Living within your means

I've been pondering this. It's all very easy for me to say "I do it"- we married well and educated ourselves well- I and/or DH earn plenty. And living within my means includes budgeting to retire and earn nothing (since SS may not be there) so we sock away 10-50% of our pay (OK it was 0% for a few months here and there) at various times of our life. However it is very true that there are plenty of folks making even more than us without any savings to show for it.

But how do you live within your means on minimum wage? I want to give advice to my kids that doesn't include "we'll always be here to take care of you", and I want to give reasonable advice to lower paid coworkers.

First off I think you should try to avoid minimum wage as your maximum wage potential- stay in school (with earning in mind not just selfactualization) as long as you can afford to taking full advantage of any support from family government or other sources. Of course don't get PhD x 5 in weird science but if you like and want to earn your money around animals train to be a vet or a vet tech or get ag courses don't take a job as a dogwalker or farmhand in high school and drop out of high school planning to do that job for the next 100 years.

Second off plan for retirement or lesser ability or actual disability. As in #1- don't plan your career to be doing lifelong heavy manual labor that is more likely to wreck your body before you're 40 and which very few 45 year olds are even fit enough to perform. And if you don't want to work until you die you have to be certain SS will be enough (and it's always less than your total average earnings so it's hard to imagine it working to go from 100% to 30% and be happy if you had to spend all the 100% before you retired) or budget for retirement from the very start.

Third off budgeting- for retirement or anything- includes adjusting your appetites to your income level. Not to the neighbors' or your sister's.

Anyway we save at a minimum what was 20% of our earlier pay as a $ amount (calculated to give us enough to retire on at 55 back when we married), and still now sock away over 20% of both our pay as we gear up to retire earlier. The folks alone or married making $1400 or $2800/month- should they do less than 10 or 15 or 20% in savings for the future? Why? Because they won't need to retire or take time off work for babies or layoffs or illness?

(Let's ignore that people WON'T and discuss whether it is possible and how.)

When my husband and I got married back in 1997, he made $6.85/hr and I made $6.15/hr... about $27,000/yr between the two of us, about $1,700/mo after taxes. We paid $700/mo for housing because it was the only thing we could afford... well, without living in the druggie-infested trailer park on the edge of town where the cops were called to every day for domestic disturbances. And we managed to survive without going into debt (we had a $214/mo car payment, car insurance was $80/mo groceries probably cost us another $150-$200/mo but we ate as frugally as we could manage, utilities were probably $150 or so.) We had health insurance through our employer that was $5/wk (I think that same employer is now $50+/wk for the same coverage/plan). I don't know how we managed... but we did.

As DH points out when the girls ask "why can't you stay home all day like Uncle Joe?", my independently wealthy (ie unemployed, at least until this stockmarket compression reduced the income from his portfolio) brother has no wife or kids. While he lives in a posh DC suburb he shares his house with a couple and for 7 years now their child. So at whatever level it's more affordable single, childless, and sharing the housing expenses.

ETA: Brother Joe also rode his bike to work in the DC suburb (guess he picked his roommates because they had a room for rent near his new job) until he'd saved enough from work to get a car. Dunno if he got a car loan or not- maybe so to avoid winter cycling.

Then as country wife says- what do we need? Even DH and I didn't get cellphones until required for work. Most of my less paid coworkers pay more than I do for everything except mortgage, cars (well maybe not- we buy new but we hold on to them until they fall apart while we're driving them), food, and maybe gardening kit. They have better cable or satellite TV plans than we do, most of their kids have cellphones, they spend more on presents clothes haircuts and often tobacco and/or alcohol than we are willing to despite having plenty of money to do so. And DH and I certainly don't live as frugally as many of us HTers are doing by need or choice.

You can do it! You won't be living like you would be in an apartment.
You will need a good sized down payment, at least 20%. Find something that needs a lot of work, around 50k.
My daughter done that about 5 years ago. She bought a trashed out single wide on 3 acres for 45,000. The well and septic were good, after a couple months of work the mobile home was not only livable but very nice!

So whinnyninny why not share the home with another worker or marry but stay living with your parents back then.... Not ideal of course but things folks need to consider, or maybe community organize the drug riddled trailer park into a decent place to live (but then the rents go up!).

