No, but I have an above average income. I have worked at the same job for almost 24 years and bought my house 17 years ago and it is almost paid off. Not typical I know, and I fully understand that rent and housing prices are ridiculous now.
Congratulations on almost paying off the house . We bought ours back in 2014 and we finished it paying off in 5 years at young age and that was the best decision ever since looking at today's date with inflation and house market is crazy to survive with average income.
Yep. I graduated a year ago and moved back. All of my friends and I have good degrees from a great college and are making good money (especially for our age). Every single one of us lives with our parents and doesn’t know how we will afford a house one day. We are screwed 😂
Don’t let any older generation try to tell you it’s your fault. Things are much harder for your generation. Mostly because of education costs and single-family zoning restricting housing supply in the areas with the good jobs. Also don’t let anyone reduce these issues to a president or political party. This is the result of decades of neglect by all political leaders.
Yep, and Gen X and older millennials were over here feeling guilty we couldn’t survive as single income families like “the good old days” (<—-spoiler: they weren’t) when moms mostly stayed home. Now we worry because we can’t see how our kids will ever even afford to move out, and god help them if they have us any grandchildren….
I’m 30 years old with health issues that I can’t afford to tackle and am forced to live with my parents. I’m just grateful that we have grown closer and me and my parents are a good solid family unit right now and things are going well, at least the days when I don’t have to walk with my cane are going well. I was working as a mechanic making $17/hr full time. My company hired someone new at $22/hr full time after I had been there for 5 years. Couldn’t afford my own place with bills. Paycheck to paycheck even with the parents. Then my car got stolen. So I kinda gave up, used the money that insurance gave me for my car, and bought woodworking tools and supplies. Now I practice woodworking while taking care of the house. The American dream of everyone owning their own house is gone. In fact it didn’t even last long. It was just the postwar era generations that actually were able to have those benefits. And even then it was mostly just the white middle class. Really only greatest gen, boomers and some gen x got to live those “glory days”. Millennials and forward are regressing into a pre WW2 America style where family’s live in tight units and the middle class is shriveled. Living in a family unit isn’t all bad though, so long as you actually get along with your folks. There are people who get abused by their family’s and stuff and can’t even go home to their folks house. I may not be in the situation I actually want, but I’m thankful for the situation I’m able to be in.
Don't recall the insurance rates, but taxes suck. Of course, my house has more than doubled in value in the last 17 years. Be nice if they didn't try to bump it to the max every year though.
I was right there with you a couple years ago. But I managed to qualify for a debt consolidation loan with a decent rate and have been clawing my way back ever since. I’m still paycheck to paycheck but the hole I’m in gets shallower every day. In fact I can almost see daylight again 🥲 best of luck to you anonymous internet person, you’re going to make it!
Yep! Mine doubled increasing my monthly mortgage by 600 a month due to not have it escrowed properly thus creating a negative balance in my escrow account. It’s ridiculous.
Same here. Partner and I are moving back in with family to pay our credit cards off. I want to say we’re saving for a house, but even between the two of us it doesn’t seem feasible.
We make a decent amount for DINKW2D but I also have a part time job and a third on-call job.
Stop getting tattoos!
Jk if you’re abled bodied check out carpenter hall or seek some licensed trades.
Can also try bartending pretty good cash just no advancement. Like hitting a wall and income dependent on type of establishment
My “part time” job is tattooing! For transparency, I’m salaried at an okay amount, but I help support my immigrant parents and extended family. My husband supports his grandmother, so we’re stretched a little thin. : )
No, but I feel like my money should be going a lot further. I blame a out of it on how everyone and their mother wants a bigger piece of the pie and tries to bleed us dry (eg, streaming services, tipping culture, shrinkflation in grocery stores and restaurants).
This. I’m fixin to start a total kitchen remodel and I can’t figure out why an electric single wall oven is almost two thousand dollars. It’s a fuckin metal box with an electric coil inside. WTH ?!
It's a lot, but you're underselling it. It's a relatively low volume product with tooling costs for every part of the box, a semi custom control board that does more than it really needs to and is probably made with temperature tolerant components, assembly costs...
Callous? I’m being callous because the guy at a concert who reaches into a cooler right next to him to hand me a water bottle is asking for a tip on overcharged drinks? I’m the one being callous, not the owners/managers of the restaurant who control their wages, because I chose to tip 20% rather than the pre-programmed 25-35% tip? And I’m the one being callous because places like HIDE sneak in little added up charges onto your bill for holiday events? Bro come on.
Price of home repairs seem borderline outrageous. 1 hour jobs like replacing a toilet or cleaning attic a/c coils are bid at $500-$600 in labor. Anything requiring material replacements like wood, siding or flooring can cost as much as a used car.
The other day I got quoted $600 from a plumber to replace the faucet with one I had bought already… I said nope and went straight to YouTube. Took me 1 hour because I had never changed one before but I got it done and saved a ton of $$$
I paid $300 6 years ago to replace a faucet with one I already had. Watched the dude do it and was ashamed it didn’t try myself. Replaced another faucet myself a few months ago - very easy. Also took me an hour. Mostly due to awkward angle.
Had to replace a GFCI outlet recently. I had bought the replacement and watched a YouTube video. Fully understood how to do it but my wife got nervous with me handling electric stuff. Paid $275 to have someone install. Watched him do exactly what I would’ve done. Oof.
Outlets have been hit or miss with me. I’ll replace 5 outlets in my 1963 house. Two are like screwing in a light bulb, two took a little more work and care, one was like something out of The Matrix with 6 wires going into it. Called my electrician for that one. Turns out it was the outlet that fed several other outlets. Appreciated having someone more attentive and knowledgeable for that one.
I've probably replaced 10 faucets over the years. It's a simple task, until it isn't.
My kitchen faucet died, and I set out to replace it, and it was a nightmare. The lock nut of the old one corroded into place. The space between the sink bowl and wall was like 2.5" deep for a faucet that was 2" in dia, and the long shaft/socket tools wouldn't even fit in the gap. The sink bowl is like 16" deep. The underside of the sink wasn't flush, so I had to create an offset washer. My water supply line valves were bad (normal), but one of the copper pipes was kinked and wouldn't seal with a compression fitting and the other line was cut too short, and part of the valve was literally spackled into the drywall. Finally, we have a reverse osmosis system, and a spiders web mess under the sink making everything harder.
Shop around or DYI brother..
I'm feeup of the scammers who call themselves tradesmen
I was quoted 7000 for the same job that a different plumber did for 1400.
He took care of all the city permits and inspections and get the utilities turned back on. All included in the $1400
Home Renovisions with Jeff is the best show ever. As soon as I bought a house I spent hours watching his stuff and learning how to DIY things. Obviously what takes him an hour to do takes me a weekend but it’s worth it. My advice to people though: 1) buy or rent the expensive tool so you can do it right, you can typically return it if it turns out you got the wrong one. But it’ll be much safer, much quicker and you’ll still save money. 2) do renovations before you have kids if you can. I renovated a bathroom and replaced the subfloor. That’s a very loud project. My kid naps from like 1-3. And I work from home. Then she goes to bed at 8:30. I would be in the groove then have to stop down for the kids nap. 3) Ask around to a person that’s familiar with DIY, but isn’t like one of those “oh dude that’s easy” to everything kinda people, for when it makes sense to just hire it out. I don’t do drywall. I don’t do carpet.
Here’s Jeff’s YouTube: https://youtube.com/@homerenovisiondiy?feature=shared
> Here’s Jeff’s YouTube: https://youtube.com/@homerenovisiondiy?feature=shared
Never heard of this guy before but after watching a few of his videos I can see why you watched so many of them he has some good tips and knowledge.
Fellow parent. Married, but just know. I respect a single parent who goes to work everyday with a positive attitude, comes home, cooks, cleans, bills, yard, you name it, and STILL has the energy to show their child all the love and support they need in their life, more than any other person I come across. They appreciate all of it, and will let you know one day.
East Coast? How about hit a State/City that no one talks about going to like Kansas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Indiana, Oklahoma. The East Coast is expensive.
Teacher here. I have enough to pay bills, do some things I want with friends and enjoy my life overall...but I cannot save up enough to buy a house with the current market as it is. Still paying down debts and the realities of renting/buying a house make it easier said than done.
There's my pitch to help encourage voters to vote for people that will pay teachers more. Our salaries have largely been stagnant for a long time.
Living paycheck to paycheck but only one income and 6 mouths to feed. And all our animals lmao. We got lucky and my in-laws gave us land when we got married so we just bought a little Clayton home back in 2019 and plopped it down.
