How American Household Finances are Changing, Because of Republicans

My theory is that its the people's attitudes. They have to have the same or better than their neighbors (bragging rights) no matter the cost. In doing so , they think the future will provide for itself as it had today.

Just a pure matter of trying to live above their means.
Simple , easy , factual observation.

originally posted by: cynicalheathen
a reply to: toysforadults

A McMansion is not a "need". I see a lot of people in the "affluent" areas buying way too much house just to give the appearance that they are successful. Those same houses get sold or foreclosed on in less than a year. This happens in Alabama, one of the cheapest places to live in the U.S.

The mortgages on my current home and the starter home I owned before are still less than the average "suburban" home mortgage in my area when put together. People are house broke because they fall into that trap.

If your mortgage or rent is more than 25% of your monthly gross, it's too much.

That's what my parents did. They both grew up in the council estates of my home city. They were good neighbourhoods, but the schools weren't so good. So they wanted to get a better education for their children. Saved up for a deposit and were able to buy an apartment in the West End of the city.

Places like Silicon Valley, it's the same thing. The most important two factors are a short commute and world class private schools. People are therefore willing to spend anything to get a house on the peninsula and especially in SF. There were some suburbs in Menlo Park which were owned exclusively by South Korean families. The family would spend millions to buy a house for their children, send the children over to the USA and pay for maids to keep the house clean. No-one else there, just their children. The streets would be empty except for the time there was a school bus in the afternoon.

Because plot sizes for homes are become smaller, not large enough for children to run around in, families are choosing to have a large house so it has features like Jack'n'Jill bathrooms (men and womens bathrooms), childrens den for video games, widescreen TV living room, bedrooms as well as a study room, sundeck level on top floor and an attic studio.

originally posted by: toysforadults


if you could show some data you might be able to sway me but my 2-3 sources listed above and very accurate and credible sources I've been listening to/ watching for some time now

I guess I could, but what do you spend in a month on everything?

When I look at the chart and it says entertainment 5% in 1972 and 3% today just what was that entertainment back then lol? For me it was a once a month dollar per carload drive-in, maybe eat out at a local restaurant once or twice per month, one trip to a water park per year, what else was there lol? Trips were rare but if we did one it was a drive to the location and a few days at best.

Today...1200.00 is a easy number to get and exceed compared to well under 50 bucks...

monthly
250.00 for cable/internet
130.00 for phone
400.00 to 600.00 Eat out dinner 10 to 15 per month
150.00 to 200.00 Eat out lunch 15 to 20 per month
200.00 in coffees per month
100.00 Games
30.00 movies
We will not even talk week get a ways to Mexico/cruises/Vegas and other places that we really didn't have back in 1972
Cigarettes, alcohol, juuls etc are a lot more in cost well past inflation than back in 1972 most likely 200% more even if the users stayed the same.

a reply to: xuenchen

My oldest tends to have his head up his ass. He's incredibly bright, but just doesn't utilize it in a way that allows him thoughtful action. So when he took his 3.8 GPA and wanted to major in journalism/minor in english, I advised against it. STEM fields..thats where its at.

He didn't listen.

His sophomore year is coming to a close and he realizes he's behind his peers. They are all doing internships for the summer. He is facing his second summer of hanging on my couch. I ask him if he has a body of work we can review. "Whats that?". You know, the online blog that you and I set up your freshman year? You have that? Any DeviantArt accounts for creative writing? Anything? "No, i didn't think that would help".

Today he is doing well as a teacher. The job I told him he'd end up with, and that he swore he'd never do...that's his career. He loves it, so there's that. And he's good at it. He deals with the rejects that won't be accepted in other classrooms because they act terrible.

There are jobs available for folks like that. THey just have to be willing to teach. There are loads of open teaching positions.

originally posted by: khnum
a reply to: toysforadults

Do you really need a Cadillac or an MBA on the never never(credit) to be self actualised
Does your child really need a Bachelors in Gender Studies or Marine biology....how about a trade
Do you need more than 1 car,computer or television.

We buy things we dont need with money we dont have to impress people we dont like.

If you cannot afford it then dont buy it.

BS. There's nothing wrong with education or with owning luxuries. I'm a minimalist so I don't have a lot of that, but I do buy top of the line.

We buy things to make life more convenient. Here's my current monthly budget.

Total $5800 (after taxes)
Rent ($660) - 11.4%
Utilities ($350) - 6%
Food ($1500) - 25.87%
Entertainment/Misc ($1000) - 17.24%
Transportation ($300) - 5.2%
Savings - ($1995) - 34.4%

originally posted by: ketsuko
Perhaps, we ought to be willing to tell some kids that college isn't where they belong. There are plenty of solid trade jobs that will provide a good living and don't start you under a mountain of debt.

Someone in the trades will never socially advance. They'll be on the bottom tier for their whole life, they'll never enter the professional or governing classes.

That advice condemns them to a life of never getting to excel.

originally posted by: cynicalheathen
If your mortgage or rent is more than 25% of your monthly gross, it's too much.

