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What everyone in this comment section calling out "10k isn't much" are failing to understand is that over 60% of the USA live paycheck to paycheck and don't have any savings to speak of. Extend that to the world and you would go pale.
Check your privilege and get educated.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/paycheck-to-paycheck-6-in-10-americans-lendingclub/
https://www.lendingtree.com/debt-consolidation/paycheck-to-paycheck-survey/
...everyone's point isn't "wow you suck for having only 10k in savings". Everyone calling out the OP is saying "in my country/area cost of living is very high and with 10K in savings I would be in a bit of a panic".
Also telling people to "get educated" while they react to the US cost of living being out of control just makes you sound like a dick.
There are people earning 10k/month who are living paycheck to paycheck, so for them 10k saving is just one month
Yes, exactly this
Bruh these people absolutely have the option to scale back, don't feel bad for them. They live paycheck to paycheck after their $80k car payments and $600k house mortgage. That's not the same.
Or maybe they have a family with kids, they live in an expensive part of town, but moving is not an option due to job constraints, or maybe the kids are going to school there and moving would be disruptive. Maybe that area didn't use to be so expensive 10 years ago. They need cars, not 80k cars, but large enough to haul said family around, cause maybe public transportation sucks where they live (ahem*LA*cough). Heck, maybe they bought those cars in cash, no payments, but gas, insurance & maintenance (maybe they're old cars) are killing them. Car prices are too expensive to get a new car, so they keep spending 1000s in repairs instead. Maybe a hurricane, strong winds or just normal wear and tear made their house roof leak, thats $20k right there, ask me how I know.
Also, a 600k house is cheap and almost impossible to find in California, for example. No, moving to Texas is not an option, thanks.
Edit: the example above is hypothetical, not my current situation, but based on my experience.
There is no definition of being wealthy that does not include people that make $120k/year.
You are richer than 80% of the country at that point. Lots of people have families in high COL cities and live on significantly less money than that.
https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/statistics/household-income-quintiles
I literally spent $24k on home repairs this summer, and I just pay it in payments, and I make 6 figures. No normal person pays this in cash, outright.
My roof replacement a few years back was $8k covered by home insurance.
There is no set amount of USD that defines the line between "wealthy" and "poor". Your $120k figure would go a lot further in Mississippi or Texas that it would go in California or Massachusetts, where that would be barely enough for a large family.
There's definitely a place (or two) in the US where a family struggles with $120k/yr. Sure, just move to Mississippi, I guess ...
They would be considered "poor" there, or at least not wealthy.
Well good for you, I guess.
I guess I'm not normal.
Good for you, that would get you half a roof here, and insurance won't cover if it's considered normal wear and tear.
No you are definitely not normal and that is the entire duscussion
Those are all things you can scale back on. People who make less certainly are forced to. Not that they're not entitled to live there, my point is I don't feel bad at all that they're claiming to live paycheck to paycheck, because they have the option to not be.
For some of us, that mortgage is the cheap option. My payment is well under rent for a 2br in my town, plus I have an outstanding interest rate
Check out the crabs in the bucket
It's not bringing people down, it's not having pity for them. Maybe you misread the comment.
Ideally you want 3 months of living your life with 0 cuts to be "safe" so 10k is not enough to fundamentally change how most job searches would go.
You can link all the articles you want, but I challenge you to check apartments near you and try to find the cheapest one.
Bruh, I live in Seattle. The cheapest ones are still in the $1000s for minimal sq/footage. My place is $1700/m w/parking at 640 ft.
Average people who work in service or labor can't afford to live here if they have a family. Commuting on 90 or I-5 or 99 is always a slog, so living outside of the city incurs massive time and effort, which aren't sunk costs. Gas is $5-6/gal here. Public transit is better than most places, but still bad. And we haven't even brought up the homeless dilemma, rampant drug use, and property crime.
Most cities are like this now. Dallas/Ft Worth are cess pools. Miami is a mess. Tampa, SFO, LA, NYC, and so on... If people don't see it, it's because they're ignoring it or are in a bubble.
