How much money Americans need to "be comfortable" 

Why did they use average? median would have been a better predictor - as the highest payed would skew the data set!

233k for a single person to be "comfortable" is delusional. I worked in Manhattan and even in those places 233k isn't just being comfortable for a single person. there is a problem with wages and cost of living in the USA but if you say 233k is just being comfortable, you have a spending problem.

FYI, If you take a federal student loan and opt not to pay, the loan servicers will push the government to garnish your wages at a rate of 15% of your total pre-tax income. Because this is a federal loan, the government will request garnishment from any job that is reported on your tax return. This money is suppose to be used to pay down your loan, however usually it is only "conveniently" enough to cover their interest cost and not pay towards your balance. In effect, allowing them to siphon money from you indefinitely

America: We buy things we don't need, with money we don't have, to impress people we don't like.

Financial advisor: "It's not your fault". Very helpful...

As a European that lived in Texas for 20 years I can confirm the American's have been steered to a false sense of self importance and status. The time we lived there we had a modest house, 2 modest cars that always ran with a back up car in case of a breakdown or accident. Our neighbour had some atrocious bass boat and pontoon boat with a massive truck and 3 car garage. We knew everything he had was to reach this idea of the American dream but he did not have the means to support his lifestyle. And in suburban north Dallas this was the standard for our neighbourhood. Within 6 years his home was in foreclosure after selling both boats and a motorbike all at a loss and he was divorced before the home went up for sale on foreclosure. We bought the home and used it as a rental property to borrow against (because that is how you gain wealth without paying tax on having cash in the bank) knowing how much this man had done to the property for appearance. I do not need a flash car to get to work or go on family trips. I need a reliable vehicle with a back up plan. I do not need the latest greatest super overpriced RTX4090 when the RX7900GRE will serve my needs perfectly for the next 7 years. I do not wear brand name shirts and jeans just for the sake of it, I have nice clothes and shoes that suit my needs that might happen to be branded or expensive while they serve a comfort and presentation purpose for my career. Our family home is exactly suited to our family needs and is up to spec and maintained at all times. There are things I might like and at this point could absolutely afford but they would only be for a passing gratification. Our children and their children will want for nothing, not because we will have the funds to support them but because they will work and be financially responsible for themselves and this will allow us luxury holidays a few months a year with family and friends. We knew of so many that would eat out several times a week to entertain equally financially unstable friends. It only started making sense the closer I was to leaving. Marketing, social media, trends. Americans like being told what to like, what to buy and to be as poor and enslaved by finances to achieve something they will only have short term.

I imagine this is why a lot of couples don't merge finances. They split shared expenses but paid their own cars, phones, etc...

ITS NOT THE PAY!!!!! its the value of the dollar you are paid with!!! chasing devaluation of the dollar with a salary increase (which will be followed with a government entitlement\pay increase) just furthers the cycle...... "Add the out of pocket health care costs"???? WTF, health insurance costs are on average $400-$500 per month per person for an HMO.... my cost for a family of 4 is almost $2,000 per month for health insurance which does not include the balance billing statements I get every time someone sees a doctor... I had a townhouse since 2016 and rent was $2021\month I recently moved out of it because they wanted to "remodel it" and charge me over $4000\month Homeowners insurance, if you can even get it, went up over 40% last year. It was so significant that they sent me a certified letter letting me know it was going up "40%-50%" Centralized anything is a cancer............

People also don't realise how easy it is to fall behind even if you are ahead. I am a PhD Psych and I took ~3 years to care for my grandma where I was working on weekends only. I was pretty well off when I started had my own house when i was 27. When I could no longer care for her I had about 20k in the bank; which was about 80k when I started (I had planned to lose about 20k a year so that was fine). I then broke my back and I am now disabled. I went from 6 figure income in 2018 to disability pension because I can't practice on the only meds that make the pain subside. If I didnt have a house before hand I would never be able to get one.

This video is a perfect example of why averages are stupid.

