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This is the problem that is never discussed concerning the American workers. Given current prices for housing, housing and transportation working 50 hours a week at $20 an hour does not allow for savings. If a worker is trying to feed a wife and family on this it is even less possible. This is the reality of modern America and shames our entire society.
That's a load of BS. Not allow for savings? No desire to save is more like it. It would take less than a year to save $500 at just $10 / week. You think someone making $1,000 a week can't save $10? It's not that most people can't afford to save, it's that they don't want to.
That's a load of BS. Not allow for savings? No desire to save is more like it. It would take less than a year to save $500 at just $10 / week. You think someone making $1,000 a week can't save $10? It's not that most people can't afford to save, it's that they don't want to.
So true.
I find that people who always seem to broke have to go to Starbucks 5 days a week for their $5 coffee. That's a $100 a month right there, would never think to go their local library to get DVDs(many libraries have both old and fairly current films) instead add to their cable bill by ordering movies or doing Netflix. Or instead of brown bagging their lunch spend about $10 a day at least. How about you treat yourself on Fridays to lunch out and the rest of the week bring your lunch? Could easily save at least $160 a month right there.
This is the problem that is never discussed concerning the American workers. Given current prices for housing, housing and transportation working 50 hours a week at $20 an hour does not allow for savings. If a worker is trying to feed a wife and family on this it is even less possible. This is the reality of modern America and shames our entire society.
That's not even close to being true. At least in NC. 50 hours at $20 an hour. You should do pretty well. If you make smart decisions at least.
Trying to make sense of how other people spend or save money is a lot like arguing about what makes for a quality life...
Ultimately, saving enough to make a difference depends on making more money. Whether you want to peg the basic cost of living at $20K/year or $30K/year, for a family of four, until you get past the payments for housing, food, auto, fuel, health care, education, insurance, and all the rest of the non-discretionary expenses (clothes, appliances, etc.), hoping for the best when it comes to the unexpected car repair or hospital stay..., you have got to be making at least that total amount -- after taxes -- to begin considering what you might do with any money left over. This, btw, is why it doesn't make sense to expect lower income folks to pay taxes at these levels. To have people paying taxes when they are not making enough to cover basic living expenses is only to keep them from getting their "nose above water."
Once past the non-discretionary cost-of-living expense level, we have all sorts of ways to spend money that get in the way of savings, like the expense of sports for the kids, even shorter "stay-cations" cost some money (and everyone needs R&R time every now and then). The occasional movie, dinner out, birthday gifts for the family, the computer, fixing the computer, cost for the Internet, TV...
All told, no matter where you are in the country, unless you are living like a hermit, a family of four needs an income of well above $40K/year to have any real ability to save for anything that really matters when it comes to getting ahead in life; saving for a down-payment on a house, putting away for retirement, emergency funds to get by for six-months of unemployment. To really get anywhere along these lines, you need to be able to save a good deal more than $5/month! $5,000/year!
Enter the credit card. This too is why the use of credit cards is so rampant. Even for those who are not so drawn to those shiny things in the store windows, at these lower levels of income, any mishap, like the lady who needs her roof repaired, and you turn to your credit card, because you don't have a choice. Here too, right or wrong, consumer spending is one of the most significant fuels of our economy, so all those people spending, even if not all that wisely, also is putting cash into the pockets of businesses selling those consumer goods and services. The credit card companies charge those companies a percentage on every transaction, whether the consumer pays their bill or not. That money, in turn, is used by banks and lenders for the bigger ticket stuff that the higher income types are able to consider, like commercial development projects.
And so the rich get richer and the poor argue about how to save $5 a week...
Scary that 60% of Americans don't have savings for minor emergencies such as repairs.
Lots of folks are living paycheck to paycheck with little to no savings.
if you truly want Americans to be able to save money, then get the feds to stop taxing savings. the feds tax savings because it encourages paycheck to paycheck living, instead of saving money to have a nest egg to fall back on.
Doesn't matter if the GOV stopped taxing us, Americans love being consumers. We would spend every dollar we earned on trivial stuff. Its what we do as Americans. At this point if Americans started saving money it would crash the economy. 60 percent of Americans CAN save money. They make a choice not to save money. It took me 20 years of my adult life to realize that saving is important and I still have the urge to splurge. My parents were frugal but NY generation (Gen X) grew up with Madison ave telling us we ALL should have nice shiny things .... It worked. My gen can't save and that's why we still live with our parents.
Doesn't matter if the GOV stopped taxing us, Americans love being consumers. We would spend every dollar we earned on trivial stuff. Its what we do as Americans. At this point if Americans started saving money it would crash the economy. 60 percent of Americans CAN save money. They make a choice not to save money. It took me 20 years of my adult life to realize that saving is important and I still have the urge to splurge. My parents were frugal but NY generation (Gen X) grew up with Madison ave telling us we ALL should have nice shiny things .... It worked. My gen can't save and that's why we still live with our parents.
I know plenty of people who keep a few thousand at home for hard times and not in the bank just because the feds tax savings. so it is not everyone and some people just believe in not following the consumer guideline.
if you truly want Americans to be able to save money, then get the feds to stop taxing savings. the feds tax savings because it encourages paycheck to paycheck living, instead of saving money to have a nest egg to fall back on.
That's not even close to being true. At least in NC. 50 hours at $20 an hour. You should do pretty well. If you make smart decisions at least.
Not in the Bay Area, unless you're willing to have roommates, and even roommates in SF would be out of budget. You'd have to have roommates in a rough area an hour away from the city.
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Since when?
