Living paycheck to paycheck is disturbingly common • Hacker News Board

Re: Living paycheck to paycheck is disturbingly common

#31

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Dec 31, 2018, 3:51 PM UTC

spidey1 wrote: post #18

perfmode wrote: post #6

Don’t discount the weight of emotional trauma and the self-sabotaging habits it has the potential to engender. Most people are slaves to their limbic systems. Most people don’t have self-education or resources to seek the help they need to fix these underlying problems. Society does them no favors. Media and advertising are designed to promote consumption. And not even healthy consumption. The idea that we are black…

How do you manage this conflict? I think a lot of us suffer from this at different scales. I've always found it difficult to work on things that will pay off in the future, even if I plan something I just don't seem to be able to carry through a long term project to the end unless I'm in an environment where there's accountability such as deadlines on projects at work. I'm very prone to instant gratification, which i…

[deleted]

Re: Living paycheck to paycheck is disturbingly common

#32

Post by JoeAltmaier » Mon, Dec 31, 2018, 3:51 PM UTC

leoedin wrote: post #27

perfmode wrote: post #6

Don’t discount the weight of emotional trauma and the self-sabotaging habits it has the potential to engender. Most people are slaves to their limbic systems. Most people don’t have self-education or resources to seek the help they need to fix these underlying problems. Society does them no favors. Media and advertising are designed to promote consumption. And not even healthy consumption. The idea that we are black…

I think the very fact that people in wildly different circumstances are living paycheck to paycheck is a huge flag that this isn't as simple a problem as "they don't get paid enough". Income and expenses are intricately linked by psychology. It's almost irrelevant what your paycheck is, if you're prone to this problem then somehow expenses will always rise to meet it. If expenses weren't actually determined by payche…

Except when it is. Generalities aren't helpful to the single parent working retail. Expenses aren't always optional.

Re: Living paycheck to paycheck is disturbingly common

#33

Post by cabaalis » Mon, Dec 31, 2018, 3:52 PM UTC

Real estate is the way I broke this cycle. It was not a short term fix, it took 10 years. Living in and ultimately selling my condo and moving to an apartment netted me enough equity to pay off all my debts.

One year later, I've just finishing building a home, and have a 5-month emergency fund, and laugh at the idea of buying anything else at all on credit. A mortgage and nothing else.

I'd never have been able to do that paying all the monthly minimums on the debt I accrued in my 20s. It was money in, money out--money that was already spoken for.

Re: Living paycheck to paycheck is disturbingly common

#34

Post by simonh » Mon, Dec 31, 2018, 3:56 PM UTC

cagenut wrote: post #12

the trifecta of: student loan debt + mortgage debt + employer based health insurance, is clearly just a bundled and packaged form of indentured servitude.

The first and last yes absolutely, though aim a conservative Brit and how Americans reconcile themselves to your health insurance (or lack of it) system really baffles me.

Mortgages aren’t as clear cut. Our mortgages have been the backbone of my family’s current financial security. After all the idea is at the end you own your house. Interest only mortgages not so much of course and it requires that the house ends up being worth the cost, but I’m talking about the general case.

Re: Living paycheck to paycheck is disturbingly common

#35

Post by nickthemagicman » Mon, Dec 31, 2018, 3:56 PM UTC

vailprogrammer wrote: post #24

jumbopapa wrote: post #5

> certified car seat installer I think I found your issue.

Is everyone just supposed to be as smart as us programmers? Is it peoples' own fault if they're stupid? Do they deserve no sympathy or humanity? Right now I make $13/hr in an expensive city. I'm working to find a software job, but the people I work with... they don't have anything else. They're just happy to hold down a steady job. How do you suggest these people magically gain the intelligence and/or self-control/se…

It seems to me that republicans are perfectly fine with others suffering, and misery as long as it doesn't affect them.

Disguised Social Darwinism.

The problem is most are unaware that their success is 99% luck of being born in certain circumstances.

