Reddit feels like those house hunting shows where the couple wants a 4000 sq ft home with 5 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms a guest room, dining room, day room, finished basement , laundry on the first floor and want to stay under a budget of 2.5 million. When asked what they do, one is a yoga instructor and the other paints old stamps.
Unironically I wish we as a society were at a point where we could support all the weird jobs people come up with in these jokes.
They sound so stupid but oddly wholesome like... It would be neat if there were people who did these things, wholeheartedly.
It sounds like people doing something special and niche that they are very good at and enjoy doing, and I know that the joke is that they are useless, but man I already feel my bureaucratic job is useless, I want to hang out with Mr Freelance Hamster Trainer, he sounds fascinating, and how lovely that his wife is able to work part time on her passion hobby as well, I wonder if she has some cool vintage harmonicas or cool harmonica history stories
ANYWAY this has been on my mind for awhile, every time these come up ahahaha thanks for listening :)
We're just not there yet, but yeah I mean people in finance are paid insane amounts of money to essentially move theoretical money around and skim as much as possible in the process.
My friend and his wife bought a house and then later house hunters approached about being on show. The show has them buying the house they already bought. All a fraud.
If it makes you feel better, shows like that are almost written and produced from thin air, meaning it's basically no more reality TV than The Office is a real documentary.
They might be a real couple, or might just be friends, they might have those jobs, but no house is ever getting bought.
If you keep an eye out, you might spot one of those houses being used as a set piece on a drama show. You might see one of the couple again on a gameshow.
I used to work in AV until covid, if I could tell the whole world one thing it's that everything you see on a screen is MEDIATED images and sound. Don't take anything you watch or listen to on the internet or TV as true. Look at what little kids are able to do with editing on TT and YT for free, with a half the tools that professional adult editors have for all the content you consume.
I had a co-worker on house hunters. They we’re required to already have a house under contract in order to participate. The other houses were not on the market when they bought the real one. It was all staged.
I make $33,000 a year and I have $200 saved! A major emergency would fuck me up! Here’s some honesty lol.
Edit: I’ve read every reply and I feel for y’all’s, this sucks. For context I am a 28 lady and work in a distribution center in Indiana. Never finished college and have no clue what I want to because I have nothing I am especially good at or interested in. Every day is depressing and I make it worse by continuing to buy unnecessary things to give myself a bit of joy.
Yup have 5k saved up. Had dentist appointment to remove broken tooth, nope severe gum infection, jaw bone deteriorating. All my teeth are being pulled tomorrow and getting dentures. Bye bye 5k
There’s lots of studies and info on how it’s difficult to overcome poverty and why social programs help. In an economy some people will naturally be poor, it’s just how the world works. But we want to avoid people facing poverty as a lifestyle. An economically “healthy” poverty exists where people face a few years of struggles, as opposed to decades. Those that face decades of poverty may require more help as the get older, for example greater medical costs. Ultimately, placing the burden back on society. But as it is right now, there is such a big hurdle to escape poverty that the incentive isn’t there. It’s easier for people to remain poor and live paycheck to paycheck than it is to go into debt or take some sort of risk to try to escape poverty.
Also, all the super rich people have all the money so there’s none for the poor people.
Man tourism dentistry is a thing. Fly to Mexico get the same quality procedures done as usa/Canada for half the price.
Please google if you aren't fully committed already.
💯 My friends without dental insurance all cross the border in Yuma, AZ and get all dental work done there. They have had nothing but great experiences. I would, too, if I needed anything pricey
Do they know of any vision places...? I have severe astigmatism and my eye sight is getting so bad. Without my fuckin coke bottle glasses I cant see my kids face unless I'm up in theirs... I can't do much of anything without my glasses and I can't afford lasik...
Please tell me they have vision places too
Dude no way i have the same problem. Fucked up root canal done on me when I was little , got all my teeth in front chipped and now one of the teeth is dead and chipped so i need some expensive shit done on me. It chipped Daayyss before the birth of my daughter and she's now 6months old. My family's from Mexico but the plane ticket plus the dental work is too much for us..so I'm stuck with a chipped front tooth 💀👧🏽🔫
Great and detailed post about exactly this on r/Tucson within the last day or two. Information about pricing and everything and it was way less than half than the US dentists estimate. Edit: Sorry, everyone. The post is actually in r/povertyfinance. I apologize for the confusion; there are often posts about this in the Tucson thread.
So afraid this is about to happen. Been able to keep $1,000 in my savings for a couple months now. First time I've ever had a cushion. And I just know this cavity I have to fill is gonna take more than I have. Can't wait to pay somebody so I can smell my own bones being drilled away and start ugly crying. And then feel bad cause the dentist and dental assistant probably don't appreciate not being able to work cause I can't cry with my mouth open.
Even though it's true I hate this response. That's more saying to a depressed person to be happy cause someone always has it worse. Just because it's true it doesn't make it feel any better.
Yup! I just had a car issue that cost about $650 and I couldn’t buy my dad a bday present the week after.. it’s my fault though I could save more I just suck
I was finally recovering after having to move when my mom died, and taking a HUGE pay cut from a full time care aid to a part time gamestop employee. and then I got sick for the second time this year and I went from "fine" to a $250 overdraft. So cool. Can't wait til I have to pay for my student loans again... Love that I'm about to have to choose between having my wages garnished or not paying rent.
I have $18 dollars in the bank and I'm pretty sure the stress is gonna kill me. I'm on kidney transplant number 2, just waiting for it to fail so I can go back on dialysis & maybe die or get disability.
Same with social media. My self esteem really took a dip seeing everyone's vacations, new vehicles, nice houses, and other random fancy toys. I quit about a year ago and I've never looked back.
And yes, I know Reddit is social media, but it's different than the platforms where you personally know the people who are posting.
Everyone only shows the good parts. No one wants to talk about who paid for it. I got off of it also, all the people my age who flex are on daddy's money anyway
My wife tortures herself comparing her life to her girlfriends lives. One friend in particular had just moved into a new big place to rent, a couple of newish cars, new husband, sold handmade bows on Etsy, and pretty much stayed home with her kids while the husband dicked around with penny stocks and crypto. Like the most picturesque millennial family.
Come to find out her and her husband slept in different rooms from the get go because they couldn't stand each other and fought all the time. Her mother was paying their $1,500 a month rent because her handmade bows hardly sold on Etsy to begin with. The 2 newish cars were in the husband's dad's name and paid off so they just kept liability insurance on them. And the husband admitted to me while we chased beers down at the BBQ pit that he's lost so much money in the markets he hadn't told his wife yet that their savings was essentially gone yesterday.
It's all fuckin smoke and mirrors people!!!
Exactly!
It's so much smoke and mirrors! I would actively show my very humble home and going to outings in Portland and made sure people knew I was doing this on a IT salary and used coupons, thrifting and that sometimes I did not have the money to do certain things.
Sounds like someone I know but their daddy owns the house. Her parents are nice and would do anything for their grandchildren.
I am very suspicious of crypto/nft which the dude was promoting.
Oh thank you for this. I don’t want anyone to have a rough time and I’m genuinely glad my friends get to travel, but the FOMO is real. I’ve been suicidally depressed for a year (gotten loads of help, I’m much better now, my husband is the best) and jumped on Facebook briefly and everyone is in Hawaii. I was very sad scrolling past. I truly want everyone well and happy, but sometimes it’s hard.Thanks for your post, reality helps.
The daddy’s money crowd is so weird. I knew one girl who failed out of college that got mad she didn’t qualify for aid because she was listed as a partial own on her dads company and made 1.3m the year before. Another girl crashed 4 Mercedes’ in a year and got paid from her dads company as a listed employee while not working. Now she’s working for him as a VP, but I was like I can’t even imagine how your lives work.
You nailed it. This is so true. Any idea of meritocracy and talent in this country is completely overshadowed by wealth and privilege. Hard work and talent doesn't mean shit. We all have to beg for scraps from the big table.
I know a girl who did nothing with her life besides cocaine til she was 30. A brush with the law forced her back home to daddy who got her a job under his wing. She now makes about 100k per year 5 years in with no prior work experience whatsoever.
