I read that half of Americans couldn’t cover an unexpected $1,000 expense. This sounds crazy to me. I understand that poverty exists, but the idea that an adult with a job doesn’t even have that amount saved up seems really strange.
What’s your relationship or philosophy with money? What do you credit for your financial success, or alternatively, what do you blame for your failures?
For the extra brave ones: how much savings do you have, and what are you planning to do with them?
I have a decent amount of money in a 401K that I can’t touch, and some stocks I bought during a time when I fell into a bunch of money, but an unexpected $1000 would not be possible. I’m a 42 year old married man with 5 kids and a full time job at a small college.
I should be doing better than this.
I can lose my job for a year and be ok. I’d probably cut back on some expenses, but it would probably be ok.
I read that half of Americans couldn’t cover an unexpected $1,000 expense.
Without borrowing or selling property, yeah. Not a lot of people have that much liquid cash laying around.
But I wouldn’t assume that this would be some kind of economic devastation. Our whole system revolves around easy credit.
If the unexpected expense is something that can be paid for on a credit card, that 20% interest isn’t exactly ideal but for many people it can be a simple task of buying now and paying it off over 2 or 3 months. For them, $1000 isn’t a lifestyle changing expense.
For others, $1000 might be devastating. It might be the difference between making rent or not, and ultimately lead to eviction and maybe even homelessness.
So liquidity is a different question from financial health or resilience, even if they’re somewhat correlated. There are other metrics out there more directly measuring financial stability or vulnerability.
I made a few bad moves in my 20s because I had no basis of understanding when it came to money (parents are bad with money too and never taught me anything useful), have spent my 30s desperately treading water trying to get ahead, but it seems impossible with rent going through the roof, food going crazy, plus now I have medical debt on top of my school debt… my really big mistake was wanting to help people by becoming a social worker.
What pisses me off the most is that if you’re a plumber you get to walk in and demand whatever price you feel like, but if you’re someone who helps society, society gets to cram it up your ass and tell you to smile about it. Same goes for anyone who works for society: teachers, cops, firefighters, EMTs, social workers, librarians, nurses, etc… I don’t get why we don’t all just join together and let society fucking die until they agree to pay us what we’re really worth.
What makes you think plumbers aren’t helping society? Same goes for all trades…like damn.
What pisses me off the most is that if you’re a plumber you get to walk in and demand whatever price you feel like
As a plumber I can assure you that this is not how it works. I charge 60€ / h which may seem high but that’s not what I pocket from it.
No debts, but I burned through all my work coping mechanisms on the way to paying them off, burned out badly and now I can barely look after myself, let alone do things for someone else.
Luckily, if you can call it luck, at least one of the benefits agencies of my country (can’t really say government as they don’t change much if at all when the government does) agrees with my self-assessment and is providing me a pittance to live on. If I still had a mortgage (or rent) though, I’d be f–ked. Then again maybe I’d qualify for some other kind of assistance. I don’t exactly want to have to find out.
One of the other agencies largely implied that all I needed was a nagging wife and I’d be A-OK. Yeah, no, that’s not how mental illness works. Pretty sure at least one of us would end up in the ground. Probably just me, because I don’t think I could bring myself to harm anyone else.
But, to drag this back on topic, I have some funds put by for emergencies, which might cover me a couple of times. After that, well, I try not to think about it.
Live below my means, invest the rest.
I don’t dress or act like people in my pay range. My house is small and in a quiet neighborhood and cost less than my salary. Car is older but paid off and I know all the quirks and have the toolbox in the back to fix it. It is probably one of the top 5 most reliable cars in history. My work dress shoes are 10 years old and my around the house shoes were new in 2019.
I spend my money where I spend my time. So I have a nice phone, a very nice monitor and mechanical keyboard, and a good computer. And all with the right to repair philosophy. Same for my wife and kids. And also good running shoes, good exercise equipment.
The plan is to get to a point where I can just not work at all and maintain my lifestyle. Three percent rule and all that. And also help launch my kids.
Something about a 25 year roof and a Japanese shit box car in my fortress of solitude.
FWIW I grew up really really really poor like you wouldn’t believe so I’m okay with this.
