Wait… $100K Is Basically BROKE Now?!

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]I would never understand how certain people in society can deem people as lazy in an economy that is set up for them to fail.

[00:00:07]>> After I get my paychecks, if I'm to take out rent, utilities, insurance, I'm left with about 50 bucks.

[00:00:13]>> Look at the blinds. It's not luxury.

[00:00:14]Know what I paid 2019. 9.45 a month for a one-bedroom. You want to know what that apartment goes for now? Almost $2,000.

[00:00:21]>> I'm not going to make it in my last paycheck and I spent $73 on a box of cheeses. One of the biggest conversations happening on social media and in real life is about the cost of living in America. Whether we're talking about gas, home prices, food prices, restaurant prices, car prices, everything seems to be very much inflated. And we are midway through 2026. And I thought this would be a good time just to see how people are feeling about the cost of living and how it's affecting them dayto-day. My dad told me that for his first apartment, his rent was $150.

[00:01:03]My rent is almost 20 times that. And they just emailed me and let me know that they're actually increasing my rent.

[00:01:11]>> I don't even want to get started about the conversation about comparing rent to way way back in the day. We We already know inflation has been doing us all in.

[00:01:19]Do y'all remember when you used to could get those little things of chips? You know the little small chips? They used to be like a quarter. You could get four of them for a dollar. I honestly think in stores now they're probably like $2 or something crazy. It's ridiculous. And I'm just talking about some chips. When we're talking about rent, it just makes you think, you know what? I shouldn't have wanted to rush to be an adult. I I don't know what I was thinking actually.

[00:01:45]Price is so high. I want to go back to being a child. I just And she says here, I'm so over this adult life. You know what? A lot of people are feeling just like that. And the first comment here says, "Only paying 150 in rent would literally be life-changing for us." Now, we also have to have the conversation of the dollar was a lot stronger and stretched a lot further for them back then. Like, it's not stretching that far for us, and we're dealing with inflation. A comment here says, "10 years ago, I rented a newly remodeled apartment for $350. It really wasn't that long ago. The crazy epidemic of extreme pricing has only been a thing since 2020 when they learned they could and never stopped. Allegedly, I'm just reading the comments. I'm just trying to see what testing the temperature online.

[00:02:33]Let me do me. And others saying the scream I scrimped or screamed scremped.

[00:02:39]They screamed with her. And yeah, some of y'all are crying in the shower. I sometime you got to release it. But I digress. So, can we stop telling people that they're living above their means when they start complaining about the cost of things? Cuz when I got this apartment right here, clearly you can see it's a starter apartment. It's not anything luxury. Clearly not anything luxury. Not luxury at all. Look at the blinds. It's not It's not luxury. Look at the closet. It's not luxury. Know what I paid? What does that say? Oh, 9.45 a month for a onebedroom. Y'all can see 2019 lease was ending in 2020. 2020.

[00:03:13]You want to know what that apartment goes for now? almost $2,000. Well, why don't we just follow the advice of a boomer? Why don't we just purchase a home? Even the small rinky dink homes like this are going for $323,000.

[00:03:27]>> Now, $3,000 for that is crazy. Crazy.

[00:03:31]That's the rent price. What What state is this? This California that got California written all over it. That don't even make sense. Cuz now now I might have gave you 1,700 just because of how things looking right now. you throw that number at me, I'm I'm gonna say, "Yeah, yeah, that makes sense." It doesn't really make sense, but makes sense for what's currently going on in this society. But also, we got to factor in things like home insurance prices going up, maintenance costs, whatever else is attached to that home or even the landlord's escrow going up.

[00:04:02]Unfortunately, it's driving these home prices. Like, it's driving everything up. And this is why I'm not the biggest fan of property taxes because it affects a lot more than people like to really talk about, but it ends up affecting the people who are renting too. In the end, nobody's really winning in that situation. It to me, maybe the private equity, people who done bought up all these little houses like that, those companies, maybe they're winning, but the average landlord, in my opinion, you know, the ones that live right up the street from y'all, and they're just like, "Hey, I got a house. I'm got an extra house. I'mma rent it out to a family. Blas blas. It's rough for them too. And then when stuff happens in the house, they got to use their money that they barely got because they're a normal person too to go into the house. It's a lot going on right now. Many people are just getting rid of the houses that they do have if they are landlords. And guess who's buying it up? Guess who's bribing?

