How can a family live on $50,000 per year.

$169 grand family income guy wrote:

50 grand is more than the current median income. How does a family live on so little.? What kind of cars do you drive? What are your housing costs? What do you do for vacations?

I mean how often do you get to replace your running shoes? Are you deep in debt?

I can't imagine what it would be like.

First of all it helps to own your own home. Secondly be sure you own your own car, drive it for as many years as possible before getting another one. For example aim for 25 years, then sell it and get a newer car that is 5 or 10 years old, never get a new car with payments or from a dealer.

Buy or grow your own food, don't eat processed food and don't eat in restaurants.

Don't get anything you don't need. Don't watch tv, advertisements, the news, sporting events, or anything else that tries to tell you what to buy, how to think, or how to spend your money.

Fix up your own home yourself so it conserves heat in the winter and stays cool in the summer, so any utility use will be as little as possible. It astounds me at how much people pay for heating and cooling, when a little care, foresight and ingenuity could get rid of most of that easily.

Make a list of everything you spend money for each month, and then strive to either eliminate or greatly reduce the things from that list. Reduce the phone bill to a minimum. Get nettalk so long distance calls will be free.

There are many ideas. Perhaps post where you are having problems losing money and people can offer ideas. I will say you should be able to live quite easily on $50,000 a year, the only problem is that you are spending too much.

I can't imagine what living on $169k would be like either. That's like half a bonus in a bad year.

What kind of car do you drive, like a 2009 Acura?

Sad, but true. I wish I had time to live like that.

Dad and mom made the equivalent of $50k in today's dollars.

There were six kids, mom and dad, and dad's mom living in a four bedroom house when I was growing up. Four brothers in one 10'x10' bedroom. Two sisters in the same size room. Each brother had one foot of closet hanger rod, and one personal drawer in a tall dresser.

Vacations you stay local. Maybe go to grandma's house (mom's mom). Go to the park for a day and pack a lunch; PBJ sandwiches and homemade lemonade and orange juice. Past expiration date bread bought most of the time.

Hand me down clothes. Shop at the cheapest places possible. collect and use coupons.

You can survive. It is not impossible.

Where do you people live that you think it's hard to live on $50,000? It's no problem to live on that in most of the country.

It's hard to believe someone who is too dumb to make it on $50k/yr. could be smart enough to make $169k/yr.

I lived on a third of that as a student and was broke as sh*t. Lived off toast and coffee and ran up debt to make ends meet. Now that I make ~50K I'd be doing just fine if I didn't have debt payments, however my truck is 15yrs old and I don't splurge on anything with the exception of good beer. If I had kids it would be pretty tight.

$50,000 for a family of 5 is not going to be "no problem" anywhere in the country. You're going to be living in the slums in any major city.

I don't consider myself wealthy and I wasn't trying to brag. But I am comfortable. If you buy a new car you can drop $25,000. If you pay a mortgage you could pay 15,000 a year. If you need two cars cause you both parents work and have to have cars for work, health and house insurance plus food and kid expenses it would leave probably nothing.So the question was serious and it the MEDIAN family income.

................... wrote:

I can't imagine what living on $169k would be like either. That's like half a bonus in a bad year.

What kind of car do you drive, like a 2009 Acura?

If it wasn't for school, I'd spend less than 10k dollars per year, and I feel like I live pretty well. I eat whatever food I want, drive as much as I want, go out to dinner, go on vacations, etc. I don't go on cruises, obviously, but I go on road trips and backpacking trips. I feel like if I had a wife and a kid we could do just fine on $30k/year. We wouldn't have a big home or nice truck or anything, but we wouldn't have to live like rats either. People are terrible at managing their money, and the more they have, the easier they piss it away.

You can live in a rural area no problem.

Azaleas wrote:

$50,000 for a family of 5 is not going to be "no problem" anywhere in the country. You're going to be living in the slums in any major city.

I struggle living alone on $200. I don't even own a car.

169 grand family income guy wrote:

I don't consider myself wealthy and I wasn't trying to brag. But I am comfortable. If you buy a new car you can drop $25,000. If you pay a mortgage you could pay 15,000 a year. If you need two cars cause you both parents work and have to have cars for work, health and house insurance plus food and kid expenses it would leave probably nothing.

So the question was serious and it the MEDIAN family income.

well, you should consider yourself wealthy...

My family was by no means poor, but we were not anywhere near rich either. People making 50k (or less) don't (or shouldn't) drive new cars. Used cars are much cheaper. If you are careful, it's possible to save enough money to buy a new used car by the time the old car is ready to go. Eating out and entertainment are huge expenses that can easily be cut back. Cable can easily be cut, and most people don't actually need unlimited minutes on their cell phones or a data plan. Clothes can be bought for a fraction of the price at thrift shops. Vacations can be taken within driving distance rather than flying; if possible they would include camping or staying with friends rather than a hotel. There are always emergencies that come up that make things tight, but that's life.

169 grand family income guy wrote:

So the question was serious and it the MEDIAN family income.

................... wrote:

I can't imagine what living on $169k would be like either. That's like half a bonus in a bad year.

Median family income....average sized family? 2.3 kids? Living in rural area? suburbs? city? All depends on the circumstances, but 50K is doable for most small families in much of the country, aside from your larger, most expensive cities.

Talk to asian families and you will receive the answer that you seek...

$169 grand family income guy wrote:

50 grand is more than the current median income. How does a family live on so little.? What kind of cars do you drive? What are your housing costs? What do you do for vacations?

I mean how often do you get to replace your running shoes? Are you deep in debt?

I can't imagine what it would be like.

Azaleas wrote:

$50,000 for a family of 5 is not going to be "no problem" anywhere in the country. You're going to be living in the slums in any major city.

Median household income in New York City - $50,173.

How does anyone make it on just $169k a year? That is just crazy.

My gross income between my wife and I for 2010 was approx. 6.2 million.

We both work out of our homes, and own a type of drop ship company. We have three homes, one in Colorado, North Carolina, and the other on the western coast. Worry, and unhappiness always finds ways to filter into ours/your lives, I do not care how wealthy you are. Before we became financially successful, we always wished to become rich, and then we would live happily ever after. It does not work that way. Many people are unprepared pyschologically as their empire grows. I now know happiness cannot be bought. Believe me I know.

In the beginning its great, but as time goes by, its a challenge.

Azaleas wrote:

$50,000 for a family of 5 is not going to be "no problem" anywhere in the country. You're going to be living in the slums in any major city.

"Any major city" does not equal most of the country. Your statement's also not true.

Median Household income in Raleigh, NC is $51,969. There's very few slums there.

Median for Cincinnati is $32,754

Phoenix $47,085

Portland, OR $50,203

Do slums make up the majority of any of those cities? No!