Washington Post---"Squeaking By" on $300,000? This is "Journalism?" (Orange: home, unemployed)

[Nemesis16]

Originally Posted by ScranBarre

What's your point?

My point is that $40k in Nova is slummin' it like I stated in my prior post.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by Nemesis16

My point is that $40k in Nova is slummin' it like I stated in my prior post.

Please define "slummin it." I'm not trying to be a smart-arse, but I'm honestly not familiar with that term.

[Nemesis16]

Originally Posted by ScranBarre

Please define "slummin it." I'm not trying to be a smart-arse, but I'm honestly not familiar with that term.

• Main Entry: slum
• Pronunciation: \ˈsləm\
• Function: noun
• Usage: often attributive
• Etymology: origin unknown
• Date: 1825

: a densely populated usually urban area marked by crowding, dirty run-down housing, poverty, and social disorganization

source: slum - Definition from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

[live_strong28]

Originally Posted by ScranBarre

Well if you're a dually-employed couple that's only making $40,000 combined, then that's nearly unheard of. I don't even think most of the fast food/grocery workers here make under $20,000/year. Hell, I was making near that working retail in college in a MUCH less affluent area.

I said "single income," not "dual employed."

[live_strong28]

Originally Posted by ScranBarre

...and whining about "struggling" at $300,000 is equally worth of malign, as has been evidenced by this article. Come to think of it, the newspaper really did get what it wanted from this story---publicity.

Someone who's making $300k could easily get rid of their assets and reduce their standard of living and would still be getting $300k.

Someone making $40k has much less flexibility, especially if they are getting by frugally with the bare essentials.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by Nemesis16

• Main Entry: slum
• Pronunciation: \ˈsləm\
• Function: noun
• Usage: often attributive
• Etymology: origin unknown
• Date: 1825

: a densely populated usually urban area marked by crowding, dirty run-down housing, poverty, and social disorganization

source: slum - Definition from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

I'm not living nearly in any such condition at my income level. Reston may not be the ideal place to live if you're not a family-oriented person, but it's pretty much the closest into the city many of us can afford to live on our own.

[TheseGoTo11]

The Post has gone downhill with all their budget cuts. Lots of junk written by interns trying to become the next celebrity journalist.

[FindingZen]

Everyone's preferences and households are different, I'll grant you. FWIW, my opinion is that a single person who wants to live like, say, the characters on "Friends" (i.e. eat out more than at home, enjoy non-VIP service at the clubs, travel occasionally, comfortable with an apartment lifestyle) would do well around these parts with $60K, give or take the size of the car note and student loans (or lack thereof). $40K is doable but it does require some frugality and self-compromise.

[dkf747]

Originally Posted by live_strong28

Truth be told that in the NoVA area, a $40k salary is hard to get by on regardless of how frugal you are, and for sure, will be even tougher if married (single income) with kids.

Cost of living here, such as buying a home, is just too expensive.

That's just reality.

Don't I know it. I have a wife and 3 kids and we live on approx. $50k a year. Granted, we currently live in MD, but cost of living is similar there.

However, my point was, that to most of the world, we are rich. Nothing wrong with that, but they would judge me, the same way some are judging the $300k lady, if I started whining like she did. To us this $300k woman is nuts for complaining, and we would be right, but she doesn't see it the same way. That's the same way that most of the world would look at us if we started whining about how little money we make, but apparently some of us can't see how they sound like that woman. To most of the world, living on $40k is not "frugal" living.

[car54]

Everybody says the $300K lady is "whining"....I just re-read the article and just can't find it. Can anybody cite a passage where she whines? I think the woman was just relating to the reporter the realities of her life nowadays.

And hey folks, this article is part of a series. A week or so ago, they ran an article about an unemployed Ohio woman that packed up her old truck and moved to North (or South?) Dakota to take a call center job. She bought a house trailer for $7500 that is 45 miles from the nearest store. Heck, she's so far out, her cell phone doesn't work.

What about her?