What is the average cost of living in the us?

Answer 1

Living in an average city, I make 70K per year. After tax and etc. I am left with $3600 per month. I pay 700$ for renting only one room (sharing with 4 other people). I eat very cheap ($20 per day for food and toothpaste and etc.). Than there is minimum 300$ per month for car (gas + insurance + car depreciation). Every single month you have to pay $500 for something random that pops up (doctor, cloths, car repair, new computer, gifts, urgent travels, you name it etc.) it just happens. I don't eat outside, I don't drink, smoke, party, nothing. And in the end of the day I save $1100 per month which goes directly to my student loans (over 50K). I have calculated this many many times, and I am never able to pay more than $1100 to my student loans per month. I will have to do this for another 7 years to pay off all my loans.

Conclusion:

If you make 70K per year, you will barely get by with a decent life. I don't see the point in this. If I had no student loans, maybe I could rent a bigger room (or a studio), and eat outside a little more often. But again, i would still have a crapy car, crapy cloth, crapy lifestyle. I honestly don't know how people survive on less. Probably they use a lot of the benefits like food stamps, and affordable housing. Average US GDP/person is $47000 per year. And yet 43 million Americans are on food stamp cause they cant afford food. That is almost 1 in every 7 Americans.