> By the standards of our great-grandfathers
Not even great grandfathers. My wife’s dad grew up in a 600-700 square foot modular home with three siblings. Mom was a waitress, step-dad never had a W2 job (hunted, did handyman work, etc).
How to live on $432 a month in America
621–630 of 764 posts
Re: How to live on $432 a month in America
#622I think the author is arguing against their own point with the illustration they chose. The very last picture can be found in the Wikipedia page for the Homestead Act and, two jumps later, one can find themselves in the Dutch version of "Sod house" [1] which has this to say: > The living conditions there were miserable. Due to the construction method, the room was difficult to heat, it was damp and teeming with vermi…
My father is the son of homesteaders and while he didn’t live in the original homesteader shack. He lived in the version after it. Eventually they built a nice house for themselves. He recalled having a weird enjoyment burning down the old crappy tarpaper childhood home.
Re: How to live on $432 a month in America
#623Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not saying I agree with the premise of the article at all but making life decisions based on how much others will respect it is a terrible way to live
Humans are a social species. Your happiness absolutely depends on what other people think about you.
Good luck making everyone like you
Re: How to live on $432 a month in America
#624I flagged this article and later saw it dead, so I’m quite surprised it came back. I found the content extremely shallow and lacking nuance. Others have mentioned, but it leaves out huge caveats because it would destroy the the conclusion - the cost of moving to the place in the first place, social connections, health (even worse for those with disabilities), emergency services, retirement, etc etc. The list of obvio…
Thank you for posting your reasons for flagging it! I'm on the exact opposite side. I thought it was a decent article, flawed but worthy of discussion. I was surprised to see it flagged dead, so I vouched for it. When this didn't bring it back alive, I emailed Dan to see if he could resuscitate it. He said that it was already alive due to enough other people having vouched for it.
Your criticisms are all reasonable, but they are exactly the sort of things I'd hope to see discussed in the comments. And they are! I think the article is a good starting point for a discussion on what's possible. I'm nowhere near as extreme as the author of the piece, but I live a life much closer to what he describes than most people here.
Rather than being soured by the response, I'm glad to see both the pros and the cons being discussed. Yes, there are lots of ethical issues about living the way he suggests. There are lots of things you'll be doing without. But there are also lots of upsides about living in a way that you have time to do things besides just work and sleep. Which parts of the response did you find souring?
Re: How to live on $432 a month in America
#625Earlier quoted context omitted.
Have you ever tried to do those sports with cheapest equipment? Because I did and it ended up the same as everyone else who tried it in a cheapest possible way - you stop because it is not fun nor pleasure and equipment limits you. That being said, for tenista you need to pay entry. For climbing, you will be kicked out of gym on top of it being uncomfortable. Climbing gym don't want you injured due to badly made seat…
> Hobbies are only expensive if you let them or want them to be. Climbing gyms aren't cheap. Climbing rocks outdoors is fairly cheap.
Not available in winter and rain. Requires equipment (crash pads and shoes at least)
Re: How to live on $432 a month in America
#626Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Social thing assumes expenses. Hobbies assume expenses. Entertainment is a line item in the budget: Library + Fishing = “Free” Libraries can be amazingly social, for eggheads. Lots of groups and events meet there in my town. It’s a full-fledged Third Space. [Neither the library access nor fishing gear is without cost, but at least they already account for taxes.] By the way, anyone who benefits from free stuff, for…
Libraries are highly dependent on the town you're in. Ours is open six (6) hours a week. The one in. The town we were renting in before we bought was open reasonable hours and the librarians were great.
It can be exceedingly difficult to fund and staff a library system, especially considering that libraries are no longer big rooms with moldy books on the shelves.
Libraries are high-tech and high-maintenance. If the community prioritizes their mission and invests in them, it works out. Sometimes, not so good.
Re: How to live on $432 a month in America
#627I've commented (probably too much) to argue with the harshest critics of this piece, but I am surprised to not have seen much this criticism which is my main one: Supposing I've made peace with the main gist of this: Cut living expenses to a point where you can work ¼ or so of the time most of us spend working by living somewhere cheap and not being so materialistic. The missing piece here is social connections. Fami…
My problem is I mostly agree with the piece, it's very possible to live cheaply when everything goes smoothly and most things are routine. The problem is things very often don't go smoothly, especially once you have a family.
For example, my daughter took a small fall on a jungle gym, so small that I didn't even think she really got hurt but she landed really unlucky and broke her arm. We went to urgent care but she needed surgery to put pins in. Modern medicine is amazing. Totally healed, not even scares from the pin, but it is not cheap. Expect to pay at least $17K [1] for this w/o insurance, our was significantly more. And with insurance, you're not living on $400/month anymore...
Cars break down, pipes back up, etc. etc. etc.
[1] https://www.talktomira.com/post/how-much-does-a-broken-bone-...
Re: How to live on $432 a month in America
#628Earlier quoted context omitted.
Eh, perhaps a curious administrator can share the data but I really suspect just through sheer numbers most people on this forum do not live in the bay area. The NYC metro area is 23 million [1] which is about 7% of the country (23/300). There's a good chance somebody who works in NYC grew up nearby. That said, if you chase fortune and fame for a decade and then retire to Minnesota you still come out ahead... Even if…
>> if you chase fortune and fame for a decade and then retire to Minnesota you still come out ahead And the locals start to hate you for buying up land and generally raising prices enough that working folk are squeezed out of the market. Some areas are starting to enact laws to prevent productive farmland becoming condos and hobby farms for retiring city people.
For a while we were looking to move out to a more rural State and work remotely. More than one realtor let us know that the seller’s price was ~10-20% more for us than the advertised list price because we are from California. I guess we have a reputation or something. Or it’s just plain old price discrimination. Ok. I won’t make an offer and buy your house that you are trying to sell, then. Is that what you want, smart guy?
Re: How to live on $432 a month in America
#629On one hand I agree with the general premise of the article, which is that you can live a lot cheaper than you choose to. Homes in the passably-cute downtown of Massena are under $100k; you could live on $40k/yr comfortably and if you're here on HN you can probably earn at least than that with a remote job. Cutting it to $5k/yr is just trying to prove something. The missing thing is health care. If you're young and i…
Is that Massena NY or Massena Iowa?
The article focuses on Massena NY.
Re: How to live on $432 a month in America
#630I've commented (probably too much) to argue with the harshest critics of this piece, but I am surprised to not have seen much this criticism which is my main one: Supposing I've made peace with the main gist of this: Cut living expenses to a point where you can work ¼ or so of the time most of us spend working by living somewhere cheap and not being so materialistic. The missing piece here is social connections. Fami…
The other issue with "living somewhere cheap" early in life is it limits your options incredibly if you ever want to go anywhere else. Maybe fine as a retirement move however.