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How much did you expect a burger flipper to have in a retirement account?
Perhaps housing might finally become affordable for the poor and near poor?
What do you think is affordable ?
I have a friend who pays under $550 for a decent one bedroom apartment in Dallas.
She makes more than than a hamburger-flipper and can afford a better, bigger
apartment or house, but she likes it where she is; and plans to retire early next year.
My last two bedroom apartment was $450 a month, but that was many years ago.
Then I moved into a cheap $35,000 house [payments less than my previous rent]
in a declining part of town, paid it off and moved up, paid it off, etc.
I [single parent] earned a lower middle class income most of my life.
Thanks to God and my depression era parents I was frugal and lived
[comfortably] below my means and managed to save money, no debt
and retire early. I know it can be done; I did it. But first one must
start with the premise: "It's not what you earn, it's what you save
that counts."
Lifestyle and making good personal choices are extremely important.
I'll give you another example of a different kind of single parent.
She was a coworker. Her salary was more than mine. Neither she
nor her child had medical issues. She would complain about not having
any money to pay the rent, electric, etc. I felt sorry for her until one day
after payday, she came to work with professionally done hair and nails
and bragging about it.
.
How much would you save if you had a minimum wage job and did not own your home?
I [single parent] earned a lower middle class income most of my life.
Thanks to God and my depression era parents I was frugal and lived
[comfortably] below my means and managed to save money, no debt
and retire early. I know it can be done; I did it. But first one must
start with the premise: "It's not what you earn, it's what you save
that counts."
Lifestyle and making good personal choices are extremely important.
I'll give you another example of a different kind of single parent.
She was a coworker. Her salary was more than mine. Neither she
nor her child had medical issues. She would complain about not having
any money to pay the rent, electric, etc. I felt sorry for her until one day
after payday, she came to work with professionally done hair and nails
and bragging about it.
How much did you expect a burger flipper to have in a retirement account?
Perhaps housing might finally become affordable for the poor and near poor?
Well now, that depends.
How much is the flipper making? Are they rooming with others? Riding a bicycle to work, or sharing a ride? Buying all their clothes at retailers or getting some of them from goodwill or salvation army?
I know of a place in Williamsburg, Va, where you can get a small 2 bedroom with all utilities for $600 a month.
I was about to say the same..don't put all your eggs in one basket.
Many Americans are lacking in financial education and don't actively manage their savings.
Public schools should teach personal finance, but most of them don't.
And if they did, heaven knows how badly they would misteach it.
However, there is good information out there on personal finance for those who self-educate.
Unfortunately, most Americans prefer a steady diet of American Idol and Dancing with the Stars,
mindless entertainment rather than anything educational.
I think that anyone on a limited burger flipping income would have to be completely immune to both advertizing and criticism or ostracizing by their co workers. Showing up for work, even at burger doodles, in Goodwill cloths will get you laughed at. In some places it will get you fired.
I suggest, if you are just starting out without a college degree, or even with one, stay with and mooch off your parents until you can afford to move out and live on your own. If living with your parents will actually cost more money or emotional distress than you can tolerate then move out and do the best you can.
And just by staying with that burger flipper position even a year or so will easily get you promoted to shift leader or whatever they are called because those jobs are so transient.
How much would you save if you had a minimum wage job and did not own your home?
I started out earning minimum wage, then moved up in career.
I started out in an apartment, then moved up in house [a cheap $35,000 house originally.]
It's called initiative, future planning, making a plan and following it to its conclusion.
And living a moral, below-your-means lifestyle to finance it and with God's help reach your goal.
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