Elizabeth Warren - The Two Income Trap:

Angstrom

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How much is the insurance/repairs/fuel and maintenance on two cars???
When My wife and I retired....the first thing we did was get rid of one vehicle, $2500 a year savings.

We have just recently bought the 2nd car at the end of 2011.
I told her we could not afford it. The car itself is a 2002 Accent, I payed 500$ for it

With both of us working, our singule car was the main cause for fights, and stress.
I called it. The Car Wars, Chuckls. my wife and I rarely fight,
But time sharing the car was the major subject of many heated discussion in the house.

I'd have gone on without 2 cars, but Its easy for me to say that, when I was always first priority for the car, Due to my work being top earnings.

Now that we have 2 car's I have a hard time wrapping my head around how we managed withought.
It makes things so much simpler.

There is some truth to what she says but I do wonder why anyone that is reasonably health would stay in a city barely making ends meet and whine about it when there are so many good paying jobs available in the resource industries. All you have to do is get your lazy butt to one of their job fairs. Many places are quite suitable for families. In fact families are encouraged to come as it creates a more stable work force.


Its not easy for some to even imaging losing there safety net of close loved ones. I've suggested many times to my wife we do that.
From the feedback I get, I think it would be a major strain on our family and marriage.

Anyways I'm trying hard not to whine about it to much, it still gets the better of me here and there like yesterday =)

I have no idea what the "two income trap" is. My wife and I appear to fall into that catagory but


If you watch the whole video, you'll understand that its mostly a Generation Y Phenomenon but not limited too.

Basically the idea is,
the Boomer feminist drive for equality and opportunity in the work force,
Has, today hyper inflated cost of living to a point that it is no longer a luxury, but a necessity,
to have 2 big earners in the family household.

If you have time to watch it all. It gives you a good idea of what many family's are dealing with today.

In a Way you could say, you created the trap without knowing.
And the next generations fell into it without knowing =)
 
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TenPenny

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Jun 9, 2004
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There is some truth to what she says but I do wonder why anyone that is reasonably health would stay in a city barely making ends meet and whine about it when there are so many good paying jobs available in the resource industries. All you have to do is get your lazy butt to one of their job fairs. Many places are quite suitable for families. In fact families are encouraged to come as it creates a more stable work force.

That's aa good question why would you stay in a bad situation and whine. Look at half of Newfoundland, the men go out to Alberta to work, the families stay home. I personally know of 3 friends who left good paying jobs here in NB to move to Alberta.
 

taxslave

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Nov 25, 2008
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We have just recently bought the 2nd car at the end of 2011.
I told her we could not afford it. The car itself is a 2002 Accent, I payed 500$ for it

With both of us working, our singule car was the main cause for fights, and stress.
I called it. The Car Wars, Chuckls. my wife and I rarely fight,
But time sharing the car was the major subject of many heated discussion in the house.

I'd have gone on without 2 cars, but Its easy for me to say that, when I was always first priority for the car, Due to my work being top earnings.

Now that we have 2 car's I have a hard time wrapping my head around how we managed withought.
It makes things so much simpler.




Its not easy for some to even imaging losing there safety net of close loved ones. I've suggested many times to my wife we do that.
From the feedback I get, I think it would be a major strain on our family and marriage.

Anyways I'm trying hard not to whine about it to much, it still gets the better of me here and there like yesterday =)




If you watch the whole video, you'll understand that its mostly a Generation Y Phenomenon but not limited too.

Basically the idea is,
the Boomer feminist drive for equality and opportunity in the work force,
Has, today hyper inflated cost of living to a point that it is no longer a luxury, but a necessity,
to have 2 big earners in the family household.

If you have time to watch it all. It gives you a good idea of what many family's are dealing with today.

In a Way you could say, you created the trap without knowing.
And the next generations fell into it without knowing =)

I understand your problem but fighting about money or lack thereof is not conducive to a happy marriage either. There are many places where you cn take your family and both make lots of money. In 10 years or so you could probably afford to buy a house in the city instead of being stuck paying rent in a $hithole the rest of your life.
 

karrie

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Jan 6, 2007
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I am going to unapologetically skip over the vid as my time on here this morning is limited, but, I had a thought to add to the discussion just based off the title of it... I don't understand how my friends can afford to work. I watch them shell out for daycare, after school care, ready made meals, spend more on everything from clothes to groceries because they don't have time to chase sales, pay more for their wardrobe, pay more for vacations because the family NEEDS some time together after all that hectic chaos. They spend more on vehicles. Having a two income household equates to a cash hemmorage. I don't get it at all. Everyone sits and tells me how 'lucky' I am to be able to afford to stay home. Luck has zero to do with it. We have planned for it, we budget for it, we deny ourselves debt for it. We do not take out credit on any depreciating item unless it's a cash earner (a loan on hubby's truck because he gets paid allowance and mileage on it). If we can't afford something, we can't afford it, plain and simple. Our society's view of 'wealth' is ridiculous!
 