Re: Living paycheck to paycheck is disturbingly common

#36

Post by vailprogrammer » Mon, Dec 31, 2018, 3:56 PM UTC

fromthestart wrote: post #20

From the executive summary of the Federal Reserve report linked in the article: >When asked about their finances, 74 percent of adults said they were either doing okay or living comfortably in 2017—over 10 percentage points more than in the first survey in 2013. >Individuals of all education levels have shared in the improvement over the past five years, though the more educated still report greater well-being than t…

> sob stories about people who spent half their lives pursuing 3 uneconomical degrees, had 3 more kids than they could afford, in cities with some of the highest costs of living in the world, and now complain that they're living paycheck to paycheck.

So the person who ....

- never attended any sort of college, but did graduate high school

- is single and childless, in fact have no family at all as their parents died poor and young

- is living paycheck to paycheck, whether in a city or rural area

...just doesn't exist? And if they do exist, please enlighten me on what steps they should take to correct their situation?

Just curious, but are your parents college educated?

Re: Living paycheck to paycheck is disturbingly common

#37

Post by sjg007 » Mon, Dec 31, 2018, 3:57 PM UTC

perfmode wrote: post #6

Don’t discount the weight of emotional trauma and the self-sabotaging habits it has the potential to engender. Most people are slaves to their limbic systems. Most people don’t have self-education or resources to seek the help they need to fix these underlying problems. Society does them no favors. Media and advertising are designed to promote consumption. And not even healthy consumption. The idea that we are black…

It is an interesting argument to blame people for their own problems that are largely structural and as the article indicates, effect a large swath of society. It's the same argument for blaming the homeless who say own an iPhone.

Re: Living paycheck to paycheck is disturbingly common

#38

Post by moorhosj » Mon, Dec 31, 2018, 3:57 PM UTC

leoedin wrote: post #27

perfmode wrote: post #6

Don’t discount the weight of emotional trauma and the self-sabotaging habits it has the potential to engender. Most people are slaves to their limbic systems. Most people don’t have self-education or resources to seek the help they need to fix these underlying problems. Society does them no favors. Media and advertising are designed to promote consumption. And not even healthy consumption. The idea that we are black…

I think the very fact that people in wildly different circumstances are living paycheck to paycheck is a huge flag that this isn't as simple a problem as "they don't get paid enough". Income and expenses are intricately linked by psychology. It's almost irrelevant what your paycheck is, if you're prone to this problem then somehow expenses will always rise to meet it. If expenses weren't actually determined by payche…

Huge difference between living paycheck to paycheck because you struggle to afford basic necessities and living paycheck to paycheck because you took out too large of a mortgage. In one case you have an asset to sell if needed.

Re: Living paycheck to paycheck is disturbingly common

#39

Post by sharemywin » Mon, Dec 31, 2018, 3:58 PM UTC

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #32

leoedin wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the very fact that people in wildly different circumstances are living paycheck to paycheck is a huge flag that this isn't as simple a problem as "they don't get paid enough". Income and expenses are intricately linked by psychology. It's almost irrelevant what your paycheck is, if you're prone to this problem then somehow expenses will always rise to meet it. If expenses weren't actually determined by payche…

Except when it is. Generalities aren't helpful to the single parent working retail. Expenses aren't always optional.

Don't forget the guilt when kids are involved.

Re: Living paycheck to paycheck is disturbingly common

#40

Post by anoncoward111 » Mon, Dec 31, 2018, 3:58 PM UTC

elif wrote: post #9

anoncoward111 wrote: post #4

Not even 200 years ago, most people exchanged labor for food. Currency was not used, as you most likely lived on the farm you worked for. There was no form of advancement to be seen, but also no rent, student loans, medical bills, child care etc. There was also no Whole Foods or freedom of speech. But how much farther have we really come in 2018? We have more things, but if you stop working, you will starve or go ill…

Definitely true in america. In countries such as the netherlands, if you lose your job, you get up to 38 months of 70% salary, rent benefits, child care benefits, and of course your illness will still be treated.

In the USA, many states will allow you 50% income for 6 months, and potentially Medicaid for health treatment.

This isn't much, but I was speaking in more general terms of "what if someone permanently decides to stop work."