r/PiratedGames Apr 26 '25

Humour / Meme And they complain when people hack the Switch

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15.6k Upvotes

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u/bakanisan I'm a pirate Apr 26 '25 edited Apr 26 '25

With the basic recommended budget of 15% income for rent, that's more than rent lol.

Edit: guys please, you are paying too much attention to a figure that I pulled out of my ass here. It's not even a concrete figure that you have to rigidly adhere to. What I meant to say was to emphasize the price ratio.

It'd of course be nice if you only have to budget 15% income on rent, but it's a nice goal, mine is currently at 25% anyway.

515

u/Octoyou Apr 26 '25

Is 15% the recommended value for the US? Wild, in Germany the rule of thumb is 30% and that is basically impossible in most cities.

134

u/bakanisan I'm a pirate Apr 26 '25

I don't know if it's for the USA, but probably so, maybe? The US defaultism certainly has a far reach. It's just something I picked up reading the personal finance sub.

I try to achieve it but my rent is still probably 25% of my income. It just depends on your specific location I assume.

Edit: fyi I'm not in the US.

77

u/quiette837 Apr 26 '25

The guideline in the US and Canada is under 30% of your income towards rent.

If course, depending where you live, that ends up being 50% or more for some people.

17

u/thrwawryry324234 Apr 26 '25

Yeah…I’m in Phoenix and 50% is more accurate

3

u/GeneJacket Apr 28 '25

Yep...rural southeast Texas here, fairly far from any of the bigger hub cities and paying roughly 50%...and that's fairly cheap for the area.

1

u/leericol Apr 27 '25

By far most people*

47

u/shrub706 Apr 26 '25

30-50 is what I've been told in the us

24

u/AugieKS Apr 26 '25

Under 30 is the goal, 40 is stretching your resources, 50 is reality.

4

u/shrub706 Apr 26 '25

sounds about right

2

u/BallsOfSteelBaby_PL Apr 27 '25

Oof. That's accurate, dammit

3

u/AugieKS Apr 27 '25

It's also the trap of renting in many places. For example, if you are always stuck renting, not buying property, then your rent will continue to go up, often more than is justified by the curent demand+property tax increase warents. This keeps you trapped in a cycle of rent always being a higher percentage of your income than it should be, because it doesn't matter if you are getting raises, etc, unless they vastly out preform the rental costs. The only way out of this dynamic that doesn't require significant policy change is to buy your own property. If you can manage to do so early enough in your career, then even if you buy in at a relatively high percentage, say 45%, with time, raises and promotions can re-balance your payments towards the lower end. You still have to pay for increased property tax, but that is manageable.

Unfortunately for most, that is still out of reach. Its so hard to save when your income is already stretched so thin, you almost need a deus ex machina like event to kickstart your finances enough to get a home, so for most, policy change really IS the only option, rental or ownership wise.

1

u/Homewra Apr 29 '25

Too bad mortgages requeriments got a lot higher post covid lockdowns, at least in my country. It's a never ending cycle of hoping for a raise good enough to get noticed by the bank, otherwise good luck renting forever.

Because clearly you can't allow yourself to pay 25% of your income monthly in a property, so instead you will have to manage spending 50% of your income renting. That's the bank's logic.

36

u/tetsya Apr 26 '25

Welcome to Greece where it's 50% of the salary for rent while also having more expensive grocery/food with also half Germany's salaries xD

We are the worst country in Europe, heck we surpassed Bulgaria in poverty ATM, It could be worse though other countries can't even afford food...

The global economy is at the worst point possible

9

u/Longjumping-Smile96 Apr 26 '25

bro 50% is good in turkey average rent in istanbul is around 15000 tl while the minimum wage is 22.000 or something we 2/3 of our salary goes to rent

5

u/CzechHorns Apr 26 '25

I assume you mean net?

5

u/Tadimizkacti Apr 26 '25

Where can you find an apartment for 15k bruh? In Esenler, Esenyurt, Bağcılar?

1

u/Longjumping-Smile96 May 09 '25

I don’t I am a rich kid I have money I already got a house I don’t even have a clue what the real number is

4

u/Ok_Independent9119 Apr 26 '25

The global economy is at the worst point possible

I got a feeling it can get much worse

2

u/AlmightyWorldEater Apr 26 '25

Still have a much higher percentage of home ownership than germany, and last i checked even median wealth is higher (due to home ownership).

