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S/O: Affluence


DawnM
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Where does your income fall?  

303 members have voted

  1. 1. Income percentage

    • Bottom 25%
      11
    • Bottom 26%-50%
      46
    • Top 49%-40%
      25
    • Top 39%-30%
      37
    • Top 29%-20%
      49
    • Top 19%-10%
      59
    • Top 9%-6%
      30
    • Top 5%
      37
    • Our income varies so much I can't really answer
      7
    • We are out of work or retired or not currently working
      2


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Without a car at all?

 

There was no way to have done that when we lived in Los Angeles.  It is a huge urban SPRAWL and you cannot rely only on public transpiration to get where you need to go.  Work, church, out for dinner....no way.  The public transportation has historically been very car dependent.

 

Even my friends in major cities (NYC, San Fran, Ontario, Chicago) who use public transportation for work and general stores, have a car of some sort to go visit relatives, go on trips, etc......

 

And I think typically high cost of housing is indicative of high costs of living.  I know we got double the house for half the price when we moved to NC.  We know moving back will mean half the house for double the price.

 

Thankfully the weather is such that we kind of "live" outside, which is easier to do with a yard than go hang out after work at a park, when I am exhausted and just want to enjoy my own personal private backyard, preferably with a pool.   :laugh:

 

When I lived in CA temporarily without a car it was terrible. I did take a bus to church and the mall but had to borrow my sister's car for a job interview and had to call her when I got the bus schedule wrong one night and was stranded at the bus stop. I wasn't in LA but I was in LA county.

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When I lived in CA temporarily without a car it was terrible. I did take a bus to church and the mall but had to borrow my sister's car for a job interview and had to call her when I got the bus schedule wrong one night and was stranded at the bus stop. I wasn't in LA but I was in LA county.

 

Yup, it is a huge urban sprawl.

 

The Metro has made it a little better, but it is far from great.  If you HAPPEN to live in walking distance to a Metro station and HAPPEN to work within walking distance to the destination, I suppose you could get by.

 

My oldest doesn't drive.  We don't know if he ever will.  We are going to have to think of something.

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My oldest doesn't drive.  We don't know if he ever will.  We are going to have to think of something.

 

My oldest still doesn't have his license, and I'm worried about what will happen if he doesn't improve.  His father lives in the suburbs, and I live pretty rural.  We have NO good solutions.  :sad:

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My oldest still doesn't have his license, and I'm worried about what will happen if he doesn't improve.  His father lives in the suburbs, and I live pretty rural.  We have NO good solutions.  :sad:

 

Yeah, it is a real issue.

Right now we are able to give him rides but it is a PAIN.  He is in our local community college.  But he will graduate at the end of next year and there are NO jobs in his line of work in this area.  We are looking at a move back to CA.  But even that presents issues for him.

 

He may not ever drive.  We don't know.  He has some special needs (ASD) and even though he took driver's ed, he never got his license and refuses to even talk about getting it.

 

We had looked at moving even within our area, so that we could be within walking distance of the bus stop, but then we didn't, and now the younger two are in PS and love it and we just can't yank them out of their schools to move.  

 

We are semi-rural and the nearest bus stop is 10 miles away.  The city is 19 miles.  Thankfully DH and I both work up near the community college, so he gets rides from us for now, but it is a PAIN since I get off at 2pm and then go pick him up at 4pm.  I really just want to come HOME.

 

We have a better plan for next semester (he will only go in one day per week and sit through the entire day of 3 classes.  The other 2 are online) but this semester is awful.

 

Anyway, that was a very long rant, but I am very tired and this is getting very old.

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Yeah, it is a real issue.

Right now we are able to give him rides but it is a PAIN.  He is in our local community college.  But he will graduate at the end of next year and there are NO jobs in his line of work in this area.  We are looking at a move back to CA.  But even that presents issues for him.

 

He may not ever drive.  We don't know.  He has some special needs (ASD) and even though he took driver's ed, he never got his license and refuses to even talk about getting it.

 

We had looked at moving even within our area, so that we could be within walking distance of the bus stop, but then we didn't, and now the younger two are in PS and love it and we just can't yank them out of their schools to move.  

 

We are semi-rural and the nearest bus stop is 10 miles away.  The city is 19 miles.  Thankfully DH and I both work up near the community college, so he gets rides from us for now, but it is a PAIN since I get off at 2pm and then go pick him up at 4pm.  I really just want to come HOME.

 

We have a better plan for next semester (he will only go in one day per week and sit through the entire day of 3 classes.  The other 2 are online) but this semester is awful.

 

Anyway, that was a very long rant, but I am very tired and this is getting very old.

 

Rant away! It's ASD here, too!

I've been pushing for OT, but he's primarily living at his dad's for CC.  His father sees it as a fear thing. I see it as an actual spacial awareness/executive functioning/motor skills thing.

He does have his permit, and he does use it once in a while, but he's nowhere near ready. I don't know if he'd improve with help, but I really don't believe he will without it.

