Affordability discussion (split from Iran thread)

You said it, not me.

Just to name a few:
- Reducing regulatory barriers
- down payment assistance programs
- Standard financial education as part of public education
- Land Trusts
- Building below-market housing (maybe manufactured housing as a good alt)
- Remove private equity from the family home market

We have to find an effective way to increase supply of affordable homes. The market will adjust eventually and increase supply, but using creative ways to ease the current acute affordability crisis will go a long way in providing more opportunity.
So yea, a healthy dose of government intervention.

-Tell young people they’re in a “crisis”.
-Tell them you’ve got the gov’t programs to fix it.
-Tell them to vote for their future.
 
So yea, a healthy dose of government intervention.

-Tell young people they’re in a “crisis”.
-Tell them you’ve got the gov’t programs to fix it.
-Tell them to vote for their future.
You don’t have to tell them anything, they’re living it. I get that some people are cynical about government in most any context, but instead of trying to make it work for the people it’s meant to work for, we have a large portion of the population that throws up their hands and says “it’s useless in any context.” I guess if you favor a defeatist, that’s the path of least resistance.

Also, it’s much easier to criticize someone else’s solution than it is to come up with your own… hence why you backed off guessing what mine might be. I get that.
 
You don’t have to tell them anything, they’re living it. I get that some people are cynical about government in most any context, but instead of trying to make it work for the people it’s meant to work for, we have a large portion of the population that throws up their hands and says “it’s useless in any context.” I guess if you favor a defeatist, that’s the path of least resistance.

Also, it’s much easier to criticize someone else’s solution than it is to come up with your own… hence why you backed off guessing what mine might be. I get that.
Lol what? My acknowledgment is in the first sentence - “so yea, government intervention”

What else would your solution have been?
 
1st...your comment is spot on. 100%.
2nd...lmao
3rd....on the bright side, Dave is no joke when it comes to sound financial advice. No credit card debt you cant pay off each month, no $1000 car payments for 6years or 7. What I have heard from him on the radio was good advice.

These aren't revolutionary concepts. It's common sense.

We need to teach high schoolers about HYSAs, dividends, and credit building fundamentals. Ramsey just teaches basic cash affordability management and emergency fund preservation in the free videos we were shown.
 
These aren't revolutionary concepts. It's common sense.

We need to teach high schoolers about HYSAs, dividends, and credit building fundamentals. Ramsey just teaches basic cash affordability management and emergency fund preservation in the free videos we were shown.
He basically just preaches what has been prudent behavior for years.

Pay yourself first
Spend less than you make
Don’t burden yourself with excess debt
Maintain emergency reserves

His actual investment advice is kinda crap.
 
He basically just preaches what has been prudent behavior for years.

Pay yourself first
Spend less than you make
Don’t burden yourself with excess debt
Maintain emergency reserves

His actual investment advice is kinda crap.
If you view him as chemo for stage IV financial cancer he's pretty great. Most of us don't have that.
 
These aren't revolutionary concepts. It's common sense.

We need to teach high schoolers about HYSAs, dividends, and credit building fundamentals. Ramsey just teaches basic cash affordability management and emergency fund preservation in the free videos we were shown.

Agree 100%.
Will also add that if people just had the discipline to save and not touch the 3months worth of their bills and expenses as a "safety net" and not drive something they cannot afford... close to half the population of this entire country would live much more stable and stress free lives. Something like 30 or 40% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck and dont have 1 months worth of expenses in their bank accounts ever. We lived this way for years when we were just starting out, and if I hadn't been blessed to keep sidework at nights we wouldn't have been able to keep afloat. So I am not judging anyone. I lived that struggle for years. Dave gives people advice to try and get to a stable place. The stuff you mentioned is great for afterwards when eviction or foreclosure aren't a real threat.

** I never understood why "home economics" which i took in 9th grade because I knew all the hot chicks would be in there (I was right) we baked cinnamon rolls, cooked Mac n cheese, cooked a bunch of crap and ate it. We never learned how to set a budget. Or how to balance a checkbook. Or anything even tangentially related to money management. We learned to sew though and I did use that to sew myself up later in life. Also to put some arms and legs back on stuffed animals for my kids. Nothing even Dave Ramsey was part of Home Ec.
 
Agree 100%.
Will also add that if people just had the discipline to save and not touch the 3months worth of their bills and expenses as a "safety net" and not drive something they cannot afford... close to half the population of this entire country would live much more stable and stress free lives. Something like 30 or 40% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck and dont have 1 months worth of expenses in their bank accounts ever. We lived this way for years when we were just starting out, and if I hadn't been blessed to keep sidework at nights we wouldn't have been able to keep afloat. So I am not judging anyone. I lived that struggle for years. Dave gives people advice to try and get to a stable place. The stuff you mentioned is great for afterwards when eviction or foreclosure aren't a real threat.