It's called narrow-mindedness or bigotry... Lacking tolerance, breadth of view, or sympathy; petty or stubborn and complete intolerance of any creed, belief, or opinion that differs from one's own.

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"We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid".

those statements really threw me, too. got news for those people...I can't tell you how many professional people I know that smoke and drink, because THEY are the ones that can easily afford it. young couples I know working hard, each earning around $8. an hour, are doing quite well due to living within their means. since when is it a social crime that you don't have a college degree? just shaking my head a little here this mornng....

sometimes people say the strangest things.

My Grandfather was poor all of his life, and he also had 6 kids. HE worked some on a ship as a sailor, but he also did a lot of day labor.

When he died, he left a house in California and 10 acres in Texas. It all depends on what you think is important.

The first investment should be in birth control.

$800 for rent and a $250 car payment are beyond the means of the couple you profiled.
Houses are a place to live, they're not equity builders. Sure you hear about all of these people and yadda yadda yadda, most of it is slippery math. Look at all of the foreclosures, go ask them and the majority will probably mention the equity word. 150k house or mortgage is also beyond the means of the said couple.

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"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self confidence"
Robert Frost

Jennifer L and myself posted real estate listings for houses, some with acreage for less that $50,000. Those prices aren't available everywhere, but the OP listed Springfield so that is where I looked.

I have a niece that had a good job, but decided to go back to college for an advanced degree. She wanted to live for free, so she bought an inexpensive house, and rented out the extra bedrooms. The rent covered her mortgage, insurance and taxes.

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I yam what I yam and that's all what I yam.

Popeye

Actually I know alot of out of work plumbers. Having a good useful skill isn't enough these days, you really gotta watch every penny, and take charge of your life.

I have to agree, $800 seems to be a little much for just rent. I make about $34,000 a year myself and my house/land payment is half that, including the escrow account to pay for the property taxes. My homeowner's insurance costs $50 a month, so $450 a month for six acres and a small, small house.

Sure, if I had taken the advice that one's home should cost no more than three years of salary I'd have a lot higher payment, but that is a part of "living within your means." My tiny house (580sq ft) and land cost under $35,000 but is in good repair and is enough room for my girlfriend and me.

Rowdy, you live somewhere where properties can be had for cheap. In some areas you can't find a small studio apartment for less than $800 (or more)! Texas real estate is pretty cheap, compared to a lot of other places, and there aren't a whole lot of cheap, tiny little houses available.

That house on 6 acres is wonderful for that price. You are likely a homesteader, since you are here. You probably grow much of your own food.

If your finances improve you can add onto the house, or build a new one, or buy a new place.

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I yam what I yam and that's all what I yam.

Popeye

Because I have known many many minimum wage people.

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Apocalyptic and Survival Fiction - Readers and writers welcome

.................I live in my 5th. wheel , rent is 325 a month and that includes electric . I don't pay property taxes , but I do pay the license plate fee of 132 for a year.....I consider this to be property tax in a fashion . Trailer is paid for so no payment . The payment on my Ford ranger is 256 and that includes 20 amonth for disability ins.which will pay the truck payment should I become UNable to work . I consider this to be health ins . Were I too invoke my SS check I'd probably receive 600 a month which would pay my rent and truck ins. and a little leftover for food .
..................But , I'll keep working as long as I'm physically able ; hopefully until 70 or so atleast . , fordy

Its called experience.

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Apocalyptic and Survival Fiction - Readers and writers welcome

The point of my reply was to point out that living within one's means does not always mean following the "cacluators" on how much house one can afford, etc, etc.

I will give you that housing is cheaper here than in some areas, and I will give you that rent is high in some other places, but I still do not think that $800 a month for an apartment for two adults is a fair price in MOST places, if people are willing to look around.

lol, my finances aren't likely to improve by much (I think I have two small raises at my job before I am topped out between here and retirement.) I could have bought bigger to begin with, but I am pretty happy with this place.

I started out like Fordy, living in a travel trailer on this place. Saved money, got the land almost paid off, but then some stuff happened and I had to move my plan up a little bit. I'm not happy about having a mortgage, but things are working out okay anyway.

I'm not trying to argue, but that's a blanket statement. maybe the people you've known spend their money the wrong way, BUT just because somebody makes minimum wage doesn't mean they are chugging & smoking their money away. it's like saying if somebody doesn't make a certain 'higher' income, they're losers. and that's just wrong.