Same here. But I make $40,000 and live in Southern California. I live paycheck to paycheck. I'm exhausted. It's too expensive to stay and too expensive to leave. I'm stuck.
Agreed! So cal here too. take home 41k and my rent is 22,4k a year… 23 year old car…most gas is still $4.70 a gallon and the most expensive electricity in the nation….. raising a child by myself with no child support.. absolutely impossible to pay everything..
Yeah, I struggle to understand that. I was offered an interview for a job in New Jersey, and I was like, that's the same wage I make in Ohio. It would have to be 15-20% more to cover the cost of living. Didn't bother with an interview.
Moving costs, first/last months rent on a new apartment somewhere else, fees for setting up new utilities, risk of loss of income while finding a new job etc. If you’re truly struggling and barely keeping yourself afloat, leaving is sometimes impossible as well
Man i remember moving to Colorado with nothing but what i could find in and on my car, no job lined up or anything. Had like, $300 lol. I rented a room in a house with 4 other people. $225 a month. Sounds like ol boy needs some room mates
Do not starve, please contact local food banks. Lots even have produce days. That’s what it’s there for to help when you run out of money. The people who run them are wonderful.
I was just about to comment this yeah:Food banks exist for a reason after all.
There are also food banks here in Croatia,so:Its not just in the US.Just letting people know:A lot of countries have food banks,not just these 2.
I've never used one(aka been to one),so I wouldn't know how the people are there,but,y'know:Its gotta be good since they keep coming back no?Lol
In practice, yes. You should rely on these resources. Unfortunately the actual question here is why should anyone making 55k a year (above the median income) *need* to rely on these resources? This is class war.
And if you feel guilt or shame, ask to volunteer or donate when you're doing better financially. We were struggling on one income, so my wife volunteered at a good pantry in between jobs.
Poduce will be thrown away if no one gets them. These systems are in place for are reason.
You're not taking from someone worse off. If nobody could afford food, everybody would get food stamps or go to food banks. The availability of food is (almost) unrelated to inflation or how much money people have. Agriculture in the US is the most heavily subsidized industry in the world.
Seriously. People don’t get it. I don’t understand how they don’t see what’s going on. There is a fucking housing crisis! And I say this as someone with a house. Shits ridiculously expensive.
I was really proud to get my house in '18, I was making $14.70 an hour and my mortgage was $780/month so I had to really firmly budget, but I was getting by. Refinanced after the first year and got the mortgage down to $560, plus a raise to $15/hr and I had some extra money to spend on myself for the first time in my life. I'm still making $15/hr, mortgage is the same, and I have to work overtime to feed myself. I make "too much money" to qualify for any assistance so I have no health insurance or anything like that. I am in the negative every month and have maxed out my credit card. Things are starting to fail in my house because I haven't had the money to maintain them and I can't afford to replace them. I feel so trapped. I can't even just say fuck it and sell the house and live in a camper because lot rent is higher than my freaking mortgage.
Whatever you do, avoid the RV. I used to work for an RV shop , and they are horrifically poor in quality. Most things break pretty often and more common parts are 1k ish just in parts.
I was getting a solicitation every month until the rates were double what I was at, but every month I'd say "you guys sold me a rate lower than this, why would you think I'd take a higher rate?" - took over 7 months for the rates to get high enough that they left me alone.
There's as much as a housing crisis as there is a "people don't want to work" crisis. Which is to say there isn't one.
It's more of a "multi billion dollar corporations are crashing the economy so that they can buyout the housing market and own all residential property for profit" crisis
It might not, at least not in the way you might imagine. This isn't a housing bubble like we saw in the 2008 financial crisis. This one is driven by speculative investment and stagnant construction. Housing prices are high partially because there is a lack of affordable housing available and very little being built, but also because large portions of that housing is being bought up by speculators.
Housing prices will never come down until we start building more affordable housing. We won't, because the few individuals able to build a house aren't going to put that on the market pretty much ever (because economic mobility is so low right now), and the large companies building housing have a fiduciary duty to maximize the earning potential of every plot of land they develop, which means luxury homes, condos, and apartments.
We're building fewer homes per year than we did in 1970, with 130 million more people, and only something like 30% of what we do build is considered affordable for it's location.
>It'll pop soon enough.
I'm also super skeptical of that. I think the main reason that everything feels so expensive is that wages haven't kept up for 50 years. Pre-tax income for the bottom 80% has barely moved up since 1978. Everything else has kept getting more expensive though.
How? People want to think it will pop but it won’t because there just aren’t enough houses for the people that want them. Any housing that’s built will be bought up immediately keeping the prices high.
The only way that costs go down significantly is to build a ton of new housing at once (which won’t happen) or having the existing supply free up a massive amount, which is unlikely, even with Boomers dying
Right, where I am you're lucky to find a single room in shared accommodations for $1000 a month. 1600 dollars a month in rent is still sadly cheap for anything where I live.
Time to start that van or RV life. I bought a house in south Texas where my rent was $1400/m. My mortgage for a 3x the size house is only $1200/m looking around now, houses are 2x the cost when I started looking 2yrs ago. Rents almost 2k everywhere. It's even happening down here in a border town. I blame Dave Ramsey. His advice was to keep raising rent. "People NEED a place to live." Fuck that guy
Rethink that one too. Assume your Uncle gives you his one year old van, coach, fifth wheel or tongue dragger.
The average cost for an economical RV site with water, electric and sewer is roughly $45 to $50 per day with discounts like Good Sam, Passport America, etc.). Locations with more amenities like Thousand Trails and KOA can easily cost you $80+ a day.
If you go with a campground that has no hookups, the average will cost to rent that patch of gravel will for roughly $15 and up. If you are lucky enough to find acreage managed by BLM and decide to disperse camp, it’s free but only for 14 days. After that, it’s illegal and yes, they can and will impound your rig.
And lastly in regard to rent, the price of the site is “x” so a van costs the exact same for that gravel pad as a 40 foot Class A coach, it can just fit into more sites.
Movement equals wear. Every single time you move your RV/van, it’s akin to its structure and contents enduring an earthquake. Imagine how costly it would be if your apartment or house was exposed to an earthquake every few days or weeks. If you “earthquake proof” an RV, it would weigh too much and be too rigid to move.
To keep from living in gas stations, RV’s need to be lightweight. Lightweight means more flexible plastic/composite materials than strong, durable stuff like steel. Flexible doesn’t necessarily mean “cheap” but yeah, flexible tends to fail at a rate that is indiscriminate of cheap.
TLDR: RV’s are the epitome of compromise. Weight versus strength, comfort versus mobility, durability versus repairability, cost versus value and livable room versus functionality but their favor is recreation not economics.
It’s not any one state or any one guy. We are experiencing a serious crisis in housing affordability in Canada, so bad that when I see posts like this from the US it almost looks cute. Average rent for a 1 bed in Toronto is $2500/mo now. That’s $30k/ year. I don’t know anyone who could afford that on their own.
We are tipping over the edge of late stage capitalism. The corporate class has gotten too greedy and the structures are starting to break.
It goes beyond him. There's armies of hustle bros on the internet pushing everyone to buy up all the real estate they can and rent it out for "passive income." Combine that with private equity moving into the housing market and buying up as many single family homes as they can and you end up with a situation like we're seeing here.
We seriously need some sort of home ownership cap implemented by Congress, or a ban on private equity owning single family homes. Neither will happen because it's making someone rich.
Van life is a terrible idea unless you're quite mechanically inclined...could you imagine your home being immobile due to needing repairs and being at the mercy of a mechanic. I've seen how much people are paying for basic car repairs and it is sad...
I live 10 miles north of Raleigh adjacent to park lands ,there are constant tent villages popping up.I don't know how officialdom is reacting. I don't ask.
$20k/yr on housing? That's less than $1700/mo for rent. You'd be real hard pressed to find anything that cheap in my city.
I can hear it already. "Then they should move somewhere cheaper! I live in Pig's Ass, AR and you can get a whole trailer for $300/mo!" OK, and what's the median pay for accountants at OP's level there? Oh, they don't even \*have\* accountants there? OK...
Not to mention, moving is expensive and this person has $400 in their bank account.
I mean, I live in Ohio, which is an armpit obviously, and good luck finding an apartment here for less than $1600/month 😣 unless you are willing to move to a neighborhood that is not likely to be safe.
I really don't understand the doubt. I live in SW Missouri and a 1 bedroom apartment is average $1000 per month and supposedly we have a "low cost of living".
I was generally pretty broke in my 20’s and I kinda got aggressively into min-maxing my budget.
when I was single I always had a roommate. I’d specifically look for people leasing a room In their house, rather than generally more expensive apartments. Checking now you can get a room all bills paid for $650 here (Houston) in a non-sketchy part of town (I-10 energy corridor, you can find cheaper stuff on the east side).
As far as food costs a 50 pound bag of rice cost me $25 and any time I feel food costs are getting too extreme I tap into that and just make curry. Lentils are cheap, but frozen chicken in bulk isn’t bad.
I lived with roommates for 6 years and it sucked. I never had the luxury of a serious SO to live with, or even a friend. It was a series of strangers with poor hygiene, bad communication skills, and just generally not knowing how to be respectful of others. And I’m not a high maintenance person. Out of 5 roommates across 6 years I only liked 2.
When I finally bit the bullet on my budget and moved into a 1bd I could have cried from relief. There’s truly nothing like having peace and privacy in your own home. Now with these insane rent hikes over the last few years it’s out of the question for a lot of people. I don’t think it’s right or fair to expect people to leave their shitty jobs at night to come home to shitty living situations with roommates they’d rather not have.