All of this is great except the shoes, get some new/better shoes it’s worth it, your body will thank you later.
I grew up upper-middle class and have largely the same philosophy. Always thought my friends’ parents were idiots for buying these gas guzzling Ford/Chevy monstrosities just to haul around 1-2 kids and a dog on occasion. Regular salaried people spending/financing more than half their income every few years on cars they don’t need just to keep up with the Joneses who don’t really care in the first place.
I don’t skimp on quality when I buy something, but I only buy what I actually need and if something serves its purpose, I hold onto it for as long as it works. My wife and I do very well now, but aside from living in a fairly nice neighborhood with great public schools and amenities, you wouldn’t think it from the cars we drive and the way we dress.
This is essentially my situation too. I spend quite a bit of money on these small purchases for hobbies. But I’m easily clearing a couple hundred a month to buy stocks, save, do something really stupid, et cetera.
It comes down to if you rent.
If you have a fixed mortgage, shit gets easier fast. If you rent, any wage increases is often offset by rent increases.
Less people are able to save, because they never get out of those “tough first years” of a mortgage
Renting is such bullshit these days. The payments they ask for rivals mortgage payments from just 15 years ago.
Less than that, especially in areas that used to be cheap.
It took less than 5 years for my decent sized house on almost an acre in a middle sized city to be less than a 2/2 apartment.
It’s fucking insane.
School and medical debt as well… The more you make, the more they take… Always keeping you at barely scraping by
All my jobs have been paycheck-to-paycheck until about 3 years ago. My last job allowed me to save up $24k, but then I lost my job. Now I’m down to $7k and getting worried.
I know the feels, you are not alone
I do well enough to comfortably support my wife and me. I have a retirement plan, put a small amount into saving, and don’t buy things on credit (besides to pay them off immediately for rewards points). I have paid off my car and it should last me a good long while. I do have student loans outstanding but I pay those down and my work provides a stipend each month that effectively doubles my payment on that. I have some small investment accounts to play the stock market, but not life-changing money. We have plenty of money leftover after the mortgage to live just as comfortably as I would like.
This all being said, I am an outlier in the current economy. Most are paid too little for too much work and I would happily pay more for most products if I thought the money was going to the employees, but I know they are given the smallest amount possible.
A 200k expense won’t destroy me or lock me out of my house or completely destroy my retirement. No inheritance, went to college, and knew buying a house early was key, saved about 25% income for 3 years to put 45k down on house.
I fall between the government won’t give me SSI because I’m not disabled enough in there fucking eyes. And being disabled and can’t work.
So financially I’m fucked and nothing I can do about it.
Even if I had said It would only be iirc around 800 a month.
It’s part of Amerikkka hidden eugenic programs. (Not verified but living with a disability it sure fuckin feels like it)
It’s not remotely crazy, and I have lived there. I had times where I foraged for berries and plants for food, and was lucky enough to know how and where to do so. That was a long time ago, before wages stagnated and inflation went bananas. I’m surprised more people aren’t starving to death today, just looking at the numbers.
It’s a little crazy when we’re talking about half of the population.
Look up prices for housing, food, etc. in your area and compare that to full time at minimum wage. Then consider a lot of companies only hire part-time and not full time. Then consider minimum wage is still the federal $7.25 in a lot of the country. See how that math looks.
After school I had one week of cash left when I got my first job. I moved to a tiny town to work in the mining industry. Pay to cost of living is very good. I’ve always been careful with money and dislike shopping.
I save about 50% annual income. This is piled up in various investments. I can retire before 40.
I have about 1 year worth of expenses in cash I can access tomorrow. I try to keep at least 3 months but I’m squirreling away extra for known upcoming expenses.
Started paying off debt, saving, and investing consistently over 25 years ago. It has really worked out, and my wife and I are more financially secure than most. Even still, we’re one health crisis away from potential bankruptcy, because we live in the United States.
I’m tied down by one financial anchor and have opted to add two more smaller ones on top of that for giggles. I live very comfortably paycheck to paycheck, if I need to save for anything I can fairly easily put away around 3k a month. I can afford a random 1k expense without issue, currently anything above 2k would be a bit tougher, but still manageable.
