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23/hr at full time work (40 hrs/week) is $920/week.
Let's assume that 15% is taken out of each paycheck for taxes and withholdings and such, which leaves $782.
A typical month has 4 weeks, so $3128/month.
Stated expenses are $850+$1000+$400 totaling $2250
$3128-$2250=$878
bruh, if you're not making it with that kind of money, you need to take a serious look at your finances and cut back on things you don't need.
EDIT: I'm not replying to everyone.
There are several expenses that would be expected that were not covered. Those should easily fit inside the $878 monthly fund. I'm not going to go through item by item because they weren't mentioned by OP and everyone will have a different list. The things I'd put on the list absolutely fit, with plenty to spare.
The tax rate is based on my personal experience of being poor in Texas. This was a bit of an asspull, but I did math last year that determined I was losing 13% of my paycheck to taxes and withholdings, and I make a bit less than OP so I bumped it up a couple percent. Texas does not have state income tax, so if that number sounds low that's probably why.
Ultimately, I stand by what I said.
Expenses a normal person would likely have that aren’t mentioned:
- car related expenses
- utilities, if not covered by rent (especially a cheap apartment is unlikely to cover all the utilities
- any needed insurance not covered by job
- savings
- less frequent necessities (clothes, tools, repairs, medical expenses)
- ideally a little money for something enjoyable every once in a while
Plus what lawless hellscape is 15% for taxes and withholdings? In Ontario you’re paying 20% for taxes alone at the absolute minimum. That’s not including CPP, EI, and anything else you have like benefits co-pay or union dues.
The country is probably America, and the state is likely a red one. And you're right about lawless hellscape. We have states that don't collect income tax, 9 of them as a matter of fact. But they still pay federal income tax, which is the lions share of taxes.
I'm not even in one of those states, and for the majority of my working life my withholding has been about 15%. But, I wish I could pay 5-10% more in taxes for some universal healthcare. My employer pays about $10,000 a year per head for our premiums, which is very kind of them because they don't have to pay 100% of the premiums. And that wonderful healthcare plan is a "zero deductible", but not like you're thinking. No, the plan pays absolutely none of your medical bills or visits or prescriptions until you hit your yearly out of pocket, which is $9,000 in network, double that for out of network. What percent of my income do you think $19,000-$27,000 is? I'll give you a hint, it's more than 10% haha.
Oh, the cherry on top... The only urgent care facilities in my area that are in network are owned by one hospital group. They stopped doing walk in visits. You have to schedule "urgent" care days in advance or go to one of their "standing emergency room" clinics that are minimum $1000. They invented a new, more expensive tier of urgency in between urgent and emergency. I think this is what they mean when they say capitalism breeds innovation.
Your comment is the biggest problem we have right now. There's no, just paying a little more on taxes to get free healthcare. It's estimated that currently it would be $3-4 trillion a year for universal healthcare. The total taxable income the US made was ~$4.4 trillion. 41.5% of that is individual taxes. If everyone paid 10% more that would only be $182B. You haven't even scratched the surface of the cost. Adding universal health care is far more complicated than just everyone paying a little more in taxes.
Somehow only almost every other first world nation has figured it out, must be that American exceptionalism preventing us from figuring it out.
Also, I think you misunderstood my increase statement. I don't mean a 10% increase of the federal taxes, I mean a 10% additional tax on total income which is about 10x that. Even using that figure, you're really telling me that it would take a 24% increase to pay for this, and I'd love to see your sources for that.
And, this is fun, even with your tax increase requirement numbers, $18,000-$27,000 is 24%-37.5% of the median household income in America. Turns out, even if it were as absurdly expensive as you say, it's literally a bargain for your average family. I now make more than the median, and it's only 20%-30% of my income, so still a bargain but not as good of one.
Are you saying that paying 30% of your income for free health care is a bargain? At the median income for 60 years would be almost $1.4MM.
After Taxes and Expenses having a negative net seems like a great time to file for a SAVE repayment plan on the loans, some rates as low as 0$ monthly.
Texas governments (city, state) makes money from sales and property taxes. The payroll taxes are federal.
Man, that sounds like the worst case, Ontario...
Attodaso man, fuckin attodaso.
OP didn't mention a car, unless they live in an area where it is somehow required, they might just go without one for now
I don't understand why this has so many down votes, it's correct! To have $878 available monthly I'd need to move back in with my mom (aka free rent and occasionally food too). And I'm a junior softer dev, easily among the higher paying jobs for starters. That's some killer money if you got your own place on top, also spending 400 on food? Holy sheep shit.
It’s not even slightly correct.
- Estimate of taxes & withholdings is way too low. Maybe some states have such a low tax rate, but most places do not. In addition, withholdings are usually much higher.
- There are tons of expenses not itemized that you can assume most people will have. Phone, internet, utilities, renters insurance, health insurance, car payments, gas, car insurance, parking, transit tickets, bank account, etc.
- Also doesn’t account for an emergency fund, savings of any kind or anything other than hand to mouth.
- Then there’s stuff you need to keep your job & apartment. Cleaning supplies, soap, deodorant, shampoo, laundry soap, dryer sheets, garbage/recycling/compost bags, clothes, shoes, haircuts etc.
- God forbid you have any sort of uncovered medical expenses. Birth control, OTC drugs of any kind, glasses/contacts, supplements for some kind of nutrient deficiency, dispensing fees for prescription drugs, etc.
Why do people insist on dragging each other down like this, like some billionaire is going to be impressed with how long they were able to live off a sack of rice and beans.
It costs nothing to support each other.
This isn't about dragging each other down. Those are genuinely the costs of living for me (central Europe). 15% is the tax rate, the only time I payed more than 400 bucks for groceries in a month was when me and my gf together bought take out every day because we were in the process of moving among other things, and there's no way in hell our internet/electricity/water/gass bills could put a major dent into 878 bucks. That shit is like 150, where we often pay reserves, so a small chunk of that will come back.
America is fucking expensive if that's true, like holy shit, good luck to you all. It's easy to forget that in America you're forced to buy a car and pay for healthcare (here, health care is part of the 15% tax btw). Here you can just buy a YEARLY public transit ticket for around 150 (more for nationwide, but whatever) and just rent a small van when you really need a car. Altho I ear a little less than OP and still manage to squeeze in a small cheap car. And with my gf doubling our income we can even afford a bit larger flat. I'd argue I'm quite spoiled and not using my money effectively and still manage fine.
it's because it's not taking into account any other expenses, phone, internet, utilities etc.
Spending 75-100 a week for a person in groceries is pretty normal in my experience. Before COVID I was spending 50-60 a week but those days are over. .