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Living on $5,000 a year, on purpose: Meet America's 'intentional poor'

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Re: Living on $5,000 a year, on purpose: Meet America's 'intentional poor'

#11

Post by aliakbarkhan »

dlsx wrote: post #2

This article is full of fabrication. The girl claims to live on $1000 a month in NYC, and she only pays $135 a week for an extra room in a crap neighborhood. Leaving her, with $540 to live on... In NYC, for 30 days. Now, I'm sure this is possible, but she is sitting there on a macbook. Welp, there goes your budget for the entire year! And this article claims less is making these people happier. Not really, and they a…

> The article fails to mention these people are also exploiting the system collecting welfare.

And how exactly do you know this is the case?

Re: Living on $5,000 a year, on purpose: Meet America's 'intentional poor'

#12

Post by alphakappa »

dlsx wrote: post #2

This article is full of fabrication. The girl claims to live on $1000 a month in NYC, and she only pays $135 a week for an extra room in a crap neighborhood. Leaving her, with $540 to live on... In NYC, for 30 days. Now, I'm sure this is possible, but she is sitting there on a macbook. Welp, there goes your budget for the entire year! And this article claims less is making these people happier. Not really, and they a…

I'm not sure why you would term this fabrication. She could've had that macbook from her days in Chicago (after all, as the article mentions - she only moved to NYC last year). Nowhere does it say that all her possessions were purchased with that $1000/month budget - just that her current living expenses are within that number.

Re: Living on $5,000 a year, on purpose: Meet America's 'intentional poor'

#13

Post by kalmi10 »

alphakappa wrote: post #9
sz4kerto wrote: post #8

I live in the EU and the median wage in my country is around $5000 a year after taxes.

What country is that? Edit: Looking at some EC website [1], these are the countries with median gross annual income Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania 1. http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index....

sz4kerto -(fixup)-> szakértő -(Hungarian to English)-> professional/expert

so I can safely guess Hungary.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_in_Europe_by_...

Re: Living on $5,000 a year, on purpose: Meet America's 'intentional poor'

#14

Post by ogd »

I live on $15k/year in silicon valley and consider at least 2/3 of my spending to be on luxury goods, so this is definitely possible.

Why do I do it? Well, for one, I don't care too much about having a porsche or some armani suits or filling my belly with $80 filet mignon and lobster every night. I'd much rather save my hard-earned dollars so that one day (in the near future) I won't have to work at all if I don't want to. Or I can start my own company or do whatever the fuck I want really and never have to worry about anything. I wholeheartedly believe that stress and worry are the causes of unhappiness, and they in turn are caused by spending money on stupid shit

Re: Living on $5,000 a year, on purpose: Meet America's 'intentional poor'

#15

Post by ctdonath »

dlsx wrote: post #2

This article is full of fabrication. The girl claims to live on $1000 a month in NYC, and she only pays $135 a week for an extra room in a crap neighborhood. Leaving her, with $540 to live on... In NYC, for 30 days. Now, I'm sure this is possible, but she is sitting there on a macbook. Welp, there goes your budget for the entire year! And this article claims less is making these people happier. Not really, and they a…

A strong accusation with little to base it on.

MacBook Air? Bottom end refurbished model costs $900. That's a dollar a day for 2.5 years; in NY you can recycle soda cans for $0.05/each, so 20 found cans a day keeps her tolerably up to date. There's enough free wifi around to manage connectivity.

Extreme frugality is viable if you put your mind to it. Our advertising-driven culture is guilty of making most think it isn't.

Re: Living on $5,000 a year, on purpose: Meet America's 'intentional poor'

#16

Post by ShirtlessRod »

EliRivers wrote: post #6
dlsx wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree you could live on the $540 a month for food. But, how does one go about the room, obviously a cell phone bill with tethering (or leeching wifi?) Because she makes 100% of her income blogging from a macbook that costs more than 3 months of her food budget. I like the concept, but it's just so obvious there is more behind their income. The other guy vacations to hawaii to surf, but doesn't mention what he does…

The other guy vacations to hawaii to surf, but doesn't mention what he does for income. The sentence immediately following the mention of Hawaii states Price’s version of the simple life costs $5,000 a year, which he earns from publishing a wilderness zine and doing odd jobs around Joseph, his eastern Oregon town.

Assuming he is flying to Hawaii, that would set him back at least $600. That's 12% of his yearly budget. Not to mention the fact that actually living in Hawaii is not cheap, and the article said he does this all winter.

Re: Living on $5,000 a year, on purpose: Meet America's 'intentional poor'

#17

Post by csomar »

dlsx wrote: post #2

This article is full of fabrication. The girl claims to live on $1000 a month in NYC, and she only pays $135 a week for an extra room in a crap neighborhood. Leaving her, with $540 to live on... In NYC, for 30 days. Now, I'm sure this is possible, but she is sitting there on a macbook. Welp, there goes your budget for the entire year! And this article claims less is making these people happier. Not really, and they a…

Nah, it's possible if you think the way poor people think. They get a second/third hand macbook from ebay for $200-300.

Re: Living on $5,000 a year, on purpose: Meet America's 'intentional poor'

#18

Post by picsiak »

Look at all the comments:

'BUM & DEAD BEAT DAD', 'a healthy young guy with potential who turned into a bum', 'He's a bum and a freeloader' , ', 'Another bum allowing the state to raise his kids.', 'Yes, another worthless bum who the country would be better off without', 'A leach on society who should have died years ago', 'It is bums like this that the rest of us working people are supporting', 'Definitely bi-polar, a little OCD.....can't fit in society. Yeah...that's what bums are about.'

:D :D :D What a bunch of sponge-brained twats you have over there.

Re: Living on $5,000 a year, on purpose: Meet America's 'intentional poor'

#19

Post by frozenport »

ctdonath wrote: post #15
dlsx wrote: post #2

This article is full of fabrication. The girl claims to live on $1000 a month in NYC, and she only pays $135 a week for an extra room in a crap neighborhood. Leaving her, with $540 to live on... In NYC, for 30 days. Now, I'm sure this is possible, but she is sitting there on a macbook. Welp, there goes your budget for the entire year! And this article claims less is making these people happier. Not really, and they a…

A strong accusation with little to base it on. MacBook Air? Bottom end refurbished model costs $900. That's a dollar a day for 2.5 years; in NY you can recycle soda cans for $0.05/each, so 20 found cans a day keeps her tolerably up to date. There's enough free wifi around to manage connectivity. Extreme frugality is viable if you put your mind to it. Our advertising-driven culture is guilty of making most think it is…

Yes, but why is it good? I wouldn't call these people success stories.

Re: Living on $5,000 a year, on purpose: Meet America's 'intentional poor'

#20

Post by Dewie »

ShirtlessRod wrote: post #16
EliRivers wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The other guy vacations to hawaii to surf, but doesn't mention what he does for income. The sentence immediately following the mention of Hawaii states Price’s version of the simple life costs $5,000 a year, which he earns from publishing a wilderness zine and doing odd jobs around Joseph, his eastern Oregon town.

Assuming he is flying to Hawaii, that would set him back at least $600. That's 12% of his yearly budget. Not to mention the fact that actually living in Hawaii is not cheap, and the article said he does this all winter.

It's not too expensive for Mr. Money Moustache:

http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/12/15/high-cost-of-livin...

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