Average retirement savings

[spiders]

You make it sound so easy. Congrats on having it all figured out

It is pretty easy once you understand basic math. But you go ahead and rent that 1,800 sq foot apartment/house on $15 per hour. I personally went with the 700-800 sq foot places when I got out of college but you do you. Live that dream, baby.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Growing up my mothers pay was less than our incoming bills and that was with basic living expenses (no phone, no cable, no car, no new clothes). You basically live your life robbing Peter to pay Paul. Each month you decide which bill you won’t pay and hope it doesn’t get shut off. God forbid an emergency comes up. Saving money and saving for retirement wasn’t in the equation. Some will never understand the struggle.

 

[DLgal]

www.uhaul.com

Um, tell that to the Unites States Marine Corps. We have been ordered to live here.

 

[RamblingMad]

Growing up my mothers pay was less than our incoming bills and that was with basic living expenses (no phone, no cable, no car, no new clothes). You basically live your life robbing Peter to pay Paul. Each month you decide which bill you won’t pay and hope it doesn’t get shut off. God forbid an emergency comes up. Saving money and saving for retirement wasn’t in the equation. Some will never understand the struggle.

This was my one friends growing up. His dad was hit and killed by a bus. They didn't have a plan for this happening, so his mom ended up going back to work. And they lived in slum apartments. Retirement saving wasn't on the radar. Eating a good meal and staying warm was most important.

 

[DLgal]

]

And I would love to know how you just know that no one is paying that?? Where do you get that info from? Rents here are insane. We paid $1100 13 years ago for a one bedroom. I can’t image what the rent is now.

You quoted the wrong person...

 

[mi*vida*loca]

This was my one friend growing up. His dad will hit and killed by the bus. They didn't have a plan for this happening, so she ended up going back to work. And they lived in slum apartments. Retirement saving wasn't on the radar. Eating a good meal and staying warm was most important.

That was my entire neighborhood. It’s real life for so many.

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

Wise move. My parents stayed in their starter home. We stayed in our "next one up from starter" home, but still a modest home. (We moved to be in a better school district.) I grew up hearing the mantra "You can't eat your house," essentially meaning don't let your house become a burden in hard times.



LOL! I was thinking $900 obviously meant roommates were sharing. I totally agree with getting roommates to share expenses and always had them until I married at 29. Right now in our area to get $900 rent, you'd probably be looking at a 3 bdm modest house split 3 ways. You couldn't get that splitting a 2 bdm apt. You might find it splitting a one bedroom. The way to get it for sure would be to find a homeowner renting out a room.

My DS shares an old small 1940s 4 bedroom house with 3 other guys in Northern Virginia. They each pay $900 a month, and that’s a bargain where they live! They could live further out and pay less if they were willing to commute 1 to 1.5 hours each way. Traffic in NoVa is atrocious.

 

[RamblingMad]

That was my entire neighborhood. It’s real life for so many.

That was about a quarter of my neighborhood. Lots of kids getting free lunch. Our education system really set us up to fail. We didn't get the same opportunities or classes kids in rich neighborhoods received. I know this now as an adult.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

That was about a quarter of my neighborhood. Lots of kids getting free lunch. Our education system really set us up to fail. We didn't get the same opportunities or classes kids in rich neighborhoods received. I know this now as an adult.

Yes. Definitely. That's a whole other thread for another day.

 

[Donald13]

It is pretty easy once you understand basic math. But you go ahead and rent that 1,800 sq foot apartment/house on $15 per hour. I personally went with the 700-800 sq foot places when I got out of college but you do you. Live that dream, baby.

You have to be kidding me. And I never said I even rented so throw your insults to someone else. I own my home. But learn basic reading skills and you will understand that.

 

[spiders]

You have to be kidding me. And I never said I even rented so throw your insults to someone else. I own my home. But learn basic reading skills and you will understand that.

But yet you were responding to my comment about how people need to live in something smaller than 1,800 square feet if they’re making $15 per hour. As if that is some mind-blowing concept.

 

[kymom99]

I think people thought because there was only 1 income in you scenario that the $500 figure you used was meant to feed 1 person.
Most would agree that It would be nearly impossible to feed 2 adults for a month on $250.

Or a single parent with kids

 

[Donald13]

Just ftr, I think most people on here are completely out of touch with reality. No we don’t need a $844 car payment but we can have a little bit of debt and not be the devil. I think it’s unrealistic to tell others to save even 10% of your check each week. You have no idea what others circumstances are. I usually stay away from these types of threads but the pretentiousness is too much to not say something.

 

[mrodgers]

I am specifically saying no one is paying that much for utilities on something that rents for $900.

And regardless of your area, you’re probably not living in 1,800 square feet on $15 per hour. If you are then that’s your first problem: find something smaller.

Seriously? We started out in a mobile, 996 sq foot. We bought a house, 1007 sq ft. Extremely small for a family of 4 but it was what we could afford. That's the largest I've ever been in, and now I am again in a 996 sq foot mobile.

Both the house and my place now I usually hit about $1200/winter for heating oil. I was actually shocked about this place as I have the original single pane windows (18 of the freakin things) and I still only spend $1200/year. I thought it would cost a fortune. It is still a fortune compared to the temperature and the fact that I'm rarely home. Half of the time I'm home I'm sleeping so the furnace is only running from 5 p to 11p and dropped to 62 over night and all day. I'm use to years of spending that so it wasn't such a budget shock.

