Explaining Our Example Numbers
We try to use real life numbers from the Madison, Wisconsin area from the year 2025. No ‘pie in the sky’ numbers. Just the hard real life values.
— Unskilled Labor Job at minimum wage of $12.50/hr for each of 2 room mates. (lowest wage I could find on Indeed.com)
— 2BR Apartment from University Park Commons @ $770/month for qualified low income.
There are income limits that one must meet to be eligible for income-restricted housing assistance. Specifically, to qualify for income-restricted housing, your household’s annual income must be at least 60 percent or less than the area median income for the local area where you live.
To find 60% of a number, you can divide the number by 100 to find 1%, then multiply that value by 60. You can also divide the number by 10 to find 10%, then multiply that value by 6.
In our example our two room mates together would make $51,240. If 30% is 29,310, then 60% would be $58,620.
Assume you bought a $8000 car financed 3yrs at 6.5%
Although when you are starting out you would probably buy a used car for cash that you saved, for the people who are not mechanically inclined, buying a moderately priced used car is probably a better idea.
Assume Utilities of $184 (from Numbeo.com)
Utilities are one of those things that can vary greatly based on usage. By setting them up on what most companies call the “budget” plan, you can get a repeatable monthly payment. Here we use a commonly found average for Madison, Wisconsin.
Internet cost of $25 from Charter Spectrum “assist” @ $25/month for qualified low income.
Charter is commonly available in many areas, sometime being cable internet, but more often is available as fiber internet. Like many low income offerings, our example satisfies the Charter requirement which gets you a cheap $25 offering.
Health Insurance
Health Insurance when it is not provided by your employer is actually a pretty easy process. You go to http://healthcare.gov and provide the information that they need and you can get health insurance.
If your income level is low enough (which is quite likely) you will have large part of the monthly payment paid for by the federal government. In our example the low paid full time employee gets zero cost health insurance.
A (silver plan) at this income level is completely subsidized at Healthcare.gov because the income is equal to 105% of the poverty level. It covers $338 per month ($4,052 per year) as a premium tax credit. This covers 100% of the monthly costs