<prompt> Human: Me and my husband combined make about 60kyear me 44k, him the rest, hes a full time student with part time job. We live very frugally in a small apartment rent 250 edit: 250person including utilities and have small student loan payments, no kids. We contribute more than average to our retirement as we started later than many people do.We were looking to buy a new car and realized that payments in the 300 range dont fit our budget well continue to use mass transit as we get subsidies from our employers. Im personally surprised that anyone is able to afford anything. People that make the same amount as me can afford house payments, car payments and all the other stuff they buy.My first thought is that everyone is buying stuff beyond their means as an front to show how well they are doing, but that certainly cant be everyone?? Right? I just dont get how people do it without struggling and fighting over money all the time.  <response>: Id be curious to see a breakdown of your combined take home pay and all your expenses. Its easy to say that everyone is just racking up debt to keep up with the Joneses, but thats not really the case. Sure, a lot of people live beyond their means, but a lot of people dont, too. Is your income average for the area you live in? Youre really living on 1 income right now, so you may be comparing yourself to couples with two full time incomes. Plus, its not like everyone walks around with their salary pinned to their shirt - you may simply be comparing yourself to people who make more money than you do. I dont know where youre located, and its hard for me to say because 60k combined per year is a small amount for my area. But theres also nowhere around here to rent for 500 a month, so I assume youre in an area with much lower cost of living. It would seem to me, though, that even at 60k, with only 500 in rent and small student loan payments, you should be able to afford a car payment if you wanted to. Where does all your money go? 