What do you consider "poor" or "low-income"?

KYmama9286 · January 2011

After reading some of the posts below it got me wondering at what threshold do you consider someone to be poor or low income?

I know this will vary depending on COL but in general what income level makes you think "there is no way I could ever live on that amount"?

bobbyme · January 2011

Now I really need an Excedrin.

cobabymama · January 2011

The song "Money, money, monnnnneey" keeps coming to my mind today..

SassyPanties · January 2011

LOL. Yeah this can't go anywhere good.

How about we just say anyone living below the poverty line and leave it at that?

MammaBear81 · January 2011

I'm actually living on what most people would say "there is no way I could live on that" do I consider myself poor or low income? No. I have a house, two cars, food on my table and my children have clothes... so I'm not sure you can put a price on "low income" KWIM?

KYmama9286 · January 2011

I'm not meaning this to start a big debate-- I am just genuinely interested. Honestly we are probably what someone considers low-income and I'm not offended by that because I don't feel poor one bit. What got me thinking of it honestly was the whole EIC-- and someone explained it below as when someone works but makes an unusually low income. We are eligible for that but I don't feel low income at all.

We own our own house, have no debt (with the exception of our mortgage), we still have an active social life, etc. I dunno it just makes me curious what people think about this topic. Also I was watching Oprah recently and she had some guy on her show discussing happiness and he said that research he had done showed that people aren't necessarily happier when they have a higher income--that it kind of taps out once you make $75,000 but I know in some areas $75k/year would be virtually nothing.

curlychic · January 2011

I think that it has everything to do with how you handle your finances.

You could make 6 figures, live in a high COL area, and not handle your money well. You would have no disposable income and be "poor".

You could also make a lot less, live in a low COL area, live frugally, giving you plenty of disposable income, and that could make you "rich".

I guess it all depends on your perspective.

DrinknDerive · January 2011

We might as well all just post a bank statement. :P Don't you guys judge my Starbucks habit!

Dreamsicle23 · January 2011

Poor is very relative. I think it varies drastically by area.

knbarr · January 2011

MammaBear81:
I'm actually living on what most people would say "there is no way I could live on that" do I consider myself poor or low income? No. I have a house, two cars, food on my table and my children have clothes... so I'm not sure you can put a price on "low income" KWIM?

This is my family-

knbarr · January 2011

MammaBear81:
I'm actually living on what most people would say "there is no way I could live on that" do I consider myself poor or low income? No. I have a house, two cars, food on my table and my children have clothes... so I'm not sure you can put a price on "low income" KWIM?

This is my family-

CincyBuckeye · January 2011

DrinknDerive:
We might as well all just post a bank statement. :P Don't you guys judge my Starbucks habit!

Seriously. I find all the posts about money to be somewhat AW-ish. And a little tacky.

hterry85 · January 2011

I get what you're saying.

I was kind of surprised in one of the tax posts with multilpe people saying they wouldn't want to qualify for the EIC, because it would mean such a low income. I hardly know anyone around here that DOESN'T get the EIC, and I would not consider most of them poor by any means.

hterry85 · January 2011

I get what you're saying.

I was kind of surprised in one of the tax posts with multilpe people saying they wouldn't want to qualify for the EIC, because it would mean such a low income. I hardly know anyone around here that DOESN'T get the EIC, and I would not consider most of them poor by any means.

kategw · January 2011

Kirbus:
skyllingstadl:

I'm not meaning this to start a big debate-- I am just genuinely interested. Honestly we are probably what someone considers low-income and I'm not offended by that because I don't feel poor one bit. What got me thinking of it honestly was the whole EIC-- and someone explained it below as when someone works but makes an unusually low income. We are eligible for that but I don't feel low income at all.

We own our own house, have no debt (with the exception of our mortgage), we still have an active social life, etc. I dunno it just makes me curious what people think about this topic. Also I was watching Oprah recently and she had some guy on her show discussing happiness and he said that research he had done showed that people aren't necessarily happier when they have a higher income--that it kind of taps out once you make $75,000 but I know in some areas $75k/year would be virtually nothing.

I never understood why people acted as though mortgages don't count as debt. Why would you say you have no debt, and then in parenthesis say except for the mortgage? A mortgage is debt. Usually, it's the largest debt someone will have during their life. It just doesn't make sense to me. If you want to say you don't have credit card debt that's one thing, but a mortgage is a debt.

word.

lexiflexi · January 2011

Personally, I believe that it's all a matter of perspective. You ask me what I could and could not live without my answer is going to be vastly different from my husband and his family. But there are life experiences that I've had that they have not and can't see the value in being humble. They've had things handed to them their whole life and come from money to begin with. It would be too much of a shock for them to live on what I would live on, if I had to.