[00:04:53]Private equity allegedly. And and that's probably why we seeing the three 3000 cuz I'm trying to understand >> the gag is as early as 2014 this home sold for $48,000.

[00:05:07]$48,000 and if you look in 2012 it sold for $39,000. They have the audacity to be charging $323,000.

[00:05:16]I'm not even going to talk about gas prices. I didn't even talk about groceries. These are literally the essentials. Just just living. The living expenses are astronomical. But for some reason, y'all keep telling people that they're just living above their means. I remind you, this apartment is almost $2,000 and it's not a luxury apartment.

[00:05:34]>> Now, there are definitely people living above their means. Two things can be true at once. It can be extremely high.

[00:05:42]The cost of living can be doing a majority of us in, which anybody with eyes that's being honest can see that.

[00:05:49]However, there are also people doing unnecessary. When I say living above their means, I'm talking about doing unnecessary stuff. Not talking about, hey, we trying to get groceries and we're trying to pay the rent in a place that we can actually afford to live that is reasonable based on how much income is coming into the household. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the people who know good and well they don't really got it like that but they're going to go get a high-rise apartment go get new cars going on vacation knowing they don't have the money to go on vac they're going to do it anyway they're going to do it anyway that go out shopping every week they just can't put the cards down and they know this and continue to repeat the same action and then they get online and say oh my gosh I can't afford anything I can't get And you know what? I don't even like that because they may be able to afford certain things if they were living within their means. Even some of those things being unnecessary. But what ends up happening is a lot of those people end up lumping themselves in with people who are actually struggling to get by. And no matter what they do, it's not enough. For example, if there is somebody that is making $200,000 a year and they are living above their means and saying, "I'm paycheck to paycheck," which definitely can be the case. Are we going to act like if they want to live a lavish lifestyle and keep up with the Joneses that they are the same as somebody who is barely getting by with a part-time job, who's been laid off, who can't find a job, struggling to get by, barely being able to pay their basic necessity bills for needs, not wants.

[00:07:37]And I think that's the bigger thing that really gets me about this conversation is many people aren't being totally honest about the reality which for many people is that they may not want to have limits when it comes to spending in certain areas. They don't want to say no to certain things that they want to do.

[00:07:56]Understandably, nobody wants to be like, "No, I'm not going to do X, Y, and Z."

[00:08:00]But we're not for a second going to say that the people complaining while digging themselves into a financial hole because of the keeping up with the Joneses mentality and doing things that don't need to be done is the same as people just trying to get by. That it just aggravates me. Nonetheless, both of these individuals can be broke. They both can be broke. One might be because of bad financial decisions and the other one just because the cost of living is doing them in. They they can't keep up.

[00:08:30]But nonetheless, that apartment or whatever he just showed definitely shouldn't have been that price.

[00:08:35]>> Y'all want to hop into the comment section talking about, "Oh, well, I found an apartment that was $700 a month." Yeah. And as soon as you click on the reviews, you see roach infestation, rodent infestation, all of these things. People should not be subjected to that if they don't want to be subjected to that. And >> and I agree. I think that's crazy, but this is where we are. And for some people, that's all they can get. That's all they can get.

[00:09:01]>> If having a safe and clean place is living above your means, then yeah, I'm going to live above my means.

[00:09:07]>> And I actually don't see nothing wrong with wanting a safe and clean place to live. And saying, "Hey, if if that's what it's got to be, if I got to be struggling to be in this environment, then I'm going to struggle." Honestly, I can understand that. But again, I think there's limits and there's definitely like context matters. That don't mean that many people have to go get the most expensive option that might lead to an eviction to have all the amenities and all the extra stuff. It has to make sense, y'all. Because if not, if you can't afford to pay for that place, you're going to get put out more than likely because these folks ain't playing with people about evictions, late payments. But I think it would be great for many people to come together because if you're by yourself trying to do all this, it it is very hard. It is very hard group economics. I I keep saying this and I know a lot of people don't want like they're like I don't I shouldn't have to live with somebody and and I can definitely understand where people are coming from, but the reality of the situation is people might have to start getting together, moving in with family, friends, because stuff is really that high when you're by yourself. Like I think I made a video last year talking about how you you essentially paying an extra tax just because you single. like the tax being that everything is way more expensive. And I don't think that this economy is set up for you to survive by yourself. I I don't I've never felt like that in any sense.

