Why Upper-Middle Earners Are Living Paycheck to Paycheck

[Serious]

you trying to gun for WOAT? so we're in the business of extrapolating one anecdote to an entire cohort?

let me enjoy my shock posting in peace

 

[ogc163]

@ogc163

This is a perfect clip for this thread:


She hits on everything I was trying get at.....

She chooses to live her life, instead of take care of debt or have a decent savings. Her own words.

Y'all want me to sorry for someone making 100k that only has 3k in savings.




She graduated with 180k in debt, 2 years ago, now its at 230k.
But I'm supposed to feel sorry.

You are making a strawman argument and using anecdotal evidence as the basis of your argument. My argument is not that you should or shouldn't feel sorry for professionals with debt, I argued that the piecemeal lifestyle choices that were suggested by you don't make a significant difference in outcomes. You and others have made suggestions akin to "Stop buying lattes" when the more impactful suggestion would be " move to Birmingham and leave Atlanta" or even more impactful and substantial "don't have kids" both of those things would have more impact on her long term quality of life and require greater tradeoffs than her current savings rate or travel expenses. I get annoyed with people providing $5 solutions to $5,000 problems especially when then suggestion are primarily etched in moral grandstanding and obvious schadenfreude.

 

[Insensitive]

I can't feel that pain.
A breh went from below the poverty line to a hop, skip & a jump from six figures.

IF you went to a nice school, have a nice gig, and it's "beneath" you
to take those image L's to live comfortably oh well

I've read of HENRY's who are the newly minted wealthy that want to keep
up with their friends who have a familial networth in the millions.



Shoutout to Grocery Store Workers and the minimum wage cats, y'all need more money.

You are making a strawman argument and using anecdotal evidence as the basis of your argument. My argument is not that you should or shouldn't feel sorry for professionals with debt, I argued that the piecemeal lifestyle choices that were suggested by you don't make a significant difference in outcomes. You and others have made suggestions akin to "Stop buying lattes" when the more impactful suggestion would be " move to Birmingham and leave Atlanta" or even more impactful and substantial "don't have kids" both of those things would have more impact on her long term quality of life and require greater tradeoffs than her current savings rate or travel expenses. I get annoyed with people providing $5 solutions to $5,000 problems especially when then suggestion are primarily etched in moral grandstanding and obvious schadenfreude.

I mean we can say it's anecdotal but it really isn't:

Meet the 'Henrys': The millennials making 6-figure salaries who have 'pleasure funds' and enough money to travel — but still say they feel broke

High Earners, Not Rich Yet (HENRYs)

‘Working Rich’ Prevail Among Today’s Top Earners | Princeton School of Public and International Affairs

The Working Rich | National Review

'Working rich' prevail among today's top earners

I started seeing my stock/salary jumping and I knew I didn't want to be in the position these folks
are in. I've looked into it and there's a trend of people who're more focused on experiences and
"living their best life" than worrying about paying down their debts or making the necessary cuts & sacrifices
to do well.

 

[dora_da_destroyer]

I can't feel that pain.
A breh went from below the poverty line to a hop, skip & a jump from six figures.

IF you went to a nice school, have a nice gig, and it's "beneath" you
to take those image L's to live comfortably oh well

I've read of HENRY's who are the newly minted wealthy that want to keep
up with their friends who have a familial networth in the millions.



Shoutout to Grocery Store Workers and the minimum wage cats, y'all need more money.

I mean we can say it's anecdotal but it really isn't:

Meet the 'Henrys': The millennials making 6-figure salaries who have 'pleasure funds' and enough money to travel — but still say they feel broke

High Earners, Not Rich Yet (HENRYs)

‘Working Rich’ Prevail Among Today’s Top Earners | Princeton School of Public and International Affairs

The Working Rich | National Review

'Working rich' prevail among today's top earners

I started seeing my stock/salary jumping and I knew I didn't want to be in the position these folks
are in. I've looked into it and there's a trend of people who're more focused on experiences and
"living their best life" than worrying about paying down their debts or making the necessary cuts & sacrifices
to do well.

1) everyone makes the tradeoffs they want to in life, i fully understand the concept of living life while you're young and in good health and then sitting your ass down in later in life and dealing with bills then

2) that's still a select cohort, just like articles either paint millennials as poor with every card stack against them or entitled high salary techies who doordash, uber, travel and avoid responsibility, etc...there's a level of sensationalist tropes that get clicks that ignores a vast middle

 

[Insensitive]

1) everyone makes the tradeoffs they want to in life, i fully understand the concept of living life while you're young and in good health and then sitting your ass down in later in life and dealing with bills then

2) that's still a select cohort, just like articles either paint millennials as poor with every card stack against them or entitled high salary techies who doordash, uber, travel and avoid responsibility, etc...there's a level of sensationalist tropes that get clicks that ignores a vast middle

Aye.
I'll put it this way.
Just like you don't really care for the lower income individuals serving the populace and
risking their lives for ~$10 an hour, I can't really say I'm about to shed a tear for someone
in the six figure range.

And I'm much closer to the latter than the former.

 

[Serious]

I can't feel that pain.
A breh went from below the poverty line to a hop, skip & a jump from six figures.

