Single income possible for men who can actually make a living.
is single income possible now?
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Last: 2 yr ago by numetalbizkitaggie
I had a conversation with a dad who's kids did the travel/elite sports. His comments were that so many parents think that if they do that level of competition, their kid will get some level of athletic scholarship. He then commented that families would be a lot better off if they didn't do the travel/elite sports and they just put that money towards the kid's college funds.
I think there is a lot of truth to that. My boys play football, but they also liked basketball so AAU allowed for them to play a longer season against better competition as well as stay in shape. The AAU stuff is crazy.
Yes consumption is a part of it. But tax burden is huge as well.
As to Dave Ramsey, he doesn't advise anything your grandmother wouldn't, but he really undervalues the value of debt, used with discipline.
However, my biggest Ramsey peeve, is he uses churches to sell his very profitable product to people, based upon the "benefit" of advising giving to the church. Somewhere between distasteful and downright scammy on the part of both parties.
As to Dave Ramsey, he doesn't advise anything your grandmother wouldn't, but he really undervalues the value of debt, used with discipline.
However, my biggest Ramsey peeve, is he uses churches to sell his very profitable product to people, based upon the "benefit" of advising giving to the church. Somewhere between distasteful and downright scammy on the part of both parties.
that is correct FOR NOWLogos Stick said:
One thing to note: SS is indexed against inflation. That part will be ok. SS recipients got a huge raise the last two years.
what happens in the future?
considering these pay increases to SS TODAY- just made the entire Social Security trust fund go insolvent a year earlier than we thought
so now it's 2032 rather than 2033 that Social Security is insolvent
who is going to be paying the inflation adjusted monthly disbursements when there is no money?
Quote:
One thing to note: SS is indexed against inflation. That part will be ok. SS recipients got a huge raise the last two years.
Yeah, my net increase after MediCare premium deduction was $31!! Woo hoo...
Humble brag, but I'm fortunate that the SS check is wine and travel budget only.
I get called frugal all the time. Was called cheap last week and promptly corrected them to at least use the term frugal.JaneDoe02 said:
I was blessed with a hardworking husband and was able to stay home when our kids were small. I work now. We recently became empty nesters and decided to downsize our house. We bought a 1500 sq ft house in a good neighborhood (smallest/cheapest house in the better neighborhood).
We put about 80% down (proceeds from the previous house) and then pounded away at the mortgage and paid it off in under a year (7.5% interest rate is a good motivator).
Everyone thought we were crazy. We got rid of a ton of stuff. It was hard but it's been great. Very freeing.
But the surprising part is that almost no one was supportive of the move. People turned their noses up at us for buying such a little house. Relatives literally came in and stood in the middle of the living room and looked around and said "is this it?". They thought we must be having money problems when we told them we were planning to downsize. People said things like "I could never live in such a little house" !!!! It's still 1500 sq feet, single family 3/2/2. It's not like it's a tiny home but you'd think that's what it was the way people acted. My coworkers thought we must be broke. My husband's friends thought I was forcing him to give up his big shop and sell his stuff.
This is the same kind of crap people have to deal with if they say we're going to scrimp and have mom stay home with the kids. Something's wrong with our American culture that you have to have a huge house and all the latest and greatest stuff. I didn't drink the Dave Ramsey Kool-Aid but his principals on getting on a budget, staying out of debt and paying off your house are pretty spot on.
I had to snap back and basically tell them that I save a certain percentage first, no ifs ands or buts about it. What's left over is what I can spend on things I enjoy. They didn't seem to grasp that concept. They buy what they want / mostly just perceive they need. If there is anything left over, they may save. But even usually, it's just into a regular savings so that they can buy the next new Iphone or big screen TV. That's just what 90% of American's do. They can't grasp the concept of saving first. Being financially responsible first. Having certain percentages for certain things. etc. Ie, being on a legitimate budget and living below your means, even if you can afford much more.
We actually have two incomes, but still bought our home at 1487 SF a couple years ago. We could have easily bought the 2200 SF home in our neighborhood. Because of this, we could easily live off one of our incomes. Had we bought the more expensive house, we likely couldn't. Or at the least, we wouldn't be able to save and have to watch every single dollar carefully rather than having some wiggle room now and still saving a bunch.
BrazosDog02 said:
Dude….you should check out 5 Guys…..I used to quite enjoy their food. Last time I went it was over 20 bucks. Burger. Fries. Drink. It was a lot. I ate it slow and enjoyed it but havnt been back. It's crazy out there.