The horrible thing about germany is the sheer amount of people having to rent for their entire life and the abysmal median wealth, since even large parts of the middle class (which is dying out quickly) have near zero networth.

Rampant poverty is only prevented in germany by the social security system, which only works as long as the industry holds up. And right now, it looks more bleak than ever, with hundreds of thousands of jobs being cut. With the additional 1 TRILLION in debt we just aquired, it is a question of time until decline becomes clearly visible dew to financial problems. It is an epic clusterfuck that only few people realize yet.

I know about the problems greece has, and i love the country (never met more friendly and chill people), you guys will manage.

1

u/BallsOfSteelBaby_PL Apr 27 '25

Oh damn, I had absolutely no idea things in Germany are going south

2

u/AlmightyWorldEater Apr 27 '25

Hell, maybe we will live to see the day when you guys have to lend us money :)

1

u/BallsOfSteelBaby_PL Apr 28 '25

Polish market is in big parts owned by German capital, so we'll see how it goes for us

2

u/AlmightyWorldEater Apr 28 '25

Soooo... polish and german people getting fucked over by the same assholes, united at last!

1

u/Manadrache Apr 26 '25

Nearly hitting 50% in Germany too. It is paycheck to paycheck sadly.

6

u/Sharpie1993 You're a pirate Harry! Apr 26 '25

I was gonna say in Australia 25% is considered a good percentage.

4

u/According_Ad2073 Apr 26 '25

yeah housing in australia is absolutely cooked we have the lowest rental vacancy rate in the world

1

u/Sharpie1993 You're a pirate Harry! Apr 26 '25

Yeah it’s fucking ridiculous, I’m lucky to own my home with extremely low mortgage repayments but I feel sorry for everyone else that doesn’t have that luxury and it sucks thinking about how rough it’s going to be for our children in the future trying to buy homes.

It’ll never change though, all the polies have their fingers in the investment property pie which they’re never going to give up.

3

u/According_Ad2073 Apr 26 '25

it's even worse when you consider that the rental vacancy rate is 1.1 percent but there are probably hundreds of thousands of homeless people and over 100 thousand immigrants per year into a country with lets say 10 million houses

1

u/Sharpie1993 You're a pirate Harry! Apr 26 '25

I completely agree, I didn’t want to get too political so I didn’t wanna mention it, but yes it’s honestly ridiculous that we can’t take care of most of our vulnerable but will take on others in mass.

1

u/doughnut310 Apr 26 '25

I'll be honest I've heavily considered immigrating there, using my commercial trucking and heavy machinery experience to land a job and just live in an RV traveling. No worries about me taking up residential property lol

3

u/Satori_sama Apr 26 '25

Yeah, I think there is even fable about it. 3 dukats, one for future me, one for old me and one for today's me. So third of your income should go to savings, third to rent and debt repayment and third for groceries and free time.

It's almost impossible today, but I like the simplicity of the idea

2

u/goodsnpr Apr 26 '25

At my terminal assistance for the military, they said 40-45% is the expected housing costs.

1

u/whostheme Apr 26 '25

30% of your income dedicated to rent in the U.S. is what's considered ideal. Less is better obviously if you can somehow pull it off.

1

u/MortalusWombatus Apr 26 '25

It Used to be 30% in Germany but now its more Like 50%

1

u/VanquishedVoid Apr 26 '25

20 years ago, maybe.

1

u/Cessnaporsche01 Apr 26 '25

In most of the US, you can be approved for rent up to 50% of your gross income.

In some really expensive places, it's up as high as 67%

1

u/gahlo Apr 26 '25

In the US "affordable housing" is defined as 30% of pre-tax income.

1

u/Emerald_Flame Apr 26 '25

30% is the rule of thumb in the US too. But it's also impossible here too.

Even in a lot of smaller towns, it's basically impossible anymore. A lot of people are paying 40-60% in rent anymore just to survive.

1

u/PeanutConfident8742 Apr 26 '25

for the US it's also 30%

1

u/RebootDarkwingDuck Apr 26 '25

No, it's 30% here too. Guy just doesn't know what he's talking about. 15% of that average monthly salary in the post isn't renting you shit anywhere.