** I never understood why "home economics" which i took in 9th grade because I knew all the hot chicks would be in there (I was right) we baked cinnamon rolls, cooked Mac n cheese, cooked a bunch of crap and ate it. We never learned how to set a budget. Or how to balance a checkbook. Or anything even tangentially related to money management. We learned to sew though and I did use that to sew myself up later in life. Also to put some arms and legs back on stuffed animals for my kids. Nothing even Dave Ramsey was part of Home Ec.

Home Ec is super important. You're crazy.
 
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If you view him as chemo for stage IV financial cancer he's pretty great. Most of us don't have that.

Also, depends on what "us" encompasses.

It's important to remind our duscussion-sphere that we're generally savvy dudes in the scope of the average 'Murican.

Save a few mouthbreathing mental duds, the problems presented by how things are ran haven't hit us yet.

Give it about 2 or 3 years. Finna get sweaty in this ho.
 
Home Ec is super important. You're crazy.
Lol. It was full of pretty girls and an easy A...but people's moms need to be teaching them that stuff at home as far as cooking and sewing right? Or just leave off the word " economics" and call it something else maybe?

On the other hand...1 HUGE cash drain that is rarely discussed in here is people eating out all the time or having restaurants food delivered to them. It costs a fortune to live that way vs cooking at home. I personally know several people who spend $600 a month easy just on eating out. I have family members that way. If you're single and make good money you can afford it...but its wasting a ton IMO.
 
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Median annual salary for a 30 yo in America right now is around $59,000 or about $1,100/week. What homes are available for someone who has probably financed a car for around $500 per month ($350/month if you go dirt cheap), full coverage insurance $150-$250 per month, maybe a student loan (average monthly payment $200-300), utilities which average $400-600 per month, maybe a small credit card with a limit under $5000, paying 22% in taxes, probably $300-$500 for health insurance premiums, gas, groceries… What can the average 30 yo making an average salary paying average bills afford?

People making 59k don’t pay 22% in taxes. If they’re single and have no kids at 59k they’ll pay less than 10%.

If they’re married and/or have kids they’re paying closer to zero or possibly profiting from income taxes.

You’re too old not to understand basic concepts like how income taxes work
 
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People making 59k don’t pay 22% in taxes. If they’re single and have no kids at 59k they’ll pay less than 10%.

If they’re married and/or have kids they’re paying closer to zero or possibly profiting from income taxes.

You’re too old not to understand basic concepts like how income taxes work

Single, no kids, the absolute most in federal income taxes they would pay is 8.4% of their W2 income. They would have 7.65% in SS/Medicare witholding. Even if they lived in California, the absolute maximum they would pay is 2.95% at this income level.

These are absolute W2 Income maximums
 
These aren't revolutionary concepts. It's common sense.

We need to teach high schoolers about HYSAs, dividends, and credit building fundamentals. Ramsey just teaches basic cash affordability management and emergency fund preservation in the free videos we were shown.
A financial literacy credit is required to graduate hs in Florida. My son is taking it next year. We talk about money habits all the time with them so they avoid some of the mistakes we made. Both my wife and I learned about CCs the hard way
 
Personally, I am very jaded as I think both sides of the argument aren't putting forth viable solutions.

Libertarians/Republicans dial down in Capitalism and say less government intrusion will solve our problem but I am not sure this is working because the wealthy class is either hoarding wealth at expense of national prosperity or they are just plain incompotent in decision making.

The Democrats\Leftists push Socialism and giving wealth to the government. The government has shown to be even more incompotent than handing it over to the wealthy. You are just trading one tyrant for another that is, worse, in my view. Taxing the rich doesn't solve the problem.

The key is we don't need money flowing to the government (unless the government seriously puts it to solving debt/inflation issues), we need money flowing into our companies to modernize, expand the economy, create jobs, and refresh the consumer market. We need pressure the low wage nations not raising wages so that they can create their own consumer markets. The fact is we just don't have enough wealthy in the consumer base to drive economic growth right now. A China and India were people are getting, at least, 75% of the USA wage level would create an economic boom (it will also make US/European industry more competitive due to more balance wages/costs).

All of this still doesn't solve the issue with the infertility/low births and the fact we have an aging populace that is going to drive a welfare/pension nightmare. It is already happening in Europe and many parts of USA. Asia is set to get hard in the next few decades (notably China in 30 years or so).

Basically we need money to go into job creation, automation, updating industry, etc. I work in Manufacturing and a lot of companies still run plants that were built in WW2. China is building new; Korea is building new, etc. They are outdoing us, all because shareholders want year-over-year profit and hoard the money instead of investing it back into their companies to build new factories, equipment, etc. and hire new people. Cost-cutting is killing us.
 

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