“There’s this wild disconnect between what people are experiencing and what economists are experiencing,” says Nikki Cimino, a recruiter in Denver.
Have you tried skipping breakfast??? /s
A former treasurer of Australia solved it. You just need to get a good job.
Some months I struggle just to save $1000 and it’s really starting to get to me
poor thing
No shade for your success but you may need a bit of a reality check. Most people cannot save $100 a month.
I’m lucky if I can save $50 a month. You are effectively rich. Congrats on being disconnected from reality.
You can save $1000 a month? Damn!
Right???
I really don’t get these humble brags. Or are they actually just that disconnected from reality? Or maybe trying to mock people?
No, they genuinely think they are struggling. Rich people don’t think they are rich, because there is someone who makes more, and they are rich. The 10% thinks they are struggling because they aren’t the 1%. The 1% thinks they are struggling because they aren’t the .1% and so on and so on.
I met a doctor once who thought that she was being ‘struggling’ by only making 450K/yr and she thought she deserved 550k/yr. She was 100% genuine.
I make 3x median income. and all i ever hear is how ‘poor’ i am from my friends/peers. Because do then ‘poor’ is anything less than 250K/year w/ multiple family properties to vacation and stuff.
It’s that they have ALL THESE GOALS and want to do ALL THE THINGS and may genuinely make a great deal of money. It doesn’t mean that they don’t need to budget and save, though. This person is definitely out of touch with reality or was brought up wealthy.
I only make about 68k/year. I’m just single and live a frugal life. I only started driving at the age of 39 after I decided to splurge and buy a used Nissan with 145km on it.
Yeah welcome to the fuck guy.
I’m going to start using this. Thanks!
There’s a term for this, HENRY. High Earner, Not Rich Yet. The lie is the “Yet”. Millennials and Gen Xers have been struggling to reach the middle class that is kept perpetually out of reach. They have given up on the idea of financial solvency and are going into debt to indulge in luxuries like having children, going on vacations, and living somewhere that isn’t a complete shithole. Saving for retirement is as realistic as training to live on Mars, so why bother? Keep digging a financial hole and then lie down and die in it.
I might be “rich” when my parents die, depending on how much elder care they need.
I’m actually kind of looking forward to the day I look my kids in the eye and say “I’m going out to look for firewood” and just walk out into the snow and die.
But there won’t be any snow anymore so I’ll just wander off into a slightly chilly night.
slightly chilly night.
You’re a glass half full kind of person, aren’t you?
What if we just financed all our kids advantages on our own credit for them and then promptly died?
What would happen to the debt?
Say I max out my credit card for their down payment on a house and then go “get firewood”.
Then the credit card companies crank their interest rates higher and restrict the credit they extend to your kids to compensate. It’s not “free money.”
They definitely try to track large cash gifts when putting down a down payment on a house.
So I buy a bunch of gold and leave a map and then bury it in the woods and when I “get firewood.”
You should watch the movie The Road if you haven’t already.
I’d rather look forward to the improvements in technology that make elder care less expensive.
As if regular people can afford whatever improvements happen
You didn’t finish reading the end of the single sentence in my comment.
the improvements in technology that make elder care less expensive.
There is a possibility of that being happening but the last half-century of economic trends makes this unlikely, unfortunately. This decade, especially, makes it likely that the gouging will continue and any advances making care less expensive will just see an increase in profits at the top. Every industry seems to have give into overdrive on driving up profits at the populace’s expense, with the exception of basic consumer entertainment electronics but, they are, realistically also driving up effective costs as they are being used to harvest customer data for sale.
If we’re getting out of this, we’re going to have to do it ourselves because none of the established holders of power have shown the slightest inkling of being interested in stopping it.
The last half-century of economic trends supports my expectations, actually. Treatments have been getting cheaper as technology advances. New treatments tend to be expensive, yes. But then as they become older they too get cheaper.
Insulin was discovered over 100 years ago and it took policy, not improvements in manufacturing, to lower the price (which only happened last year).
In America, they don’t get cheaper because it got easier to make.
What most people don’t realize is that once you have excess income, you have options. What you do with the excess is what matters. If you don’t save and invest it, you’ll be living paycheck to paycheck for the rest of your life.
