There’s been much ballyhoo lately about cost of living and affordability in media lately (deservedly so, imo) but I’m curious how hard it is for those of us who are a little more capable than normies (we like to think).
Feel free to be somewhat vague. Not asking anyone to doxx themselves. I’ll start.
In my mid-thirties. Married, two kids. Combined income is just under 100k. We live in a low cost of living area which has helped us a lot. We were able to buy a house in ‘21 with a 15 year mortgage and it feels like we got on the last lifeboat off the Titanic. We’ve been able to build about a 200k net worth, about half of which is home equity.
Day to day expenses are getting tougher, however. We’ve never had a car payment but our older kid has started school and that has put a strain on us since he goes to a private Christian school. I’ve worked in education and I consider sending a kid to public school to be akin to child abuse.
It feels harder and harder to save and invest. Just making ends meet with two kids in this red state feels like a Herculean task. Wondering if anyone else feels the same way.
Flat broke and unemployed for almost a year. If it wasn't for my family having my back, I'd have become a statistic. Thankfully, I might have a couple of jobs lined up in the future, but nothing extravagant.
Sorry to hear that, friend. Two markets I never want to find myself in again are the job market and the dating market. Probably going to have to search for a new job in the next few years, though.
Will be praying for you. You looking for work in a specific field?
I've been looking for IT, since that was my last job and I was thriving in it. Browsing here hasn't been helping my motivation much.... It's not you guys' fault. The world is just not a happy place for employment right now.
Have you tried being Indian?
You have to perfect the head-bob
https://x.com/lisajanespencer/status/1988502099685240922
So that’s what they mean by show bob?
"DO NOT REEDEEEEEEEM!"
Howzat?
I'm 6'4", but I'm built like a less fat Dr. Eggman. I might be able to pull it off?
Well keep at it. I’ve been there. It is nice to have family. I know I could stay at my parents if I fell on hard times
What are you good at? What trades, skills, can you do?
To keep things as vague as possible, doing alright, but don't feel like I have options.
I'm surviving, and not uncomfortably, so not here to whine about that...but a lot of basic - and important - things that Americans used to be able to afford pretty easily are out of my reach.
I do feel somewhat trapped and betrayed by the current economic situation, and how our alleged representatives are handling things. A lot of incredibly crucial things have been taken from all of us; even more than most realize, I think.
I know what you mean about not having options. My family is starting to outgrow our house but we're kind of stuck here. We couldn't afford our own house if we sold it and turned around and tried to buy it back. Our monthly payment would probably triple.
Make a list of these things being taken away, then find ways to secure them. Stay quiet about it, though.
House fully paid off, wife and two kids. We're green every month, but that number gets more slim the more bullshit shenanigans go on. We'll find more ways to grind and we'll be fine, but I was an adult when things were "good" and the rate of change since then has been alarming and incredible.
Won't say what I make, but it's worth about $40k in 2019 dollars. Graduated in 2016 and only hit my major's claimed starting salary when the dollar devalued lol
I bought a small "cheap" house in a shitty Mexican neighborhood this year. Mortgage and taxes eat about half of my take home. I am taxed without mercy for being male, unmarried, and childless.
Car paid for. At least four retirement accounts with three digit balances from different employers, being slowly eaten by fees. Enough HYSA savings to eat a job loss for six months or so. Gotten the boot from enough jobs that I basically expect any given Friday to end in an unemployment application.
Zero dollars in the stock market. It was driven into me that I needed to be responsible and save cash for catastrophe expenses and job losses instead of "gambling". Should have been maxing out credit cards for stonks.
I live alone with my dog and spend most of my disposable money on guns, ammo, gear, training, competition, preparedness, etc.
My life is half over and financially I'm where my parents were at 22.
I'm going alright as a mid-40s single guy. Not necessarily as a result of the economy though. Some luck fell into it as well as some intentional decisions the last 20 years of my life. I'm self-employed about half contracting and half building business opportunities, took a buyout from a corporate job a couple years ago. I make just over 100k, I could probably do more if I really wanted to nose to the grindstone at the cost of other things. Not really any change from when I was a corporate, I was just a peasant.
I minimize money that goes to bankers, meaning I avoid interest on loans. I had a car loan once, but not for a while. I don't remember the last time I paid interest to credit cards. Never had student loans. I do have a mortgage on my house, it's sub 3% and I just haven't bothered with it. I moved out into a sub-sub-urban (small town) neighborhood before Covid clownery, and that worked out well. I also minimize subscriptions, I hate monthly bills. I save money and/or buy assets. I've had this approach since I was young 20s, and it's paid off well.