This is the first time I've ever had central air conditioning. My electric runs about $90 in winter and from $160-190 depending on how hot it is in the summer. The house didn't have air, it ran about $150 with a single window unit running. Very little difference between summer and winter.

The worst part is my furnace went out over Christmas the first year I moved in (it was 4°F in my living room) and I put a $5000 furnace in (not budgeted, it was only 6 months from starting at $0.) Then the next year, the landlord allowed them to come through and run natural gas. There was nothing I could do with having a brand new furnace and not paid for. Yeah yeah, I know, I was a complete moron for financing a furnace 6 months after a complete restart. Would love to know what the perfect ones would do in that situation. I suppose deal with it being 4° in your house until you could save up the $5k... I mean, eventually in the spring it would warm up...

 

[mrodgers]

It is pretty easy once you understand basic math. But you go ahead and rent that 1,800 sq foot apartment/house on $15 per hour. I personally went with the 700-800 sq foot places when I got out of college but you do you. Live that dream, baby.

See, you're thinking with your privilege. I'm not talking kids getting out of college. I work with hundreds of others that are my age making between $15-20. It took them 20-25 years to reach $20/hour. These are adults, married, with kids. Can't pay for daycare because daycare costs more than working so it's people with families making $15/hour. It's families that had good paying jobs in the 90's that went bye byes. You know, people that are from a time that if mommy and daddy didn't buy your college degree or you didn't get a scholarship, you didn't go to college.

 

[neverlandsky]

First home $150K, 3 bed/2.5 bath 1652 sq ft in LCOL, no State taxes. Higher car insurance, homeowners, registration, utilities, medical, etc. Also came with no career advancements. Sold after 7 years.

Rented for 4 years for career advancements.

Current home just under $400K, 3 bed/2 bath 1543 sq ft in HCOL, State taxes, yet had 2 career advancements by relocating to new State. Car insurance, registration, homeowners, utilities, medical, etc. are all cheaper. After 2+ years in one area, we wanted to settle down. Good thing too because Covid and remote work has made our area explode in growth. Rent is now more than our mortgage. Those coming from VHCOL (San Francisco, Orange County, CA.) are scooping up houses paying cash.

The market is crazy. Yet my point, LCOL might not seem like LCOL when you break it down if there’s no career advancements and things are more expensive even though the home is cheap.

Like previous poster said you can’t eat your home. The mortgage lenders said we could get $500K+ house. We said no. A real estate agent wouldn’t work with us cause we refused to go that high. Found one who would. Don’t let others dictate the home you get. They don’t care whether or not you can afford your home or not in lean times. Sharks are always swimming waiting to bite.

Suze Orman has said it the Best. “The best financial adviser out there is you”.

 

[GreatLakes]

Like previous poster said you can’t eat your home. The mortgage lenders said we could get $500K+ house. We said no. A real estate agent wouldn’t work with us cause we refused to go that high. Found one who would. Don’t let others dictate the home you get. They don’t care whether or not you can afford your home or not in lean times. Sharks are always swimming waiting to bite.

Suze Orman has said it the Best. “The best financial adviser out there is you”.

Just to piggy-back on this the amount I was pre-approved for when I bought my house was ridiculous. This was just before the 2008 housing crash and the debt to (unverified) income they were allowing for mortgages was unsustainable. I got something I could afford relatively easily that was big enough to stay in once I was married and had a kid if I wanted to. The banks were beyond stupid handing out the mortgages they were and the buyers were equally as stupid taking them up on the offer.

 

[spiders]

Edit: Forget it. There’s no point. Have a wonderful evening.

 

[tvguy]

LOL. You have never lived in California, I take it? Our rent is $3300, gas when we run the heater is around $75/month, and electric is around $150 as an average. This is for an 1800sq ft house. When we lived in an apartment, our utilities were not much less.

I would LOVE to pay only $900 for rent...

I am in California, as is my daughter. She stayed at home an extra year to save money for a down payment because rents here are nuts. She bought a small (919 square foot) 3 bedroom 1 bath duplex. She just refinanced to 2.65% for a 30 year mortgage, dropped her payment from $1,100 to $950 plus $300 a month for insurance and property taxes. She is surrounded by the same floor plan duplexes and they RENT for $1,700. She couldn't AFFORD to rent. Her duplex is all electric and her highest electric bill was this summer when it was 100 degrees out, and she keeps her house cold. Bill was $75.

 

[MrsPete]

But how do states like Kentucky, Illinois, and New Jersey attract any new state employees? They know they are going to pay into a pension system where they are going to have to take a huge haircut. I am lucky to live in Washington where the system is close to fully funded.

If you're talking about young people just entering the work world, they probably didn't think too much about pensions ... and it's pretty easy to get so far in that it's hard to go elsewhere and start over.

my husband works at a job that doesn’t pay great but the benefits used to be great. They have been stripped to nearly nothing and as a result they can’t find good workers.

Teaching is the same. When I started (can it really be almost three decades ago?), the deal was good: you'll never earn a big paycheck, but you'll have excellent benefits and a comfortable retirement. Now the benefits have been chiseled away bit by bit, and new teachers don't even get a pension.

if you rent you do not have to worry about water heaters breaking down. Plumbing problems you will also not have to worry about.

No, but you can expect your rent to increase every year, and you can't sell /recoup your investment.

Wise move. My parents stayed in their starter home.

One thing no one's mentioned: it's not always possible /advisable to stay in that small house you bought when you were young. Neighborhoods change for the worse, far-away jobs are offered, all sorts of things happen that make moving look very attractive -- even if "upgrading" isn't the goal.