What is the minimum you can live on

Live on with a little comfort. I am thinking it should not take more than a weeks wages to make a rent or house payment. Is that a good rule of thumb or not?

My mom paid 140k for a house 7 years ago. Her next door neighbors house was trashed by previous owners and all flooring was removed and not replaced. Same house for the most part. It just sold for 266k. Im afraid nowadays in a lot of places a weeks pay will not house most. A dump in a tiny town perhaps.

In the early 80's I lived on $100/month in South America.

DWC, do you think that contributes to the lack of people taking a job? Sign up for welfare and big brother pays the rent

I doubt there is a rule of thumb cause every situation is different However over the years i've found a person/family can live on ! little IF they're willing

I think nowadays overall young people are lazy pos’s and want free stuff. There is very little pride anymore in accomplishments other than getting the newest pair of Jordans while getting free housing and putting that on snapchat. I dont think 10 percent of those people would pass a ua, even without testing for weed. We have lost.

Except somebody is paying those real estate and rent prices. If no one was paying it would go down

Exactly. We all gawk about the prices and then go pay it lol. Everything around here is selling for cash asking price. Doesn't really matter what its actually worth

We figured what it took per year to just pay bills. Property tax, heating, electric, insurances, licenses, ect.

10k at that time a couple years ago would've covered JUST our bills.

I think government pays a lot of rent in apt buildings and banks give people loans they have no business giving. To reference your original question again, i think a COUPLE can buy a decent home on a weeks pay. Most single people, nope.

When interest rates are lower than inflation home prices tend to go up.

If the housing market were to decline again this grand experiment is over.

Yes on a weeks pay for house payment. That's what my banker neighbor told me to judge by when I was looking for a house.

Kinda open ended question for me at least, i mean I could live off no income with what I own, horses, cattle, we have solar stock wells. Would it be fun, maybe for awhile but all creature comforts and equipment would have to be sold to and live solely off wild game, beef, and garden crops. But that would not be no income actually because I would have profit or potential profit off cattle sales or trades, all be that this profit would take a significant hit by not feeding hay all winter and having meds for sick cattle and a mineral program. Fuel would be the driver for me, no tractors, skid steer, pickup, wheeler. All doable as I could get around horseback, but feeding cows without a team of horses or tractor would be impractical. I think I could squeak out a living with 30K a year, no frills, and cows would have to pay for themselves as they do now but they also get fed and taken care of now. Tricky question that often wonder myself, most likely the stress of making ends meet would reduce the lifespan dramatically. I think I will keep doing what I do and still treat it like I make 30K a year in order to keep funding my trapping habbit ha ha.

The rule of thumb is 25 to 30 percent of gross.

So a little less than a weeks pay?

So I am thinking its hard to get somebody hired for 600 a week (15 per hour) because right down the road they are paying 20 with 50 hrs a week and insurance. 15 an hour sounds like a good starting wage to the employer but unless its a high school kid it wont pay the bills.

Which is why i was surprised on the thread about the state trapper position so many guys thought a 20/hr starting was good pay. You can get by, but its by no means good.

It'd take a 25-30 year loan. imo

My mortgage is about 25% of my monthly gross pay. We have one income, my wife stays home, and we have 5 kids to feed as well. No debt except the mortgage. I feel like home prices are fairly low here. If you live frugally, in a cheap area, it can be done.

If you live in the bush at camp you can live on very little money.
It is a very stress free life.

You don't pay any taxes? Gross not net.

I suppose it's like 1.25 of net give or take.

dont guess here is some real data

https://www.bankrate.com/mortgages/average-monthly-mortgage-payment/

Rule of thumb is mortgage should be no more than 25 to 30% of your monthly take home pay

I don't see how people can afford to pay market value for health insurance and still afford to live.

I don't follow.

To me, 25-30 percent is alittle over a weeks pay, so minus taxes a little less as I asked.

yep, thats only $41k/yr

data from 2020

In 2020, real median earnings of those who worked full-time, year-round increased 6.9 percent from their 2019 estimate. Median earnings of men ($61,417) and women ($50,982) who worked full-time, year-round increased by 5.6 percent and 6.5 percent, respectively (Figure 4 and Table A-6).