Key points would be Debt to Income Ratio, COL (not the cooked books, actual costs day to day for food, Clean Food, is going to cost on average 4-5x more than stuff that will kill you, for the record), Cost of Housing (most important is cost of a single family residence, not just a 'house', but a place that doesn't share walls lots of walls or dependence on others/corps/landlords, since this is talking about being SECURE/Comfortable, not surviving).. so going off that, look at median home prices and then add cost for food that won't kill you.. and the number is STAGGERING. In order to be "financially secure", not just 'feel', you need a year + of savings. That's not even being added in here. When humans are uncertain, they stop buying, they stop doing a lot of things, like reproducing (Japan, the financial disaster of the 90s lead to now two decades of hopelessness, which means no families, low marriage rates, and a people literally heading towards extinction). If you want to feel even more depressed, consider this, if wages continued on the trend (slower than the 60s, much slower) of rising they had in the 70s to today the median income would be about 340-370K USD. Wage growth slowed in the 80s, slowed more in the 90s, stagnated in the post 2008 era, and continue to stagnate till today. Now, during that same time, the individual productivity (think of it as the ability of an individual to make money for a corporation in a given time period), has increased dramatically every decade. So.... where is all that extra money going? No one really notices the proliferation of billionaires, do they... 90+% of your productivity gains have just been sucked up into a few hands, the less than 10% is your increases in average wages for over 50 years. Young people struggle today? Really? No Shit. It was hard enough when I was in my 20s, and I know, for a fact, that it's even HARDER today. I don't envy the young.

For some areas, this number changes. In my city, they say it would cost around $90k annually to live "comfortably," whatever that means. I guess "comfortable" means that 50-30-20 spread that hasn't been a thing _ever_ for an average person.

I make 80k a year , have a family of 5 to provide for and we are BARELY making it. Some days I do not eat so my kids can. The sad thing is, I'm not the only father going thru this.

As a renter that makes only 65k/year your telling me I shouldn’t be buying 500+$ vintage Pokemon cards??? 🤔

Southern CA grocery prices are out of control. What use to be $300 a month now are $700 with less options for coupons and worthwhile deals. From a person who grew up in San Diego, I pray that I can stay and raise a family here but at this rate I don’t think will be able to even afford a mortgage let alone groceries, childcare, and retirement.

And the averages are if you’re single. When you have a family, the numbers skyrocket. Insurance for my family of 3 is $360/month. And because I’m the sole provider, had to add another $160/month for life insurance in case anything happens to me so my wife and son won’t be screwed. Then there’s retirement and family pets expenses.

Love the comments like "It's not bad if you're not a moron, just spend as little as possible making your own food and staying home all day, don't bother having kids, and cut out all pleasures and vices" No wonder people are going psycho mode in public more than before

"Playing life on solo self found mode" 😂

If you bring home anywhere near 60k a year after taxes, and can get rent at 1k or less and keep utilities, food, and gas expenses under 1k. And have a fun budget of 500 a month. You can save about 30k a year. (Even if you dont stick to it perfectly) Then stick this position out for 3-5 years you have a down payment of about 100k-150k extend this out another year or 2. For an extra 50-60k for emergencys and drop the full origional 100-150k to eather buy a cheap house or to pay about 50-80% of the house cost up front with a loan and only have a roughly 500$ monthly payment, hopefully making cost of living with utilitys and internet and tv for the cost of about 1k total or just a bit above. Cost of maintaining living standards= 1k-1,500 Emergency fund= 30-60k Food cost=500-1k (assuming family) Monthly Excess money to split between fun, savings and other needs 3,000 And non of this included having a second income. People are just to lazy to move for cheaper cost of living or better jobs, or hang tight not over spending for the big payoff. And treating debt like its normal. Are their exceptions to being able to do this sure but thats why its called an exception.

People have to wrap their minds around the fact that the consumer economy is at an end. The important question is not how much money you need to be comfortable, but what you need to be comfortable. We live in a production limited economy now, where production labor is the limited resource. We don't produce enough to make more than about 50% of the population comfortable, because being in a job that produces stuff, is one of the main things that makes people not comfortable. Who wants to go drive a combine in Nebraska or wrangle cows in Texas, or work on deadliest catch, or Ice road trucker? So there are 3 ways that you can go. Either you have to reduce your needs and not be comfortable, or you have to be more successful than 50% of the population at exploitation, or you have to do the dirty jobs and be comfortable. Right now the latter is the least popular option, so there will be an ever decreasing number of comfortable people, as the price of comfort without really working, goes up and up and up.

Problem with housing costs is that companies can compete with everyday americans to buy them and then just hold the houses empty so that their housing investments can be worth more via artificial shortage.

