Nearly half of all renter households in the US were cost-burdened in 2023, meaning they paid more than 30% of their income towards housing costs, according to new government data.
You have a 2-3 br home you pay $1,750/mo mortgage for
You are an Electrician Apprentice, making a median salary of $57k
You have very reasonable student loans between $3k and $19k (your number)
You will be a full blown electrician in 2-7 years (your number, 4,000 to 12,000 hours, full time)
I don’t know about you, but that all sounds quite reasonable. That is a nice home, student loans that are very affordable and will be paid off soon, a good job, and a promising career path. You own your home, meaning you are building equity. And, hell, you can even rent out one of the bedrooms to vastly lower that already reasonable monthly mortgage.
This may not be what you specifically want in life, but it is a very achievable goal and a comfortable life for the average man.
Yes. Very reasonable. You just need to find a way to afford rent and food for you and your kids for those seven years, at least a couple of which you won’t be earning the sort of money you could earn to move out to Shitsville, Nowhere and buy a modest home.
I’m guessing your next piece of advice would be: just don’t have kids. Because women can just vacuum those back up once they come out.
Once the kid situation hits then yeah, it’s harder to make planning decisions, people’s options are limited at that point. I agree we should help people in those circumstances, but I also think we should help people make plans which avoid painting themselves into a corner.
So the economy made it so people who were planning ahead suddenly woke up one day with an unplanned 2 year old?
Sure, money and housing are tougher than they used to be, but don’t pretend like an embarrassing number of people just don’t care to plan ahead, and when they get into deep shit they look to blame everyone else.
I mean, yeah, I plan for that. If you’re a wage earner like me, you should know you’re employed at the will of some company, and they don’t give a shit about you.
I plan for this by interviewing for other jobs at least once a month. I turn down offers every few months. I keep my skills sharp and my eyes open, and change employment when it makes sense.
The longest I’ve been at one company is 7 years, but it’s not unusual for me to change companies after 18-24 months.
I don’t plan to get laid off, but it happens a lot in my industry, and I roll with it. It is planned out, risk management, or whatever you want to call it.
This kind of sounds like one of those Boomer “I got a job at 18 and started saving and paid for college and bought a house” things that are no longer possible in 2024.
How do I plan for job instability? By interviewing at many places continuously. By keeping my job skills and interviewing skills sharp, while interviewing continuously. By keeping my eye on the market and my value, by interviewing continuously, and evaluating the incoming offers.
It’s not easy, but it’s pretty straightforward. I picked a job sector with lots of opportunities and upward mobility, but also tons of instability. I picked a place to live which gives me physical proximity to those opportunities. I work smart and stay agile. All of that without a college degree.
Stuff is expensive and we don’t always have everything we want, but we’re secure enough to have everything we need, with a healthy risk management plan.
I do live in a major city in the US, so I have more local opportunities than someone in a small town. But I’d argue that my decision to live near where there are job opportunities was part of my planning process.
Lets put these all together then:
I don’t know about you, but that all sounds quite reasonable. That is a nice home, student loans that are very affordable and will be paid off soon, a good job, and a promising career path. You own your home, meaning you are building equity. And, hell, you can even rent out one of the bedrooms to vastly lower that already reasonable monthly mortgage.
This may not be what you specifically want in life, but it is a very achievable goal and a comfortable life for the average man.
Yes. Very reasonable. You just need to find a way to afford rent and food for you and your kids for those seven years, at least a couple of which you won’t be earning the sort of money you could earn to move out to Shitsville, Nowhere and buy a modest home.
I’m guessing your next piece of advice would be: just don’t have kids. Because women can just vacuum those back up once they come out.
Huh, it’s like planning ahead isn’t even a thing.
Once the kid situation hits then yeah, it’s harder to make planning decisions, people’s options are limited at that point. I agree we should help people in those circumstances, but I also think we should help people make plans which avoid painting themselves into a corner.
It’s like people who were formally doing fine hit hard times, like during an economic downturn.
So the economy made it so people who were planning ahead suddenly woke up one day with an unplanned 2 year old?
Sure, money and housing are tougher than they used to be, but don’t pretend like an embarrassing number of people just don’t care to plan ahead, and when they get into deep shit they look to blame everyone else.
Please do tell me how to plan ahead for getting laid off from the job you’ve had for 10 years.
I mean, yeah, I plan for that. If you’re a wage earner like me, you should know you’re employed at the will of some company, and they don’t give a shit about you.
I plan for this by interviewing for other jobs at least once a month. I turn down offers every few months. I keep my skills sharp and my eyes open, and change employment when it makes sense.
The longest I’ve been at one company is 7 years, but it’s not unusual for me to change companies after 18-24 months.
I don’t plan to get laid off, but it happens a lot in my industry, and I roll with it. It is planned out, risk management, or whatever you want to call it.
Again, how do you plan for that? Most towns only have one or two companies per type of occupation.
Bear in mind that 78% of Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck so regularly moving elsewhere is not an option.
https://www.forbes.com/advisor/banking/living-paycheck-to-paycheck-statistics-2024/
This kind of sounds like one of those Boomer “I got a job at 18 and started saving and paid for college and bought a house” things that are no longer possible in 2024.
How do I plan for job instability? By interviewing at many places continuously. By keeping my job skills and interviewing skills sharp, while interviewing continuously. By keeping my eye on the market and my value, by interviewing continuously, and evaluating the incoming offers.
It’s not easy, but it’s pretty straightforward. I picked a job sector with lots of opportunities and upward mobility, but also tons of instability. I picked a place to live which gives me physical proximity to those opportunities. I work smart and stay agile. All of that without a college degree.
Stuff is expensive and we don’t always have everything we want, but we’re secure enough to have everything we need, with a healthy risk management plan.
I do live in a major city in the US, so I have more local opportunities than someone in a small town. But I’d argue that my decision to live near where there are job opportunities was part of my planning process.