
25% of Americans say they worry about money ‘all the time’ - onetimemanytime
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/24/25-percent-of-americans-say-they-worry-about-money-all-the-time.html
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challenger22
A question for you folks: when you spend money on goods and services that you
know represent conspicuous consumption, and on ones that represent luxury, and
provide little practical utility, how does it make you feel?

Using a 3.5% safe withdrawal rate, I've recently crossed the threshold where I
could retire indefinitely at my current spending rate. Each day I continue
working is now essentially only so I can spend more on a more luxurious
lifestyle in the future. I'm fairly frugal, and it's been changing my
perspective on work a bit. The first place I've been loosening up on is food.

~~~
sokoloff
Once our house is paid off (about 8 more years), the same would be true for us
and we are not living a Spartan lifestyle even now (I'm also using the 3.5%
SWR for planning).

Even if I could shorten the time-to-full-retirement by a couple years, it
wouldn't do me any particular good. I generally like my field and my job. I'm
tied to the area (can't freely travel 25+% of the time) by virtue of having
kids in 2nd and 4th grade. So, there's no mathematical/financial reason to
pursue a more Spartan early-retirement-extreme or MMM-approved spending plan.

With that in mind, I find I'm able to enjoy the luxury expenditures, because
they aren't taking us off our plan. We travel for a week each winter to
"someplace warm". We travel to visit family quite freely. The kids engage in
whatever activities they want to try, without worrying about the costs. We own
an airplane. We have cleaners that come by every other week. We buy quality
food. We give to charities that are meaningful to us (many with money, some
with significant amounts of our time as well).

On the other hand, we cut our own grass, do 95+% of our own car maintenance,
almost all of our home maintenance, and cook most of our own meals, because we
value the savings and example it sets for our kids (especially around charity
and talking through the value of money).

~~~
theNJR
>We own an airplane.

That escalated quickly!

~~~
sokoloff
They're a lot less expensive than most people first think. (think "price of a
fairly nice car" not "price of a nice house"; though obviously they go up in
price to "whatever number you have in mind", most are in the 5-figure or just
barely-6-figure range.)

~~~
astura
What about the upkeep, insurance, storage, and maintenance? I suspect(?) those
would be substantial.

~~~
sokoloff
Similar order of magnitude as owning a ski or other boat over 21' or so. Not
"cheap", but not outrageous.

------
throwaway1492
I haven't had to worry about money so long as I've been in software
development. It's a great feeling. I grew up in rural poverty and I live in
fear of losing what I have. That's why I'm currently working more than one
remote dev job concurrently and earning 2 fulltime salaries; to amass as much
wealth as I can before the current bubble pops.

~~~
commandlinefan
> I haven't had to worry about money so long as I've been in software
> development.

Wait until your kids get close to graduating high school... my oldest will be
starting college in about 3 years and even though I've been saving since he
was born, I still have no idea how I'm going to pay for all of it.

~~~
throwayEngineer
Don't?

My parents never paid for my college and I Graduated debt free with an
engineering degree.

Maybe having to pay for college will cause them to take internships to pay for
college.

~~~
rabidrat
I'm guessing you didn't go to college in the past 10 years. Things have
changed. Nowadays it is impossible to pay for college with any kind of job you
can get in college. And many internships are unpaid. So by not paying for
college, they would be signing their kids up for $100k+ of debt to start off
their lives.

I think maybe their kids should consider "not going to college" but that's a
hard idea to sell, since it does have a measurable impact on the work and
income a person can get.

~~~
throwayEngineer
I graduated in 2012.

My total bill was 30,000 USD for my bachelor's degree.

------
nbs_tar
BOOOOOOOO CNBC:

Headline: 25% of Americans say they worry about money 'all the time'

Body: 25% worry 'all' or 'most' of the time that their household income won’t
be enough to cover their expenses.

Link to 25% worry 'all or 'most' of the time: Leads to unrelated article about
New Yorkers.

Underlying poll: "11% of Americans say they worry about money 'all the time.'

~~~
the_watcher
It's even worse: the body is actually that financial optimism has "reached
levels not seen in more than 16 years”

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the_watcher
The actual findings are that Americans are feeling better about their finances
than any time in recent memory. The headline seems to imply that there's an
emerging crisis of confidence (there might be, but the data presented in the
article certainly doesn't support it).

~~~
throwayEngineer
CNBC quality articles for you.

I'm surprised they are considered mainstream media. Is that only because they
have a TV channel?