Using averages with salaries in a capitalistic country is a joke. When it comes to money, especially the question of "how much to be comfortable" its always going to skew high. The median is probably a lot lower at 100k or so.

i live in texas and when im working all the time and dont have time for trips or anything really other than work, eat and sleep, my yearly cost of living is around $17k. i make around $110k/year. there are places in the US where the incomes for outpaced cost of living. if youre feeling broke youre probably just needing to relocate. ive moved 4 times in 13 years since i started working. each time i moved i got a pay raise and lowered my cost of living. the truth is in todays society putting down roots in 1 area for decades likely means you'll stay poor. companies know that people wont quit their jobs if they need a job in that area, and so wont pay you more than the bare minimum. the biggest raises ive gotten is when i change jobs because employers will pay extra when theyre desperate for people. most people dont want to relocate, so it's difficult to fill specialized job roles in lower cost of living areas where the labor pool is much smaller, hence the large pay vs living cost. that said, im a fringe case, and a bit of a shut in anyway, so the life suits me. for most people, you're just kinda fkd. cut all non essentials out and work like a slave for 2-3 years and you can get out, but it's hard, but worth it, especially if you realize just how expensive it is to be poor. you dont want to be poor in a society where money literally determines everything, even marital longevity.

These are costs to live comfortably, not minimally. This isn't about minimal wage since this isn't about minimal living. This is more about the middle and upper middle class on how to maintain their standard of living.

With student loans, beware. They can garnish your wages, even in states like here in Texas that doesn't allow garnishment for debt.

Being poor is actually more expensive than being rich. And there was a great analogy with shoes as an example. An expensive pair of shoes that will last you 3 years cost 100$. But you dont have 100 you only have 30$. So you buy the 30$ shoes that will last you 6 months. Over 3 years you spent 180$ on shoes because you didnt have enough for the more expensive shoes cost 100.

What the last guy was saying is that you are a lucky bastard from twitch

in Texas It is common for people to be making 25k- 35k a year. These people are single full time workers that do not have a "career" but just a normal regular old job. They would have to save their entire salary 10 times to be able to pay off a house unless they want to live in a mobile home. The housing market is in a very bad state and you don't want to buy junk for 150k that will just rot away after you buy it. Cars are an entire years salary unless you buy used which is totally fine. I would like to add that these people are a lot of times over qualified for their job. No felonies, only thing holding them back is the job market. People everywhere aren't getting overtime like they were before Covid. Companies took a hit, the entire nation took a hit. But thats besides the point. People need at least double what their salary is. You can barely find an apartment for 1000 a month. which means if you make 25k a year and somehow find a 1k monthly rent somewhere, it would still be 50% of your salary. Not including your personnel bills, internet, phone, car, electric, water, etc. IT is extremely hard and ultimately not sustainable. however In most cases apartments are 1300 or higher. So then it becomes even worst. to the people that make 250k plus a year, i have to say that they are really just bad with money. They could just buy a house in cash if they saved correctly. Taxes are cheap cheap compared to rent. under 5k a year, and for them thats chump change. My grandparents are a 100k a year household. They still owe over 150k on their house. Tell me why they just bought 2 new cars at the age of 70. Even if they sold the house, They would probably only get 300k. which means they would only have a buying power of 150k to buy a NEW house. Which is not realistic for their needs and taste. They have had this house for 20 years and oh yea, they owe 10k in taxes. The rich simply are not good with money. But then you have people moving to rural areas and to Austin tx to buy houses because they make california and new york money and then come down south to invest in real estate or buy a house in cash and fucking retire because THEY are doing it smart.

I don't have any of this shit. Maintainance fees? Overdraft fees? Go find a good CREDIT UNION, not a bank.

22:50 for about a 6 month period recently. i made a good plan to save a few hundred dollars every month, around 3-500. but as soon as i made that plan, every 2-3 weeks i got hit with random bills that was costing me between 300 and 1k to fix or pay for. for 6 months straight. i just last month had to pay over 2k in taxes, like 2200 i think. just on taxes alone. its just 1 thing after another basically every paycheck. if i dont spend all my money on something, even on my credit card. some bill is gonna pop up and eat whatever i got i took out like 5200 last year from my retirement savings from the military (all i had in it) which i paid taxes on, had taxes witheld on, and then paid more taxes on. i paid off my car with it to get rid of a 324$ monthly charge. and then boom, soon as i did that. a student loan company was like hey, we never talked or anything for 3 years and you didnt even know we existed. but you owe us 5700$ and you need to start repaying us now. 3 steps forwards, 5 steps back

