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Originally Posted by Elephant Walk
Without kids, sure. You did leave out the part about taxes..which makes it harder. (that includes food taxes, building taxes, etc)
I lived on less an hour myself. Not too difficult. My parents don't coddle. My friends had no help either living on their own. Shoot, the people next door to me right now live on less and are doing fine.
Wait, you're talking about someone who made poor decisions (that being having kids while making minimum wage). If you make poor decisions, then I'm not sure I feel sorry that you're making 18,720 while making aforementioned poor decisions. Even if you have a high paying job and then was fired, while having two kids you took a calculated risk/gamble and failed. Still don't feel sorry.
I wonder why.
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I don't think you know why, so let me tell you. We have changed the types and numbers of plans offered in the past few years, with a huge push to a high deductible HSA plan and two PPO plans in the last offering. There was a lot of propaganda to put people on the high deductible plan and a lot of people didn't do their own research for their own health costs and ran with the numbers HR provided. I was on a plan I paid more for, but I used it and enjoyed my lower deductible and being covered at 90% with a $15 copay. So many people were blinded by paying less without realizing the true cost that my plan had less people and has been discontinued. The same midrange plan with twice the deductible, 80% coverage, and a $25 copay is still the being offered, and the only other option other than the high deductible, so those are my choices. Single people have never had a financial advantage on the high deductible plan, and most families lost out too if one person had a lot of care as the deductible was for the family and couldn't be met by one individual.
I did the math for what it cost me per pay check and what I would have to pay out of pocket for each plan and in one case it was obvious to go with the most expensive plan, and the other it was making an active choice that I rather would pay more for insurance and be covered than have some situation that would have cost more later. Insurance is something you buy and hope you don't have to use and often don't use in the case of my auto and home policies, but without fail I've had some medical issue that would have hurt me financially if I chose to pay $50 or so less a month. That $600 savings on the difference between 80% and 90% coverage, the $175 with the deductible being lower, and the $10 for every office visit ended up not being an issue and I made the right choice. I say it is FUBAR because I am going to potentially have less savings if something comes up, and the amount saved a month isn't going to cover it. The one thing that is nice is that adults now have orthodontia care, as I was really irritated I was paying the same amount to cover someone's kids and not allowed that same benefit. It was the one area where people paid the same and were not getting the same benefit and many people had issues with it and it finally changed. My teeth are visually straight but are slightly out of alignment jaw wise and with my sinus and allergy issues it causes a lot of pain so I'd like to get it fixed. I never had work done as a kid but I'm wisdom tooth free so there's some space to work with.
I wish people wouldn't have kids without planning and realizing everything that comes with being a parent, but unfortunately that isn't going to change because people are dumb.