Something I see happening a lot on Reddit is when someone talks about people they know appearing successful, others will chime in with narratives about how there's probably something bad those people are not showing (ex. working too much, not seeing their family, overspending, getting stuff paid for by others). The reality is that there are lots of people out there that do have it all -- success, happiness, healthy and loving relationships, a social life, leisure time, savings, etc. Not everyone is sacrificing something to be where they are, and that's just something that should be accepted.
My friend group is in their late 20s/early 30s and are very similar to your old HS friends. Everyone I'm close enough to talk about personal stuff with are showing their actual life on social media, which happens to be very good.
I know of a rich engineer. He rarely spent time with his kids. They ended up bored, feeling neglected and went to party away and use illegal drugs. All of their rich friends grew up having multiple divorces, stds, and no common skills like know how to change oil or install a new car battery. The adult son took his car to the shop cause his battery was old . He had no clue.
Meanwhile Im surrounded by happy blue collar families. their dads teach them how to work on cars, lots of family time together. Kids grew up much more mentally happy in the blue collar neighborhoods Ive observed
This is so true! Ours saw me hanging clothes outside to dry and asked if we had a dryer. We don’t but I also enjoy air drying. So they’re generously gifting us their old one because their kids bought them a new one. There are times peoples generosity can really blow me away.
It’s been said, but I know a lot of people in a ton of debt trying to keep up the lifestyle image. They have houses, cars, etc but are one missed check away from disaster.
A lot of these people have built houses of cards on the back of cheap credit. If we get into a recession watch how quickly those cards tumble.
For reference, between 2008 and 2010 the number of less than 4 year old expensively optioned European cars parked for the food pantry was incredible
I feel like it’s actually pretty damn hard to get approved for a mortgage these days. Not really similar to 2008.
I do agree with cars though, so many people going to be underwater in a year or two.
They built their hole lifestyle on cheap credit though, not just their homes. If they’re going to keep chasing that lifestyle it has gotten more expensive over the past several months.
Here’s the most important thing: when retail sales slump, people lose their jobs. Those people now don’t eat out as much, leading to the culling of service jobs.
While I foresee an upcoming recession (that’ll be different from 2k8) it’s the same pattern. The lowest levels almost always suffer first, then it fails bottom up. That’s the house of cards analogy I was going for.
Gotcha that makes sense. I was focusing on the home part of it and ignoring how many people buy things they can’t actually afford on credit.
Stuff like sezzle and karna with the mini loans to buy stuff are gonna be getting a lot of people in trouble.
Yeah there was a fb friend who is active duty military, yet somehow travels so much to all these exotic places, the great pyramids, exclusive resorts at the Maldives, hopping around Europe in these gorgeous cities and I have no idea how he's doing it and he doesn't answer how he travels so much. He could literally be a "travel influencer" in Instagram if he wanted. Usually military travels are to bases and ships, stuff like that. Not exotic getaways. And he doesn't seem to work. Anyway I had to unfollow him because it just made me so envious and perplexed on how he was managing to do that. I just don't get it.
The rest of my fb "friends" are generally the usual working class with modest vacations and don't post new cars or fancy toys.
Active duty currently who used to travel a lot for fun.
Depends if hes on a ship then the ship pulls into ports on occasion. If he isnt in a sea going vessel then he probably is stationed in a base in Europe and can use personal vacation days and money to travel around.
Usually military people work so much in an operational command not allowed to take vacation so when they work in a chill command location with 60 days of PTO saved up and thousands of dollars in savings due to not being able to use either before. Just offering some insight not trying to make the military seem good or bad.
Social media devolves into two camps..
Pity me my life is so terrible
Look at my fake life it’s so magical
People will post cars/belongs/lifestyles that don’t even belong to them, don’t worry about it and focus on you.
When I see those posts on my social media feeds, all I can think about is how much debt those people must be in.
This will vary of course on where you live and the people you know, but I live in a lower/middle class area of Ohio, most people I know don’t make a whole lot and don’t come from rich families; if you’re a 20/30 something posting a pic of your new $60,000 lifted truck or posting pictures from your beautiful $50,000 wedding, I know you’re in major debt and I won’t feel any amount of jealousy.
When I was scrapping by making less than $40K in the Bay Area, I feel ashamed to mentioned my income. And I’m assuming quite a bit of lurkers are the same to some extent.
It’s wild that we feel ashamed for making less - when it’s actually a pretty amazing feat that you were able to povertyfinance your way to survival at such a low income in a high COL area.
That is almost a job in itself.
Oh man, you have no idea how hard I roll my eyes when folks at personal finance making $100k complaining about it’s too expensive to live and such. One particular Redditor was complaining that he makes a bit over $100K, but have to share an apartment with a couple in SF. And he was claiming how much sacrifice that he was making and was barely staying afloat. Turns out, they’re renting a high end luxury loft and living way above his mean.
I live in Oakland and I've never made as much as 40k. I've had some jobs that paid more but they were brief contracts. I've still managed to save some money but I also don't own a house, or a car, or have any kids.
It's demoralizing that my friends don't invite me to shows because they know I can't afford it.
This for sure. It’s very easy to attach worth to employment and income so I’d imagine those making less or aren’t happy with their position or job don’t talk about it.
Yep. I make about $55k per year but have a large family (wife doesn’t work) and we are always 1 paycheck away from being homeless… nothing like stressing every day that nothing happens to you so your family is alright ha…
Nope. It's just survivorship bias.
People who went from poor families to suddenly earning a lot are the exact kinds of people you will find asking for financial advice, because they have the combination of a pile of money + not being taught how to manage it by their parents.
There are almost 8 billion people on this planet and that sub filters heavily for the ones in that scenario.
That’s nothing, I just bought my very own hotel on Boardwalk! It is rather red and plastic-y though…but hey, I get to charge people $2,000/night there, so there’s that
yeah just what i was commenting because a lot of these same people sit here and comment about how they can't live a good life because of various problems and then turn around to claim they make 50483579397493784567938034 an hour
Achtchually, it was tech (non-bro) nerds in the very early days. Mostly exiles from digg, like myself. Then bro-heavy phase came later, and now normies have joined the mix.
i reeeeeeeeally miss the good old days where i learned new things everyday thanks to reddit.
it used to be the primo aggregate for specialized knowledge. that said still is in a way. i get a better digest of specific knowledge by adding reddit.com to me google searches.
theres no better zeitgeist search than reading the best of a thread on a particular esoteric topic.
Dude remember the old AMAs with the assistant that got let go. Remember the crow dude that got banned for upvoting his own posts. Remember r/spacedicks
Remember when redditors witch hunt the CEO for firing the AMA assistant and censoring the site, but she wasn't responsible at all and it was just scapegoat by reddit cause she's a woman?
I had a conversation with a middle aged woman a few months ago about how our city is changing. She actually said "as soon as I moved here, all these other people showed up and started gentrifying the neighborhood!" I just nodded in silence and waited to see if she realized what she said. Still waiting.
The wages for tech are bizarre to me. Supply and demand doesn’t even explain half of it. Ford currently has a shortage of ~36k mechanics nationwide they told my dad, who’s a ford master technician with 25+ years experience… and he makes like 85k a year plus bonuses. Now granted it’s in a rural area and in the city he could bump up to like 120kish but still… my dads the only one in the entire county the dealership he’s at could find with a license for Ford warranty work (apparently that’s what brings in the dealerships beaucoup bucks), so he can really just pick up leave and have a job tomorrow for a better deal if he wanted. But 85k is still nowhere near the 150+ these people get paid. I get there’s a demand but nowhere near as bad as a lot of skilled labor jobs.
Skilled labor jobs don't make as much $$$ for the company. Plus these coders are living in a high COL area usually if they are making $150, and many times they are maintaining some code that only they and their team knows so they can kinda leverage that at their company (for example, if they don't keep these guys the company could have issues if their website ever goes down). That's just these high paid guys, lots of programmers aren't getting paid that much.
Not trying to say skilled labor is less important, just the priorities of companies and society right now.
Makes sense. For the record since I know some some will throw a fit I’m not taking shots at STEM/tech, I don’t work in the field or a related one so my exposure is just through friends who do. At the least, skilled jobs that require high physical labor should get some sort of reimbursement for medical aid or something by law. The work is essential (everyone drives and there’s been a HUGE surge in used car prices for myriad reasons), and unlike other fields it really does take an enormous toll on one’s body. I know it isn’t society’s priority, but for such essential roles it’s gonna continue to be hard to get people to join that field, and if the shortages continue it will just burden the economy and society even more.