[00:10:34]>> I'm an American. I live in a 200 ft flat that has no bedroom. I pay almost $1,800 a month for it. Now, that's not including utilities. I work full-time. I work 10our shifts. I work 5 days a week.

[00:10:45]After I get my paychecks, if I'm to take out rent, utilities, my car payment, which is a 2016 used car, if I take out insurance on the car and medical expenses for my medication, I'm left with about 50 bucks a month to cover for gas, food, and anything else I might need such as like toilet paper, cleaning supplies, literally anything except going to a doctor. Like, I haven't seen a doctor outside of my psychiatrist for like 3 years now cuz I can't afford that. And this is why I say there are people barely getting by that are expressing mathematically, realistically cannot barely afford to live. I'm barely scraping by. And then there are others who are mathematically more than able. They are not just scraping by not getting medical, dental care, eating one meal a day. There are people who are not doing that also stating that they can't afford to get by. It's not the same. It's really not the same. And I know and and that doesn't mean that people don't have their own struggles or that those people aren't struggling financially because they you definitely can be. Even if you're making six figures, if you're making $60,000 and you have two people in the household, this is just going to hit a little bit different when mathematically there isn't enough income. The only other thing that people like this can do is try to work more, get more hours, try to cut back, but you can only cut back so much. That's the truth. You can only cut back so much and stuff is going up. Maybe trying to share expenses. If you are in a situation to where you just aren't good with money and you're not at this point, that's a blessing. And I would say this, if that's you and somehow still you're like, I I I don't know how I'm gonna get by. Take a look at the finances and have an honest conversation. Where is the money really going? If you go through all of your actual necessities, the things that no matter what must get paid, and you're barely scraping by, you may be very similar to this lady here.

[00:12:51]But if you look and you add up all your necessities and you realize based off of how much income you bring in every month that you should have around $2,000 left over and every month you say, "I don't know where it's going." And you're door dashing, shopping, excessively going out to eat, taking trips, sending money to people. You may even have some bad habits, you know, like like scrambling, scramble, you know, scrambling. Whatever your vices are, look into them. Is there a certain store that you keep spending money at? Are you noticing that you're spending hundreds of dollars every month unnecessarily that you're like, "Hey, I I don't need to do that. I could reallocate that money for something else." Do it, y'all. Like, look around.

[00:13:36]Just look around and prepare yourself for the best case scenario.

[00:13:41]>> So, needless to say, I'm in debt. I was already in debt, but just in the last year, I've added 10K to my debt because girls got to eat. When I made a video about this last year, I got a lot of hate for it online. People saying I need to just pick myself up by the bootstraps, you know, that I'm not trying hard enough. But I think people in America now are realizing that like, yeah, you're one small step from getting to where I am to homelessness. And more people are living like me every day.

[00:14:06]Degrees don't matter here. Just matters what kind of family you were born into.

[00:14:10]I guess if you have money, you can sit in the bank and make money. But if you're a worker, you're not really a person here. You're just an asset. And most of us are just trying to get through each day. We want to leave. We want to have a better life. We just How do you leave when you don't have money?

[00:14:27]All right. So, this comment here says, "Welcome to the American dream." And she replied, "The American nightmare." And and I just want to know what do y'all think? Do y'all agree with what she was saying about the financial aspects of being in the States? Do do you kind of relate to that? Is that like your personal experience? I think a lot of people are out there feeling very similar to her and that's why I wanted to play it because there is a lot of people feeling financial pain in the United States currently and and they are definitely using social media to express their grievances, expressing how they are struggling. Bro, I'm not gonna make it in this world because like tell me why I just went to Kroger and got groceries. I just got paid today. My last paycheck and I spent 73 dollars on popcorn crackers, Cheezits, milk, ranch dressing, tomatoes, just basic, man.