A lot of folks think being rich means just spending money on whatever you want. That’s not really the case. If you spend the excess on fancy cars or luxury items that make others think you’re rich, the irony is you’ll be working for a long time and never actually become financially independent.
Edit: well, if I’ve learned anything from this comment, it’s that everyone on Lemmy identifies as a HENRY with bad spending habits no matter how much money they make. Or, at least a temporarily embarrassed one.
The problem is that for many folks the amount they are making isn’t enough for them to live a very reasonable life AND they have nothing to invest in the first place. Suppose a household in a given area needs $100,000 to afford a VERY modest house in that area, health insurance, savings, healthy food etc. Now suppose the house has one disabled breadwinner and one fellow working for $40,000.
Because of this they live in shit town in a tiny apartment a building full of drug addicts in a not so great part of the state wherein the average life expectancy is about 10 years less than one of the good parts of the country.
The first 40k of “excess” would be spent on having a decent life, working a sane number of hours, moving into an actual home. For fully half the country the idea of having excess is laughable. It’s a crass joke.
Most areas don’t need $100,000 a year to afford a “very modest house”, you could get a nice mobile home and afford to pay off the loan in just a couple years.
Lets define “most”. Herein I define most as the area immediately surrounding the majority of people. 70% of people live in urban areas not out in bum fuck.
I live in a small city of 50,000 in Washington. A house around here starts at about 400k. I would have to pay about 3100 per month including taxes and insurance. I would take home about 6500 per month after taxes if I made 100k. At current interest rates I would need to spend 3100 per month to service such a loan.or about 47% of my take home pay. It is difficult to see how I could afford a home with a household not individual of less than 100,000.
Adjacent to me is a much bigger city with about 20x the jobs and opportunities. I would need more like 900k to buy into there. Realistically to afford a home there we are talking about my household making more than 200k. Why so much? Because housing has got very expensive and interest is very high.
A ton of urban areas have much options cheaper than the west coast though, mobile homes, townhouses, duplexes, etc. $400,000 is much more than a very modest house. For example I would consider a shotgun house very modest, and short of very high income areas they’re usually much less than $400,000
Cheaper places are cheaper for a reason. Worse health care. Worse education for your kids. Worse life expectancy. Worse Opportunity. For instance St Louis has a median home price of 207k but they also have 10x the murder rate of Seattle a worse jobs outlook. You’ll make less money etc.
Who in their right mind would want to live in a red state?
Cheaper places are cheaper for a reason.
Yes, and I agree I prefer higher density, but ultimately some people living in less desirable areas is more reasonable than trying to build ever taller skyscrapers in city centers- in a country with massive amounts of empty land.
Worse health care.
It depends, there are plenty of cheaper cities with very good healthcare, I grew up in Louisville, KY, spent a lot of time in LA, CA, and now live in Prague, CZ. Louisville has had the cheapest rent/purchase price and had by far the best quality healthcare(at least that I and my family received) out of anywhere I’ve lived.
Worse education for your kids.
This is valid in some cases, and there are plenty of valid reasons to desire living somewhere else more, that doesn’t mean there aren’t costs to that. Furthermore, there are plenty of expensive places with terrible school systems, plenty of cheap places with passable school systems, but more importantly traditional schools systems in general suck. Kids now days have access to the internet, that combined with parents who encourage curiosity and creativity will be much more important to them learning than the school system they go to.
For instance St Louis has a median home price of 207k but they also have 10x the murder rate of Seattle a worse jobs outlook.
That is cherrypicking, compare Chicago to Fargo, ND. Or a less distant example, Seattle to Spokane.
You’ll make less money etc.
Assuming you don’t work remotely, but you’ll also spend less.
Who in their right mind would want to live in a red state?
Not about being red or blue, its about not being a HCOL megalopolis. You can also move to Maine.
the areas where most people live, however, do.
nobody wants to live in trailer park in Mobile, AL.
Everybody wants everything at no cost. That’s not how the world works, though. If you earn $X a month and want to save some of it as a long-term investment, you simply cannot spend $X a month. You can’t have both.
There are indeed some people who have no choice but to spend $X a month, their basic expenses just can’t go any lower without literally ending up on the street or straight up dying. Those people do have a real problem and I sympathize with them.