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We are in a very HCOL area and even with our zip code put in there, it said we only need $1800 for housing. You can't get a 1br apartment for that where we live.

We live in rural OK and it says our transportation costs should be $723 per month. We are at about 1150. And that is with two of the three vehicles paid for.

 

And it has housing at $623. We have no mortgage and our electric/gas/water/trash runs us $350 per month. In town there are some small 2 bedroom one bath duplexes (900 SF) that rent for $650. That would leave nothing for utilities according to this calculator.

Edited by Scarlett
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Rant away! It's ASD here, too!

I've been pushing for OT, but he's primarily living at his dad's for CC. His father sees it as a fear thing. I see it as an actual spacial awareness/executive functioning/motor skills thing.

He does have his permit, and he does use it once in a while, but he's nowhere near ready. I don't know if he'd improve with help, but I really don't believe he will without it.

I feel for both of you. My son has many of the same issues and I'm doubting the wisdom of his getting a license at all. Right now he bikes around our suburb to activities and such but I'm going to be a nervous wreck if he bikes to the city where the university is next year. He isn't the only one who shouldn't have a license! Half this city shouldn't and they hate pedestrians or bicyclists because one time they saw another bicyclist do something wrong. Wish they had the same attitude towards cars which I see doing dumb stuff every time I leave my house.

 

People don't think about all the people who have disabilities, are elderly, or just don't have the funds for a car. My heart aches when I see an older person walking down an icy road with groceries in 0 F weather because the sidewalk is where all the snow from the road gets piled up.. My guess is elderly people would have an easier time giving up their keys if they didn't lose every ounce of freedom they have in doing so.

 

One of the things we are looking for in a college is the surrounding area and how bike friendly it is.

 

Edited for omitted word.

Edited by frogger
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My son with ASD is a good driver but it has taken me two years to teach him. He was just in a parking lot for months. One minor mistake and he'd shut down at first. I'm the only one who can teach him. After going out with dh once, he refuses to go with him again.

 

But back to the main topic: affordable transportation is a big deal. For years we only had one car. Bus wasn't really an option for most trips in my suburban city -especially with young kids. So most of the time we stayed home and tried to do errands on Saturday. On days when I needed the car, I would have to load sleeping kids into the car, drop dh off at work and then go to the doctor or see friends. We didn't often see friends because of it. Or at least we didn't go to their place much. I hosted them at my place a lot instead.

 

I know that just having one reliable car is a big luxury for many. I was very grateful that we had that. And now I'm even more grateful that we have two cars now. I drive 3 hours a day getting kids to college, work and activities (because ASD son still doesn't actually have his license). Dh couldn't do that and still work.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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a person earning $450,000 in a year has more $$ to do something with than 99.9% of people in the world.

 

That person is absolutely affluent.

 

Are their wealthier people? Sure. But I think the number of people s/he is ahead of in terms of income matters more.

 

Now, if that person has done something idiotically profligate and is in debt up to the gills they may in fact not have a ton of disposable income. Too bad so sad because they still have more $$ they could have done something with than the huge vast majority of people on the earth. So what that they are affluent enough to dig a bigger debt hole for themself than other folks with fewer resources to begin with can?

 

But I think this sounds plausible because of the idea that they have been an idiot - they have made a bad choiceto "waste" their money.

 

What about a family that makes a lot but spends so much on, say, medical care that they live a very restricted lifestyle?  I would think of that person as having a large income but not really being affluent.  Certainly, luck not to worse off, but that isn't quite the same thing.

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I think of it the same way because, yeah, it stinks to spend all of your money on medical bills but that person still has more options than the people watching a loved one die or suffer because they do not have the money to pay for treatment.

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I did that EPI.org for my city, which is in both my and the feds estimation a city with lower than average costs.  I did it for what we claim now- 2 adults and our one child who is actually a college student so we don't need their child care option.  They have housing here as 689 total.  Maybe in the worse part of town but just maybe.  My son lived in a one bedroom apartment in a very bad complex- in terms of other residents and crime, and he paid over 450 dollars.  He lived in one of the few unrenovated appartments and that was in 2012.  Not a two bedroom apartment like a family would need.  A two bedroom apartment in  a safe but older apartment complex where he lives now with a roommate is over 800 and then there are utilities.  It was one of the cheaper apartments that weren't ghetto.  On the other hand, I think some of the other expenses are too high probably.  I am not sure why they need to spend over 613 on transportation- most modest families have very cheap cars or cheap leases.  We don't have long commutes here.  But I don't know what they mean by modest.  There figures seemed off to me in many regards.  

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It may go that way.  I think better urban planning would make more sense though, so there are neighbbourhoods at various price points throughout cities.

 

I do think they may have to rethink some aspects of how they are housing people in the sense of the format.  For example, you don;t often see boarding houses any more, or even people with boarders.  Some of its diven by building codes I think, but also pepole seem to have developed an expectation for more privacy.  It's even evident when looking at thing like university housing, it seems to be going in a much diferent direction now than it was 20 years ago.  But it makes it more expensive.

 

Boarding houses were regulated away, which is sad.  

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