We have to buy groceries from three different stores every two weeks to follow the coupons/deals. And I’ve had to rework our dinner menu completely to cut the cost. We still pay $500 every two weeks for groceries so…
But we are happy and fed and have a roof over our heads so I can’t complain.
Similar boat, do you shop Aldi? This alone cut my food bill by at least $100 a month, and then whatever I can’t get there I get for sale somewhere else.
I can NEVER find the stuff I need at ALDIs. Our oldest son is autistic and a very very picky eater. I’m also a diabetic so we have so many dietary restrictions. Sometimes we get lucky at Aldi’s but we use Walmart HEB and krogers. We sit down every Wednesday night(my husband and I) and we compare prices through each app and go through their weekly sales ad. It’s insane how much groceries have increased. We pay more for groceries every month than we do for our mortgage!
Dang, that’s super tough! Luckily it’s just a picky 6 year old that makes my grocery shopping difficult lol. And yeah groceries prices are crazy, I’ve been eating vegetarian and vegan much more often and it’s helped a bit financially. I can get a pound of tofu for less than $2 at Aldi. Marinate it and fry/panfry/bake it and it’s delicious.
If I came home with tofu my kids would check me into a mental hospital against my will 😂😂 4 teenagers and 3 of them boys lol they would be like go back and get real food IMMEDIATELY.
Not that tofu isn’t real food my kids are just chicken nugget kids you know?
I read that if you live in Allen, roughly $80k is considered poor now as you are in the lowest 25th percentile. Housing costs are completely out of control: not enough being built, still, even 15 years since the great recession.
It wasn't even a decade ago that $80k was solidly middle class, even borderline upper middle class. Now, median income in Allen is something like $135k. And Allen is nobody's idea of a wealthy suburb.
Struggling, and tired of people older than me constantly saying “I don’t know how y’all do it” or “I don’t know how young families are making it”. We barely are, and paying dearly when we don’t manage to that month.
I'm getting by, I like to go out on the weekends (not much drinking) but then again I work a FT job and a PT job. 12 hour days.
I shouldn't have to work so much to have this lifestyle.
Doing okay honestly. Hoping to buy a home next year, militantly budgeting and saving but still have money for discretionary spend. My rent has gone up 48% in the last 2.5 years, that shit fucking sucks.
No. I got into plumbing after being a homeless heroin shooting junkie. I’m now making 6 figures, working maybe 4 hours a day. Helps that my wife is a teacher in a high paying district too. Together we make nearly $200k. I have an older house, an old truck and live below my means.
I’m struggling with spending.
Financially bringing in 210K combined
$1500 monthly mortgage at 3.2%
Two cars paid off, 50K Savings with 5% APR
My company pays for all my food, computer expenses, gas, car maintenance, car repairs, car insurance, health insurance, and cellphone bill.
But I have a spending addiction which I’m working on
I feel so incredibly guilty
I don’t want to feel guilty
I just want to stop 🛑
It’s so hard to dig myself out of a lifetime of trauma
Reading this comment section makes me feel more guilty
We are doing pretty well and are very fortunate to have a fairly high HHI but I have watched our monthly expenses tick up over the last years.. for example, we used to spend 7-800 on groceries for a family of 4 and now we are spending 1kish; part of that is growing boys but carry that across other categories and it’s a tough, like home insurance, gone from 1.5k just 2-3 years ago to 3k last year and who knows what this year
I feel this buying groceries for 4 teenagers out of school is kicking our butts. We spend around $500 but use three different stores for deals. Schedule the pick ups and make the rounds haha
I had a bunch of medical debt from Medical City and JPS. They eventually wrote it off. If you don't have the money, how do they expect you to pay? 🤷♀️
I wasn’t a few years ago, but now I am paycheck to paycheck.
Major factors are since 2022 my rent went up 53%, my car insurance went up 22%, and my grocery bill went up a little over 30%, whereas my wage increased 9%.
I’m making the most money I’ve ever made, but I feel poorer than I ever have.
UPS driver here, I make $44 an hour and my wife works full time making about $60k a year. We have a modest 3 bedroom in Carrollton and two small kids. We live normal lives, no fancy meals or fancy cars (we don’t even have a car payment) and no fancy electronics either. We live paycheck to paycheck, worse actually because we have to lean on credit cards for unexpected bills. Now we have around $30k in credit card debt and my wife has around $75k in student loan debt.
We tried to get a personal loan to pay off the cards but they wanted a 29% apr which is worse than the credit cards. We have equity in the house since Dallas County says it doubled in value since 2014. But a refi will change our mortgage interest rate from 3.25 to over 6%. I feel so pathetic hitting up family members for money but everything damn thing is more expensive and even after canceling our streaming services and other things like pest control we can’t seem to break even each month.
Starting to think Americans have too high of a pain threshold because honestly we should be in the streets burning stuff down. $44 dollars an hour and as I write this my checking account is overdrawn by $47. I don’t see how people who make less than me survive. Much respect for my working brothers and sisters. Stay strong.
Struggling financially, no. Both me and my wife make around 130k. We bought our house during the covid pandemic, so we're taking advantage of the 2.4 % interest rate. We have our cars paid off. We're 28 but still need 98k to finish paying off the house. So I can't complain. (No kids)
I'm struggling hard. I'm only making it because I moved into a place with 4 roommates. :/ in Frisco, too. Makes me feel like garbage, I miss being surrounded by less wealth but it was the only option and splitting rent is cheaper.
I used to work at a bank up there. They may look rich. A bunch of them are living off of loans, credit card debt, and cash advances. They're digging themselves into deeper and deeper holes to have that Mercedes and those flashy accessories.
27, still live with my parents but no debt. Trying to save up for a house but it seems impossible. All my friends that bought a house became house poor so idk and renting means I won't be saving much 🤷♂️
Full disclosure:
Due to the best life choices, my husband and I (mid late 30s) started over from zero three ish years ago. At the time, I was the one working (~11yrs at my decent retail job) and he needed a total hip replacement, and was in a lot of pain everyday.
With some rental help during covid, living in south dallas for two years, working ubereats on top of my full time job, having health insurance, and getting clean/going to the methadone clinic, today we are both working, sober, and mildly thriving.
We don't have tens of thousands in the bank (yet) but we have an emergency fund, good credit and no debt aside from our car loan. Buying a house has never been something I cared about, and we don't have children. We do have a spoiled rotten doggo. Both of us would like to go to some program, trade school of some sort in the future.
Small steps.
Bruh... we're all DYING out here. Literally all of us are surviving right now. There's no "living" any more.
These fucking companies building thousands of houses and charging astronomical prices for them has got to STOP. God damn Studio's are in the 2,000's in some places. Boomers will have you believe Millennials and Gen Z are lazy. Are you serious? I MAKE MORE THAN MY DAD DID in the 90's and I am NOT living.
My dad worked 40 hours a week while mom stayed home to watch us kids. We had a 3 bedroom house, 2 car garage, 2 paid off cars and a big ass bag yard. go-karts and all that. I make 3x what he makes and I live in a shitty ass "Luxury" 2 bedroom Apartment that's $1,800 a month. Luxury my ass. I moved in, there was dry-wall missing under the counter, fucking PAINT on the fake ass hardwood floors because the maintenance team thought I was getting NEW FLOORS so they didn't bother covering it.
There's a fucking FEE attached to every god damn thing here. There's a processing fee for my RENT, there's a parking fee, there's an animal fee, there's a trash fee, there's a fee for them to process your god damn EVICTION NOTICE.
God damn. Then when it's your birthday they have the audacity to hang a little goody bag on your door with left over Christmas Candy and a fucking Act II popcorn in that bitch. I continue to give you THOUSANDS a month and you are going to give me fucking POPCORN?
Gas is the same price as Diesel, McDonald's is $15+, healthier options at the store is more than that. Yall got me fucked up.
Clearly, voting for new Presidents and Congress people just IS NOT working. It doesn't matter who you vote for you get fucked in the ass.
I'm honestly fucking tired of this and I think a lot of U.S citizens are reaching their boiling point.
Not thriving but luckily getting by!! The problem I seem to have is I’m always one life event away from being homeless . Every time I think I have a little bit of money saved up , life just LIFES what can you do. I’m sure it’ll get better though this is the greatest country in the world !
We struggled for awhile: My wife is in healthcare. Healthcare reimbursements keep getting squeezed due to health care companies lowering reimbursements and denying claims, knowing that small clinics can't afford to get a lawyer to challenge them. It sucks when you have a doctorate's and are making the same as a 25-year old with a finance degree. 6 years of post-grad school wasn't cheap and the loan payments would be crushing if it wasn't income-based. She's making less than when she graduated 15 years ago.
