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Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people

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Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people

#411

Post by lesuorac »

M4R5H4LL wrote: post #385
beezle wrote: post #311

Americans confuse need with 'nice to have' which leads to the "I don't have money for food/rent/hc" problem. You do not need cable tv or home internet. You do not need an iPhone or top end Samsung. There are many mid-range Android phones much cheaper that can add a MVNO phone plan for around $20/mo that has more than enough data for necessary internet. Key word: necessary. OTA HDTV is available to many millions at th…

This is anecdotal but here is the truth: I have a home that I bought around 20 years ago in Cali, and the HOA tripled during that time and is now rapidly approaching $700/mo. And that's with less benefits since we lost the earthquake insurance. And not to mention the special assessments that started showing up in 2025. You could make all sort of assumptions, but there is nothing special about the community.

> And not to mention the special assessments that started showing up in 2025. You could make all sort of assumptions, but there is nothing special about the community.

It's pretty sad that both parts of the statements are true. Special Assessments occur when HOAs aren't capitalized correctly to cover the costs of largely maintenance and this issue is very wide-spread that being a part of an HOA that keeps issuing them isn't 'special'.

Although the alternative is basically your HOA fees would go up but whatever the special assessment is (divided by duration between them) which probably makes it harder to sell the house since you have to claim higher HOA fees compared to a correct capitalized one.

Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people

#412

Post by emushack »

dahart wrote: post #140
Workaccount2 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a bit of a gripe with this "food insecurity" metric. The stat comes from people reporting that they have felt hungry without having enough food to satiate their hunger. Totally makes sense at first pass. But here is the rub, obesity is out of control in the US, and it is especially bad in poorer populations. So now we have two conflicting stats: Poor people are food insecure while simultaneously being overweig…

These are two symptoms of the same problem, I don’t see any issue with the statistics. Plus, of course, not everyone who’s poor or hungry is obese. If you think about it, it makes sense that food insecurity and obesity go together. If I didn’t know when I’d have food, I’d try to overeat when I could, like many wild animals do before winter. And most of our cheap food is low quality and very high in fat and carbs (esp…

Did you really just compare human beings to wild animals who hibernate?

Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people

#413

Post by Exoristos »

beezle wrote: post #311

Americans confuse need with 'nice to have' which leads to the "I don't have money for food/rent/hc" problem. You do not need cable tv or home internet. You do not need an iPhone or top end Samsung. There are many mid-range Android phones much cheaper that can add a MVNO phone plan for around $20/mo that has more than enough data for necessary internet. Key word: necessary. OTA HDTV is available to many millions at th…

I have been poor and made all the sacrifices you suggest (heck, even gave up a car for public transportation), and, looking back, it made very little difference. Housing and food are just too expensive and dwarf other concerns.

Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people

#414

Post by whateveracct »

ryandrake wrote: post #402
whateveracct wrote: post #394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> for most of us yeah so for most of you, don't do it? I like that I can stuff away $7k+ I'd be stuffing away anyways tax free. And all I have to do is keep a responsible emergency fund.

So, in other words, the typical American "Hope and pray that my health costs don't outrun my savings/investment rate" philosophy. Different strokes for different folks, hope it works out for you.

My health care costs have a pretty clear soft upper bound given how HDHPs (and most plans) are structured. Deductible and out of pocket max makes it easy to be responsible and budget into an emergency fund.

In terms of non-exceptional costs, I'd say I spend about as much on medical bills every year as I do keeping my cars in good shape. Less than my house and less than I spend on hobby stuff, my cats' vet, or jewelry haha.

Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people

#415

Post by craftkiller »

ge96 wrote: post #345
beezle wrote: post #311

Americans confuse need with 'nice to have' which leads to the "I don't have money for food/rent/hc" problem. You do not need cable tv or home internet. You do not need an iPhone or top end Samsung. There are many mid-range Android phones much cheaper that can add a MVNO phone plan for around $20/mo that has more than enough data for necessary internet. Key word: necessary. OTA HDTV is available to many millions at th…

It's crazy how cheap a decent phone can be, I'm talking a $160 Motorolla phone with 8GB of RAM

I waited until they were phasing out the pixel 6a, so there were loads of great sales to clear out the old inventory. I managed to get a pixel 6a new for $94 total. No trade-in, no contract obligations, just $94 total.

