If you consider yourself broke and would like help, please make a post here. I and many others would love to help, but we need some information, such as:
- household income
- monthly expenses - broken down by category, like rent, utilities, groceries, restaurants, etc
- debts - amount owed by account, type of account, interest rate, minimum payment
- assets - value of car(s), cash, etc
- skills/education - in case we want to explore more ways to make money
A lot of people get discouraged and believe that they’re screwed, but I firmly believe there’s always a way to financial stability, it just takes a lot of work and humility.
That’s very noble of you, but in our capitalist systems, those who provide the most needed and valuable services are often paid the least. You may feel that telling someone to get better educated and moving somewhere cheaper will solve their problem, but then someone else will fill their past role. Our most expensive cities will always need janitors, line cooks, laborers, shelf stockers and many other roles that will never pay much. We can’t all be coders making 6 figures working remotely from bumbfuck nowhere. This doesn’t even take into account disabled people who can’t provide much or any value in the eyes of our system. You basically want to tell people to bootstrap, just in a gentler way.
I’m not sure why you got up on your soapbox to put someone down like that. They didn’t say any of the things you said. Their comment isn’t even edited, and yours is…
Because this is a forum where people share perspectives. If you don’t want to hear them then don’t read the comments.
Um, no. I want to help people end their own cycle of poverty. There’s nothing wrong with being a janitor, line cook, etc, and my point here isn’t to push people to change their careers, but to end the paycheck to paycheck cycle and get more control over their financials. That’s it.
My offer stands. If you or anyone else wants to discuss personal finance, provide some details and I or someone else here would love to lend a pair of eyes. However, if you’re intent on maintaining your status quo, I guess good luck to you and I hope you find success in whatever way you choose to define it.
They’re asking for info so they can help with a budget or a debt paying strategy.
A budget is a luxury that requires a minimum amount of income. They are presuming people are just being bad with their money, and it completely sidesteps the real issue and story here that income is far too low for basic costs for a large number of people.
It reeks of “work harder” bullshit.
Hahahaha. Are you preaching work harder pick yourselves up by your bootstraps?
People need to make a minimum amount of money to do that. If their housing alone is more than 50% of their income, what you are thinking won’t work. The money isn’t there.
Also, changing jobs and moving are luxuries that some people struggle to enjoy. Sometimes it requires money upfront, sometimes it requires education people may not have, or some people are unfairly held back with disabilities.
I think you are genuinely trying to help, but this does smell a bit of never having experienced being “in the red” poor no matter what you do. Those people have next to no options.
I’m talking like $30k in income, which far too many families deal with and is unliveable anywhere.
If you’re making $30k, you qualify for a ton of welfare programs throughout the country. So saying “$30k income isn’t livable” doesn’t make sense on its own without taking into account the various programs available. It may still be unlivable, but the income number on its own can’t really determine that.
So that’s why talking about expenses and skills is important. Many problems can be solved with proper budgeting, but some may need a job change to increase income. Increasing income on its own can’t solve budgeting problems (i.e. “you can’t outrun your fork”). Even people with middle and upper middle class incomes live paycheck to paycheck, nearly 1/3 of lottery winners go bankrupt, and nearly 80% of retired NFL players go broke. The reason behind most of those is the same thing I’m talking about: lack of personal finance education and skills.
Not all problems can be solved with budgeting and changing jobs, but a lot of them can be. That’s why I recommend anyone who would like to improve their situation to reach out, more often than not a few extra pairs of eyes can help get you on track to financial security.
You sure make knowledge of and access to resources sound sooooooo simple.