People who say “I want to save money but I also want to live in the nicest possible house in the nicest possible neighborhood” I have less sympathy with, because they have a choice. I face that choice myself and instead of griping about how I can’t have everything I want with no sacrifice I just go ahead and make the choice. I don’t spend all my money each month, and as a result I don’t take vacations as nice as I could take and I don’t have as nice a car as I could have. But in exchange for that I’ve got plenty of savings built up.
Why not?
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Every time ive tried investing, i had to take it out after a few months to pay for something thats popped up in life after other things have raided my savings.
Investing is for people with a lot of excess cash.
Precisely, which is why I don’t think my comment is directed at you. If you’re always trying to get ahead of the latest unexpected big expense, you’re not a “HENRY.”
That’s what living pay check to pay check is though…
Not necessarily. It’s what living paycheck to paycheck is if you’re poor. If you make a lot of money but spend a lot of money on unnecessary things you can also be paycheck to paycheck.
What are those “somethings” that pop up every few months?
Broken phone, hot water heater, HVAC, fridge, washer, dryer, toilet, stove, oven, microwave, tv, personal computer, new shoes, new clothes, friend is getting married, friend is having a baby, the car needs a new set of tires, the car was rear ended, windshield was shattered by a rock that kicked up off the road on my way to work, need a new lawnmower cause the second hand Toro mower’s gas powered engine is shot, property taxes went up because home values went up, kids got sick and went to the doctor, dentist appointment found a cavity, accidentally sat on your glasses, suit doesn’t fit anymore and you have a funeral to attend, older windows on your house built in the 90’s are starting to go bad, storm damage to your out of warranty roof, deck needs to be rebuilt because the old wood is starting to dry rot, time to replace the bed(I know you’re supposed to replace them every 8 years, but you went ahead and stretched 15 out of this one because you’re frugal)…must I continue?
New shoes and new clothes should be part of your budget. You shouldn’t be blindsided by this.
Everything else, do some reseaech into ‘emergency fund’. You need one before you start investing, else yes you’ll be dipping into your investments the moment you need some extra cash and you might end up loosing money if the market has gone down when you sell.
That’s the point. Financial security is extraordinarily tough to come by so people can’t set aside the money for an emergency fund and invest. It’s not just poor budgeting, everything is getting more expensive for the middle class. Five years ago, my fiancee and I could buy 2 weeks of groceries for $100 at Aldi. Its doubled in that 5 years. Ironically, the most stable consumer good in the last 5 years has been gas and republicans bitch about that too.
Youbare mixing things up.
Groceries have gone up, no one is questioning this, we all feel it.
When questioned about what your emergency, unexpected expenses were, that made you dip into money that you had invested, you listed real emergencies (cavities) and stuff that should be in a budget - new shoes.
Read about personal finance. You have money that you spend as part of your budget bills, shoes, rent etc.
if you manage to have any left, you put them against an emergency fund, typical recommendation is you try to build a nest that allows you to leave for six months.
Then if you still manage to have any left, you start investing.
It looks like you did the wrong way, invested money that you actually needed.
Also, if you are redoing your deck and don’t have an emergency fund, toubare living on the edge. Shit happens like lose your job and break a leg and you don’t have money to pay your mortgage. But at least you have a new deck.
This is basic personal finance, has nothing to do with the price of groceries and you are not poor since you obviously have extra disposable income that you are using wrongly. The other guy isnright BTW you don’t need a new bed ffs, if you have money to throw away start building an emergency fund.
But obviously this is lemny and my logic is in the way of the narrative that the greedy corporations are causing everyone to leave one pay check to another. Hence all the downvotes.
No need to continue. I see a bunch that could have been postponed or omitted.
Like what
Stove, oven, and microwave are redundant; it’s convenient to have all of these but you don’t need all of them. The TV, also, is a luxury item. I don’t know what part of your friend’s wedding you paid for, but that’s not a necessity either. Did the person who rear-ended your car not have insurance? A gasoline lawnmower is excessive, get a push mower. Attend the funeral in less-expensive clothing. Windows starting to go bad haven’t actually gone bad. Deck wood starting to dry rot doesn’t mean it’s nonfunctional, and even if it is a deck is not a necessity; get rid of it instead. Replacing your bed “just because it’s time” is weird, was there actually something wrong with it?