IF you went to a nice school, have a nice gig, and it's "beneath" you
to take those image L's to live comfortably oh well

I've read of HENRY's who are the newly minted wealthy that want to keep
up with their friends who have a familial networth in the millions.



Shoutout to Grocery Store Workers and the minimum wage cats, y'all need more money.

I mean we can say it's anecdotal but it really isn't:

Meet the 'Henrys': The millennials making 6-figure salaries who have 'pleasure funds' and enough money to travel — but still say they feel broke

High Earners, Not Rich Yet (HENRYs)

‘Working Rich’ Prevail Among Today’s Top Earners | Princeton School of Public and International Affairs

The Working Rich | National Review

'Working rich' prevail among today's top earners

I started seeing my stock/salary jumping and I knew I didn't want to be in the position these folks
are in. I've looked into it and there's a trend of people who're more focused on experiences and
"living their best life" than worrying about paying down their debts or making the necessary cuts & sacrifices
to do well.

I've been trying say this for years, but they never want to take accountability on here.

The woman in the video I posted above, legit said, she cares more about enjoying herself now, but will deal with her debt later on. In two freaking years her debt went from 180k to 230k, with 3k in fukking savings


At what point does a person start to take some fiscal responsibility.

If this was the was looking at the balance sheet of a company, that I wanted to invest in, I'd hold off and laugh uncontrollably at this balance sheet. 230k in debt, with 3k in cash.

Look debt hinders your movement.

Unlike a company you can't declare BK on student loans.

I have np with people enjoying their youth, but we all make choices in life, taking accountability for your actions is part of it.

 

[dora_da_destroyer]

Aye.
I'll put it this way.
Just like you don't really care for the lower income individuals serving the populace and
risking their lives for ~$10 an hour, I can't really say I'm about to shed a tear for someone
in the six figure range.

And I'm much closer to the latter than the former.

no one said to shed a tear, but stop relying on sensationalist articles to paint reality

 

[ogc163]

I can't feel that pain.
A breh went from below the poverty line to a hop, skip & a jump from six figures.

IF you went to a nice school, have a nice gig, and it's "beneath" you
to take those image L's to live comfortably oh well

I've read of HENRY's who are the newly minted wealthy that want to keep
up with their friends who have a familial networth in the millions.



Shoutout to Grocery Store Workers and the minimum wage cats, y'all need more money.

I mean we can say it's anecdotal but it really isn't:

Meet the 'Henrys': The millennials making 6-figure salaries who have 'pleasure funds' and enough money to travel — but still say they feel broke

High Earners, Not Rich Yet (HENRYs)

‘Working Rich’ Prevail Among Today’s Top Earners | Princeton School of Public and International Affairs

The Working Rich | National Review

'Working rich' prevail among today's top earners

I started seeing my stock/salary jumping and I knew I didn't want to be in the position these folks
are in. I've looked into it and there's a trend of people who're more focused on experiences and
"living their best life" than worrying about paying down their debts or making the necessary cuts & sacrifices
to do well.

From the Meet the Henrys article...

"Investopedia called Henrys the "working rich" — if they stop working, they won't be rich. More of their earnings "go into costs than go into wealth building investments, leaving them feeling like they are more like regular people slaving for a paycheck than the wealthy 1% in America," Investopedia said, adding that "these high earners are expected to have much the same lifestyle as wealthier compatriots but they do so by sacrificing their ability to amass wealth."

That might explain why 38% of millennials earning $100,000 or more a year think they're middle class, an Insider and Morning Consult survey found earlier this year. About 23% think they're upper middle class, and only 6% think they're affluent.

However, of the 1,207 millennials surveyed, only 125 both said they earned more than $100,000 and answered the question about which class they identify with, making it a small sample size."

This article focuses on a small sample size and does not take into consideration the costs of living, and the Investopedia article didn't break things down for age demographics, and so this does not provide strong evidence of prevalent behavior among indebted millennial professionals. And I'm not sure how the working rich articles are relevant to the discussion. However I'm not going to deny that some millennials are bugging in how they engage with their finances, but even if that is the case it does not change my initial arguments that a) piecemeal solutions often provided are etched in shallow moral grandstanding b) most millennials, particularly Black millennial professionals are not out here having a grand old time while ignoring their debt c) Folks generally have not and do not consider the tradeoffs.

I think shorty in the video posted is making dumbass moves, but I don't have insight into her aspirations OR how her debt is going to impact her aspirations. Someone who wants a traditional lifestyle long term vs. someone who wants a jet setting lifestyle long term is going to look at their debt differently. Aside from student loan debt, the other major six figure decisions in life are:

1. Kids ( 234k over 18 yrs not including the costs of college)
2. House
3. Costs of kids attending college
4. Marriage
5. Retirement

If someone is not interested in taking on 1-3 then they are potentially saving 234k-600k in bills and so student loan debt looks different for them. The issue for a lot of people is that they want 1-3 and have large student loan debts; that doesn't mean they haven't taken into consideration the tradeoffs, the more likely scenario is that their cost/benefit analysis was off by a significant amount--this is especially true for Black folks who have a different risk profile--.