#juan

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Aug 30, 2005
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I am going to unapologetically skip over the vid as my time on here this morning is limited, but, I had a thought to add to the discussion just based off the title of it... I don't understand how my friends can afford to work. I watch them shell out for daycare, after school care, ready made meals, spend more on everything from clothes to groceries because they don't have time to chase sales, pay more for their wardrobe, pay more for vacations because the family NEEDS some time together after all that hectic chaos. They spend more on vehicles. Having a two income household equates to a cash hemmorage. I don't get it at all. Everyone sits and tells me how 'lucky' I am to be able to afford to stay home. Luck has zero to do with it. We have planned for it, we budget for it, we deny ourselves debt for it. We do not take out credit on any depreciating item unless it's a cash earner (a loan on hubby's truck because he gets paid allowance and mileage on it). If we can't afford something, we can't afford it, plain and simple. Our society's view of 'wealth' is ridiculous!

Karrie, I think you hit the nail on the head, or more correctly, a few nails on the head. When we got married, having a second income in the family was a bonus that grew into a neccessity. Housing prices skyrocketed because two income families could afford them. The first house we bought for twenty thousand was on the market for over forty five thousand three years later. We missed the trap because we got rid of our mortgage early and we had two good incomes
 

Tonington

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Oct 27, 2006
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There is economic rcovery and there is growth.

And there is recession and there is contraction. You can't recover without growth...seriously I don't understand what part of that is perplexing you. I never said the US is recovered, I said it is growing faster, which is true.

I guess if a 300 pound man loses 100 pounds, and then a year and a half later he goes up to 290, he didn't actually gain any weight from 200 to 290, he was just recovering...euphemistic spin.
 

petros

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Nov 21, 2008
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And there is recession and there is contraction. You can't recover without growth...seriously I don't understand what part of that is perplexing you. I never said the US is recovered, I said it is growing faster, which is true.

I guess if a 300 pound man loses 100 pounds, and then a year and a half later he goes up to 290, he didn't actually gain any weight from 200 to 290, he was just recovering...euphemistic spin.
He is still down 10 pounds from his peak.
 

TenPenny

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Jun 9, 2004
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And there is recession and there is contraction. You can't recover without growth...seriously I don't understand what part of that is perplexing you. I never said the US is recovered, I said it is growing faster, which is true.

I guess if a 300 pound man loses 100 pounds, and then a year and a half later he goes up to 290, he didn't actually gain any weight from 200 to 290, he was just recovering...euphemistic spin.

You call yourself a scientist?

I'll tell my daughter to avoid UPEI, they can't be too smart over there.
 

L Gilbert

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I am going to unapologetically skip over the vid as my time on here this morning is limited, but, I had a thought to add to the discussion just based off the title of it... I don't understand how my friends can afford to work. I watch them shell out for daycare, after school care, ready made meals, spend more on everything from clothes to groceries because they don't have time to chase sales, pay more for their wardrobe, pay more for vacations because the family NEEDS some time together after all that hectic chaos. They spend more on vehicles. Having a two income household equates to a cash hemmorage. I don't get it at all. Everyone sits and tells me how 'lucky' I am to be able to afford to stay home. Luck has zero to do with it. We have planned for it, we budget for it, we deny ourselves debt for it. We do not take out credit on any depreciating item unless it's a cash earner (a loan on hubby's truck because he gets paid allowance and mileage on it). If we can't afford something, we can't afford it, plain and simple. Our society's view of 'wealth' is ridiculous!
That's mentioned in the vid.

He is still down 10 pounds from his peak.
lol He hasn't grown relative to his earlier state, but he has grown. Whether he's still 10 pounds lighter than he was is irrelevant.
 

Angstrom

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May 8, 2011
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I am going to unapologetically skip over the vid as my time on here this morning is limited, but, I had a thought to add to the discussion just based off the title of it... I don't understand how my friends can afford to work. I watch them shell out for daycare, after school care, ready made meals, spend more on everything from clothes to groceries because they don't have time to chase sales, pay more for their wardrobe, pay more for vacations because the family NEEDS some time together after all that hectic chaos. They spend more on vehicles. Having a two income household equates to a cash hemmorage. I don't get it at all. Everyone sits and tells me how 'lucky' I am to be able to afford to stay home. Luck has zero to do with it. We have planned for it, we budget for it, we deny ourselves debt for it. We do not take out credit on any depreciating item unless it's a cash earner (a loan on hubby's truck because he gets paid allowance and mileage on it). If we can't afford something, we can't afford it, plain and simple. Our society's view of 'wealth' is ridiculous!


What she is saying is People are getting in problems when they lose there jobs, or they have big health problems.

Lets say (knock on Wood) tomorrow your husband loses his job, and you fall terribly ill.
Elizabeth is saying, a good many of the lower income middle class families can't deal with that kind of disaster.


She is not talking about buying stuff you can't afford.
She is talking about borrowing money to pay your rent/mortgage Electricity, heating, car, insurance, phone, tax's, water bill's.
Because you lost your income but still need to pay that stuff to be in the middle class.

I hope you never have to deal with that. And if you do, I hope you have 15 000$ sitting around for it,
cause that's around how much you'll need in that situation to keep making your normal payments for
The time needed to land on your feet.
 

karrie

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Jan 6, 2007
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I hope you never have to deal with that. And if you do, I hope you have 15 000$ sitting around for it,
cause that's around how much you'll need in that situation to keep making your normal payments for
The time needed to land on your feet.

We have disability insurance, RRSP's, and stocks. We can pull money out of any number of places to get through a hard time, it's part of fiscal planning. We live on apprx. 60% of hubby's takehome pay. The rest is invested. I'm already 'disabled' so we know full well what life can throw at you, and plan accordingly.