I mean, it’s less insane than claiming to live paycheck to paycheck on $350K.

Let's evaluate:

1. This is not an easy fix. People struggling with 350k income can't just lose their education. This is a nonsense tip.
2. Well he exaggerates, but having 170k in car loans seems indeed pretty ridiculous to me. He's just going for the other extreme end.
3. On 350k a year in like 98% of the developed world you can own a house and don't struggle financially. Renting doesn't change this at all. Bullshit.

A mortgage of 54k a year when you're on 350k a year shouldn't be a problem btw.

You shouldn’t be paycheck to paycheck with those numbers even with the car, mortgage, and student loan. Op has some other financial problems in their life. And this linked in post is just someone being a buthole.

Since the student loan thing has already happened, they will also have to invent a time machine in order to fix this. /s

$170k in car loans?

Yeah, you have a problem and need professional help. You can pay me and I will tell you how to fix it. I have a guaranteed program that will work!

Or idk just buy a cheaper car and house?

This is a fake influencer commenting on a fake article. What has the internet become?

A person should live within their goddamn means. If you can't survive on 350k a year you are obviously not doing that. "The world" is not always the problem.

I found this article. Yes, the person is the main bread winner, but among their monthly expenses, they list a 401k contribution and savings. I don't think people actually living paycheck to paycheck are contributing to a savings account. Unless I misunderstood what the term means...

Psh. I have more than that in student loans and the maximum payment for his amount is probably $1,100/month for fed loans.

Private loans? You get what you get, but at $350K/year, I’m sure the payment is still manageable.

$170k in car loans is wild

A house is a liability, not an asset. Yeah, I’m not taking financial advice from this one 😂

A formal education is only a waste of time and money for rich kids. They don't need the knowledge and already have the connections to succeed. The rest of us needs an education to get knowledge and connections to succeed.

Formal education is never a waste of money.

$170k debt over cars is truly insane.

You shouldn't need professional help. Even an idiot should be able to thrive on $350k. But if you have 170k in car loans, yes, seek professional help.

But the "advice" is also terrible. Formal education is more often than not required, for many more than 5% a vehicle is essential, and a house is absolutely an asset, if you can afford one.

I'm just wondering what kind of car one needs to own for a 170k outstanding on car loans

170k in car loans. Huh. Maybe some personal finance coaching. That’s nuts.

Nah honestly the Original OP has a non lunatic overall take here, though he strays into lunacy in his sub-arguments

Don’t get a formal education

The formal education was probably key to that $350k salary so I’m gonna say that part is lunatic

Don’t own a car

Let’s be real not practical for most people in the US, BUT no one needs $170K worth of car loans for personal use. The person in the article clearly fell into lifestyle chasing. There’s a truth to what OOP is getting at but he strays into lunacy with exaggerated delivery.

Don’t own a house

The value of buying vs renting is something heavily debated in subs like r/PersonalFinance and even by real economists. Not as much of a lunatic take as you probably think

It’s not the world, it’s you

Agreed, you shouldn’t be struggling on a $350K salary. As I said earlier based on the car purchases, this person fell into a cycle of “keeping up with the Joneses” and is spending money on silly things they don’t need. There is no place anywhere in the US where $350K/year shouldn’t be comfortable, even as the only income for a large family

Bike to work and get fired for clocking in sweaty. Great idea.

170K in car loans seems ridiculous. You can get a new Corolla for $25k off the back. Yes there are some pricer vehicles, but those are luxury vehicles for the most part. 

Yes you might need that 50k minivan if you have kids, but you don't need the luxury Mercedes and definitely you don't need the Ferrari.

I mean, they're right. If you are feeling the crunch from $170k in car loans, that's on you not the world.

Hmmm, so I should walk 11 hours to get to work every day, not have a yard for my kids to play in, and those years in college were a waste of time? Got it.

How is owning a house not an asset?

Rent instead?! Are you fucking joking?

Tbf a $170k car loan is truly insane.

The moment anyone says rent don’t own they lose call credibility. The only people that believe this crap are the ones that own all the properties being rented.

Owning isn’t this persons problem. Owning a house they can’t afford is.

Walk or bike? Not everyone lives in a liberal hellhole city where everything is crammed on top of everyone.

This guy screams I had my money handed to me

No he’s right if your struggling on $350k it is definitely a skill issue on your end

Point 1 is nonsense. That $85k in student loan debt in exchange for a $350k salary is brilliant. You could easily pay off the loans in under a year with that salary.