The problem with most today is it isn’t just a house. They have to have new vehicles every year or two, the cell phones, the huge TV’s with a home entertainment center, etc…
Most kids fall into the, I want what mommy and daddy have now. They don’t look at the years it’s taken to get to that point, plus raising said kids along the way.
Had a talk with one of mine just the other day. I asked if he knew how many flavors of Hamburger Helper there are? He didn’t…I told him there’s his problem. I went on to explain when they were babies that was our dinner every night. 1 box of hamburger helper and a little square of hamburger meat (couldn’t afford the big pack) and at the time there were like 20 flavors and we tried them all. There were some nights we just ate the helper because we couldn’t afford the hamburger. I can see where poaching would cross some peoples minds, lol.
Even back before marriage I couldn’t afford an apartment by myself, always had to have a roommate or two.
Live within YOUR means, not someone else’s.

It all depends if you have champagne lifestyle, and only beer money coming in your not going to make it. Most youngsters that I've met have that champagne lifestyle. I know we can because we did it. Lived in a 600 sq ft cabin, for 2 years, no refrigerator, no TV or computer, no cell service unless you walked to the top of the hill, had to pump our water, took a bath in Lake superior, until it got so cold you would be numb. Then pumped water and heated it on the wood stove, and rigged up a garden sprayer for a shower, in a old out building. Go to town twice a month, had to store our cold goods in the spring house. Did a lot more hunting and fishing back then. A lot of canning over the propane stove.
Darn just thinking about it, makes me sometimes wish we would go back to that.

"Over the last 42 years, the average new US house has increased in size by more than 1,000 square feet, from an average size of 1,660 square feet in 1973 (earliest year available from the Census Bureau) to 2,687 square feet last year.Jun 5, 2016"

"The average family consisted of 3.15 persons in 2020, down from 3.7 in the 1960s. "

If it should take 25-30 percent of your gross for housing is that the reason so many jobs are unfilled? Low wages? Are we in another housing bubble with bank collapses about to make the dollar worthless? This unfettered printing has certainly not been good for dollar value.

I am trying to answer this very question. I turned 62 last month. If I take SS now it’s less than 2000.00 a month.
I will have to pay taxes in some states I want to retire in and plus need to buy Health insurance till I am 65 then a supplement from 65 on which I think is running $200.00 a month now. I have both knees replaced and do not think I can work much longer. Disability out of the question. With 4 years of college not one lawyer in the comity has told me I would have a chance win my hearing. Waste of fine trying they told me. They said SS wound tell me to get a sit down office job. I rent and will always be renting. Need a city with population between 700 to 50,000 population to move too. I am looking for some really good info here. Marty

It can not hurt to own your home outright. I’m nervous about all this communist stuff going on. Under communism you lose real property. It all belongs to the state. There have been more than one successful communist revolution. Would it succeed here? I don’t know.

If Biden starts to try and take property from private citizens, that will be a trigger. Blood will be shed.

Ask coonman, he's going to retire drawing half that with no money saved up. Maybe have to move to where he lives, it must be cheap.

It all depends on your wants
I like simple living. Less is more for me. Kids get grown I'd like to see how simple I could live.

Just got out of all debt, finally, last year at 58. Now try to grind out another 5-7 years to build as much into retirement as possible.
As far as all this communist crapola, I will have to pay 2300.00 per year in property taxes- forever. If I dont they take the house. So I really dont own the home outright. I own it jointly with uncle Sam.

Yep. Property tax is how southerners got their homes taken from them in post war reconstruction .

I can make it on $50 a week be alot more comfortable too if I don't have six dogs to feed

People can't be evicted for not paying their rent. Biden has already taken landlords property.

WOW

Lots build post WW2 in the 800 to 1000 sf range. Plenty to raise 4+ kids in and people stayed in their homes forever after they had them paid off. Now those homes are deemed "starter homes"

Banks want to keep you in debt for a lifetime, chained to payments on house/cars/credit cards etc...

Lots of nice small towns in Indiana with low cost of living and much lower taxes than IL.

It used to be that you figured about 1/4 of your income for housing, now it's 1/3. Of course that is a general figure, but it illustrates that housing is getting more expensive. Also, I doubt the 1/3 figure factors in the recent inflation we've had.

I guess it depends. The county I live in is very rural. When my mom was looking to move here 2 years ago I looked at renting them a place. $800 was the cheapest I found, with nothing included. I was shocked. That would have been about 50% of their income. Ended up buying them a house instead, with us being their landlords.

Banks sell a lot of your mortgages. The government is the big bad guy.

Not the government, the federal reserve.