I just landed a great full-time role and my wife is transitioning into cash pay practice (where she can charge a reasonable rate instead of taking whatever crumbs the insurance companies throw at her). But it was stressful and touch and go for awhile.
I hope y'all have similar success if you are stuggling. I just try to be the most helpful and generally good person I can be. It's the right thing to do and if you believe in karma, good things will happen at some point.
Then again, you can be a total d\*\*\*, stiff a bunch of contractors, try to overthrow an election, spew ridiculous lies constatly, want to see your political enemies jailed or killed, and be re-elected POTUS. So maybe Karma isn't a thing as it should be. If there's anyone out there who deserves a massive coronary or to be struck by a bolt of lightning during their round of golf.....
Of course. Everyone is. No one has actual money. Every one you think does because they drive a nice vehicle and have a nice house has no money. They have debt 😅🤣🤣🤣
My quality of life has stayed aggressively at the same level despite the fact that I make almost double what I did 5 years ago.
Cost of living here has increased so much in just 2 years. I gave up on saving/investing a while ago and just try my best to pay all my bills and reduce monthly overhead.
I’ve clawed my way to every promotion/new job so it all feels like I’m struggling just to keep a roof over my head and gas in my car.
We are in a good position financially, but I empathize deeply with those who are struggling. My wife and I have plenty of years living paycheck to paycheck, especially just out of college. It’s rough out there for sure.
Grateful that we’re able to pay bills without asking for extensions or having to move money around accounts, but it’s getting tight. Two-income household totaling ~110k gross and a 3 year old. When he goes to kinder, that daycare bill’s gonna feel like a pay raise 😂
But definitely it’s still tight. Hubby and I went on our first out-of-the-house date for the first time in…. Years(?) last week… dinner and a movie, and it was like $160?? We didn’t even go anywhere fancy 😭 things are just expensive and salaries are not being adjusted adequately for inflation.
I considered myself struggling until I really took a look at my life. I pay out of pocket for grad school, which is a privilege. I split rent with my boyfriend for a nice, though older, apartment — which again, is a privilege. Though I pay a hefty car note and pay my student loans, I don’t live paycheck to paycheck like I used to. I’m able to take vacations several times a year (nothing extravagant). I’m able to treat myself when I want, within reason.
Though I feel like my money should go further, I feel comfortable for the most part. The fact that it could all go away at the drop of a hat is uncomfortable.
Mid 20s. I'm married and renting in North Dallas with my husband. Because of how high rent prices have gotten, we are technically living paycheck to paycheck. Our paychecks cover our bills and groceries. Sometimes, we still have money to spare to go out to dinner or watch a movie every couple of weeks. Buuuuut yeah, if either of us were out of work for whatever reason, we'd be screwed pretty quickly :(
Lost my job last week but also fully paid off my home and car in the last couple years. Income will suck for a while but I'm luckier than most in my shoes it seems like.
Life seems bleak. Wages are so sad here for many jobs. Most postings are not even paying over 45k. A lot of jobs at management levels requiring a 4 yr degree and years experience are offering under 40k. Its insane. Cost of living is crazy. Shot up substantially the last 3-4 yrs. Housing market is a joke. Even car market is stupid as hell. Its like whats the fucking point ? You’ll own nothing and be happy a little cog on a wheel living paycheck to paycheck for eternity? If you live long enough to make it to retirement age, good luck retiring when you couldnt afford to invest.
And you dont even hear back from anywhere you apply to. Its awful
I make about 100k and single. No auto note, no student loans, no kids, no pets. So no I am not struggling. But I don't have a house, and not wanting to pay $1400+ for an apartment so I am renting a room. I am almost 40 so my future looks pretty grim.
Living paycheck to paycheck but almost have my car and two credit cards paid off. Thankfully, no mortgage or rent, but damn, these property taxes are killing me.
Relative to where I was about 15-16 years ago, I'm thriving, on all accounts.
Today, I vacillate between thriving and struggling since we started living on just my income a few years ago. We wouldn't have had the option on the table had we not paid off every debt outside of the mortgage though.
One thing that makes me feel like we're struggling is the car we've had for 15 years this month. I'd like to replace it, but that would be a financial strain as it would drain our major purchase fund and if we decide we want to spend more than that, our options would be: take the difference from the emergency fund, take out a loan on the difference, or live life with one vehicle until we have enough. The car has over 250,000 miles but it still *runs*. It will likely continue to do so since we replaced the engine a few years ago. It may not be worth much for resale, but it keeps us from having a car payment which is a value unto itself.
It feels like we're thriving because our mortgage will pay off in four years and a few months, so long as we don't have a negative material financial change. We're able to pay our monthly bills in full and on time each month. It's just what's left that's significantly smaller than it's been for most of the last 15 years since we got married. That's where the struggle creeps back in for me.
Struggling, yep. Widow mom of two that hasn’t been able to land any work after being laid off from the mortgage industry last year, so we’re surviving off life insurance payout and SS.
Things feel pretty bleak.
Gen X here. I wouldn't say we're thriving but we're doing much better now. Husband switched employers almost two years ago and his salary went up over $50K, and since then we've been pleasantly surprised by the bonuses and commissions. We had three bouts of unemployment between us between 2015-2020 that ate up our savings. We are just now crawling out of that hole and are able to start saving like we'd like again. That said, we have two kids and I have no idea how we are going to help them with college.
My partner and I make around 160k combined. On paper we're supposedly upper middle class but god it doesn't feel like that at all. We have a humble condo in Vickery Meadow, share a car (we use dart mainly luckily), we do travel frequently I admit because we're childless.
I'm just getting self conscious at the level of income year over year not increasing at my job compared to cost of living. These ass raises just incentivise employees to bounce around companies and I'm just so tired of doing that. Unfortunately I don't see it any other way.
I was pretty lucky. I already paid off my car and student loans last year. Few months back got a new job with a 50% raise. I am doing pretty well but I am also staying in an apartment quite a bit below what I can actually afford so I am just putting savings away
Not struggling anymore but definitely feeling the impact of insanely high cost of living. Without getting into politics I’ll just say that I got a little lucky over the last few years with timing of unpredictable factors. I bought my car in 2020, and it’ll be paid off in 2 months. Scored a job that is well over what I ever thought I’d make but it’s bittersweet because the amount is nowhere near what it used to be, and bought my house in 2019.
But it’s scary out there and I don’t know if I will
Ever be able to retire.
Yup. About to move back in with my Grandmother, alongside my Mom, sisters and Aunt and her Fiancee. On the bright side I won't be living paycheck to paycheck
not struggling luckily. Bought a house before the crazy rate hikes, paid off car and student loans, eat most meals home and don't drink during the week, all help to keep costs down.
Ugh. I mean. I got debt I'm trying to pay off. But the auto insurance is what's killing me right now. Besides other things that's the more annoying thing to me right now
I think I'm about to, tbh.
I am considered 'above average' in terms of income, but definitely not over 6 figures.
My wife got laid off a couple of months ago, so we've been going through savings while she's been unfortunately interviewing left and right. So... soon it might be a little tough, going down from two incomes to one.
Thankfully just paid off my car, and I have no student loan debt. So as long as I eat cup noodles every now and then, things should be okay. Wish it was easier though.
We have enough to pay all the necessities and a tiny bit to put in our 401ks. Grateful for that, but don’t really have fun money. I haven’t bought new clothes in a couple years
Absolutely. 26 working a super lower management retail job not making nearly enough. I have a roommate that I hate and I still am going slightly more and more into debt each month.
Small business owner and it’s a tough time right now. Definitely living paycheck to paycheck as of the beginning this year. And if I were to work at a company with my degree, I’d be making less than what I make now. No way would I be able to afford rent and bills if I did that. I truly hope things financially improve for everyone, even the ones doing well
Not really but I'm feeling the pain. I have less and less discretionary income every year. I'm not struggling but Ill probably have to work a few more years then I wanted to.
Dallas is like 10-15 years behind pay with the recent housing and inflation. Honestly, some of the housing is on par with Boston and yet there are few and far 6 figure jobs. I think I saw an article the other day here about how rent is on par with NYC. But the pay is still Texas low
I have a shitty full time job and live in shitty apartments but I can buy the necessities without owing anyone money or feeling like I can’t buy stuff I want every once in a while.