I know your pain very well lol, that's why I moved from Washington. Seattle is pretty ghetto too, so I didn't want to live in the city. I wanted more Bellevue/Redmond/Issaquah/North Bend area, but the cheapest places there were like $1200+ and that was considered dirt cheap that went really fast. Now I'm stuck in a shitty red state in a medium-sized town for the time being. I was so optimistic when I was growing up in WA like 15 years ago and wanting to stay there my whole life. Now it's overcrowded as hell, expensive, and all the other things you mentioned!
Your point is valid, but LendingClub’s numbers are bullshit. People keep quoting that press release like it’s science.
LendingClub’s business is in person to person loans (they act as a middle man between the investors and borrowers). Person to person loans are risky because the kind of people taking them out tend to be desperate and have no money, so unless everything goes right, they end up defaulting on the loan.
LendingClub puts out this bullshit article inflating the number of people “living check to check” to try and make it seem like their person to person loans are less risky. They want you to think you’re lending money to people with a 6 figure income could just sell one of their Teslas to pay you back, not people who took out the loan because their 1991 Chevy Corsica needed repairs and without it they can’t get to their job at Burger King.
They're not the only source. If you want to equivocate, cool, but your experience isn't everyone else's.
Sorry, LendingTree and LendingClub are two companies in the same business selling the same narrative. Their names are as similar as their business models, so it’s easy to get them confused.
I don’t think if somebody posted links to articles from McDonalds and Burger King talking about the health benefits of eating more French fries, you’d consider them more credible for having two different sources.
Yea seriously thank you. I'm like mind blown that ppl don't think that's a lot of money. 10K would last me almost 2 years not working. I'm single, no dependents, my rent is cheap and I own my car. What's the deal here man? Why's everyone pissing on 10k as chump change? That's a lot of money man
How in the world are you able to live off $5k/year? My last months credit card bill was $2.6k and I don't even pay rent or tuition on my card. I'm also single with no dependents, own my own car, and have extremely cheap rent.
I pay around that per month, but that includes all of my expenses, including rent and other bills, not just credit card alone. Maybe the person you're responding to has kids or lives in a higher COL area or something.
In some places, rent alone might be that much though.
I don't know much about their situation, but one of my coworkers has kids in daycare and it seems insanely expensive to the point where they've recently needed to get a second job.
Rent for a 1b apartment is more than that in some cities in California.
Edit: I see this was responding to someone spending 2.6k just on their credit cards, apologies. When I just graduated, spending that much on a credit card seemed like a lot of money. Now, that's just average ... on one credit card (I have 3 😅). Try having a family, traveling, or ... I don't even know, but life catches up with that pretty quickly.
It's not usually that high but it's not totally uncommon for me to spend that much a month. I usually try to keep my spending between $1,200-1,800/month but that doesn't always happen.
Cost of living isn't the same everywhere and perspective is relative.
Rent in my area averages around 3k USD/mo for fairly plain arrangements. Between that and "unavoidable" costs like utilities, you'd get 3-4 months max on that amount, even living frugally. It really isn't that much for a lot of people, even if that amount might be to you.
Thanks for pointing out the cost of living being different depending on area. That's really important
That would last you two years of not working???? That wouldn't last me a year of rent (maybe 6 months or less), never mind other expenses like food. I don't even live in an overly expensive place like California or NY. I also don't have any extravagant expenses. What in the world place do you live in with rent that cheap?
The insane levels of post-COVID inflation has been a real bitch, though. Prior to COVID, that would have been around a year's worth of rent (but still not enough for other things like rent and utilities). But everything has skyrocketed since. But even pre-COVID, I can't imagine $10k being two years of total living expenses.
Don't blame the responders, look at your question. If what you really want to know is "if you had 2 years worth of savings to live on", ask that. The low end average cost of living in the US anyway is $2,500 a month, so 10k is 4 months of living expenses. That's also about the average length of a job search.
In general, the OP seems a bit out of touch with a lot of things. They also recently asked why people stay in shitty jobs instead of just quitting them before they have another job lined up. Money. Money is why.
I'm guessing they maybe live with their parents who only make them pay nominal rent, giving them the freedom to not have many bills and to allow them to have large stretches of time between jobs if needed.
Looking at OP's post history, they also have a history of trolling and shitposting, so I'm guessing this is just more of that.
