Yep, pulling in 110k this year after bonus at my job and I’m having to DoorDash to get just a bit of breathing room.
$3350 mortgage eats more than half my take home. The rest goes to debt (took out a loan to fix a couple things on the house last year, and student loans coming back now), caring for my aging dog, food, bills, maxed 401k that I’m considering dropping for a while, and a little bit for free spending so I can go on a date or two or out with friends. Even with this mortgage payment this would have been easy on just my salary even 3 years ago (it was easy af with dual income at the time). But the way costs have increased are making me feel broke in a way I haven’t felt in a long-ass time. I always thought that if I could make it to six figures I’d be properly wealthy, but I’m not. I’m barely comfortable.
1000 sq ft starter home rambler in the seattle region. It’s nothing special and it was downright cheap at $560k. Was still dual income and mostly comfortable when we bought the house. We broke up and I had the income to keep the house, so I am. The equity isn’t there yet so I’m making a play to keep it for 10-15 years before I sell and we split the sale based on an agreement we signed when we broke up (very amicable breakup).
Yea, I grew up dirt poor with many dinners being noodles with butter, I never once had to pay for lunch at school because assistance programs, I never did extra curriculars because we couldn’t afford the materials, every Christmas was nothing or donations, I lived in houses where I could literally see outside through gaps in the walls, and the only reason I experienced a vacation before I was 30 was because my step-dad was negligently killed by a rich guy and we got a settlement that my mom blew on a 6 week vacation to Orlando when I was 14 and then put some money down on a house when she could have bought it outright instead. But I clawed my way out by going to college and getting pretty lucky along the way. 10 years ago I got my first job out of college making $13.75/hour, and have doubled my income twice since then, largely by the luck of knowing some good people, and my current job by the luck of being found on LinkedIn due to having a weird confluence of experience.
A big part of how I got into the house is that my ex-wife has rich family and they gifted us a pretty big chunk of change that got us to our downpayment. Still had to take $520k out on the mortgage, and another $20k to make some needed repairs once we were in (debt I’m taking on too).
I couldn tighten the belt in a few areas, namely my free spending which I limit to $400/month. But that already goes fast if I want to actually do anything and keep myself from falling into a pit by never leaving the house. I also use that money for helping my partner out. Otherwise I’ve cancelled all my streaming services save for Disney plus which is still a good deal, I’ve dumped my insurance to the lowest I can go, I pay $15/month for my cellphone, I’ve stopped buying name brand for nearly everything, and I’ve had to stop any real charitable giving. There is some saving that goes on in there like putting $50/month aside for my car expenses, so as long as nothing major comes up I’m covered, and $100/month toward ‘medical’ which really just pays for my therapy.
None of this is to garner pity, I know I’m in a better position than most people, not to mention much better off than I ever dreamed I could achieve as a kid growing up, and I’m extremely grateful for that. i don’t have any bills I have to choose between, and I never have to wonder if I have food to eat tonight. And I have enough saved (from my bonus) that I’ve got a few months to figure things out if I lost my job today or if a big repair comes up (like my water main breaking back in January), but not enough to replace my fence that fell down last winter. I just always thought that making it to six figures would mean a lot more than it does. I make ends meet and anything extra I make from here is gravy.
I’m just breaking even on the house. I bought at peak like a genius.
There’s also no way I could possibly buy again if I let this place go, not to mention it’s a starter home already, there’s nothing in my area that would ne cheaper short of going back to renting. I’d rather feel the squeeze and keep the investment.
Re lifestyle, that’s the number one thing I’ve been working on and have clawed back probably a grand a month there since breaking up with my wife and going down to single income. I drove a 10 year old car that I own outright (managed to get my wife to take the newer car that still had payments which she luckily can afford), shop Winco for nearly everything except a few staples that Costco saves me money on and coupon anywhere else, and have one streaming service.
