Great aticle on how middle class is struggling and not saving enough

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

We have no retirement savings, because we emptied a small 401(k) to pay for our younger daughter’s wedding.

WTF?

yeah its normal get over it rich ahole

I would die of shame if I let my middle class parents drain their savings to pay for my wedding. Holy shit.

+1
We had the wedding my parents could afford. They simply would not hear of letting us pay, so we made sure it was well within their means.

[Anonymous]

We are paycheck to paycheck and have to juggle bills around all the time. It's awful. I could do some juggling to come up with 2000, but it's not sitting in a savings account. And I would have to wait till payday to get it. Our HHI is $180 too. We bought, then DH effectively had a pay cut. It's a long story.

[Anonymous]

The author is a complete loser! Now, we are all supposed to feel sorry for him and bail him and his ilk out? NO thank you! Be responsible and take care of yourself and your family and don't live above your means. He is really pretty pathetic.

[Anonymous]

The author was brutally honest about the stupid things he did. Prime example of someone that's highly educated yet broke. All because he thought he should live the dream but in reality it's his nightmare.

Do I believe the statistics in the piece ? Yes I do. This is America in the real. Pockets of wealth here and there but not everywhere and the struggle is real.

I see people living beyond their means daily. Priorities screwed up. Gotta front that wealth.

If you don't take care of you, no one else will.

[Anonymous]

This article is new, but I'm pretty sure that I saw the survey he cites as soon as it came out. I may have even started a thread about it here, to back up those who were incredulous that dual Fed worker coupes were worried about paying the bills during the government shutdown. It boggles the mind.

"But whatever you call it, the evidence strongly indicates that either a sizable minority or a slim majority of Americans are on thin ice financially. How thin? A 2014 Bankrate survey, echoing the Fed’s data, found that only 38 percent of Americans would cover a $1,000 emergency-room visit or $500 car repair with money they’d saved. Two reports published last year by the Pew Charitable Trusts found, respectively, that 55 percent of households didn’t have enough liquid savings to replace a month’s worth of lost income, and that of the 56 percent of people who said they’d worried about their finances in the previous year, 71 percent were concerned about having enough money to cover everyday expenses."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This article is new, but I'm pretty sure that I saw the survey he cites as soon as it came out. I may have even started a thread about it here, to back up those who were incredulous that dual Fed worker coupes were worried about paying the bills during the government shutdown. It boggles the mind.

I remember that. Mind blowing for sure. Remember the panic ? Wealth on paper. Lotta good it does you in an emergency.

[Anonymous]

Live within your means. Provide for yourself and your family. STOP trying to keep up with other people or "appear" well-to-do. If you think the Government and your fellow citizens have the money to bail you out of your stupid financial mistakes or your decision to live beyond your means, you are very sorely mistaken. The country is bankrupt and the cupboards are bare.

[Anonymous]

I can't understand spending a bonus or tax refund when you don't have an emergency fund.

[Anonymous]

Wow how about him or his wife getting a part time job. Or downsizing their home. The whole article is ridiculous. Private school?!? Just move. There is always someone who makes less somehow managing it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

We have no retirement savings, because we emptied a small 401(k) to pay for our younger daughter’s wedding.

WTF?

yeah its normal get over it rich ahole

I would die of shame if I let my middle class parents drain their savings to pay for my wedding. Holy shit.

+1000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Re: living in Brooklyn/sending to private. There was a period of time when he was doing really well in his career (I think he said one of his books was optioned for a film?) and I got the impression that that's when they decided to buy in Brookyn, wife would quit her job to SAH, and that eventually they would pay for private school. His big mistake was assuming that his income would keep rising at a steady pace. He even says at one point none of his mistakes (such as buying a second house before selling the first one or selling his first house at a loss) would have mattered in the end had that happened. And the thing is, it's not so unusual for people to think that: that they'll keep making more money as they get older. How could he have predicted the collapse of print media?

Yes, but it's extremely poor judgment to spend the money before you actually get it. The bolded, is a really, really big if to bank your financial stability on. You really need to plan for a Plan B before you spend more than your current income on some large ticket item. It's one thing to plan around your current salary and get left high and dry when one of you loses your job or gets a pay cut due to some external reason (like when a company opts to cut salaries to avoid layoffs). It's another thing to plan around increases that have not yet happened.

[Anonymous]

The author is a typical Boomer who thought that everything was going to continue to work out for eternity. He spoiled his children and made stupid decisions (wife SAH when his income was inconsistent? not paying the IRS the.very.first., buying a house in the Hamptons BEFORE selling his co-op, dumping his 401k for his kid's wedding).

Now, apparently, it's America's fault. (*sarcasm to follow*) You see, it couldn't have possibly been all his fault. Yes, he lived above his means, but, but he DESERVED to.

Idiot. He drained his fortune, his parents' fortune, and now he's going after his kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

We have no retirement savings, because we emptied a small 401(k) to pay for our younger daughter’s wedding.

WTF?

yeah its normal get over it rich ahole

I would die of shame if I let my middle class parents drain their savings to pay for my wedding. Holy shit.

+1000

+ a million

That's the point at which I stopped reading. So ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are paycheck to paycheck and have to juggle bills around all the time. It's awful. I could do some juggling to come up with 2000, but it's not sitting in a savings account. And I would have to wait till payday to get it. Our HHI is $180 too. We bought, then DH effectively had a pay cut. It's a long story.

If I were you, I would increase my income or sell the house and downsize.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This isn't quite me and I haven't made as many dumb financial decisions as the writer, but I am unlike most on DCUM, at least.

I am a single parent. I finally hit $90K this year. I could pay the $2000, but I would only have $4000 left in my emergency fund. I have enough saved for two years of state college for my teen. I have more than $4000 credit card debt, left over from a medical emergency. I have retirement savings, but nowhere near enough for someone who is 50.

I disagree that working hard equates to your income going up on a steady trajectory. I'm a writer/editor. Journalism has imploded over the last couple decades. I stay because I love what I do and I don't think I have the temperament or right kind of smarts to be a lobbyist or IT professional to rake in the big bucks.

I'm not exactly close to the edge, but closer than I'd like, and no one in real life knows that.

So the person you procreated with isn't financially supporting your teen? I'm a good writer and may have wanted journalism, but I wanted to be financially secure so I went into law. Where did you decide you had the luxury of going into a disappearing, very middle class profession?