I make $19 an hour and feel like I'm doing everything right and still can't get ahead and I just need to say that out loud
I work full time, 40 hours a week, sometimes a little more. I don't have a car payment because I drive an older car I paid cash for. I don't have credit card debt. I pack my lunch most days, I don't have a gym membership or streaming subscriptions I forgot about, I cook at home the majority of the time. I have done all the things you're supposed to do. I am not living beyond my means. And I still end every single month with almost nothing left over and one unexpected expense away from a real problem. Last month it was a $340 car repair. The month before that my cat needed vet care that came out to just under $200. Those are not emergencies in the dramatic sense, they are just normal life things that happen, and each one of them wipes out whatever small buffer I had managed to build. I know mathematically that I need to earn more and not just cut more, I understand that, but in the meantime I am doing everything the personal finance world tells you to do and the margin is still basically zero. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm tired of the implication that being in this position means you made bad choices somewhere. Some of us are just in jobs and markets and situations where the math doesn't work no matter how carefuly you manage it. It's not a discipline problem. It's an income problem and those are different things and I wish more people understood that distincion without needing you to prove your frugality first before they'll take your situation seriously