Share Pics of People Hauling or Towing Something Wrong

[garry1p]

Being broke is temporary, being poor is a way of life.

 

[California]

I've read something like 40% of Americans would find a thousand dollar unexpected expense devastating.

I keep seeing statistics like that but I'm not convinced. How do you even measure that? Just ask people? The results would probably be really dependent on how you ask the question.

I read that somewhere. Just now I went looking for it, to respond to you. I searched Google for "40 percent of Americans would be devastated by an unexpected expense"

This is Google's AI's first reply, it emphasizes $400 not $1,000. I think it supports my point. (And it then listed several websites for more details):

"The claim that 40% of Americans would be devastated by an unexpected expense is supported by data, notably a 2018 Federal Reserve survey stating 40% would have trouble paying a $400 emergency. More recent studies show similar or even higher figures, with a 2022 Fed survey indicating 37% couldn't cover a $400 expense, and a 2024 Empower survey reporting the same number."


Here's something I ran across this evening, with related numbers.


Getting back on topic - what percentage of the urban 4 door Mommy mall-runner pickups are owned clear? Seems to me the payments on those would be devastating if someone were unexpectedly downsized. I've always paid cash for cars, I don't understand taking on debt like that.

 

[steve tym]

Boy, it seems that this group has a different mindset than most people.
Maybe the people on this forum stay silent if that $400 is really devistating to them.
70% of lottery winner declare bankrupcy.
I can't think of any of my family or employees that I think would have trouble covering a $400 or even a $1,000 unexpected expense. Not so much my wifes side.

 

[masscity]

I've met many people that didn't have $400 for an emergency.

The top 50% of the country owns 95% of the wealth and the bottom 50% own the other 5%.

 

[EscapedSuburbia]

No doubt there are things to spend money on today that didn't exist when I was buying my first home. Restaurant food delivery in particular strikes me as an incredible waste of money. But in 1970 it took about 4 years of annual income to buy a house and now it takes 7 years of income. Home ownership is out of reach for a lot of young people today.

As far as the hoarding picture that started this thread drift, I suspect it's just as often due to mental illness as it is homelessness.

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

My wedding cost about $85. My wife is a foreigner, and she comes from a country that has a passport which is about as respected as toilet paper. Coronavirus was in full swing, and bringing her here or marrying her abroad was not possible. We got married on Zoom!

No cake, no gown, no bridesmaids, no "destination," no band, no catering. It was great.

I met her in Egypt to get engaged, and I gave her a very nice ring. After the wedding, we honeymooned in Turkey. Our travel choices were limited. Anyway, I thought it was a lot better to spend money on the ring and two wonderful trips than to throw it away on a bunch of annoying bridesmaids and drunken guests.

Here's a tip for men: the idea of giving a woman an engagement ring and a wedding ring is basically a modern plot to make money for jewelers. Historically, there was only one ring, and it was only for the woman. It's better to give a woman one dynamite ring than two compromise rings.

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

I've met many people that didn't have $400 for an emergency.

The top 50% of the country owns 95% of the wealth and the bottom 50% own the other 5%.

The most wealthy people take all the financial and personal risk. The rest just show up to collect paychecks. Then when the companies that employ them fail, they go work somewhere else. Anyone who wants to join the top rank just has to become an entrepreneur. Most of us don't have the guts. What would Elon Musk be worth if he had taken an engineering job at Texas Instruments or Apple?

 

[WinterDeere]

Re burial: In our family we get cremated. And, I make simple dovetailed oak boxes to hold the ashes, and a few life tokens. My dads contains his wings and a couple of medals, and his engineers seal. Mom’s has her birthstone ring with stones for us kids and the grandkids.

Plan to make them for all of my siblings, and their kids for this year’s Christmas gifts. Plan to use a dovetail jig, instead of hand cutting like I did for my folks. Dad would have known the difference, but not cared. Not sure the siblings will know the difference.

That's really cool, I like the idea. But I'm wondering how you're going to present this potentially-morbid gift to your young neices and nephews. Truly one of those cases where, "it's all in the presentation"?

Being broke is temporary, being poor is a way of life.

True. A poor man wins the lottery, and it's all gone in a few short years. A rich man loses his fortune on a bad investment or disaster, and he will usually make it back.

I read that somewhere. Just now I went looking for it, to respond to you. I searched Google for "40 percent of Americans would be devastated by an unexpected expense"

I've heard so many similar statistics, that I have to assume the sentiment is true, no matter how we debate the exact percentages and dollars. A huge fraction of our population fails to save in any way that cushions them from a single mishap. Didn't we just see evidence of that during COVID, when people were suddenly unable to pay a few months' rent due to temporary work furlough, etc.?

The most wealthy people take all the financial and personal risk. The rest just show up to collect paychecks. Then when the companies that employ them fail, they go work somewhere else. Anyone who wants to join the top rank just has to become an entrepreneur. Most of us don't have the guts. What would Elon Musk be worth if he had taken an engineering job at Texas Instruments or Apple?

Amen. Elon would be successful under any circumstances, he can't help himself. And take his fortunate away today, and he'll make it back again.

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

True. A poor man wins the lottery, and it's all gone in a few short years. A rich man loses his fortune on a bad investment or disaster, and he will usually make it back.

...

Amen. Elon would be successful under any circumstances, he can't help himself. And take his fortunate away today, and he'll make it back again.

I lived in Miami most of my life, and that means I knew a lot of Cubans. The people Castro threw out were the successful people. The people who came later were people from the lower classes who generally came here for mercenary, not moral, reasons. They just wanted jobs.

The ones who were rich in Cuba had their money and property stolen by Castro before they arrived here, so they showed up with nothing. Twenty years later, we started seeing them with lucrative businesses, and they ended up running banks and raising doctors, lawyers, and investors.

The losers who backed Castro stayed in Cuba and stayed poor, and they will always be poor.

You can't steal your way to wealth.

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

This may be of interest.

My dad's will dictated that his body be cremated. I was his only heir because my sister is a sociopath. I bought a $49 box from Amazon, paid $1,000 for cremation, put the box in the car, drove it to Kentucky, and had a very inexpensive burial.

I didn't need a permit. I didn't need to tell either state. No paperwork.

My mother predeceased him by many years. He got her a $7,000 coffin, and she had to have new clothes for burial. We had to go through the expense and red tape of moving a body from Florida to Kentucky. It was ridiculous.

When I die, they can shove me in a refrigerator box and spend the savings on something useful. I am not a body.