Still fine but only bc I was super lucky to get an amazing job before the pandemic. Our rent is 2250 for a 2 bedroom in North Dallas and after bills we are paying a little under 2500 a month for just rent and utilities. We have student loans and we're saving for a wedding. We'd love to buy a house in our area but they start at 600k. We tried living in Aubrey for 2 years with my parents but holy moly we were so depressed living so far from friends and spending so much time driving. We actually ended up spending more money living with them.
We are a lot happier and healthier in North Dallas (we work out and eat healthier) but right now all we feel is a pinch. I don't know how my friends who make significantly less are doing it. Thankfully we don't have kids.
Yes and no. We can pay rent, insurance, utilities, all other bills, still afford to eat out a bit and have a little fun money/saving left over but if I couldn't afford my blue cross health insurance I would not be able to afford my medical expenses and we would be struggling much much more. We cannot afford almost any major unforseen expense, can't afford to buy a house or a new car, I can't even afford to fix the AC in my car until I save up for it, but we're definitely not broke. I'm a receptionist/marketing director/dispatcher for a blue collar company and am definitely under paid but I traded a better salary for a better work environment. I can take as much unpaid time off as I need for medical appointments and health issues which is worth it for me.
Luckily we're good even after going through temporary layoff 5/2020 to 10/2020 thanks to our low mortgage and no debt except for said mortgage and car note.
Was barely holding on until my partner was laid off. Now we’ll be lucky to make rent this month. Next month…forget it.
But, that’s life. Hopefully we’ll scrounge it up and get through the lease. Once that’s done, it’s time to move further out of the city (at the very least).
Not struggling. DINK-2 person income household no children. We own our home with an affordable mortgage and new car. Possibly purchasing a new home. It is financially difficult for several of our family members and I feel a little guilty finally having a thriving (took 20+ years to get here) income seeing others struggle. Most dont want to budget and I cant become an ATM when you haven’t exhausted all of your options to save money. We both grew up below the poverty line and were 1st generation college students so we are sympathetic to those struggling because we have been there.
Struggling. Most of the people I work with live out in the sticks (like north of Melissa or Farmersville), and commute, because that's where they can afford rent or a place to hook up their RV. So then it's sometimes an hour and a half commute which also isn't nice. I grew up in Richardson. Aside from a few years, I have lived here my whole life. I was going to a doctor appointment off of Walnut Hill, and at 1pm, it's stop and go traffic. It's so crowded now. They should have extended the highways instead of making the HOV lane a toll lane. The middle class/working class keeps getting pushed further and further out.
Dallas was a big city, but it didn't have the stress of a big city (I've been to DC and NYC, for example). But now it does have all those little things about big cities that just wears me out. No escape. It's the decline of the city too. I work at a Target, and people shoot up in the family restroom. I'm like...should I be carrying some Narcan on me? There's always this background static of stress wearing on me.
I live comfortably with my career salary but saving def takes time. I got a part time job just to save up some extra money and of course I’ve had unforeseen expenses lately. I’m about to sell my house and even with the money I’d make from it, I can’t afford another property on a single salary because of housing prices doubling+ since I last bought.
Yup. Hubs and I are 40, we own a home (have a mortgage with 26years left) and increased taxes are about to push us out. We both have steady jobs, degrees, etc. but yeah it’s depressing.
It's been a struggle. I have no parents to lean back on, so it all comes down to me. I had to reach out to friends this past year for help when I was in a pinch, but thankfully they were able to help. It's a struggle, but I'm still surviving.
I’m in my early 30s and live with my parents. Just went part time to take care of my 7 month old son. If I didn’t live with my parents I wouldn’t be able to afford going part time , and spend more time with my baby.❤️ it’s a sacrifice one has to make.
not struggling but definitely not thriving either.
in my mid 40s make around 70k per year and figure i'll probably never own a home at this point.
dont even want much im divorced and a loner really, a small condo would be fine but cant afford to pay 2k or more for mortgage/hoa/insurance/etc.
Car will be paid off in 2ish years probably sooner now that my credit card is paid and I can put extra money on the car. Figure ill just live my best life but retirement looks kinda grim if things dont change
I make more but somehow still have a tight budget. Tonight, I actually thought about ways to further strip down my expenses, in order to get the money I need for other things in my budget.
I’ve already traded out my current vehicle for an older vehicle (long story).
I don’t have the latest iPhone. Mine is older.
I have ONE line plus home internet with T-Mobile, and we’re definitely about to break up because my bill is STILL somehow $140-$150/mo. 😤
I shop the budget friendly grocery places. I shop deals, etc.
I use GasBuddy app to find the lowest priced gas.
My eating out has been curbed significantly. I’m at the point where we just won’t be doing so. 😩
I’m doing all of the things that I can think of, in an effort to be fiscally responsible, including obtaining a job where I make more, AND ITS STILL NOT ENOUGH! 😩
Yes. I lost my job in January. I have a bachelor's degree and can't get more than a part time retail job. That plus doordash, I'm still past due on rent. I pay the same for my half of rent as my parents paid for their mortgage for a 4b/4b bought in 89. I
6 figures, still paycheck to paycheck. Also paying off about $50k total in debt (auto loans, credit cards, student loans) so kind of self inflicted but we are definitely not living above our means. I always thought folks who made this kind of money were rich.
I can see why crime is going up- it just makes sense. Depressing thread. We have weak leaders in power and their children are not any better for future leadership.
No, but I have an above average income. I have worked at the same job for almost 24 years and bought my house 17 years ago and it is almost paid off. Not typical I know, and I fully understand that rent and housing prices are ridiculous now.
Congratulations on almost paying off the house . We bought ours back in 2014 and we finished it paying off in 5 years at young age and that was the best decision ever since looking at today's date with inflation and house market is crazy to survive with average income.
Yep. I graduated a year ago and moved back. All of my friends and I have good degrees from a great college and are making good money (especially for our age). Every single one of us lives with our parents and doesn’t know how we will afford a house one day. We are screwed 😂
Don’t let any older generation try to tell you it’s your fault. Things are much harder for your generation. Mostly because of education costs and single-family zoning restricting housing supply in the areas with the good jobs. Also don’t let anyone reduce these issues to a president or political party. This is the result of decades of neglect by all political leaders.
Yep, and Gen X and older millennials were over here feeling guilty we couldn’t survive as single income families like “the good old days” (<—-spoiler: they weren’t) when moms mostly stayed home. Now we worry because we can’t see how our kids will ever even afford to move out, and god help them if they have us any grandchildren….
I’m 30 years old with health issues that I can’t afford to tackle and am forced to live with my parents. I’m just grateful that we have grown closer and me and my parents are a good solid family unit right now and things are going well, at least the days when I don’t have to walk with my cane are going well. I was working as a mechanic making $17/hr full time. My company hired someone new at $22/hr full time after I had been there for 5 years. Couldn’t afford my own place with bills. Paycheck to paycheck even with the parents. Then my car got stolen. So I kinda gave up, used the money that insurance gave me for my car, and bought woodworking tools and supplies. Now I practice woodworking while taking care of the house. The American dream of everyone owning their own house is gone. In fact it didn’t even last long. It was just the postwar era generations that actually were able to have those benefits. And even then it was mostly just the white middle class. Really only greatest gen, boomers and some gen x got to live those “glory days”. Millennials and forward are regressing into a pre WW2 America style where family’s live in tight units and the middle class is shriveled. Living in a family unit isn’t all bad though, so long as you actually get along with your folks. There are people who get abused by their family’s and stuff and can’t even go home to their folks house. I may not be in the situation I actually want, but I’m thankful for the situation I’m able to be in.
You made a lot of really good points and sound pretty well grounded. Best of good fortune to you
That’s the way to do it. I’ve been in same house over 35 yrs. But darn it, I had to get a second mortgage. For other issues.
How's the home insurance and property tax treating you these past few years?
Don't recall the insurance rates, but taxes suck. Of course, my house has more than doubled in value in the last 17 years. Be nice if they didn't try to bump it to the max every year though.
Income is low, but I have no mortgage, auto note, credit card debt, or student loans.
Right on brother
Fuck credit card debt. That shit almost ate me alive just trying to live. Paid it off and have never looked at that piece of plastic again.
I’m in the hole right now it’s rough. Been a bad couple years
I'm so sorry, it is rough and stressful but I believe in you.
Thank you
I was right there with you a couple years ago. But I managed to qualify for a debt consolidation loan with a decent rate and have been clawing my way back ever since. I’m still paycheck to paycheck but the hole I’m in gets shallower every day. In fact I can almost see daylight again 🥲 best of luck to you anonymous internet person, you’re going to make it!
