Some people happen to live in cities where a vehicle is a necessity. Hard to believe for city folk, but it's true.

Well said. Only thing worse than owning a depreciating asset like that is having a loan/lease against it. Not to mention Uber and Lyft have made not having a car much easier and affordable. If I only made 27k first thing to go would be the car

Car ownership can be broken down into two groups -- pragmatic and status. If you live in the a city core and work in the core then there really is no pragmatic reason to own a car. For the occasional times you need one you can just rent and you are much better off financially. I've owned a car my entire life but there has been large parts of it where I'd drive it do infrequently that it would have a coat of dust and occasionally the battery would be dead. When everything is within 2km of you a combination of walking and Uber makes more sense if we are strictly sticking to pragmatic reasons -- especially as delivery services take off. Riding a bike is typically not an option for most people who care about their appearance.

The problem is that living in locations where you don't need a car means much higher housing expense. This kills the financial argument for not having a car as overall your expenses are higher if you don't have one -- what you save on not having a car is much less than what you'd have to pay in increased housing to live where a car is not necessary. I personally still think it is worth it as starting and ending your day spending an hour in traffic is hell but most people seem to prioritize housing over ease of transportation. If you live in suburbia or even worse the outskirts then you need a car.

Man I can't understand why you would ever want to have a life where "riding a bike is not an option".

That is such a ******ed statement I have to assume you're trolling.

He's talking as a mode of transportation. Recreational bike riding = outdoor exercise = good IMO

So was I, but I might not have sufficiently accounted for difference between Western Europe and USA/Canada in city layout (and the fact that I spend some of my time in a small bikeable city that's also the #6 traffic city of the world). That being said, in most WE cities not being able to ride a bike for transportation sucks major balls, I honestly have no idea why you would ever choose a lifestyle that doesn't allow you to ride a bike.

It has little to do with the city layout and more to do with the act of riding a bike.

Limitations of biking for transportation

1) limited choices for dressing + ruins your clothing
2) helmets mess up your hair
3) it is at least moderate physical activity so you'll get sweaty
4) weather -- between rain and winter in most climates you're going to have 1/3 of the days be an issue
5) no storage -- you basically have to carry everything you need so a much more encumbered way to proceed through the day.

1) not true. how do you bike? :/
2) so don't wear one
3) get in shape. a 2-3km easygoing bike ride should not make you sweaty but is still by far the fastest mode of transportation
4) more like 1/10th. in belgium it rains 6% of the time for example.
5) meh

I guess my slightly overstated remark wanted to underline how standard it is for people in some cities to bike. Even for Henrys! Someone in a suit on a bike isn't all that unusual.

None of this is all that important obv, the self-evidency with which you present your particular view of the world just annoys me sometimes. This thread in general presents only a couple very particular worldviews most people would disagree with, some counterbalance can't hurt. w/e

1) Just last week I was behind someone with a huge line of brown **** on the back of their coat. Took me a few seconds to realize it was mud from the back tire sprayed up. Then there is the chain marking issue and the toe clips scuffing shoes. Not to mention your doing physical activity on a machine that propels you though the elements -- **** gets damaged. Not everyone is going around in jeans and a t-shirt.

2) It would be illegal not to. No idea how much that is enforced.

3) 2-3km is too short to bother with a bike. The bike is really only worth it for longer distances. It also has nothing to do with being in shape -- in the summer just being outside while sitting you start to get sweaty so adding movement to that makes it unavoidable. In my experience North America is much more humid than Europe which makes the heat much worse.

4) Ottawa has 161 days of precipitation but I assume that also includes snow. Going across Canada no city is below 120 days.

5) Lack of storage is no just meh. Having to carry everything you need for the day into every venue you visit has a real impact on quality of life -- again if you're a student carrying around a lot of **** is more common but as an adult you can't do that.

In 'merica I don't need to wear a helmet if I so choose.

I haven't rode a bike to work since I was in college. I admire those that do, but it's definitely not for me, and this is coming from someone who does triathlons and other biking events.

well don't use a race bike obviously... mud from back tire? chain marking? toe clips? citybikes have none of those problems, neither do the city cycle hire bikes more and more cities have - those are ideal for the 3km distances. even in london bike is faster than tube

2-3km is the perfect amount to bother with a bike, significantly faster than walking and a car is slower and less convenient

also, days of precipitation =/= precipitation at that time

i'm not saying everyone should bike or whatever, but saying biking isn't an option for most people who care about their appearance is just lol. not only are there plenty of people who care about their appearance and are perceived as such that don't wear suits (or other clothes that make biking a problem), there are also cities in the world where biking is nothing unusual for people wearing suits. there are even cities where not taking the bike because of a little bit of rain or sweatiness makes you look a bit like a douche, even among the subset of people described below

you've said yourself, multiple times, that you live in a north american big city highly educated highly earning highly successful beautiful people bubble. good for you but i don't get how you can combine admitting that with such blanket statements

All you've proved is Canada sucks.