I lived in SoCal for 20 years with a combined total income of 100k in my household.... no children and dual full time incomes. in 2020 when I left my 600sq ft apartment in the "less expensive" city (Riverside, Moreno Valley, Colton, Corona) my rent was 2300 a month, and raised at least 100$ every year. If you live in the more expensive cities (Irvine, Rancho Cucamonga, San Diego)... your talking ~4K a month FOR A TINY ASS APARTMENT. If you want to buy a home in a non-impoverished area - that's 2million and you'll get maybe 1500 Sq ft - Yes, I spent irresponsibly at times, but for the most part 80% of our income was going to "living expenses". Food was more expensive, electricity, gas, water, recreation, insurance, tags for a new truck will cost you about 800 a year (or more) - its all priced sky high. I had to commute 30+ miles each way. I had to spend 200$ a week on fuel, toll roads were 12 bucks each direction...PER DAY, and my daily commute was nearly 3 hours sometimes. That math added up to about 2K per year...just to get to work On days when I didn't drive I would take a bus to the train station, take a train to another city, then get on another bus at my destination to take me the rest of the way to work... Train ticket was 20$ each way and bus fare was 2$ for each bus - thats 48$ per day... The lifestyle for me was just not sustainable and my family saw no financial possibility of ever owning a home in a safe neighborhood unless we both magically started making double what we were bringing in.. I make ~20% less than I did in California in my new state, and now running off of a single income. We bought a home in a safe, quiet neighborhood within 2 years..... for 180k.

Something about walmart is that they often mark the prices up in their system without changing the price on the shelf, and the website price will actually reflect what the shelf price says. Then you get to the register and find out that it’s more, but if you ask someone about it they’ll show you that the item price online says “online only” even though it’s on the shelf. They act like it’s an accident or somehow incidental, but it doesn’t feel like it..

200k holy shit I could live good as hell on half that lol

39:30 this is because social security is not optional You're forced to pay in so I would expect some return as well.

People never understand cost of living adjustment.

Goddamn rent is ridiculous in USA. I am from Finland, a first world country.. We have a 78 square meter home, and our rent is 645€ inside the city area... but over 2000+..??!! Goddamn thats ridiculous.

I'll gross 280k this year, which will be about $200k after taxes, and I didn't feel "comfortable" until about a year after I hit 150k. For the first time in my life that allowed me to start meaningfully investing, while also having the ability to absorb significant financial losses in terms of life events, which happened several time. To me, the word "comfort" means that I can absorb big blows, like totaling my car or a major health event, and my day to day life doesn't have to change financially to compensate. It also means that if everything more or less continues as it is, I'll be able to retire around the retirement age with a quality of living that matches my working years. For a millennial, I think that means having $3M in semi-liquid assets like stocks/bonds/cash by 65. If you can get a 5% return in a money market account, that will give you 150k a year indefinitely which will probably be equivalent to 80k in today's money. Supplemented with 24k a year in social security and accounting for raises, that should get you close to a reasonable retirement lifestyle. $3M sounds like an absolutely insane number, but if you want to prepare for not knowing how long you live, I think it's actually pretty conservative. If you don't mind only having say 5-10 years of money and $0 left when you die, you can probably get away with far less.

When I was single I lived very comfortably on 45000. Now I have 4 kids. I live close to comfort at 80000. I live in the middle of nowhere. If your struggling in the big cities do whatever you can to move.

“There are no solutions, only tradeoffs.” -Thomas Sowell This legend said this mainly in the viewpoint of an economist because that’s what he is. This applies to nearly everything.

I'm from Canada. I'm active and need to eat a lot. Despite a good salary, I can't order food and rarely buy meat anymore. I've needed to min-max my groceries to eggs, rice, canned beans, canned veggies and tuna to make most of my meals. It's nutritious and get the job done but I spend a significant amount of my day to buying, prepping, cooking and washing dishes. I usually go 2 times a week at the grocery store and even then, it's never under 100$ each time. God forbid is you want some beers to relax or if you want to bring your girl out for a restaurant more than once a month. Food feels like a luxury right now.

No one working a full time job(and making good financial decisions) should be living in poverty, period. Right now we need people working those low paying jobs and the people working them deserve to live comfortably without stressing about not being able to pay rent or not being able to buy a house. The answer can't always be get a better job.