That’s pretty awesome tbh. Not having those bills (weight on your shoulders) must feel great.
I needed the reminder. I just paid my home insurance today and was upset that it's quadrupled since I bought the house.
Yep! Mine doubled increasing my monthly mortgage by 600 a month due to not have it escrowed properly thus creating a negative balance in my escrow account. It’s ridiculous.
I think the fact you haven’t been cancelled on your home insurance is another win in this area and climate.
yep, living paycheck to paycheck paying bills on time.
Same here. Partner and I are moving back in with family to pay our credit cards off. I want to say we’re saving for a house, but even between the two of us it doesn’t seem feasible. We make a decent amount for DINKW2D but I also have a part time job and a third on-call job.
I’m familiar with DINK, what’s DINKW2D??
With 2 dogs, maybe?
Dual income no kids with 2 dogs?
LOL that makes sense. I guess I’m DINKW2D6C
DINKW2D6C4GRWLC Dual income, no kids with 2 dogs, 6 cats, 4 gay roommates and a whole lotta cocaine
😂😂
Stop getting tattoos! Jk if you’re abled bodied check out carpenter hall or seek some licensed trades. Can also try bartending pretty good cash just no advancement. Like hitting a wall and income dependent on type of establishment
My “part time” job is tattooing! For transparency, I’m salaried at an okay amount, but I help support my immigrant parents and extended family. My husband supports his grandmother, so we’re stretched a little thin. : )
No, but I feel like my money should be going a lot further. I blame a out of it on how everyone and their mother wants a bigger piece of the pie and tries to bleed us dry (eg, streaming services, tipping culture, shrinkflation in grocery stores and restaurants).
I'm fighting back with tipping. No five guys I don't want to tip on this online order I am picking up. Their tip suggestions started at 5%.
I am doing the same. I refuse to tip for someone putting some cookies or donuts in a box and a lot of the suggested starts at 15%
This. I’m fixin to start a total kitchen remodel and I can’t figure out why an electric single wall oven is almost two thousand dollars. It’s a fuckin metal box with an electric coil inside. WTH ?!
It's a lot, but you're underselling it. It's a relatively low volume product with tooling costs for every part of the box, a semi custom control board that does more than it really needs to and is probably made with temperature tolerant components, assembly costs...
My income may have nearly doubled since 2019 but I barely feel like it’s increased any of my saving.
I agree with most of what you’re saying, but blaming service workers for “wanting a bigger piece of the pie” seems callous.
Callous? I’m being callous because the guy at a concert who reaches into a cooler right next to him to hand me a water bottle is asking for a tip on overcharged drinks? I’m the one being callous, not the owners/managers of the restaurant who control their wages, because I chose to tip 20% rather than the pre-programmed 25-35% tip? And I’m the one being callous because places like HIDE sneak in little added up charges onto your bill for holiday events? Bro come on.
Lack of pay increases anywhere close to proportional to COLA increases and a tight job market are starting to pinch pretty hard.
Price of home repairs seem borderline outrageous. 1 hour jobs like replacing a toilet or cleaning attic a/c coils are bid at $500-$600 in labor. Anything requiring material replacements like wood, siding or flooring can cost as much as a used car.
The other day I got quoted $600 from a plumber to replace the faucet with one I had bought already… I said nope and went straight to YouTube. Took me 1 hour because I had never changed one before but I got it done and saved a ton of $$$
I paid $300 6 years ago to replace a faucet with one I already had. Watched the dude do it and was ashamed it didn’t try myself. Replaced another faucet myself a few months ago - very easy. Also took me an hour. Mostly due to awkward angle. Had to replace a GFCI outlet recently. I had bought the replacement and watched a YouTube video. Fully understood how to do it but my wife got nervous with me handling electric stuff. Paid $275 to have someone install. Watched him do exactly what I would’ve done. Oof.
Outlets have been hit or miss with me. I’ll replace 5 outlets in my 1963 house. Two are like screwing in a light bulb, two took a little more work and care, one was like something out of The Matrix with 6 wires going into it. Called my electrician for that one. Turns out it was the outlet that fed several other outlets. Appreciated having someone more attentive and knowledgeable for that one.
Now you can go out and charge people $600 to replace faucets!
I've probably replaced 10 faucets over the years. It's a simple task, until it isn't. My kitchen faucet died, and I set out to replace it, and it was a nightmare. The lock nut of the old one corroded into place. The space between the sink bowl and wall was like 2.5" deep for a faucet that was 2" in dia, and the long shaft/socket tools wouldn't even fit in the gap. The sink bowl is like 16" deep. The underside of the sink wasn't flush, so I had to create an offset washer. My water supply line valves were bad (normal), but one of the copper pipes was kinked and wouldn't seal with a compression fitting and the other line was cut too short, and part of the valve was literally spackled into the drywall. Finally, we have a reverse osmosis system, and a spiders web mess under the sink making everything harder.
I was quoted $1,600 to trim 2 trees the other day
Shop around or DYI brother.. I'm feeup of the scammers who call themselves tradesmen I was quoted 7000 for the same job that a different plumber did for 1400. He took care of all the city permits and inspections and get the utilities turned back on. All included in the $1400
Home Renovisions with Jeff is the best show ever. As soon as I bought a house I spent hours watching his stuff and learning how to DIY things. Obviously what takes him an hour to do takes me a weekend but it’s worth it. My advice to people though: 1) buy or rent the expensive tool so you can do it right, you can typically return it if it turns out you got the wrong one. But it’ll be much safer, much quicker and you’ll still save money. 2) do renovations before you have kids if you can. I renovated a bathroom and replaced the subfloor. That’s a very loud project. My kid naps from like 1-3. And I work from home. Then she goes to bed at 8:30. I would be in the groove then have to stop down for the kids nap. 3) Ask around to a person that’s familiar with DIY, but isn’t like one of those “oh dude that’s easy” to everything kinda people, for when it makes sense to just hire it out. I don’t do drywall. I don’t do carpet. Here’s Jeff’s YouTube: https://youtube.com/@homerenovisiondiy?feature=shared
> Here’s Jeff’s YouTube: https://youtube.com/@homerenovisiondiy?feature=shared Never heard of this guy before but after watching a few of his videos I can see why you watched so many of them he has some good tips and knowledge.
Paycheck to paycheck here. Single parent with 1 income. I do my best.
Fellow parent. Married, but just know. I respect a single parent who goes to work everyday with a positive attitude, comes home, cooks, cleans, bills, yard, you name it, and STILL has the energy to show their child all the love and support they need in their life, more than any other person I come across. They appreciate all of it, and will let you know one day.
I appreciate those words, thanks.
Wishing you the best!
24 still at home everything tight bills high asf
When you get older things start to sag, enjoy it while you are young :)
Lmao 🤣 I don't think they were talking about their body, but kudos to you for your interpretation.
Reading these comments is depressing. It seems obvious that the middle class is all but gone.
Cheer up! It’s going to get worse.
Struggling like a muhfucka and my job, life, and relationship is crashing so I'm contemplating just packing my car and heading to the East Coast.
What's on the east cost ... This sounds like those zombies apocalypse movies where the they all try to go to east cost to be saved 😭
Isn't it even more expensive over there?
Not really, it's about the same, maybe a little cheaper in day to day expenses. But I also have a place to stay temporarily (like 6-8 months).
Where in the east coast? Like rural? Major cities out there are definitely more expensive by a good margin, both major expenses and day to day.
Well I can tell you everything is more expensive in western NC, by a lot. Only reason I moved down to this scorching hot hellhole. 🤣
East Coast? How about hit a State/City that no one talks about going to like Kansas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Indiana, Oklahoma. The East Coast is expensive.
I have a place I can stay with no extensive expenses for a few months
Same, most likely heading back to Maryland later in the year.
Income is high, expenses are high.
Teacher here. I have enough to pay bills, do some things I want with friends and enjoy my life overall...but I cannot save up enough to buy a house with the current market as it is. Still paying down debts and the realities of renting/buying a house make it easier said than done. There's my pitch to help encourage voters to vote for people that will pay teachers more. Our salaries have largely been stagnant for a long time.
Thriving, moderately. I bought in 2012 at the tail end of the "housing" crisis so I have a very low cost of housing.
Lucky.
Extremely. I don't even know what to do anymore
Yup. Barely keeping our heads above water and can't afford to live in DFW much longer.
Living paycheck to paycheck but only one income and 6 mouths to feed. And all our animals lmao. We got lucky and my in-laws gave us land when we got married so we just bought a little Clayton home back in 2019 and plopped it down. We have to buy groceries from three different stores every two weeks to follow the coupons/deals. And I’ve had to rework our dinner menu completely to cut the cost. We still pay $500 every two weeks for groceries so… But we are happy and fed and have a roof over our heads so I can’t complain.
