mention if you put aside $100 a month for 50 years its only $60,000. That wont get you through 2 years of retirement let alone the rest of your life with increasing medical costs as you get older. Double it and youre at $120,000 which isnt going to come close to getting you through 10+ years of retirement. These people act like they are holier than thou for saving a little money when in reality unless youre managing to stow away money in the millions for retirement, especially as inflation continues to skyrocket youre still damn near just as fucked as anyone else that doesnt have any savings. But you could always gamble your future on the stock market I guess! A couple people sometimes win big on that one!!
My husband and I own a business and I work a job to provide insurance for us, along with a little extra bill money. We do not make enough to save like this. A vast majority of our income goes to bills.
Have you done anything to try to increase your QOL?
I recently finished my PMP certification and got a job that pays 40% more than the last one did, and that one was a 50ish% increase cuz I finally got into a career I was working toward for the past 4 years.
I understand things are more expensive than they used to be, but you should always be trying to move up and be upskilling, getting better jobs etc.
It's always the car. We were so excited to get $500 from a couple side jobs just to immediately have to spend it on tires, a car part and oil, even doing the repair and oil change ourselves to save $. If it's not the car it's the dentist.
People set there own limitations, nothings holding you at average earnings. Expand your earning power, aka skills worth monies. Im a broke bitch but thats more on circumstances at the point was a mason and I did well until a doctor told me my back left the group chat. I didnt fold i put myself into college, life's hard enough without telling yourself your limitations. If you can save 200-300 a month imagine the possibilities if you sought more than average.
So I’m just wondering what you mean when you say that you and your wife are average earners? The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) provides data on median pay. As of Q2 2026, the median weekly earnings of full-time workers was $1,251, or $65,052 per year. Based on that information you and your wife make $130,000 per year as a couple? Or significantly less? With low rent and no debt then you should be able to save money. If in fact, you’re making $65,000 per year or less as a couple then I can see how it would be more difficult to budget. I would strongly encourage anyone having difficulty saving for retirement to read The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins.
We are saving regularly. Haven’t had a holiday in almost 5 years and the one before that was 10 years previous. We have close to zero savings because, like you said, every time we seem to get a little ahead something else comes along to kick us back down.
$1000/month is 12K a year, which over a 40 year career is only 480K. That’s not nearly enough to retire with. You’ll need to save at least 3K to 4K per month, assuming some bumps along the way where you need to dip in for an emergency.
If how you live in the present always matters more to you than how you live in the future then for all your life how you live at each moment will be better than how you live in the next.
Living within your means often means living with less. More home cooking, cheaper cellphone, reduced/no streaming subscriptions, a second job, thrift store clothes, cheapest (most reliable) car possible, less makeup, less clothes, no going out to restaurants, etc.
Non of that is enjoyable. Living within your means sucks when your means aren't great. Believe me I know, I've had to do it in my life. That's what prioritizing your future over your present means though.
Would someone inform the news media, especially the morning shows? I am so sick of seeing so-called finance experts giving horrible advice that ignores this simple basic truth.
Do you not have a 401k or other appropriate retirement program built into your normal pay structure? If not, you should. The 200-300 into savings should be your functional emergency spending fund such as your car repairs. If you're not, you are actively leaving money on the table as most employers have a matching program up to a specified percentage.
This! All the the born on first or second basers who earn 92k a year.
I'm a teacher of an elective in Middle school and make 58k a year. I have to Uber everywhere because I don't have a license (neuro condition, can't drive).
I spend about 100-300 a month on school supplies/ class promotion. Rent, the lowest in the area, is 2200 a month. Yeah, I'm one bad month or one injury away from homelessness.
I have zero debt, but f me it's not like I have money.
This is just some advice from a random dude on the internet, but I promise you it works. You need a side hustle. I don’t know you, or your skills, or interests or where you live, but find something you can do to make a little extra money each month. Maybe you can buy stuff on Craigslist or Facebook marketplace or thrift stores. Clean it up, fix it, sell it for a profit. Maybe mow a few lawns every night after work. I don’t know your situation, but find SOMETHING you can make a little extra money with.
Make investing your top priority. Not investing what you have left at the end of each month. Investing comes first. Top priority. It doesn’t even matter how much. Just having the mindset of investing in your future first, will make all the difference.
no LITERALLY! when we live in a country that has driven the cost of living up so high that you need to make 6 figures or close to it to live comfortably, people are GOING to be strapped for cash let alone retirement savings. 🙄 let’s get back to reality
1.1k
u/dpenchev 4d ago
People acting high and mighty here over saving money are just so funny to me. "But if you put just a 100 on the side every month". Right. And if i put 200 I'll be twice better. Why not put 1000 and retire with 40?
Me and my wife are both average earners, no credit, low rent, 2 children. Last time we went on a vacation was last dummer. The time before that was 8 years ago. We're maybe able to put 200-300 on the side per month. Maybe. And once we get to about 2k (so about once every year), either the car breaks, or we need some new furniture or something else happens and it's all gone.
People need to understand that saving money for retirement has become a luxury, a lot of people can't afford. And not becouse they're bad with money or becouse they don't care about the future, but becouse it simply isn't affordable to do so.