My advice is for those at 25 years old working in a fast food place who can read and write English. Their time excessively pruning their budget is better spent learning new skills and attempting to sell their services in a market that pays more.
>If you make $35k, it is still possible. It might not be comfortable, and that seems to be the great success of capitalism in the 21st century: convincing people that they shouldn't ever be uncomfortable, or that they can't be without certain items or experiences that they most certainly can be.
I do not know what this means. It is possible to live in the forest and forage and be comfortable, everyone was a few tens of thousands of years ago. But surely things like a safe neighborhood, healthcare for you and family, and opportunity for education are basic things that people can be expected to strive for, and that are not really achievable under a certain income in pretty much all populated regions of the US at $35k per year.
At most you cannot make more than the GDP of the Earth, while your spending habit can be arbitrarily high.
Doing anything excessively isn't good. Nobody is saying budget "excessively". If budgeting is taking up all your time, may be you're budgeting excessively.
If you needed time off to study for a career change, you cannot do it without first having a budget, saved up and such.
So regardless of the desire to increase income, the first step is to have solid data about your expenditures; aka, a budget.
It may be that those with lower incomes spends more on a smartphone because it is their only way to access the internet.
I bought a Chromebook for $200 probably 5 years ago that my wife still uses for all of the things that she doesn't want to use the phone for. There are still decent computers that are available for far lower prices than top-of-the-line phones.
It all goes back to personal finance vs. capitalism. Big Business wants you to believe that only the best smartphone will do, no matter your budget (what budget, haha?).
If you don't make that much money and you want to escape eternal debt-hell, you have to overcome this mindset and find good budget options. And I maintain that it can be done. Move out of the city. Establish trusting relationships through your own hard work and good faith efforts. Swallow your pride and lean respectfully and gratefully on friends and/or family if you have to. And then be there when someone needs you for the same. Big Business also wants you to believe that it's every man for himself, but that doesn't have to be true either.
If you make $35k, it is still possible. It might not be comfortable, and that seems to be the great success of capitalism in the 21st century: convincing people that they shouldn't ever be uncomfortable, or that they can't be without certain items or experiences that they most certainly can be.
Increasing income is great. Literally (almost) everybody wants this. There is high demand for increasing income. The supply is part of the issue, and the cost of increasing income is the next barrier. Bettering your situation takes effort, either to decrease your spending, or to increase your income. Doing both at the same time takes double the effort.
The last thing somebody making $35k (or $25k) is some provincial yuppie zoomer saying to them "Just make more money lul". It doesn't help anything.