I really don't understand people like Henry or a lot of people in this thread. My question was if i could live off of 27.5k / year comfortably by any means. Not "hey judge me on how much I get paid and tell me how your life is better than mine!"

I really don't give a **** if you think college is a waste if you don't make x amount. That's a ****ing preposterous statement anyway because you only look at college as an entrance into a job and you aren't looking at it's other benefits.

That wasn't the point of the thread. You made it the point of the thread because you just want to troll people and remind everyone that you make money. Cool dude.

Stop changing thread topics or don't respond.

Can you live off of $27.5K a year? Absolutely, though obviously it would be easier in a place like (for instance) Orlando, Florida than it would be in Manhattan or San Francisco.

Get a roommate, eat at home, live frugally, join your local YMCA, and then get into sports & working out for your primary source of entertainment.

Nobody has compared their life to yours. Obviously most people's lives in BFI would be better simple because most people in BFI make considerably above the geographically adjusted average income while your below your state's average by almost 10%. That isn't an interesting discussion and I don't remember anyone going there.

Unless mommy and daddy paid for school what you make coming out is important. I don't know much about student loans but you are going to be expected to pay those back and even with breaks for low income you'll still have to pay something. This makes that tangent very relevant since even $100 a month in student debt is significant when you're take home is roughly $2k a month.

There is no point to this thread. With respect to your original question that isn't an interesting question. We all know that people live on less than $27,500 in areas much more expensive than Florida. Everybody's answer is going to be the same -- of course it is possible to survive but life is going to be very basic and not much fun. Obviously you knew that already or you wouldn't have started this topic. If you expected someone to give you a secret method of living a more robust lifestyle on no money that was fairly delusional.

My guess is that your motivation for starting this topic was in hopes that people would empathize with your situation and tell you everything is going to be ok -- it is but not in the sense that you'll ever likely have the life you imagined -- you will make more money but more than likely unless you do something significant to change your situation or luck out you'll likely always make less than your peer group and won't be able to afford the life you are currently wanting. The good thing is that as enough time passes it is human nature to just become happy with your situation so you'll be fine at least in a relativistic sense.

The value in this topic is not about helping you-- there is really nothing any of us can do to change your situation-- but rather it serves as a warning to any younger members who are still in school and not giving enough consideration to how their decisions while in the bubble of school will impact their life after graduation.

Rofl if it's not an interesting question then why respond? Your input of "wow going to college was a waste for you" has literally 0 value ITT. My purpose for starting it was to see if people have been in my spot before and see how they handled it.

You're still not seeing the value of college'a other aspects. Also, you proving your own irrelevant point by mentioning student loans is ignorant without knowing my particular situation. If you knew that I had no debt, then you wouldn't have made that point in the first place.

If this topic is so uninteresting then stop posting in my thread.

Have you considered going to a tech school and learning a trade? Becoming an electrician or plumber would greatly improve your earning potential.

Curious what this is.

depends on hobbies and interests

And house share.

Making ******ed people feel special.

Depends on costs of living. I started out at 26k after college 1 year ago and will be making 45k after a year of work at a Fortune 500. I think most important thing is working for a solid company with advancement opportunities and having drive. Economy is pretty meh as of late especially for recent college grads looking for jobs with little experience. I lived at home also so living on a low salary wasn't a big deal but if I had an apartment I would be strapped for cash.

I think you are actually completely wrong. Its city people that need a car the absolute least in the world. Its the sprawl that justifiably needs a car. Idk where your logic is coming from. Infrastructure + proximity is the complete name of this game.

I think the standard fish knee jerk reaction is to buy a car and not think about a bicycle. So putting it out there to question people's transportation problem is great in a super fat ass country.

A lot of this is really just lazy talk and excuse finding. I could completely disprove nearly everything you say with serious action and have most of my life.

Again, not a super big deal to someone that makes reasonable money, but to people making minimum wage or a small multiple of it, putting money towards a car is ****ing mind blowing. Their time, their physical appearance (which I would argue actually gets better from biking, not worse), is all so unimportant in the grand scheme of things yet a car is mostly serving those parameters. Big mistake. But hey, if you don't agree, that's your opinion and you already talked this one out with Kaby.

Btw, I think you completely nailed it on your talk with Blake later, so props for writing something so eloquently there.

Honestly, reread that thing from Henry before you hate again. He said everything there nearly perfectly. (Except the car part )

Wtf do you expect to hear if not that then? Like wtf are you expecting from this thread?

Bottom line is, of course you can live with 27.5k, its just going to be very boring, uninteresting, normal, etc. And unless you do something drastic and try-hard, nothing will change.

I already said my part on bicycles, if you want the best advice you can ever get: live like you are earning 10-15k/year, save/invest like hell, study your ass off and make it pertinent to the real world, work out in all of your free time, eat very healthy food and put yourself out there in extremely risky +EV situations time and time again. If you don't go real hard and real strong, forget it. Nothing will come free on its own, too late in the game for that.

Finally. Some good content