[war1025]

> It has everything to do with their income being 80% of their essential bills.

There is some truth to that, but there is also a fair amount of truth to the fact that a lot of people list things as "essential" that really aren't.

For many it's a trade off of being poor or looking poor, and they would much rather be poor than look poor.

Money isn't that different than dieting. It's a pretty simple equation.

Money in >= money out => Broke.

Money in < money out => Not broke.

With dieting, yes exercise more, but for the love of God, stop eating so damn much.

With money, yes get a better paying job, but for the love of God stop buying so much stupid shit.

[strken]

Simplifying dieting down to calories in calories out is one of my pet peeves, because it doesn't give you any information about how to achieve those goals. People don't automatically understand satiation, binge eating, macro and micronutrients, shopping, cooking, the caloric density of restaurant and takeaway food, BMR, the relatively tiny amount of calories burnt by exercise, or calorie tracking. These things aren't obvious and they're buried under a lot of misinformation.

The same goes for budgeting. Saying "spend less and get a better paying job" doesn't really help compared to detailed instructions on how to open a savings account and automatically deposit 5% of your pay into it, reviewing your monthly expenditure, changing habits like ordering delivery food every weekend, long term investments like buying your own washing machine, or pursuing a qualification that will help you earn more.

[war1025]

I agree with everything you said.

I guess the point I was trying to make is more that doing these things is not impossible. It is just a matter of being properly informed (which is in itself a difficult task).