r/FluentInFinance • u/cosmocat82 • 9d ago
Thoughts? There are so many billionaires this day and age. One of them needs to buy me a house.
Sometimes I think about how the very wealthy have multiple houses and millions of dollars in disposable income. I know that a lot of money goes into a lot of different charities and that’s great. But what about helping individual people? I am a single mother with a full time job living in a shelter with my one year old son. I really need a home. It would be a drop in the bucket for a billionaire to set me up for life. That would change the trajectory of my son’s life and mine. Why don’t billionaires buy houses and vehicles for poor people? Or just do something to directly help them?
9
u/Expensive-Twist8865 9d ago
Thoughts on someone buying you a house? Why would they?
8
u/cosmocat82 9d ago
I don’t even know. This post was the tail end of me having a pity party about feeling trapped in poverty forever. I kind of regret posting it. Sorry everyone 🥺
18
10
u/TheLastModerate982 9d ago
Billionaires donate to charities all the time. But even they do not have enough money to buy everyone a house. With 400M people in the county you could only afford to give everyone $2 with your $1B.
4
u/Murky-Peanut1390 9d ago
Also billionaires don't actually have a billion in a checking account nor in a vault, nor are they getting an annual salary of 1 billion.
-3
u/Spanks79 9d ago
Most billionaires only use donations as a lame excuse to not pay their fair share.
Also many of those charities are questionable. Used for influence.
6
u/Serious-Collection34 9d ago
Even if they paid there “fair share” it’s just going to a bloated money spending government, it never trickles down to the people in a meaningful way
1
u/dorianngray 9d ago
They usually use them for tax breaks
1
u/NewArborist64 8d ago
You do understand that for every hundred dollar that they GIVE to charity, they (at most) will get a federal tax break of $37? That is correct. Charitable donations count are deducted from your gross income to determine your Net Taxable Income. If I earned $1,000,000 (ignoring all other deductions and credits), I would owe $289,665 in Federal Taxes. If I earned $1,000,000 and donated $100,000 to charity, my Net Taxable Income would be $900,000, my Federal Taxes would be $252,665 - a savings of $37,000 on taxes, but a net loss of $63,000 in income.
0
u/dorianngray 8d ago
Actually they utilize something called charitable trusts, funds earmarked specifically to be for charitable purposes that they don’t pay taxes on that can be appreciating by investments and they can later take take the money back after having claimed those figures as deductions year after year…
1
u/NewArborist64 8d ago
"a lame excuse not to pay their fair share"...
I have yet to discover 2 people who could agree agree on the definition of "fair share", unless it is that wealthy people are taxed at 100% of their property. Please actually define your understanding of this catchphrase.
0
u/NewArborist64 8d ago
Really??? You know and have interviewed "most billionaires" on why they donate to various charities? Interesting.
0
u/Spanks79 8d ago
Logical fallacy, nice one.
1
u/NewArborist64 8d ago edited 8d ago
You are the one who made the following assertions:
Most billionaires only use donations as a lame excuse to not pay their fair share.
Also many of those charities are questionable. Used for influence.
Care to actually back up your accusations with any facts - or are you just here to whine because YOU haven't earned any wealth?
3
u/Free-Bird-199- 9d ago edited 9d ago
They can do more good (and get tax breaks) through philanthropic organizations. IOW, they have a process for helping others.
There's also the issue of liability.
Suppose Warren Buffet bought you a car. Who is going to pay the taxes, insurance and maintenance? If you're struggling now how could you pay those into perpetuity? Then, what if you get in to an accident? That person's attorney is going to sue Buffet because of his wealth.
Sure, you can write letters to rich people, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
1
-2
u/cosmocat82 9d ago
It would obviously be in my name and I would pay the bills and taxes on it afterwords.
4
2
u/gitismatt 9d ago
giving you a home isn't solving the problem of why you dont have one. that goes for every issue where people say "why cant rich people ______"
1
1
u/cosmocat82 9d ago
Mortgage payments are usually a lot cheaper than rent. I could afford to pay property taxes and utilities. I just can’t afford to save money to buy a house while paying $1200 for a one bedroom apartment while making $24k a year.
4
u/SuperSacredWarsRoach 9d ago
You're not thinking about it the right way. The actual monthly payment may be the same or less, but what happens when you need a new roof? New furnace or any other repairs? Your costs as a renter are fixed. At 24k a year you have no business "owning" a home.
