I make $85,000 a year and I am barely surviving in this economy

Excellent!

You fellas who keep talking about the 85k is missing the point - which is - it doens't matter how much you make - they are taking away the middle class.

In London that is a working class wage at 1pond to 2 dollars.

With a wife that doesnt work and kids and a mortgage im not surprised, in fact im surprised that your not starving.

Solution = get your wife to work. When are people going to realize that only those that are earning an upper middle class wage and above can sustain a housewife.
regards
Jules

Wait until the super committee eliminates the mortgage interest deduction, OP. Then you're really fucked, along with the rest of the middle class.

What's so great about being middle class?

All of my insurance went up 20% across the board this year. Health insurance has gone from $300/qtr to $1700/qtr in 10 years. With less coverage. That's a 20% increase every year for 10 years. And, that's not even family coverage.

Middle class is better than low class

Sucks to be you.

$85k is pretty good money OP. Now that you've listed your grievances, why don't you list your true debt to income? Toys, loans, mortgage, credit cards, and we'll see how much you really are eroding.

Champagne lifestyle is a bitch once things get tough. Not saying this is you OP but it sure goes for the majority of the USA. People have no clue how to live within their means.
Quoting: Sedi


Ok - I will.

I have one car (2007 hyundai tucson). I bought it used from Car max for $16,000 which I paid off in about 2 1/2 years.

I have $8200 on my credit card (mostly from my divorce in 2008). I ran out of money during the divorce and needed to put some of my lawyer fees on this card. I'm slowly paying this down, however, and hopefully can get it paid off by the end of the year (the original balance was much much higher).

I don't really have any "toys" like a boat, or fancy car, or something like that. I don't take any vacations.

I don't believe my lifestyle qualifies as excessive or outside my means. Just saying if things continue to increase in costs, eventually I will "erode away" ....
--------------
OP you can save money on the credit card payment
just get a bank loan for the balance owing
..the interest rate will be far lower..
and you can pay off that debt more quickly.

you may also save money on the mortgage by shopping
around for a lower rate.

write down in a book or diary every cent you spend
per week fortnight monthly and look
at areas where you can save a few dollars..
simple things like turning off the hot water
heater when you arent home or needing hot water
can save you a lot of money over a year.
you might then be able to afford a holiday.

have you considered one of these?

[link to www.earthship.com]

Might be the answer...

Sounds like someone has his own broken economy. Dude needs to scale back, sell some of his shit and buy a smaller house. I do just fine on my measly 40k.

Not necessarily. A lot of people THINK they get a mortgage deduction when in fact they do not because they don't do their own taxes and don't see that they are just walking out with the standard deduction. I've been a homeowner for almost 20 years and have never paid enough interest to write it off. Even if you do pay enough to itemize and write it off, you are really only getting the advantage of the amount over the standard deduction.

Thank you. I do fear this, as I've heard rumblings that they want to take away tax deductions. Just another chip away at what was once middle class america.

this
i'm on 16k a year and cruisin' . Eat for 25euros a week, no prob

You're doin it wrong.

Ugh, eat what?

i own my home outright. no apartment.

He is divorced. But he does have a roommate now.

And having a wife that works is only good if you don't have daycare costs which can be astronomical. Well, unless she makes way more than the cost of daycare which these days in unlikely.

don't smoke pot and if ye think i'm full of shit ye've got another shit coming. just because yer too damn stupid to figure out how to do it don't mean it can't be done. life is good for me. yer on yer own.

Your biggest problem is in BOLD.

If you can't live VERY well on that salary (especially with no family to support)...there is something very wrong.

Bingo. 10$ says OP buys a lot of name brand shit, shops at walfart, and doesn't eat bulk foods. I bet if I went through OP's house I would find endless CRAP OP doesn't need, and I bet OP could take public transit much of the time when he drives.

Americans think "middle America" is some low end thing. NOPE> AMERICA WAS AND IS SPOILED and now you're realizing living this way was never sustainable to begin with.

I make 3500 per year...
You should go to an island no civilisation no taxes no banks..

Lots of people keep telling me to "sell the house and get a cheaper one"... well it's not that easy. My house is worth less than what I paid for it. $60,000 less. Meaning if I sell the house, I would still owe the banks money - basically have to repay the difference. The money I put into the house is already gone.

I did consider walking away from the house and taking the Obama tax safe haven, where you can get off the hook from having the pay taxes on a short sale. I came very close to doing that in 2010. But being 40, I didn't want to take a hit to my credit - which is trashed during that process.

SO I opted to keep the house and refinance into a slightly better interest rate (from 6% to 4.5%). And took a roommate instead. This has helped a bit, yes.

But the point being of this thread is to show that, although I have worked hard to increase my delta (spendable cash), things are changing in the economy and the cost of living is slowly going up.

Most of my "spendable cash" goes towards paying off credit card debt right now (or other things like house repairs, or car repairs, etc etc...)

LOL, you've got it made in the shade compared to me slim.

OP, why don't you itemize your monthly expses. Write it all down, what foods you buy, what you spend on EVERYTHING, and how much you make. THen the truth will hit you like a ton of bricks: You are full of CRAP.

Not correct. I do grocery shop for myself and my teenage daughter who lives with me full time. I don't have time to do coupon shopping or fuss with coupons, but I do try to shop smart as I can with what time I do have. I don't eat out very often, and I cannot take public transportation to my work. I have a back yard where I could grow some food, but again - being a full-time W9 wage earner and a single dad I just don't have time time to manage it. I did try to grow some vegetables this year on my back porch, but I had trouble getting them to grow and probably needed to move them to the yard, I don't know.

You are certainly free to look around my house, I have an "old school" tube TV in my living room and in my bedroom. I have an XBOX I purchased refurbished about 4 years ago. I have an old couch that my dad bought me 14 years ago... I still use it. It has some torn parts, but otherwise still there.

My bedroom has a cheap pine desk and cheap pine dresser that I got from a co-worker that was moving back to Germany. He gave me that along with some other items for like $80 like 2 years ago.

I do have cable and internet in my house, but I don't go to movies very often. I have a netflix subscription, so I don't rent movies anymore.

I'm not living lavishly like you want to believe.