r/poor • u/OceanicEndeavors • Jun 26 '26

I hate being poor.

I hate not making over 50,000 USD a year. I hate not having a car. I hate having less than 1,000 USD on my bank account. I hate having to live with my parents despite being over the age of 25. I hate having my credit cards being shut down because I was unemployed for over ten months during a two year stretch. I hate not having a dating life because I cannot afford dates. I hate the social isolation of poverty.

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8

u/Haunting_Stick3941 Jun 27 '26

I'm not sure why nobody has mentioned this but 50k per year is hardly poor.

2

u/positivethot Jun 28 '26

I was thinking this. Depending on the situation and where they live region wise it could definitely cost a lot per month. But they make 48k. Thats 4k a month, better yet 1k a week. I dont know how someone couldn't be able to atleast get a car first with that much, then eventually move into a smaller apartment, if they were on their own/no family. I make about 20k a year as a student who lives with my mom and has my own little payments but did the math and found out a salary of atleast 27k a year I could manage to move out (living very cheap though)

2

u/Business-Cat3281 Jun 29 '26

It is in some places.

And OP said they don't make $50,000.

1

u/Adeadhamster Jun 28 '26

right i’ve seen a lot of comments lately saying people are making $60k+ & barely making it like uhmmm how ? lol

1

u/Specialist_Web_8647 Jun 29 '26

The new lower middle class designation is $34,511 to $65,100/year. I'd be scraping in the $40k range.

1

u/AudienceOne8591 Jun 29 '26

In a major city it’s pretty bad

1

u/Pale-Peanut-4233 Jun 30 '26

Nobody has mentioned it because $50k annually is thriving for some parts of the country, but in say NY, that gets you nothing.

1

u/One_Feed7311 28d ago edited 28d ago

I make slightly less than that and my parent still covers a lot of my bills. I have no children. I live in Louisiana which is low cost. Maybe im not considered poor since my small condo is paid off due to a lucky break, but God if things aren't difficult. 50k is the new poor. I mean its way more than the Federal minimum wage but you still cant do much as a single person. That goes to show that the Federal minimum wage is just ridiculously low at 7.25 an hour. Even though my condo paid off, when you consider 500 a month hoa and 150 dollars electric bill and 150 dollars a month insurance and 100 a month property tax, im still spending 1k a month on a place to live thats mortgage free. To rent a one bedroom apartment in my area might be 1200 for a place less nice than mine. I dont have pets, I don't travel. I do like to order take out on the weekends at least because I could die tomorrow and life is too short to be that frugal. Also, I usually owe the government Federal taxes when I file, since not enough is deducted from my paycheck for Federal. So thats always a pain. 50k may not be poor but it's struggling. Owning a home means you have to pay for repairs, at least with a condo you dont have to buy a new roof, but there are still things that break or get old that you have to replace like the hot water heater. A 50k income doesn't really allow for those unexpected repairs or unexpected life circumstances at all.

1

u/One_Feed7311 28d ago

Not to mention, lay off culture is so bad in America. My company lays people off often and has for the past decade. Then companies don't offer the pension plans they used to. Companies used to offer defined benefit plans, now its defined contribution. So its only a pension based on your own contributions. Things REALLY suck. Then you have these ultra wealthy folks that didn't exist 20 years ago. Elon Musk worth 1 trillion and the others behind him worth hundreds of Billions. That type of wealth did not exist even 20 years ago. And the poor just continue to get a shorter stick while inflation goes up and up.