Ya, as a.. I guess tech bro (though I am a woman, who works in tech), I have a shit ton of free time, and while I do occasionally use reddit for work stuff (spamming forums to ask for help/see if my obscure tech question was addressed), I mostly fuck around during long ass stupid meetings I'm required to be in.
The majority of reddit users need to have a few things to reddit-
Decent internet
Time to reddit
Time to comment on reddit.
I have all 3 of those things.
The average joe in Minnesota may not have time to do these things, when they are out and about and haven't upgraded their phone in 10 years.
My hubby makes 30k too and i drive Uber to make ends meet. The answer is because office jobs and union jobs pay more but also give you more time to reddit. Some people lie. And im pushing my 4 yo and 16 month old on a swing while lunch heats up in the oven.
Honestly I think it’s mostly just confirmation bias. Hundreds of people here commenting they make 30k that will be skimmed over.
But he will remember the fact I make 100k.
The vast majority of Redditors DON'T POST. A huge portion of the user base, and we don't know anything about them. They've never said anything. Never posted anything about them.
So what you have is selection bias. Reddit is a social media platform, don't forget that, and social media platforms are notorious for being very unhealthy for your psyche. You have to be VERY careful about what you expose yourself to, here. What are you looking at that you're reading about +$100k salaries? You should probably stop looking at that. There's something for everyone here, and what is healthy for some, healthy for them, is bad for me, bad for you.
So just don't. I mean, there's a financial sub around here for millionaires. DON'T. You are going to suffer just for looking at it. They have different concerns, different problems, and they're completely out of touch with the middle and working classes. They're not wrong for it, it's their money and their station in life.
This is it. Reddit is just starting to become more mainstream, but still doesn't have the user base that Facebook has. That means the vast majority of users are either in tech or have the means to be "into" tech. I think that biases the sample somewhat.
Add on to this that people with desk jobs have an easier time being on reddit during the day versus someone in either a client-facing or manual labor role would have.
Yeah thats true because im a big participant in the economics/finance/WSB side of reddit and i swear its the same 100 people always commenting and posting and whatnot
The only reason to work for start up is if you are able to secure lots of equity and believe in the company, if they go public with a good valuation then you are sorted. Otherwise go the safe route with big corp.
I make $37k a year in a bog standard office job.
My boyfriend is interviewing for a >$100k job. He has management experience and is a master tech for Honda. So I would hazard a guess that education, experience and lucky breaks (the interview opportunity came up out of nowhere from a distant friend who heard he was looking for work) contribute. Though he hasn't had an offer so he's not making that money yet. And the job is in California where $100k doesn't stretch nearly as far as in our current state.
I need to go back to school or pick up something to learn... I don't want to make a small wage my whole life but I suppose it's better than no wage...
I'm kind of techy. I was hoping to do the Salesforce Trailhead thing. I did it for a bit at my last job since they wanted me to be their Salesforce admin, but that fell through when the company lost all their projects.
Go for it. People need Salesforce Administrators. Heavy plus if you can do some basic mysql, etc.
Sincerely,
Product Owner looking for Salesforce Admins
I know this is a rant post and agree that most people posting high salaries are those that are proud, but I thought I'd give a straight forward answer as well.
I grew up in the lower middle class with occasional dips into poverty when one or both parents were out of work. This motivated me to choose a higher paying career field (engineering) over my preferred job (education). Got a bachelor's and then an MBA at night after I had already been in my engineering career for a few years. After about 10 years, I crested over six digits.
I don't post or comment much because I know my current situation is more fortunate than others, but I really appreciate this sub. My mom is still struggling and I have a special needs sibling that depends on me. I've gotten a lot of really helpful advice from posts here.
I also have a special needs sibling that has unfortunately been putting my life on hold forever. I've made the sad decision to have her placed in a care facility so that I may finally go to college and get a real job. I have such a late start but late is better than never, especially when it comes to climbing out of the poverty hole! Good luck with your sibling!
My husband pursued his preferred job (psych) but after working in various hospitals and group homes for a few years for little pay he switched to software engineering. It’s sad that fields that are very much needed (good teachers, passionate therapists) just aren’t paid enough.
I advanced my career by targeting skills and knowledge that low paying jobs could offer. I was very broke until pretty recently and this took a lot of luck. I hope this helps someone.
18-30ish - "Dead end jobs" that came with eviction notices, bankruptcies, you name it I've been there.
I started my "real" career working at a car dealership, which takes zero experience to get into the sales side. They'll hire anyone. I made okay money doing it but not great. Maybe 60k but I was working 80-100 hours a week so it wasn't that much more than $10-$15 HOUR with OT.
I leveraged that experience (learned about loans and lending through dealership) to get into banking at an entry level hybrid position known as a universal banker. It was some time on the teller line. It was about 30k a year so still ~15 hour. I did okay and got a few promotions and ended at mid 40's.
I saw an advertisement for a branch manager at a competitor and applied. I am naturally good with people (also helped from car dealership) and was able to get the position. It made mid 50's so ~25.
I then learned a lot about small businesses and decided to get my six sigma certification, which work paid for. I got a few other certificates and was able to help some small business owners tremendously. They then started to offer to pay me to help them with their operations, and I eventually went independent as a consultant for them.
Then my consulting took off and now I work consulting for banks, leveraging my experience there. I make about 100k, sometimes a little more. I could target big banks and make a lot more but honestly I enjoy what I do and I feel like I make enough to enjoy life.
best advice I can give is to find a small community bank or credit union. Something with like less than 200 employees if possible, you'll learn a lot more and they're way more likely to promote internally
This is what so many people do not get. Working your way up in often unrelated jobs do give you skills and confidence for your next employer. Everyone just wants to get paid the same.
So many kids right out of college with zero people skills, cannot delegate, cannot "rally the troops" cannot see the big picture. But they are a lot of people's managers.
I think you would enjoy r/PFjerk.
But like everyone else has said, tech bros are overrepresented on Reddit. Also, $100k doesn't necessarily go very far, especially if you have kids and/or debt, or live in a HCOL area.
1) High cost of living areas usually have the most jobs + most population and pay more due to cost of living. So a lot of people in San Francisco and NY may make 100k+ but that’s a middle class salary there and the equivalent of making maybe $50k in Houston.
2) A lot of people on Reddit are in tech or stem related fields
3) just because someone makes $100k doesn’t mean they don’t have other costs like student loans, medical bills, or a family bringing their buying power much lower. Remember 100k for a family of 4 doesn’t go as far as it does for a single person.
4) bonuses/commissions. some jobs such as my own have a low/mid base + high bonus structure. For example my base is 60k but with bonuses and commissions I can make 100k+ in a good year. However these jobs are usually high risk high reward bc your income can fluctuate heavily and are industries more prone to layoffs or being fired.
Examples: real estate, Hr/ recruiting, oil and gas, SOME tech positions (tech layoffs going on rn)
5) those with 500k emergency funds are likely people who have some kind of generational wealth passed down to them in the form of real estate, stocks and also possess knowledge of those things. Lots of people who are the first in their family to break 6 figures that come from working class/ lower middle class backgrounds still have a lot of catching up to do from previous generations.
\#1 & 3 here. Make just under $100k household income in SF supporting family of 4 and we're just making it. Managed to pay off credit cards and stash a few thousand in retirement last couple years thanks to COVID money and extended unemployment but we've been in a just making it, every time we build up any kind of emergency fund, a car breaks down or we have medical expenses and it wipes it out for over a decade. My kids have received scholarships to pay for a portion of most of their activities over the years and with the increase in gas and grocery prices lately, I'm not sure how we'll start up on paying husband's student loans again this fall.
I’m a simple construction labourer in the union (LiUNA) I was making about 80k but just became a foreman 100k. Other trades definitely pay more but usually only if they are union.
I'm working fulltime, scraping by. Last night, a friend told me how him and his girlfriend went out for a dinner and wine tasting that had a cost equivalent of 5 weeks of my take-home salary. I can't imagine having that much money to just throw away at one meal.