I’m not saying it would be awesome to cut or postpone those expenditures. But you said you had to take your savings out to do these things, and that doesn’t seem true to me. You chose to take your savings out to do those things. If you value those things more than you value having savings, fine, that’s your choice. But “Investing is for people with a lot of excess cash” isn’t true. You could have chosen to have savings instead in exchange for a less expensive lifestyle.
What are you doing to those appliances that’s making the break down so rapidly, anyway? I’ve got a microwave that’s lasted me at least a decade. I’ve never had a TV or toilet “go bad.”
I don’t know your situation, but investing is riskier than a savings account, that currently yeilds a high interest rate.
If you need an emergency fund, make one in a high yield savings account first. My rough number is $10,000. “You’re missing out on the gains” is an incredibly shortsighted view people have in the stock market. “Gains” are made over 20 year periods.
Except that’s not at all what OP said or was implying. Nice way of pushing the blame on the people affected rather than the broken system we live in.
Most people are struggling with the basics, not disputing that. But, then I wouldn’t consider those people HENRYs.
When I look around, I also see a lot of people with high income making boneheaded moves like buying expensive vehicles, renting luxury apartments, etc. For some people the problem isn’t the system, it’s their own lack of self-control or planning. If you’re making $200,000 and still feel broke. Maybe that $1,500/month car payment was a mistake. Maybe you shouldn’t have used the raise to move into a luxury apartment building.
When I was starting my career all my coworkers lived in $2200/month luxury buildings. I knew we all made roughly the same amount of money, so was shocked that they would pay this much for rent. Meanwhile, I sought out roommates and paid $650. With the money I saved, I paid off my student loan debt aggressively. Now all these people are struggling to get to the next step in life. Yeah, I could’ve seen that coming 10 years ago for you.
I see the same thing with cars. Everyone wants to own some luxury SUV. And, they make fun of me for driving a Prius. I won’t be surprised in another 10 years when they’re still struggling.
This isn’t an attack on people who don’t have the money. This is an attack on people who do and can’t plan well, but then act surprised when they’re broke still.
I don’t make 200k, but together with my wife, we make a little under that. We both have cars, and both are paid off. I still have the first car I ever brought, which is a Nissan Sentra 2006 basic model. So, 17 years on the same car and hers is a 2015 Toyota. We do have 2 kids and brought a house in 2015. The last 4 years have been almost impossible to make ends meet, and all we try to do is survive with the very occasional do something for the kids. I have tons of housework I can’t do but also can’t pay for either. Because of this, we also can’t move until it’s taken care of, so we’re kind of stuck here as well. We have no money to save or invest. Did we make some bad decisions? Sure, probably shouldn’t have had kids for starters. They cost a fortune. But my point is we aren’t doing anything crazy here, it’s just that more and more things are taking our money and prices also went up. It sucks because all I want to do is live and get by, I don’t really have any grandiose dreams of doing crazy things or buying tons of stuff. I just want to get by as my parents did, which seems impossible today.
How much did you pay for your house? Assuming you live in a HCOL area? Making almost 200k you shouldn’t be struggling at all, unless you’re living in some crazy high cost of living area.
I live in North NJ. From my understanding, it’s about as bad as it gets. House was 330k 10 years ago. We also have crazy property taxes, so that alone is 13k a year. I also live in a very rural area which was the only option for the area if we wanted some space and also keep house prices semi cheap.
How damn costly is everything else there, that’s crazy high for property taxes though.
Even if you do nothing, if you don’t get into debt, you will have millions in equity in the house when it’s paid off.
You’ve basically invested into real estate so you’re saving money even if it doesn’t go into your savings account.
We purchased the house for around 300k, and even with the market today, it’s about 500k. Sure, it could go for higher whenever we do sell, but it’s not an investment. With our current loan we will have paid over 500k over 30 years, so I really am not expecting to make out from this. The only way this makes me money is when I retire (which is close to payoff anyway) and move someplace way cheaper than we’re we live now.