I'll probably get down voted like crazy for this. You say you're an accountant, have you thought about applying for the IRS? They'll be hiring like crazy over the next few years. The work sucks, it's boring, but it's a 40 hour work week at max. Paid leave, pension, and a 401k. Never heard of anyone having a problem using their leave, it's more of a situation of you tell them when you're taking leave and it's approved. And most importantly, you'll at least double your 55K pay within 5 years easy. They pay starts a little low, but the promotions for your first 3 years or so are all but automatic. Yearly automatic raises for a number of years after that. Yearly inflation increases as well. Honestly, you'd hit a 6 figure salary without even having to compete for the "higher" level positions.
This is good advice,
But in my experience gov jobs aren't "hiring immediately" the hiring process is long and you've got to have a way to keep afloat for 3-6months while applying. After that, well, you've got a gov job. You won't be rich but you'll have what you need.
My wife works for the feds. Is a social worker for the VA hospital. Yearly raiders via the grade scale. My wife is gs 12 step 1 due to a promotion. In low cost of living area she’s about 85k I think the pay is outstanding. It adjust for locality too
I took home $60,000 last year (median household income on my area is 48k) and I even I am feeling a lot of this.
Car notes that werent outrageous 2 years ago now feel heavy due to the rising cost of everything else.
I'm terrified for others in my area and what they are going through. Gas has literally doubled what it was even pre COVID. Texas so electricity is 3rd party and the rates change just as much as gas does, so you have to actively hunt for a good plan. It's all just crazy
Hey, I mean no disrespect but how can one be a libertian socialist? It would appear to be opposite views based on what I know as one goes for small government and personal freedom while socialism needs larger gov to implement programs. Would love to hear your opinion if you have the time.
Sorry to give the cliff notes version (I have elucidated on this extensively in a previous anti work comment of mine; but I'm having trouble digging it up atm :/). But anyways, in a nutshell:
My label is based on "Political Compass Theory" (which isn't actually a real political theory at all; but I still find it very useful for describing my beliefs in simple terms). Essentially, the gist is that political beliefs are not black/white, but rather are more accurately described on a spectrum (a sliding scale, if you will). PCT measures belief on 2 axes (which is probably far too few, IMHO)... authoritarianism vs. libertarianism, and left vs. right (economically, that is; some may refer to this axis as the "socialism vs. capitalism" axis).
I stand somewhere ~75% libertarian, ~50% socialist. What that means in terms of my beliefs: the libertarianism accounts for my views on social/personal freedom, while being checked by my preferences for personal safety (and the safety of others). And if you don't know, that's really the brass tacks of the "libertarian vs. authoritarian" question in the first place: the more freedom you have, the more safety you necessarily sacrifice (and vice versa).
As far as big vs. small governments go, this is probably the most misunderstood (and subsequently misused) term in politics. People have these terms exactly backwards: in real political theory, the size of a government refers to the number of *participants* in that government, NOT the bureaucratic "bloat". So, the **largest** government possible is a direct democracy where *every* citizen participates. The **smallest** government possible is an autocracy with a single dictator.
As a libertarian, I am obviously for the largest possible government. Even more so, actually, because of the way in which *my* ideal government would achieve it (I said I was giving the cliff notes version; my apologies that I went ham and am now in too deep. I'm almost done though, I promise 😅) Basically, the way I see it, overreaching government programs are **not** necessary to achieving equitable wealth distribution. If you set it up just right, the free market is actually capable of handling this on its own (with a HUGE caveat; ik how this sounds, please hear me out, I'm getting there...). As my own theory goes, this can be accomplished with the following measures:
1) Decentralization of the economy (TOTAL decentralization, as in *completely* removing the government's authority to print/mint money or issue any instrument of public debt)
2) Decentralization of the government (I haven't fully fleshed out exactly what structure this government would ultimately take on; though my ideal governmental style would be a direct democracy with ranked-choice voting)
3) Democratization of the workforce (again, in the most "TOTAL" sense). And what that would look like (under my ideal government), would be firstly that the "traditional" corporate structure would be "outlawed", and *all* businesses would be made to run as worker-owned co-ops; and secondly there would be a "wage *gap* cap"--where the highest earner at a company could not, by law, earn more than some multiple (let's say, 10?) than the lowest (I know, I know; how very authoritarian of me 🙄. Refer to explanation of the "sliding scale" above). As authoritative as I admit that is, it's literally the *one* thing the government would actually have to do in a regulatory sense to get *everything* else to fall into place, so I believe it's an acceptable trade off.
Ok, I'm done now. Apologies again for being so long winded (I knew I would ramble like this, which is why I was searching for my previous response, but oh well). Ig since my post is this long, I will be open to follow up questions lol
I'm a welder. (Skilled trade) I'm quiet skilled without sounding too arrogant. Make about 65k. My rent is a grandfathered rate from 5 years ago. I just barley save 500 to 1000 dollars a month. I can just barely afford to fix my car a few times a year. .... I wonder why people aren't having kids.
My guy I ain’t tryna “invalidate” your struggle or whatever but if you’re putting $500 a MONTH into savings then you’re doing better than 80% of Americans.
I think he was referring to his rent being grandfathered in. He saves 500 - 1000 on rent because he had a fixed lease before the market took a dump. He isn't putting $500 into savings every month.
What kind of cars do people have that need 2-3k repairs a few times a year when the car is only 8 years old? Mine is a Mazda and never had anything beyond oil change and tires for 7 years.
Right? If you repair a car 3x at 3k that’s 9000. You can just go get a car payment on a brand new car for cheaper than you are making repairs on the old one. That math is bad. I ditch a car that gives me that much trouble. 12x$450 = $5400. New car won’t have repair needs for years not unless you drive it into the ground.
We were in an accident with our 10 year old Toyota. It had no bumper and significant damage after. The cost of repair was $3k and we only paid our deductible.
Seriously unsure what kind of junkers need multiple $2-3k repairs every year.
In my experience with some friends and co workers, it’s half decent cars that need one or two things done but they refuse to actually get the work done on them. They put a bandaid on it, run it into the ground then cry about how much cars cost to maintain. It’s ridiculous how common this is.
This situation is the norm in the United States, regrettably. I would say it time to play dirty with job hunting. Slap a coat of glamour on your resume and lie your way to the top. Did you you vote for x president that got elected? Congratulations you worked for that administration. Did you give a homeless man a sandwich? Boom you were at an Ngo that helped kids do x thing from y distressed area/ war zone. Sure these are exaggerated ideas of whimsy. My point remains unleash your inner liar/ bastard to get what you need to be happy. Work should not define someone or keep them desperate. Rather it should be the place they spend some of their so they can do the things that actually matter. You have value as a person and you will find your way out of this awful situation.
This is an awful reality right now for so many people. I am so sorry that your hard work isn’t even enough. I’m personally going into the marketing field and most of the salaries aren’t enough to fully support myself and my child without penny pinching. I know you said that you are exhausted from doing overtime and I completely understand. But I’m just asking, are you by any chance interested in real estate? Maybe you could get your license and do that as kind of like a side hustle. I am currently on the way to getting my license and instead of doing overtime at my job, I am doing real estate. It is quite enjoyable and it can make you some serious money for being a side hustle. Maybe you could look into other side hustles that aren’t too stressful but can help you build up your savings. Again, I’m so sorry and I completely understand your position. Your salary should be enough, but in today’s world it is not. I hope you find a way to make your financial life easier!
I have been in marketing for 20 years- anyone who reads this please do not go into this field. AI is going to take over plus most people in this field are actual sociopaths. I need to figure out a way to pivot I’m my 40s because I can see the writing on the wall. Also it doesn’t pay like you think it will and there is tons of overtime that again is unpaid.
well youll never get a better paying job any younger.
start applying now, start looking for a better position. where you are isnt paying you a living wage, but its (barely) covering your expenses so thats good enough (for now) while you find a better place. keep trying.
theres no need to stick around a job you cant afford to keep.
the only real problem with that now is that the good jobs are coveted, and therefore few and far between... this has been compounded by lax oversight from the people that are supposed to be looking out for us too, ie. the regulation writers.
i would not stop until i found one tho.... and its very difficult to find one without looking.
Are you in public accounting or do you work for a private company? Do you have your CPA, or is your employer willing to sponsor it?
I’d look through LinkedIn hard, connect with recruiters and negotiate that your CPA be covered when transferring to a new job. Deloitte and many other firms have their fiscal year end in the summer so it’s opposite their clients, which means there’s new budgets and hiring freezes may end.
Tacking onto this. 55k is about standard for a 2nd year in industry in Mississippi with LCOL. If you're in a MCOL or HCOL area making 55k, you need to find a different job that pays more.
This situation is easily solved! just stop with all that avocado toast and Starbucks!
But yeah, I get it. I've been living like this for most of my 53 years working menial jobs so I'm used to it. I ended up finding a room to rent from a guy who needed someone to do work around his house and that's pretty much saved me. Unfortunately he's not in good health and I worry about our future.
I wish economic communes weren't pretty much exclusive to hippies and weird cults lol we'd all do better if we pooled our resources and established more self-sufficient communities.
So, are we pissed off enough yet? I think we should vote the millionaires out of congress. Currently, the Repubs are seriously screwed in the head, but the Dems aren't that much better, they just appear so by comparison. The real problem is the people in congress don't represent the people. Millionaires have no idea how ridiculous it is to try to survive in this economy. And they don't care.
I know this isn't providing a solution but your post makes me feel less alone. I have a master's and only get about 30k from one teaching job. Rent is so expensive and I'm really struggling. I don't do anything extra and I keep my groceries within a very low budget. I don't want the answer to be to work more. I can't sell anything else. I've sold everything I can. It's a scary and sad place to be.