This phone kicks ass. Unless you're running games on your phone, there is nothing of value in newer/more expensive phones. We've long past the point where the cheap phones are powerful enough to have a completely smooth experience.

My tech illiterate parents spend $1k on phones with fragile plastic screens. They don't do anything more demanding than watching youtube or checking their email. They claim "I love that it folds so it protects the screen" and yet the screen breaks in a year. It's such an irrational waste.

Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people

#416

Post by [deleted] »

BobaFloutist wrote: post #357
ImPostingOnHN wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Insurance is for unexpected expenses that (a) you cannot foresee and (b) would be catastrophic to your finances I do not agree with that view, and I'm not sure that is how it is used in the US at least. In the US, for many people, health insurance is the only realistic means to obtain any healthcare, not just catastrophic care. I get injured at least annually due to mostly-outdoor physical activities, and have a chro…

I guess the idea is that you put a deductible amount of money into the account annually, and the tax-advantaged investment makes up for any difference between the deductible and the savings you get on premiums for having a HDHP (I.E. HDHP premiums + deductible - tax savings ≈ normal premiums + deductible). It's an insane way to run health insurance, and it just goes to show that expected value and mathematical benefi…

[deleted]

Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people

#417

Post by ge96 »

craftkiller wrote: post #415
ge96 wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's crazy how cheap a decent phone can be, I'm talking a $160 Motorolla phone with 8GB of RAM

I waited until they were phasing out the pixel 6a, so there were loads of great sales to clear out the old inventory. I managed to get a pixel 6a new for $94 total. No trade-in, no contract obligations, just $94 total. This phone kicks ass. Unless you're running games on your phone, there is nothing of value in newer/more expensive phones. We've long past the point where the cheap phones are powerful enough to have a…

I did watch the most recent JerryRigEverything samsung fold phone test and man it is so thinnnn but nah, $2K for a phone is too much for me, maybe I'm just poor but yeah.

I had a $2K used Sony Alpha camera and I felt scared using it, poor mindset too but insurance.

Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people

#418

Post by an0malous »

huhkerrf wrote: post #271
an0malous wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is absolutely correct, just observe how both parties attack Zohran Mamdani in spite of his wild popularity

The wild popularity of... checks... getting 56% of ranked-choice votes (44% of first place votes) in a Democratic Party primary in one of the most reliably Democratic cities in the US.

Yes exactly. It doesn’t matter that it’s a democratic city because, as you said, it was the democratic primary so every candidate was a democrat.

Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people

#419

Post by emushack »

huhkerrf wrote: post #226
Workaccount2 wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know where you get this from Unprepared foods, in the US, are much cheaper than prepared foods. A bag of Cheetos (16oz) is $5. A pound of chicken legs is $2. 2 lbs of rice is $3. I'd suggest you instead argue that low income people work multiple jobs and therefore have no time to cook. I've had this debate a lot before.

People like the ones you're replying to like to make excuses for their lack of agency. "I can't work out, I can't afford a gym! No, I'm not going to run around the park or join the YMCA!" "I can't eat healthy, I can't afford it! No, I'm not going to buy a big bag of rice and black beans." Before anyone comes at me: there are poor people and their struggles are real. I am 100% opposed to things like removing soda from…

It's still victim blaming.

Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people

#420

Post by philipkglass »

emushack wrote: post #409
Workaccount2 wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know where you get this from Unprepared foods, in the US, are much cheaper than prepared foods. A bag of Cheetos (16oz) is $5. A pound of chicken legs is $2. 2 lbs of rice is $3. I'd suggest you instead argue that low income people work multiple jobs and therefore have no time to cook. I've had this debate a lot before.

LoL! https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/APU0000FF1101 Current price/lb for chicken is $4.23. But of course that's from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, soooo.... can't trust that can we!

The parent comment said chicken legs, not chicken breast. That's this data series:

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/APU0000706212

It's currently at $1.82/lb. Assuming that 30% of leg weight is inedible bone, it's more like $2.60 per pound of edible chicken.

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