Benny and I went to Wahlburgers a few weeks ago
He had a burger and fries and a soda.
I had a chicken Sandwich and a side salad and water
35 dollars. And he told me the bacon patty melt at Waffle House was better.
What happens in the future? We print more money, just as we have been for decades.LMCane said:that is correct FOR NOWLogos Stick said:
One thing to note: SS is indexed against inflation. That part will be ok. SS recipients got a huge raise the last two years.
what happens in the future?
considering these pay increases to SS TODAY- just made the entire Social Security trust fund go insolvent a year earlier than we thought
so now it's 2032 rather than 2033 that Social Security is insolvent
who is going to be paying the inflation adjusted monthly disbursements when there is no money?
Funny you bring this up as my wife & I laugh when most parents think their kids has scholarship as their middle name.StandUpforAmerica said:
I had a conversation with a dad who's kids did the travel/elite sports. His comments were that so many parents think that if they do that level of competition, their kid will get some level of athletic scholarship. He then commented that families would be a lot better off if they didn't do the travel/elite sports and they just put that money towards the kid's college funds.
I am sure that my kid will NOT get a scholarship along with 99% of the kids she travels with/play against to any decent school. If you want to go to some small div III, then go ahead but I rather them go to a good school than go to a poor academic school just to play at some throw away athletic program.
Parents are delusional. My girl is a probably the best VB on her team and she will never make Div I. But most of the parents think their kids are destined for scholarships.
We put our kids in club sports b/c they want to plus its a healthy benefit. Better to pay $$$ now and teach healthy habits than pay $$$ later on an unhealthy obese teenager.
Each club Travel sport is essentially a private school education. Its expensive and a single income family making 100K pretax CAN NOT afford it. We prob spent close to 20K on her club VB team last year.
Impossible to argue this. Love it.
Another thing that irks me are these parents/kids thinks making B's are fine b/c they will get an athletic scholarship to college. WTH? Cringe worthy.
Some marginal middle class family puts all their $$ into the kids club sports and saved nothing for college. One even told me that there is not reason to save for college b/c she will get a scholarship. This girl WILL NOT get a scholarship. When you are an outsider hitter and 5'7', you are not going to be an outside hitter in college.
Some marginal middle class family puts all their $$ into the kids club sports and saved nothing for college. One even told me that there is not reason to save for college b/c she will get a scholarship. This girl WILL NOT get a scholarship. When you are an outsider hitter and 5'7', you are not going to be an outside hitter in college.
You won't get an argument from me. I agree whole heartadeltly and I don't even have kids. You are 1000% spot on.
Well you got it financially right
If you make 100K/yr and have no kids, you can live like a king
If you make 100K/yr and have no kids, you can live like a king
We're a one income family. My wife quit her job almost 3 years ago. It's tight but it's doable. The insane cost for childcare these days was a huge reason for us.
The cost for our 2 oldest at the time was just shy of our mortgage payment.
The cost for our 2 oldest at the time was just shy of our mortgage payment.
Echoing what others have said: it's doable. Your house will be smaller than your friends. You will eat out less than your friends. You will go in less vacations than your friends. You will have older vehicles than your friends. Your kids will be better off than your friends kids. Your wife will be happier than your friends wives.
Ha Ha - I quit going to 5 Guys because they were idiots during the Summer of Floyd.BrazosDog02 said:
Dude….you should check out 5 Guys…..I used to quite enjoy their food. Last time I went it was over 20 bucks. Burger. Fries. Drink. It was a lot. I ate it slow and enjoyed it but havnt been back. It's crazy out there.
You could come in the store and order but you had to wait and eat outside in your car @ 108F in Phoenix.
And THIS is the biggest issue.The Banned said:
Echoing what others have said: it's doable. Your house will be smaller than your friends. You will eat out less than your friends. You will go in less vacations than your friends. You will have older vehicles than your friends. Your kids will be better off than your friends kids. Your wife will be happier than your friends wives.
Many people aren't willing to make this sacrifice. They NEED their latest iPhone and 16K TV and leased car and to live 0.000000000001 miles from work even if their house costs 85% of their net income.
i am not involved in female select sports, but have many friends with boys in select and i am unsure any believe they will get scholarships.StandUpforAmerica said:
I had a conversation with a dad who's kids did the travel/elite sports. His comments were that so many parents think that if they do that level of competition, their kid will get some level of athletic scholarship. He then commented that families would be a lot better off if they didn't do the travel/elite sports and they just put that money towards the kid's college funds.
in my ideal world, there would be no sports scholarships.