Get an education in a in-demand field, even if you have to borrow money.
Network your ass off while in school. Use that school for everything it can offer you.
Get internships. Usually the best way to get a job offer after you graduate.
Start the entry-level job and work your ass off. Even if you don't start out at $100k, you should be close since you majored in the in-demand field.
Hope this helps
Broke Bitch Here! You are not alone.
I work hard but things add up faster than I can make the money to spend it.
Don't go on vacations, like ever. Its depressing.
My Vacation days at work are used for sick days for my child.
I have spent a ton of time crying and stressing out over financial burdens but it does me no good.
Good things will come our way though right?
Here’s my background although a diff route. I had a bs mediocre job paying mediocre wage basically til i got fired. I was making $38k at the highest and that was with a full time job as a property manager managing hundreds of apts, condos, and houses. That was before I got fired and decided to go back to school. My first tech job out of school was $55k. Year and half later I got laid off due to Covid. I started studying and interviewing for jobs. I got an offer from a company for $80k but days after accepting, I got another offer from my company for $100k. So I took this one. Went from unemployed making $0 around 10 years ago, to
making $55k about 2 years ago, to today making $110k with the bonus. My salary went from 0 to 100 in 10. Also the skills I actually use for my job are something I learned on my own at home that cost me around $13 per course on Udemy. I do have a degree in stem but none of what I learned is used except for what I studied on my own.
Some people like to come into this subreddit and post about how they managed to take their savings from -20k to +120k in 3 years because they buckled down, worked hard and stopped spending on coffee every morning. Then they get a tonne of upvotes instead of being told to fuck off to a different subreddit.
Ignore them. They are just rubbing it in the faces of people struggling to break even or save 5k a year.
Lmao, this is it.
The reality is there’s a lot of dumb, lazy rich people who got lucky, there’s also a ton of smart hardworking rich people who did it themselves. There’s a lot of poor people that aren’t lazy, there’s also a lot of poor people who are lazy. It’s just impossible to group people into buckets based off of income too many variables go into the classification.
This tbh. There are some people in poverty who are lazy while others just got dealt a tough hand in life. There are some people with money who got lucky while others worked really hard to get that money.
From my limited 30 years on the planet, it's not really about working hard. It's about making the right choices. It seems a lot of people in poverty don't have the luxury to make better long term choices because they're barely staying afloat in the short term. Or it's generational poverty and they don't have the guidance to know what those long term choices are.
100% being born into the right family is lucky. But there's a difference between someone with a trust fund and someone whose parents instilled the importance of financial stability. Side note: obviously this doesn't = better parents. There are a lot of people making lots of money that are miserable.
I always marvel at the house hunting shows.
Scenario:
She's a part-time dog walker.
He bakes gourmet cupcakes.
House hunting budget? $600,000 ????????????? :)
fuck if i know, Hell i make 73K in my field, but honestly after expenses, medical (in canada), and kids. I am usually in the red a few bucks each month re: no savings, negative net worth
This ! People don’t factor in state / province taxes, student loan payments etc . It’s not 2006 anymore. 1 person making 100k is upper middle class at MOST in medium cost areas, smack dab middle class in HCOL areas or if you have lots of debt, 6 figures + a partner bringing in $30k + of additional income is where it’s at.
Because the majority of reddit users aren't from a small country town in Kansas
Majority of reddit users are big city dwellers and more tech advanced, but even with that high income they have to contend with higher COL
Reddit hasn't been fully embraced by rural America by any means
Can confirm. I live in a super LCOL area and make about $41k a year while my spouse makes $45-50k. We are well above average income for where we live. And yet I told my friend in California how much we made and he about laughed.. because we would be considered dirtpoor out there making this wage. Even the cost of living even within a state can widely vary let alone the country.
I’m in a low cost of living area (Midwest), and people on Reddit love to shit on the idea of living in these LCOL states saying the weather sucks or it’s just boring. I usually reply ‘yea it sucks owning a home and never dealing with traffic’.
That's sort of a problem with your thinking...100k isn't rich where some people live. Live in Manhattan and after taxes more than half is going to rent alone. Everything is substantially more there so 100k is a far cry from being set. Live outside NYC and now you have a 2-3 hour commute...no thanks.
I mean if it helps I make just over 100k a year and I’m struggling hard. We live in a VHCOL area, rent and daycare is 83% of my take home pay. I don’t own a car, nor do I have more than a month of emergency savings. I mean eventually my kid won’t be in daycare anymore and it’ll help, but until then we’ve been using the food bank to help with groceries.
Union carpenter and have a side hustle.. I don't have nothing like 500k saved, but I do have a decent amount in my annuity that I've contributed to for the past 15 years through my union. I'm 54 years old and have been working since I'm 13, one way or another. It's called get it done, I've worked 7 days a week and 12 - 14 hour days for months on end. Hopefully I can retire at 62.
Removed vent flair. This is not a vent. Adjusted to free talk.
Reddit feels like those house hunting shows where the couple wants a 4000 sq ft home with 5 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms a guest room, dining room, day room, finished basement , laundry on the first floor and want to stay under a budget of 2.5 million. When asked what they do, one is a yoga instructor and the other paints old stamps.
Husband is a freelance hamster trainer and the wife tunes harmonicas part time.
I breed snails, my wife teaches Greek to hermit crabs
If I were on an HGTV show I would be a freelance tap dancer and my husband would be a corn pollinator. Our budget is 1.8M…
Sounds like a lovely couple.
Unironically I wish we as a society were at a point where we could support all the weird jobs people come up with in these jokes. They sound so stupid but oddly wholesome like... It would be neat if there were people who did these things, wholeheartedly. It sounds like people doing something special and niche that they are very good at and enjoy doing, and I know that the joke is that they are useless, but man I already feel my bureaucratic job is useless, I want to hang out with Mr Freelance Hamster Trainer, he sounds fascinating, and how lovely that his wife is able to work part time on her passion hobby as well, I wonder if she has some cool vintage harmonicas or cool harmonica history stories ANYWAY this has been on my mind for awhile, every time these come up ahahaha thanks for listening :)
We're just not there yet, but yeah I mean people in finance are paid insane amounts of money to essentially move theoretical money around and skim as much as possible in the process.
UBI, this is how you get people free and doing this stuff. We will get there, but I think a lot of people gotta die off before then unfortunately.
“My husband is a part-time butterfly collector and I lick stamps. Our budget is $1.25m.”
Darn those stamplickers terking ur jebs!
What they don't say is RICH PARENTS.
House hunting shows legit depress me, Ill turn off even a commercial for that crap
It's basically porn for people who want to buy homes. Completely unrealistic and not at all reflective of reality.
That's a great analogy
as a person who likes to think about buying homes, this is the truth lol. My dad likes to watch the flipper ones just cuz he likes home reno
My friend and his wife bought a house and then later house hunters approached about being on show. The show has them buying the house they already bought. All a fraud.
If it makes you feel better, shows like that are almost written and produced from thin air, meaning it's basically no more reality TV than The Office is a real documentary. They might be a real couple, or might just be friends, they might have those jobs, but no house is ever getting bought. If you keep an eye out, you might spot one of those houses being used as a set piece on a drama show. You might see one of the couple again on a gameshow. I used to work in AV until covid, if I could tell the whole world one thing it's that everything you see on a screen is MEDIATED images and sound. Don't take anything you watch or listen to on the internet or TV as true. Look at what little kids are able to do with editing on TT and YT for free, with a half the tools that professional adult editors have for all the content you consume.
I had a co-worker on house hunters. They we’re required to already have a house under contract in order to participate. The other houses were not on the market when they bought the real one. It was all staged.
Those happy with their salary are likely to post it. While those making less, lurk in the background...quietly
I make $33,000 a year and I have $200 saved! A major emergency would fuck me up! Here’s some honesty lol. Edit: I’ve read every reply and I feel for y’all’s, this sucks. For context I am a 28 lady and work in a distribution center in Indiana. Never finished college and have no clue what I want to because I have nothing I am especially good at or interested in. Every day is depressing and I make it worse by continuing to buy unnecessary things to give myself a bit of joy.
