Man I have a hard time dealing with comments like this, because people say this sort of thing and it is simply not true. When you get to brass tacks that's when all the other "necessary" expenses usually come up. Gotta have Netflix, gotta eat out once or twice a week, what is the point in life if you cannot consume products? What other ways are there to have fun?

My bills are 800 dollars a month, total. My rent is 400. I live 40 minutes from downtown of one of the largest cities in the US. Before this, they were 1200 dollars a month. I wanted to cut them so I found a way. I have everything I need, and I've got money saved in case of an emergency, I'm going to save my way into the upper middle class living this way, without a degree of any kind.

The trick is to repeat the following mantra: "bills are the devil." That's really all there is to it. Get a car with cash. If you don't have cash, save some cash by not spending all your money. A single person who can't live off 1200 bucks a month is mismanaging their finances. If you can't afford to live in San Francisco, that's not due to our economic system, it is due to how the city manages itself, and it's a way the city is telling you you aren't welcome there. Go somewhere where you can have a decent life.

The only real problem here is health insurance. I do not have it. The health insurance market has been absolutely destroyed by government intervention over the last decade. I remember when I could get a decent plan for 80 bucks a month and I thought that was expensive. It wasn't that long ago.

For families, I get that it is a lot tougher. Two incomes are a must nowadays. But historically, families encouraged their sons to establish themselves financially before having children, and communities that had children young or out of wedlock were usually impoverished. It has always been financially tough rearing children. You can't raise a family working the window at a fast food joint, and there was never a time when you could.