Life for Naomi Burns and her family of six is not easy. She and her boyfriend are raising four children in a small town about an hour from Portland, Ore., largely on his $65,000 annual salary as a traffic-control flagger. Burns mostly cares for their children, but in order to make ends meet, she also earns nearly $1,000 per month from her work on social media and delivering for DoorDash.
Four kids and unmarried. I mean, honestly, what kind of economic experience did Naomi expect she’d be having?
Katie Harley, a parent of two children in South Carolina, said that even with a household income of $140,000, her family is cutting back on spending in order to pay down about $20,000 in credit-card debt, as well as student loans and a car loan.
As part of a low-spend year, a popular financial challenge to spend less money, Harley’s family now only eats out twice a week — Mondays at Chick-fil-A and Sundays at a Mexican restaurant — compared with four to five times a week previously.
Only eats out twice a week! The struggle is real.
These financial hardship stories always strive to evoke sympathy, and I always end up on the other side: If these people had any financial sense whatsoever, they’d never be in the position they’re in.