How Much $$$ for a NE Family to Live Comfortably?

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Twenty four to seven News National correspondent Rory O'Neil is
here for a couple of minutes this morning on One Rory.
This the stats about how costs are favorable in some
categories for people, and yet still the overall cost of
living is having its effect on a lot of families.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Right, Yeah, we're mashing up a bunch of data that
came out this week. One report from red Sain found
that rents across the country are starting to come down
very very little, like one percent, but still it's a
sign of what's happening in the rental marketplace. Essentially, a
lot of new apartment complexes are being built, there's been
a surge in multi family housing construction since the pandemic,

(00:46):
and that a lot of that stuff is now coming online,
so that's having a downward pressure on rents. Still, about
sixteen hundred and thirty three dollars a month is the
nationwide average for a one bedroom.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
Right, and and retirement accounts are doing well well.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Right. What we're doing is we're seeing that Americans are
doing more saving. You know, Americans as a rule don't
have a history of being good savers. If there's a
dollar burning a hole in our pocket, we're going to
spend it. But what we're seeing now is that the
average contributions to four oh one ks are actually at
record highs in terms of percentages. Fourteen point three percent

(01:25):
of a person's salary now being squirreled away in that
four oh one k by the employee and the match
provided by the company.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
And that's very good. That's smart unless you listen, unless
you listen to the gloom and dumers, and it is
all going to collapse anyway.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
So oh, there's that.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
What is the There are what rory seven states where
a family earning less than two hundred thousand dollars can
afford to live comfortably.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
Right, And we're putting a lot of work on that
word comfortably there. But they have this rule and Smart
Assets does this every year. It's the fifty to thirty
twenty rule for spending half of your budget. Fifty percent
should cover your expenses the car, the house, or utilities,
thirty percent should go for what you want. That's the
broad heavy lift right there, and twenty percent goes to debt,

(02:16):
to savings, to investment. So it's that thirty percent the
big wiggle room. But they figure if you were to
average that out what housing costs and marketplace, et cetera,
et cetera. You need about two hundred thousand dollars in
household income for a family of four, and just seven
states are below that two hundred thousand dollars threshold. Mississippi

(02:36):
bottom of the barrel. Even there, they're saying it should
be one hundred and eighty seven thousand dollars an annual income.
Massachusetts is the worst, by the way, at three hundred
and thirteen thousand dollars. And I'm not going to leave
you out here in Nebraska thirty fifth with two hundred
and fifteen thousand dollars an individual they say should be

(02:56):
making eighty seven thousand dollars in Nebraska to feel comfort.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
Okay, but the but the base calculations for a family
of four two hundred and what for Nebraska two hundred
and seventeen.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
Fifteen fifteen roughly, Yeah, that's the rule of thumb. But
that that's saving for for the kids college. That's yeah,
we're going to go on vacation two weeks a year.
Everything you want is under the Christmas tree. Yeah, that's comfortable.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
Yeah, And there are so many variables too. Like a
family of that family of four, if the kids are little,
you got daycare, which is just killing a lot of
families that expense right there here in Nebraska and Omaha
and Lincoln and some other counties. You you got massive
property tax problems if you own a house. So yeah,
there are variables. It takes a lot. That's the bottom line.

(03:48):
It just takes a lot, exactly, Roy, what do you think.
I was listening to the Texas Congressman Chip Roy was
on with Glenn Beck yesterday. They were talking about this big,
beautiful bill and now it's in the Senate, and I
if this thing makes it across the finish line at
any kind of recognizable way and gets to the President's desk,

(04:09):
I'll be surprised.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
Yeah, it's looking more and more like that because Elon
Musk is giving political cover to a lot of the
Republicans in the Senate who have some issues. Either it
adds too much to the debt, but even Josh Hawley
said it cuts too much for medicating, kicks too many
people out in his political suicide. There are issues with
the salt deductions, issues with the sun setting, some of

(04:32):
the green provisions that are in there. So let's see
what happens to it. I was just listening to Ted
Cruz on CNBC a few minutes ago saying, look, let's
make it better in the Senate, and then let's bring
it to conference and make it even better there. But
that salt issue is really a big stumbling block that
state and local tax deduction. It really benefits people in

(04:52):
Connecticut and Massachusetts and New York and California and a
lot of people the senators from Tech in Oklahoma saying
why are we subsidizing their bad tax payer?

Speaker 1 (05:04):
And Nebraska for that matter, Nebraska.

Speaker 2 (05:07):
Yeah, And because there are no Republicans in the Senate
from those high tax states that support the salt. In
the House, you've got guys like Mike Lawler, who are
from a purple district in New York saying, look, I've
got to do this. This was the promise to my constituents,
you know, because and I'm going to get killed next year,
and if you lose me a to a Democrat, then

(05:30):
there goes the Republican majority.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
Woll what a tangle