Day to day I haven't noticed a ton, mainly because by coincidence I started really focusing on cooking and food quality the same time everything got expensive, so I still spend less than eating out a lot more did. Insurance costs have gone bonkers. Everything else was basically already set for me. Travel has gone up, but I've been spending more time on that with extended family and less on exotics anyway.
My family is doing OK. thank God.
But a note on that, I work from home and don't go shopping that much, but I have been to my area Costco on Monday at 1PM local time. It was more packed than a Saturday afternoon. I don't know if it's where I live, but people are doing extra fine it seems, took me 15 minutes on the line to the cashier.
I hope is not people on welfare or some sort of tax payer funded programs, as I paid a fuckton of taxes.
Similar experience with midweek daytime Costco.
I really don't have an explanation other than too many nons & government WFH assholes.
I worked from home or in the field before all of the Covid, just nature of the job. Essentially a lot of my time was flexible because I often needed to do something outside the 8-5.
Everything is so much more busy now during the day. Used to if I wasn't in a business-heavy area I could eat lunch by myself, shop for groceries with the old ladies, etc.
I have an issue with WFH in general. But definitely moreso government WFH workers in particular who remain at home 5 years later because politicians & managers were too cowardly to declare "two weeks to flatten the curve" over after two fucking weeks.
Given how useless & pozzed your average civil servant is to begin with, these parasites deserve to hang even more given the fact they now get to do their Jewish daycare jobs without showering or putting on pants.
I'm not one of those "if it was important you couldn't do it from home" types, but what I will say and speculate is that the expectations have gotten pulled so far down that a high quality employee can do their work in maybe a third of the work week. I guess that's what happen when you fill buildings with DEIs and H1Bs that can't tell their mouth from their ass much less produce anything. Downside? If everyone did a good job we'd need a ton less employees total. Corporate work life doesn't reward doing anything above the median of work though really unless you have dark skin or a magic triangle. Even then, the possession of such traits is your main value, not actually doing work.
I'm sure the government is even better at this incompetence than the business world. So they just sit at home click a few times each week and call it work.
I think there's big schism in WFH between lazy, pozzed bureaucrats and tech sector private corp employees and contract workers.
I think a lot of the private sector WFH is BS as well. But it bothers me a lot less since taxpayers generally aren't subsidizing it (big IF, I suppose), can choose not to buy from a company with a bad product or customer service, private corps with bad work culture can theoretically go under, etc.
But there's really no way to avoid being complicit and sucked dry from the WFH public sector types.
It's also infuriating that all these pozzed COVIDidian assholes somehow ended up with better working conditions and more perks as a fallout of their fealty to the COVID kabuki theater restrictrion regime.
Same.. everything is packed. Even during the day. I work for myself so I. Used to taking off to go to the gym or hike before the shutdown shit and it became common. Either everyone is unemployed or everyone is working from home. And based on what I see, they sure as shit aren't working or home. I'm 90% convinced most people took out seconds on their home and are living off debt.
Every Costco is packed with Indians and well to do people spending like there's no tomorrow. No idea where they get the money, but I know I'll never have it.
There's 5-6 Costco on my area, one is the Business version, very good to shop, most of the time empty.
The one I went Monday is the worse, usually, but there are two others that are much better, most of the attendance is White, little bit saner.
Broke and currently unemployed. The UK job market is absolutely fucked. Thought my 20 years of construction, painting and decorating would make it easy to find another job. Boy was I a moron.
What was a easy job to get into when I was a lad (retail, hospitality etc) is now not even replying, if you don't get auto rejected due to the personality tests for the most part, Had to go on universal credit so now twice a month struggle sessions for my 400 handouts. While the immergrant "engineer" his words, claims his wife would find it easier to learn the language of the djinn than English and gets no pushback.
If I had the capital I'd go self employed again in a heartbeat, but not there yet. Hopefully something will come along. 3 more interviews for the week. Caretaker at a local school, cleaner/maintenance at the county court and maintenance at a pub chain. Fingers crossed.
Good luck, it's tough as shit even when you have options. I basically live on the edge of civilisation and rely on public transport which doesn't get me very far for work around a dead tourist area where there's almost nothing and nobody hiring.
At least the guys at my struggle session just leave me to it because I come across as competent. It's still fucking soul destroying.