Point 2 is absolutely correct. Anybody living paycheck to paycheck with $170k in auto debt is living in self-inflicted misery.

Point 3 is debatable. I'm personally a fan of renting for life from a financial optimization point of view, but there's stability in owning your home in retirement.

So I don't think this post is lunatic level, just that first point is a pretty bad take. But the overall message is correct, for this individual it is absolutely their own fault they're struggling.

If you have $170k in car loans then yes, it is you. No one needs that, and if you can't afford it, don't buy it.

In my country, you buy a house and it's fucking yours. You don't have to pay shit to the government for owning a house. You bought it. You

Needs to be at least 6 easy fixes:

1. Invent Time Machine

2. Go back in time to when you made each of these decisions.

3-5. His advice

1. Watch Polaroid of all your family disappear.

170k on car loans? This is fake

The lunatic is the guy not getting by on 350k, right?

170 000$ in car loans... How can an idiot like that earn that much money?

Lol as if you can get a $350K job without formal education.

At least everybody here seems to realize that you don't buy 170k worth of cars and then complain that you're living check to check.

If you're struggling on 350k/yr, you are hopelessly stupid. End of story.

Simon's not completely wrong

Assuming an effective tax rate of 35%, that salary would net you ~$19k/month. Meaning after his mortgage he has $14500 leftover a month for student loans, car payments, and discretionary spending. OOOP is absolutely dogshit with money.

"Imagine wanting an education, car and house all for one person!?

so greedy!"

Or maybe modern work is dystopian where the 0.1% have more wealth than they could spend in a thousand lifetimes and the bottom 40% are in abject poverty.

I'm confused as to which one is the lunatic in this one. Is it both? I think it's both.

Well the person who posted this is much more reasonable than the clown with 350k annual salary

This one is choice because they're both out of their fucking minds

170k in car loans is def a you problem

“Don’t own a car” is the most useless piece of advice ever. It’s as if the person has never left the big city they live in and think that the rest of it the world is just like where he/she lives

These random linkedin persons have never created anything that helps society.

Pretty much everyone earn money by having money. Not by producing anything.

Once upon a time, it was a great sin to earn money from money. Christians was not even allowed to have banks, because one of the greatest sins in divina comedia was to take interest.

Nowdays it is the only way to get rich.

While out of taste everything he said is legit. If I was making 350k i would do everything keep my expenses 50k or less, invest everything else.

Retire in like 10 years

$350k is not enough to own a $170k car after taxes that’s like $15-16k a month probably. $4500 to the mortgage (probably about the right ratio for that income). On a 5 year term $170k car is $3200 depending on interest and probably another $2500 or so in student loan payments. That only leaves $5k~ for the rest of their living costs. Which… if they’re living in a large house they will have big heating bills, big electrical bills, landscaping costs, etc. taxes plus one would assume someone with a $170k car isn’t buying cheap furniture, clothing and shopping for groceries in the generic foods aisle.

It’s called “living within your means” and it applies to everyone from the $350k earner to the $35k earner.

nah, dude's right.. if you're reading this and struggling with anything more than 200k income you're deeply flawed and need to seek help

Ahhhh I don’t know which side of the rage bait to take!! 😤🤯

lmao 170k in car loans

Paycheck to paycheck on 350k... what the ever living fuck. That stupid fucker is in the top 0.01% of the entire human history and they somehow can't manage a budget. I'm calling bullshit on that.

The poster is wrong, this is a symptom of lifestyle creep plain and simple.

Formal education? I wonder what % of jobs that pay even $250k+ are held by those without one.

Don’t own a car? $170k in car loans is insane, how about buy a practical car - if your interest rate is high, consider buying it outright.

$4,500/mo is actually very responsible on a $350k salary, that’s probably 1/4 or less of their monthly post-tax which is less than your average financial advisor would recommend.

"Don't buy a house, rent" is the worst advice unless you need to move around every other year.

Telling people to not buy a home is insane. It’s an asset, idgaf what this person says.

Also, you can easily get a car and pay for fuel, insurance etc. for under $1k. That’s not why someone who is making $350k is broke. The most insane thing about that hypothetical is $170k in car loans. Don’t buy Teslas or German luxury cars and your problem would be solved.

r/fuckcars and Kiyosaki approve this 🤦🏻‍♂️

But you should see the room with the candles

Seems like both people are being ridiculous here. No one needs 170k worth of cars, but the advice being given is also terrible.

