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Comment by user568439 | Hacker News Reader

I never understood people living like this. I’ve never lived paycheck to paycheck even though with my first job as SWE 1 month after my graduation I was earning 900€ a month. I went to live on my own because it was in another city and of course I had to share apartment with more people during 5 with years. I did that until I had a salary where the rent for living alone in a place I liked was below 30% of my netto salary.

The only debt I ever had is my mortgage and I have savings to cover for at least 3 years without working. Without counting that I would get unemployment plus some other investments that would protect me more.

All this lifestyle didn’t stop me from traveling a lot (sometimes for months) and having nice things. But except for the home down payment, I never spent more in a year than I earned.

But I also admit that I missed a lot of good investment opportunities due to my risk aversion

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Bud if you had a software job one month out of college I don’t think you’ve really had to interface with how bad shit gets.

A large group of these people are having a revenue problem, not a spending problem

I walked out of college in the Great Recession with a 900/month student loan debt and paying 500/month for rent in the shittiest apartment in the area with two roommates. I could only get minimum wage jobs that would send you home if you ever got close to full time so you didn’t get benefits. Working 50-60 hours a week got me about 1400-1700 a month before tax. I frequently had to steal food if I wanted to eat even every other day and healthcare was completely out the window. There was no improving that situation by being more careful about spending because there was nothing to cut. That was paycheck to paycheck with zero luxuries and not even all the necessities

>>>A large group of these people are having a revenue problem, not a spending problem

I walked out of college in the Great Recession with a 900/month student loan debt <<<

You didn't make it one sentence before you undermined your premise. Explain how a 900/month student loan payment isn't a result of a spending problem.

Oh we can get into how at 17 years old all of society was convincing me that I needed a college degree or I’d work minimum wage jobs and live in poverty but that’s a separate conversation around how we don’t equip our children to make good decisions.

By the time I was equipped enough mentally to make good decisions it was too late because why not also make student loans the only ones not dischargeable in bankruptcy. If you want to argue that the OP was talking about that kind of spending, especially in light of them discussing their own college degree, well that’s an argument I guess you could try and make.

At some point I came to realize that a large chunk of the population in my country (USA) live their entire lives paycheck-to-paycheck, never getting ahead. I think even in the very best of times, this number never gets below 20% or so. And that's not to say that all these people are irresponsible, far from it. Often it's just some combination of low/unpredictable income and life happening too fast.

Anybody who has the opportunity to build wealth (as I have) has to recognize that at least part of that is luck.

I don't know when you graduated, but in my post college days, minimum wage was $5.15 an hour. Even if you manage to land a full time job, that's only $800 a month, before taxes. Back then, a 1br in the Midwest was about $400-$500. By the time you pay for health insurance, car insurance, gas, food, utilities, you come out negative. Most people scrounged around for food, and went without any kind of insurance.

I haven't kept up with what it all is today. I imagine it's even worse due to the runaway housing inflation.

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