Topic: 76% of Americans living pay check to paycheck

[herdfan429]

This is shocking to me, even though I'm in the 76%, but working to get out of debt. Any of you guys have any success stories, tips, tricks that helped you get debt free and on a better financial footing?

http://money.cnn.com/2013/06/24/pf/emergency-savings/index.html

[clovenhoof]

Still in debt but am working my way out as well. Things that are working for me are to make cuts till it hurts, which is hard to do with two teenagers. Also work overtime any time it's available.  Also increased depositing to Roth IRA. For a guy like me its going to take pain, just like a diet. Oh yeah, we only eat out maybe once a week.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2

[biggreenarms]

Work a second job. I know everyone cannot do that due to family commitments with their kids but if you can do it you could use the extra income to pay down principles or put towards one debt at a time until it's manageable or gone.

I just completed a seasonal second job at Home Depot. Not for debt reasons but mainly out of boredom and to have the extra income to buy/do some things I wanted. I had good time, made some new friends and learned some things. I'll likely do it again next spring either there or somewhere else.

[clovenhoof]

Work a second job. I know everyone cannot do that due to family commitments with their kids but if you can do it you could use the extra income to pay down principles or put towards one debt at a time until it's manageable or gone.

I just completed a seasonal second job at Home Depot. Not for debt reasons but mainly out of boredom and to have the extra income to buy/do some things I wanted. I had good time, made some new friends and learned some things. I'll likely do it again next spring either there or somewhere else.

Big Green are a teacher? I thought about working at Lowe's or Home Depot for the summer. Is the pay decent?

[phillyherdfan]

This is shocking to me, even though I'm in the 76%, but working to get out of debt. Any of you guys have any success stories, tips, tricks that helped you get debt free and on a better financial footing?

http://money.cnn.com/2013/06/24/pf/emergency-savings/index.html

The advice I give people is to use the stack method.... described just yesterday on LifeHacker - http://lifehacker.com/how-to-pay-off-your-debt-using-the-stack-method-576070292

As someone else mentioned... it's like a diet.  Tough, but do-able.  Thankfully, I don't live this way anymore and only have a house payment and for that I keep a "rainy day fund" equal to 2 years of house payments... just in case.  But, this was only after around 10 years of pay check to pay check living.  The stress that this removes from your life is truly life saving.

Goodluck!

[spaldy]

One of the big ones is cost of living.  Sometimes we get so caught up in paying the bills we don't step back and look at some of the "macro issues".    If you have no reason to live in a big city or high tax state (Family or Job) then look into moving to a lower cost area.   Housing sales are picking up (especially in bigger cities) and it's not a bad time to sell. 

I moved from an urban area years ago to a low tax, low cost housing area.  Job paid the same but it basically more than doubled my income.   I can still remember things like property taxes going down 3/4's, income tax cut in half, sales tax cut by 30% and even things like cigs going from $8 to 3.25 a pack. 

It's a huge step but something worth looking into.  Many jobs are "portable now".  You don't have to live in a certain area and the pay differences don't fully reflect the cost differences.

[biggreenarms]

Big Green are a teacher? I thought about working at Lowe's or Home Depot for the summer. Is the pay decent?

I don't know anything about Lowes but I'm sure it's fine for part time work as well. I made $10.25 an hour, worked 20-29 hours per week in Home Depot's lumber/building materials department. If you end up in that department with either company be prepared to work your ass off. It's grunt work and a lot of loading/unloading with fork lifts, reach trucks and lift trucks.

One of the main reasons I chose Home Depot was because one of my goals this year was to give to more charities. When researching Home Depot I found they had something called a "Homer Fund" which is funded by company employees and goes to employees that are in need because of a financial crises or facing serious medical illness, property damage (i.e. house fire, tornado, flood, etc) loss of a spouse that's a the primary source of income, etc. Each case is submitted to a special department at Home Depot corporate that only deals with the Homer Fund and the employee that is granted a fund does not have to pay it back.

There was a guy at my store that has a 2 year old with cancer. He was given over $15,000 to assist with medical bills and help pay his mortagage. I think that's pretty powerful and shows that the company still has a "family" philosophy amungst there workforce from the CEO down to the guy that sweeps the floors. I chose to give a pretty substantial portion of my paycheck so I found it rewarding to know that I was working to help others in need.

Also, as with most places of business the employees are affected more by store management than by the company philosophy. On the surface I think Home Depot is a really good company and you can start out as a part time employee and work your way to a store manager, DM or RM in a pretty short time frame. I worked with some managers that weren't the sharpest and also worked with a lot of lazy ass employees. The company is still a good company though and I'm sure each store is different in how that store is managed and run. Give them a try.

[00mag12gaVa]

This is shocking to me, even though I'm in the 76%, but working to get out of debt. Any of you guys have any success stories, tips, tricks that helped you get debt free and on a better financial footing?

http://money.cnn.com/2013/06/24/pf/emergency-savings/index.html

"OK EVERYONE ON THE FLOOR!!! THIS IS A BANK ROBBERY!!!" :o :o :o :o

[Johnnyherd]

1)  Earn with three hands....

I have done all of the following in a attempt to earn

Taken 2nd and 3rd jobs
Had several private jobs and contracts (Krogers, WV National guard, School Board, Beckley Cross Roads Mall, Yeager Airport, WV American water, Charleston Town Center, CAMC, Watt Powell Park)
Buy items of value and sell them for more money
Had a rental property for about 8 years
Still have a back hoe / loader
Bought stuff in "lots" of items and sold them separately
Bought chainsaws, motorcycles and cars that aren't running and repaired them or sold them for parts.
I bought a John Deere riding mower that was "not running" (fuel line that was pulled off) $400 and sold it for $900
I once bought a vehicle on a credit card for 4400 from a friend of my family, drove it for a year and sold it for 5500.  I only paid $43 a month to the CC company to own it for a year. (learned that one from my brother in law)
I took a contract clearing an area....Then sold logs to a private saw mill 
I delivered mattresses in college...Then took the nicer used mattresses with the "free removal" and sold them to a used furnature store.
I have sold 2 loads of scrap metal and recycled 4-5 cars
I had greyhound racing dog with a buddy.  We bred her and 3 of her pups made the racing circuit.

and those are the things that I can think of right now.

While it's almost a necessity to have a "Primary Job" for health Insurance, retirement and stable income.  It's important to understand that when you work for someone else, "You are making them money!" and don't forget that.  Doing the things above most of the time, I worked for myself and I made 100% of the profit.