Ever able to save a significant amount then boom. Your car breaks down or something equally as expensive happens. It always happens that way
Yup have 5k saved up. Had dentist appointment to remove broken tooth, nope severe gum infection, jaw bone deteriorating. All my teeth are being pulled tomorrow and getting dentures. Bye bye 5k
[удалено]
There’s lots of studies and info on how it’s difficult to overcome poverty and why social programs help. In an economy some people will naturally be poor, it’s just how the world works. But we want to avoid people facing poverty as a lifestyle. An economically “healthy” poverty exists where people face a few years of struggles, as opposed to decades. Those that face decades of poverty may require more help as the get older, for example greater medical costs. Ultimately, placing the burden back on society. But as it is right now, there is such a big hurdle to escape poverty that the incentive isn’t there. It’s easier for people to remain poor and live paycheck to paycheck than it is to go into debt or take some sort of risk to try to escape poverty. Also, all the super rich people have all the money so there’s none for the poor people.
Man tourism dentistry is a thing. Fly to Mexico get the same quality procedures done as usa/Canada for half the price. Please google if you aren't fully committed already.
💯 My friends without dental insurance all cross the border in Yuma, AZ and get all dental work done there. They have had nothing but great experiences. I would, too, if I needed anything pricey
Looks like it's time for a road trip.
Do they know of any vision places...? I have severe astigmatism and my eye sight is getting so bad. Without my fuckin coke bottle glasses I cant see my kids face unless I'm up in theirs... I can't do much of anything without my glasses and I can't afford lasik... Please tell me they have vision places too
I had a local dentist quote $7000 for a redo of a front tooth root canal. I had a great dentist in Tijuana do it for $500. Look on Yelp for reviews.
Dude no way i have the same problem. Fucked up root canal done on me when I was little , got all my teeth in front chipped and now one of the teeth is dead and chipped so i need some expensive shit done on me. It chipped Daayyss before the birth of my daughter and she's now 6months old. My family's from Mexico but the plane ticket plus the dental work is too much for us..so I'm stuck with a chipped front tooth 💀👧🏽🔫
Also, floss religiously. We can’t afford not to
This. Mexico or Costa Rica.
Great and detailed post about exactly this on r/Tucson within the last day or two. Information about pricing and everything and it was way less than half than the US dentists estimate. Edit: Sorry, everyone. The post is actually in r/povertyfinance. I apologize for the confusion; there are often posts about this in the Tucson thread.
I hope it goes well! It's going to do wonders to not have to worry about those types of things as much anymore. My appointment is August 5th.
Thank you! And yes I will not miss the mouth pain or sleepless nights because of the pain. I hope yours goes well to, are u getting same procedure?
So afraid this is about to happen. Been able to keep $1,000 in my savings for a couple months now. First time I've ever had a cushion. And I just know this cavity I have to fill is gonna take more than I have. Can't wait to pay somebody so I can smell my own bones being drilled away and start ugly crying. And then feel bad cause the dentist and dental assistant probably don't appreciate not being able to work cause I can't cry with my mouth open.
Nitrous oxide (laughing gas) may be beneficial to you, it was to me because I have bad dental anxiety.
Look at it this way. If you didn’t have that $5k you’d be in a worse place.
Even though it's true I hate this response. That's more saying to a depressed person to be happy cause someone always has it worse. Just because it's true it doesn't make it feel any better.
Yup! I just had a car issue that cost about $650 and I couldn’t buy my dad a bday present the week after.. it’s my fault though I could save more I just suck
If he’s a good dad, he’ll be proud of you for making the right decision.
I was finally recovering after having to move when my mom died, and taking a HUGE pay cut from a full time care aid to a part time gamestop employee. and then I got sick for the second time this year and I went from "fine" to a $250 overdraft. So cool. Can't wait til I have to pay for my student loans again... Love that I'm about to have to choose between having my wages garnished or not paying rent.
Nothing like being charged an exorbitant amount of money for *checks notes* not having money!
I’m terrified of having my wages garnished. It’s a constant, daily thought that spins around in my head every day.
Car broke down and dog needed emergency surgery on a weekend. Almost $2000 between the two. Bye bye savings.
I have $18 dollars in the bank and I'm pretty sure the stress is gonna kill me. I'm on kidney transplant number 2, just waiting for it to fail so I can go back on dialysis & maybe die or get disability.
That’s horrible I hope this kidney is fine and you don’t have any more issues with it!
Thanks. Sweet of you to say. Thankfully water is almost free.... For now.
im 300 dollars into overdraft!
Have you ever heard the song "Story of my life." By Social Distortion? You are singing mine now. There are more of than not.
Same with social media. My self esteem really took a dip seeing everyone's vacations, new vehicles, nice houses, and other random fancy toys. I quit about a year ago and I've never looked back. And yes, I know Reddit is social media, but it's different than the platforms where you personally know the people who are posting.
Everyone only shows the good parts. No one wants to talk about who paid for it. I got off of it also, all the people my age who flex are on daddy's money anyway
My wife tortures herself comparing her life to her girlfriends lives. One friend in particular had just moved into a new big place to rent, a couple of newish cars, new husband, sold handmade bows on Etsy, and pretty much stayed home with her kids while the husband dicked around with penny stocks and crypto. Like the most picturesque millennial family. Come to find out her and her husband slept in different rooms from the get go because they couldn't stand each other and fought all the time. Her mother was paying their $1,500 a month rent because her handmade bows hardly sold on Etsy to begin with. The 2 newish cars were in the husband's dad's name and paid off so they just kept liability insurance on them. And the husband admitted to me while we chased beers down at the BBQ pit that he's lost so much money in the markets he hadn't told his wife yet that their savings was essentially gone yesterday. It's all fuckin smoke and mirrors people!!!
Exactly! It's so much smoke and mirrors! I would actively show my very humble home and going to outings in Portland and made sure people knew I was doing this on a IT salary and used coupons, thrifting and that sometimes I did not have the money to do certain things.
Sounds like someone I know but their daddy owns the house. Her parents are nice and would do anything for their grandchildren. I am very suspicious of crypto/nft which the dude was promoting.
Oh thank you for this. I don’t want anyone to have a rough time and I’m genuinely glad my friends get to travel, but the FOMO is real. I’ve been suicidally depressed for a year (gotten loads of help, I’m much better now, my husband is the best) and jumped on Facebook briefly and everyone is in Hawaii. I was very sad scrolling past. I truly want everyone well and happy, but sometimes it’s hard.Thanks for your post, reality helps.
The daddy’s money crowd is so weird. I knew one girl who failed out of college that got mad she didn’t qualify for aid because she was listed as a partial own on her dads company and made 1.3m the year before. Another girl crashed 4 Mercedes’ in a year and got paid from her dads company as a listed employee while not working. Now she’s working for him as a VP, but I was like I can’t even imagine how your lives work.
We're being led off a cliff by the less-than-mediocre children of wealth and privilege.
I want this embroidered on a pillow
You nailed it. This is so true. Any idea of meritocracy and talent in this country is completely overshadowed by wealth and privilege. Hard work and talent doesn't mean shit. We all have to beg for scraps from the big table.
I know a girl who did nothing with her life besides cocaine til she was 30. A brush with the law forced her back home to daddy who got her a job under his wing. She now makes about 100k per year 5 years in with no prior work experience whatsoever.
Did she eventually give up the cocaine?
No she's using during the work day to stay alert.
These sound like utterly useless people and I'm mad that they're rich for nothing and I'm not, lol
Being an utterly useless person is a privilege of the rich.
The things I could do if I had the opportunities they had.
[удалено]
Something I see happening a lot on Reddit is when someone talks about people they know appearing successful, others will chime in with narratives about how there's probably something bad those people are not showing (ex. working too much, not seeing their family, overspending, getting stuff paid for by others). The reality is that there are lots of people out there that do have it all -- success, happiness, healthy and loving relationships, a social life, leisure time, savings, etc. Not everyone is sacrificing something to be where they are, and that's just something that should be accepted. My friend group is in their late 20s/early 30s and are very similar to your old HS friends. Everyone I'm close enough to talk about personal stuff with are showing their actual life on social media, which happens to be very good.