Buying a shitty condo in 2017 saved my ass from the current struggles.
Used all my savings and went pay check to pay check for quite a while but it's what's keeping me afloat.
My mortgage+HOA+Water is like 850 a month. Current rent prices are double or more.
I recently married overseas to a long time family friend and we're trying to get things going.
I will admit life doesn't feel as "luxurious" as it did back in 2018 when things were CHEAP.
Thankfully paid off my student debt and just have a car loan after the car I paid cash for got totaled. Did have to get surgery and such which drained the finances a bit...
Ultimately it sounds like 1-2 smart financial decisions is keeping most of the people here in an maintainable position, but it's not ideal.
I had to walk away from everything in the divorce. I just didn't have the stamina of spirit to fight so tooth and nail against someone I once loved so much just for some stuff. So, I've been dealing with rebuilding and replacing in addition to everything else these past couple of years. It's been incredibly hard; every dilemma and setback that inevitably comes up in life feels piled on and insurmountable. But I make progress as I can, where I can, and I know I'm getting somewhere. Anyone can look at how much I've done with nothing and know that I can't stay down much longer.
Did she cheat and still get half your stuff?
Gen X, married, one kid, wife and I both have mid 6 figure income from white collar corporate jobs, 7 figure net worth, live in one of the highest COL parts of the US, in the midst of clown world. We can afford to send our kid to private school and own property, and we generally don’t have to think too hard about spending money on stuff we need or want, although we don’t have extravagant tastes. If we did have extravagant tastes, we’d have to make some tradeoffs. So to sum up, we’re comfortable, we don’t have so much money that we can spend like maniacs, but we also don’t want to spend like maniacs, so I’m not worried about money. Nonetheless it was a struggle to get to this point, and I’ve seen how globalist shit and woke shit have both fucked me, and how it’s shaping up to fuck my kid even worse, so I’d like to avoid that somehow.
Edit for added color: I drive a shitbox car, for example, while everyone in our social circle has an Audi or a Tesla (w/ some anti-musk sticker of course) or a BMW or whatever.
Fellow shitbox driver here. 2000 Honda Accord still going strong.
Respect
I love my shit box.
Alright. Mid-40’s. No debt besides my mortgage with a little over a million dollars net worth and just over $100k salary. No family so I’ll die alone and unloved. Yay?
Any more extended family at all? I'm similar enough to you but I've done really well building relationships with kids of cousins and nephews. I used to ignore them all, just decided to start paying attention. Not even the little kids either, I don't want to deal with making sure they don't run away or can't deal with the bathroom without help. The older kids and teens absolutely love an adult that gives them some attention and doesn't try to be an extra parent.
No friends?
Did you ever want kids?
Pretty good! I've got about $50K in savings, I'm still in my job where I make decent money (>100K), and I've got a comfortable place to live in a condo in a big city. I've got enough money for luxuries.
Mid 30s, no marriage, no kids.
Pretty good, actually. Been preparing since 2004, and now I've effectively secured food, shelter, water and electricity. Also, the anons back on 4chan/IRC correctly predicted the 2008 crash and I'm glad I followed their advice.
Been helping others slip away from the bankers' death-grip since 2014 too. Not only it's profitable, I make friends for life.
Good for you, most encouraging response here. We had to abandon our original prep spot but just closed on some acreage a few weeks ago.
This sounds pretty cool, can you elaborate? I've been dealing with lenders and finance people a lot lately. The mortgage brokers just want your money, unfortunately, as do financial advisors ("invest in my mutual!") What else is out there to help people be more financially savvy, besides being Dave Ramsey?
Sure. See, the bankers forgot what they were supposed to be - lending money to create wealth. Like you said, it's all "big profits now for me, fuck everything else!"
They could charge a crushing 10~15% (or more) monthly interest, then tell you how to run your business if you borrowed a mere 50,000$ to start a business with. Me, I offer an alternate solution. Instead of lifelong debt to banks and educational institutions, I offer loans with a one-time fee and digital books respectively.
Let's say a small family wants to borrow 50,000$ to start a small business and agrees to pay it in 2 years. We meet up, and I look over their business plan. If it looks good, I give them some advice pro bono, then lend them the 50,000$. Then, I help them grow. They pay off the 2084$/month, then at the end of the full payment and clearing the debt completely, add in a small fee - maybe 300$ or so.
That's it. No banks, no tax, no feds and no cuts for greedy bureaucrats.