The whole "my kid's going to get a scholarship" idea is overblown. We only played with a couple of families like that, but it was truly the kid's goal and not the parents.
We did it as a way to spend more time together as a family and as a healthy activity for my son. The other reality is that if you want to play a skill based sport as a Varsity High School athlete you aren't getting there without playing Travel/Select unless you are a freakish athlete or at a 3A or lower school.
We did it as a way to spend more time together as a family and as a healthy activity for my son. The other reality is that if you want to play a skill based sport as a Varsity High School athlete you aren't getting there without playing Travel/Select unless you are a freakish athlete or at a 3A or lower school.
And football is the one sport where at the HS level you're married to your school coach, regardless if it's best for your son or not. The other sports all allow for choice of team.
Can't you get the same family time and participation in a local rec sports league?Quote:
We did it as a way to spend more time together as a family and as a healthy activity for my son.
Sethtevious said:Can't you get the same family time and participation in a local rec sports league?Quote:
We did it as a way to spend more time together as a family and as a healthy activity for my son.
Family time, sure. Participation, no not even close. Rec leagues have shorter seasons with only a single game on game day and less practice time. More importantly you don't get the same quality of coaching or high enough level of competition once you get to the 12yo+ ages
JaneDoe02 said:
I was blessed with a hardworking husband and was able to stay home when our kids were small. I work now. We recently became empty nesters and decided to downsize our house. We bought a 1500 sq ft house in a good neighborhood (smallest/cheapest house in the better neighborhood).
We put about 80% down (proceeds from the previous house) and then pounded away at the mortgage and paid it off in under a year (7.5% interest rate is a good motivator).
Everyone thought we were crazy. We got rid of a ton of stuff. It was hard but it's been great. Very freeing.
But the surprising part is that almost no one was supportive of the move. People turned their noses up at us for buying such a little house. Relatives literally came in and stood in the middle of the living room and looked around and said "is this it?". They thought we must be having money problems when we told them we were planning to downsize. People said things like "I could never live in such a little house" !!!! It's still 1500 sq feet, single family 3/2/2. It's not like it's a tiny home but you'd think that's what it was the way people acted. My coworkers thought we must be broke. My husband's friends thought I was forcing him to give up his big shop and sell his stuff.
This is the same kind of crap people have to deal with if they say we're going to scrimp and have mom stay home with the kids. Something's wrong with our American culture that you have to have a huge house and all the latest and greatest stuff. I didn't drink the Dave Ramsey Kool-Aid but his principals on getting on a budget, staying out of debt and paying off your house are pretty spot on.
VERY good post
I'm just curious, does your husband have a 'man cave' area where he can tinker to his heart's content?
We have to make sacrifices, but we're a single income family with 5 kids. We are very blessed, but I can tell you we are careful with money and seem to be doing well.
My family of five has been living off my one income for a little over 5 years. When I told my wife that I'd like her to stay home, she was pretty happy. We had a 1 yr old at the time and a junior high kid. My salary paid the bills and we could still add to savings.
We had a surprise daughter a year ago and the oldest is a freshman in college. My salary was enough to keep the bills paid, but the savings deposits dwindled. Now, with inflation, we started dipping into savings and my wife has started a Facebook business of selling baked goods.
The cookie game has paid for the collegiate's housing and utility bill ( hes in the John Deere tech program and living in a travel trailer), but we are cutting back on a lot of things recently.
10 years ago my salary would have provided a very comfortable living for my family and we would be able to stash money in savings, even with the new addition. Now, it's just trying to keep our head above water until my bonus hits.
We had a surprise daughter a year ago and the oldest is a freshman in college. My salary was enough to keep the bills paid, but the savings deposits dwindled. Now, with inflation, we started dipping into savings and my wife has started a Facebook business of selling baked goods.
The cookie game has paid for the collegiate's housing and utility bill ( hes in the John Deere tech program and living in a travel trailer), but we are cutting back on a lot of things recently.
10 years ago my salary would have provided a very comfortable living for my family and we would be able to stash money in savings, even with the new addition. Now, it's just trying to keep our head above water until my bonus hits.
You would have thought you'd notice something in the 9 months before she was born.gkaggie08 said:
My family of five has been living off my one income for a little over 5 years. When I told my wife that I'd like her to stay home, she was pretty happy. We had a 1 yr old at the time and a junior high kid. My salary paid the bills and we could still add to savings.
