Why Americans can't keep money in their pockets — even when they get a raise ( www.cnbc.com )

Vorticity , 5 months ago

What this talks about is part of the problem. It is very easy for to treat yourself a little every time you get a raise and for that to become the new normal. I certainly did that when going from school to my first job and as my salary rose in that position. I had to really sit down and put together a budget before I could start saving.

Bigger parts of the problem are salaries not keeping pace with inflation and insane housing costs.

Yet another cause is lack of financial literacy. We aren’t taught how to budget and save. Some may be taught by their parents but many don’t get that. Schools certainly won’t teach financial literacy. That would hurt consumer spending and that wouldn’t be good for short term corporate profits and continued economic growth so it won’t be in our curriculums.

PP_BOY_ , 5 months ago

The American education system is entirely hijacked by corporate interests. See the Food Pyramid lie for a good example. There’s no incentive for the corporations who fund public schools to teach financial literacy when frivolous spending and paid-with-credit are so much more profitable.

jjjalljs , 5 months ago

Yet another cause is lack of financial literacy. We aren’t taught how to budget and save. Some may be taught by their parents but many don’t get that. Schools certainly won’t teach financial literacy. That would hurt consumer spending and that wouldn’t be good for short term corporate profits and continued economic growth so it won’t be in our curriculums.

I realize I have no idea how financially literate or illiterate the average person is.

When I was planning on moving out, I opened a spreadsheet on my computer. Maybe that’s already a leap beyond what the typical person would do?

I made a row for each expense I thought I’d have, rounded up to create some headroom. Plus a row for ‘Other’ with a sizable number to account for stuff I hadn’t thought of. Summed that up.

Made another row with my gross pay. Looked up about how much I’d keep after taxes. About 70%. Calculate that value on another row. Divide that by 12. That’s monthly net take home.

Compared that number to the number from the first section. If I’m not taking home more than my expenses, that’s a problem.

What is everyone else doing? No one taught me that. It just seemed like how I’d add up my expenses and compare to my income. It’s not perfect, but it helped me see what kind of rent was way out of reach.

Vorticity , 5 months ago

Yeah, you did the logical and smart thing. I think many people don’t and, for some, it is a daunting task to even get started. The part I was missing was being told “it’s okay if it’s not perfect, just do something close and adjust as needed”. It was always something that I felt needed to be all or nothing, even if that’s not logical.

Just having a two day intro to budgeting in high school or college would probably have done me a world of good. I doubt that I’m the only one.

Previous generations had classes like “Home Economics” to teach sime home skills but it has been decided that isn’t needed. Those useful skills classes have been cut from the curriculum.