This Is The Biggest Expense Holding You Back
--
You’ve probably heard the expression “It’s not how much money you make, but how much money you keep” before. It’s good advice, until prices soar out of control.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2020, the average household earned $84,352 a year and spent $70,258 a year.
This isn’t consumers going out and buying new golf clubs or cruise line vacations, either. Most of that money was spent on essentials like food, transportation, and housing.
In fact, housing accounted for about 30% of all spending and is the biggest expense for most Americans.
And keep in mind, this report was published two years ago.
Things have only gotten worse since then.
According to March, 2022 data from Rent.com:
Nationwide rent prices have increased significantly year-over-year. One- and two-bedroom rents were up 24.4 percent and 21.8 percent, respectively.
I‘m going to give a very simple, money-saving tip to all would-be renters.
If you can get a work from home job, move abroad for a couple months. Doing so saves you a huge chunk of your annual income and will often improve other areas of your life as well.
Price Is What You Pay, Value Is What You Get
For this article, I went on Airbnb.com and looked up monthly rental prices in three different cities. These properties are meant as examples only, but they can show you what’s out there. I didn’t filter costs from lowest to highest, or set a dollar range. So give or take $100 — $200, these are pretty normal rates in each area.
Additionally, with one exception, I’ve lived in each of these locations before. So this isn’t a random collection of places I quickly Googled, there’s real-world experience backing the picks.