~~~
the_watcher
The article is fine! It's that the headline implies a different article that
is frustrating. I know headline-writing and article-writing are often separate
functions, but this is a headline for an entirely different article.

------
sabarn01
So 1/4 people worry about money constantly. My guess is you could ask that
question about a great variety of topics and get a similar result. I think the
thing we are testing here is the cross section of those who are by default
fearful and their exposure to whichever topic is on offer.

~~~
sabarn01
The pew numbers for terrorism are pretty similar

[https://www.people-press.org/2010/12/02/despite-years-of-
ter...](https://www.people-press.org/2010/12/02/despite-years-of-terror-
scares-publics-concerns-remain-fairly-steady/)

------
ianwalter
25% worry about money all the time and 33% can't cover an unexpected $400
expense. Yikes! Seems like the gap between those two should be a lot smaller.

------
RickJWagner
Another recent study (I saw it on HN) said that the majority of people worried
about finances spend every discretionary dollar on entertainment.

This is nonsense. Financial education (from a young age) should be mandatory.
The number of people in dire financial straights should be miniscule, if
everybody acted with good financial sense consistently.

This is wholly a man-made crisis. Participation is completely voluntary.

------
fullshark
That seems low if 40% of Americans can't find $400 for a surprise expense...or
maybe the fact that it's so low is why they can't $400 if they needed it.

[https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nearly-40-of-americans-cant-
cov...](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nearly-40-of-americans-cant-cover-a-
surprise-400-expense/)

~~~
astura
Because people like using credit cards for everyday spend, apparently?

"With cash or money currently in checking/savings" is at 45% but the next
highest percent is "With a credit card, paid off in full at the next
statement" at 33%. There's plenty of reason to use a credit card for a $400
expense even if you have $30,000 sitting in your checking account, so those
who expect to pay off their credit card in full when the balance closes should
be "counted" as having the emergency covered.

------
mruts
Instead of worrying about money all the time, people should probably just be
saving and investing their money. Even on minimum wage it's possible to save a
little bit every month provided you are willing to sacrifice other things for
it.

When I was younger I had a lot of friends that were making minimum wage as
cooks or whatever in Boston. They (and me) had plenty of money to spend on
alcohol, weed, bars, pizza, etc. If anyone had wanted to, they could have made
sacrifices and put away over $250 a month.

Of course, things are a little different when you have a family, but then
again, in my opinion, you shouldn't have a family until you're financially
stable.

I know live in Tanzania and the situation is so different that I find it
ridiculous when people in America complain about income inequality or the lack
of a "living wage."

Even the poorest employed people in America are far better off than most of
the people here, and if you told them about how the so called "poorest" in
America live, they would literally kill to switch places with them.

~~~
overthemoon
Immutable law of the internet--if you write a piece about financial hardship,
you get out of touch scolds in the comments preaching frugality and self
denial.

Take one single second to consider that maybe virtue alone isn't enough. The
world has changed since you were young. Take some time to learn about it, and
develop some empathy.

~~~
throwayEngineer
I have been teaching people how to save money and time, and I've yet to meet
anyone to change my mind on this.

You either accept that people choose to live outside their means, or people
have no control over their bodies and therefore should not be punished for
crimes.

I don't expect people to share ideas about this topic, it's silly too. Most of
us want to help people, but many hn voters would rather by publically
empathetic than discuss.

~~~
ziddoap
So, being poor is a binary decision between spending too much, or some extreme
autonomous-body conclusion?

I reckon there is a middle ground, but what do I know.

------
NTDF9
I'm probably one of those, despite making well over six figures.

On introspection, I realized that I was worried about money because the system
is set up as a casino. You just HAVE to gamble to save the fruits of your
labor. Every investment is more speculation than production. In addition,
inflation is way way over what the fed thinks it is.

To add salt to the wound, I'm actually capable of understanding these problems
mathematically. My friends/relatives who don't understand all this are
blissfully unaware. They live out their lives until a crisis hits and need to
beg for money.

I sometimes wonder if I should really take the blue pill and live with the
mantra ignorance is bliss.

~~~
turtlegrids
> the system is set up as a casino. You just HAVE to gamble to save the fruits
> of your labor

Is a savings/checking account a "gamble"? Is a money market?

~~~
NTDF9
Have you seen real world inflation lately? If not, I encourage you to do so
(disclaimer: stressful days follows)