I used to say 10k is enough to solve one major problem in my life and that was it. Enough to bailout a relative, enough to move across the country for a new job, enough to rebuild after a fire/flood, enough to buy a reasonable car in cash. 10k is not just money, 10k is a force in its own right. It represents one thing that should destroy my life or someone around me life nd make it go away.
Many years ago my wife wanted to finish her degree and she made 2k a month. I gave her my ten thousand and told her to focus on studies for five months. Worked out.
With inflation it is probably 15k now.
I recently moved across the US. 15k would be possible but it would be tight (assuming everything you own doesnt fit in the back of your car). Also assuming youre including all moving expenses like reregistering a car, gas to drive across the country, deposits on rent/utilities, a month of overlap on rent, etc. All the little things start adding up quickly with a move that far.
I don't buy it. Not in the US, at least. Even if that was exclusively spent on rent alone, that would put it at $417/month. The only way you're doing that is if you own (at least bought before the real estate spikes since ~2017) or you have a personal relationship with the landlord and are getting well below market rates. Or if you live in a van down by the river.
And that's even before things like food, insurance, etc.
My apartment, which is about 22 square meters, costs me the equivalent of 1300 dollars a month. Add in a electricity, food, Public transit card, mobile data, and other small necessary things, and it's at least 1800 dollars a month. And that's without any extra expenses like fun things.
Which would, of course, last under 6 months. That's not a lot of time. I'd need to start a job search immediately to be safe.
You said in another comment that your rent was $800 a month, two years of that is $19,200. Rent is (supposed to be) about 1/3 of your living costs, so that would be $2400 per month. You're good for a little over 4 months, more if you live very lean.
Average cost of groceries per person per month in Texas is $289. Let's say you're thrifty and only spend $200. https://www.sofi.com/cost-of-living-in-texas/
Gas has averaged about $3.10 over the last year. https://ycharts.com/indicators/texas_retail_price_of_gasoline_monthly I don't know how much gas your car uses or how much you drive, but lets say you drive a prius and get 50mpg. Most people drive about 1200 miles per month ( https://www.thezebra.com/resources/driving/average-miles-driven-per-year/ ) let's say you only drive 1/4 of that, so 300 (75 miles per week). Not bad, only $18.60 for gas. Minimum legally required car insurance in Texas (gets you nothing if your car is damaged) is $47 per month (https://www.bankrate.com/insurance/car/average-cost-of-car-insurance-in-texas/).
Average utilities in Texas (including internet) is $402 per month, again you're thrifty so we'll halve that at $200 per month.
So, if you buy absolutely nothing besides bare minimum groceries, gas, car insurance and utilities (I'm assuming you're on no-cost Medicaid here), that's $465 per month + $800 rent is $1265. You're good for almost 8 months. Not a dire as some here are claiming, but also not two years. If you lived like the "average Texan" it would be about 2.5 months.
I'm happy to hear that wherever you live is a helluva lot cheaper than Cali
My condolences for your situation but the reality is that it simply isn't a lot of savings.
10K lasting you 2 years is a fantasy. If rent is $500 a month, (which is an overwhelmingly generous estimate in this economy), you're still talking about $500x24 months = $12K. That's ignoring literally all other costs of living like food, transportation, electricity, etc.
I'm single, no dependants, don't need a car to get around, and 10K would still not even last me a year simply because my rent is $1100 a month (and that is considered really good for a 1br in my city)
$1100 for a one bedroom? That would be crazy good where I'm at even for a studio where you've got bullets flying at night. I'd blow through 10K in rent in a few months. Where the hell does OP live that they could survive 2 years? There's no way I'm even in the same country as OP.
Yeah I'm super lucky. I live in a major city in Ontario. My rent is partially controlled due to provincial laws and my building being a bit old, and I've lived in it for about 5 years.
I'm kinda trapped though since I'd probably be paying double for a unit of the same size elsewhere in the city, and even more if I wanted to get an even slightly larger place, so I have to be happy with what I've got until the housing bubble bursts. I'm not complaining though, the building is well kept and in a very dense and walkable neighborhood with lots of amenities.
Tell us then, how do we get rid of family that we have to provide for, and where do we get that sweet cheap rent?