[dgabriel]

Add a car and student loans, a reasonable food and fitness budget, and that's all of it gone.

[qes]

The poster this is in reply to said they have no debt.

> I'm in the same spot I grew up with my grandparents in, barely making it with like an extra $40/mo for ramen & beer with a friend or two one night for entertainment. No debt. It's such a common story among my similarly aged friends too.

[dgabriel]

That's a good point I missed.

[mcguire]

Good point. I never touch any of those so I keep forgetting. :-) (Well, I did have a car loan for a while...)

A $35,000 car loan, 60 mos, 5%, is about $660/mo (https://www.bankrate.com/loans/auto-loans/current-auto-loan-... average student loan debt is $38,390 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_debt), 120 mos (https://www.consumerfinance.gov/ask-cfpb/how-long-does-it-ta...), 8% (https://www.valuepenguin.com/student-loans/student-loan-inte...) is about $466/mo. That totals to $1,126, leaving only $474 for vegetables and stuff.

[dgabriel]

You can crunch fake, sort-of-made-up numbers all day. The average man doesn't exist. My point is that it's certainly possible to be living paycheck-to-paycheck in a city with what was once a decent salary, even if you aren't blowing all your money on frivolous stuff.