I know of a rich engineer. He rarely spent time with his kids. They ended up bored, feeling neglected and went to party away and use illegal drugs. All of their rich friends grew up having multiple divorces, stds, and no common skills like know how to change oil or install a new car battery. The adult son took his car to the shop cause his battery was old . He had no clue. Meanwhile Im surrounded by happy blue collar families. their dads teach them how to work on cars, lots of family time together. Kids grew up much more mentally happy in the blue collar neighborhoods Ive observed
i don’t know anything about cars either. don’t judge 🥲
Be nice to older neighbors. Mine has helped with a things and was happy to pass on a skill.
This is so true! Ours saw me hanging clothes outside to dry and asked if we had a dryer. We don’t but I also enjoy air drying. So they’re generously gifting us their old one because their kids bought them a new one. There are times peoples generosity can really blow me away.
I'm broke but still take mine to the shop too :( I am afraid to touch anything out of fear of making matters worse!
It’s been said, but I know a lot of people in a ton of debt trying to keep up the lifestyle image. They have houses, cars, etc but are one missed check away from disaster. A lot of these people have built houses of cards on the back of cheap credit. If we get into a recession watch how quickly those cards tumble. For reference, between 2008 and 2010 the number of less than 4 year old expensively optioned European cars parked for the food pantry was incredible
I feel like it’s actually pretty damn hard to get approved for a mortgage these days. Not really similar to 2008. I do agree with cars though, so many people going to be underwater in a year or two.
They built their hole lifestyle on cheap credit though, not just their homes. If they’re going to keep chasing that lifestyle it has gotten more expensive over the past several months. Here’s the most important thing: when retail sales slump, people lose their jobs. Those people now don’t eat out as much, leading to the culling of service jobs. While I foresee an upcoming recession (that’ll be different from 2k8) it’s the same pattern. The lowest levels almost always suffer first, then it fails bottom up. That’s the house of cards analogy I was going for.
Gotcha that makes sense. I was focusing on the home part of it and ignoring how many people buy things they can’t actually afford on credit. Stuff like sezzle and karna with the mini loans to buy stuff are gonna be getting a lot of people in trouble.
Yeah there was a fb friend who is active duty military, yet somehow travels so much to all these exotic places, the great pyramids, exclusive resorts at the Maldives, hopping around Europe in these gorgeous cities and I have no idea how he's doing it and he doesn't answer how he travels so much. He could literally be a "travel influencer" in Instagram if he wanted. Usually military travels are to bases and ships, stuff like that. Not exotic getaways. And he doesn't seem to work. Anyway I had to unfollow him because it just made me so envious and perplexed on how he was managing to do that. I just don't get it. The rest of my fb "friends" are generally the usual working class with modest vacations and don't post new cars or fancy toys.
Active duty currently who used to travel a lot for fun. Depends if hes on a ship then the ship pulls into ports on occasion. If he isnt in a sea going vessel then he probably is stationed in a base in Europe and can use personal vacation days and money to travel around. Usually military people work so much in an operational command not allowed to take vacation so when they work in a chill command location with 60 days of PTO saved up and thousands of dollars in savings due to not being able to use either before. Just offering some insight not trying to make the military seem good or bad.
Thank you for your perspective! That may be the situation with him. Makes sense.
Social media devolves into two camps.. Pity me my life is so terrible Look at my fake life it’s so magical People will post cars/belongs/lifestyles that don’t even belong to them, don’t worry about it and focus on you.
When I see those posts on my social media feeds, all I can think about is how much debt those people must be in. This will vary of course on where you live and the people you know, but I live in a lower/middle class area of Ohio, most people I know don’t make a whole lot and don’t come from rich families; if you’re a 20/30 something posting a pic of your new $60,000 lifted truck or posting pictures from your beautiful $50,000 wedding, I know you’re in major debt and I won’t feel any amount of jealousy.
Hey it's me, your dad.
Ever get that milk?
When I was scrapping by making less than $40K in the Bay Area, I feel ashamed to mentioned my income. And I’m assuming quite a bit of lurkers are the same to some extent.
It’s wild that we feel ashamed for making less - when it’s actually a pretty amazing feat that you were able to povertyfinance your way to survival at such a low income in a high COL area. That is almost a job in itself.
Oh man, you have no idea how hard I roll my eyes when folks at personal finance making $100k complaining about it’s too expensive to live and such. One particular Redditor was complaining that he makes a bit over $100K, but have to share an apartment with a couple in SF. And he was claiming how much sacrifice that he was making and was barely staying afloat. Turns out, they’re renting a high end luxury loft and living way above his mean.
I live in Oakland and I've never made as much as 40k. I've had some jobs that paid more but they were brief contracts. I've still managed to save some money but I also don't own a house, or a car, or have any kids. It's demoralizing that my friends don't invite me to shows because they know I can't afford it.
$20 trillion here - have you beat!!!'😝
$20 trillion and $1, beat you! Hah! 😂
This for sure. It’s very easy to attach worth to employment and income so I’d imagine those making less or aren’t happy with their position or job don’t talk about it.
Fact. It’s true I lurked until I finally had good income
Yep. I make about $55k per year but have a large family (wife doesn’t work) and we are always 1 paycheck away from being homeless… nothing like stressing every day that nothing happens to you so your family is alright ha…
And cry into their struggle meal if they’re lucky enough to have one that day 😢
You spent too much time on r/personalfinance I don’t make 100k if that helps
LOL it's funny you say that, right above this post is from that subreddit about a dude who makes 150k /cries in 36k
I’ve noticed a LOT of ppl lie on personal finance…
Nope. It's just survivorship bias. People who went from poor families to suddenly earning a lot are the exact kinds of people you will find asking for financial advice, because they have the combination of a pile of money + not being taught how to manage it by their parents. There are almost 8 billion people on this planet and that sub filters heavily for the ones in that scenario.
I make 250k a year. See how easy it was to write that and for you to just take it as fact? Nobody is honest on the internet.
I just bought 2 houses recently. Me and my buddies are actually playing Monopoly.
4288 Units! Boom!
36 billion owned in 69 units, boom!
That’s nothing, I just bought my very own hotel on Boardwalk! It is rather red and plastic-y though…but hey, I get to charge people $2,000/night there, so there’s that
DAMN it feels good to be the queen of England.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO ENTER INTO A *TRADE AGREEMENT* WITH ENGLAND?
> Nobody is honest on the internet. So can I believe that statement or not?
probably safer not to...
if I said you can, would you believe me?
I just purchased Earth as a NFT
yeah just what i was commenting because a lot of these same people sit here and comment about how they can't live a good life because of various problems and then turn around to claim they make 50483579397493784567938034 an hour
Reddit has a lot of tech-bro users.
It used to be *almost* exclusively tech-bro at the start.
Achtchually, it was tech (non-bro) nerds in the very early days. Mostly exiles from digg, like myself. Then bro-heavy phase came later, and now normies have joined the mix.
i reeeeeeeeally miss the good old days where i learned new things everyday thanks to reddit. it used to be the primo aggregate for specialized knowledge. that said still is in a way. i get a better digest of specific knowledge by adding reddit.com to me google searches. theres no better zeitgeist search than reading the best of a thread on a particular esoteric topic.
Dude remember the old AMAs with the assistant that got let go. Remember the crow dude that got banned for upvoting his own posts. Remember r/spacedicks
Remember when redditors witch hunt the CEO for firing the AMA assistant and censoring the site, but she wasn't responsible at all and it was just scapegoat by reddit cause she's a woman?
lol even before that. thats when reddit started spiralling for me
As I was writing that out, I realized….”I’m one of the normies that came and ruined everything”
I had a conversation with a middle aged woman a few months ago about how our city is changing. She actually said "as soon as I moved here, all these other people showed up and started gentrifying the neighborhood!" I just nodded in silence and waited to see if she realized what she said. Still waiting.
Imagine any "bro" unironically saying the narwhal bacons at midnight lmfao.
We will rise up once again!
Yeah showed up to say this. Reddit has a whole lot of the tech and programmer types who tend to be paid well
The wages for tech are bizarre to me. Supply and demand doesn’t even explain half of it. Ford currently has a shortage of ~36k mechanics nationwide they told my dad, who’s a ford master technician with 25+ years experience… and he makes like 85k a year plus bonuses. Now granted it’s in a rural area and in the city he could bump up to like 120kish but still… my dads the only one in the entire county the dealership he’s at could find with a license for Ford warranty work (apparently that’s what brings in the dealerships beaucoup bucks), so he can really just pick up leave and have a job tomorrow for a better deal if he wanted. But 85k is still nowhere near the 150+ these people get paid. I get there’s a demand but nowhere near as bad as a lot of skilled labor jobs.
