Poll of the Day > Can you afford to buy a house on CostCo wages?

(+) Yeah! (+)

People keep telling me how great it is the work at CostCo.

You probably shouldn't be trying to buy a house on any retail wages.

If you want to go for the full "American Dream", improve yourself and get a better job. Pursue a career and not just a job in retail.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/7/0/AAfaVHAAEzai.jpg

Sure, it's the retail workers who are the problem, and not the megamilionaires and billionaires who have been hording wealth for decades

Once upon a time, a home and a new car were well within someone's means if they held a steady job, even on a meager income. Not so much any more. Now, one needs to earn 3-4x minimum wage, or work multiple jobs to earn as much, to even consider buying just a home, let alone a new car with it.

Meanwhile, there are people on this earth rich enough to fund a fucking space program for shits and giggles.

If you think the problem is that the layperson needs to find a better job, you're sorely mistaken. Especially when you consider that for many to "improve" themselves, they have to take on an absurd amount of educational debt. The American Dream is fundamentally broken. The middle class is moving more towards being Poverty+ every year

This has got to be some kind of joke topic but I'm too lazy to look up the reference.

MeatiestMeatus posted...

If you think the problem is that the layperson needs to find a better job, you're sorely mistaken.

It's not the problem, it's the reality.

You can argue about WHY things are the way they are, or talk about how much better things would be if you could magically wish things to be different, but at the end of the day you're still stuck with the same shitty situation.

Realism is understanding that "how things SHOULD be" doesn't help you survive NOW.

Like it or not, minimum wage jobs really aren't designed or intended to be the sort of jobs that result in your owning your own house and all the other trappings of a modern lifestyle. Regardless of whether or not you think that SHOULD be true doesn't really change whether or not it IS.

MeatiestMeatus posted...

Now, one needs to earn 3-4x minimum wage, or work multiple jobs to earn as much, to even consider buying just a home, let alone a new car with it.

The housing market has gotten so awful where I'm at that you would need to earn well into the 6 figures to just buy a shack on one salary. It's virtually impossible for one person to buy a house unless you're a 1%er. Even two people with average incomes now can't afford a halfway decent house. And the renters market is just as terrible. My rent has gone up 40% in 5 years

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Like it or not, minimum wage jobs really aren't designed or intended to be the sort of jobs that result in your owning your own house and all the other trappings of a modern lifestyle.

Well me and my wife earn like 130k collectively and still can't afford a house. It's crazy

ParanoidObsessive posted...

It's not the problem, it's the reality.

You can argue about WHY things are the way they are, or talk about how much better things would be if you could magically wish things to be different, but at the end of the day you're still stuck with the same shitty situation.

Realism is understanding that "how things SHOULD be" doesn't help you survive NOW.

Like it or not, minimum wage jobs really aren't designed or intended to be the sort of jobs that result in your owning your own house and all the other trappings of a modern lifestyle. Regardless of whether or not you think that SHOULD be true doesn't really change whether or not it IS.

The reality and the problem do not cancel each other out bruh

Telling someone who is struggling to make ends meet to "improve themselves and get a better job" is not going to help them "survive NOW" lmao... not in this fucking reality

Yeah, let's take someone who's flirting with poverty, working ridiculous hours to keep a roof over their head and put food on the table, and make them now dedicate more of their time and take on more debt/financial burden to "improve themselves" so they can eke out a few dollars more per hour. Let's add a couple thousand pounds to that Sisyphean boulder now that's how we solve wealth inequality

Tell that mom or dad working 3 jobs to keep their kids fed and housed to pull up their bootstraps and go get a degree, take on tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt, just so they can move up one rung on the ladder and maybe afford a two bedroom condo in 15 years once they've paid down some of their debts and scraped together a downpayment

Do nothing about the insane cost of housing, education, healthcare, etc etc, or about the wealthiest members of society ability to accumulate and horde obscene wealth in the face of all these struggling people. Do nothing about those things and just tell Joe Schmoe and Jane Schmane that they just gotta improve themselves and get a better job (and crippling debt) lmao

look, according to this magazine a house should cost about 35% of your wage

So obviously just live in a $7k per year house ... that's a $280'000 house on a 40 year mortgage assuming zero interest forever

...oof

BUY a house? You can't even afford to RENT an apartment on minimum wage.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/8/6/AAQwHjAAEzhC.jpg

2 bedrooms? That's luxury. Why do you need 2?
Also 40 hours? I work on average 60. Only lazy people who have no backbone work 40 hours a week.

If you don't have a partner or spouse splitting the cost I don't think you can afford a house on any job other than a high powered corporate gig. My wife and I make solid money and we spend about 45% of our income on mortgage, insurance, etc.

Judgmenl posted...

2 bedrooms? That's luxury. Why do you need 2?
Also 40 hours? I work on average 60. Only lazy people who have no backbone work 40 hours a week.

Imagine thinking this is how the world should work and being proud of slaving away for crumbs when billionaires exist.

Judgmenl posted...

2 bedrooms? That's luxury. Why do you need 2?
Also 40 hours? I work on average 60. Only lazy people who have no backbone work 40 hours a week.

60 hours in what kind of job tho. That's fkin exhausting for a lot of jobs and will lead you to an early grave. Regardless this is cucked like man101 said above

Judgmenl posted...

2 bedrooms? That's luxury. Why do you need 2?
Also 40 hours? I work on average 60. Only lazy people who have no backbone work 40 hours a week.

Or some people like to spend time doing things they enjoy and hanging out with their family. Weird i know

Judgmenl posted...

I work on average 60.

But you're also a sucker whose inexplicable obsession with company loyalty is being exploited by people who are all too happy to have you work uncompensated overtime, as are the coworkers whose work you're doing for them so they're free to slack off. You're not really in a position to criticize anyone else for not having a backbone.

Anyone working 40 hours should expect basic livability for that. Period. Working more than that should be a choice one makes to accumulate spare income faster, not a necessity to have a roof over one's head.

Also, reverse image search is telling me that that infographic is from 2013. The original source is 404'd, but there are a few contemporary articles discussing it that mention specific figures, such as the Fair Market Rent for a 2-bedroom apartment in Massachusetts being $1251/month. So the modern situation is actually considerably worse than that image suggests.

adjl posted...

Also, reverse image search is telling me that that infographic is from 2013. The original source is 404'd, but there are a few contemporary articles discussing it that mention specific figures, such as the Fair Market Rent for a 2-bedroom apartment in Massachusetts being $1251/month. So the modern situation is actually considerably worse than that image suggests.

Wow that is absurdly low by today's standards. You are lucky to find something for $2000/mo. $ 1500/mo will give you something sketchy at best. I am actually seeing rentals in my town near $3k/mo. Also the residential areas where I'd consistently see homes for sale (in places where I'd actually live) have nothing on the market and I've bee watching this area for around a decade now (because one of my "dreams" is to buy a specific piece of property).

Judgmenl posted...

Wow that is absurdly low by today's standards. You are lucky to find something for $2000/mo. $ 1500/mo will give you something sketchy at best. I am actually seeing rentals in my town near $3k/mo.

Yep. Now, MA's minimum wage has increased since 2013, but you're still going to be lucky to find anything that you can rent for 30% of minimum wage, let alone anything that hasn't substituted cockroaches for drywall.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/7/1/AAfe4vAAE2AL.jpg

you're not affording an apartment on costco wages, let alone buying a house

i was so unbelievably lucky to buy my house when i did.

just by itself, the value of my home tripled without taking into account renovations done.