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Biden's America


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3 minutes ago, Cdog923 said:

 

Exactly my fear. We eventually just refinanced our mortgage, and got rid of a bunch of stuff to open up some more room. 

 

That is exactly what we did. Dropped our mortgage payments quite a bit, and we're going to finish the laundry room & spare room in the basement and have some more space - which is exactly what we don't need, because this house is too big for us already, but whatever. 

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49 minutes ago, Cdog923 said:

 

That ship has sadly sailed; there's no way that a middle class family could afford to do that without massive structural changes to the system, let alone anyone near the poverty line. 

To a certain extent, I agree.  But, I also disagree.  My family is a prime example.  My wife and I both have college educations and had decent starts to our careers out of college.  We got married and bought a very small starter home in Des Moines.  When we had our first child, my wife really wanted to stay home until the kids were in school.  We knew it would be a big sacrifice.  We knew possibly we weren't going to be able to go on expensive vacations upgrade our home to a nice home in the suburbs.  I remember a couple Christmases where we really struggled to buy gifts for the kids.  But, it was a sacrifice we were willing to make.  She ended up going back to work when our last one went to pre-school.  

 

So, yes, there are some families that just can't do it.  But, there are also a lot of families that, if they are willing to sacrifice some things, they can do it.

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2 minutes ago, BigRedBuster said:

To a certain extent, I agree.  But, I also disagree.  My family is a prime example.  My wife and I both have college educations and had decent starts to our careers out of college.  We got married and bought a very small starter home in Des Moines.  When we had our first child, my wife really wanted to stay home until the kids were in school.  We knew it would be a big sacrifice.  We knew possibly we weren't going to be able to go on expensive vacations upgrade our home to a nice home in the suburbs.  I remember a couple Christmases where we really struggled to buy gifts for the kids.  But, it was a sacrifice we were willing to make.  She ended up going back to work when our last one went to pre-school.  

 

So, yes, there are some families that just can't do it.  But, there are also a lot of families that, if they are willing to sacrifice some things, they can do it.

 

May I ask how long ago this was? My wife and I had similar discussions where I would stay home with our kids, but she would have needed a substantial raise in order for us to afford it. 

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14 minutes ago, BigRedBuster said:

My kids are 21, 23, 25.

 

So it's not a direct correlation to today, but I certainly understand the thought process. 

 

If we could afford it, I'd absolutely be a stay at home dad to my kids; one small benefit of this stupid pandemic was all the time I got to spend at home with them last year. 

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21 minutes ago, Cdog923 said:

 

So it's not a direct correlation to today, but I certainly understand the thought process. 

 

If we could afford it, I'd absolutely be a stay at home dad to my kids; one small benefit of this stupid pandemic was all the time I got to spend at home with them last year. 

I know it's been now 18-20 years since my wife stayed home.  But, I remember the exact same things being said about how middle class families can't live on one salary even back then.  This isn't an issue that has all of a sudden appeared in the last few years.  

 

But, a family needs to look at how much debt they have.  How much is their home costing them?  What other major expenses do they have?  Can anything be cut?  Can they downsize the home if needed?

 

When we did it, we were in our starter home and, since my wife is an extremely conservative accountant, the home was literally our only debt unless we were forced to buy a car.  We very seldom traded cars and drove them till they had tons of miles.  That's something we still do.  I hate buying new cars.

 

Edit to add:  I just ran the calculation.  At the time, I was making about $35,000 per year.  Adjusted for inflation, that would be $57,000 today.  Yep, we weren't even middle class.  :D

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Another question is, is there something you can do part time from home to bring in a little money to help out?  Towards the end, my wife started doing books part time for a couple small businesses out of the home.  WAY over qualified, but, she was able to still watch the kids and help bring in some spending money.  I remember my oldest daughter wanted to take ice skating lessons.  We really struggled with how to pay for them.  This was one way to help with that.

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1 hour ago, BigRedBuster said:

Edit to add:  I just ran the calculation.  At the time, I was making about $35,000 per year.  Adjusted for inflation, that would be $57,000 today.  Yep, we weren't even middle class.  :D

My first job as a TV reporter out of college in 2012 was about $24,000. Reporters at the competitor station were making $19k/year.

 

Not overly relevant to the discussion other than to point out that it's absolutely asinine what types of salaries some college educated students drop into, and to my understanding, nothing much has changed in the reporting business. Think most intro employees are below $30k still.

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3 hours ago, ZRod said:

Where I'm at in Michigan is comparable to Lincoln and Omaha for cost of living. We bought our condo in 2019 and the zestimate is already $30k more than what we paid for it. A lot of my co-workers have either been in bidding wars, or homes they are interested in are sold in just a few days.

Where I'm at in Michigan is comparable to Lincoln and Omaha for cost of living. We bought our condo in 2019 and the zestimate is already $30k more than what we paid for it. A lot of my co-workers have either been in bidding wars, or homes they are interested in are sold in just a few days.

You can say that again.

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2 hours ago, BigRedBuster said:

I know it's been now 18-20 years since my wife stayed home.  But, I remember the exact same things being said about how middle class families can't live on one salary even back then.  This isn't an issue that has all of a sudden appeared in the last few years.  

 

But, a family needs to look at how much debt they have.  How much is their home costing them?  What other major expenses do they have?  Can anything be cut?  Can they downsize the home if needed?

 

When we did it, we were in our starter home and, since my wife is an extremely conservative accountant, the home was literally our only debt unless we were forced to buy a car.  We very seldom traded cars and drove them till they had tons of miles.  That's something we still do.  I hate buying new cars.

 

Edit to add:  I just ran the calculation.  At the time, I was making about $35,000 per year.  Adjusted for inflation, that would be $57,000 today.  Yep, we weren't even middle class.  :D

 

An neither of you had student loans? Try getting a $57,000 a year job now without a degree (2 or 4 year).

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1 hour ago, BigRedBuster said:

Another question is, is there something you can do part time from home to bring in a little money to help out?  Towards the end, my wife started doing books part time for a couple small businesses out of the home.  WAY over qualified, but, she was able to still watch the kids and help bring in some spending money.  I remember my oldest daughter wanted to take ice skating lessons.  We really struggled with how to pay for them.  This was one way to help with that.

 

Yeah, like start an in-home daycare---- oh yeah, we just talked about doing away with those. :) 

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2 hours ago, Born N Bled Red said:

 

An neither of you had student loans? Try getting a $57,000 a year job now without a degree (2 or 4 year).

I started out making less than that in an engineering job with no student loan debt and a 4 year old Camaro with a loan on it. As one person I could live very comfortably and spend coin at the bars while still building upy savings account, but I was putting zero money into my retirement. I wouldn't want to try to raise a family with an income of only $57k right now. Doesn't leave much room for retirement and savings for the future...

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8 minutes ago, ZRod said:

I started out making less than that in an engineering job with no student loan debt and a 4 year old Camaro with a loan on it. As one person I could live very comfortably and spend coin at the bars, but I was putting zero money into my retirement. I wouldn't want to try to raise a family with an income of only $57k right now. Doesn't leave much room for retirement and savings for the future...

 

As the son of an engineer, I'd guess you're probably somewhere in your upper 40s to mid 60s wherein you could get a job like that without a degree, or you had your college paid for. Either way, things have changed. 

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2 hours ago, Born N Bled Red said:

An neither of you had student loans?

My wife was one of those smarty pants that got enough scholarships that she could work a part time job and not have loans.  I, on the other hand, ended up working full time while going to college and taking 5 1/2 years to complete.  I ended up with around $1,500 loans when I was done.

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