I typically do my groceries on a daily basis. My store is 1min walk away. I buy what I need for dinner and snacks. I used to spend like $10 to $20 depending on snacks and getting milk or not. now its $20 - $37(Canadian) at Giant Tiger for meat, milk and some snacks.

Wage is only part of the problem. If a person likes to spend, they can make $1 million a year but could be less financially stable than someone making $100k.

The mortgage prices in this video seems outdated. This would be the average mortgage price for people who bought like 5+ years ago.

There are 40k holiday home/corporate owned homes/investment properties in NSW Australia right now sitting there basically doing nothing. Now if we factor out the holiday homes we will probably end up with 15-20k left so if we take the average house cost in nsw ($1,184,500, 2023) and multiply we will get $2.36~ BILLION AUD and growing and thats median factors and speculation it could very very well be much higher then that and i could have gotten holiday homes wrong but that is alot of money in assets for business to play around with. Lets also remember alot of these homes where bought for dramatically less then this so these companies not only hold immense wealth in owning these homes but they have made immense wealth of the ripple effects now magnify more and more every year

There are many problems, one of them is that most people don’t spend money logically, they spend money EMOTIONALLY. Spending money, feels like happiness: getting stuff, eating stuff, going out, traveling etc. Saving money feels like being deprived, neglected, hungry, lonely etc.

Just moving up to $55k and feeling rich confuses me. Rent is $1500, elec/water/internet is ~$120, and my work gives me a free bus pass instead of charging $1100/yr for a parking pass. Idk where this $233k figure comes from.

if you live alone you literally need more money to be "comfortable." there's no splitting anything. and a roommate isn't a significant other so that's instantly less comfortable than if you lived alone.

people dont make 75% after taxes we take home 60%. incom tax plus sales tax plus property tax and then state and city tax and then insurance premiums.

We made 300k last year but that goes to all supplies and materials to generate the money. We spent 250-280k for that and we have to pay local taxes+health insurance+labors. We take home -20k after tax

So is that mortgage payment the principal and interest or principal, interest, tax, and insurance? Because those two numbers are vastly different and are mostly mandatory.

233k a year and I'm starting a fucking empire on an island, wtf?? 33k a year and I can live, twice that and I can live good.

I have just graduated college with a science degree in health sciences and healthcare administration. Also have several other certifications and an associate as well. Have intern experience writing under a quality care coordinator in a business suite for a hospice company. I’m working two jobs rn. One as an ER receptionist and the other at Sam’s club because that’s all that will hire me because I don’t have 3+ years of administration experience. Even working both jobs at 13 hours a day nearly every day my profit after liabilities is only $35. I own the title to my car but it’s slowly breaking down and I know I won’t be able to afford to repair it so I’m considering selling it now and getting like an E-bike or something. Not sure what else to do besides wait for someone in a job I could easily do to quit, get promoted, fired, or more positions made available and requirements made reasonable and more flexible.

car insurance cost me $3,000 a year, no tickets or accidents in decades. Its INSANE

Not paying your student loans kills your credit score and eventually can impact your taxes and take home pay. It is not recommended .. Cost of education in the US is insane !

We built a home in a fairly small town in WA in the 90s for >$200k. The market value of that house now is $805k with property tax of $8k. Crazy af.

At 32:30, depreciation is the decrease in value over time. Like a new car depreciates by like 50% just in driving it off the lot. Amortization is spreading the cost out over time.

3,3k after taxes would put you into the top 10% of highest earners here in Germany.😅

Damn that's gotta be California prices because I scrape by on far less than that

180 thousand yearly already taxed not considering property taxes is clearly a comfortable living wage. 90 thousand for singles.

Great vid man, and the ending was absolutely hilarious 😂

It's not just America, here in Norway the interest rates are really high. I have 300,000kr (27,500 usd) left on my mortgage and monthly payments are around 2000, 1500 of which goes to the bank for interest.

REAL ADVICE to the guy that asked about buying your own house. Wherever you are working. Ensure you have a 401k set up. If the company matches anything. Match that % if you can. If not, Still get a 401k. Hopefully you already have done this. When you go to buy a home. Look into an FHA Loan. (First time home buyers). Much lower credit requirements. Preset low interest rate. But does require a little down. If you have a 401k at all. You can withdraw for a down payment for a home. Without additional penalties. It's one of the things allowed. If more people did these 2 things. You'd find out how it's more attainable to get a home than you may think. Especially of course if you have a partner and 2 incomes. But seriously consider these two things. This can be done even at low income. And make sure to get a home for what you can afford. Don't just go for whatever the max amount you qualify for. That's a big mistake some people make.