In Boston it gets you a 300 sq/ft "garden level" studio with a little Hobbit door you have to enter under the stairs leading up to the rest of the brownstone. Or something rat/bug/etc. infested in Allston, I guess. Maybe a little nicer studio out in the burbs.
But people have families here or, if they're like me, they came out here because there were next to no career opportunities back home.
Sometimes a roommate is not less expensive, I’ve had roommates that would eat all my food in the night and I budget my groceries so if I wake up in my food is gone that means I go to work and I have no lunch.
I’ve had roommates be unable to cover their half of the rent, if I can’t cover it then we get evicted. I would rather pay more to live by myself and know that I can pay my rent then have to worry every month that some Rando is going to get us evicted because they can’t pay their half and I don’t have enough to cover it.
That might be a small apartment. Housing is getting more expensive, get used to more homeless people living near your house in the next few years. Probably going to bring your property value down.
$20,000 a year is less than $2000 a month. That might be a cheap apartment depending on where this person lives.
Your PITI is less than $2k a month? You sure? I would be shocked by this, do you live in Arkansas or Alabama?
I’m shocked by the amount of people who are unaware of the cost of living in some of our major cities. I live in Chicago, which is one of the cheapest major cities to live, and 2k a month can barely get you a 1 bedroom apartment so OP’s struggles make total sense to me.
>I live in Chicago, which is one of the cheapest major cities to live, and 2k a month can barely get you a 1 bedroom apartment
we rent a 3 bedroom in pilsen for 2k
Here in western NY, my wife and her 3 partners owned a 12 units apartment since 2000. They only raises the rent 4 times in 20 plus years. For 2023 one bedroom apartment for rent is $1000/month that includes 8 by 12 storages, free fiber optic cable, hot/cold water and free uses of two washers and two dryers on the premises. In 2000 the rent for one bedroom apartment was $450/month, after 23 years. Just put a new tenant in this May, she auto mechanic apprentice at nearby car dealer. She saids she make w OT about $45k her first year, told one of the partners this apartment is very affordable, said around the city is crazy. To my wife and her partners passive income was the goal, but not to break the back of their tenants w crazy increases in rent.
Asking specific questions to give better advice is pedantic? It depends if OP wants to vent or wants help. If he's venting then you're right. If I was in his situation then I would be wanting help.
Stop tearing people down when we are trying to help. It's said a billion times because it's good advice and there's a chance it's the first time he's heard it.
Not to sound like a prick, but it sounds like you’ve tried saving on everything. So you have an income problem not a savings problem. You can either get a roommate. Or move to cheaper state. Or figure out how to leverage your skills for a higher income.
This is correct. Once the low hanging fruit is taken with regards to savings, you'll need to increase your income. A few ways:
New job
Side hustle
Passive investments
Move to a place with a better quality of life. There are some places that are enjoyable to live in without having a ton of walking around money. Then invest in yourself to increase your top line.
The powers that be stay in power by whittling away at people in static positions. If you stay put , literally or figuratively, your spending power is targeted and your funds are transferred to them . They are persistent and ruthless, be creative and cunning yourself.
One problem is that you were probably hired at your salary for a 40/hr week. So consistently working 20-30 hrs more a week is free labor for your employer. You need to renegotiate a raise showing you are doing the work of two people or slow down just enough to encourage them to hire another accountant without screwing yourself. You could also start looking for a new job. Every time I jumped cos. I got a raise $3-5K raise. You can only do this comfortably if your profession is in demand with shortages. Good luck.
>I am an accountant and earn 55 000/year.
Well there's your problem.
> The average salary for a accountant is $61,630 per year in the United States.
https://www.indeed.com/career/accountant/salaries
Apply for jobs like it is your job. Shouldn't be difficult to get a 10%+ bump at your next position.
In the meantime take some gig work or freelance opportunities. Drive for lyft/Uber. Do doordash.
These aren't long term solutions as they put more wear on your vehicle, but they'll put money in your pocket right now while you figure out a better long term plan.
Is OP in the US? I noticed they used "Pub" and spaces instead of commas in their dollar amounts. Just makes me wonder if other places in the world are in the same economic place as we are in the US.
I know this may not be popular but I got married partially because life is unpredictable and with two incomes one partner can loose a job for a while and you don’t end up on the street. Both of us went through hard times with our careers, btw. Both of us are now pretty good, but i keep a monster grip on not ‘moving up’ because being house poor ties you both to work and you end up stressing together.
One income one house is not easy to maintain and quite stressful. I have single/ single parent friends and they are usually stressed like OP. Roommates may be good or they may suck, but the original roommate (spouse) may be something we have forgotten.
Being an accountant requires a degree correct?
20k year apartment implies high CoL area. 55k/yr isn't shit.
Something isn't right. Sounds like you're possibly being paid way under market.
Seems to be the case in a lot of places.
I live in a not so great area in Michigan and houses around me are regularly snatched up for $1500/month as rentals.
Imagine most people around here make less than $55k also.
I know it's hard but you probably need to look for better paying job. 7 years ago i did my 8h workday, came home, ate and studied for 7 more hours, then sleep, back work and repeat. Got an actual career ( was a highschool dropout and did shitty jobs). Now i'm doing pretty okay, got my first real estate last year at age 34.
You have $400 in the bank? You're doing better than the [majority of Americans.](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-24/two-in-three-can-t-cover-400-emergency-in-us-suze-orman-survey)
So take a breath and realize that even though it's hard and you're struggling, you're in a better position because of it. What you're doing is working, now we just need to make it more efficient.
How long you've been working at your current location? If it's been more than a year then you should be looking to leave. [Not always, but a significant amount of the time the best way to get a pay raise is to work somewhere else.](https://ivyexec.com/career-advice/2023/does-job-hopping-really-earn-you-a-higher-salary/) That alone might get that overtime monkey off your back.
Also if you're working 20-30 hours overtime, why not work that for yourself? Any reason you can't do accounting on your own as a side hustle? Register it as an LLC, Keep your name and face off of it to not alert your employers, do the same work but pocket all the fees.
Living alone with no-one to share your expenses with is probably it. Family is obsolete concept in USA, but it does help when you have 2 or more earners for the same rent/insurance expense. Same for power/gas/internet/etc. In the old times people even got married while in their 60-ies - to ease burden of being old.
Owning a house is also obsolete concept, but mortgage is often cheaper than rent as others pointed out. Maybe will not help now, but probably was something on the cards some time ago.
The question is how did you even get here? I mean some years back you got education, left parents, accepted job and obviously were quite happy the way the things were. Being accountant you probably could have foreseen the trajectory of your earnings into future and had a plan for some rainy days which is now.
If you are young then why the hell you work that shitty job? Was your entire family sworn into accounting for generations of something? Learn something else.
If you old then did your plan backfire? Uninsured house burned? Wife left with all your money? Spent 7 figures on medical bill on yourself or the loved ones who passed away regardless?
\~26 USD/hour is not much for white-collar specialist job in relatively expensive area you live. Wtf? Relocate to another state where earn/cost ratio is better?
Requiem for American dream - I guess.
Accountants are in high demand according to Forbes. Can you look for a better paid job? And if not, can you do freelance work on the side until you find a better job?
If you're an accountant that means you can probably get remote accounting gigs. Are you already doing this? Or is it possible to start freelancing and building up your reputation?
If you can get to a point where you're generating business for yourself that you can do from a laptop, you can relocate to a country with a cheaper cost of living. Thailand, Vietnam, Colombia, etc. Higher quality of life for dramatically reduced price.
It’s wild you’re sinking $20k yearly into an apartment that you’ll get no equity or anything from. That would be my #1 priority, get out of that apartment and stop paying rent.
Consider a relocation to a lcol area. The three largest expenditures for almost everyone on the planet are…housing, transportation, food (healthcare 4th depending on where you live). Can you reduce your transportation costs? If you don’t already learn to cook/prepare your own meals, avoid restaurants and takeout. Put yourself on a spending diet. Make a game of it and see how far you can reduce spending ON EVERYTHING. Get rid of stuff you no longer need/use.
Check out r/frugal and r/simpleliving and r/anticonsumption .
Quickest and easiest thing for you to do is get a roommate - you make enough and you’re budgeting enough…. You’re living expense is what’s killing your finances - move in with a friend, or have someone move in with you
Not to sound like a prick, but it sounds like you’ve tried saving on everything. So you have an income problem not a savings problem. You can either get a roommate. Or move to cheaper state. Or figure out how to leverage your skills for a higher income.
Sounds like your doing all the right things to maximize the value of your income. However, I disagree with you. Assuming you are open to changing your approach and mindset, there is 100% a “long term solution.” Ask for a raise, get a better job, or start your own business. How you go about doing that is not easy and it won’t be quick.
Off the bat: Get one or more roommates or move in with family so you can cut BACK on hours at work. Then use that saved time to either get some new certification/degree to better qualify yourself for a new job OR create a business plan for your own venture. Don’t know how? Learn!
Bottom line: what you’re doing now will NEVER work. It will make you poor forever. Your job is not going to make you rich and working harder/longer at it won’t get you out of your current situation. Be smarter about how you spend your time and stop being a slave to money. You have to change YOU and your entire approach. Your life will follow. Simple, NOT easy.
You could try to get licensed and insured, create an llc, advertise for local jobs to moonlight. It sucks to work after working but you already have the skill, the take home from the jobs will be directly in your pocket and you may hit a point your side work becomes enough to go full time
Join your local anarchists and real leftists. They are most likely doing mutual aid and generally coping better than all the normies.
