$500 for your phone!!?

I'm not unsympathetic. Cost of living is high and you're not living too extravagantly. The only budget item I can see where there's room for potential savings is your food spending. Cut out takeaways and doordash and learn to cook. Eat simply at home. Rice and beans, chicken, stir fry. It's tasty enough. If you do this, I can see you cutting back on your monthly CC expenses by about 400-500. But the rest of your spending is probably what you will have to spend to live decently.

Other advice is to get a new job.

I make 130k in a lower cost market with a 1500 mortgage but I max all retirement + IRA Roth and I am also feeling the economic bite and as much as I enjoy my job and team, I'm starting to think of looking around for 150+. Don't see any reason why I shouldn't find one, so I'll give my current job another year and if no promotion is forthcoming, will start interviewing. It does suck to be surrounded by people making 200, 300+K and they're not more intelligent or capable than I am. And it especially sucks to see 22 year old grads walking into jobs paying almost as much as mine!

With rent that high you should be centrally located enough to be car-free. Saves you tons right there. Get your CC spending down to $1200/mo. Shouldn’t be hard. I spend less than $1000/mo to feed my family of four. You are not poor, you are a bit dumb though.

Working poor don’t have 401k, much less 10% into it, you clueless idiot.

Anonymous wrote:Your rent is too high. That’s what we pay for a mortgage in a SFH in moco. Move or get a roommate or something.

You must have locked in your rate a long time ago. It's ridiculous for you to suggest that a 35 year old get a room mmate

Anonymous wrote:Your rent is too high. That’s what we pay for a mortgage in a SFH in moco. Move or get a roommate or something.

That’s decent rent for a one bedroom now. That’s not the problem.

Stop using a credit card, stop door dash and going out.

I had kids at your age 10 years ago and I didn’t spend that much money on myself every month. Come to think of it, I don’t now, either, and I could if I wanted to…

Cell phone is really $500? I get the new iphone is the fanciest device to get out there but you people are crazy. And all the pressure to getting the iphone.

You need to reduce your spending. Eating out costs alot. You need to cut down on eating out and stick to just Fri and weekends, that will help reduce your spending.

This isn't a dating advice forum but, Go on coffee dates instead of the whole meal in the beginning. If you don't even connect during a coffee break, don't bother with any meals. Heck, go out walking and hiking. Those are free activities. If the person can't even keep up with you in any way, you might want to reconsider. I know cutting out alcohol is hard for many but cut that in half. Skip the desserts. Doesn't a picnic sound better.

Anonymous wrote:Hop to your next job and make more money. There are 22 year old grads making more than you.
Or get a side gig.

"There are" also billionaires - why aren't you one, PP?

Read Ramit Sethi, OP.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Income 100k for 35 year old is working poor
Earnings
$8,333.33 After taxes and 10% for 401k is Take Home pay is $5,440.21

RENT $2100
After paying all subductions, Internet, TV, Student loans, VA Dominon Power, Cell Phone $500
Car issuance $180
CAR Payment $350
credit card $2000 (FOOD, GAS, Metro, Drinks, going out, Door Dash, )

I am only able to save about $300 dollars a month. Last year in 2023 I only saved $4000 dollars.
In January and February I was only able to saved $500. I can't start a family

Well, you can’t start a family without someone else.

Get married to someone making $100,000 (preferably more) and problem solved.

Yes, you can.

You can have kids at any income level, OP.

We had two kids on significantly less than that. We all lived in a one-bedroom rental until the youngest was 1, and then moved to a very small house. We lived EXTREMELY frugally. We had no cars - took buses and metro. We bought food on sale and cooked from scratch. We did not pay for entertainment: we had no TV, cable, buy Starbucks, pay for movies, anything. We had pay-as-you-go cheapie phones. My husband's cousin gave him her old phones. We took furniture from people who left it out in the building's recycling room.

We are very happy with our life decisions, because now I'm dealing with autoimmune infertility and no amount of money can make me have another child. And now we live comfortably, on an income that most on here would find rather LOW. Comfortably, because we got used to living on so much less

So a word to the wise. If you really want a child, meet someone and do it. The money will figure itself out. Your body might not.

Cut the door dash. Drive to pick it up dude.
Credit card $2000 is insane

While you are not “working poor’; you are definitely pointing out that to have what most people may consider a “normal “ lifestyle, it is difficult and expensive. We, on paper, are doing well, but struggle with just keeping our heads above water. Throw raising a family into the mix, even with the two incomes, and it’s still not enough.

If you can throw on some heels, get a boob job, and consider your sexuality (I’m assuming you are straight male), you - like many of the women on DCUM - may get lucky and land the big fish. In the meantime, reduce debt, spend wisely, save and invest. Good luck…

Sure not spending like the working poor. We're a family of four and don't spend $2000 a month on "FOOD, GAS, Metro, Drinks, going out, Door Dash".

I agree with the need to have an app to automatically track/categorize your expenses. YNAB is fine.

"I will teach you to be rich" has its fans, though I'm not one of them. He does make the excellent point that there is a limit to how much you can improve your finances by reducing expenses. You should do it, for sure, but it's not going to get you there.

The key to wealth is increasing your income. First is your wages/salary. Real wealth comes from building passive income: stocks, real estate, your own IP that generates income and marrying well.