I still let myself go out to with friends occasionally and engage in my long standing hobby, though to a much lesser degree, but I’m getting better and better at saying no to superfluous stuff. After a decade of being pretty comfortable it’s an adjustment to make that I’m giving myself some grace on, though I recognize that my ability to even do that is privilege. My #1 financial goal right now is to start spending under my budget rather than up to it, and I’ve got some units that are proving hard to break, namely having food in the house that I can make and eat even on those days where my executive dysfunction is making everything impossible.
Unbelievably huge win. We’re still close friends and I expect that to stay that way. We didn’t break up due to lack of love, but due to incompatibility after we changed dramatically since marrying. We still love each other, but the Beatles were wrong, it’s not all you need.
I should actually be working 8h a day, but most of it is spend not working. If I’m honest I’m probably working more like 3h a day even though I enjoy my job.
Fuck. I have a psych appointment with a new psychiatrist next week and I am hoping to god she hears me and helps. I have SO MUCH that I’m constantly falling behind on and the fucking task paralysis will be the death of me. I hate watching myself make these moves when I know full well that I aught to be doing something different or not put that email off until tomorrow which turns into next week. I’m less than 2 months out from this fucking conference I’m building and I have no keynote speaker. Like…. Fuck. It’s just too big and I can’t even think about actually dealing with it.
I’m pretty set up with my app and don’t really wanna switch again. I went between like 5 or 6 apps and landed on this one a little while ago and it meets all my needs. Thanks for the rec though.
The club I help run is a Tamiya sponsored club and we host the PNW regionals every year. My first car that I raced was a TT02, and everything I race these days is tamiya because the other ROAR clubs are a bit more intense than I want to participate in.
My latest build was the new BBX which I won at regionals this year 3 weeks before it released. It’s a rad little buggy!
That’s fuckin rad. I thought about monkey branching into that, but then I realized it’s a 100% different hobby with almost zero crossover with racing RC cars, which put it right out of budget for me. Looks like a blast though.
Yea, there are a couple tiers of ikea quality, and it’s clearly reflected in the price.
I spent $600 on a king size tufted headboard and box spring set and it’s been a tank for 10 years. I bought a $400 tv console and it’s similarly been a tank for 12 years.
I bought a cheap table for my dorm room and it didn’t survive the year.
First and foremost the headline is intended to make it sound like Spotify is losing that money. Just look at the comments here and you can see that it’s very commonly misunderstood.
That said, opportunity cost is considered an irrelevant cost.
A relevant cost deals with actual cash flow, and opportunity cost is vapor because it doesn’t actually hit the ledger in any way. It’s nothing more than a way to express potential revenue changes, which are really just educated guesses.
If opportunity costs were meaningful at all then every business would be losing trillions of dollars.
Trump surrenders in Georgia election subversion case (www.cnn.com)
See the link for the long-awaited mugshot
Over half of Americans say they're not even close to financial freedom (scrippsnews.com)
How many hours a day do you actually work?
I should actually be working 8h a day, but most of it is spend not working. If I’m honest I’m probably working more like 3h a day even though I enjoy my job.
It's amazing how much more functional we are as a whole when we're medicated
I take Ritalin 10mg on a needs basis since I generally have functioned ‘alright’ into adulthood....
"America's Mayor" (lemmy.world)
No context (sopuli.xyz)
Every Lemmy user complaining about the porn in all (files.catbox.moe)
What is a hobby you enjoy, but seems too quirky or obscure to bring up in most conversations?
Mine would be creating pen and paper ciphers for my made up secret communication needs.
I helped Trump commit crimes, why isn't he funding my defense? (lemmy.world)
what's next? (feddit.de)
Ikea (discuss.tchncs.de)
The poop post (lemmy.ca)
Lemmy might, MIGHT have a small bias towards the left (lemm.ee)
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**BLUE BEETLE Discussion Megapost** 2023-08-18 🪲🦸 (lemmy.film)
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