I can't help but think of several acquaintances who are constantly complaining about living from paycheck to paycheck while talking about all kinds of unnecessary expenses and risky investments. The American population doesn't have much financial culture or understanding of what poverty really is.
Bay Area native here. Glad you found the rent prices on Google! Every part of the Bay has different costs, and in my opinion, San Francisco is one of the areas where you don’t get your money’s worth—many neighborhoods aren’t glamorous, and a lot of homes lack a two-car garage or backyard. It’s a great place for dining out options, though! Our utilities in a 2-bedroom, 2.5-bath condo aren’t nearly as high as the listed estimates. I also understand that "paycheck to paycheck" can mean different things depending on one's income. In college, I had a friend who always said he was broke, but his dad was in the NBA. I understood his "broke" was different from my "broke."
It is an odd thing to see that very scenario play out with my kids. They live in a very affluent neighborhood where the average homes are in the $2.5 million price range. It is a status area and my son in law has a career where he needs to look the part. Their bills are similar to what you presented. Although they do not travel, there is golf club membership about the same.
My daughter is a stay at home mom of two littles. They do not hurt for anything, but there is a saying I have gotten used to hearing: "I was told to stop spending money, but I just had to have..."(insert coffee, food delivery, outings, clothes..) And there is a lot of complaining about bills and living paycheck to paycheck.
For him, there is no moving to a lesser area or cutting back on spending, as they are doing the bare minimum within their class of society. He was raised that way and anything less is unacceptable.
Really good thoughts in here. The first step to investing more is to save more, and if we all audited our expenses there are many things we could cut out or downgrade a bit to make more cushion for disposable and investable income.
Ben, I can almost hear your indignant tone haha :)
Their spending habits go against your top advice to minimize the biggest expenses, namely, mortgage payments, to have their spending under control.
Haha yes this Twitter thread was very annoying to me.
Exactly. Even in San Francisco, $21,000 is insane.
I can't help but think of several acquaintances who are constantly complaining about living from paycheck to paycheck while talking about all kinds of unnecessary expenses and risky investments. The American population doesn't have much financial culture or understanding of what poverty really is.
Bay Area native here. Glad you found the rent prices on Google! Every part of the Bay has different costs, and in my opinion, San Francisco is one of the areas where you don’t get your money’s worth—many neighborhoods aren’t glamorous, and a lot of homes lack a two-car garage or backyard. It’s a great place for dining out options, though! Our utilities in a 2-bedroom, 2.5-bath condo aren’t nearly as high as the listed estimates. I also understand that "paycheck to paycheck" can mean different things depending on one's income. In college, I had a friend who always said he was broke, but his dad was in the NBA. I understood his "broke" was different from my "broke."
It is an odd thing to see that very scenario play out with my kids. They live in a very affluent neighborhood where the average homes are in the $2.5 million price range. It is a status area and my son in law has a career where he needs to look the part. Their bills are similar to what you presented. Although they do not travel, there is golf club membership about the same.
My daughter is a stay at home mom of two littles. They do not hurt for anything, but there is a saying I have gotten used to hearing: "I was told to stop spending money, but I just had to have..."(insert coffee, food delivery, outings, clothes..) And there is a lot of complaining about bills and living paycheck to paycheck.
For him, there is no moving to a lesser area or cutting back on spending, as they are doing the bare minimum within their class of society. He was raised that way and anything less is unacceptable.
Really good thoughts in here. The first step to investing more is to save more, and if we all audited our expenses there are many things we could cut out or downgrade a bit to make more cushion for disposable and investable income.