The Calls for Help Coming From Above the Poverty Line – WSJ:
Samantha Daley and Jonathan Harewood have full-time jobs, she as a high school administrative assistant and he as a machinist at an aerospace engineering firm.
Their family of four has health insurance and a combined yearly income of $95,000. Still, a $500 emergency-room visit for one of their young sons wiped out most of their savings. After they pay monthly expenses, including rent for their two-bedroom condo in Windsor, Conn., utilities, groceries and gas, there’s rarely anything left over, she says.
How can that possibly be true unless they’re living well above their means? $95,000 is almost $8,000 a month. That a $500 emergency-room visit would wipe out “most of their savings” speaks to just how horrible these people are at money management. (The most basic rule of money management is that you should have an emergency fund that covers 3 to 6 months of expenses.)
I’m sorry that they’re terrible at this essential skill. They should get help from somebody like Dave Ramsey (who I’m not 100% sold on, but who could definitely help here). Their inability to budget isn’t a sign of wider economic doom. It’s simply a failure to save, budget, and invest while living an one of the richest nations the world has ever known.
Almost every article I’ve ever read contains a similar tale designed to illustrate how bad things are. Even a cursory inspection into the details usually causes the example to fall apart as it does here.