>>6
Rusty, the common household is so far underwater with debt that they're POOR. Surely you don't want to make yourself POOR, now, do you?
Since you apparently live so modestly, then you must be saving about 20% of your income, right?
Because
if you aren't then your expenses are still too high, and/or your income is too low. FIX THAT. It sounds initially that you are being rent-raped as one of the urbanite twentysomethings. Find cheaper lodgings. A tax on clothes? Well, $5+7% for a pair of pants at Goodwill is still cheaper than $25+7% at a department store.
Consider also getting out of the urban area you're in. It's still possible to live the urban lifestyle without being ass-raped with taxes and rent.
Once you learn to identify excess expenses and cut them viciously out of your life, you'll see that what you did before was largely a result of cultural programming. Look, you're the middle class; that means your ONLY strength is in downsizing your standard of living and then producing savings from the margin created. Those savings are then accumulated, and are spent to some degree and periodically in order to save further on expenses. Largely, this means that people stuck in renting end up owning. Having savings means surviving periods of bad employment and unemployment. Savings means you can move when it gets economically bad around you. SAVINGS is the only real power of the middle class. If you're not saving, then you're effectively one of the POOR and you will be a victim as long as you remain in that state.