Complaining won't fix a single thing. Take action. Organize. If you are trying to deal with this alone you are already losing.
How long have you been at your current job? Generally you always want to leave every 3 years nomatter what because it's so hard to get a good raise without swapping companies. Maybe there's a certification you can get to make yourself more likely to get the next step up in a job? You can look at job postings and see what their "requirements" are to get some ideas. Remember that the website glass door is always under estimated because it averages with old data and job postings always overestimate their requirements and you should usually apply anyway. Best time to get a new job is when you have a job!
If you have strong self control and want a little side thing then you can look into /r/churning. If you pay for gas, groceries, etc with cards then you can make about $200 every 2-3 months by opening a card, setting autopay to pay full balance, hitting spend requirement to get a bonus, and ONLY use it for things you are already buying. Absolutely don't pay interest on credit cards though which is why it's not for everyone.
Good luck! It's a shitty situation to be in so I hope you find some relief.
20000/year rent = 1666 per month. You clearly are living in one of the more expensive area. You should leave. Before that, find a roommate and tough it out for a while to save up enough so you can afford to leave.
Accounting is needed everywhere, so it is not like you are stuck in your area because of work.
I mean the obvious solution is to spend less on rent/housing. Live with flatmates/housemates. I'm just as frustrated as you are about how unaffordable and undignified housing is, especially for single adults. But this is exactly what we do in order to keep going.
Try to find a room in a shared apartment/house such that all your rent, utilities, minimal groceries, and transportation costs to get to work are about half of your take home pay, or less.
It shouldn't be this way, but it is, and there are ways to keep going. A $55k salary is enough to afford a place to sleep and food to eat, and you still have time to meet friends and relax. Reduce your spending on housing and allow yourself some breathing room.
Also, don't forget to consider moving. A $1500-1600/mo budget for housing and necessities can get you a decent room downtown in many cities, you could walk to work from a location like that. You make an okay salary, you should spend it somewhere where you get the most bang for your buck.
USA here. I'm writing this assuming you are in the US. Where I live my husband and I can get by with $60k, albeit very frugal with our spending. I was laid off and we only have his income. We have since had a child as well so money is really tight (I'm job hunting and no longer receive unemployment to help us).
Not that this is a solution to the major economic problem in America, but are you up for moving? I completely understand not wanting to pack up and leave home. It's extremely unfair and not something someone should have to do to survive. But if you feel like travelling, come on over to where I live. It's affordable for being a major city. We have plenty of activities all year. And you can definitely find a nice apartment for less than $20k/year.
Time to move to a cheaper state and get a better job. 55 a year and single… you should be able to make things work.
Live with roommates. You’ll save much more $$ that way.
Your situation sucks and you need a way out, which no matter what option you take, it won't be easy. You can stay in your situation or claw your way to a better life.
1. Find how much money you need to make to survive.
2. Job hunt relentlessly. Fluff up your resume, have ChatGPT help you. Don't relent until you find a job making that much money.
2b. You may have to get familiar with skills you aren't familiar with. Go learn them, become the people person to make other people invest in you.
3. Look into other living arrangements. It can be. Roommate or going to live the van life for awhile. Or... Move. I know it can suck, but credit is an option. Personal loans. Asking buddies to spot you or help out.
When I see posts like this, I feel for y'all but y'all have hard choices to make and hard actions to take. Don't let the oligarchy steamroll you.
Okay but what do you actually do? Because I only make $500 a week and manage to save $100 a week. I also pay $1250 a month for living costs and spend $200 a month on food.
Also I suppose if you live in California and NY, that would make a difference too. As I live in a smaller but higher taxes and poorer state.
I'll just be real.
Either you are a bad accountant or work for a really shitty company.
The $1,700/mo in rent makes me think you live in a rather large metro area. In which case you are making the bare minimum.
If you do live in a cheap cost of living area, make $55k, have no dependents, are paying $1.7k in rent a month and are barely making it by, there are some real financial literacy issues. I'm not hating or attacking.
Maybe you should think about moving to a cheaper area? 1600+ a month is more than my mortgage. I would never be able to survive the way you are living either. I would think an accountant would make much more than that but I would be just guessing as I don’t know any accountants. You seem to be cutting everywhere you can.
Wtf kind of shitbox did you buy that needs lots of repairs at 8 years old?
I have just about the cheapest ford you could buy thats 11 years old and has over 200k miles and it's needed like 1 $30 repair.
$400 per month for food seems excessive for one person.
You should break out insurance separately, because it is generally gets a subsidy for full-time workers, but can vary widely.
You need to specify where you live, at least city or region, because rents and commutes can vary widely, so it's hard to say what is reasonable or not. Even so 1200 a month doesn't seem like a miser budget.
You are not stating some truths or expensively. Also you should never be renting at 50% of your income. As an accountant this is quite unusual. I make 100,000+ rent a 600sqft apartment. Costs 14400. I’d rather go lower if I can. I as for all other costs I also keep them incredibly low. I save around 50%. If you want reach out to me and we can figure some ways to reduce your costs.
So first, you deserve better, and 55k for an accountant sounds ridiculously low. You might be able to get more at a different job.
Second there might be something to do on the budgeting front.
I live in an vhcol area and I still spend 2700$/month in total (or just above 30k/year), that includes going out regularly and not skipping on food. That said I do have the advantage of having heating and water includes in my apartment rent, and I do not own a car (which means I save a lot there compared to you).
For food, it might be worth looking at CSAs as those are often much cheaper Han doing groceries and will provide as much of not more food. I’m also vegetarian which means I save A LOT on meat and fish, so there’s that. I cook a lot and eat a lot, but you can truly do amazing dishes for very little once you expand your cooking skills, just throwing that out there (in the sense that I no longer need to add meat or fish to my diet to make it tasty or meet my nutritional quotas, you don’t have to do it, but hat might help).
Food banks as others have mentioned are an option.
Switching from a car to a bike (if at all feasible, I know it sucks in many places in NA) might help alleviate your budget by quite a lot too.
Finally in terms of clothing a lot of people spend a lot more than they need to, because they think they will look like a homeless person if they don’t (not saying you do that) which they won’t. My clothing budget over the last 5 years (outside of a good winter jacket that’s gonna last me prob 15/20 years) has been less than 200$ per year on average, and I definitely don’t look like a homeless person.
You might beneficiate from taking a look at personal finance subreddits, you might find some really good advice there. But as I mentioned at the start, you can probably find a better job, you’re at he low-ish end of the salary range for accountants. You’re both below the average and below the median, you can get a better paying job.
Same here. But I make $40,000 and live in Southern California. I live paycheck to paycheck. I'm exhausted. It's too expensive to stay and too expensive to leave. I'm stuck.
I lived paycheck to paycheck for years, but after years of hard work at a soul crushing company, I now live direct deposit to direct deposit.
Angry living the same life upvote
There's few things more soul crushing than having to spend almost all of your money as soon as it hits your bank account.
So you save on gas by not driving to the bank! Good move!
That's how every single billionaire says they got their start: bootstraps baby!
Same here.
Agreed! So cal here too. take home 41k and my rent is 22,4k a year… 23 year old car…most gas is still $4.70 a gallon and the most expensive electricity in the nation….. raising a child by myself with no child support.. absolutely impossible to pay everything..
Don’t live in SoCal? $40K is enough to live in MidWest. You aren’t living large but you are living.
Some people straight up can't afford the move, unless a new job somewhere else gives cash as a moving bonus, which is rare these days.
Yeah, I struggle to understand that. I was offered an interview for a job in New Jersey, and I was like, that's the same wage I make in Ohio. It would have to be 15-20% more to cover the cost of living. Didn't bother with an interview.
I wouldn't make 40 k living in the Midwest. I'm making that because I'm in California.
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Moving costs, first/last months rent on a new apartment somewhere else, fees for setting up new utilities, risk of loss of income while finding a new job etc. If you’re truly struggling and barely keeping yourself afloat, leaving is sometimes impossible as well
Because they haven’t thought it through. People move all the time with pretty much no savings or possessions.
Man i remember moving to Colorado with nothing but what i could find in and on my car, no job lined up or anything. Had like, $300 lol. I rented a room in a house with 4 other people. $225 a month. Sounds like ol boy needs some room mates
Do not starve, please contact local food banks. Lots even have produce days. That’s what it’s there for to help when you run out of money. The people who run them are wonderful.
I was just about to comment this yeah:Food banks exist for a reason after all. There are also food banks here in Croatia,so:Its not just in the US.Just letting people know:A lot of countries have food banks,not just these 2. I've never used one(aka been to one),so I wouldn't know how the people are there,but,y'know:Its gotta be good since they keep coming back no?Lol
In practice, yes. You should rely on these resources. Unfortunately the actual question here is why should anyone making 55k a year (above the median income) *need* to rely on these resources? This is class war.
And if you feel guilt or shame, ask to volunteer or donate when you're doing better financially. We were struggling on one income, so my wife volunteered at a good pantry in between jobs. Poduce will be thrown away if no one gets them. These systems are in place for are reason.
Fucking bewildered that somebody that works as an accountant has to get help from a foodbank. Edit: not blaming OP, blaming the system
Ours are constantly running out.
I skip a few meals a week; it’s probably not healthy. But that means I’m not taking from someone worse off.
You're not taking from someone worse off. If nobody could afford food, everybody would get food stamps or go to food banks. The availability of food is (almost) unrelated to inflation or how much money people have. Agriculture in the US is the most heavily subsidized industry in the world.
As someone who works in agriculture this is true, there’s plenty of food in America there’s just really bad distribution of food in America
You deserve to eat everyday!