You’re going to pay it off in what, like 25 years? Yeah, it will be worth over a million by then.
My dad bought his house for $600,000 in 2008 peak, and it is now worth maybe 2 million. It hasn’t even been twenty years and it’s more than tripled, despite being underwater on the mortgage in 2009 (owed more than market value)
I think there’s a difference between High Earner and High Income that is causing a discrepancy here. Somebody making six figures is a High Earner, but isn’t really a High Income anymore. In 2020, I made about $40k, which was more than about 55-60% of Americans made that year. That puts anybody making $100k or more in the top 25%, at least, of incomes in the country. And yet the prices of things mean that more and more of them are living paycheck to paycheck, regardless of their financial planning.
In a lot of ways, what’s in the market dictates what people can buy more than what they can afford does. I had to buy an SUV the last time I bought a car because I need the 4 wheel drive for the winters here. I had a front wheel drive car once, and couldn’t get it out of my neighborhood when there was more than a half inch of snow on the road. That same SUV today is at least 25% larger than the model I bought, because “that’s what the market wants”, according to Toyota.
When I was first looking for apartments in 2010, studio apartments in my town started at the $1,500 to $1,700 per month range. The lowest rent I could find was a single room in somebody’s house with “occasional kitchen access” for $1,000 a month. And now there are cities where landlords are telling people making $100k that they need to find roommates to afford rent. A 2 bedroom house on a tiny plot of land that’s falling apart just down the street from my parent’s house got bought last week for $1.2 million. 10 years ago that house was probably worth $500k at best. The new owners intend to tear it down and replace it with an Air BnB, taking it off the housing market and further driving up housing prices in town. Builders are making luxury apartments and condos, and single family suburbs, instead of medium density multi-family housing because “that’s what the market wants” and definitely not because that’s what has the highest profit margins. I think there’s been 1 new mixed-use development built in my hometown since I was living there as a kid, but the number of condo developments has increased from 1 to 17 in that same time frame. Every year more kids leave because it’s simply unaffordable to live there. It was even when I was trying to live there, and it’s only gotten worse.
There’s people living above their means, and then there’s people making a six figure salary who just had to replace a car in a market where car prices spiked 30% in the last 3 months of 2023 alone. Personally, I probably wouldn’t even own a car if our country wasn’t built for cars instead of people. They’re priced as a luxury but considered a necessity by the powers that be. Even if you do a lot of the routine maintenance yourself, like me, it’s still prohibitively expensive for the majority of people. Even those we could consider High Earners.
I gotta back your position here, especially because I think you’re being downvoted unfairly. There is a lot of unfairness in this economy for sure but on this thread that started with HENRY and literally “They have given up on the idea of financial solvency and are going into debt to indulge in luxuries” your comments are totally in line and fair.
Want to add too, that even the first subject in the article ‘Making the most I’ve ever made’ isn’t the best example of a tough economy. She went through a divorce and then bought a house in one of the most competitive housing markets in the US. The high interest rates certainly make that tougher but that’d be hard to afford even before without it.
Both can be true. There are many people who barely (or don’t) make enough to survive. There are also many people who spend money frivolously and then complain that they’re broke because of the economy.
If you don’t save and invest it, you’ll be living paycheck to paycheck for the rest of your life.
I don’t think you really know what “living paycheck to paycheck” actually means if you think it, in any way, involves investing.
You can have very high income and still live paycheck to paycheck if you spend every paycheck
“living paycheck to paycheck” generally means that all money is spent on living expenses and there is very little, if anything, left over. If you have any appreciable discretionary income, you are not living paycheck to paycheck.
Tell that to the people who make 150K and spend 200K a year.
Hint: they dont’ give a shit what you say.
I’m not concerned about what those people say; they are doing just fine. I’m concerned about the people who are actually living paycheck to paycheck.
I think his point is people are only living paycheck to paycheck out of choice when they could save and invest if they tightened their belts.
Not saying I agree, just explaining his perspective.
There are peple who are genuinly struggling.
Then there are those who choose to spend 10-20K on vacations every year and ‘feel’ they are struggling.
And these latter people will forever tell you how they are living ‘paycheck to paycheck’ and talk your ear off about how theri struggles are more genuine and ‘real’ than people who are actually poor.