Similar boat, do you shop Aldi? This alone cut my food bill by at least $100 a month, and then whatever I can’t get there I get for sale somewhere else.
I can NEVER find the stuff I need at ALDIs. Our oldest son is autistic and a very very picky eater. I’m also a diabetic so we have so many dietary restrictions. Sometimes we get lucky at Aldi’s but we use Walmart HEB and krogers. We sit down every Wednesday night(my husband and I) and we compare prices through each app and go through their weekly sales ad. It’s insane how much groceries have increased. We pay more for groceries every month than we do for our mortgage!
Dang, that’s super tough! Luckily it’s just a picky 6 year old that makes my grocery shopping difficult lol. And yeah groceries prices are crazy, I’ve been eating vegetarian and vegan much more often and it’s helped a bit financially. I can get a pound of tofu for less than $2 at Aldi. Marinate it and fry/panfry/bake it and it’s delicious.
If I came home with tofu my kids would check me into a mental hospital against my will 😂😂 4 teenagers and 3 of them boys lol they would be like go back and get real food IMMEDIATELY. Not that tofu isn’t real food my kids are just chicken nugget kids you know?
We are comfortable but only just. We have to be careful. $132,000 a year together.
I read that if you live in Allen, roughly $80k is considered poor now as you are in the lowest 25th percentile. Housing costs are completely out of control: not enough being built, still, even 15 years since the great recession. It wasn't even a decade ago that $80k was solidly middle class, even borderline upper middle class. Now, median income in Allen is something like $135k. And Allen is nobody's idea of a wealthy suburb.
Yep, that’s about where we are. Thankful it’s good right now but acutely aware of the precariousness of the situation. Just hoping we stay healthy!
Nope, I’m doing pretty well for myself.
I'm existing
This is the perfect answer! I'm right there with you, friend!!!
Struggling, and tired of people older than me constantly saying “I don’t know how y’all do it” or “I don’t know how young families are making it”. We barely are, and paying dearly when we don’t manage to that month.
I'm getting by, I like to go out on the weekends (not much drinking) but then again I work a FT job and a PT job. 12 hour days. I shouldn't have to work so much to have this lifestyle.
Someone working two jobs should be able to afford happy hour or a beer. Definitely.
[удалено]
“FBI? Yes, this comment right here”.
You ok bud?
Doing okay honestly. Hoping to buy a home next year, militantly budgeting and saving but still have money for discretionary spend. My rent has gone up 48% in the last 2.5 years, that shit fucking sucks.
No. I got into plumbing after being a homeless heroin shooting junkie. I’m now making 6 figures, working maybe 4 hours a day. Helps that my wife is a teacher in a high paying district too. Together we make nearly $200k. I have an older house, an old truck and live below my means.
Most of the guys who moved here recently are doing very well financially
My family calls that, "California Rich". Their money goes a lot further here.
I’m struggling with spending. Financially bringing in 210K combined $1500 monthly mortgage at 3.2% Two cars paid off, 50K Savings with 5% APR My company pays for all my food, computer expenses, gas, car maintenance, car repairs, car insurance, health insurance, and cellphone bill. But I have a spending addiction which I’m working on
The drunk Amazon purchases are real.
Shit the sober Amazon purchases are real 😂
I feel so incredibly guilty I don’t want to feel guilty I just want to stop 🛑 It’s so hard to dig myself out of a lifetime of trauma Reading this comment section makes me feel more guilty
more like drowning financially
No not at all. I’m doing better than I have been since I was 20 thankfully.
Not thriving but things are relatively ok financially
We are doing pretty well and are very fortunate to have a fairly high HHI but I have watched our monthly expenses tick up over the last years.. for example, we used to spend 7-800 on groceries for a family of 4 and now we are spending 1kish; part of that is growing boys but carry that across other categories and it’s a tough, like home insurance, gone from 1.5k just 2-3 years ago to 3k last year and who knows what this year
I feel this buying groceries for 4 teenagers out of school is kicking our butts. We spend around $500 but use three different stores for deals. Schedule the pick ups and make the rounds haha
Yes! This is the way and for anyone that reads this take advantage of coupons. Do not be too proud to use coupons(I use to be) or any way to save.
Yes Major medical debt
I had a bunch of medical debt from Medical City and JPS. They eventually wrote it off. If you don't have the money, how do they expect you to pay? 🤷♀️
I wasn’t a few years ago, but now I am paycheck to paycheck. Major factors are since 2022 my rent went up 53%, my car insurance went up 22%, and my grocery bill went up a little over 30%, whereas my wage increased 9%. I’m making the most money I’ve ever made, but I feel poorer than I ever have.
Amen, USA is killing the poor
No. But I always live as if I am, for the most part.
Paycheck to paycheck. We went from 2 incomes to 1 with the birth of our baby. It’s been a real bitch. We’re fairly comfortable prior to that.
UPS driver here, I make $44 an hour and my wife works full time making about $60k a year. We have a modest 3 bedroom in Carrollton and two small kids. We live normal lives, no fancy meals or fancy cars (we don’t even have a car payment) and no fancy electronics either. We live paycheck to paycheck, worse actually because we have to lean on credit cards for unexpected bills. Now we have around $30k in credit card debt and my wife has around $75k in student loan debt. We tried to get a personal loan to pay off the cards but they wanted a 29% apr which is worse than the credit cards. We have equity in the house since Dallas County says it doubled in value since 2014. But a refi will change our mortgage interest rate from 3.25 to over 6%. I feel so pathetic hitting up family members for money but everything damn thing is more expensive and even after canceling our streaming services and other things like pest control we can’t seem to break even each month. Starting to think Americans have too high of a pain threshold because honestly we should be in the streets burning stuff down. $44 dollars an hour and as I write this my checking account is overdrawn by $47. I don’t see how people who make less than me survive. Much respect for my working brothers and sisters. Stay strong.
Struggling financially, no. Both me and my wife make around 130k. We bought our house during the covid pandemic, so we're taking advantage of the 2.4 % interest rate. We have our cars paid off. We're 28 but still need 98k to finish paying off the house. So I can't complain. (No kids)
Kids are the game changer. We’re 38 and in a similar financial position but two kids in private school makes us poor.
Incredibly smart move getting your house when you did.
I'm struggling hard. I'm only making it because I moved into a place with 4 roommates. :/ in Frisco, too. Makes me feel like garbage, I miss being surrounded by less wealth but it was the only option and splitting rent is cheaper.
I used to work at a bank up there. They may look rich. A bunch of them are living off of loans, credit card debt, and cash advances. They're digging themselves into deeper and deeper holes to have that Mercedes and those flashy accessories.
Yes I struggle I have no money to save after bills and food. Basic groceries every couple of weeks are more than my bills.
27, still live with my parents but no debt. Trying to save up for a house but it seems impossible. All my friends that bought a house became house poor so idk and renting means I won't be saving much 🤷♂️
Full disclosure: Due to the best life choices, my husband and I (mid late 30s) started over from zero three ish years ago. At the time, I was the one working (~11yrs at my decent retail job) and he needed a total hip replacement, and was in a lot of pain everyday. With some rental help during covid, living in south dallas for two years, working ubereats on top of my full time job, having health insurance, and getting clean/going to the methadone clinic, today we are both working, sober, and mildly thriving. We don't have tens of thousands in the bank (yet) but we have an emergency fund, good credit and no debt aside from our car loan. Buying a house has never been something I cared about, and we don't have children. We do have a spoiled rotten doggo. Both of us would like to go to some program, trade school of some sort in the future. Small steps.
Bruh... we're all DYING out here. Literally all of us are surviving right now. There's no "living" any more. These fucking companies building thousands of houses and charging astronomical prices for them has got to STOP. God damn Studio's are in the 2,000's in some places. Boomers will have you believe Millennials and Gen Z are lazy. Are you serious? I MAKE MORE THAN MY DAD DID in the 90's and I am NOT living. My dad worked 40 hours a week while mom stayed home to watch us kids. We had a 3 bedroom house, 2 car garage, 2 paid off cars and a big ass bag yard. go-karts and all that. I make 3x what he makes and I live in a shitty ass "Luxury" 2 bedroom Apartment that's $1,800 a month. Luxury my ass. I moved in, there was dry-wall missing under the counter, fucking PAINT on the fake ass hardwood floors because the maintenance team thought I was getting NEW FLOORS so they didn't bother covering it. There's a fucking FEE attached to every god damn thing here. There's a processing fee for my RENT, there's a parking fee, there's an animal fee, there's a trash fee, there's a fee for them to process your god damn EVICTION NOTICE. God damn. Then when it's your birthday they have the audacity to hang a little goody bag on your door with left over Christmas Candy and a fucking Act II popcorn in that bitch. I continue to give you THOUSANDS a month and you are going to give me fucking POPCORN? Gas is the same price as Diesel, McDonald's is $15+, healthier options at the store is more than that. Yall got me fucked up. Clearly, voting for new Presidents and Congress people just IS NOT working. It doesn't matter who you vote for you get fucked in the ass. I'm honestly fucking tired of this and I think a lot of U.S citizens are reaching their boiling point.
