Welcome, Little Guys
Living decently on a low income is something many of us are going to have to perfect. Times have changed and, with them, the look of financial freedom has had a makeover.
Many people have been hurt by the sub-prime mortgage scandal. As a result their income has been severely and acutely affected. Those are the very people that will have to learn to live decently on a low (or at least lower) income. So, what does it mean to live decently on a low income?
If you have had your income cut significantly because your debt ratio has recently become a fire hazard, it is going to be necessary for you to learn how to live within your means while trying to retain some of the finer things in life that you have gotten used to over the course of the time prior to your financial debacle
The sad thing is that, for a fact, you are NOT going to be able to maintain the lifestyle that you had when you had a great income, money to burn and lots of credit. Things have changed significantly now and you're going to have a new set of financial rules to live by. You may be able to retain a certain level of respectability but the old days of high living are in the past (at least for now) until you can get your financial life back together. This is what is meant as living decently. You won't live like a pauper, but you also won't be able to live like you had a lot of money. You must learn to live on a dime.
A low income may be less than $200,000 a year to some people while it may, on the other hand, be less than $60,000 a year to someone else, depending on where you live and what the cost of living is there. If you were making $100,000 a year and suddenly, you're income drops to $60,000 a year, you may feel like you're broke. Another person may think $60,000 a year is a fortune.
You $100,000 a year people should take a lesson from the $60K a year folks and learn how to live like they do. Hey, there are many people living on less than $40K a year and doing fine. It's just a matter of making some adjustments in order to learn how to live decently on a lower income.
There are some things you're going to have to give up if you're going to live decently on a lower income. Unfortunately, the newer generations have acquired an attitude of entitlement from which they have derived another attitude of greed and financial ignorance. They have been raised in the land of plenty where the dream never ends…or so they believe. Well, the fantasy does end eventually and if you're not prepared, it can destroy you.
You see, the lower income problem is not one of someone receiving less money for the work that they do. No, lower incomes are resulting because of several economic factors:
1. The value of the US Dollar has dropped significantly causing newly manufactured items to have tremendous price increases in order to keep a certain profit margin for the manufacturer.
2. The price of oil has gone up humongously. When fuel goes up, everything goes up because everything is affected in one way or another by the cost of fuel. Even the neighborhood lawn mowing service has to go up on their rates because they use gasoline to run their mowers.
3. When prices go up many people stop buying unnecessary items (That SHOULD be you now). When this happens, like a string of dominoes, jobs are lost because there are not enough profits for the vendors, more jobs are lost because the merchants with whom the vendors do business have to reduce their costs because there are getting enough business either. The manufacturers lose money because their fuel costs have gone up….it goes on and on, which leads to…
4. Recession. When recession occurs, the value of each dollar is reduced and, in turn, so is the value of consumer income…this starts another falling string of dominoes.
So, you see, when financial factors fall in line, everyone is hurt because prices go up while salaries and incomes go down or remain the same. Something that used to cost $1, now costs $3.50. So how can you maintain a decent lifestyle while the value of your income goes down?
You've simply got to cut corners. In order for you to live decently on a lower income, you have to find ways to reduce your outgoing expenses. There are many various ways to do this and the fact is, you really have few choices. You can either go on pretending that everything is fine and you're ok or you can wake up and face reality. Life has changed in this country and you are going to have to adjust to the changes until the financial markets can level out and the economy can adjust. This is not an overnight thing. It usually takes several years for prices to become stable and wages to catch up.
There are ways to make adjustments so that you can actually learn to live decently on a lower income but no one is going to find them for you. You will have to find ways to achieve a happy medium. Cutting your costs, especially fuel costs, will make a big difference.
One particular family has found a way to live within their means yet continue to live decently. Their income was significantly decreased and they had to make adjustments. Not only did they find ways to adjust, they also found ways to prosper with their new lower income. They are an inspiration and they've written some very excellent small ebooks to show others how to do the same thing they have. They have not only learned to live decently on a lower income. They have learned how to live on a dime.
I offer you more resources. If you have had the bad luck to have fallen into deep debt or have very poor credit scores, maybe one of the following will help you. These folks are the experts and know the specific techniques to use in order to quickly repair your credit or at least show you how to continue to live decently while getting back on your feet.
The fact is, if you are going to ever get ahead after developing all of your credit problems and debt problems, you are going to HAVE to get that credit repaired. The quicker the better. Don't be caught in the twilight world between good credit and ruined credit. You will suffer without having decent credit. You can find a local credit repair representative and pay out the patooti, you can look on the Internet and try to find help, again the cost is pretty high or you can do it yourself with the right knowledge. It's your choice and we offer some excellent resources for credit repair:
Guaranteed Bad Credit Financing