40-year-old homeowner says economy doesn’t add up: ‘I’m making the most money I’ve ever made, and I’m still living paycheck to paycheck’
40-year-old homeowner says economy doesn’t add up: ‘I’m making the most money I’ve ever made, and I’m still living paycheck to paycheck’
This is the best summary I could come up with:
After years of managing household budgets through the stress of the worst inflation in a generation, US families are increasingly pressured by a different kind of financial squeeze: The cost of carrying debt.
The figures suggest a difficult reality for the millions of consumers who are the engine of the US economy: The era of high borrowing costs — however necessary to slow price increases — has a sting of its own that many families may feel for years to come, especially the ones that haven’t locked in cheap home loans.
Nikki Cimino, a 40-year-old recruiter living in Denver, said she finally saved up enough to buy a condo last year, but missed out on the ultra-low interest rates that had made homeownership more affordable in the early days of the pandemic.
It helps that many families are relatively well-positioned to service that debt: Broad wage gains mean workers are pulling in larger paychecks, and higher home prices have bolstered many households’ net worth.
While the share of income going to debt service is higher than it was three years ago — when stimulus checks were making it easier for people to throw money at their credit card bills — it is still low by historical standards.
And part of the reason some Americans were able to take on a substantial load of non-mortgage debt is because they’d locked in home loans at ultra-low rates, leaving room on their balance sheets for other types of borrowing.
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People also tend to increase their spendings when they have more money... (not saying inflation isn't part of it too)
Its because the government has been stealing your money for decades via the fed and inflation. But we just keep voting for both parties that have the exact same monetary policies. I guess we got a bunch of wars out of the deal!
Ah; 40 years old means she doesn’t remember the oil crisis in the 70s.
We’ve had over 20 years of low interest and low inflation and people have forgotten how things can be.
The cost of living is still outrageous compared to then even when you adjust for inflation. There also weren't the same mega corps running every facet of your life while providing the cheapest crap that will never last
That was the era of “made in Japan” — but you’re right; it was different mega corps running every facet of your life.
It was an era where a LOT of people were bankrupted and had to start again from nothing. The big difference was that doing so was possible at the time; this time around it means you’ll likely have no hope of ever owning property because there’s just enough time in one lifetime to get there, if that (for most people).
It doesn't help that discourse online is entirely convinced that everything was absolutely perfect for the baby boomer generation. They never experienced hardship. Nope. Absolutely none. If they did it was no where near 1000 times how bad I have it.
List those financial hardships then, with sources please.
The top end of medical care is higher than it has ever been in the world. And stuff is available to more people than ever too - e.g. tiny villages in Africa can get vaccines that Americans refuse to take even. But access to programs such as Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid are closing up shop. Younger people are forced to pay into it but will never get the value out of it that older generations were able to. So while the programs ostensibly look to be still there, their "meaning" has changed, bigly.
Similarly with the top and bottom ends of knowledge - except it was far easier to afford a college education when it was a fifth of the cost that it today, and you used to be able to Google pretty much anything, but now all that is shown are ads, ads, and more ads (SEOs have seen to that - tbf AI stuff is helping but it is extremely unreliable and soon enough that will fall prey to SEO stuff too).
But the biggest issue may be affordability of housing: having cool phones that can play games is nice and all, but what else in life could possibly compare with being able to afford your very own home? Even if bought at age 40-60? One answer to that is having a semi-permanent "job", compared to a shorter-term position in today's gig economy (there was some article saying that nearly all positions created in 2020-2 were short term ones, though ofc I can never find this article again on Google).
People today have little hope for the future. Neither Trump nor Biden (nor Mitch McConnell nor Nancy Pelosi, now Hakeem Jeffries, etc.) seems to be able to provide that. Nor could they even on theoretical grounds due to the forces at work of automation and globalization. But perhaps there is reason for hope? If so, someone smarter than I would need to explain it, and even find it first. "The economy" has grown for almost a hundred years... but at this point whether that unrestrained growth pattern seems sustainable or not is besides the point, since "the economy" doesn't seem to be trickling down any to the people who want to share in the good fortune of "America". But yeah... maybe it will get better? Or maybe it's Maybelline?
Because a box of cereal is $7.
And oatmeal - didn't that used to be one of the cheapest foods!? wtf happened there I have no idea...
Steel cut oats are still relatively inexpensive; no reason to buy prepared oatmeal.
Go to a Latin market and buy it in big 5kg bags for cheap
I routinely buy big boxes of "extra raisins" raisin-bran at Walmart for less than $4/box, did so today in fact.