Re:Despite rising wages, 61% of Americans are still living p...
by mschuster91 on Thursday February 17, 2022 @02:23PM
(#30377405)
> Do we know what part lack of financial literacy or simply "living above one's means" play here in the grand scheme of things?
Well, if your job is somewhere in an extremely HCOL area, you only have two options: rent (or buy) somewhere extremely expensive, or rent/buy for slightly less and spend a boatload of money on transportation.
A large part of the H part in HCOL is, by the way, that banks and other investors (both domestic and, worse, foreign) have been scooping up rental real estate for way over a decade now - it began after the "fire sales" of the 2008ff crisis and now hit record highs in 2022 [1]. If politicians want to combat the poverty crisis, getting rents and real estate prices under control is one of the most important things.
As for "financial literacy" - no amount of that can help you if you get sick or, worse, if you depend with your life on epi-pens or insulin. Both saw exploding prices over the last decade.
Well, if your job is somewhere in an extremely HCOL area, you only have two options: rent (or buy) somewhere extremely expensive, or rent/buy for slightly less and spend a boatload of money on transportation.
A large part of the H part in HCOL is, by the way, that banks and other investors (both domestic and, worse, foreign) have been scooping up rental real estate for way over a decade now - it began after the "fire sales" of the 2008ff crisis and now hit record highs in 2022 [1]. If politicians want to combat the poverty crisis, getting rents and real estate prices under control is one of the most important things.
As for "financial literacy" - no amount of that can help you if you get sick or, worse, if you depend with your life on epi-pens or insulin. Both saw exploding prices over the last decade.
[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30374372