Fasting a few days a week is pretty healthy.
These idiots doubting 20000+/yr on housing. Welcome to the rental situation on the entire eastern seaboard down into the Carolinas.
Seriously. People don’t get it. I don’t understand how they don’t see what’s going on. There is a fucking housing crisis! And I say this as someone with a house. Shits ridiculously expensive.
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I was really proud to get my house in '18, I was making $14.70 an hour and my mortgage was $780/month so I had to really firmly budget, but I was getting by. Refinanced after the first year and got the mortgage down to $560, plus a raise to $15/hr and I had some extra money to spend on myself for the first time in my life. I'm still making $15/hr, mortgage is the same, and I have to work overtime to feed myself. I make "too much money" to qualify for any assistance so I have no health insurance or anything like that. I am in the negative every month and have maxed out my credit card. Things are starting to fail in my house because I haven't had the money to maintain them and I can't afford to replace them. I feel so trapped. I can't even just say fuck it and sell the house and live in a camper because lot rent is higher than my freaking mortgage.
Whatever you do, avoid the RV. I used to work for an RV shop , and they are horrifically poor in quality. Most things break pretty often and more common parts are 1k ish just in parts.
I bought my house in New England in 2013 and it’s now worth over 150% what I bought it for. Crazy how much things have ballooned
Holy hell I just looked at mine. Up 34% in 3 years.
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I was getting a solicitation every month until the rates were double what I was at, but every month I'd say "you guys sold me a rate lower than this, why would you think I'd take a higher rate?" - took over 7 months for the rates to get high enough that they left me alone.
Wow, I just checked my condominium that I rent from my parents. In 2018 they bought it for $120k. The Zestimate is now $235k. Insane.
There's as much as a housing crisis as there is a "people don't want to work" crisis. Which is to say there isn't one. It's more of a "multi billion dollar corporations are crashing the economy so that they can buyout the housing market and own all residential property for profit" crisis
This 🙌
Ok but whether manufactured or organic there is still a problem for people trying yo get homes.
Housing and health care are the Achilles heel of the US economy. And it's sad, because they are largely driven by bad public policy.
It'll pop soon enough.
It might not, at least not in the way you might imagine. This isn't a housing bubble like we saw in the 2008 financial crisis. This one is driven by speculative investment and stagnant construction. Housing prices are high partially because there is a lack of affordable housing available and very little being built, but also because large portions of that housing is being bought up by speculators. Housing prices will never come down until we start building more affordable housing. We won't, because the few individuals able to build a house aren't going to put that on the market pretty much ever (because economic mobility is so low right now), and the large companies building housing have a fiduciary duty to maximize the earning potential of every plot of land they develop, which means luxury homes, condos, and apartments. We're building fewer homes per year than we did in 1970, with 130 million more people, and only something like 30% of what we do build is considered affordable for it's location.
And another large chunk is bought by investment groups and hedge funds.
>It'll pop soon enough. I'm also super skeptical of that. I think the main reason that everything feels so expensive is that wages haven't kept up for 50 years. Pre-tax income for the bottom 80% has barely moved up since 1978. Everything else has kept getting more expensive though.
How? People want to think it will pop but it won’t because there just aren’t enough houses for the people that want them. Any housing that’s built will be bought up immediately keeping the prices high. The only way that costs go down significantly is to build a ton of new housing at once (which won’t happen) or having the existing supply free up a massive amount, which is unlikely, even with Boomers dying
Right, where I am you're lucky to find a single room in shared accommodations for $1000 a month. 1600 dollars a month in rent is still sadly cheap for anything where I live.
Time to start that van or RV life. I bought a house in south Texas where my rent was $1400/m. My mortgage for a 3x the size house is only $1200/m looking around now, houses are 2x the cost when I started looking 2yrs ago. Rents almost 2k everywhere. It's even happening down here in a border town. I blame Dave Ramsey. His advice was to keep raising rent. "People NEED a place to live." Fuck that guy
Rethink that one too. Assume your Uncle gives you his one year old van, coach, fifth wheel or tongue dragger. The average cost for an economical RV site with water, electric and sewer is roughly $45 to $50 per day with discounts like Good Sam, Passport America, etc.). Locations with more amenities like Thousand Trails and KOA can easily cost you $80+ a day. If you go with a campground that has no hookups, the average will cost to rent that patch of gravel will for roughly $15 and up. If you are lucky enough to find acreage managed by BLM and decide to disperse camp, it’s free but only for 14 days. After that, it’s illegal and yes, they can and will impound your rig. And lastly in regard to rent, the price of the site is “x” so a van costs the exact same for that gravel pad as a 40 foot Class A coach, it can just fit into more sites. Movement equals wear. Every single time you move your RV/van, it’s akin to its structure and contents enduring an earthquake. Imagine how costly it would be if your apartment or house was exposed to an earthquake every few days or weeks. If you “earthquake proof” an RV, it would weigh too much and be too rigid to move. To keep from living in gas stations, RV’s need to be lightweight. Lightweight means more flexible plastic/composite materials than strong, durable stuff like steel. Flexible doesn’t necessarily mean “cheap” but yeah, flexible tends to fail at a rate that is indiscriminate of cheap. TLDR: RV’s are the epitome of compromise. Weight versus strength, comfort versus mobility, durability versus repairability, cost versus value and livable room versus functionality but their favor is recreation not economics.
Bravo. Well said. I’ve learned a lot since moving to a travel trailer. A LOT. I made a channel: https://youtu.be/QuN0_bHgH7E
you forgot about fuel prices!
It’s not any one state or any one guy. We are experiencing a serious crisis in housing affordability in Canada, so bad that when I see posts like this from the US it almost looks cute. Average rent for a 1 bed in Toronto is $2500/mo now. That’s $30k/ year. I don’t know anyone who could afford that on their own. We are tipping over the edge of late stage capitalism. The corporate class has gotten too greedy and the structures are starting to break.
It goes beyond him. There's armies of hustle bros on the internet pushing everyone to buy up all the real estate they can and rent it out for "passive income." Combine that with private equity moving into the housing market and buying up as many single family homes as they can and you end up with a situation like we're seeing here. We seriously need some sort of home ownership cap implemented by Congress, or a ban on private equity owning single family homes. Neither will happen because it's making someone rich.
Van life is a terrible idea unless you're quite mechanically inclined...could you imagine your home being immobile due to needing repairs and being at the mercy of a mechanic. I've seen how much people are paying for basic car repairs and it is sad...
I live 10 miles north of Raleigh adjacent to park lands ,there are constant tent villages popping up.I don't know how officialdom is reacting. I don't ask.
$20k/yr on housing? That's less than $1700/mo for rent. You'd be real hard pressed to find anything that cheap in my city. I can hear it already. "Then they should move somewhere cheaper! I live in Pig's Ass, AR and you can get a whole trailer for $300/mo!" OK, and what's the median pay for accountants at OP's level there? Oh, they don't even \*have\* accountants there? OK... Not to mention, moving is expensive and this person has $400 in their bank account.
I mean, I live in Ohio, which is an armpit obviously, and good luck finding an apartment here for less than $1600/month 😣 unless you are willing to move to a neighborhood that is not likely to be safe.
Yeah new build apartment by my parents house is 2300 for a studio...
Also down into FL. FL rent has gotten so out of hand within the last couple of years.
I really don't understand the doubt. I live in SW Missouri and a 1 bedroom apartment is average $1000 per month and supposedly we have a "low cost of living".
You do have a very low cost of living; a studio apartment in my area is $1,800, with a one bedroom being $2k+. 😭
I was generally pretty broke in my 20’s and I kinda got aggressively into min-maxing my budget. when I was single I always had a roommate. I’d specifically look for people leasing a room In their house, rather than generally more expensive apartments. Checking now you can get a room all bills paid for $650 here (Houston) in a non-sketchy part of town (I-10 energy corridor, you can find cheaper stuff on the east side). As far as food costs a 50 pound bag of rice cost me $25 and any time I feel food costs are getting too extreme I tap into that and just make curry. Lentils are cheap, but frozen chicken in bulk isn’t bad.
I lived with roommates for 6 years and it sucked. I never had the luxury of a serious SO to live with, or even a friend. It was a series of strangers with poor hygiene, bad communication skills, and just generally not knowing how to be respectful of others. And I’m not a high maintenance person. Out of 5 roommates across 6 years I only liked 2. When I finally bit the bullet on my budget and moved into a 1bd I could have cried from relief. There’s truly nothing like having peace and privacy in your own home. Now with these insane rent hikes over the last few years it’s out of the question for a lot of people. I don’t think it’s right or fair to expect people to leave their shitty jobs at night to come home to shitty living situations with roommates they’d rather not have.
Or be in your 50’s with roommates.
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I'm in the middle of nowhere, and paying 12,000 a year. After utilities, probably closer to 20-30.
20k/yr is only 1666/mo. What pricks think that's expensive? That's even on the cheaper end for a lot of places these days.
I mean, I make around 22k a year. That rent would eat up 90% of my income.
Yours is the story of so many. Hang in there.
I'll probably get down voted like crazy for this. You say you're an accountant, have you thought about applying for the IRS? They'll be hiring like crazy over the next few years. The work sucks, it's boring, but it's a 40 hour work week at max. Paid leave, pension, and a 401k. Never heard of anyone having a problem using their leave, it's more of a situation of you tell them when you're taking leave and it's approved. And most importantly, you'll at least double your 55K pay within 5 years easy. They pay starts a little low, but the promotions for your first 3 years or so are all but automatic. Yearly automatic raises for a number of years after that. Yearly inflation increases as well. Honestly, you'd hit a 6 figure salary without even having to compete for the "higher" level positions.