Here's the issue with American debt. 1. We're born and over the years we're given a fixed allowance which isn't enough to do pretty much anything/ required to pick and choose betwen things we like, (if you're lucky enough and listen to your parents). 2. We're indoctrinated into spending money due to advertising (which makes our economy go round. 3 The masses glorify wealth, success, and fame. 4. We get to college, and we're given a huge sum of money, BUT WAIT! You can only use that for SCHOOL! 😉 So now we use some of that to live "our best lives." We run low because we need to pay for school now and ask for more. 5. Jobs pay like shit perpetuating poverty. 5. We have been indoctrinated by our school systems to be "comfortable" with a 9-5 job. 6. Life sucks so we spend more money than we have because our lives (on avg) suck.

I live in Charlotte NC as an aircraft detailer for a hangar with 9 aircraft. I make more than the national average for this occupation at $20/hour and I can just barely afford to be alive. For me, I could live very well just at $50,000/year as opposed to $34,000. I can't imagine how well I could live at $100,000.

It's actually more expensive living alone than living with a a partner

I'd like to see this broken down by state. 200k is a ludicrous amount where i live and would be considered extremely well off.

I like it how in this video the dude says "61% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck" or "26% of Americans think they will never be finanically secure" - and there's this energetic upbeat music playing in the background, as if it's some party event ad or something. As a foreigner, this contrast feels like the most American thing ever.

Gym membership, if you pay monthly it is double compared to paying a yearly membership. But for instance you get an injury and you cant go for a few momths you cant pause it or to extend the membership. This is from personal experience.

Best advice I was told about credit cards is pay it off the moment you use it. Like treat it like a debit card and when you use it the money just goes away.

He might be a rich streamer boi but I love how in touch Asmon is with pricing of everyday goods and services.

You definitely need more money if you're living alone, you're basically shouldering everything by yourself and not on a dual income

I guess comfortable means driving a brand new sports car, having a 3000 square foot house, going to Hawaii every year, having a hot tub, etc. if youre making even a third of that a year and youre "not comfortable" youre awful with money and its your fault.

Beginnings of a checklist list to live without your parents (please feel free to add on): -Rent/Mortgage -Renter’s/Mortgage insurance -Car payment -Car Insurance -Car registration (inflated EV fees) -inflated Gasoline/Diesel prices -Natural gas (heating/cooking) -Electric bill -Water bill -Garbage/solid waste bill -Medical insurance -Medicines -Dental insurance -Inflated food prices -Required Vitamins/supplements -Professional clothing/wardrobe -Loans/Credit Cards Married additions: -Children’s clothing -Stay-at-home wife’s shopping -Vacations -Children’s activities/sports To be continued…

They keep mixing up the words "median" and "average" as though they're interchangeable. Why are humans incapable of wrapping their heads around the differences in these words?

The way housing and income statistics are used is fucking disgusting. In 2022 the median household income was 76k, median individual income was 40k, median individual fulltime work income was 56k... 85% of us citizens made less than 100k. How does it take 200+k a year to make it? It doesnt... average house costs in 2022 were above 400k i believe...... but around 52% of counties in the united states had a median house cost of less than 100k, and another 30% have a median price between 100 and 350k. That means in half the counties half the houses cost less than $100,000.00!!!!! And in 82% of counties 50% of houses cost less than 350k.

Here in Switzerland it's pretty normal to rent an appartment. Only about one third of people do live in a house and most of them are inherited. It's always kinda unrelatable, when everyone screams that buying a house is impossible nowadays when it was like that here for a looong time. Buying an appartment is about 600k+ and a house about 1mil+. So you have to bring up at least 200k by yourself to just to get a credit.

Long ago, I had a credit card that defaulted at around $200. The card company got a judgment on me, and I had no idea until one day they cleaned out my bank account. Not only did they take everything I had at the time. Around $120, but all of the pending stuff I had spent on bills and groceries came out the next day. In the end, I lost the $120, and the bank charged me over $400 in overdraft fees.