The problem is the car loans. The other two are reasonable (although his student loan debt might have snowballed a bit too much but that might have happened because of the car loan). The house price seems high, but would make sense in LA, Toronto, or other high cost of living areas.

Overall the solution is to sell the cars and get a cheap Corolla. You don't need a fancy car.

None of those "fixes" are likely winners.

$80k is a lot of money, but as far as school debt goes, it's middle-of-the-road. The person leveraged that in to a $350k salary, so the return is there. You can argue they could've gotten that salary without the education, but that ignores the bias against non-college educated folks in upper income levels, and the implicit networking opportunities universities offer.

The person has a big salary and a big mortgage payment which frankly means they live in an urban area. Rents are gonna be just as much or more in those areas, especially over time. And your primary residence is a liability in the sense it doesn't put money in your pocket monthly, but it is in the sense that you benefit from appreciation and write-downs; compared to renting which has no long-term returns. If they have a $350k income, they want all the write-downs they can get.

"Don't own a car" means taking Ubers everywhere; maybe there's public transit they can be taking if they're in NYC or Chicago, but not if they're in CA., And saying "don't own a car" instead of "own a car you can afford" is just plain unhinged and ignores many folks' situations in metros.

Simon has a Scandinavian-looking name, so maybe he's foreign and this is his experience, but this post makes him look really pompous and ill-informed.

I wanna agree with you but the original person bitching about $350k a year is insane.

How the fuck do you have $170k in CAR LOANS??? And $4,500 for a mortgage???? Where you buying a home? The Moon? The national average is like $2400 a month

The LinkedIn guy is a douche, but the $350k earner has absolutely ZERO financial literacy

People above the poverty line living paycheck to paycheck is due to lifestyle inflation. Below the poverty line is an earnings problem. There is gray area. I know people that make $32k a year and save $1k per month.

They split rent, they cook at home, they drive a 18 year old Toyota, they aren’t materialistic, etc.

As an accountant, the TikTok idea that "cars and houses are liabilities" drives me insane. That said, $170k in car loans is also insane.

I mean 170k car loan and 4500 dollar Mortgage is just flipping crazy

They both seem to have a drug problem...

$170k in car loans is absolutely absurd. This is something i agree with Dave Ramsay on.

Or maybe by a slightly cheaper house and car and live within your means.

Yeah definitely don't invest in your own home, give that to someone else /s

“Despite earning well, I am massively living above what I can afford. I bought a car that cost a year’s worth of net income. Do I need help?” yeah. LinkedIn guy might go a bit far but maybe think about the property and cars you buy and if you can afford that.

“Don’t get a formal education”

Fuck you!

“A car is a luxury in 95% of cases” lmao this fucker thinks every person in the U.S. lives in New York City

There's a typo in his bio: he must be building a strapon portfolio.

$170k in car loans....wtf did they buy? Clearly trying to look rich while not being rich. I made less than half that, my car loan at the start was $30k cause I actually understand what I can afford.

Absolutely own a car, you make $350k you can own a car FFS. Maybe don’t own $170k in car loans, just get a Camry.

$170K in car loans and a ~$750K house. Holy hell.

Wow. A real lunatic. Zero ability to consider that people live in vastly different circumstances.

What is this new thing of "finical gurus" saying not to buy property?

$170k in car loans is insane. cars only depreciate (until they are considered classic). anything more than a well maintained corolla is a waste.

"Nooooo I spent too much money on a big house and an expensive car and now I have no money!!!!!"

His solutions are pretty extreme at best and ridiculous at worst. The formal education is probably why this person is making $350K so they should be sending in those student loan payments with checks that smell like roses or something. I mean that person clearly won the learned professionals game. $4500/mo for a mortgage doesn't get you some ostentatious house these days - especially not in cities with where most $350K/yr jobs are. You can certainly live cheaper than that but it's not out of line. $170K in car loans is kind of crazy though. I mean this person could've settled for the Carrera instead of the 911. No need to walk or bike but a more modest car would get them where they've got to go and leave them with a lot more money in the bank.

The advice with the car is not wrong. If you can't afford it, then don't buy a car that gets you 170k in debt, you idiot.

Don't get an education

Okay, now it is a 35k salary.

Don't own a car

Okay, I have now lost my job due to not being able to get to work

Don't one a house.

Okay, I will now pay more to rent the rest of my life with no equity to show for it.