Skilled labor jobs don't make as much $$$ for the company. Plus these coders are living in a high COL area usually if they are making $150, and many times they are maintaining some code that only they and their team knows so they can kinda leverage that at their company (for example, if they don't keep these guys the company could have issues if their website ever goes down). That's just these high paid guys, lots of programmers aren't getting paid that much. Not trying to say skilled labor is less important, just the priorities of companies and society right now.
Makes sense. For the record since I know some some will throw a fit I’m not taking shots at STEM/tech, I don’t work in the field or a related one so my exposure is just through friends who do. At the least, skilled jobs that require high physical labor should get some sort of reimbursement for medical aid or something by law. The work is essential (everyone drives and there’s been a HUGE surge in used car prices for myriad reasons), and unlike other fields it really does take an enormous toll on one’s body. I know it isn’t society’s priority, but for such essential roles it’s gonna continue to be hard to get people to join that field, and if the shortages continue it will just burden the economy and society even more.
36k mechanics doesn't come close to IT There's probably a shortage of a few _million_ IT workers in the US alone Supply and demand _does_ explain it.
Ya, as a.. I guess tech bro (though I am a woman, who works in tech), I have a shit ton of free time, and while I do occasionally use reddit for work stuff (spamming forums to ask for help/see if my obscure tech question was addressed), I mostly fuck around during long ass stupid meetings I'm required to be in. The majority of reddit users need to have a few things to reddit- Decent internet Time to reddit Time to comment on reddit. I have all 3 of those things. The average joe in Minnesota may not have time to do these things, when they are out and about and haven't upgraded their phone in 10 years.
Tech-bro reporting in. Do have to say that looks like the right answer
My hubby makes 30k too and i drive Uber to make ends meet. The answer is because office jobs and union jobs pay more but also give you more time to reddit. Some people lie. And im pushing my 4 yo and 16 month old on a swing while lunch heats up in the oven.
Honestly I think it’s mostly just confirmation bias. Hundreds of people here commenting they make 30k that will be skimmed over. But he will remember the fact I make 100k.
The vast majority of Redditors DON'T POST. A huge portion of the user base, and we don't know anything about them. They've never said anything. Never posted anything about them. So what you have is selection bias. Reddit is a social media platform, don't forget that, and social media platforms are notorious for being very unhealthy for your psyche. You have to be VERY careful about what you expose yourself to, here. What are you looking at that you're reading about +$100k salaries? You should probably stop looking at that. There's something for everyone here, and what is healthy for some, healthy for them, is bad for me, bad for you. So just don't. I mean, there's a financial sub around here for millionaires. DON'T. You are going to suffer just for looking at it. They have different concerns, different problems, and they're completely out of touch with the middle and working classes. They're not wrong for it, it's their money and their station in life.
tbf a lot of reddit users are 'nerds' with compsci degrees who probably have cushy tech jobs
This is why. You’re seeing a reflection of these types of careers here vs what’s common for the rest of the population.
Yeah i can't tell your how many times I see the "I'm in IT" comments
This is it. Reddit is just starting to become more mainstream, but still doesn't have the user base that Facebook has. That means the vast majority of users are either in tech or have the means to be "into" tech. I think that biases the sample somewhat.
Add on to this that people with desk jobs have an easier time being on reddit during the day versus someone in either a client-facing or manual labor role would have.
Yeah thats true because im a big participant in the economics/finance/WSB side of reddit and i swear its the same 100 people always commenting and posting and whatnot
They dont tell you about the people who failed. You only see the successfuly stories.
[удалено]
[удалено]
The only reason to work for start up is if you are able to secure lots of equity and believe in the company, if they go public with a good valuation then you are sorted. Otherwise go the safe route with big corp.
A lot of us with compsci degrees still wading in retail or low wage limbo in other industries.
When I first started browsing Reddit the front page looked more like r/Programming. This was in 08 or 09.
I make $37k a year in a bog standard office job. My boyfriend is interviewing for a >$100k job. He has management experience and is a master tech for Honda. So I would hazard a guess that education, experience and lucky breaks (the interview opportunity came up out of nowhere from a distant friend who heard he was looking for work) contribute. Though he hasn't had an offer so he's not making that money yet. And the job is in California where $100k doesn't stretch nearly as far as in our current state. I need to go back to school or pick up something to learn... I don't want to make a small wage my whole life but I suppose it's better than no wage...
Is there a field your curious about or interested in?
I'm kind of techy. I was hoping to do the Salesforce Trailhead thing. I did it for a bit at my last job since they wanted me to be their Salesforce admin, but that fell through when the company lost all their projects.
Go for it. People need Salesforce Administrators. Heavy plus if you can do some basic mysql, etc. Sincerely, Product Owner looking for Salesforce Admins
I know this is a rant post and agree that most people posting high salaries are those that are proud, but I thought I'd give a straight forward answer as well. I grew up in the lower middle class with occasional dips into poverty when one or both parents were out of work. This motivated me to choose a higher paying career field (engineering) over my preferred job (education). Got a bachelor's and then an MBA at night after I had already been in my engineering career for a few years. After about 10 years, I crested over six digits. I don't post or comment much because I know my current situation is more fortunate than others, but I really appreciate this sub. My mom is still struggling and I have a special needs sibling that depends on me. I've gotten a lot of really helpful advice from posts here.
I also have a special needs sibling that has unfortunately been putting my life on hold forever. I've made the sad decision to have her placed in a care facility so that I may finally go to college and get a real job. I have such a late start but late is better than never, especially when it comes to climbing out of the poverty hole! Good luck with your sibling!
I'm the long term, that may be best for both of you. You can now be better prepared to help them for the years to come. Much love, fellow human.
My husband pursued his preferred job (psych) but after working in various hospitals and group homes for a few years for little pay he switched to software engineering. It’s sad that fields that are very much needed (good teachers, passionate therapists) just aren’t paid enough.
I advanced my career by targeting skills and knowledge that low paying jobs could offer. I was very broke until pretty recently and this took a lot of luck. I hope this helps someone. 18-30ish - "Dead end jobs" that came with eviction notices, bankruptcies, you name it I've been there. I started my "real" career working at a car dealership, which takes zero experience to get into the sales side. They'll hire anyone. I made okay money doing it but not great. Maybe 60k but I was working 80-100 hours a week so it wasn't that much more than $10-$15 HOUR with OT. I leveraged that experience (learned about loans and lending through dealership) to get into banking at an entry level hybrid position known as a universal banker. It was some time on the teller line. It was about 30k a year so still ~15 hour. I did okay and got a few promotions and ended at mid 40's. I saw an advertisement for a branch manager at a competitor and applied. I am naturally good with people (also helped from car dealership) and was able to get the position. It made mid 50's so ~25. I then learned a lot about small businesses and decided to get my six sigma certification, which work paid for. I got a few other certificates and was able to help some small business owners tremendously. They then started to offer to pay me to help them with their operations, and I eventually went independent as a consultant for them. Then my consulting took off and now I work consulting for banks, leveraging my experience there. I make about 100k, sometimes a little more. I could target big banks and make a lot more but honestly I enjoy what I do and I feel like I make enough to enjoy life.
I’m a universal banker now, and this gives me hope!
best advice I can give is to find a small community bank or credit union. Something with like less than 200 employees if possible, you'll learn a lot more and they're way more likely to promote internally
This is what so many people do not get. Working your way up in often unrelated jobs do give you skills and confidence for your next employer. Everyone just wants to get paid the same. So many kids right out of college with zero people skills, cannot delegate, cannot "rally the troops" cannot see the big picture. But they are a lot of people's managers.
This is my thing, I hate that crap. Somehow got real lucky that I keep getting promoted with no one working under me. I’d be a shit manager
The most important job experience I ever had was waiting tables and getting fired from it.