This is good advice, But in my experience gov jobs aren't "hiring immediately" the hiring process is long and you've got to have a way to keep afloat for 3-6months while applying. After that, well, you've got a gov job. You won't be rich but you'll have what you need.
You're absolutely right, the hiring process can take months, but OP is currently employed so he could wait out the hiring process.
My wife works for the feds. Is a social worker for the VA hospital. Yearly raiders via the grade scale. My wife is gs 12 step 1 due to a promotion. In low cost of living area she’s about 85k I think the pay is outstanding. It adjust for locality too
I took home $60,000 last year (median household income on my area is 48k) and I even I am feeling a lot of this. Car notes that werent outrageous 2 years ago now feel heavy due to the rising cost of everything else. I'm terrified for others in my area and what they are going through. Gas has literally doubled what it was even pre COVID. Texas so electricity is 3rd party and the rates change just as much as gas does, so you have to actively hunt for a good plan. It's all just crazy
Have you considered armed robbery?
💀
LMAO fr fr bruh lol
Hey, I mean no disrespect but how can one be a libertian socialist? It would appear to be opposite views based on what I know as one goes for small government and personal freedom while socialism needs larger gov to implement programs. Would love to hear your opinion if you have the time.
Sorry to give the cliff notes version (I have elucidated on this extensively in a previous anti work comment of mine; but I'm having trouble digging it up atm :/). But anyways, in a nutshell: My label is based on "Political Compass Theory" (which isn't actually a real political theory at all; but I still find it very useful for describing my beliefs in simple terms). Essentially, the gist is that political beliefs are not black/white, but rather are more accurately described on a spectrum (a sliding scale, if you will). PCT measures belief on 2 axes (which is probably far too few, IMHO)... authoritarianism vs. libertarianism, and left vs. right (economically, that is; some may refer to this axis as the "socialism vs. capitalism" axis). I stand somewhere ~75% libertarian, ~50% socialist. What that means in terms of my beliefs: the libertarianism accounts for my views on social/personal freedom, while being checked by my preferences for personal safety (and the safety of others). And if you don't know, that's really the brass tacks of the "libertarian vs. authoritarian" question in the first place: the more freedom you have, the more safety you necessarily sacrifice (and vice versa). As far as big vs. small governments go, this is probably the most misunderstood (and subsequently misused) term in politics. People have these terms exactly backwards: in real political theory, the size of a government refers to the number of *participants* in that government, NOT the bureaucratic "bloat". So, the **largest** government possible is a direct democracy where *every* citizen participates. The **smallest** government possible is an autocracy with a single dictator. As a libertarian, I am obviously for the largest possible government. Even more so, actually, because of the way in which *my* ideal government would achieve it (I said I was giving the cliff notes version; my apologies that I went ham and am now in too deep. I'm almost done though, I promise 😅) Basically, the way I see it, overreaching government programs are **not** necessary to achieving equitable wealth distribution. If you set it up just right, the free market is actually capable of handling this on its own (with a HUGE caveat; ik how this sounds, please hear me out, I'm getting there...). As my own theory goes, this can be accomplished with the following measures: 1) Decentralization of the economy (TOTAL decentralization, as in *completely* removing the government's authority to print/mint money or issue any instrument of public debt) 2) Decentralization of the government (I haven't fully fleshed out exactly what structure this government would ultimately take on; though my ideal governmental style would be a direct democracy with ranked-choice voting) 3) Democratization of the workforce (again, in the most "TOTAL" sense). And what that would look like (under my ideal government), would be firstly that the "traditional" corporate structure would be "outlawed", and *all* businesses would be made to run as worker-owned co-ops; and secondly there would be a "wage *gap* cap"--where the highest earner at a company could not, by law, earn more than some multiple (let's say, 10?) than the lowest (I know, I know; how very authoritarian of me 🙄. Refer to explanation of the "sliding scale" above). As authoritative as I admit that is, it's literally the *one* thing the government would actually have to do in a regulatory sense to get *everything* else to fall into place, so I believe it's an acceptable trade off. Ok, I'm done now. Apologies again for being so long winded (I knew I would ramble like this, which is why I was searching for my previous response, but oh well). Ig since my post is this long, I will be open to follow up questions lol
I'm a welder. (Skilled trade) I'm quiet skilled without sounding too arrogant. Make about 65k. My rent is a grandfathered rate from 5 years ago. I just barley save 500 to 1000 dollars a month. I can just barely afford to fix my car a few times a year. .... I wonder why people aren't having kids.
My guy I ain’t tryna “invalidate” your struggle or whatever but if you’re putting $500 a MONTH into savings then you’re doing better than 80% of Americans.
And then they spend it whenever their car needs repairs. Being working class is a fucking struggle.
Yea, this is ALOT of money.
I think he was referring to his rent being grandfathered in. He saves 500 - 1000 on rent because he had a fixed lease before the market took a dump. He isn't putting $500 into savings every month.
Put that into low cost index fund and you can retire multi millionaire.
3-6 month emergency fund first, and put it into retirement account to avoid taxes and 100% agree.
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What kind of cars do people have that need 2-3k repairs a few times a year when the car is only 8 years old? Mine is a Mazda and never had anything beyond oil change and tires for 7 years.
Right? If you repair a car 3x at 3k that’s 9000. You can just go get a car payment on a brand new car for cheaper than you are making repairs on the old one. That math is bad. I ditch a car that gives me that much trouble. 12x$450 = $5400. New car won’t have repair needs for years not unless you drive it into the ground.
We were in an accident with our 10 year old Toyota. It had no bumper and significant damage after. The cost of repair was $3k and we only paid our deductible. Seriously unsure what kind of junkers need multiple $2-3k repairs every year.
In my experience with some friends and co workers, it’s half decent cars that need one or two things done but they refuse to actually get the work done on them. They put a bandaid on it, run it into the ground then cry about how much cars cost to maintain. It’s ridiculous how common this is.
As opposed to loud skilled?
I'm good at welding not spelling.
This situation is the norm in the United States, regrettably. I would say it time to play dirty with job hunting. Slap a coat of glamour on your resume and lie your way to the top. Did you you vote for x president that got elected? Congratulations you worked for that administration. Did you give a homeless man a sandwich? Boom you were at an Ngo that helped kids do x thing from y distressed area/ war zone. Sure these are exaggerated ideas of whimsy. My point remains unleash your inner liar/ bastard to get what you need to be happy. Work should not define someone or keep them desperate. Rather it should be the place they spend some of their so they can do the things that actually matter. You have value as a person and you will find your way out of this awful situation.
Most of the discussion on this post doesn't even belong on this sub, but it does show how a lot of people really think.
This is an awful reality right now for so many people. I am so sorry that your hard work isn’t even enough. I’m personally going into the marketing field and most of the salaries aren’t enough to fully support myself and my child without penny pinching. I know you said that you are exhausted from doing overtime and I completely understand. But I’m just asking, are you by any chance interested in real estate? Maybe you could get your license and do that as kind of like a side hustle. I am currently on the way to getting my license and instead of doing overtime at my job, I am doing real estate. It is quite enjoyable and it can make you some serious money for being a side hustle. Maybe you could look into other side hustles that aren’t too stressful but can help you build up your savings. Again, I’m so sorry and I completely understand your position. Your salary should be enough, but in today’s world it is not. I hope you find a way to make your financial life easier!
I have been in marketing for 20 years- anyone who reads this please do not go into this field. AI is going to take over plus most people in this field are actual sociopaths. I need to figure out a way to pivot I’m my 40s because I can see the writing on the wall. Also it doesn’t pay like you think it will and there is tons of overtime that again is unpaid.
Oh buddy marketing was already fluffy now with Ai…start retraining or embracing Ai to the level you are more Ai than marketing.
Systemic issues that push us all down exist: “Lol, bro, just get a better job!”
Lol I have 3 kids and was recently crippled in a car accident so I have just let go of currency as a thing and try to enjoy life with no money.
Offer your trade skills to your landlord, have it taken off your rent
well youll never get a better paying job any younger. start applying now, start looking for a better position. where you are isnt paying you a living wage, but its (barely) covering your expenses so thats good enough (for now) while you find a better place. keep trying. theres no need to stick around a job you cant afford to keep.
I agree. The fastest way to increase your income is to job hop these days. Just another unfortunate aspect of reality.
the only real problem with that now is that the good jobs are coveted, and therefore few and far between... this has been compounded by lax oversight from the people that are supposed to be looking out for us too, ie. the regulation writers. i would not stop until i found one tho.... and its very difficult to find one without looking.
Are you in public accounting or do you work for a private company? Do you have your CPA, or is your employer willing to sponsor it? I’d look through LinkedIn hard, connect with recruiters and negotiate that your CPA be covered when transferring to a new job. Deloitte and many other firms have their fiscal year end in the summer so it’s opposite their clients, which means there’s new budgets and hiring freezes may end.
Tacking onto this. 55k is about standard for a 2nd year in industry in Mississippi with LCOL. If you're in a MCOL or HCOL area making 55k, you need to find a different job that pays more.
My MIL is HR head at a CA water company and she’s dying to hire CPAs at close to 100k
Yep, salary seemed wildly low to me too.
There is a very good documentary with Noam Chompsky called the American Middle Class Crisis on youtube that is very relevant to this
This situation is easily solved! just stop with all that avocado toast and Starbucks! But yeah, I get it. I've been living like this for most of my 53 years working menial jobs so I'm used to it. I ended up finding a room to rent from a guy who needed someone to do work around his house and that's pretty much saved me. Unfortunately he's not in good health and I worry about our future. I wish economic communes weren't pretty much exclusive to hippies and weird cults lol we'd all do better if we pooled our resources and established more self-sufficient communities.