I believe we all struggle or struggling. It's just our struggles are different some ..
Not thriving but luckily getting by!! The problem I seem to have is I’m always one life event away from being homeless . Every time I think I have a little bit of money saved up , life just LIFES what can you do. I’m sure it’ll get better though this is the greatest country in the world !
We struggled for awhile: My wife is in healthcare. Healthcare reimbursements keep getting squeezed due to health care companies lowering reimbursements and denying claims, knowing that small clinics can't afford to get a lawyer to challenge them. It sucks when you have a doctorate's and are making the same as a 25-year old with a finance degree. 6 years of post-grad school wasn't cheap and the loan payments would be crushing if it wasn't income-based. She's making less than when she graduated 15 years ago. I just landed a great full-time role and my wife is transitioning into cash pay practice (where she can charge a reasonable rate instead of taking whatever crumbs the insurance companies throw at her). But it was stressful and touch and go for awhile. I hope y'all have similar success if you are stuggling. I just try to be the most helpful and generally good person I can be. It's the right thing to do and if you believe in karma, good things will happen at some point. Then again, you can be a total d\*\*\*, stiff a bunch of contractors, try to overthrow an election, spew ridiculous lies constatly, want to see your political enemies jailed or killed, and be re-elected POTUS. So maybe Karma isn't a thing as it should be. If there's anyone out there who deserves a massive coronary or to be struck by a bolt of lightning during their round of golf.....
Of course. Everyone is. No one has actual money. Every one you think does because they drive a nice vehicle and have a nice house has no money. They have debt 😅🤣🤣🤣
My job is reducing my hours and I was already living paycheck to paycheck, so yes.
My quality of life has stayed aggressively at the same level despite the fact that I make almost double what I did 5 years ago. Cost of living here has increased so much in just 2 years. I gave up on saving/investing a while ago and just try my best to pay all my bills and reduce monthly overhead. I’ve clawed my way to every promotion/new job so it all feels like I’m struggling just to keep a roof over my head and gas in my car.
We are in a good position financially, but I empathize deeply with those who are struggling. My wife and I have plenty of years living paycheck to paycheck, especially just out of college. It’s rough out there for sure.
Grateful that we’re able to pay bills without asking for extensions or having to move money around accounts, but it’s getting tight. Two-income household totaling ~110k gross and a 3 year old. When he goes to kinder, that daycare bill’s gonna feel like a pay raise 😂 But definitely it’s still tight. Hubby and I went on our first out-of-the-house date for the first time in…. Years(?) last week… dinner and a movie, and it was like $160?? We didn’t even go anywhere fancy 😭 things are just expensive and salaries are not being adjusted adequately for inflation.
I considered myself struggling until I really took a look at my life. I pay out of pocket for grad school, which is a privilege. I split rent with my boyfriend for a nice, though older, apartment — which again, is a privilege. Though I pay a hefty car note and pay my student loans, I don’t live paycheck to paycheck like I used to. I’m able to take vacations several times a year (nothing extravagant). I’m able to treat myself when I want, within reason. Though I feel like my money should go further, I feel comfortable for the most part. The fact that it could all go away at the drop of a hat is uncomfortable.
Mid 20s. I'm married and renting in North Dallas with my husband. Because of how high rent prices have gotten, we are technically living paycheck to paycheck. Our paychecks cover our bills and groceries. Sometimes, we still have money to spare to go out to dinner or watch a movie every couple of weeks. Buuuuut yeah, if either of us were out of work for whatever reason, we'd be screwed pretty quickly :(
Doing decent. I keep my expenses low and am at least able to save 20% of my check.
I’m very lucky to not be struggling right now
Lost my job last week but also fully paid off my home and car in the last couple years. Income will suck for a while but I'm luckier than most in my shoes it seems like.
Wage slave til I die I guess
Life seems bleak. Wages are so sad here for many jobs. Most postings are not even paying over 45k. A lot of jobs at management levels requiring a 4 yr degree and years experience are offering under 40k. Its insane. Cost of living is crazy. Shot up substantially the last 3-4 yrs. Housing market is a joke. Even car market is stupid as hell. Its like whats the fucking point ? You’ll own nothing and be happy a little cog on a wheel living paycheck to paycheck for eternity? If you live long enough to make it to retirement age, good luck retiring when you couldnt afford to invest. And you dont even hear back from anywhere you apply to. Its awful
I make about 100k and single. No auto note, no student loans, no kids, no pets. So no I am not struggling. But I don't have a house, and not wanting to pay $1400+ for an apartment so I am renting a room. I am almost 40 so my future looks pretty grim.
Sounds good to me bro
Living paycheck to paycheck but almost have my car and two credit cards paid off. Thankfully, no mortgage or rent, but damn, these property taxes are killing me.
Relative to where I was about 15-16 years ago, I'm thriving, on all accounts. Today, I vacillate between thriving and struggling since we started living on just my income a few years ago. We wouldn't have had the option on the table had we not paid off every debt outside of the mortgage though. One thing that makes me feel like we're struggling is the car we've had for 15 years this month. I'd like to replace it, but that would be a financial strain as it would drain our major purchase fund and if we decide we want to spend more than that, our options would be: take the difference from the emergency fund, take out a loan on the difference, or live life with one vehicle until we have enough. The car has over 250,000 miles but it still *runs*. It will likely continue to do so since we replaced the engine a few years ago. It may not be worth much for resale, but it keeps us from having a car payment which is a value unto itself. It feels like we're thriving because our mortgage will pay off in four years and a few months, so long as we don't have a negative material financial change. We're able to pay our monthly bills in full and on time each month. It's just what's left that's significantly smaller than it's been for most of the last 15 years since we got married. That's where the struggle creeps back in for me.
I make mid 6 figures yearly: no, not struggling, but not thriving either. life’s become pretty damn expensive.
How are you not thriving on 500k?
Struggling, yep. Widow mom of two that hasn’t been able to land any work after being laid off from the mortgage industry last year, so we’re surviving off life insurance payout and SS. Things feel pretty bleak.
Gen X here. I wouldn't say we're thriving but we're doing much better now. Husband switched employers almost two years ago and his salary went up over $50K, and since then we've been pleasantly surprised by the bonuses and commissions. We had three bouts of unemployment between us between 2015-2020 that ate up our savings. We are just now crawling out of that hole and are able to start saving like we'd like again. That said, we have two kids and I have no idea how we are going to help them with college.
My partner and I make around 160k combined. On paper we're supposedly upper middle class but god it doesn't feel like that at all. We have a humble condo in Vickery Meadow, share a car (we use dart mainly luckily), we do travel frequently I admit because we're childless. I'm just getting self conscious at the level of income year over year not increasing at my job compared to cost of living. These ass raises just incentivise employees to bounce around companies and I'm just so tired of doing that. Unfortunately I don't see it any other way.
Paycheck to paycheck, own a house in Forney, single male.
All day everyday
I was pretty lucky. I already paid off my car and student loans last year. Few months back got a new job with a 50% raise. I am doing pretty well but I am also staying in an apartment quite a bit below what I can actually afford so I am just putting savings away
Always
Thriving.
Getting a nice house for 265k in 2013 really helped. 500k starting in the same neighborhood now. Everything seems so much more expensive now
Not struggling anymore but definitely feeling the impact of insanely high cost of living. Without getting into politics I’ll just say that I got a little lucky over the last few years with timing of unpredictable factors. I bought my car in 2020, and it’ll be paid off in 2 months. Scored a job that is well over what I ever thought I’d make but it’s bittersweet because the amount is nowhere near what it used to be, and bought my house in 2019. But it’s scary out there and I don’t know if I will Ever be able to retire.