Maybe if they ate less avocado toast right!
In some cases genuinely yes. If you are earning $X and you are spending $X every month, but some of those expenditures are on luxury items like fine foods, then complaining about how you’re living paycheck-to-paycheck and don’t have the “choice” to invest rings hollow. You do have the choice to invest, you’re just choosing to spend that investable money on immediate luxuries instead.
SOME cases? Half the country isn’t really earning enough to more than barely get by. They have nothing to invest. They aren’t spending much on “fine” foods unless you are counting not eating entirely ramen and rice as “fine foods”
Dude, i pay near $400 a month in just student loan payments. I had to buy a “new” car last year and this 8 year old Subaru cost me $360 a month. I could have bought another $4000 beater, but that’s a hole you never get out of because you are constantly having to replace cars that aren’t worth the scrap they are made of. Everyone has been on a knifes edge for the past 16 years and now everything costs double from them but wages have been the same. No amount of budgeting is gonna fix that.
Didn’t you just say you improved your budget situation by buying a more reliable car?
No, they said that their choice was either an extra expense of $360 a month for the car that they bought, or $4,000 for a cheap beater that’s guaranteed to die on you at some point and be a hole that you perpetually shovel money into if you keep replacing it with more junkers.
That doesn’t mean that they can afford the extra $360 a month. Just that it was the cheaper option.
Just that it was the cheaper option.
Yes, that’s what I was pointing out. He reduced his expenditures.
I suppose he could also go without a car entirely, depending on the circumstances.
He’s still paying $360 a month more than he was before he had to buy a car. His expenditures have increased overall, though not by as much as they possibly could have. But that doesn’t mean that they’ve reduced, unless you’re for some reason considering the cost of the previous car as being more expensive than the new payment in some way.
In fact, if he had bought the $4,000 beater and had to replace it after a year, it actually would’ve been cheaper than the new car - $4,000 over 12 months comes out to $333.33 a month. Of course, that doesn’t include anything like gas or maintenance, but neither does the monthly payment on the other car.
He didn’t specify how frequently he had to replace the beater. Since he was complaining about how it would be more expensive than the car he did bought, logically I would assume it would be more frequent than that (or would require costly repairs more frequently, with the same result).
If he chose the less economically efficient option, that’s even sillier. Why would he do that and then complain about it? This is really the whole point here - budget your money and choose the expenditures that make sense within your budget.
I didn’t say that… my comment isn’t directed at people who are living paycheck to paycheck. It’s directed at people who think they should be rich because they have a high income, yet always seem to have found some unnecessary thing to spend their money on, which prevents them from building wealth.
If you’re always struggling to pay your bills, you need to increase your income. Not saying it’s your fault, just that practically that’s the best thing you can do for yourself in an imperfect system rigged against everyone but the very rich.
If you’re always struggling to pay your bills, you need to increase your income.
“just make more money” lmaooooo
You’re maliciously trying to misrepresent my comment.
On Lemmy financially irresponsible people don’t exist, and when making any statement to the contrary, all they can hear is “blah blah blah avocado toast”.
I try to save whatever extra I have, because everyone says I need to have six months of expenses saved.
The problem is that before I can save up enough to cover that there’s some huge expense that I need to cover that empties it out and puts me even more into debt.
If I could manage to save up a year of expenses, I could probably start my own consulting agency and start making a lot of money, but I just can’t get there.
This is really stupid.
You’re basically telling people “just be rich” like it’s that simple.
People living paycheck-to-paycheck are not able to invest money because they don’t have excess income, they get to decide if they want to pay for rent or want to pay for food. Combine that with astonishing inflation rates and salary raises that don’t match cost of living increases or simply layoffs, and we have one fucked up situation.
This is a systemic problem. Billionaires shouldn’t exist. Billionaires are a societal problem.
edit: Oh, I see your comment isn’t directed at people living paycheck-to-paycheck, that’s a bit more reasonable then but I still think you’re missing the mark. It’s not as simple as “just increase your income” like you seem to be thinking it is.
because it is that simple.
be rich or forever be poor.
this is the system we have setup and the system that we worship.
