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For reference my rent alone is half of that in downtown of a major city.
$3k other expenses is a little high, but not out of the realm of reasonable.
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Rent or mortgage plus daycare will easily take up 3/4 of that.
Good god, according to census.gov:
Real median household income was $74,580 in 2022
Which works out to $6,215/month. Less than $200/month for emergencies, nobody is saving money with these figures. Our economic system is broken.
Add it to the pile of broken systems.
Our expenses are a little less but my wife and I have two kids. Although if we had bought a house around now instead of 7 years ago, it would easily be much more. If we had decided to buy a new car, add that on top.
But one thing to note is that is the average so that is anywhere from a single person to someone with six kids.
For the first time? Go back a generation and student loans didn’t exist.
At least you can declare bankruptcy on an auto loan…
I grew up believing all loans is money banks lend you from their own money they have on hand. But that is a lie. That money is created by the fed reserve when the paperwork is signed. And all the bank has to do is follow rules their lobbyists write.
Why do we even need private banks? I bet people could handle their own fianaces a lot better if we had direct access to fed money creation and we didn’t let bank lobbyists write the rules.
At least auto loan debt isn’t enshrined into law as “life debt” like student loans are.
Auto loans are terrible and I always pay them off as soon as I can, but they will never really be that big a threat because you CAN sell your car and buy a substantially cheaper one, in most cases. Sometimes you can sell your car and just use public transit or bike/walk.
Boy do I wish I could sell my college degree
I wish they would repo my degree…
Used cars literally cost more now than the 3/2 townhome I bought in 2012. I don’t understand how most people survive in this economy.
When I was a kid auto loans would be for 2 years or 4 years maybe, now. They’ll give you a 10-year loan on a car.
What, thats crazy. I bought my car certified pre-owned, fully paid it off, and have been driving it for 8 years with hopefully another 8 more to go. I know car prices have been going out of control though, whats going on?
Harder and harder to do that. My goal was to buy a used car then finally a new electric car.
My 2012 pre-owned car was paid in cash for $7k about five years ago. And my goal was to save $25k cash, and trade this one in for a newish car.
My 2012 exact car can now be bought for $9k. And newer cars are now in the $40k range. AND they have shitty subscriptions for features.
I wish automakers were able to/would actually import some of their cheaper electric vehicles from east asian markets.
The Honda N-Van e would suit the needs of the vast majority of people. 124mi of range and only ~$8,000.
It wouldn’t meet the safety standards. A substantial portion of the cost in a modern vehicle is the safety systems and then the emissions systems.
It wouldn’t meet the safety standards.
This may partly be because basically all of them are legal for highway use, so even if all you need is a car that is safe to drive a couple of miles to the grocery store at 35MPH, the safety features and engines (and thus emissions system capabilities) have to be designed with the expectation that the vehicle will be used at 80MPH beside all the other vehicles out there.
It might help to have a wider variety of vehicle licensing options to allow for low-speed, lower-spec ‘city cars’. Though enforcement would probably be an issue, and the safety standards would still need to be robust enough that people in small cars wouldn’t be too badly killed by the gigantic pickup trucks they have to share the road with.
then the emissions systems
It’s an EV.
I wouldn’t mind a Tuk Tuk. Could use about half the year without issue. My daily commute doesn’t involve highways and for repairs any motorcycle shop could handle it.
Only 124mi? Isn’t that like the average American’s commute to work one-way?
The average American drives 33 miles per day total.
didnt think id need an /s to joke about how car dependent we are :p
There’s a reason my car is old enough to drink 👍
Mine’s almost old enough to vote!
Certainly car loans can be predatory, and it is worth improving oversight, limiting what loan providers are allowed to offer. While I’ve seen plenty of people in trouble with car loans, it was always predictable/likely and my first thought had been how could a loan provider have approved that. I’m sorry if people are desperate for transportation and short of options but it’s not helpful to offer rates like credit cards, nor roll over previous loans, nor offer loans at high percentages of people’s incomes
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I just looked up, the median commute distance in the US is 10 miles and time is ~25 minutes. You can get a vehicle that will get you 10 miles away in about that time for ~$600. Ebikes are great. Regular bikes can be found for the cost of a fast food meal, if not free. As much as people say “cars are mandatory”, that might be an untrue assumption to start from. However, the car-focused layout of American cities has made it less safe to use bikes, which would be great to push back against.
Just gonna hop on my ebike to make the 10 mile journey in -40° weather… brb
Ah yes, the one theoretical counter-example that completely nullifies my argument. You’re right, all hail Cars. What percent of Americans experience -40 degree weather again?
