I didn't remember that being your question so I checked and it wasn't. You asked if someone could live reasonably well and not if you could live comfortably. They are not the same state of being.

But to answer either question, we need to know your expenses. Also, what do you consider reasonably well and what is to live comfortably to you?

As I think I have said before, I lived reasonably well on less. But, and I don't think I said this before, I watched my fixed expenses.

1) Owning a ****ty car is 150 a month in insurance + gas max.

2) It's incredibly obvious you live in a place with good public transportation. In places like Central FL stuff you need to get to is routinely 10+ miles apart and traveling 25 miles by bus generally takes 1.5 hours+ 30 minutes for every transfer. When I was a lot younger I lived without a car in areas of the country with ****ty public transportation... I probably wasted 3.5 hours a day on riding the bus. At one point it took me 2 hours to get to work each way.

In places with good public transportation I couldn't agree with you enough, but in the US that's basically only Chicago, NYC, and maybe 1-2 other cities that I don't know well enough to think of off the top of my head. (San Francisco probably?)

DC, Boston, San Fran for sure. Portland and Seattle getting close to that level from what I remember, and you can even make it work in some places like Dallas and Houston if you choose where you live to accommodate it. Probably missing a few more in that category where you could get by if you planned it right.

Then again, here in Austin with **** public transport, I know a guy who doesn't own a car and lives and works downtown, but he rents a car every once in a while when he needs one.

Tijuana, a city world renowned for its outstanding public transportation. (Jokes aside, its not that terrible other than its kind of gross and annoying, but I never use it).

My good public transportation comes from my bicycle. Taxi/uber, renting a car in extreme circumstances.

Your 3.5 hours riding the bus vs riding a bike would have been a joke. Its pretty easy to clear 50-70 miles for 3.5 hours on a bike if you are in shape and in the clear. City mileage would vary a lot but you could still clear huge distances. Idk what kind of route you were taking but this was clearly suboptimal.

The biggest thing that I think the average person doesn't take into consideration is how efficient biking is because the "wasted time" from riding a bicycle is 0% wasted. You are getting exercise the entire time. There is no need to go on a treadmill after work for an hour, that time is already accounted for. You get mandatory forced exercise minimums each week, it costs next to nothing, quality bikes have insane resale value, its actually a lot quicker than people think and it saves an insane amount of money.

Whatever, I'm srs done talking about this subject itt.

In locations where public transportation is as efficient as owning a car you see adoption by more than just people who need to out of financial necessity -- that doesn't happen in many cities.

You forgot to account for the time needed to shower whenever you arrive somewhere.

The shower time would be the same -- you just shower at work rather than before leaving for work.

The problem is how many people actually have showers at work? This is pretty rare in my limited experience (although likely really common in tech) and generally the people who do have showers are making enough money that transportation is not a concern.

The other major issue is keeping all your **** at work. You basically have to treat your office like a hotel room and keep clothing there. It is a pain in the ass to have to manage all this.

henry17 bike education project:

Not everyone wears jeans and a t-shirt to work. Putting office clothing in a bag = need for ironing.

It's not just work, it's any time you need to go somewhere on the bike, if you are relying on it. Going to work is fine in some cases, places with gyms will have showers, and that covers a lot of places (though not a lot!). But are you going to sit at home all sweaty and gross and shower every time you get home? I normally would only shower in the morning, but now it's 2x a day minimum.

But going to a bar with friends or going out to eat? Then add in if you have kids or anything, or need to pick up anything large. I have a trailer for my kids, but it's a huge pain in the ass and it's mostly a recreational thing. Bikes are great for certain situations and are terrible in others. Any kind of extreme cold or heat or rain, you are screwed.

At my last job, we had a lot who biked to work, and it worked for them, it was exercise and recreation, but there's no way you could consider it more convenient. A leisurely ride of 1-2 miles might work as well better than walking (though I found locking a bike and unlocking it more time consuming than what it was worth in savings in college, the last time I tried it, I ended up skating everywhere instead, much faster).

So much of this just depends on situation, there are times for everything, and the idea that one solution works for all situations is silly.

Oh yeah if you start to have a life then I agree completely -- you can't ride a bike to go for drinks, or a date, or to run most errands. I was over focused on work because realistically someone who needs to bike to save money isn't going to have a life.