The problem in this thread is that there are people - such as the one mentioned in the title of this article - that are living paycheck-to-paycheck by choice. They choose to spend their entire paycheck on stuff. They don’t need to spend it all, they could save some, but instead they buy the biggest houses they can afford or build a deck they don’t actually need.
There are people who would literally die if they tried to significantly reduce their spending. Those are the people who don’t have a choice, and I sympathize with them and want solutions for this because it’s a serious problem. The others I have somewhat less sympathy for.
what the heck’s a rimjob?
OP is like: Even if you have highly-valuable skills, you can’t get ahead, because the game is stacked in favor of renting out your assets instead of delivering valuable labor.
Reply is like: Yeah, but have you considered renting out your assets though?
Come up with a better idea besides complaining.
The funny thing is: You’re not wrong, you’re just talking about it at the wrong level.
Individually, if you don’t save and invest, you’re gonna be screwed due to unpredictable expenses, inflation, and lack of runway for retirement.
But if you zoom out and look at a whole population, it’s also true that tons of people are in such severe financial conditions that they can’t save and invest, so your advice is something like “buy a life jacket” to someone who’s already 10 feet underwater.
And if you zoom out even further, there’s no way that we’re going to solve severe wealth inequality through individual action. And especially not through investing, which helps you as an individual relative to other individuals, but also provides more options to the wealthy recipients/managers of the funds to extract wealth at a rate higher than your ROI, which accelerates the concentration of assets in the hands of people who already own a disproportionate amount of them.
Ah the ol’ deserving poor schtick. Classic.
Gen X here and I can’t afford to contribute to my retirement. Even had to withdraw some during unemployment. I’m either working until I die or hoping assisted suicide becomes legal in 20 years.
Gen Millennial here. I can assist you on your suicide that day for a hot meal so I can at least eat on that day. Maybe someone from Gen Z can assist my suicide if I leave him my blanket then.
A hot meal? If you’re eating the person who just suicided then you could probably stretch those left overs out for at least a week or two.
You might be on to something here…
Sounds like a modest proposal
Yep. Same. I do pretty good for myself and I’m more fortunate than most, but I had to borrow money from my dad recently for a series of expenses I couldn’t absorb in real time. I got the “you don’t know how to budget” sermon. It felt as fun as you’d expect
I said fuck it and gave him a list of earnings and expenses (I’m pretty frugal) and he was like, “oh…”
Did he clap afterwards?
Oh hey, this is what my partner and I have been experiencing for the last year or so.
assisted suicide
Is that when you die but take a billionaire with you?
X here too, 53yo, cannot contribute to retirement. At 67 I will have to sell my house because I’ll not be able to afford taxes, insurances, power, repair, etc
On the bright side, 9mm is cheaper than a retirement home. Somebody’s getting a blowjob on my 60th birthday, and it ain’t gonna be me!
Damn, that’s dark. Like my favourite kind of humour.
Assisted suicide vs… illegal suicide? What’s the difference?
Illegal doesn’t pay out insurance claims. Not that I can afford life insurance….
A higher quality of living is being gatekept by the wealthy.
Inflation is hitting people hard. And it’s happening globally not just in the USA.
Last night I ordered some food and the delivery agent told me she is living in her car because people are not tipping well and she can’t afford rent anymore. Paid for her stay in a motel for now.
Honestly, same boat. Our power bill has gone up over 20% this past year like it’s insane. Our grocery costs have easily doubled in that time, too. Like I’m doing the math and seeing the numbers like I’m making more than I was 3 years ago, but I wasn’t living paycheck to paycheck then, and I’m rationing food today.
I also can’t count the number of times prices have gone up on common groceries in the last year. Every time I go in I’m spending more than I did the previous time. And the grocery stores around here have started phasing out their cost saving brands. More and more lately what used to be the expensive brand is the only one left, and I’m paying twice as much for half as much compared to what I was getting before. They’re not even trying to hide what they’re doing.
I’m in this same boat. I get letters from the power company all the time about how I’m using more power than anyone around me. The heat in my place has been kept around 62 all winter, occasionally allowed to get colder. It’s a pretty modern build for a house too. I actually used my PC to heat just my bedroom over winter which should be far more power efficient the heating every room. The letters I get try selling me how I need to or could be more efficient like genius ideas like “turn down the thermostat”… its already nearly almost off, just enough to make sure pipes don’t freeze.
