Used car at 20k would probably run you about $350 a month. The better option would probably be to lease as your monthly note would be overall lower. Public transportation can also be costly if you're commuting from somewhere like Westchester County as a monthly Amtrak pass is about $300 by itself I believe. 30 day unlimited for a MTA card is $130.
$500 a month is absolutely nothing. One major bill could easily knock that out for multiple months. Also $5000 a year towards a 401k is pretty low.
There are definitely some people here saying 100k is rich.
You really are out of touch with the reality of the average American aren't you?
The average American is fucked in a lot of ways. So what?
You understand as of a couple years ago nearly 40% of the country didn't have any money in savings, none. I bet after the past year and half it is much worse.
After spending money on my luxury items, I barely have money left over for more luxury items!!
If 100k has now become poor too, what do we call those making half that or less? I'm now living in abject poverty? In ruins? Bankrupt?
There are posts like #27 and #111 for starters.
Yes. Having no savings is amazingly bad but also also being only able to save $500 is also really bad as well. Both of these things can be true. One serious medical bill for say $5k would fuck over both parties. Hell, I just hell at a CT scan done and that was 3k even with insurance. Relatively of course having $500 set aside is better than $0 but that's also a very bad situation to be in as well.
No, you are just fundamentally wrong.
10 months in which you can't set aside money for any other potential issue. What happens if your car breaks down? What happens if you get temporarily laid off? 10 months is a long time.
That's essentially saying you would be rich. Come on now.
We have been through this over and over, it is still a significant amount in New York, L.A, Boston, and everywhere else.
Damn that's alot for a CT after insurance. I guess I should feel fortunate to have a copay of $250 for CTs if done at the hospital I work at. The massive difference in what people pay for insurance and deductibles depending on their employer is crazy.
Do you notice how you completely ignored how this would have bankrupted the person with no savings, all the while lamenting another potential pitfall that might befall the person saving $500 a month? Then again, the person with no savings won't have to worry about car troubles because they had to sell their car to pay for the first emergency expense.
No, I didn't. This is you having zero empathy for a person having no safety net for almost an entire year trying to catch up on bills. Yes, the scale and severity would be different but again it's not a good place to be for either of them.
It's ridiculous how much I have to pay before my insurance kicks in.
