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Old 04-12-2015, 01:43 PM
 
1,552 posts, read 3,157,935 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lieqiang View Post
It would be interesting to attempt living as like the good ole' days... ditch the cell phone, ditch the cable TV bill and Netflix subscriptions to only get a few channels, lose the computer and internet bill, sell the microwave oven, bluray/DVD/mp3 player, trade your modern efficient fridge for an older one that uses twice as much energy, get a smaller house without central air, one car for the family that needs regular tune ups, gets ****ty mileage, and lacks safety features and goodies like GPS and power windows.

I wonder how much your living expenses would go down.
not to mention **** poor medical care relatively speaking
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Old 04-12-2015, 01:56 PM
 
7,898 posts, read 7,075,757 times
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Talking about the good old days can be fun, but really accomplishes nothing. Looking at politics and national policy is way beyond what we can expect to accomplish and those discussions probably belong in the political forum. Complaining and blaming is the worst of all and accomplishes absolutely nothing.

It is interesting that we talk about how hard it can be to thrive with good jobs, careers and building wealth, but we spend very little time talking about what we can do to improve our lives. What education and training would be helpful for ourselves or for our children? Where are the new jobs, what are those jobs and how do you get them? What skills are needed to advance in the workplace? How do we gain the needed interpersonal skills and how do we help our children with those issues? How can we start businesses in the current and future economic environment? What do we do about major purchases such as houses? Do we get mortgages, wait to buy with cash, do we rent or find other options? I have a 20 something daughter who wants help with her expenses and finances. Should she rent, buy a condo, or share an apartment? How should she invest for the future? How much can she spend and what should she give up and how much must she save? Should she stay in her job, look for a new job, prepare for a major career change? It seems to me the issues are endless. But instead we see political tirades, conspiracy theories, gloom and doomers. Sometimes it seems only the losers of the world post here. I know better. I am sure there are lots of knowledgeable people with good ideas about coping and thriving in our changing world.
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Old 04-12-2015, 02:18 PM
 
5,730 posts, read 10,090,257 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lieqiang View Post
It would be interesting to attempt living as like the good ole' days... ditch the cell phone, ditch the cable TV bill and Netflix subscriptions to only get a few channels, lose the computer and internet bill, sell the microwave oven, bluray/DVD/mp3 player, trade your modern efficient fridge for an older one that uses twice as much energy, get a smaller house without central air, one car for the family that needs regular tune ups, gets ****ty mileage, and lacks safety features and goodies like GPS and power windows.

I wonder how much your living expenses would go down.
I have a cell phone. (no land line and fewer other utilities however)
No cable.
Have Netflix perhaps 1/2 the year.
Have a computer, bt my Internet is included in my $106 cell phone bill.
Have a microwave, but don't use it when I don't have Netflix
I have a DVD player I watch DVD's on my computer with. (buy DVD's for $0.50-$2 at pawn shops)
My fridge is a electric/ propane model
My house is a 224 sqft Airstream.
One car which does NOT need regular tune ups, and gets 13.5MPG and 9.5 MPG when towing
(don't know what my power windows cost, but my only GPS is on my phone.)

I spend about $1,500/month part of the year, and when I'm on my off grid property (when I do not have Netflix) it drops to about $1k/month.

When I finish my house (and have more storage to buy in bulk, a chest freezer, etc) I can drop this further with no impact on my lifestyle.


It's not the same, but It should provide a reference point.
You really can live Inexpensively.

Note: this does not include Set monthly savings (i also save "whatever is leftover") which are as follows:
$16 propery taxes
$41 hobbies
$50 airstream maintance
$25 gifts savings
$150 short term savings (unused)
$200 car savings
$350 long term savings
$50 clothes (I have to buy expensive shoes for orthopedic reasons)
$25 computer replacement
$43.62 unalocated savings.
TOT: $950.62
All of these categories (indeed every line item in my budget) are in excess of what is needed (excepting proper tax, that ones right on.)
So I would suspect that $1,500/month would be a good yearly average.
(and I REALLY live better, buy more stuff, and eat out more) than say.... My grandparents did in the 50's.

It's just one person, but scale works against me.

I get sick of say.... My Cuban black beans by the time I've eaten through the 12 servings it makes, and have limited freezer space.

I can see ~$200 a month I could trim without feeling it too much, and could "get by" on under $1k, but my quality of life would suffer, and I see no reason todo that. (but that would put me living a similar lifestyle to someone pre-Internet.

Edit:
One advantage (which can be sizable) that I have is that my medical and dental is provided at no cost through Tricare and the VA.
Conversely I have no medical issues which are not service connected injuries. (if you discount one free teeth cleaning in the past 5 years.)
So that's what?
$100?

I live simply to attain certain financial goals. But honestly if I had 2x my income (which is more than my budget) I would not increase my spending that much.
(naturally I would with $100 million)
I spend money on what is important and improves my quality of life.
not on mindless consumerism.