I agree with a previous response though. This thread is going to hurt someone's feelings.

DrinknDerive · January 2011

CincyBuckeye:
DrinknDerive:
We might as well all just post a bank statement. :P Don't you guys judge my Starbucks habit!
Seriously. I find all the posts about money to be somewhat AW-ish. And a little tacky.

Agreed. I don't care if I'm rich/poor according to the perspective of internet strangers. Does everyone want to know what percentile they are or something?

kateoats · January 2011

DrinknDerive:
We might as well all just post a bank statement. :P Don't you guys judge my Starbucks habit!

Just marry someone who works there Wink I haven't had to pay for Starbucks in 8 years. Maybe I should send you some of my excess coffee Smile

ABColeslaw · January 2011

Yeah I don't know how to answer this. My husband makes what I think is a good salary. BUT we both have made many financial mistakes in the past. We have a lot of debt and our credit is really bad. I know for a fact that we make more money than a lot of our friends. But they end up with way more left over money and have more savings than we do. On any given month we have two car payments, two insurance payments, my student loans, vast medical bills, Asher's medical bills and food costs, our regular bills like phones, electricity, heat, food, and we are trying to pay back debt...so usually one huge bill a month like $2000 or something. We end up with pretty much nothing left over and there have been several times when we didn't calculate correctly and tried to aggressively pay off a back bill and really screwed ourselves until the next paycheck. We have so little left over, that I still have not purchased clothing for after pregnancy. I'm just making it work with what I have.

I guess what I'm saying is, if you saw our salary you wouldn't think we were "poor" But if you had to live with us or with our expenses...you might feel poor. And we do not qualify for any type of assistance. I'm not saying we should, because the mistakes we made in the past are mostly our own fault....with the exception of the medical bills....there was nothing to be done about that.

I'd love to buy a house someday, but until we pay back all our debt and clear up our credit...we're going to be poor.

IrishBrideND · January 2011

DrinknDerive:
CincyBuckeye:

DrinknDerive:
We might as well all just post a bank statement. :P Don't you guys judge my Starbucks habit!

Seriously. I find all the posts about money to be somewhat AW-ish. And a little tacky.

Agreed. I don't care if I'm rich/poor according to the perspective of internet strangers. Does everyone want to know what percentile they are or something?

Honestly, I think its a good discussion. I wish there was an agreed upon definition of rich and poor because those words are thrown around a lot. I think many political debates are actually just misunderstandings between two people or sides about what those words mean. I think if we discussed in depth what each side thinks that means, we could have much more productive conversations.

But in the end, the vast majortity of people think they are middle class. No one (ok most people) don't think they are poor or rich. Its interesting.

DrinknDerive · January 2011

kateoats:
DrinknDerive:
We might as well all just post a bank statement. :P Don't you guys judge my Starbucks habit!

Just marry someone who works there I haven't had to pay for Starbucks in 8 years. Maybe I should send you some of my excess coffee

Jealous!

DrinknDerive · January 2011

kateoats:
DrinknDerive:
We might as well all just post a bank statement. :P Don't you guys judge my Starbucks habit!

Just marry someone who works there I haven't had to pay for Starbucks in 8 years. Maybe I should send you some of my excess coffee

Jealous!

aocain02@yahoo.com · January 2011

It's all relative to the region you live in. What's low income in southern California could be middhe income elsewhere in the country.

DaisyFull · January 2011

CincyBuckeye:
DrinknDerive:
We might as well all just post a bank statement. :P Don't you guys judge my Starbucks habit!
Seriously. I find all the posts about money to be somewhat AW-ish. And a little tacky.

This.

I hear my father's voice telling me from the grave "You can talk about religion and politics until you make people cry. Never talk about money - no good ever comes of it."

KYmama9286 · January 2011

IrishBrideND:

Honestly, I think its a good discussion. I wish there was an agreed upon definition of rich and poor because those words are thrown around a lot. I think many political debates are actually just misunderstandings between two people or sides about what those words mean. I think if we discussed in depth what each side thinks that means, we could have much more productive conversations.

But in the end, the vast majortity of people think they are middle class. No one (ok most people) don't think they are poor or rich. Its interesting.

