How does a $2,000 daycare bill or a $100,000 degree sound? For many Americans, everyday life is constant saving for future expenses, writes ‘s US editor Juri von Bonsdorff.
WASHINGTON You can’t get through life alive, everyone knows that. But in the US, if you want to be proud until the chalk lines, it’s best to become a millionaire.
After living in the United States for a long time, life here has become familiar and the economic realities have become clear. However, I recently became aware of this society’s constant pursuit of money.
My lawyer told me that he was thinking about changing jobs in the hope of a higher salary.
His annual income hovers around $150,000. That’s a good but not unusual salary in a big American city. Especially for a lawyer.
– In another company, I could earn almost twice as much, he stated.
Another acquaintance complained high daycare costs.
Caring for two young children costs her family about $4,000 a month, or nearly $45,000 a year. A better salary quickly melts into that.
I began to think about the cost of American life, from womb to grave.
To a Finn, they seem big.
Depending on the state, giving birth costs between $5,000 and $10,000 if everything goes well.
With health insurance, the amount drops dramatically, but in the United States, about 30 million people are without insurance.
The average American pays almost $15,000 a year for day care. For example, in Indiana and Vermont, a fifth of parents’ income goes to day care.
At the same time, you should open a savings account for your children’s studies.
University tuition fee is at least in the order of ten tons. When accommodation and meals are added to the pot, another ten ton is added to the expenses.
If you want to go to a university that is located somewhere other than your own state or if you want to study at a private university, the price will increase dramatically.
Therefore, one child’s degree can easily cost almost 100,000 dollars – or often much more.
About 30 percent of American parents start saving for tuition even before their child’s second birthday.
And not saving that’s the end. Saving for retirement is the most difficult challenge.
In the United States, there is a government-administered system similar to an occupational pension, from which you get a pension based on the amount paid into it.
No one is supposed to live a quality life on it. The actual pension is accumulated in pension funds, where the employer often saves money as well.
Financial advisors encourage people in their twenties to save 20 percent of their income, so that after the end of their working career, money would remain for a quality life.
Is it possible to retire with half a million, asks the website of an investment company. Oh, if you’re ready to tighten your belt and believe in good luck, comes the slightly sarcastic answer.
Other online calculators instruct you to save so that in your forties you have three years’ worth of money in your savings. In your sixties, it would be good to already have seven or eight times your annual salary in your account, waiting for retirement.
For my lawyer acquaintance, it already means more than a million dollars.
It is true that the income level of the middle class In the US it is used to be higher than in Europe and taxation is lighter.
However, the level of costs and the pressure to save seem suffocatingly hard. It’s no wonder that almost 40 percent of Americans rely on the services of an investment advisor.
An acquaintance of mine considers the whole system a big drag. It features the average American reeling on a squirrel wheel that you can never get off of.
He is currently investing his retirement savings in cryptocurrencies. According to him, it is the only way for the average American wage earner to get financially afloat.
Despite all this, according to a survey by the research company Gallup, 80 percent of American retirees thought last year that their money was enough for a comfortable life.
I don’t know what their secret is, but somehow they do it.
I myself still have fifteen years until retirement age, but the counters are already badly in the red.
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