Only thing that really changed was they installed a new smart meter last fall, of which I had no say.
In Canada those so-called smart meters turned out to be sending incorrect data (or no data at all) AND causing fires.
Best of luck in getting the powers that be to check them tho. :/
it’s* already nearly almost off
Maybe you’re getting incorrectly billed, have you checked the meter readings? Smart meters don’t have a great reputation.
My bill also shows I use way more electricity than similar houses. My best guess is they have a heat pump or gas heat/water heater. Whereas I have forced air electric.
I recently installed an emporia energy monitor. It’s basically a kill-a-watt meter that you connect to the circuit breakers for full house monitoring. And while I see some areas that I could improve to cut my bill, no where near enough to get to what the power company is saying similar houses are using. Saving up for a heat pump now as I think that’s the best thing I can do to get my bill down. And as a plus I’d have central AC instead of having to use window units in the heat.
I’m convinced those statements are wrong in some way. Either not comparing houses of similar size or unoccupied units are skewing the numbers. Or they just tell everyone they’re doing horrible to try and sell energy efficiency stuff.
When I compare using figures from my thermostat via beestat.io my house is in the top 40% (uses less energy than 60% of similar homes in my area).
Yes that actually makes sense. Gas is used in most homes, and is considerably cheaper than resistive electric heating. Probably you can get a subsidy for the heat pump.
I went grocery shopping Saturday. Grapes were $6/pound. It’s getting so we can’t afford produce anymore.
Grapes are in season the exact opposite time of year as we are now.
Imported/greenhouse produce is expensive. Always has been.
Ordinarily I’d totally agree. But they’ve been going up in price constantly for the last 2 years and never come down.
Grapes were $6/pound. It’s getting so we can’t afford produce anymore.
Are we talking regular red/black/green non-organic grapes or some of the more exotic varieties? I track grape prices myself and $2.99/lbs mark for out-of-season-domestic grapes. This is the current price a regular grocery stores right now here with the exception of warehouse clubs which have them at $2.29/lbs. The normal in-season non-warehouse price can be as low as 89c/lbs, but is usually $1.25/lbs.
Is there something special about your geography that makes it more expensive?
Is there really some kind of nation wide grape price standard? Don’t they have to add costs for transportation to places where they do not grow grapes?
Is there really some kind of nation wide grape price standard?
Not to my knowledge, no.
Don’t they have to add costs for transportation to places where they do not grow grapes?
Certainly, but with economies of scale and good logistics, the prices across the country aren’t that much different. There are some exceptions, such as pockets of the continental USA that are under served, or states like Alaska and Hawaii which don’t benefit from the continental USA logistics. That was the “geography” question I had to the poster.
The prices of grapes at my grocery stores right now are $2.99/lbs and they are imported from Chile or Argentina usually because grapes are out-of-season for the USA right now.
They’re just regular red table grapes. I have no idea what’s going on with fruit prices near me but they’re nauseating. I’m in the northeast; we should still have some late apple varieties left from fall but those are getting outrageous too.
I’m in the southern emisphere and just started eating grapes. Assuming you are in the US, consider looking for produce that is in season. Besides helping with your budget, it contributes to addressa number of other issues around shops and producers trying to focus on growing stuff that doesn’t want to grow at a particular time of the year.
I usually try to but here in the Northeast USA almost nothing is in season except mushrooms.
Money is for corporate people, not normal people! Silly goose
The floor is rising! But, the floor is lava.
I’m in this article and don’t like it.
Anecdotal
Honest work: You make just enough to live on until its not enough and then you’re homeless
Scams and grifting: You make possibly lots of money then maybe get sent to jail which is where the courts are gearing up to send homeless people anyway.
I like the implication that economists aren’t people
Gary Stevenson explains why this is, and why it’s not gonna get better anytime soon.
Great channel!
This video is great. He put into words what I’ve been suspecting for a couple months now. He predicts asset/housing prices will continue increasing while living standards stay terrible and he thinks they’ll get worse. I think he’s absolutely correct. A better quality of life is being gatekept by the wealthy.