Same for people who want to learn. I get them some books/ebooks, some self-learning guides, and provide the means to let them study and learn at their own pace. For this, I charge less than a dollar per person. (((College))) gets cut out of the deal. What both these services actually get me is something far more valuable.
Networking and contacts. The rural chicken farm I invested in back in 2020 after the chinavirus bioterror attack (and worked part time at) when they first started up now sends me a dozen or so eggs every week for no charge.
I don't care who the IRS sends, I am not paying taxes!
I have gone from sitting pretty to breaking even.
My costs have gone up astronomically. I am fighting my bank, city, and insurance companies over these insane price hikes.
I think this is deliberate. The hammer is falling and they are trying to bankrupt the middle class.
Married, two kids. Wife is a Beacon in a dark world. I live in Poland and work in IT, which has been rough--out of work for 3 months now and thanks to the morons in Brussels fucking the economy of europe, my Industry has been trashed. Every job has 100+ applicants. Our family is no help whatsoever--It looks like I will be accepting a job in service desk soon just to have an income, despite being qualified for L2/L3 positions and a junior in DevOps.
Socialism is fucking rough.
My impression was Poland is pretty based. Is it Poland that's got socialistic policies, or more the EU and the impact it has on its member states?
Poland is socially conservative but not financially conservative--they were under the control of communists for 60 years and 3 whole generations grew up without ever knowing freedom. The Poles in general are economically illiterate and don't understand the connection between an overbearing government and sluggish labour markets--they benefited enormously from their high level of education relative to their economy and from a culture of hard work so after the fall of communism, despite the government continuing to over-regulate everything, they managed to usher in an age of massive growth due to their high-trust society, work ethic and tendency to obsessively chase success.
That can only take them so far and Poland has since entered a period of diminishing returns where their positive cultural traits can no longer push growth faster than the EU and socialist policies can retard it. Any further success from this point will need to be purchased through de-regulation and potentially exiting the EU.
Pretty good. Could be better. Work from home so that helps save money and do side jobs for money like house sitting and online surveys
I feel this. I feel all personal progress stalled. But nothing like this. Get off dating sites. Just saying.
I'm old, just had my third kid and bought a house a few years back at 7.1% on the 30 year because the property was too perfect to wait on. Living in a medium high cost of living state and hovering around the 6 figure combined thanks to overtime.
And yet, we are doing fine. We aren't building much savings at the moment thanks to a car breakdown and the cost of having a baby (far below what hysteria would have you think), but I've got plenty backed up from when I could. We have nice little things, though nothing extravagant. I work some extra shifts when I've got nothing to do that day, and it carries us into some nice dinners and paying for everyone's hobbies.
I'm thankful everyday for the blessings I have, but a lot of the time it feels less like being blessed and closer to how it should be for everyone. And not in the sense of "Americans deserve this" but "I'm retarded and didn't do anything special, how are you so far behind?" Like I was born to two junkies and spent a chunk of my youth homeless before wasting my one chance at a new future on a Psychology degree, yet I managed the "American dream" as much as I want of it even with all the problems going on around us.
I think a decent number of people made a series of bad choices that make life hard. I've had quite a few friends make some decisions that I would consider super reckless and they were able to rebound fairly quickly. DUIs, major accidents, that kind of thing.
The system seems to forgive A fuck up, but if you're white that's basically it. You get one maybe two and then it's hard life.
The people who are not doing well In My life made a series of shitty decisions, often continuous ones like gambling, blowing cash on dumb shit, Vegas, etc for a decade or longer. So I think failure is often like success, it's not ONE big thing that makes or breaks you, it's many little things that culminate over time.
I can agree with that. Everyone I've met that is "struggling" you can usually find a clear line of bad decisions that lead up to it. Whether its life changing or simply "I spend a lot of money regularly on transient things."
I at least still have a low cost of living (Southern half of Illinois, believe it or not), getting by more than well enough on under $40k/year, but I am still alone at 39. Completely debt free, even my house is paid for (mostly via high growth stocks that someone I trusted invested my money into a long time ago).
Been putting together different growth over time investments with a lot of my assets. Currently have about $30k in my 401k, $22k in a Roth IRA with high dividend stocks, $20k in two local CDs (going to do another $10k CD next month, where all three are 6-month CDs whose cycles are two months apart, so I can have easier access to one of them if needed).
Doing pretty well with a tech job at a company that actually still sells a product and doesn't just make our money skimming from other services or data mining our customers.
