<prompt> Human: Im a college student who will be graduating this December. Fortunately, I will be graduating with no debt and I come from an upper-middle class background, so I have my parents to hopefully fallback on in the event of an emergency. I expect to make a minimum of 50,000 when I graduate from school. I think thats a fair assumption to make based on my major and current job opportunities. I have no idea what my salary will be in the future since I work in sales. My current job pays their inside sales people on a salary. I do not know how much they make nor will I ask until I discuss the transition from intern to a full-time employee with my boss.After taxes, spending money on necessities, and saving for retirement and general expenses, I expect to only have 3,000-5,000 in spending money for one year based on that 50K assumption. That number will be smaller if gasfood costs dramatically increase. Knowing this, I cant help but ask myself: how do people live?I ask this question because I see my peers ages 21-30 spending their money on lavish weddings, vacations, cars, and already buying homes. Sure I dont know their personal finances, but I cant imagine myself living that lifestyle unless I make 80-100K which I dont expect to make until my early-mid 30s if things go well.How do people have kids? A dollar obviously doesnt have the buying power that it used to have. How can people afford a childs necessities, education, healthcare, and luxuries? How about two, or three? Do they just rack up serious amounts of debt a big fear of mine? How do they live their lifestyles without making significant contributions to their savings and retirements?Let me know if Im being too cynicalparanoid. Does anyone have similar concerns to mine? Im fairly new to this subreddit so I apologize if this has already been asked.Assistant: I am kind of seriously wondering about your math. I made a little bit more then that once I graduated school, lived in one of the most expensive areas of the country and was still paying down between 1-2k a month on student loans. When I met my husband he happened to have the downpayment for a house already but had that not worked out I would have been able to save it up in about 5-7 years so still a home owner before 30 and I put away whats needed for retirement. I dont spend insane amounts on crazy vacations or cars thankfully simple vacation tastes, SO MUCH CAMPING. But based on my husbands and Is salaries which are the same ballpark as yours we arent going to have an issue. We are both putting away more then 10 for retirement and are paying double on the mortgage right now while still savings some. Mind posting the math you did? I think you fundamentally screwed something up somewhere Human: Sure!So I expect to make 50,000-Deduct approximately 8,000 in taxes I live in Texas.-Deduct 12,000 in rent. This includes all utilities plus Internet and cable.-Deduct 5,000 in groceries. 400 a month is 4,800 12 months so call it 5,000 for wiggle room.-Deduct 2,000 in gas. 160 a month is 1,920 12 months so call it 2,000 for adjusting prices. This may be more by the beginning of 2016 due to price changes.-5,000 into an IRA unsure if I should pursue Roth or Traditional. If my employer offers a 401k which I think they do then I may pursue that. Ill talk to my father about saving for retirement since he is much more knowledgeable.-5,000 in general savings.-3,000 in car insurance, health insurance, and cell phone bill.At this point I have 10,000 left. Take away another 2,000-3,000 for a rainy day which is relatively small but its something.7-8K left. To be honest, Im unsure on how much Ill pay in taxes. Ive tried searching tax rates but Ive found different things. I dont know if I have any deductions either. My earlier calculation accounted for a few thousand more taken out in taxes. Let me know if you think Ive overunderestimated any of my future expenses except for rent because thats a set price in my current situation.  <response>: You might have incorrectly formatted line breaks. To create a line break, either put two spaces at the end of the line or put an extra blank line in-between lines. See Reddits page on commenting for more information.I have attempted to automatically reformat your text with fixed line breaks.Your text might contain incorrectly formatted lists. To format a list properly, add a space between the bullet points and list items, and add a blank line before the start of the list.--- Sure! So I expect to make 50,000 - Deduct approximately 8,000 in taxes I live in Texas. - Deduct 12,000 in rent. This includes all utilities plus Internet and cable. - Deduct 5,000 in groceries. 400 a month is 4,800 12 months so call it 5,000 for wiggle room. - Deduct 2,000 in gas. 160 a month is 1,920 12 months so call it 2,000 for adjusting prices. This may be more by the beginning of 2016 due to price changes. - 5,000 into an IRA unsure if I should pursue Roth or Traditional. If my employer offers a 401k which I think they do then I may pursue that. Ill talk to my father about saving for retirement since he is much more knowledgeable. - 5,000 in general savings. - 3,000 in car insurance, health insurance, and cell phone bill. At this point I have 10,000 left. Take away another 2,000-3,000 for a rainy day which is relatively small but its something. 7-8K left. To be honest, Im unsure on how much Ill pay in taxes. Ive tried searching tax rates but Ive found different things. I dont know if I have any deductions either. My earlier calculation accounted for a few thousand more taken out in taxes. Let me know if you think Ive overunderestimated any of my future expenses except for rent because thats a set price in my current situation. ---I am a bot. Contact pentium4borg with any feedback. 