• ITGuyLevi@programming.dev
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    2 days ago

    They did, that particular model was under 12k though so you were looking at 200-ish a month (5 year loan at 8%-ish) which was totally possible on the minimum wage of the day ($4.25/hr).

    • Spaceballstheusername@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Idk if you’re working minimum wage that’s a tough payment to make. You were making 680 a month if you could get 40hrs/week. Then taxes and gas for the car your spending half your income on your car. If you’re working 40hrs you aren’t a student or something so then rent and excetra. This was out of your price range if you were sensible with money and working minimum wage.

      • ITGuyLevi@programming.dev
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        2 days ago

        It would be tight, but not as impossible as it feels now; 680 seems a little low, my math had it closer to 730-ish. My mom got 40+ hours every week at a convenience store around that time, granted we didn’t have a new car (ever), but comparing it to now it seems impossible.

        Maybe I’m misremembering but rent was cheap not very long ago, in early 2004-ish I was paying $250/mo for a very small 2 bed house and the lady I ended up marrying had just moved out of a single-wide trailer that she was paying $100/mo for. At that point I was working at one of the same stores my mother had worked at except I was getting $5.15/hr (minimum wage at the time).

        Now it seems like cheap rent is 5x that much and minimum wage here is still just $7.15.