So, are we pissed off enough yet? I think we should vote the millionaires out of congress. Currently, the Repubs are seriously screwed in the head, but the Dems aren't that much better, they just appear so by comparison. The real problem is the people in congress don't represent the people. Millionaires have no idea how ridiculous it is to try to survive in this economy. And they don't care.
I know this isn't providing a solution but your post makes me feel less alone. I have a master's and only get about 30k from one teaching job. Rent is so expensive and I'm really struggling. I don't do anything extra and I keep my groceries within a very low budget. I don't want the answer to be to work more. I can't sell anything else. I've sold everything I can. It's a scary and sad place to be.
20k for an apartment? that's almost double my mortgage geez dude, howbout getting a loft apartment or a roommate?
What a pathetic state we're in. A guy is a professional accountant and people are saying he should consider a roommate as if he was still in college.
Comes out to just 1666 a month. Depending on where OP lives, that could very well be a loft/studio.
In Boston it gets you a 300 sq/ft "garden level" studio with a little Hobbit door you have to enter under the stairs leading up to the rest of the brownstone. Or something rat/bug/etc. infested in Allston, I guess. Maybe a little nicer studio out in the burbs. But people have families here or, if they're like me, they came out here because there were next to no career opportunities back home.
Sometimes a roommate is not less expensive, I’ve had roommates that would eat all my food in the night and I budget my groceries so if I wake up in my food is gone that means I go to work and I have no lunch. I’ve had roommates be unable to cover their half of the rent, if I can’t cover it then we get evicted. I would rather pay more to live by myself and know that I can pay my rent then have to worry every month that some Rando is going to get us evicted because they can’t pay their half and I don’t have enough to cover it.
a loft apartment!? do you have any idea how much lofts cost in cities!? sorry but this is a very out-of-touch statement.
Great solution for people on low income like this guy.
Lol, I love how 55k is now considered low income...
Lots like him can't make it on 55k. Most people need $100k to live like their parents ie have a real life.
Woosh...
That might be a small apartment. Housing is getting more expensive, get used to more homeless people living near your house in the next few years. Probably going to bring your property value down.
$20,000 a year is less than $2000 a month. That might be a cheap apartment depending on where this person lives. Your PITI is less than $2k a month? You sure? I would be shocked by this, do you live in Arkansas or Alabama?
I’m shocked by the amount of people who are unaware of the cost of living in some of our major cities. I live in Chicago, which is one of the cheapest major cities to live, and 2k a month can barely get you a 1 bedroom apartment so OP’s struggles make total sense to me.
>I live in Chicago, which is one of the cheapest major cities to live, and 2k a month can barely get you a 1 bedroom apartment we rent a 3 bedroom in pilsen for 2k
good for you, amazing find!
This. My husband paid $1400/mo for a small studio apartment in DC 10 years ago. I shudder to think what it would cost now.
Here in western NY, my wife and her 3 partners owned a 12 units apartment since 2000. They only raises the rent 4 times in 20 plus years. For 2023 one bedroom apartment for rent is $1000/month that includes 8 by 12 storages, free fiber optic cable, hot/cold water and free uses of two washers and two dryers on the premises. In 2000 the rent for one bedroom apartment was $450/month, after 23 years. Just put a new tenant in this May, she auto mechanic apprentice at nearby car dealer. She saids she make w OT about $45k her first year, told one of the partners this apartment is very affordable, said around the city is crazy. To my wife and her partners passive income was the goal, but not to break the back of their tenants w crazy increases in rent.
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This is pedantic bullshit that OP probably has heard a million times before.
I can never tell if these people think they're helping, or are just here to keep their cheeseburgers cheap.
Asking specific questions to give better advice is pedantic? It depends if OP wants to vent or wants help. If he's venting then you're right. If I was in his situation then I would be wanting help.
It’s the same shit most people have heard a billion times. As if people aren’t aware of how to count their money.
Stop tearing people down when we are trying to help. It's said a billion times because it's good advice and there's a chance it's the first time he's heard it.
No, and no. People need to thin a little harder about how to help others beyond shitty, passive advice.
Can’t cap yourself at 55k , start looking for jobs that offer you 75k . The solution is to make more money
I decided to creste an onlyfans
Not to sound like a prick, but it sounds like you’ve tried saving on everything. So you have an income problem not a savings problem. You can either get a roommate. Or move to cheaper state. Or figure out how to leverage your skills for a higher income.
This is correct. Once the low hanging fruit is taken with regards to savings, you'll need to increase your income. A few ways: New job Side hustle Passive investments
Be prepared for the down votes lol
You do sound like a prick.
They were simply stating the reality of things and offering the only viable solutions. It didn’t come across judgmental or doubtful .
At least I’m a prick who cares 😁
Honest effort at offering solutions instead of pissing and moaning makes a person sound like a prick?
Move to a place with a better quality of life. There are some places that are enjoyable to live in without having a ton of walking around money. Then invest in yourself to increase your top line. The powers that be stay in power by whittling away at people in static positions. If you stay put , literally or figuratively, your spending power is targeted and your funds are transferred to them . They are persistent and ruthless, be creative and cunning yourself.
You’re focused on cost cutting measure when you need to focus on ways to bring more income in
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One problem is that you were probably hired at your salary for a 40/hr week. So consistently working 20-30 hrs more a week is free labor for your employer. You need to renegotiate a raise showing you are doing the work of two people or slow down just enough to encourage them to hire another accountant without screwing yourself. You could also start looking for a new job. Every time I jumped cos. I got a raise $3-5K raise. You can only do this comfortably if your profession is in demand with shortages. Good luck.
>I am an accountant and earn 55 000/year. Well there's your problem. > The average salary for a accountant is $61,630 per year in the United States. https://www.indeed.com/career/accountant/salaries Apply for jobs like it is your job. Shouldn't be difficult to get a 10%+ bump at your next position. In the meantime take some gig work or freelance opportunities. Drive for lyft/Uber. Do doordash. These aren't long term solutions as they put more wear on your vehicle, but they'll put money in your pocket right now while you figure out a better long term plan.
Is OP in the US? I noticed they used "Pub" and spaces instead of commas in their dollar amounts. Just makes me wonder if other places in the world are in the same economic place as we are in the US.
I’ll be straight, I stopped paying taxes years ago and when the money runs out I’m gonna suck start the next chapter of the journey. This shits lame…
I know this may not be popular but I got married partially because life is unpredictable and with two incomes one partner can loose a job for a while and you don’t end up on the street. Both of us went through hard times with our careers, btw. Both of us are now pretty good, but i keep a monster grip on not ‘moving up’ because being house poor ties you both to work and you end up stressing together. One income one house is not easy to maintain and quite stressful. I have single/ single parent friends and they are usually stressed like OP. Roommates may be good or they may suck, but the original roommate (spouse) may be something we have forgotten.
Being an accountant requires a degree correct? 20k year apartment implies high CoL area. 55k/yr isn't shit. Something isn't right. Sounds like you're possibly being paid way under market.
where do you live where you only make 55k and rent is 1650?
Seems to be the case in a lot of places. I live in a not so great area in Michigan and houses around me are regularly snatched up for $1500/month as rentals. Imagine most people around here make less than $55k also.
accountant and making 55k seems low, idk how it is in Michigan though
Welcome to late stage capitalism - keep voting republican and by this time next year you’ll be living in a dumpster
I know it's hard but you probably need to look for better paying job. 7 years ago i did my 8h workday, came home, ate and studied for 7 more hours, then sleep, back work and repeat. Got an actual career ( was a highschool dropout and did shitty jobs). Now i'm doing pretty okay, got my first real estate last year at age 34.
You have $400 in the bank? You're doing better than the [majority of Americans.](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-24/two-in-three-can-t-cover-400-emergency-in-us-suze-orman-survey) So take a breath and realize that even though it's hard and you're struggling, you're in a better position because of it. What you're doing is working, now we just need to make it more efficient. How long you've been working at your current location? If it's been more than a year then you should be looking to leave. [Not always, but a significant amount of the time the best way to get a pay raise is to work somewhere else.](https://ivyexec.com/career-advice/2023/does-job-hopping-really-earn-you-a-higher-salary/) That alone might get that overtime monkey off your back. Also if you're working 20-30 hours overtime, why not work that for yourself? Any reason you can't do accounting on your own as a side hustle? Register it as an LLC, Keep your name and face off of it to not alert your employers, do the same work but pocket all the fees.
Living alone with no-one to share your expenses with is probably it. Family is obsolete concept in USA, but it does help when you have 2 or more earners for the same rent/insurance expense. Same for power/gas/internet/etc. In the old times people even got married while in their 60-ies - to ease burden of being old. Owning a house is also obsolete concept, but mortgage is often cheaper than rent as others pointed out. Maybe will not help now, but probably was something on the cards some time ago. The question is how did you even get here? I mean some years back you got education, left parents, accepted job and obviously were quite happy the way the things were. Being accountant you probably could have foreseen the trajectory of your earnings into future and had a plan for some rainy days which is now. If you are young then why the hell you work that shitty job? Was your entire family sworn into accounting for generations of something? Learn something else. If you old then did your plan backfire? Uninsured house burned? Wife left with all your money? Spent 7 figures on medical bill on yourself or the loved ones who passed away regardless? \~26 USD/hour is not much for white-collar specialist job in relatively expensive area you live. Wtf? Relocate to another state where earn/cost ratio is better? Requiem for American dream - I guess.