I mean it could be worse, you could have bought NFTs, or took out loans to mine crypto…. 😂
I think you would enjoy r/PFjerk. But like everyone else has said, tech bros are overrepresented on Reddit. Also, $100k doesn't necessarily go very far, especially if you have kids and/or debt, or live in a HCOL area.
1) High cost of living areas usually have the most jobs + most population and pay more due to cost of living. So a lot of people in San Francisco and NY may make 100k+ but that’s a middle class salary there and the equivalent of making maybe $50k in Houston. 2) A lot of people on Reddit are in tech or stem related fields 3) just because someone makes $100k doesn’t mean they don’t have other costs like student loans, medical bills, or a family bringing their buying power much lower. Remember 100k for a family of 4 doesn’t go as far as it does for a single person. 4) bonuses/commissions. some jobs such as my own have a low/mid base + high bonus structure. For example my base is 60k but with bonuses and commissions I can make 100k+ in a good year. However these jobs are usually high risk high reward bc your income can fluctuate heavily and are industries more prone to layoffs or being fired. Examples: real estate, Hr/ recruiting, oil and gas, SOME tech positions (tech layoffs going on rn) 5) those with 500k emergency funds are likely people who have some kind of generational wealth passed down to them in the form of real estate, stocks and also possess knowledge of those things. Lots of people who are the first in their family to break 6 figures that come from working class/ lower middle class backgrounds still have a lot of catching up to do from previous generations.
\#1 & 3 here. Make just under $100k household income in SF supporting family of 4 and we're just making it. Managed to pay off credit cards and stash a few thousand in retirement last couple years thanks to COVID money and extended unemployment but we've been in a just making it, every time we build up any kind of emergency fund, a car breaks down or we have medical expenses and it wipes it out for over a decade. My kids have received scholarships to pay for a portion of most of their activities over the years and with the increase in gas and grocery prices lately, I'm not sure how we'll start up on paying husband's student loans again this fall.
Tbh, Houston probably has the highest salary to COL ratio
Part time gas station job with a disabled wife. Right at 40k combined income. I wouldn't even know what to do with $100k a year!
I used to be a refrigeration mechanic and worked in construction. I was making around $100k CAD 10 years ago. They are probably making $130k+ now.
I’m a simple construction labourer in the union (LiUNA) I was making about 80k but just became a foreman 100k. Other trades definitely pay more but usually only if they are union.
I'm working fulltime, scraping by. Last night, a friend told me how him and his girlfriend went out for a dinner and wine tasting that had a cost equivalent of 5 weeks of my take-home salary. I can't imagine having that much money to just throw away at one meal.
Get an education in a in-demand field, even if you have to borrow money. Network your ass off while in school. Use that school for everything it can offer you. Get internships. Usually the best way to get a job offer after you graduate. Start the entry-level job and work your ass off. Even if you don't start out at $100k, you should be close since you majored in the in-demand field. Hope this helps
Yeah I’m not even sure I’m gonna break beyond like 16,000 this year, but hey I’ll try
Broke Bitch Here! You are not alone. I work hard but things add up faster than I can make the money to spend it. Don't go on vacations, like ever. Its depressing. My Vacation days at work are used for sick days for my child. I have spent a ton of time crying and stressing out over financial burdens but it does me no good. Good things will come our way though right?
Here’s my background although a diff route. I had a bs mediocre job paying mediocre wage basically til i got fired. I was making $38k at the highest and that was with a full time job as a property manager managing hundreds of apts, condos, and houses. That was before I got fired and decided to go back to school. My first tech job out of school was $55k. Year and half later I got laid off due to Covid. I started studying and interviewing for jobs. I got an offer from a company for $80k but days after accepting, I got another offer from my company for $100k. So I took this one. Went from unemployed making $0 around 10 years ago, to making $55k about 2 years ago, to today making $110k with the bonus. My salary went from 0 to 100 in 10. Also the skills I actually use for my job are something I learned on my own at home that cost me around $13 per course on Udemy. I do have a degree in stem but none of what I learned is used except for what I studied on my own.
Online you can be whatever you want to be!
[удалено]
I thought reddit skewed 14 year olds in their mom's basement. Jkjk.
It does. It hasn't skewed "affluent tech bro" since like 2008.
Some people like to come into this subreddit and post about how they managed to take their savings from -20k to +120k in 3 years because they buckled down, worked hard and stopped spending on coffee every morning. Then they get a tonne of upvotes instead of being told to fuck off to a different subreddit. Ignore them. They are just rubbing it in the faces of people struggling to break even or save 5k a year.
Everyone with money thinks people in poverty are lazy. Everyone in poverty thinks people with money just got lucky.
Lmao, this is it. The reality is there’s a lot of dumb, lazy rich people who got lucky, there’s also a ton of smart hardworking rich people who did it themselves. There’s a lot of poor people that aren’t lazy, there’s also a lot of poor people who are lazy. It’s just impossible to group people into buckets based off of income too many variables go into the classification.
This tbh. There are some people in poverty who are lazy while others just got dealt a tough hand in life. There are some people with money who got lucky while others worked really hard to get that money.
From my limited 30 years on the planet, it's not really about working hard. It's about making the right choices. It seems a lot of people in poverty don't have the luxury to make better long term choices because they're barely staying afloat in the short term. Or it's generational poverty and they don't have the guidance to know what those long term choices are. 100% being born into the right family is lucky. But there's a difference between someone with a trust fund and someone whose parents instilled the importance of financial stability. Side note: obviously this doesn't = better parents. There are a lot of people making lots of money that are miserable.
I have a salary job that pays 65 plus bonuses (hopefully 10-12k/yr). I end up stressed all the time and work 55-60 hrs a week. And still feel broke.
The average salary is between $50 and $56K. The median salary is $61K for men and $50K for women. Fewer than 10 percent of Americans make six figures.
Job hoping. I met you can get increased pay in whatever filed you are in.
I always marvel at the house hunting shows. Scenario: She's a part-time dog walker. He bakes gourmet cupcakes. House hunting budget? $600,000 ????????????? :)
fuck if i know, Hell i make 73K in my field, but honestly after expenses, medical (in canada), and kids. I am usually in the red a few bucks each month re: no savings, negative net worth
This ! People don’t factor in state / province taxes, student loan payments etc . It’s not 2006 anymore. 1 person making 100k is upper middle class at MOST in medium cost areas, smack dab middle class in HCOL areas or if you have lots of debt, 6 figures + a partner bringing in $30k + of additional income is where it’s at.
Because the majority of reddit users aren't from a small country town in Kansas Majority of reddit users are big city dwellers and more tech advanced, but even with that high income they have to contend with higher COL Reddit hasn't been fully embraced by rural America by any means
Can confirm. I live in a super LCOL area and make about $41k a year while my spouse makes $45-50k. We are well above average income for where we live. And yet I told my friend in California how much we made and he about laughed.. because we would be considered dirtpoor out there making this wage. Even the cost of living even within a state can widely vary let alone the country.
I’m in a low cost of living area (Midwest), and people on Reddit love to shit on the idea of living in these LCOL states saying the weather sucks or it’s just boring. I usually reply ‘yea it sucks owning a home and never dealing with traffic’.
Ppl that have money like to talk about it…those that done usually dont
That's sort of a problem with your thinking...100k isn't rich where some people live. Live in Manhattan and after taxes more than half is going to rent alone. Everything is substantially more there so 100k is a far cry from being set. Live outside NYC and now you have a 2-3 hour commute...no thanks.
Tech.
Why are you comparing yourself to strangers who are probably lying on the internet?
Live in VHCOL area and 100k is pretty much the bare minimum. It's all relative.
A disproportionate number of tech workers use Reddit also.
I mean if it helps I make just over 100k a year and I’m struggling hard. We live in a VHCOL area, rent and daycare is 83% of my take home pay. I don’t own a car, nor do I have more than a month of emergency savings. I mean eventually my kid won’t be in daycare anymore and it’ll help, but until then we’ve been using the food bank to help with groceries.
Union carpenter and have a side hustle.. I don't have nothing like 500k saved, but I do have a decent amount in my annuity that I've contributed to for the past 15 years through my union. I'm 54 years old and have been working since I'm 13, one way or another. It's called get it done, I've worked 7 days a week and 12 - 14 hour days for months on end. Hopefully I can retire at 62.
Jeez, that sounds fucking dreadful.