How do people survive making 40k a year? (Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas)
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Are you referencing the Canadian dollar if you are in BC? $40k US dollars would be ~$52k Canadian dollars.
No I'm basing it on 40K Canadian dollars. Even 52K is not a lot for someone who plans to have a family or buy a place. Well buying a place is out of reach for the majority of people who live here now.
I can't imagine being young 20ish person living in a high COL city.
My first corporate job after graduating from college was in super HCOL San Francisco. My first salary way back then: $14K/yr. I moved into a 2 BR/1 BA flat in a great area of SF with a young woman who was looking for a roommate. Her salary at that time: $12K/yr. My half of the rent was about $375/mo.
My house I just sold for 500k , I would never pay that amount for it . How someone else does is beyond me . I paid 170 for it in 2015. Only reason I sold it was because I wanted to combine my office and get some acreage ( thus saving money) .
I can’t imagine being 25 yo again and dishing out that much cash for it . Sure it was a nice starter home for 170 but is it a nice starter home for 500k ? Absolutely not ...
If 500K will go to 1 mil or 2 mil in 5 years, it's a good buy. Homes are not just to live in; they are investment vehicles also (unfortunately). Gotta play the game or you will fall behind.
No I'm basing it on 40K Canadian dollars. Even 52K is not a lot for someone who plans to have a family or buy a place. Well buying a place is out of reach for the majority of people who live here now.
Read the OP. Raising a family or buying a place aren't preconditions for "surviving" last time I checked. Sure in most places $40k US isn't an income that provides you with a path to the reasonable middle class lifestyle you're describing, but when did that become the definition of "survival".
Like I said earlier my wife and I survived just fine for several years under or at this income just 10 years ago. We rented and didn't max out our 401ks, just contributed what we could.
I've never made more than 30 in my life and I'm 53. I think i can make 40, even 50 k, by the time i'm 60. I will be thrilled. If you wish to call me a lose that's fine.
I don't think $40K is all that bad for a young person starting out with a roommate or living at home. They're probably clearing about $2500 a month. That's not chicken feed compared to many seniors living on $1100 a month. I found a few Kia and Hyundai leases for under $200. Clothing is really not a major expense and not something you need to buy every week or even every month, perhaps only once each season. And as far as vacations not involving an airplane, that's not necessary anyway. In my area, most local young people drive to the beach which is within a 2 hour drive.
Really, I don't agree with the boo-hoo mentality that young people making $40k are to be pitied. All of us started out that way. I didn't have a fancy car or cell phone or take airplane vacations at first, either. Someone in their early 20's is not going to buy a house and really, none of us were able to do that.
You make it sound like the financial situation is so unusually bad for young people today. I have to differ with that. We ALL started out at the bottom. I think what's different today is that young people are coming from homes with parents who had accumulated some wealth and therefore had provided an upscale lifestyle with nice vacations, lots of brand new high tech gadgets and big SUVs. When they have to ratchet back their lifestyle to go out on their own, they don't see it as "normal" to ratchet down; they see it as deprivation because they had so much in their childhood. I came from a rather poor lifestyle in my childhood so when I went out on my own, I was used to frugality and a minimal lifestyle really wasn't a hardship for me, as I had lived that way in my childhood. I was just tickled to be on my own and I was willing to sacrifice those niceties like vacations, clothing, fancy cars and whatnot to have my own apartment. So I don't agree with the mentality that $40K is so bad for a young person.
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