Who else can afford to borrow money at 2.5 to 3.5 percent interest during 5 percent inflation?

It IS succeeding and they are lining things up for when they drop the hammer.

This! Wife and I saved up and worked hard. We bought 100 acre farm that had very low taxes due to being in a farming program (and development rights were sold to gov.).

Paid it off now farmers rent check far exceeds taxes, up keep, and insurance costs. But health care or insurance costs are nuts!

Freddy and Fanny . Still in conservatorship of FHFA . The Federal Housing Finance Agency is an independent federal agency in the United States. Federal agency isn't that government?

"Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are federally backed home mortgage companies created by the United States Congress."

Fannie and Freddy are selling those mortgages. Most of them to the Fed.

I heard on the radio just the other day that the median price of a home nationwide is just under $400,000. I couldn't begin to afford that. My son-in-law just purchased five house lots in the Charlotte area for $250,000 a piece. Then you have to put a house on it. This is my retirement home.

Jealous of you! No joke!

I envy you Boco.

One local realtor has zero houses listed
Another has 5. Everything sells.

A great way to live and be happy!

This post has a lot of variables but interesting to read.

My $.02 start planning for your retirement the day you get your first real job not five years before you are set to retire.

Live beneath your means - just because you qualify for a huge home loan doesn't mean you should take that amount.

Keep an eye on debt and pay it off as soon as you can. When you are in debt you are working for someone else.

If you planned early on and lived beneath your means while working, there should be a considerable nest egg available for retirement. It is possible to retire a multi millionaire at 57 from an average paying career job.

The mortgage when we got married was 100% of two weeks pay. lol Talk about living on love!

Finally have a mortgage that is 35% of a weeks pay.

We could live on a lot less like many folks but choose not to.

Health insurance is by far the biggest hurdle in the retirement move as like stated it’s not affordable to many working folks if they try to retire. Retire at 62 and you have 3 years to go to get Medicare. Then they take out of your Social Security some to pay for that and then you need a subliminal plan to cover the portion that Medicare doesn’t pay for.

If someone is not still working in the family that has coverage it’s tough to do it, if your deep in a mortgage or credit card debt with little savings your still working then for most folks that is.

That cabin looks awesome! With the new eutopia being built by our government spending the next new homeless group will be people on social security who didn't plan well.

You'll be able to spot them easily. Well fed, good cloths, and a nice tent.

With all the new "immigrants" coming to America it will put even more presure on the housing market. Better start building more freeways!

All I need is cornmeal, gunpowder, ham hocks and guitar strings!!

I worry about property tax. Mine keeps going up as appraisals keep increasing. I keep contesting them but it is never reduced to the old number. A backdoor tax increase. Have zoning now too. So already my property has been taken. I need permission from my landlord to use it and nonpayment of rent means eviction.

When you are poor you can stop helping the poor. That's the plan.

The Alaska cabin in the unorganized borough is my end game. No property taxes so far.

The Alaska bush is no place for old people. You guys will find out the hard way. I have seen them come and go. To live comfortable ( like in civilization) it takes money. More than it takes in civilization. The only plus to being retired in the bush is you don't have to scrape out a living. It's mailed to you.

I cant imagine being 85 and needing to cut and split 7-8 cords of wood, while trying to grow cabbage peas carrots radishes turnips parsnips etc, hunt, haul out and butcher a moose before 8 months of winter comes back

Don't complicate it Danny. Imagine getting your boat unbeached (back in the water) by yourself when the river drops. Fairly common occurance.

P.S. Knock off about 25 years on your example. 60 is getting too old for here. IMO

That is not how old people live in the bush.
Older people in the bush contribute what they can,and younger more able people will provide what they can.
Several younger hunters will supply meat for others in their extended family,older women love to butcher and prepare and smoke meat brought to camp,and others make clothing and tan hides everyone can fish hunt small game and birds and trap various sized lines.Everyone has chores that they can do and enjoy.No 80 year olds will be packing moose quarters,lol.Elders are valued for their knowledge and skills in a teaching role.Young people for their brawn.Youngsters supply wood.Older people often buck and split when they can.Often I have seen 10 and 12 year olds skilled with a chainsaw.
Each according to their ability and each according to their needs.

REALLY, no kidding. nice cabin.

Not a big fan of zoning laws. I am of the belief if someone wants to tell me what I can and can't do with my land they should have bought it or make me an offer I cannot refuse

I honestly don't know and hopefully I never have to find out.