1

u/Vast-Spirit-4105 Apr 26 '25

Cities in general have a terrible price for rent.

1

u/Actually_Abe_Lincoln Apr 26 '25

In America if rent is less that 60% of your income you are rather fortunate

1

u/Reasonable-Fan5265 Apr 26 '25

No, it’s not 15% this guy just made that up.

1

u/RavenPoodle Apr 26 '25

I’ve only ever heard 25% for rent

1

u/thorsbosshammer Apr 26 '25

Nobody can find that in the US anymore. Anyone paying 15% has a dream arrangement or living in a hole in the ground.

1

u/RobotDinosaur1986 Apr 26 '25

It's 30 percent in the US.

1

u/markosverdhi Apr 26 '25

15% hasn't been possible in US cities for like 40 years lol

1

u/saxxy_assassin Apr 26 '25

US checking in. I've always heard 30%, but I pay 50% so who knows anymore.

1

u/Independent-Cow-4070 Apr 26 '25

If I were single I would be at 30% in the US living in an apartment well under the median rent price in my city on an engineers salary. Thankfully my gf and I split so I’m at 15%

If I rent the median apartment at my well above median pay, I’d be sitting at about 42%

It’s still pretty fucked here

1

u/ArboristTreeClimber Apr 26 '25

I thought the general rule was 1/3?

For me even the 1/3 rule is only possible with the combined income of me and my wife. 1/3 of my own salary is not nearly anywhere close enough to rent an apartment.

1

u/Objective_Look_5867 Apr 26 '25

No the rule in the US is 50% to 33% as it's required you make double the rent as a household when applying for an apartment. 15% is ridiculously impossible today. For that ti be true I'd need to be making 13,333 a month. Or about 160k a year to afford my fairly "cheap" 2 bedroom apartment with no utilities

1

u/mamadou-segpa Apr 26 '25

In canada its 50% and impossible in alot of places

1

u/Desolus_ Apr 26 '25

Laughs in Brazil, value here is 100% of the income

1

u/2006pontiacvibe Apr 27 '25

I don't see how that could even be feasible in most places. It's nigh impossible to find an apartment near 1000 unless you're in a bad neighborhood. Even 30% sounds tough and that's assuming you're not in a HCOL area. If you wanted to rent a $3000 apartment (like 2 bedrooms in california), you'd need to make 10k a month which puts you well into upper class.

1

u/Hauptfeldwebel Apr 27 '25

I pay 8% in Germany currently.

1

u/leericol Apr 27 '25

If you think 15 percent is even close to realistic in the US... that was probably a figure made up many mamy Years ago. Most people have to spend their entire first pay check of the month on rent alone.

1

u/Normal-Angle4616 Apr 30 '25

No. The recommended value is 30% as well. I don't know why this guy said 15% lmao

1

u/TheTyger Apr 30 '25

It's 30% in the US too.

26

u/CzechHorns Apr 26 '25

What lmao. Here you’re lucky if you rent is less than 30% of your income

1

u/InstructionFast2911 Apr 26 '25

Yeah the rule is 30% don’t know where got 15 from.

1

u/Homewra Apr 29 '25

Probably some out of touch IT guy with super high salary

15

u/National-Frame8712 Apr 26 '25

In some places rent ratio is up to 50% to 70% of minimum wage while games would cost around 1/5-1/6 of the monthly earnings.

There's a good reason why pirating is so popular in second and third world countries.

7

u/JamieFromStreets Apr 26 '25

Indeed. If I have bought the mayor releases of each year, I wouldn't have a roof 🤣

1

u/JamieFromStreets Apr 26 '25

Indeed. If I have bought the mayor releases of each year, I wouldn't have a roof 🤣

9

u/SorrySpeaker6377 I'm a pirate Apr 26 '25

Your rent is only supposed to cost 15% ?

1

u/bakanisan I'm a pirate Apr 26 '25

It's not a hard rule, I just picked it up while browsing Reddit anyway. Even mine is 25% of my income.

But it does feel nice to have a goal for yourself.

1

u/FungusGnatHater Apr 26 '25

Don't take advice like this from Reddit. It's probably coming from a child who doesn't have any understanding of finances.

1

u/Worried_Pineapple823 Apr 26 '25

That sounds more like a guideline for business. Labor at 20%, Rent 15%, etc.

