Standard Netflix is $12.99 per month currently. So that's $155.88 per year. Over 4 years, $623.52.
You didn't pay off $60k in student loan debt and buy a house by refraining from Netflix.
You didn't pay off $60k in student loan debt and buy a house by refraining from Netflix.
It's all about priorities, and having a vision for being financially "free". The victim mentality is an _enemy_ of human creativity.
You can say, "this area is too expensive; we need to find a way to move somewhere else". You can say, "I need to sell this gas guzzler and get a cheap, used commuter car." These things aren't _fun_. But they set you up for success.
US minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. 2 people working full-time at minimum wage would bring in a household income of $30k per year. But you couldn't possibly pay off $60k in debt and buy a house with that. So your household income had to be much, much higher.
One cannot save oneself into a higher income.
I'm sorry lapcatsoftware if it sounded like I was making light of poverty. Poverty is terrible. But at least in the US, there is _so much_ opportunity to not be stuck on a minimum wage salary. Resigning to the idea that, "Well, I guess I just have to work for minimum wage" is not going to help and it doesn't have to be true. It's sad to think that people give up mentally when there's so much they can do to help themselves.
That person is never going to move up the economic ladder no matter what rung they start on or what decade they are born in.
Even the car cost is not as big as the sticker price, because it has residual value. Granted it may be a big figure, but it is also spread over several years.
Seems to me you're literally one raise ($10K or so, and there's two of you?) away from making up such deficits, and you want to be near opportunity for that to happen.
Work another year or two, and you're doing just as well.