I sincerely sympathize with your current situation. These recommendations have already been made, but it really comes down to:

-Reduce rent expense as much as possible (while protecting personal safety). This could include things as simple as taking on extra roommates or accepting no washer/dryer and using a laundry-mat

-Take government assistance for things like health insurance to reduce costs. 27.5K should be low enough to get you something. You could even put a % of your income (insane thought I know) into a 401K to reduce your annual wages more-so. This could drop you below a threshold and get you more money in assistance or at least begin your retirement fund with no real reduction in wage (off-set by the assistance). This one is a matter of pride and everyone will feel differently. I personally have paid a fortune into taxes, so I'd be happy if my money could help you.

-Shop like the biggest bargain hunter on the planet. This is made pretty easy thanks to the internet. I personally make a list, type the main stuff into google and see what sales show up. It's easier than you think, and if you're in FL you should have a Publix. They rock. The one by me currently has $12 for a rotisserie chicken, 2 1/2 pound sides (i.e. mac salad, potato salad, baked beans, etc), 4 dinner rolls and a 2 liter of coke product. You could get quite a few meals out of that if done properly.

+1. If you show up to work looking like a wrinkled mess consistently your income may suddenly become $0.00 annually.

Henry17 - bike commuting is a reality for many in cities and I do so myself. Yes, I have clothing at work. I can "shower" just fine with antiseptic wipes and nobody notices anything. I even have a handheld garment steamer to iron my clothing (works well enough). I also attend happy hour with colleagues after work; a simple bike lock solves this. I also run to work sometimes.

As for the OP, if he is not in a major city that supports bike commuting (e.g., safe bike lanes, drivers that are aware, shops to make repairs/get gear, horrendous weather, etc.) then biking is probably not the best option.

Something tells me this is not too common at 27.5K jobs.

You can clean your entire body (sponge bath) and wash your hair using a commonly available sink in a restroom when no one is around, so an available shower is not mandatory.

There are valid reports of beginning programmers in Silicon Valley who lived out of their vehicles for two years and has no other living quarters since apartments were so expensive. Some guy attended Duke U. this way. Of course the mild annual weather helped there.

I think you misunderstood the conversation -- nobody is denying someone can be homeless but only that it sucks. If someone is so poor that they have to shower in a bathroom sink then they do it but nobody who doesn't have to live that way would choose to. The discussion is not about what people will do when they have no options but what are acceptable choices when they have a choice -- even if that choice comes at a cost that given the current situation is considerable. For example would someone choose to save $0 and have a car or save $200/month and shower in a sink -- almost no one will choose the latter and those that do will have other personality traits that prevent them from ever making it anyway.

wtf, i thought even entry-level programming jobs in silicon valley were at or close to 6 figures? i know it's expensive but nobody making that should be homeless in any part of the world.

At a good company internships pay more than $100k and come with a $2-3k a month housing allowance -- that said I imagine that for every company we hear about there are a thousand startups where people work for very little on the delusions that they will eventually supernova.

A story that is relevant to this thread. Basically supports what Henry was saying.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/30s-st...070609216.html

Seems intuitive to me when you think about how many dead end jobs are out there. The only way to get a raise in this day and age is to get promoted. So-called annual raises are typically negative after inflation.

Getting a promotion requires a career path that has available promotions and often requires jumping ship to a different company. And then employers wonder why they cannot retain talent! Vicious cycle.

God this puts me on such ****ing epic donkey tilt. Coke product, seriously? Like you need this ****.

If you are smart and healthy, drink tap water, especially if you are the biggest bargain hunter on the planet.

don't drink coke OP

I drink 3-4 cokes a year so it isn't like I'm fan of cola consumption but I do think that cutting things of negligible cost that you enjoy out of your life to save money is a very common but also terrible approach. It is pretty consistent in these types of topics to tell the OP to cut everything down to sustenance level when what he should be doing is putting all his energy into figuring out how to make more money.

if you bothered reading then you would see that the 2 liter was part of a meal deal that would provide 4-5 meals easily for $12. He wasn't adding on the 2 liter because he just loves to drink coke.