Lindsey23
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| Why Am I poor |
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I'm siting here wondering why am I poor, and how did i make it before, Between my husband and I we Make around 85K /yr That may seem like a lot to some but we struggle and struggle, I'm just wondering is this common, We have a 4 bedroom 3 bath 2 car garage house that cost us 160k, I think thats a reasonable house for the money we make, but when u add student loans, car payment, child support and all the other misc expenses, there seem to be hardly anything left. can someone that in the same income range please tell me if you have similar issues!!!
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Tue Apr 12, 2011 6:45 pm |
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littleroc02us
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We make 90k and we are thriving at this point in our lives. My wife is 31 and I just turned 40. We have no debt except our mortgage and the reason being is we got crazy busy about eliminating debt as fast as we could. The only thing we did stupid was buy at the top of the market on our house, but we can easily afford it. Right now we are trying to lower our mortgage down to 50%.
Your main issue as far as I can tell is that you need to eliminate your school loans, cc debt, cars, etc... Your mortgage is great for your income, I'm not sure why you don't have enough money to knock off the debt. Are you on a budget?
Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing. (Warren Buffet)
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Tue Apr 12, 2011 7:28 pm |
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pobox2001
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My guess is that it's because of the "student loans, car payment, child support" payments. It's amazing how quickly a few payments that individually are not too bad, in total, will bleed your account dry.
Focus on paying off one or more ASAP - maybe sell the car and get something cheaper (not enough info to know).
Debt reduction is the surest way to wealth building.
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Tue Apr 12, 2011 9:31 pm |
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tmiller9909
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Location: Wisconsin
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I think you answered your own question...
1 = "and how did I make it before"
I assume this means you made less money before, and your living expenses were also lower.
2 = "student loans, car payment, child support"
It sounds like you have a lot of debt. How much do you owe on the student loans? Car? How much child support do you pay?
Keep track of exactly what you spend your money on and you can see exactly why you feel poor.
To answer your question as you asked it, I am in a similar income level, though I am single and do not have children, and I rent a 1BR apartment. I make $75-80k per year. I feel rich.. or at least I feel very confident about my future financially. I've finished paying off my student loans and car (and did not buy another car) - and I've started saving a lot of money. I've kept very close track of my spending and earnings the last 6 months, and doing so gives a very nice feeling of control and encourages me to make better financial choices.
Through my tracking I know that my minimum expenses right now are around $1,200-$1,500 per month, my actuals average around $1,900, I spend XYZ on my hobbies... I'm saving XYZ per month... etc...
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Wed Apr 13, 2011 3:02 am |
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Volume
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I agree to pobox, there are many bills that when take individually seem to do no harm to the budget, but when we do math they are pretty leading to a debt hole.
Good Luck in your financial life!
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Wed Apr 13, 2011 9:03 am |
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NolaP
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What are the misc. expenses? Are you spending regularly on stuff you want but don't need? Can you set aside a small amount of money to invest each pay check, and set up a plan to pay down all your debts? It might take some work, but it sounds like making a budget will be your first step. Good luck!
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Wed Apr 13, 2011 3:58 pm |
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AtoZ
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It seems you have some debt that needs to be dealt with first. Also would be helpful I'm guessing to keep track of expenditures for a couple months and establish a household budget.
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Wed Apr 13, 2011 5:32 pm |
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terrancebrandt
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Joined: 01 Mar 2011
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You are poor cos you let yourself be poor.
I know that is an old saying but it is usually true. So do not let yourself down, work as if you do not sleep!
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Fri Apr 15, 2011 3:24 pm |
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Adriennebanker
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It occurs to me that there are only 2 choices a person can make. Either you earn big to spend big, or be content to live within your means. First thing you need to do is to
1. curtail your spending
2. find any additional means of income
3. do not make any more loans
This is all so simple and I can't figure out why a lot of people try to deny this. If you can't make money, don't spend it!
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Fri Apr 15, 2011 4:45 pm |
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martin47
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I am poor i want to be come rich very fast, i was rich before...
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Mon Apr 18, 2011 9:42 am |
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yandy369
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| rich? |
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what does rich mean actually? one million USD or one billion USD or happiness?
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Mon Apr 18, 2011 3:44 pm |
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spendherenotthere.net
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Location: not in debt
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Lindsey23,
I read your post and know your exact feeling. Four years ago, my wife and I were more than 140k in debt with a take home pay a little less than yours. I was so mad at the debt. I knew that if we did not do something that we would spend most of our lives in debt and never have dominion of our finances.
We went crazy spending every dime that we could find to pay off our debt. We drastically spent less on certain items and plowed every debt that we could. During the process, we developed a budget or what we called our financial pyramid that shaped the priority of our spending. With this, we were able to spend more on debt elimination than on any other category of spending.
Four years later, we paid off $140k in debt. We have over 8 months of expenses in our reserves and amount equal to one year's take home pay invested. When we paid off our last student loan and did not owe anything other than our first mortgage, I thought it was awesome, but the feeling now is even better than 8 months ago as we are now making more interest than we were paying on that 140k in debt.
It took some work and incredible focus but it is doable and man is it worth it. You can do it too.
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Tue Apr 19, 2011 1:49 pm |
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cccfree
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Someone once told me (a mentor who was pretty wealthy), "It's not how much you make, it's how much you save."
He was the same guy who said, "It's not about getting rick quick, it's about getting rich slowly and appreciating it."
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Wed Apr 20, 2011 7:54 pm |
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spendherenotthere.net
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Location: not in debt
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I agree with cccfree totally. All that I hear from most people that I know is complaints about what they make and that the other person makes more money. Even for people that make well more money than us, I always hear that their money does not go too far and that they deserve more money.
About two years ago, I stopped looking at the amount of our take home pay as the most important thing and instead looked at the amount that we could take from our take home pay and spend on either debt elimination or some type of investing. spend here not there. This radical change in thinking has lead to an awesome feat: for the past two years the change in our net worth has been equal to or more than the amount of our take home pay. Also, as cccfree says, it takes time and the journey is likely to be the best part.
We are also enjoying the ability to make donations.
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Thu Apr 21, 2011 12:56 pm |
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