Less.

If your rent is more than 18% of gross it's too much.

If your mortgage is more than 6% of gross, and you can't afford to make at least 3 payments per month on it, it's too much.

a reply to: Aazadan

this is the fairytale land you live in where that's actually possible in most place when the majority of americans (40% of wage earners) make 30k or less a year

40% Of US Workers Now Earn Less Than 1968 Minimum Wage

www.forbes.com...

the one number not going up (aside from debt to income ratio) is the amount of money people are making unless of course your an accountant or in tech

so the fairytale land rule your using only applies to half of wage earners

originally posted by: toysforadults
so the fairytale land rule your using only applies to half of wage earners

Probably less than that, I essentially won the lottery in getting my job.

The top 20-30% are making more, everyone below that isn't.

I agree on the solutions, now find a way to implement them.

a reply to: Aazadan

I'm just letting you know that when you say things like that your speaking of a former hypothetical world that the majority of humans don't experience as simply as you state it

a reply to: Aazadan

I specified getting such things on credit is a boo boo,you with 34 per cent savings should be able to save up and buy such things and there is nothing wrong about that.

a reply to: toysforadults

Regardless of who may or may not be responsible for what is shown by the graphs, people need to realise that Americans like many others tend to vote for reasons they ought to NOT vote on.

They make the mistake of paying attention to the throwaway comments and speeches they give at election time. For some strange reason the people seem to latch on the most trivial issues that candidates come up with.

The candidates treat the voters like idiots and only talk about matters of no consequence so they don't have to talk about anything that is important such as the affairs of state.

THEY SAY NOTHING of any importance and the people just cop being treated like they are wasted space. If we want to stop this merry-go-round idiocy we must STOP VOTING for them.

If we act like idiots they will treat us like idiots.

When are the people going to realise American politicians like Australian, British, European and other politicians, are all on the same side of the fence. When will the people wake up to the fact that no matter what gets in the globalist agenda will continue to get rolled out by WHOEVER is in power at the time.

If you want to know what the globalist agenda is look up Dr Days 1969 talk to a group of other doctors which was called "Everything Is In Place and No-one Can Stop Us Now. "

There are over 100 items in this list and you can read through them and see for yourself just how many of them have been rolled out since that time.

a reply to: toysforadults

Common sense doesn't need statistics. Not every citcumstance needs explanation using statistics.

It's extremely obvious if you open your eyes that people today have taken out student loans that in the future deter them from buying a home or car. However, in this economy, people do continue to spend alot on entertainent, clothing, shopping as entertainment and using their credit cards to pay now insted of saving then purchasing and the government and capitalism is all about buy, buy, buy.

However, new car sales are down, housing for first time owners is practically non-existant, and student loans keep millenials from buying homes.

We are in an upside down economy where consumerism is finally taking a toll on the average American but our government continues to support the banks and capitalistiic consumer habits.

The OP provided tons of info that we have a changed economy which is not benfitting the modern working citizen.

We need to pay attention to how we have been manpulated to support over-consumerism and ideals that having things will give us happiness. And, instead, transfer that consumerism to the safety of having the savings for special needs instead of expecting the banks or government to continually provide for us and keep the cycle of dependancy on others to take care of us and leading us into further dept and taking away our future.

originally posted by: khnum
a reply to: Aazadan

I specified getting such things on credit is a boo boo,you with 34 per cent savings should be able to save up and buy such things and there is nothing wrong about that.

Not really, that's retirement, emergency fund, etc savings. I'm trying to push that to 50% of income but as you can see, my food budget is working against me (I eat out for almost every meal). Generally I buy things on credit but I pay it off out of my entertainment budget. I actually make all purchases on credit and regularly pay off my card.

originally posted by: toysforadults
a reply to: Aazadan

I'm just letting you know that when you say things like that your speaking of a former hypothetical world that the majority of humans don't experience as simply as you state it

They can though, we've been over this a thousand times. If you follow all the right steps you're not guaranteed success or financial stability but your chance of getting it are improved. My opinion is that an education is the way to do so, but that a 4 year degree is not enough.

The really scary part for me is how many people seem to be oblivious to how financially bad off they are, accepting a flat income for decades as the price of most everything has risen, some by hundreds of percent. It is a recipe for disaster, driving the people into the ground. I guess most people are okay with a relative few having everything. Seems dumb to me. But what do I know?

a reply to: tabularosa

You can sit here for 2 days straight showing them the data and they wont am acknowledge it

They will continue to believe their anecdotally supported right or left wing spoon fed narratives regardless

Welcome to the 2010's ! It's a race to the bottom baby!

originally posted by: khnum
If everybody sat down and honestly figured out just how much stuff they really need in their life and adjust accordingly this problem would disappear

Key word being "need" versus "want"--I would wager that a large majority of Americans don't understand the difference.

a reply to: SlapMonkey

Who do you think you are to tell people they shouldnt habe any comfort or joy in their life?

Are you living that way? With no entertainment and joy?

So selfish.