I finally thought I figured it out. I stabilized my rent by getting a relatively small house with a fixed rate mortgage. (which also means small property taxes). That made my monthly housing costs average around $500/mo. plus upkeep. I reduced my transport costs by taking the bus to work. My heating bills stay low by turning my home down to 50F during the winter and I've converted to CFL lights. I also garden in the summer. To keep the water bills down, I take showers at the health club (inconvenient, but it keeps me fit and does save money). When I'm home, I walk or bike virtually everywhere. One nice side effect is that I'm loosing weight. I gave up CATV and a home phone years ago. For my mobile phone and Internet (required for my job) I'm relying on cellular service. Until recently, I even managed to save a bit. Not enough for retirement but enough for an occasional emergency.
That is, until I signed up for health insurance. The good news was that I got it. However, the bad news was that it was a budget buster. In spite of making roughly 1/3 more per hour from last year, my budget would not balance! So, I decided to look at why. It was really simple. My healthcare premiums exceed what I would pay for a nice car or a mortgage payment for a much larger house. For this, I get the chance of not going absolutely broke if I get hurt. Unfortunately, I'm not alone in my struggle to stay in the middle class. If you are struggling too and wondering why, you may want to look at this video that puts some of these changes into perspective.
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