[00:15:20]Like a box of Cheezits and a boxing crackers was $5. The ranch dressing was $5. The tomatoes was worth $4. Like the milk is $7 a gallon and my drinks three gallons a week. That's $20. Like, how the I barely get any food and it's $73.

[00:15:39]Like, what the am I going to do?

[00:15:41]>> And I'm going to be honest, she said I didn't get no food. No disrespect, ma'am. I thought you was going to say I didn't get no snacks cuz I didn't hear food. Understandably, a lot of us shop different. But when I say food, I'm thinking ground beef, chicken, leg quarters, chicken drums, smoked turkey necks, a roast, potatoes, carrots. I even throw in a spaghetti in there, bell peppers, onions. Like that's where my mind is going when I'm hearing food.

[00:16:12]Ma'am, no disrespect. You said crackers, ranch dress to I'm snacks are high. I I agree with her. Snacks are definitely high. juice. Them sodas a lot of y'all like to drink. Hi. All of that stuff in the middle of the grocery store in the middle house. Highly processed, highly sugared up, convenient food. Hi. And she said, "I'm not going to survive." So, I'm going to say this. We have to, as people get better about shopping, and this is no attack on her. This is just in general. We have to do better at shopping. Do I agree with them prices that she just named? No. That's ridiculous, too. But two things can be true at the same time. The snacks are ridiculously high and I believe many of you don't know how to shop. How to make the money stretch that we that's already limited and this is very American of us.

[00:17:03]Like I'm just being it is it's very American of us that a majority of us don't know how to shop. And just try it y'all. If y'all don't believe me. I say this humbly. I'm saying this cuz I want to help somebody out there. Just try it.

[00:17:14]Meat, vegetables, a starch. Pick. Do you like a sweet potato, a potato, a rice, frozen green beans, frozen produce? Has a lot of nutrients in it. I actually prefer that over canned. If you need to go canned, you can get get canned.

[00:17:30]Canned vegetables. You know, you drain out the water, get all that stuff out of there, rinse it. Probably not as much nutrition as the frozen stuff because typically that's picked at a better moment. But nonetheless, we talking food, y'all. Not not snacks. Not not snacks. And and if y'all going to survive, like we got to know how to shop for the right stuff. Not the stuff that's on the commercials, y'all. Not the TV dinners, the convenient ready meals you just throw in a little pan and like saucer it up. I know they're convenient. I I know it comes with a hyped up price that many of like if you try to make money stretch, you might not be getting the most bang for your buck with that. And then I'm going to bring up the spaghetti again. You can probably get a little jar of spaghetti. $2, maybe three if you fancy. Get you some noodles. That might be$1 to $2. We at $5 right now. Get you some ground beef.

[00:18:25]Now, the ground beef might be a little high. I'm not going not going to hold you. But get you the ground beef. That might be $8 maybe for a big old thing of ground beef. Maybe a small one. Let's just say it was 10. Okay, get the $10 one. You can make you a bunch of spaghetti. Go or Okay. or get you some chicken leg quarters. Season it up. You can get a whole thing of leg quarters for like 10 bucks cuz they're they're cheaper than the other cuts. Like if you go chicken breast is going to cost you more. Leg quarters is cheap. Season them up. You can eat off leg quarters for a whole week. Get you some rice. Rice is cheap. Get some frozen vegetables from the frozen vegetable section. That's a couple meals right there for you and the family. Ritz crackers, y'all. $5. Do that two times. You could have got you a whole thing of leg quarters. That's what I'm trying to That's what I'm saying, y'all. It's the convenience. It's the snacks. And then she said here, "This is stupid embarrassing, but enough is enough, man. What are we supposed to do?

[00:19:19]We got to do better at shopping." I that I am so sorry. For one, that's that's one thing we got. But everything else I agree what can be done. It's almost like watching a train wreck because it's happening everywhere. And and what I'm saying isn't to take like when I'm talking about the groceries isn't to take away from the fact that the cost of living is ridiculously high cuz it is.

[00:19:40]But I'm saying it to survive there has to be some changes. Yeah. Like honestly and it's not even funny. Look, somebody here is saying $75 your grocery list should look like canned beans, lentils, potatoes, whole chicken, pasta, tomato paste, canned tuna, bananas, etc. Yes.

[00:19:56]Oh my gosh. I was starting to get worried. And and somebody here said she's not allowed to buy Cheezits.

[00:20:02]What's wrong with you? It's not about that, y'all. I want all of y'all to have all the Cheezits you want. When you're talking about, I don't know how I'm going to survive and people are telling you how to survive. That's what it is.

[00:20:14]You're allowed to have the Cheezits.

[00:20:16]However, if you use your limited resources on the Cheeits that are $5,5 you're choosing it over something that could sustain you and your family since she says she's a single mom. pound single mom life. She is not getting the most bang for her buck. And people are just pointing it out. That that's it.

[00:20:33]They're pointing it out. And again, somebody here is saying this. Cheeits, ranch, crackers are not necessities. And I and I just fear many of us don't really know the difference. It is that serious. And and it was already that serious when it came to everything else.

[00:20:47]But even when it comes to us surviving, many of us don't understand what is the best thing to grab for survival. I really hope that people understand this is not this is not a drill. This is not even funny. And and ma'am, best of luck to you and you and your family. But the popcorn and the the snacks is taking me out right now. And the I can't I would never understand how certain people in society can deem people as lazy in an economy that is set up for them to fail.

[00:21:15]That is literally set up for them to fail. Why do you think so many people are transitioning to van life? Why do you think so many people no longer want to be homeowners? Why do you think the homeless rate has tripled? But that's a whole another video. Because this economy is set up for people to fail.

[00:21:29]Gas prices are highest. Food is high.

[00:21:32]Food is not even lasting a whole week or two week. We're not going to even talk about vegetables. We're not even going to talk about fruit. Just to eat healthy is so more expensive than to eat unhealthy. As a person who likes to dibble and dabble in the unhealthy every now and again, I'm not sure, y'all. I'm not sure. And and I know this conversation comes up a lot, but I'm telling you, them leg quarters and a sweet potato or like some ground beef and a sweet potato and some vegetables stretch me way longer than some Chick-fil-A. I'm just being honest. Or or any of these restaurants. But if y'all want to fight about it, y'all know what to do in the comments.

[00:22:06]>> Think about that. But yet, you can deem somebody lazy that's faithfully getting up every week punching a clock for over 40 plus hours a week, and it's still not enough. We're not even going to talk about the job market and the pay rates are not matching the level of education or the level of experience. We're not even going to talk about that. We're not going to talk about how so many people are working multiple jobs just to hold their head above water. We're not even going to talk about how some people paychecks is gone even before it gets deposited into their account. We're not even going to talk about how many Americans overdrive just to keep their head above water. But that's a whole another video and a whole another story.

[00:22:44]Stop calling people lazy if you don't know their story.

[00:22:46]>> And I agree with her. It definitely is on a case-by case basis, which is why I like to talk about what I like to talk about here on this channel because I show a lot of the different nuance to the situations for many different income brackets. Sometime it's spending habits.

[00:23:02]Sometimes people are just down on their luck. Sometimes life is just too unaffordable for people. And unless you know everybody's individual story, like if they tell you, which some people do, which we like to see, then you won't know. You won't know. Everybody is not lazy. But are there lazy people? Sure.

[00:23:20]But you can't just sum everybody up to the same situation and be like, "Yeah, everyone's just lazy. People ain't working hard enough."

[00:23:27]>> It's actually diabolical that even 90K, 100K feels unlivable. Especially when you take taxes out, it's like 60,000 a year. After taxes, you're looking at like 2500 bi-weekly. So like 5,000 a month with roommates and without roommates, you're still looking at between like 1,600 to 3,000 if you live by yourself. And that's just to like have a roof over your head, which is crazy because in the entirety of time that I've ever made over six figures, I've always worked so many side jobs just to like save money. Meanwhile, back when I was like 21, I was making like 30 to 40,000 a year being a nurse in South Carolina. Tell me how like I was even surviving on that and I felt like I was having so much fun and now like that feels like nothing. not living and beyond my means. I have the same car that I've had for 11 years. I feel like I'm buying less groceries and my groceries still cost way more than I ever did before. Like with Spirit going away, Delta removing their drink and food services. World is getting far more expensive and we're getting nothing in return. I don't really know what these billionaires think that they're going to get out of us because at this point, if we don't have any money to spend, how are we going to buy your products? It's getting to the point where things are like so frustrating. Like I don't want to work in this perpetual cycle of just like the rat race forever. I'm honestly like exhausted. I'm like looking at these jobs that I'm applying to and like I do the math and when you take out all the taxes it's like nothing. Almost makes me want to go back into nursing full-time because like I don't know if I can take that pay cut, you know? And that's why everyone's a miserable job. I don't want to be in because you'd rather keep the job that you have with more money than get a pay cut role for a job that like you probably are overqualified for but you want a new position.