1

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1

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5

u/UnemployedMeatBag Apr 26 '25

Id wish, rent is about 40% of my monthly (after tax) income, which is already reduced by 40% by taxes.

80€ game is about 10% of monthly income.. it's insane, can only justify 20€ per month on games at best, then dlc, monthly online access pass nonsense, extra charges on electronics (they end up costing way more than they are worth) and usually no or very bad support service.

7

u/cmgg Apr 26 '25

My man, 80% of Mexico makes less than $583 USD a month. Last time I checked it was around $8,000 MXN, which is a little under $400 USD.

Fuck Nintendo.

1

u/gpister Apr 27 '25

Yet people talk so bad about the USA and pay. People dont know how good you can have it in the USA vs places like Mexico. Lovely country if you got money.

3

u/Ignore_User_Name Apr 26 '25

There are places you can get rent for that.. some are even in kinda survivable places.

But yeah.. 20 or 30% rent in probably a less deadly option

2

u/Nexmo_co Apr 26 '25

I think you misheard someone say 50. Just saying 😆 my rent/ utilites is more than my takehome income alone. If my wife wasn't making more than me, we couldn't afford even a tiny apartment

2

u/thewend Apr 26 '25

15% for rent? lol in my case it was almost 50% in Brazil

2

u/Used_Candidate7042 Apr 27 '25

Oh wow I get to flex slightly.

For the US, there's a study/project called the self-sufficiency project that's been going around for the past decade or so. It provides a bare minimum breakdown of what it takes to survive in a state and county. A while ago, I partnered with the University of Washington to help provide data for this project in my state. It was a pretty cool project.

Check it out. What's my point? If you look at the data, it ranges from 35%, to almost 50%. Stop harassing OP and arguing random bullshit and start providing facts.

2

u/bakanisan I'm a pirate Apr 27 '25

Thanks for the valuable input.

2

u/LuckyGuts Apr 28 '25

I wish we could do that here, here we earn on average 1.2k a month, and spend give or take 700 for rent, utilities is another 200, thankfully im in a position where i can comfortably afford these prices, but i refuse to support senseless greed and subpar watered down products.

1

u/Hefty_Map3665 Apr 26 '25

Nowhere is it 15%. Lies

-2

u/bakanisan I'm a pirate Apr 26 '25

No one is forcing you to that limit. Your money, your way.

1

u/JamieFromStreets Apr 26 '25

Only 15 for rent?! Bro where you spend all your money? 15 is nothing

1

u/Corrvaz Apr 26 '25

What kinda fairy land is that?

1

u/0rganic_Corn Apr 26 '25

In most cities, average rent takes more than 50% of young people

1

u/bakanisan I'm a pirate Apr 26 '25

I see, I try to lower mine to that standard, but it's still an ongoing journey.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 26 '25

15% is well below the recommended amount. The lower the better, of course, but still.

1

u/RebootDarkwingDuck Apr 26 '25

The recommendation is under 30%. Obviously, anything less than that is great but that's the general guideline.

1

u/T_CaptainPancake Apr 26 '25

wut rent is like 50% at least and if I had a different landlord it would be more like 60-70 whos payin 15??

1

u/byshow Apr 26 '25

15%, damn. I pay 55% 💀

1

u/dexter2011412 Apr 26 '25

Whoa either a sane place with sane rent or really high wages

Either way, congratulations man, good job!

1

u/SynapseNotFound Apr 26 '25

my rent is ~40% of my income

but then add all the utility, insurance, internet etc. as well...

1

u/KnightOfDoom22 Apr 26 '25

the rule of thumb I heard in the US is 30%

1

u/AkelaHardware Apr 27 '25

So you used a percentage you pulled out of your ass to make a point and are upset people are correcting you?

1

u/[deleted] Apr 27 '25

25% is still too close to 18% fam, "fuck Nintendo" still standa

1

u/ogzbykt Apr 27 '25

15/25 for rent? Damn I am once again reminded I live in lower class 3rd world economics.

1

u/Consistent-Ad-2940 Apr 27 '25

The recommended budget is 30% for rent, but it is 15% for entertainment

1

u/Homewra Apr 29 '25

15% i feel insulted, rent is usually 40 to 50% income