![]() ![]() It’s an age when many people begin to confront the consequences of big financial choices made earlier in their lives. We talked to people who are near age 30, a time when many have outgrown the early euphoria of simply having a job and income, and are staring at real, long-term financial responsibilities, like car payments, mortgages, and children. Over the last few months, BuzzFeed News spoke with six people around the country, in a diverse set of circumstances, to see what life on roughly $75,000 looks like today. Generally, anything more than that “buys life satisfaction but not happiness,” claimed researchers Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton, now both Nobel Prize winners. Saving for retirement only adds to the struggle.īut what if you’re earning more than the average American? Several years ago, a widely circulated report published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences pinpointed $75,000 as the magic number when it comes to income and happiness. Perhaps that’s why the majority of Americans have less than $1,000 in their savings accounts, according to one survey. Housing expenses (both buying and renting) are rising quicker than wages in many places, gas prices are climbing again, and the average student debt has surpassed $32,000. Meanwhile, health insurance premiums are rising - workers paid $440 per month on average for employer-sponsored family plans in 2016, and the unsubsidized cost of family plans on the so-called Obamacare exchanges has swelled to $1,168. It gets harder still if you borrowed heavily for college, if you carry a large balance on your credit card, or if you have a job without benefits or the prospect of upward mobility. So, how much do you really need to make these days? The median household income in the US is a little over $57,000, but for many Americans, particularly those with families, that is hardly enough. It began to sink in when she had to begin paying back her student loans.” She didn’t realize she was spending over $1,000 a month, just on the car, and what impact that was having on her monthly cash flow. “The first thing she did was to buy a very expensive car - the note was $800 per month, and of course, she had auto insurance which was another $250 to $300 a month. ![]() “A few years back, one of my clients, who had been interning at a law firm, was hired by the same firm after she finished law school,” Nourse said. ![]() It’s not uncommon for problems to take root in early adulthood, a time when many people make decisions “without understanding the consequences,” said René Nourse, founder of the financial planning firm Urban Wealth Management. Yet each of us is eventually forced to confront the cost of living - and we are often poorly prepared. How much does living cost in the United States in 2018? It varies wildly depending on factors like where you live, what your lifestyle is, how much debt you have, and who you must support. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |