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mine hasnt, im living off raman noodles and can soup. twice a week i get a tv dinner. last year it was breakfast, resturant for lunch and cook dinner, now it no breakfast, no lunch and a can of soup for dinner that got to last three meals,.
I have had freinds that work at other company that i have known over the year. leave me can goods in my truck, vegie they dont care for, stuff on sale, etc,the last day i had a set down meal, was xmas day, the last time i had a piece of meat that wasint in a tv dinner was xmas day, at a buddy house for dinner
over all i think we are doing the best ever at this stage being retired .
we no longer are concerned about scrounging up money to invest for retirement nor trying to raise a family on our incomes .
decades of investing the little bits we could and sticking to the plan left us in very good financial shape .
pretty much in retirement we do and buy whatever we want and we have lots of choices in things in our lives .
if markets tank for an extended period of time we have a lot of slack in the plan so life would likely go on as we know it .
the nice thing about ending up shooting for a 4% swr but only drawing in the 3% range is you build slack in the plan and a cushion as opposed to drawing 3% and investing in high levels of fixed income that can only support the 3% range safely .
big difference in cushioning for the awe craps in life
I totally agree. I'm generalizing of course, but most young people wouldn't be happy buying what were called starter homes back when. Today, first-time home buyers often think that a home with wall-to-wall carpet or Formica counters is laughable, and they just aren't interested in fixer-uppers, so there "just aren't any" houses in their price range. The idea of buying only what you can afford is just "not a thing" now. Sharing a rental unit with a roommate was totally normal and absolutely essential for middle class young adults 40 years ago, many of today's young adults would rather just live at their parents' home, which wasn't an option way back when "18 and out" was pretty much the rule unless you lived at college during the academic year, and at home in the summer. Young adults forking over $100 twice a month for mani/pedis, and spending hundreds on collectors' edition sports shoes they never wear was unheard of, except for the rich kids. A lot of my friends in high school had jobs (like me) to pay for our own school clothes and pocket money. We had to pay for our own prom dresses and year books, and our parents drove us to prom, no limos. Today some people would laugh or say we were poorly parented.
I think many middle class middle-agers would be doing a lot better if they were only supporting themselves and not their adult kids and even, to some extent, their aging parents. Seems like not as many people work second jobs to pay off debt or get a savings nest egg today. Some people today do work gig type second jobs, but moonlighting to save up a down payment, or to get a better car, doesn't seem to be on most people's radar screens anymore.
I completely agree with your thoughts on the younger generation but you are way off base on the young people of 40 years ago.
40 years ago, 50 for me, I knew few people that had to move at 18 and get an apartment. If they did they did not come from a middle-class family. Most people I know stayed with their parents until they got married or bought their own home. Buying their own school clothes was unheard of for middle class kids.
...but you are way off base on the young people of 40 years ago.
40 years ago, 50 for me, I knew few people that had to move at 18 and get an apartment.
If they did they did not come from a middle-class (or less) family.
And if we extend memories just a bit more ...
most cities were way overcrowded with relocated WW2 production workers and their dependents into the 60's.
People had no choice BUT to double up wherever they could.
And if we extend memories just a bit more ...
most cities were way overcrowded with relocated WW2 production workers and their dependents into the 60's.
People had no choice BUT to double up wherever they could.
eta: this slug of humanity, rather like the rat swallowed by the snake, will continue to bulge.
If that had been the only bulging, had this rising mid century middle class not overbred itself...
there would be (could be) more sweet grass available later for those cows too.
I agree about people's expectations driving subjective feelings about economically doing well or not.
I sometimes watch movies from the 1930s or 1940s and find it interesting to compare/contrast expectations as depicted back then to today. Back then in a city environment (NYC, Chicago, San Francisco) an administrative assistant/secretary would not own an automobile or home - she (it was always a "she" back then) might rent a single room in a boarding house or spare bedroom from someone at church. A male traveler might stay at the YMCA and in any case a hotel room might not have its own bathroom. While these movies are dramas and not documentaries, it affords the modern viewer with a partial lens into life 80-ish years ago and how expectations have changed.
There has been a clear qualitative change as well as a quantitative change.
New expectations are likely to be forged for new AI enabled devices such as Humane’s $699 AI Pin, Rabbit’s $199 R1 box, and Meta’s AI-equipped $299 camera-equipped Ray-Ban smart glasses that also allow you to take hands-free photos by saying “Hey Meta, take a photo” and take hands-free zoom calls and the like.
None of this memory lane walking puts food on the table in 2024 for a somewhat average family. Personally we experience a col increase of about 1/3 with an income decrease of 1/3 but no need for adjustments. Improvements?
As a good example, I went to the supermarket yesterday for a couple of prescriptions that were ready and I picked up a bag of Lay's Potato Chips, just regular flavor. Classic. 8oz. bag. $4.99. I thought good grief! Everything is getting more expensive. Only wanted them because we were serving hot dogs for lunch.
Our family life through the ‘00s was comfortable, essentially middle class with no debt, we intentionally lived below our means and saved/invested. Now that the kids are gone the wife and I are retired and living on our nest egg. We recently sold our big “dream home” after eight years realizing it was just a foolish vanity, and we’re renting as we finish downsizing to the essentials.
During travels I see daily the struggles of middle class Americans as their incomes are inflated away. People chase the dreams marketed to them 24/7 and now use debt to consume even basic essentials. I don’t see this as much in other countries, even though the exchange rate vs. the USD says they are struggling too.
The Central Banks cooked up this odd scheme of financialization to save their own necks, and the result has been a hollowing of the productive “middle class” while the ranks of the wealthy and poor grow. And these same folks tell us, without hesitation, that they know what they’re doing. Somewhere in the distance I hear Freidrich Hayek laughing.
As a good example, I went to the supermarket yesterday for a couple of prescriptions that were ready and I picked up a bag of Lay's Potato Chips, just regular flavor. Classic. 8oz. bag. $4.99. I thought good grief! Everything is getting more expensive. Only wanted them because we were serving hot dogs for lunch.
By buying them you are telling the manufacturer's that it's okay if they raise the prices.
If I don't find something a good value, I just don't buy it.
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