Last edited by Themanwithnoname; 04-12-2015 at 02:26 PM..
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Old 04-12-2015, 02:34 PM
 
30,856 posts, read 36,763,909 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lieqiang View Post
It would be interesting to attempt living as like the good ole' days... ditch the cell phone, ditch the cable TV bill and Netflix subscriptions to only get a few channels, lose the computer and internet bill, sell the microwave oven, bluray/DVD/mp3 player, trade your modern efficient fridge for an older one that uses twice as much energy, get a smaller house without central air, one car for the family that needs regular tune ups, gets ****ty mileage, and lacks safety features and goodies like GPS and power windows.

I wonder how much your living expenses would go down.
I have given variations of this speech you gave above on various threads. People love to idealize how affordable it was back in the 1950s & 1960s. But if people today lived as people did then (to the extent possible), they, too, would have more savings and financial security. I think the big savings came from:

--Smaller houses
--1 car per family being more normal (not always feasible, but more so than some will admit).
--No Cable TV
--Less divorce
--Having kids out of wedlock was rare.
--Cooking more natural foods from home (which would also help reduce health care costs).
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Old 04-12-2015, 02:35 PM
 
1,188 posts, read 1,454,898 times
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Simply put, wages have remained flat for almost 3 decades, yet the price of everything else, besides consumer electronics and basic clothing, has dramatically increased. The 1970s were tough for most, but compared to the 1980s and especially the 1990s , younger people have an extremely raw deal.

This song, with lyric "$50K a year, will buy a lot of beer" was from 1986. $50K is still considered a pretty good starting salary for someone graduating from college, even though now they have 20x the student loan obligation and 5x the housing costs as a similar person in 1986.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qrriKcwvlY
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Old 04-12-2015, 03:08 PM
 
7,898 posts, read 7,075,757 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tjasse View Post
Simply put, wages have remained flat for almost 3 decades, yet the price of everything else, besides consumer electronics and basic clothing, has dramatically increased. ....
No, No, No. You are absolutely misreading the numbers. Inflation-adjusted household income has decreased over the past few years since the recession. Even before the recession there were some decreases. Note: the numbers are inflation adjusted so the increases in clothing, electronics, fancier cars and everything else has been included. Next, the numbers cover household income, not "wages." Unfortunately the number of single parent households continues to rise. We have also had a massive influx of unskilled, low paid illegal aliens. Many are now citizens and millions more are going to become citizens.

Your post is a prime example of the complaining that I have been talking about. Usually those who whine, moan and complain also get the facts and theories wrong. But even that makes no difference because the complaints accomplish nothing. Maybe I am wrong and you have found ways to cope and thrive in today's economic climate. Perhaps you have some suggestions and help for the rest of us. I know I have found lots of ways to do well financially. If you are like many of the complainers you just want to complain and have no interest in doing anything better of differently. Please prove me wrong.
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Old 04-12-2015, 03:09 PM
 
2,652 posts, read 2,208,659 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Electrician4you View Post
In about 40 years someone is going to say 2015 was the good old days. It's a never ending loop. There are people today that are in a similar situation as your parents were with some slight differences due to technology advances.
Cars are still expensive to maintain. Food is still expensive and people still struggle to manage finances. And if you haven't noticed we just got out of a 13 year war
Every year has problems of its own. It's the good old days for some and the bad old days for others. And sometimes, the perceptions are the result of self-inflicted circumstances.
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Old 04-12-2015, 03:21 PM
 
950 posts, read 918,136 times
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Another big difference between then and now............not only have wages decreased ( adjusted) but back in the 70's if you had a full time job with benefits you paid ZERO for full family insurance coverage.

Few working class jobs offer that today.

Look at your health insurance with held from your paycheck..........divide it by the hours worked.....subtract that from your hourly wage and you are even farther behind 1970's wages.
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Old 04-12-2015, 03:39 PM
 
7,898 posts, read 7,075,757 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by VJDAY81445 View Post
Another big difference between then and now............not only have wages decreased ( adjusted) but back in the 70's if you had a full time job with benefits you paid ZERO for full family insurance coverage.

Few working class jobs offer that today.

Look at your health insurance with held from your paycheck..........divide it by the hours worked.....subtract that from your hourly wage and you are even farther behind 1970's wages.

More *****, moan and complain. The whole point of my initial post was to try to get just a few of you to take responsibility instead of stopping with the complaints. So what are you doing to cope with current and future healthcare costs? I would guess you are sitting there stumped with no ideas at all. Let me give you an example of what I did a few years ago. I was able to retire 6 months early because I found a way to get free healthcare insurance coverage. I did not have some illegal trick. Anyone could and can do the same thing I did.
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Old 04-12-2015, 03:43 PM
 
10,226 posts, read 7,498,738 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bxlefty23 View Post
not to mention **** poor medical care relatively speaking
Medical care was actually pretty good. My small town had a clinic, where my mom and others could take their kids for various illnesses and pay out of pocket, because the cost was so low. Insurance back then, if you were lucky enough to have it, didn't pay for ordinary things. That's why health care costs were low. Insurance is the problem, of course. Once you factor in the large profit from ins. cos., costs must rise.

One bad thing about the clinic is that I'm sure it didn't see black people. I don't know if there was a clinic for blacks across the tracks (yeah, the black population lived literally on the other side of hte RR tracks).
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