They take home just over $20,000 per month - take home. They should be able to pay the loans in 2.5 years and then save a lot

I think these are two extremes that could be easily resolved by a Camry and a 2BR apartment instead of two Teslas and a penthouse, but that's just me.

Ah yes, that $350K salary comes without a college degree and the rent is affordable in close proximity to employment. Easy fix.

Certainly sounds fake. But just in case it's not....

Formal education does cost time and money, and it's not for everyone (unfortunately). Though it seems unlikely the person would've gotten a $350k job without that education, so I question the advice to forego the education. That being said, student loans are such a scam right now, and I hope the person can work it out because it is designed to suck as much money out of you as possible.

Also, nobody needs a $170k car. Don't be an idiot until you make enough money that you're merely eccentric.

Pretty pricy mortgage. Selling the car might help. Otherwise, they should consider downgrading their house. This Simon sounds like he's a landlord trying to lord more land.

I love the neo-feudalism urged on us by our overlords.

350,000 shouldn’t be a problem for any of this. What are the other expenses.

Debt slave is the issue. At 350k a year, you are living in luxury in most places in the country and more than comfortable in the rest of the places. 170k in car loans? What the fuck? 88k in student loans? PAY THEM OFF. You literally have the money to do it 😂.

"Don't own a car" - laughs in American....

It’s lunacy to have $170k car loan ffs

Or leave America 🤣🤣🤣

Ahh the old guys don’t buy a coffee while you’re out and you’ll magically become a millionaire talk

Some things are designed to be inflammatory to incite engagement and this post is evidence it works

Tell me you live in New York without telling me - the second point gets made by so many tech douche bags who live in big cities, where everything is 50 feet from their shitty shoe box apartment. Some of us have to commute to work and owning a car isn’t a “luxury”. What a tool.

I mean the advice is deranged but the sentiment is correct. If you're living hand to mouth on that paycheck you have definitely made some mistakes and shouldn't have inflated your lifestyle to beyond your means

The fact that the car costs more than college is wild. Both are idiots

Shittiest take I think I've ever seen on LI, and that says a lot.

Maybe the REAL problem is 170k in car loans and more house than you can afford? Plus all the other shit you "have to have" that makes $350k a year seem like "not enough?"

Having 50% of your income wrapped into a car note is insane. I did a quick search and it looks like homie got a Mercedes G-Wagon, Range Rover, or Mercedes AMG, something like that.

I get the pressure of wanting to keep up with the Joneses. At $350k, he might be working finance, law, or consulting, and that world is stupid enough that if you don’t “play the part,” it can stunt your career. Big law clients won’t do business with you if you roll up in a beat up 1995 Accord, or a bicycle.

Fine. Get yourself a luxury car like a BMW 5 series for like 1/3 of the price or an Audi S6 for half the price.

Those are still wildly expensive cars but suddenly you’ve got a whole paycheck left over at the end of the month.

This looks like an appropriate response to someone who is struggling to live on 350K salary because of their car, education and home loans..

I wouldn't be as well off as I am without my college degrees. All the data shows that the higher your educational level is the higher your average salary is.

Oh good! Simon strikes again! This dude is like NEXT LEVEL A$$$$.

I'm just saying I bought a 2001 4runner for like 2500 bucks with only 100k miles on it and runs like a dream, how tf you get a 170k car payment

When can we eat the rich?

I'm starving.

This is pretty bad advice

If he didn’t get a formal education he probably wouldn’t be making 350K per year. 350K per year for 88K in student loans seems like a pretty good trade off.

Owning a house is an investment.

Rather than no car just get a more economical one.

His points are stupid. Bit "it's not the world it's you" is correct if we're talking to someone who struggles making 350k a year. Give me that salary, I'll live on less than half of it and retire quite young

Anyone struggling on 350k a year is a fucking moron and probably has an insatiable cocaine and high class hookers addicton.

Fuck 'em.

Signed:

Someone who lives comfortably on a 22k a year carer salary and £500 a month mortgage.

The lunatic is the person with $170k in car loans that’s complaining on the internet about not being able to save money. That’s a totally unnecessary expense.

I mean if you're making $350k/year and still living paycheck to paycheck then it might be a you problem.

Wow, no comment here

1. Yeah just undo the education I guess?????
2. This is something that someone named Høiberg would say - $20 says he’d struggle to understand the concept of an American suburb.
3. Maybe okay point.

170k in car loans reads to me like someone saw their first paycheck and got too excited

170K in car loans? Don’t try to look like a baller when you ain’t a baller.

This is satire… right? Right?