Worried about potential layoffs because the rest of the industry is being overtly replaced by H1Bs.
Diversity hires usually run tech into the ground because they actually can't code. Take note of product specs and prepare to roll out a superior product by yourself if you see the DEItards starting to infest your company.
Fortunately we actually have effectively DEI hires (outside of women). Company is almost entirely white.
Now don't make any mistake about it: our HR department and upper management would LOVE to diversify it. But we're not a Silicon Valley company and the company reflects the mostly local talent pool.
Single income two kids. Only danger is spouse's health problems. I've no idea what ill make this year, 120ish probably. Pushing everything to get a down payment so we can move to a house that doesn't suck. If you count the time I spend doing dishes instead of making money right now, we could be at 150 easy. This'll be the first time in.....6 years I've stayed at a single job for 12 months.
Car is paid off now, own 50% of the house at this point. Turned 30 this year. Can't complain.
Youre doing great. Those are good numbers for 30. I'll pray for everyone here but I'll pray for your wife's health too.
At least you get to live in a red state.
If I didn't have my boomer parents letting me live with them I would be homeless. And that's a fact that they gleefully remind me of all the time.
I'm not some unemployed bum, but the cost of living in NJ means that unless I get the full time version of my job I will never be able to move into an apartment, let alone buy a house. Since I'm in a union gig, it is literally a matter of waiting for more seniority, and for those positions to open up. I am reluctant to give up this job since the healthcare I get from it is better than any private plan you could get, plus since I'm white I'm lucky to even have a job at all.
Not trying to dog on your parents, but damn boomers are insufferable sometimes. It's as if acknowledging they had it way easier economically would obliterate their self esteem so they are incapable of it. Having such a large voting block incapable of acknowledging that there are major issues, and simply caring about "stock market go up" is extremely cancerous.
Not even an hour ago, I told my mother that I needed to borrow her car later to take my new LED headlights to my mechanic to install on my car, which is over there for repairs to the headlight system anyway. She then proceeded to guilt trip me by complaining that she will have to give up swimming at the expensive gym that my parents go to in order for me to be able to do this.
I didn't utter one single complaint when my father asked me to pick him up from the auto glass repair shop that was farther away, in Trenton, a dangerous city, in the morning, during a time when I'm normally asleep since I work at night. I have done that twice in the last two weeks, and it screws up my sleep schedule every time I do it. Didn't bitch about it.
She goes swimming there all the fucking time. Sometimes she is there so late that we have dinner 10 minutes before I have to leave for work at night. God forbid a boomer has to sacrifice something other than their children's future.
Of course naturally she told me that I would have to do extra work around the house to make up for her lost time. This coming from a woman who hasn't lifted anything heavier than 20 pounds in decades, telling me, a guy who works in a fucking warehouse loading trucks for a living, that I don't do enough.
This is the same woman btw whom, when I had to leave my last home due to involuntary circumstances, used the leverage she had over me since I had nowhere to go, to force me to sign a contract in order to live in her house. That is the only reason why I'm not homeless. Granted, the terms of the contract aren't too strenuous, but I keep getting "asked" to do things that aren't in the contract, and it pisses me off because if I bring that up she just threatens to kick me out.
She also brings up how I'm over 30 now and I should be making at least six figures since that was what my father was making at my age. She conveniently leaves out the fact that he went to Princeton University and only had his job because his professor at the time was starting a tech company and offered a role to him because he was a promising student. I might have had a similar path if she didn't spend years telling me to follow my dreams and let me go to college for Film. What great advice that was.
To this day I still kick myself for naively trusting my Boomer, Ivy league graduate parents to give me good advice on what to do in life. After all, why wouldn't I trust them? They were enormously successful in life. They both drive a Mercedes, not base models either, and have a lot of property, in the state with the highest property taxes in the country. Why wouldn't I listen to them?
These same people who want me to go find a girl so they can have grandkids can't even be bothered to help me out with my cheap car, let alone finding a job. After all, my father only had one job for 41 years, and my mother never had a real 9-5 in her life because he was able to support a wife and 2 kids on one income, vacations to Europe included.
The worst part about this is that they aren't even that bad by boomer standards. I just wish my mother would stop psychologically undermining me at every opportunity just because she isn't satisfied with where I am in life.
It's probably an astronomical number of boomers that will die with zero grandchildren purely because they refuse to give enough help to their kids. I'm not talking about endless handouts to NEET bums, but little nudges here and there to their kids who are employed, trying, and obviously had it much worse than they did in terms of societal and economic situations.
