Considered low income (paying bills and saving nothing) in San Francisco: $117k/year
Median family income in the San Francisco: $118k/year
Thats not much wiggle room for a random bill to pop up, a kid gets sick or breaks an arm (depending on your medical insurance), a random car maintenance.. maybe your washer/dryer go out... taxes.. etc.. God forbid someome misses a pay check
Cost of living has risen too much and too fast.. I havnt seen a new house built in the past 5 years under $550k even in the outskirts of the bay area..Most are $600-800k... Where are all the $200-300k houses? Maybe 1 bed room condos in the hood.. But I havnt seen development in any areas like that in a long time..
Cable, cell phone, gas, rent/mortgage, clothing shyt even "cheap" services like Netflix have risen over 50% since 2008.. (Netflix originally was around $6-7, now $14).
My comcast bill in 2008 was $120, now $220 -- and without a home phone.. Gas was $2/gallon now $4/gallon if you need examples..
But wages havnt doubled.. its really just not much thought into why people struggle, just ignorance
I make amazing money and every day I still feel I should have more. I dont feel comfortable at all and im well into 6 figures a year

I could fix up a few habits (trips to vegas

) but everything is so expensive anyway.. I got pulled over for a license plate missing in the front of my benz, $25 bill. I forgot about it (my fault). The bill for missingi t came back $490

why such a large % increase

you telling me they couldnt just double it to $50? Lesson learned. They increased it almost 2000%
what is the point of California taxing 2000% on a minor fix it ticket

now imagine I wasnt making the money I make.. that shyt could financially cripple someone for months, a $500 extra expense and they making like $15 a hour
just as an example
edit: as I head to the gym, 10 years ago my 24 hour membership was $9 a month prepaid ($200 for 2 years)
its now $47 a month
All because 24 hours added "towel service" to most gyms in California to call them super sports and they no longer allowed prepaid from Costco memberships access to them
loopholes. By them just adding towel service to most of their gyms, it allowed them to rebrand their current gyms that I used to have access to. Amazing.
a 6x increase on my gym bill alone. Has your income increased 6x? 4x? 2x? No. Really stupid thread when I think about it.