We had a surprise daughter a year ago and the oldest is a freshman in college. My salary was enough to keep the bills paid, but the savings deposits dwindled. Now, with inflation, we started dipping into savings and my wife has started a Facebook business of selling baked goods.
The cookie game has paid for the collegiate's housing and utility bill ( hes in the John Deere tech program and living in a travel trailer), but we are cutting back on a lot of things recently.
10 years ago my salary would have provided a very comfortable living for my family and we would be able to stash money in savings, even with the new addition. Now, it's just trying to keep our head above water until my bonus hits.
Keep fighting the good fight and count yourself lucky that your wife hustles.
I worked with a sales guy in Australia who was convinced his kid was going to be a professional racing driver.Quote:
Each club Travel sport is essentially a private school education. Its expensive and a single income family making 100K pretax CAN NOT afford it. We prob spent close to 20K on her club VB team last year.
He was spending $20k-$40k per year on his kid going to races and talked about how his racing team was one of the poorest in the competition. He said most of the other teams had their own semi (in Australia, what is called a "B-Double") and brought two cars to races - for teenagers.
Once his kid was about 14-15, he had to decide whether to keep the kid making passing grades in school, or to essentially give up on school and focus on driving. They chose driving.
That would have been in 2019 when we had those conversations so I guess I should do some online stalking and figure out if his kid ever made it. His surname was not Piastri or Ricciardo.
Some light internet stalking shows him racing as recently as last year in the Australia Toyota 86 Series. Not exactly the V8 Supercars. Maybe it will still work out for him.
Some really good posts on this thread. Americans are really brainwashed into over-consumption.
We're on one salary, but I'm very fortunate to be where I'm at. We save for everything just in case I have a career change later. But at the same time, we live a very comfortable and entertaining lifestyle.
That said, inflation has screwed everyone the last several years. If we can feel it, I don't know how lots of folks are scraping by. Particularly when they aren't accustomed to cutting budgets.
We're on one salary, but I'm very fortunate to be where I'm at. We save for everything just in case I have a career change later. But at the same time, we live a very comfortable and entertaining lifestyle.
That said, inflation has screwed everyone the last several years. If we can feel it, I don't know how lots of folks are scraping by. Particularly when they aren't accustomed to cutting budgets.
StandUpforAmerica said:
I had a conversation with a dad who's kids did the travel/elite sports. His comments were that so many parents think that if they do that level of competition, their kid will get some level of athletic scholarship. He then commented that families would be a lot better off if they didn't do the travel/elite sports and they just put that money towards the kid's college funds.
Only one kid in all my 3 competitive teams I played in made it to the big leagues and he's still a minor league outfielder, his dad was a MLB player for a few seasons. He literally had it in his genes since he ended up being taller, stronger, faster than any of us now.
Only thing I got from competitive play was ruined joints lol.
As to the livability question. I think the cost of cars is quite absurd today. I use a truck for work frequently (not heavy towing, just large objects that can't fit vans).
Cheapest truck today is a found on road dead (due to electronic failure ) maverick at 25k pre tax. That's half the median income of the average American (55k pre taxes). I'm sorry but the 7'+ old Ford Ranger r/S10 are a much better investment if you can keep it maintained.
And I can keep the old engines alive much longer than a current day Ranger. Matter of fact the only real failure I've seen is the clutch aside from fuse box and electronic parts
They're not. They're hitting up food banks to round out their groceries each week. The rest of the time, they go online and complain about the capitalist society, and tout the benefits of communism. Printing more money and resulting inflation is a benefit to the morons running our country right now, not a bug. The Dems want more communists, they all think the same.dreyOO said:
Some really good posts on this thread. Americans are really brainwashed into over-consumption.
We're on one salary, but I'm very fortunate to be where I'm at. We save for everything just in case I have a career change later. But at the same time, we live a very comfortable and entertaining lifestyle.
That said, inflation has screwed everyone the last several years. If we can feel it, I don't know how lots of folks are scraping by. Particularly when they aren't accustomed to cutting budgets.
This, but also not unnecessarily becoming a debt slave.Whirligigs said:
Single income possible for men who can actually make a living.
I paid back my student loans as quickly as possible and then paid off my truck. That allowed me to save the down-payment needed.
There is a roadmap to do it, even today. It just takes a significant amount of discipline and self-improvement.
Keller6Ag91
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