This is kind of why I posted it-- also to pp who said a mortgage is debt. I agree, obviously it is a huge debt, but I view it more as an investment in our future than a debt. When I think of debt I more think of student loans, car loans, credit card debt, etc. Actually student loans can also be somewhat viewed as an investment also, IMO at least.

homebird · January 2011

IrishBrideND:
Honestly, I think its a good discussion. I wish there was an agreed upon definition of rich and poor because those words are thrown around a lot. I think many political debates are actually just misunderstandings between two people or sides about what those words mean. I think if we discussed in depth what each side thinks that means, we could have much more productive conversations.

But in the end, the vast majortity of people think they are middle class. No one (ok most people) don't think they are poor or rich. Its interesting.

I can guarantee you most of you would consider me "poor". My husband and I both work very hard to be good parents and provide for our little family. We're doing the best we can with what we've got, and we're always pushing for better. I have no shame in that.

sleepingbeauty825 · January 2011

I cant imagine living on less than 20k/year. But ditto all pp's that it is how you manage your money.

RadicalDreamer143 · January 2011

To me, poor is people who carry credit card debt and barely live paycheck to paycheck. Having a house means nothing to me - you could "own" a house and not be able to really afford the payments without sacrificing creature comforts. Poor to me is when something goes wrong - your a/c breaks, the transmission on your car dies - and you cannot pay for it without incurring debt.

I used to feel poor, back when we made under $120k and lived in NYC. Now I feel "comfortably upper middle class", since we can afford to have me stay home and still live rather comfortably, vacation, etc. I don't feel "rich" though, lol.

mrstarawalsh · January 2011

Poor, to me, is when all you can afford to feed your family is rice and powdered milk. When you have Giovvanni weilding a baseball bat coming to collect your bedroom furniture 2 days before Christmas. When all your kids clothe's has been handed down 3 times. When you're afraid to answer the phone because its a debt collector. When you have to hide your shiity little car 2 blocks away so it won't be repoed. When your 16 year old is is paying some of your essential bills . When you have to go to your brother's house to take a shower because your waters been turned off. Anything else is middle class, to me.

BurnNurse · January 2011

I consider us somewhat poor. On paper, between the two of us, it looks like we do fairly good. But we were both very irresponsible with money in the past, and accrued a lot of debt, so sometimes, we have very VERY little left over after we pay our bills. But we have a roof over our heads, food on our table, LO is never without and we make sure we pay our bills each month. .

Truly poor was when my parents divorced and my mom and I split a can of off brand ravioli for dinner. And she made $10 too much a week working at Sav-A-Lot to get a medical card for me.

akl0506 · January 2011

Sassy_Panties:

LOL. Yeah this can't go anywhere good.

How about we just say anyone living below the poverty line and leave it at that?

totally agree. people spend their money SO differently from one another, it is hard to pinpoint a $$ amount that is ok to live on. honestly, DH and I could live practically identically to how we do now in a smaller, older (and, likely cheaper) home and save a ton of money. don't even get me started on our cars!

Jennicap · January 2011

I think below the poverty level is poor or low-income and that varys from state to state. The poverty level in CT is 27K, living here I can't imagine living at that level or even below it. I would barely be able to rent a studio apartment and probably couldn't even afford to fill up my car with gas let alone put groceries on the table. But in other parts of the states that might be moderate.

homebird · January 2011

mrstarawalsh:
Poor, to me, is when all you can afford to feed your family is rice and powdered milk. When you have Giovvanni weilding a baseball bat coming to collect your bedroom furniture 2 days before Christmas. When all your kids clothe's has been handed down 3 times. When you're afraid to answer the phone because its a debt collector. When you have to hide your shiity little car 2 blocks away so it won't be repoed. When your 16 year old is is paying some of your essential bills . When you have to go to your brother's house to take a shower because your waters been turned off. Anything else is middle class, to me.

Cool, I don't fit your definition of "poor".

What a paragraph of stereotypes. Tongue Tied Giovvanni? Really?

mrstarawalsh · January 2011

homebird:
mrstarawalsh:
Poor, to me, is when all you can afford to feed your family is rice and powdered milk. When you have Giovvanni weilding a baseball bat coming to collect your bedroom furniture 2 days before Christmas. When all your kids clothe's has been handed down 3 times. When you're afraid to answer the phone because its a debt collector. When you have to hide your shiity little car 2 blocks away so it won't be repoed. When your 16 year old is is paying some of your essential bills . When you have to go to your brother's house to take a shower because your waters been turned off. Anything else is middle class, to me.
Cool, I don't fit your definition of "poor".
What a paragraph of stereotypes. Giovvanni? Really?

Call it what you want, but that's what I lived growing up. The dude who repoed my moms bedroom furniture 2 days before Christmas really was named Giovvanni.

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