[00:24:55]>> And and this brings me to my next question. Is $100,000 in the US the new60,000?

[00:25:03]Is that the equivalent? The comments seem to think so. They said it's the new 65 to $75,000 in 2026. Somebody here saying, "So validating because I feel like I can't talk about it with others.

[00:25:17]You hear 130K and it sounds like you can afford everything." Another comment saying, "Can barely afford my life as a solo person. How does our co-workers with family survive? Because they have two incomes. Somebody says, and this goes back to what I was saying earlier.

[00:25:34]It It's like the saying, two heads are better than one. Two paychecks are better than one. One person might lose a job, the other person still has a job.

[00:25:42]Everything doesn't just fall apart. Most people don't have $1,000 for an emergency anyway in America. So if everything is just on one person, like that's a lot financially to try to sustain, especially in 2026 when we see a lot of people getting laid off, AI replacing people, things are just looking very uncertain. Cost of living is going up. Ain't nothing wrong with two incomes and nothing's wrong with one income household either, but but with that comes a little bit more risk with all the different things we're seeing currently going on in this economy. And y'all are in the comments saying a 100,000 is minimum wage at this point.

[00:26:16]Really? Ooh. You know what though? If you're by yourself, depending on where you live, I may be able to see where a lot of people are coming from. $100,000 in California would be like, "What I'mma do?" Or like New York. Like, "What? What I'mma do? Are you going to be out there with the rats and the roaches and everything with $100,000 in New York?"

[00:26:37]You know who else don't get enough shine? Hawaii. What about 100,000 in Hawaii? Cuz they expensive. And they said here and the teachers make 40K. Not all teachers. Like I'm sure there are teachers that make 40, but they might also make around 80. There's people in the comments saying, "Me at 70k with a second job fighting for my life."

[00:26:56]Another saying, "I make 55k a year after taxes and deductions. I'm only really making $3,400 a month. Like $40,000 annually. It's a struggle. I'd be living on 100k." What's interesting about this is a lot of the time people don't account for the taxes that have to be taken out. Like if you have a job that's like, "Oh, I'm making $100,000." Was like, "Yeah, did did the government tell you you had to pay $40,000 in taxes?"

[00:27:24]Like, or you got to pay 20,000, 30,000 in taxes. So really, you're not making $100,000, but then to everybody else around you, you're making a lot of money, so you should be fine. You really have to go off of what you're bringing in every month and not what society has told you is balling because many people that make a h 100,000 like what if you thought that and you're out balling out of control because you're like I should be able to do x y and z but you're not really looking at your lifestyle how much stuff is really costing and that's why it's important to go through and budget as the cost of living is going up as things are adjusting you should be adjusting your budget because things are changing which means how much money you have access every month may be changing too. It might be changing at a rapid rate depending on what we talking about.

[00:28:12]So, I encourage everybody to to really take a deep dive and look at their own bank statements and assess your financial situation, especially here in 2026. Y'all, I need to know one thing.

[00:28:24]What do y'all think about the cost of living currently in America? And if you're in another country watching this, do y'all think that $100,000 is a lot of money? Does watching this video make you think to yourself, "Dang, the Americans got it bad." Or does it make you say, "They're living the life?" And I just need y'all to tell me down below, what is the one thing when it comes to the cost of living that is doing you in the most if you live in the United States?

[00:28:49]Cuz I'm just curious. I know gas is doing everybody in right now, but which is worse, the gas or your rent? Or is it taxes? Or what is the thing for you? Is it child care? Comment down below. But we got to start making better decisions today in order to have a better future.