I live in bama and I made 65k last year and I feel really good about where I’m at. I’m focusing this year on hitting all my bonuses and I feel like I’ll be ready to buy a house by next year. Needing 200k to feel comfortable mean the place you’re living is ridiculously overpriced

Imagine saving for retirement instead of jumping of a cliff so as not to burden your village. 😂

Prices are not decreasing, most people dont care about the price until after they paid.

Something I don't believe asmon gets here, is that it is more difficult to live on your own, and requires more money. Just to cover rent, or a mortgage, you pretty much need to be dual income in this country, at least where I live. I barely make 50K a year, and most people need 70K a year to sustain themselves here. That's the state of Washington, Seattle. The middle class does not exist in this state anymore. I'm leaving my parents home in just a few months now, and living with a 50,000 a year income has felt like the most luxurious life I can ask for, but simply requiring my entire income just for home expenses takes that life and turns it into 24/7 penny pinching, and the only reason I'm even able to move out is because my wife and I will be a dual income companionship. It could be misinterpreting his view, but the reason for it is because of how surprised he was to see how much it costs to live alone, which made me believe he may be thought it would be easier

Nice to see Asmon doing all his research on the video he is gonna commentate on beforehand, thats a lotta browser tabs with all the info right there, wondered how he was always so precise with stuff he says just before the videos he watches mentions them :) much love

Unless you live in one of the big hellholes in this country, you can live very comfortably on about $50k, the kinds of insane numbers journos spew out only shows the absolute state of either their spending habits or how disconnected they are from the average person

Just saying you know having pods would exacerbate the problem that fixes having apartments on the other hand that are affordable would fix the problem

"If you are living by yourself, it is way more." I don't think you understand how much it helps to have two people living in the same home, being able to have all utilities and stuff divided by half.

That’s A LOT of money. I make 80k BEFORE taxes, and 20% of that goes to taxes. I don’t own property (yet) but I don’t live paycheck to paycheck or a life of luxury. I worked hard to pay off my debt, and that money I was paying on debt now I can save for emergencies. Is there a bunch of crap I want and places I wanna travel to and things I wanna do? Yes. I can bitch and moan about the situation but instead I just try to stay below my means while taking care of my family and spending time with loved one and on hobbies. I think a lot of people compare themselves to others. Don’t, just do what you need to do for you. You got this, go forth and conquer.

I had entry level IT or help desk position say $18/h is to much money and they require a bachelor's and 3+ years of experience...

My mom made 55k/year early 2000s and my friends thought we where rich. I made 65k last year. I could never pay for a house, i can barely save. Financial advisors want nothing to do with you if you dont have 50k at the minimum in savings. If i have to move out, the rents are now 1500/month. That'll be half my monthly money. How the f am i supposed to retire? Im close to 40.

One child in daycare 3 days a week with family helping the other two days costs over 20K a year and that's at a typical rate for multiple facilities in the area.

Yeah I don’t know where 233k came from. Did they just poll people in the heart of San Fransisco? Did they take the average over major cities? My family of four lives comfortably on 150k, we have no debt other than the house, I contribute to my 401k the max, and we save on top of that every month.

My estimate is 60 to 80 a point where you take home 3-4k home a month after taxes.

Ummm, my mortgage payment on a 1500 square foot home is $1921.

There's a lot of people out there that don't understand money and numbers. I had a friend that got a $10k payout from insurance, and he blew it all in a matter of 2 and half months. He didn't have any expenses or debts to cover either. He just bought that much beer.

The government in the UK need to do this same study, I'd like to hope it would make them realise how bad poverty is really effecting the general public

If you really think the president or party is deciding the price of gas or the economy for that matter, you really don't understand how things work. It's a gross over simplification of the complexity of the problems.

There’s a lot of situations beyond control too that can severely impact your life: Lawsuits, uncovered medical expenses, elderly parents.

It's not that people just need to get paid more, it's that living expenses are too damn expensive.

Maybe Americans need to stop the tradition of leaving their parents house as soon as possible.

My parent's once told me that one of the biggest reasons they see people stay poor (even after they have increased incomes and such) is because people "live poor". Examples of that are, lets say you know that your dryer is going out, there is one on sale at lowes, but instead of buying it on sale knowing youll need it, you wait because "you dont have the money for that right now" a week/month later your dryer breaks and now you have to buy one that isnt on sale. Things you are going to HAVE to buy are better bought on sale and not when you have no other choice.