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A good rule of thumb. 50% for non discretionary spending , 30% discretionary spending , 5% short term saving , 15% retirement saving.
Depends. If your income is below average, you may need to spend 70%+ of your income on necessities. Especially with food, car and rent prices skyrocketing.
If your income is above average, you could get by with spending 1/3 on necessities.
Depends. If your income is below average, you may need to spend 70%+ of your income on necessities. Especially with food, car and rent prices skyrocketing.
If your income is above average, you could get by with spending 1/3 on necessities.
Then that would be considered an unhealthy budget no different than any other unhealthy budget.
Remember there are alternatives to improving lower end situations .
But one may not like what they are .
One can golden girl it , one can improve income with better skills or more then one job . One can move to a less expensive area or drive something cheaper .
In fact in many urban areas a car is a luxury
a good budget plan has no exceptions if you know what I mean.
It is like trying to be a little bit pregnant .
you either follow some of these very Well thought out budgeting guides or you can’t.
If you can’t then you are are on your own to doing whatever you can do. But you still may not have a good inclusive plan doing it your own way
Last edited by mathjak107; 01-14-2023 at 08:51 AM..
Not in the U.S. Most cities aren't walkable. Between walking to and from busstops, to waiting at the bus stop, to being on a bus that makes many stops, it'll take you 90 minutes for a trip that would be 20 minutes to drive.
There are a few cities like Seattle and NYC that are, but the rent in those places is very high, and any money you save on auto costs, you pay in rent.
Not having a car also limits your search radius for jobs. Someone may not be able to get to the $20+/hr job that's 10 miles away from where you live, so they have to accept the $14/hr job that's 2 miles away instead.
Not in the U.S. Most cities aren't walkable. Between walking to and from busstops, to waiting at the bus stop, to being on a bus that makes many stops, it'll take you 90 minutes for a trip that would be 20 minutes to drive.
There are a few cities like Seattle and NYC that are, but the rent in those places is very high, and any money you save on auto costs, you pay in rent.
Not having a car also limits your search radius for jobs. Someone may not be able to get to the $20+/hr job that's 10 miles away from where you live, so they have to accept the $14/hr job that's 2 miles away instead.
There is a lot of untruth in what you say .
For one thing nyc has over half of all rentals stabilized, that mean’s guaranteed renewal and increases are voted on by a board …nyc has low income housing projects where your rent is 30% of household income .
We also have all kinds of affordable housing lottery’s where lower incomes, but not low incomes can get a certain percentage of the apartments in beautiful buildings .
We have programs where seniors never see another rent increase if the rent is 35% of their income .
We have a relatively cheap extensive mass transit system that can get you anywhere .
So there is a reason we are the Mecca for unskilled labor .
All situations here are going to vary but there is just about nothing that can’t be done cheaper here if one really want to improve their budgets including golden girling it.
It is actually easier here to cut a budget down simply because of all the options.
When our kids got married they were going to live in our area by renting .
But they could also not live in this area and buy a CO-OP apartment in Howard beach near where John gotti lived .
It was a perfect option for them … they got to buy rather then just rent.
Which is another thing , we have something few other areas do ,and that is CO-OP apartments.
They offer ownership at way way lower prices than single family homes.
Living in the boroughs is nothing like living in Manhattan.
Places like here have lifestyles for all budgets .
Most of us draw that line in the sand where we won’t accept that lifestyle but it can be done
Last edited by mathjak107; 01-14-2023 at 09:30 AM..
I can’t speak for others , but having grown up as a kid in one of our nyc housing projects it was a life I never wanted to go back to or have to raise my own family in .
So I made sure I always had money to invest ..
If I had to work more jobs , so be it .
At one point I was an hvac tech by day , I ran a side business at night doing service , plus being a drummer I did gigs when ever I could .
It was a hell of a schedule at times but I was relentless in meeting my goals as going back to the projects was never going to be an option .
Well , we are comfortably retired now 7-1/2 years and those goals have been met but it’s been a hell of a ride.
One thing about humans is they fall right in line with the laws of physics.
Objects in motion remain in motion until they hit something and objects at rest stay at rest , until something makes them move .
For most it is easier to do nothing than something .
So most just float like the proverbial cork in water and float from one job to another without really improving things or improving their skills to earn more .
It is much easier to go with status quo and so for many life won’t change and neither will their ability to have a healthy budget and savings plan
Last edited by mathjak107; 01-14-2023 at 09:36 AM..
Start early and save aggressively but not to the point where you don't live life. My wife started saving 18% of her gross at the age of 18. She became an engineer and made good money throughout her life. Saving at this rate allowed her to retire early and do about anything she wants in her 60's. The time value of money is your friend!
Now I have a friend that has saved very little but is in a very good financial state. Why? Because he has multiple pensions both military, private sector and Social Security coming in every month. Bottom line is everyone's "path" can be different but make sure you have a plan!
save and invest the best you can,as our money could worth less each year.and our cost of living would go up each year.
Large corporations are moving their manufacturing facilities from China to Mexico,Mexicans need not stay here and mow our lawn,pick up our garbage,some parts of Mexico,real estate prices are rocketing higher.
Do you know how some of the contractors make money from low ball bids on roof replacement they use sibcontractors who pay illegal workers $1 per hour.
Except for the fact way too many lazy people are getting when they had opportunities to save. The rest of us pay for it with high taxes. As far as i am concerned there should be a time limit as to how much you can take especially if you are under 65.
Our system coddles and makes excuses for those who were to damn lazy of made dumb choices like using drugs. And when youngsters hear and see how easy to live off the dole they do it.
Gee, that's cocky. I think the majority of folks who "were damn lazy" had **** happen. Just because you survived your misfortunes doesn't mean it is true for everyone.
You don't mind being taxed $1 TRILLION for military budget. So why cry over spending that amount to help people?
Not in the U.S. Most cities aren't walkable. Between walking to and from busstops, to waiting at the bus stop, to being on a bus that makes many stops, it'll take you 90 minutes for a trip that would be 20 minutes to drive.
There are a few cities like Seattle and NYC that are, but the rent in those places is very high, and any money you save on auto costs, you pay in rent.
Not having a car also limits your search radius for jobs. Someone may not be able to get to the $20+/hr job that's 10 miles away from where you live, so they have to accept the $14/hr job that's 2 miles away instead.
What’s interesting is car ownership ties in to the ease of getting around the borough .
Only 22% of households own cars in Manhattan but 83% own cars in staten island.
Queens is 62% , the. Bronx is 40% and Brooklyn 44%
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