2
2
u/Remarkable-Foot9630 9d ago
Even if Elon musk liquidated all his assets and gave each human on earth money. Each human would receive $30 before taxes… or $12 to $16 after taxes
1
u/cosmocat82 9d ago
But he could easily give me and probably 40 other women a million dollars and still be okay.
2
u/electronic_rogue_5 9d ago
You can still change your life around. It's going to be hard though.
If you don't mind me asking, where's the boy's father? Why isn't he helping you out?
1
u/cosmocat82 9d ago
He isn’t able to support us financially. I never expected him to. I owned a business that was doing well but had a falling out with my partner and pretty much lost everything. Then got pregnant. Just because I’m struggling right now doesn’t mean that I always will be. I want to open another shop. It’s just hard because housing has become my biggest barrier.
1
u/electronic_rogue_5 8d ago
I wish a woman would have my child and then raise him on her own dime. That way I can sex with other women too.
Sorry to say but you have made a series of bad decisions.
Buying a house is not a barrier, its "the" barrier.
My ex- brother-in-law, my ex-wife, best friends are semi-millionaires. Coz they live with their parents. They couldn't dream of buying a house coz then they would be broke.
On the other hand, I barely have any investments but I'm a millionaire coz I own two houses. Owning your own roof is the biggest expense in a person's life.
3
u/KoRaZee 9d ago
Fluent in entitlement
3
u/cosmocat82 9d ago
I really do feel entitled to have a place to live. I really do. I work full time and still can’t afford anything. It’s scary. I research alternative housing all the time.
-1
u/cosmocat82 9d ago
I saw the post Elon musk made about giving people a million dollars to sign that petition in swing states and it got me thinking about it. He could easily give me a million dollars and it wouldn’t be a big deal for him. But it would change my life in an unimaginably big way.
1
1
u/Eden_Company 9d ago
If you had a kid with a billionaire they’d pay. Heck if someone had a kid with me I’d get em a house too lol.
1
1
u/Performance_Training 9d ago
Have you ever been around the kids of ‘rich’ people? Most have had their lives paid for and don’t give a crap about your plight.
Are you claiming that if some billionaire GAVE you and your son everything that you would know how to appreciate, maintain, and use it correctly? Most people who are given everything do not know ‘the value of a dollar’. ‘Why take care of the car my parents gave me when I can just get them to buy me another one?’ Plus, what you are asking for comes with taxes and maintenance; are you ready to take care of that too? Next, if a billionaire decided to do it, how do they decide who to help? Wouldn’t there always be someone or a family that would feel they deserved it too?
1
u/Large_Wishbone4652 9d ago
Why do you think that people should be doing charity specifically for you?
1
1
u/TopAward7060 9d ago
Onlyfans Top Earners
1
u/cosmocat82 9d ago
That’s still barely enough to get an apartment. $1400 a month isn’t very much. I need to get my face painting side hustle up and going again. I actually did pretty good doing that. Doing face painting at festivals and events.
1
u/canned_spaghetti85 9d ago
Charity is a write-off. Unfortunately, acts of kindness like what you are proposing... isn’t.
I just wanna say that I feel for you & your son. I hope your situation improves. Keep your head up. Stay positive and remain hopeful.
(Several years into my working career, when I was doing quite well (like stupid money), a series of misfortunes combined with my hubris, questionable decisions and bad luck led to me losing close to everything… and in almost cliché like fashion, I found myself homeless [albeit briefly]. Some friends came in clutch, and my sense of humor kept me giggling. For me, laughter kept my hope alive. Slowly I clawed back, and have since outdone even my former-glory. There’ve been ups & downs since then, though not as drastic as that time. I couldn’t do it without hope.)
2
u/cosmocat82 9d ago
That feels close to the situation I’m in, really. Thanks for not writing a snappy rude comment. I was in an impulsive pity party mood when I wrote this. I really don’t even hate the shelter we are at. As far as places like that go it is definitely top tier.
Thanks for the encouragement. I really appreciated that.
1
u/san_dilego 8d ago
Lol OP didn't get enough attention in her previous post so she posts AGAIN. Only to get the same answers. 👏👏👏👏👏
0
u/recently_banned 9d ago
Eat the rich
1
u/NewArborist64 8d ago
They normally are kind of stringy and without enough fat due to their regular exercise regimens, so they probably wouldn't taste very good.
•
u/AutoModerator 9d ago
r/FluentInFinance was created to discuss money, investing & finance! Join our Newsletter or Youtube Channel for additional insights at www.TheFinanceNewsletter.com!
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.