Nothing will meaningfully improve until the rich fear for their lives
We had a buffer set aside in a separate account, but it was slowly built up over quite a few years. Now that my wife has been out of work for 5 months, its already gone. Neither of us could have saved anything while we were single, necessary expenses ate up every paycheck. Even if she finds a job soon, we will probably never have an emergency fund again. Higher cost of living has just about put us back to living one paycheck to the next.
Those people are wrong. It’s 6 months worth of expenses.
Straight from the “study hard and go to college if you want a good job” school of life advice
Nah this is solid advice it’s just hard to execute. Save up a little money and you don’t have to panic every time an unexpected bill comes.
It’s excellent advice, truly. It’s just advice that’s divorced from the reality that most people live in nowadays.
Billionaires have money, maybe they’ll give us some since they don’t need it.
As soon as it starts trickling down, we’re all good
I found a dime outside of a CVS the other day, does that count?
Any day now
Wait, that’s not money
PRO-TIP!: This goal is significantly easier to achieve if you don’t have a job, as then you only need to have $0 saved.
This is the kind of sage advice I wish they taught in schools.
How do people not live paycheck to paycheck? I have a good job in biotech. I have a BS and an MS. I have been with my current company for over 6 years. I would be homeless in a few months if I lost my job. How do people afford things and are able to save?!?
I rarely drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t have a car, my apartment is 40m^2 because that’s all I need, I pay <750€/month including utilities. Around 150€/month go to a private retirement fund with an insurance company. After other regular expenses, if I don’t make any purchases, I can save 1000€ a month. Realistically I do make purchases, so it’s more like 500 - 700€. I generally split that between my savings account and etfs (as retirement fund), and try to not let my savings account go below a certain point.
I make ~2800€/month net salary. Depending on where you live, it’s entirely possible your base expenses are much higher, not having a car might not be a real option, rent might be insane etc. But as someone else said, lifestyle creep. You get used to luxuries and suddenly all your money is gone for “things you need”. If I want something new that will lead to regular expenses, I try to examine if there’s anything else I could really just do without that I can stop paying for. Sometimes I also just look at subscriptions etc. to see if I forgot about anything.
Very smart for a long time my only expenses were rent, bills, credit card repayment, car payment, groceries, and weed. I had some friends and we did well hosting dinner and parties instead of going out. But then 2025 hit
“Pay yourself, first”.
Figure out what your actual essential costs are: housing, food, transportation. Make sure that’s covered, then set a reasonable savings goal, and only spend on extra with any money left after that per month.
When I got my first decent job, I basically lived like I was still in a dorm for the next 4 years. Saved a big percentage of my income. That was 12 years ago. My percentage has fallen a little since then but I think outing of life style creep and creating those good savings habits early helps. Then compounding doors the rest.
To be clear you cannot budget yourself out of a job that is paycheck to paycheck…
You got “ahead” because you got a job that paid enough to save period.
Sure. But many people who think they’re paycheck to paycheck are only that way to lack of proper budgeting.
Like you can be “p2p” making minimum wage, or six figures.
Alternately, crimes can sometimes help make up the difference.
Sometimes your job is crime and it still ain’t pay enough for savings.
Just ask my drug dealer. Times is tough for everyone out there.
- Get a new job. Six years is too long because raises no longer keep up with inflation. I’m aware that the job market is shit right now, but it’s easier to find a new job while you currently have one.
- Never accept the counter-offer from your current employer. They’ll just keep you on long enough to replace you with someone cheaper.
- Cycle/metro to work if possible to cut health/car costs. Consider the price difference of jobs/housing close to metro stops.
- Meal prep and refrigerate weeks worth of lunches at a time. Don’t go to bars. Consider vegetarianism.
- Focus on your cheaper hobbies. Cancel all subscriptions and pirate everything instead.
- Download your bank and credit card statements, then make a pie chart of where all your money is actually going.
- Once your monthly income exceeds your monthly costs, start by saving a 6-month cash reserve (as per the meme). Being poor is expensive, you’ll need this for surprise expenses.
- Once you’ve got 6 months of savings, start dollar cost averaging into volatile long-term investments. Never attempt technical analysis; it’s bullshit. Stick to your plan during bear markets. You are not a genius day trader waiting to happen, stick to the plan.
- Never feel bad about lying to your employer, be “sick” whenever you want. Don’t do unpaid overtime. Don’t fall victim to Stockholm syndrome. Fuck 'em. Your mental health matters more.
Inb4 capitalism bad: no shit. Unionize if you can, participate in mutual aid if you can, but don’t listen to crabs in a bucket who tell you it’s hopeless.
^ this right here. There are full books where this is basically the takeaway and the rest is fluff. Only thing I would add is get rid of debt before saving or investing.
Depends on the rate. Mortgages can be extremely cheap and some can’t be paid off quickly anyway.
See you made the mistake of doing something in your field you presumably kind of are interested in and know about.
They know you want that job so why would they pay you?
Instead of working hard and becoming skilled in an extremely niche and important science, pushing the boundaries of human knowledge what you should have done is gotten involved in finance and just do mumbo jumbo with other people’s money and take a fee.
Better yet, have you tried being born owning a ton of land, or perhaps a factory?
I have zero degrees, rent, and I saved over $1000 every month on average even before I got my new/better job, when I was making less than $55k/yr.
Don’t know what to tell you other than create a budget and examine it against your expenses carefully. Lifestyle creep is a hell of a drug.