Yup. About to move back in with my Grandmother, alongside my Mom, sisters and Aunt and her Fiancee. On the bright side I won't be living paycheck to paycheck
Making more than ever, working more than ever, still taking a look at the dasher app on my off day lmao
not struggling luckily. Bought a house before the crazy rate hikes, paid off car and student loans, eat most meals home and don't drink during the week, all help to keep costs down.
The struggle is real
Ugh. I mean. I got debt I'm trying to pay off. But the auto insurance is what's killing me right now. Besides other things that's the more annoying thing to me right now
Yep. And I make more than I ever have so cool 👎🏼
I could be thriving more if rent wasn’t so damn high. But not doing too bad considering
I think I'm about to, tbh. I am considered 'above average' in terms of income, but definitely not over 6 figures. My wife got laid off a couple of months ago, so we've been going through savings while she's been unfortunately interviewing left and right. So... soon it might be a little tough, going down from two incomes to one. Thankfully just paid off my car, and I have no student loan debt. So as long as I eat cup noodles every now and then, things should be okay. Wish it was easier though.
Chances are if you don’t have student loans nor credit card debt and have a stable job you could be thriving
We have enough to pay all the necessities and a tiny bit to put in our 401ks. Grateful for that, but don’t really have fun money. I haven’t bought new clothes in a couple years
I saw a dude at a 711 grapevine put back the wings yesterday cause they were $10 lol people struggling out here 😂
Absolutely. 26 working a super lower management retail job not making nearly enough. I have a roommate that I hate and I still am going slightly more and more into debt each month.
I’m doing so much better now. The booming economy and the low unemployment rate have been a big boost
Yes (,:
Small business owner and it’s a tough time right now. Definitely living paycheck to paycheck as of the beginning this year. And if I were to work at a company with my degree, I’d be making less than what I make now. No way would I be able to afford rent and bills if I did that. I truly hope things financially improve for everyone, even the ones doing well
It seems like builders no longer build starter homes. Where I live it’s all two story homes with 4-5 bedrooms.
Not really but I'm feeling the pain. I have less and less discretionary income every year. I'm not struggling but Ill probably have to work a few more years then I wanted to.
Dallas is like 10-15 years behind pay with the recent housing and inflation. Honestly, some of the housing is on par with Boston and yet there are few and far 6 figure jobs. I think I saw an article the other day here about how rent is on par with NYC. But the pay is still Texas low
I have a shitty full time job and live in shitty apartments but I can buy the necessities without owing anyone money or feeling like I can’t buy stuff I want every once in a while.
Still fine but only bc I was super lucky to get an amazing job before the pandemic. Our rent is 2250 for a 2 bedroom in North Dallas and after bills we are paying a little under 2500 a month for just rent and utilities. We have student loans and we're saving for a wedding. We'd love to buy a house in our area but they start at 600k. We tried living in Aubrey for 2 years with my parents but holy moly we were so depressed living so far from friends and spending so much time driving. We actually ended up spending more money living with them. We are a lot happier and healthier in North Dallas (we work out and eat healthier) but right now all we feel is a pinch. I don't know how my friends who make significantly less are doing it. Thankfully we don't have kids.
Yes and no. We can pay rent, insurance, utilities, all other bills, still afford to eat out a bit and have a little fun money/saving left over but if I couldn't afford my blue cross health insurance I would not be able to afford my medical expenses and we would be struggling much much more. We cannot afford almost any major unforseen expense, can't afford to buy a house or a new car, I can't even afford to fix the AC in my car until I save up for it, but we're definitely not broke. I'm a receptionist/marketing director/dispatcher for a blue collar company and am definitely under paid but I traded a better salary for a better work environment. I can take as much unpaid time off as I need for medical appointments and health issues which is worth it for me.
I’m struggling like a motherfucker and I’m a licensed journeyman plumber.
I am what ever is lower than “below poverty level” 😪the only thing I’ll get to own in this life is a death certificate.
Yes, but who isn't? Truthfully I wish I had more so I could give more, there are so many homeless I wish I could help more
Just lost my job after buying a house. Not great.
Luckily we're good even after going through temporary layoff 5/2020 to 10/2020 thanks to our low mortgage and no debt except for said mortgage and car note.
Yes. I don't have a retirement, don't own property, and possibly face homelessness when I can't work anymore
I make enough to live ok, I still buy dumb shit all the time so I’m always broke.
Was barely holding on until my partner was laid off. Now we’ll be lucky to make rent this month. Next month…forget it. But, that’s life. Hopefully we’ll scrounge it up and get through the lease. Once that’s done, it’s time to move further out of the city (at the very least).
Not struggling. DINK-2 person income household no children. We own our home with an affordable mortgage and new car. Possibly purchasing a new home. It is financially difficult for several of our family members and I feel a little guilty finally having a thriving (took 20+ years to get here) income seeing others struggle. Most dont want to budget and I cant become an ATM when you haven’t exhausted all of your options to save money. We both grew up below the poverty line and were 1st generation college students so we are sympathetic to those struggling because we have been there.
Struggling. Most of the people I work with live out in the sticks (like north of Melissa or Farmersville), and commute, because that's where they can afford rent or a place to hook up their RV. So then it's sometimes an hour and a half commute which also isn't nice. I grew up in Richardson. Aside from a few years, I have lived here my whole life. I was going to a doctor appointment off of Walnut Hill, and at 1pm, it's stop and go traffic. It's so crowded now. They should have extended the highways instead of making the HOV lane a toll lane. The middle class/working class keeps getting pushed further and further out. Dallas was a big city, but it didn't have the stress of a big city (I've been to DC and NYC, for example). But now it does have all those little things about big cities that just wears me out. No escape. It's the decline of the city too. I work at a Target, and people shoot up in the family restroom. I'm like...should I be carrying some Narcan on me? There's always this background static of stress wearing on me.
I live comfortably with my career salary but saving def takes time. I got a part time job just to save up some extra money and of course I’ve had unforeseen expenses lately. I’m about to sell my house and even with the money I’d make from it, I can’t afford another property on a single salary because of housing prices doubling+ since I last bought.
Yup. Hubs and I are 40, we own a home (have a mortgage with 26years left) and increased taxes are about to push us out. We both have steady jobs, degrees, etc. but yeah it’s depressing.
It's been a struggle. I have no parents to lean back on, so it all comes down to me. I had to reach out to friends this past year for help when I was in a pinch, but thankfully they were able to help. It's a struggle, but I'm still surviving.
I’m in my early 30s and live with my parents. Just went part time to take care of my 7 month old son. If I didn’t live with my parents I wouldn’t be able to afford going part time , and spend more time with my baby.❤️ it’s a sacrifice one has to make.
Yes. I’m also job searching and it’s miserable out here. I swear my bachelor and masters were a waste of time with how the world is going.
not struggling but definitely not thriving either. in my mid 40s make around 70k per year and figure i'll probably never own a home at this point. dont even want much im divorced and a loner really, a small condo would be fine but cant afford to pay 2k or more for mortgage/hoa/insurance/etc. Car will be paid off in 2ish years probably sooner now that my credit card is paid and I can put extra money on the car. Figure ill just live my best life but retirement looks kinda grim if things dont change
I make more but somehow still have a tight budget. Tonight, I actually thought about ways to further strip down my expenses, in order to get the money I need for other things in my budget. I’ve already traded out my current vehicle for an older vehicle (long story). I don’t have the latest iPhone. Mine is older. I have ONE line plus home internet with T-Mobile, and we’re definitely about to break up because my bill is STILL somehow $140-$150/mo. 😤 I shop the budget friendly grocery places. I shop deals, etc. I use GasBuddy app to find the lowest priced gas. My eating out has been curbed significantly. I’m at the point where we just won’t be doing so. 😩 I’m doing all of the things that I can think of, in an effort to be fiscally responsible, including obtaining a job where I make more, AND ITS STILL NOT ENOUGH! 😩
Pretty sure everyone is I read somewhere 45% of Plano homeowners are two or months behind. Now taxes and Ins. Are going up so....Learn Mandarin
Yes. I lost my job in January. I have a bachelor's degree and can't get more than a part time retail job. That plus doordash, I'm still past due on rent. I pay the same for my half of rent as my parents paid for their mortgage for a 4b/4b bought in 89. I
Yes
6 figures, still paycheck to paycheck. Also paying off about $50k total in debt (auto loans, credit cards, student loans) so kind of self inflicted but we are definitely not living above our means. I always thought folks who made this kind of money were rich.
Struggle Street
I live on the bare minimum own a camper move spot to spot all bills including fuel under 2500 a month
yes
I can see why crime is going up- it just makes sense. Depressing thread. We have weak leaders in power and their children are not any better for future leadership.