100%. I just got off the phone with my dad and we had a cordial joust. I mentioned someone stupid as shit he did in the 90s and threw cases later he still can't concede "okay yeah maybe I acted like a fucking ass that day". Like dude, it's fine, it's been a long time, just own it. Boomers seem to be uniquely incapable of admitting fault or even mediocrity.
Side bar, even adjusted for inflation I probably make like 3x what my dad did at my age. Heck, I make more than he does now. He couldn't afford his own home if he bought it today, but even with my much bigger income I couldn't afford his home now. That's how much home prices have inflated compared to wages. Boomers either have no clue or simply cannot admit that economically they win the fucking lottery.
"Hey son, you have it much harder than I did. That sucks. Maybe your mom and I can help." -unfathomable words for a boomer
Yep. With all the huge overarching problems that are difficult to solve, this is one of the most retarded unforced errors out there. Only their retatded mindset gets in their way. So many boomers will die with zero grandchildren because they don't offer help when it is sorely needed despite being more than capable of it.
I'm comfy. No dependents though.
I really should divest some before line stops going up. But that can wait until Q1. Probably...
Line has gone up a lot longer than I would have guessed already so who knows?
That up is real just inflation.
I appreciate you bringing this up and your willingness to share.
Im late thirties, married, have more that two kids. I make good money but I also live in a big city in California that is very expensive. The cost for everything is still insanely high where I am. Gas came down a little. But groceries are absurd. A typical costco visit pre COVID was $300-400. The same visit is easily $600 now. No joke, I probably average 1K on food per month and that is NO junk food, no chips, no snacks, no misc impulse buys, just the essentials.
I actually reached out to a buddy of mine with the same number of kids to see if I'm doing something wrong, if there are way cheaper options than what I'm doing. Doesn't seem to be a better alternative.
Childcare isn't a cost because my wife stays home. But the activities cost a fortune. Soccer, etc.
My state taxes the shit out of me so my actual take home after taxes and withholding make me want to vomit.
My wife drives a five year old car. I drove a 13 year old car. Both paid off.
I feel like if I take my foot off the gas work wise, I'll drown. So I'm always working my ass off, barely ever taking time off. Its hard to gauge if all my neighbors simply make way more money than me or if they're buried in debt, because so many keep doing major remodels, buying new cars every few years etc. those Sprinter van things are everywhere and those cost $150k each.
People in my county can't afford the water bill, so they shower at the YMCA. Not homeless people, homeowners showerimg at the YMCA because it's a private company, and it raised the rates too high.
Not usa, economically non-viable and has been for ages. Got a gig but not a job. I am enjoying day to day life even though i'll never have a proper life in this shithole part of the world.
I appreciate all the effort you put into your reply. I'm doing the "starter home" thing right now. It's not so bad but I definitely want to be out of here within a few years. Things are starting to feel a little cramped with two children running around. Problem is everything is so expensive we're stuck here for the forseeable future.
Just fine. Our washing machine just crapped out and I'm thinking of getting a Speed Queen since apparently they've barely changed their parts catalog in about 40 years, even it if WOULD be well over $1,000.....
I also keep putting off getting the parts for a PC overhaul (mobo, RAM, vid card, PSU) after a friend bought me a processor for my birthday.
I have enough free food from yesterday to last me probably until next week.
Two different buddies of mine just changed jobs and one almost doubled his income (he was also getting REALLY underpaid....). Another buddy's keepin' on keepin' on.
Still looking for a nice plot of land to make
my cabin to write a manifesto and mail packages*a nice place to go out on the weekends. Preferably some place with cell signal.*My lawyer has advised me to point out that this is a joke.
I'm over 60, live in Canada & bought my home for $20K in 1997. Drive a 2003 Oldsmobile.
I have low overhead! Which is good because I have low income too.
Prices have been skyrocketing here for a long time. The Liberals in Ottawa have been screwing everyone for over a decade now. With no end in sight. It's hard to break even at the end of the year, let alone increase my savings.
Honestly pretty great. Single, late 20s, and make <100k in a low-mid COL area. Have a good rental agreement though and with my lifestyle I'm able to save a large chunk of my income for retirement and a down payment on where I live.
Aight
Barely treading water, was unemployed for months straight and no one was hiring, not even Mickey D's
I'm a beltway bandit, I'm doing fine.
Home ownership however continues to be an unrealistic dream because real estate here is even more bonkers than the rest of the country.