Move to a lower cost of living area
I commute 1-1/2h to work because of this.
If I have kids that’s 3 hours out of the day extra my SO is stuck minding them, unable to take a break.
So I need to get lucky with jobs and do wfh full time, take a pay cut, or hire a nanny, or something else thats probably completely out of my control.
Have you tried not having a family or friends? /S
Yeah if it happens again I’ll kms
Did that. Jobs pay less out there…
You need the mythical low cost of living but high paying area. To go there you will need a time machine or be a digital nomad.
Yuuuup.
Life Prole Tips: Live somewhere cheap, with roommates. Better yet, live with family. Don’t have kids, don’t have pets. See if you can get to work without a car so you don’t have payments or insurance or gas. Don’t bother with health insurance (you think you could afford that copay anyway, Mr. Buffet?), and if you see an ambulance, run. Pack your lunch or eat at home, look for deals at the grocery (and if you “forget” to scan a few things in the self-checkout, well, we all make mistakes). Pirate everything (unless it’s a small creator, at least).
Really the main thing is rent. Rent is just a sieve that sucks away all your money so your landlord can sit around all day and then fly to the Bahamas. And there ain’t shit you can do about it, short of living out a van, which has its own expenses. I’ve been in situations where even doing all that shit, half my paychecks go straight to rent. I’m incredibly fortunate now because I’m able to stay at my elderly uncle’s house after he’s moved out, and let me tell you, I’m just working at a warehouse but I’m putting away a lot more money than I ever could before.
I would have thought a good job with high education in biotech would be lucrative. Do you not earn enough of is your cost of living that high?
I know people making $250k who are “paycheck to paycheck” because they live an hour outside of San Francisco. So I believe it’s possible.
Damn! I live close to Zürich, Switzerland which usually ranks high for most expensive places globally, so I thought I knew what high costs of living were, but paycheck to paycheck on 250k USD, that’s insane. And with that much of a commute too!
I mean…I know them. They could definitely shave some fat from the ol’ budget. But San Francisco really is insane. I wish it were affordable, I do love it there.
If you would be homeless in a few months, then there you go, you seem to have enough money to last a few months, which is all this is about.
Well only because I would have to wait for someone to kick me out. I could just put everyone on credit and see how long that lasts.
Let me know if you figure it out! I’ve tried making a lot of money. I’ve tried making little money but spending nothing. I’ve ultimately decided money’s broke.
Steps to create emergency funds.
Step 1 - Die
Step 2 - Reborn into a rich family with a trust fund
Step 3 - convert small portion of that trust fund to emergency funds
Step 4 - enjoy
I’ve skipped straight to step 4. 🖕
(j/k, Voodoo Ranger is an irresponsible 9% ABV! Goodnight!)
Bear Hugs is way better if you can get it, i am in the general region of chicago so ymmv!
I think the saying is to save 6 months of expenditures. Eg. saving 6 months of rent and bills (which I would hope is less than 6 months of salary)
For lots of people it’s more than a month’s worth if salary.
It like the difference between my sister’s salary and mine. She earns 6k a month, I earn 1k a month working for minimum wage. And she wants me to move out in 5 months. She’s cra cra
Fuck, that’s my now-ex, and me right now. I’m officially less than a week from homelessness because of his choice to end the lease and move (separating from me in the process, despite claiming to still want to be in a relationship. Yeah, okay? Like anyone who loves another person could do this to them.) He seemed to think that giving me months to prepare would somehow make me able to pull magic money out of my ass? I don’t know. Even the cheapest studio apartment is out of range for me, and I make nearly $10 over local minimum wage at a full-time job. How the fuck is ANYONE getting by?!
Anyway, I’m pissed and now I’m ranting, sitting in my cold car, knowing this will be the warmest place for me in the very near future.
It was like that with my ex husband. When we split he got the apartment, because he could afford it. And I moved in with my sister because I thought she had a room for me. She told plenty of times while I lived with my ex I could leave and move in. She’s been pressuring me to move out even though I can’t financially afford to. So I understand as a couch surfing himbo at 25. Its just shocking that we are witnessing a generation that earns more than their parents but can’t get as far with it. Hope your situation improves boo 💖
When people live paycheck to paycheck it is the same amount.
It’s not.
Yes, it is, lol:
Start by saving $1,000, then aim to save 3 to 6 months’ worth of essential expenses by funding your emergency savings, as you would for a bill.
Every time I try building up an emergency fund, an expensive emergency happens a month or two into it. I’m just now recovering from having to replace a catalytic converter this past summer.
That sounds like the emergency fund saving is working.
False, because people don’t actually say that. Most people are two months away from being broke.
They don’t teach personal finance in school, but they should. It would help many people to not fall into bad debt. (Mortgage can often be considered “good debt” but most other credit is bad.)
Sadly, personal finance acumen wouldn’t save us from low wages, inflation, and ever-increasing cost of living.
I think all schools should teach shop class. That way, you’d always know someone with the know-how to build a guillotine.
My father just told me this two weeks ago.
Shit’s expensive and salaries aren’t great. And the ownership class wants to fire even more people to replace with AI
I could go a month. Maybe a month and a half.
If I’m half the criminal I imagine myself to be, they’d never catch me…
I used to have that. Now I have a credit card with 18 months of no interest as long I make the minimum payment; Which is basically a race to pay it off before the date ends.
