I get job contracts for a few months at a time. Sometimes there are months when I'm unemployed, and those are hard on my savings. I used to do just fine, but this year has been very difficult and my normal savings are pretty much gone. (I still got some in funds/investments though.) So basically, I had a buffer but I had to use it, and now I have nothing. I guess it's because of the rise in prices? I don't "waste" money on frivolous things like I might have in the past, but it's only getting more and more difficult. Add to this student loans. I wouldn't have €1000 to spare for an unexpected expense. I am really angry at society, to be honest. If the job market wasn't so ass, I wouldn't have to deal with these short contracts.
this post was submitted on 10 Oct 2024
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Maybe it helps to understand it when you think of it from the perspective that those $1000 expenses do happen, they're not just hypothetical. But being able to cope with an event like that leaves you less able to handle a second one, and a third one
Couple that with the fact that I'm the US there is very little financial education so what might be an expected event for one person surprises another. Imagine living with a roommate and not realizing that to move into your own place involves coming up with first and last month rent, deposit, hook up fees, renters insurance, furniture, kitchen supplies, toiletries, etc... None of those should be unexpected, but also why would you expect them if you didn't happen to run into them before?
Basically no amount of saving accounts for an expense that takes it all, and it's then followed up by another one right after. And for some people those events are small and happen so quickly you never catch up and now you have late fees and interest and stress.
I have 1k euro left. No job, 35 years old. I wanna kill myself sometimes.
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Average at best.
every time I read one of those statistics, I feel the same way.
I'm doing very well relative to that statistic.
I live fairly simply, but I don't consider myself particularly frugal.
I like traveling, learning, eating, watching and reading stuff, and making things, which are all pretty cheap interests.
If I were to credit anything with my financial success, it would be a practiced awareness of financial opportunity and persistently learning about and attempting every viable opportunity I'm interested in to gain a practical knowledge of cost-benefit streams.
I've tried many ways to make money and work less, and some of them worked out.
I'm traveling this year, so I save most of my income, and with the IRS' FEIE I don't pay income tax(up to 120k).
I have a few investments and some ten thousands accruing interest.
i don't have immediate plans, but I want to buy some land at some point, basically so I have more area to build stuff and make stuff, sign up for cryonics and get a new electric bike or the Aptera if it every goes into production.
c'mon aptera.
It’s a difficult subject to discuss without sounding like you’re either bragging or talking down to those less well off.
I recently bought a new-to-me truck. I paid in cash, and if I wanted to, I could’ve bought two more. If I liquidated my investments, I could have bought three more, so six in total. I’m self-employed now, but I built all my wealth while working for a (plumbing) company where I was surrounded by people earning twice as much as I did. Yet, these are the people who need to finance their cars, have massive mortgages, and are always in a bad mood due to stress.
I understand that some people have been really unlucky and struggle to improve their financial position despite their best efforts, but these aren’t the people I’m talking about when I wonder how a working-age person can’t come up with a thousand bucks for an unexpected expense. I hardly even consider that a lot of money.
but I want to buy some land at some point, basically so I have more area to build stuff and make stuff.
I feel you there. What kind of things would you like to build? For me, it’s things like a rainwater harvesting system, solar/wind power, a pond with a pier and sauna, a chicken coop, a heated workshop with a car lift, a root cellar... I basically have an infinite list of projects I'd like to pursue.
"I basically have an infinite list of projects I'd like to pursue."
this is about where I'm at.
All the homesteading stuff, I want to try breeding meat rabbits, I want to try geothermal air conditioning, buy used cars and flip them (I started working on cars a few years ago and ended up enjoying it much more than I thought I would).
a whole separate area for home brewing and jerkying stuff too, canning, all that.
I like the idea of building different types of housing and read books and watch videos all the time, like straw bale or clay or underground, whatever the heck experimental cabins I could build, and I've further toyed with the beginning of an idea of how to turn that into low income housing after I land on the simplest, sturdiest and least resource intensive houses to build.
carpentry. I've built small tables and desks and chairs for classrooms, but I'd like to experiment with larger furniture.
I did a lot of solar power experimentation when I was living in a motorhome that turned out Great, and I expect many of my projects outside would be solar and wind powered.
fish farming, vermicomposting, yeah, just a thousand billion things haha.
I like making things, building things, and new experiences.
I've done smaller projects within most of the fields I've mentioned as the opportunity arose, but even when I'm renting a house somewhere for a couple months I can't easily conduct long-term larger living experiments, so I'll have to get a house and land at some point so I can fiddle at scale.
..."always in a bad mood due to stress."
circumstance and opportunity.
some people don't have the opportunities, many do have the opportunities but don't recognize them or choose not to take them because anything outside of what they already know makes them uncomfortable where is seen as difficult, and they haven't been taught or learned themselves through experience to push past that discomfort or initial effort.
Yeah I love all that. Flipping old cars is something I've thought about as well but something I'd be even more interested in is doing the same with boats. Now that I'm self-employed I've tought about getting a project boat that I could work on when ever business is otherwise slow. I couldn't fit a large one on my yard but some smaller fishing boat would be interesting to start with. When looking at old boats they often look like just even a simple pressure wash would double their price.
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Started paying off debt, saving, and investing consistently over 25 years ago. It has really worked out, and my wife and I are more financially secure than most. Even still, we're one health crisis away from potential bankruptcy, because we live in the United States.
I'm tied down by one financial anchor and have opted to add two more smaller ones on top of that for giggles. I live very comfortably paycheck to paycheck, if I need to save for anything I can fairly easily put away around 3k a month. I can afford a random 1k expense without issue, currently anything above 2k would be a bit tougher, but still manageable.
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Barely surviving, but not from everyday expenses. Got two kids in college and this year FAFSA decided not to give any help to anyone so all expenses are on me.
we're fiiinnneeeee. could be better
Money is like water, you need some amount but more is not better. The smarter you are the less you need and the easier it becomes to always have plenty.
It sounds crazy to you because you have apparently had success handed to you through no work or special virtue of your own. Maybe get out of your comfy bubble a bit
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