07-18-2007, 01:20 AM
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Confirmed User
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 2,052
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kane
well, they say most people in the US are about 3 paychecks from being homeless. That may be an overstatement because it would take a bank or landlord several months to evict you, but I can say that of a group of 10 people I know that make pretty decent money (somewhere around or more than the average) there is only 1 of them that actually has any money in savings. So if the money stops coming in they are screwed.
People don't look at what they can afford, they look at what they want. They buy houses, cars and then get credit cards and max them out. While the average household makes around 43K a year, CNN reported that the average family (meaning the family that makes 43K a year) has around $9200 in credit card debt that they are paying and average of 12% interest on, owes about $58,000 in principle on their mortgage and has over $10,000 in car debt.
If you are a family that brings in 43K before taxes and you pay a total of 25% to taxes (including state, federal and social security) that means you are going to see around 30K in bring home which is around $2500 a month. If you are paying the nationwide average of $350 a month for you car, plus the nationwide average of $1300 for a mortgage and at least $150 towards your average credit card debt (and that is basically just paying off the interest each month) you already have burned through $1800 of your $2500 leaving you just $700 for insurance, food, utilities, gas, clothes and everything else.
It's not a wonder that 1 out of every 100 people in this country declare bankruptcy and that 96% of people will end up relying strictly on social security, family and charity for support when they get too old to work.
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If you and your wife take in 43K and you have a $1300 mortage you're both idiots !
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