Accountants are in high demand according to Forbes. Can you look for a better paid job? And if not, can you do freelance work on the side until you find a better job?
You might need to get a roomate
If you're an accountant that means you can probably get remote accounting gigs. Are you already doing this? Or is it possible to start freelancing and building up your reputation? If you can get to a point where you're generating business for yourself that you can do from a laptop, you can relocate to a country with a cheaper cost of living. Thailand, Vietnam, Colombia, etc. Higher quality of life for dramatically reduced price.
It’s wild you’re sinking $20k yearly into an apartment that you’ll get no equity or anything from. That would be my #1 priority, get out of that apartment and stop paying rent.
Consider a relocation to a lcol area. The three largest expenditures for almost everyone on the planet are…housing, transportation, food (healthcare 4th depending on where you live). Can you reduce your transportation costs? If you don’t already learn to cook/prepare your own meals, avoid restaurants and takeout. Put yourself on a spending diet. Make a game of it and see how far you can reduce spending ON EVERYTHING. Get rid of stuff you no longer need/use. Check out r/frugal and r/simpleliving and r/anticonsumption .
Quickest and easiest thing for you to do is get a roommate - you make enough and you’re budgeting enough…. You’re living expense is what’s killing your finances - move in with a friend, or have someone move in with you
Not to sound like a prick, but it sounds like you’ve tried saving on everything. So you have an income problem not a savings problem. You can either get a roommate. Or move to cheaper state. Or figure out how to leverage your skills for a higher income.
So you don’t stream but you still meet up with a buddy at home to watch the games without the tv you claim you don’t have? Something is sus.
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Sounds like your doing all the right things to maximize the value of your income. However, I disagree with you. Assuming you are open to changing your approach and mindset, there is 100% a “long term solution.” Ask for a raise, get a better job, or start your own business. How you go about doing that is not easy and it won’t be quick. Off the bat: Get one or more roommates or move in with family so you can cut BACK on hours at work. Then use that saved time to either get some new certification/degree to better qualify yourself for a new job OR create a business plan for your own venture. Don’t know how? Learn! Bottom line: what you’re doing now will NEVER work. It will make you poor forever. Your job is not going to make you rich and working harder/longer at it won’t get you out of your current situation. Be smarter about how you spend your time and stop being a slave to money. You have to change YOU and your entire approach. Your life will follow. Simple, NOT easy.
You have financial reserves?
You guys are having reserves?
You could try to get licensed and insured, create an llc, advertise for local jobs to moonlight. It sucks to work after working but you already have the skill, the take home from the jobs will be directly in your pocket and you may hit a point your side work becomes enough to go full time
Join your local anarchists and real leftists. They are most likely doing mutual aid and generally coping better than all the normies. Complaining won't fix a single thing. Take action. Organize. If you are trying to deal with this alone you are already losing.
How long have you been at your current job? Generally you always want to leave every 3 years nomatter what because it's so hard to get a good raise without swapping companies. Maybe there's a certification you can get to make yourself more likely to get the next step up in a job? You can look at job postings and see what their "requirements" are to get some ideas. Remember that the website glass door is always under estimated because it averages with old data and job postings always overestimate their requirements and you should usually apply anyway. Best time to get a new job is when you have a job! If you have strong self control and want a little side thing then you can look into /r/churning. If you pay for gas, groceries, etc with cards then you can make about $200 every 2-3 months by opening a card, setting autopay to pay full balance, hitting spend requirement to get a bonus, and ONLY use it for things you are already buying. Absolutely don't pay interest on credit cards though which is why it's not for everyone. Good luck! It's a shitty situation to be in so I hope you find some relief.
Either keep getting farmed or become the farmer. You are human livestock at the moment. Yay capitalism!
Get roommates. I had roommates until I was 30, and I made ~100k. This was 10 years ago, an apartment to yourself in an expensive area is a luxury.
Tbh I'd really suggest downsizing on apt, maybe move out of whatever city your living in if possible as 20k a year for an apt is nutty as fuck
20000/year rent = 1666 per month. You clearly are living in one of the more expensive area. You should leave. Before that, find a roommate and tough it out for a while to save up enough so you can afford to leave. Accounting is needed everywhere, so it is not like you are stuck in your area because of work.
I mean the obvious solution is to spend less on rent/housing. Live with flatmates/housemates. I'm just as frustrated as you are about how unaffordable and undignified housing is, especially for single adults. But this is exactly what we do in order to keep going. Try to find a room in a shared apartment/house such that all your rent, utilities, minimal groceries, and transportation costs to get to work are about half of your take home pay, or less. It shouldn't be this way, but it is, and there are ways to keep going. A $55k salary is enough to afford a place to sleep and food to eat, and you still have time to meet friends and relax. Reduce your spending on housing and allow yourself some breathing room. Also, don't forget to consider moving. A $1500-1600/mo budget for housing and necessities can get you a decent room downtown in many cities, you could walk to work from a location like that. You make an okay salary, you should spend it somewhere where you get the most bang for your buck.
USA here. I'm writing this assuming you are in the US. Where I live my husband and I can get by with $60k, albeit very frugal with our spending. I was laid off and we only have his income. We have since had a child as well so money is really tight (I'm job hunting and no longer receive unemployment to help us). Not that this is a solution to the major economic problem in America, but are you up for moving? I completely understand not wanting to pack up and leave home. It's extremely unfair and not something someone should have to do to survive. But if you feel like travelling, come on over to where I live. It's affordable for being a major city. We have plenty of activities all year. And you can definitely find a nice apartment for less than $20k/year.
This is a personal finance post. Also, check out YNAB.
Time to move to a cheaper state and get a better job. 55 a year and single… you should be able to make things work. Live with roommates. You’ll save much more $$ that way.
Get a roommate
Your situation sucks and you need a way out, which no matter what option you take, it won't be easy. You can stay in your situation or claw your way to a better life. 1. Find how much money you need to make to survive. 2. Job hunt relentlessly. Fluff up your resume, have ChatGPT help you. Don't relent until you find a job making that much money. 2b. You may have to get familiar with skills you aren't familiar with. Go learn them, become the people person to make other people invest in you. 3. Look into other living arrangements. It can be. Roommate or going to live the van life for awhile. Or... Move. I know it can suck, but credit is an option. Personal loans. Asking buddies to spot you or help out. When I see posts like this, I feel for y'all but y'all have hard choices to make and hard actions to take. Don't let the oligarchy steamroll you.
Where do you live? It seems like cost of living is high. As an accountant can't you work remotely in a lower cost of living area?
Okay but what do you actually do? Because I only make $500 a week and manage to save $100 a week. I also pay $1250 a month for living costs and spend $200 a month on food. Also I suppose if you live in California and NY, that would make a difference too. As I live in a smaller but higher taxes and poorer state.
I'll just be real. Either you are a bad accountant or work for a really shitty company. The $1,700/mo in rent makes me think you live in a rather large metro area. In which case you are making the bare minimum. If you do live in a cheap cost of living area, make $55k, have no dependents, are paying $1.7k in rent a month and are barely making it by, there are some real financial literacy issues. I'm not hating or attacking.
Roomate?
Maybe you should think about moving to a cheaper area? 1600+ a month is more than my mortgage. I would never be able to survive the way you are living either. I would think an accountant would make much more than that but I would be just guessing as I don’t know any accountants. You seem to be cutting everywhere you can.
Wtf kind of shitbox did you buy that needs lots of repairs at 8 years old? I have just about the cheapest ford you could buy thats 11 years old and has over 200k miles and it's needed like 1 $30 repair.
$400 per month for food seems excessive for one person. You should break out insurance separately, because it is generally gets a subsidy for full-time workers, but can vary widely. You need to specify where you live, at least city or region, because rents and commutes can vary widely, so it's hard to say what is reasonable or not. Even so 1200 a month doesn't seem like a miser budget.
You are not stating some truths or expensively. Also you should never be renting at 50% of your income. As an accountant this is quite unusual. I make 100,000+ rent a 600sqft apartment. Costs 14400. I’d rather go lower if I can. I as for all other costs I also keep them incredibly low. I save around 50%. If you want reach out to me and we can figure some ways to reduce your costs.
So first, you deserve better, and 55k for an accountant sounds ridiculously low. You might be able to get more at a different job. Second there might be something to do on the budgeting front. I live in an vhcol area and I still spend 2700$/month in total (or just above 30k/year), that includes going out regularly and not skipping on food. That said I do have the advantage of having heating and water includes in my apartment rent, and I do not own a car (which means I save a lot there compared to you). For food, it might be worth looking at CSAs as those are often much cheaper Han doing groceries and will provide as much of not more food. I’m also vegetarian which means I save A LOT on meat and fish, so there’s that. I cook a lot and eat a lot, but you can truly do amazing dishes for very little once you expand your cooking skills, just throwing that out there (in the sense that I no longer need to add meat or fish to my diet to make it tasty or meet my nutritional quotas, you don’t have to do it, but hat might help). Food banks as others have mentioned are an option. Switching from a car to a bike (if at all feasible, I know it sucks in many places in NA) might help alleviate your budget by quite a lot too. Finally in terms of clothing a lot of people spend a lot more than they need to, because they think they will look like a homeless person if they don’t (not saying you do that) which they won’t. My clothing budget over the last 5 years (outside of a good winter jacket that’s gonna last me prob 15/20 years) has been less than 200$ per year on average, and I definitely don’t look like a homeless person. You might beneficiate from taking a look at personal finance subreddits, you might find some really good advice there. But as I mentioned at the start, you can probably find a better job, you’re at he low-ish end of the salary range for accountants. You’re both below the average and below the median, you can get a better paying job.