OT: How do you truly beat these inflation/sky-rocketing costs?

[PooPopsBaldHead]

Yeah, I'm in the process of building a house. No way you fit all that in 1,350 sq ft. Hell, my rental is 1,400 sq ft and it sucks.

@SandWolf



Here's the plan I submitted to the building inspector when I converted a 1-car garage into the kids bunk room... noted as bonus room on plan. They have a small sectional, bunks, desk, lego table, and TV in there. Sleeps 4-5 kids depending on if they share the bottom full size bunk.

The "office" is circled in purple. It's a solid 10 square feet cutout in the master that perfectly fits a desk. The master bedroom is unused space from 7 am until 9-10 pm. No need to build a whole extra room for an office.

No dining room, but a big island that allows 5 to eat at it. Also have a big covered patio in the back with our dinner table.

If you don't like this layout... I love this 1400sf 4 bed 3 bath number from the same designer.







The keys for us are smaller rooms that serve multiple purposes instead of just sitting empty all the time.

 

[Ranchdawg]

Like it or not our economy is tied to fossil fuel prices and orher transportation costs. Everything we buy has the be transported. When the cost of transportation goes up so does the cost of goods. It has been this way for years. Recent regulations to improve air quality have added costs as well.
We cut way back on going to restaurants. Our grocery bill each month is approaching $1000 for 2 people. We do have Sunday afternoon dinner at our house so that adds a little extra cost. Farmers fuel cost have pretty much doubled and the chemicals they use as well as seed costs have increased. If and when, if ever, fuel costs come down we may get some relief. If not, we are going to see ever higher costs.
If the international monetary system switches to the yuan then buckle your seatbelts!

 

[HumpDawgy]

I don't want Trump but if you would like to recommend a viable alternative (Rep or Dem) I'm all ears.

I always vote for who stays out of my wallet the most. Clinton, Obama, nor Biden have been good to our wallets.

 

[Dawgs_4_life]

I bought my house in 2021 with 20% down. If I were to buy it from myself now with 20% down my mortgage would more than double... No thanks.

We just recently purchased, about 19 months ago. We also put 20% down. I have a friend that is looking to buy a house at nearly the same cost, in the same neighborhood, and their mortgage would be $675 higher just on the interest rate difference.

 

[MSUDOG24]

Trump got elected because the Dems had a bad candidate in Hilary and Trump was an unknown without a lot of baggage at the time. Biden got elected because as Trump became known and turned off millions with his idiocy (namely his twitter account and big mouth) and lack of self control while Biden played "rope a dope" from his basement and let Trump self destruct. If these two old fools are the candidates God only knows what will be the deciding factor

What an excellent and succinct summary of it all with a mic drop to end it.

 

[Rezdog]

@SandWolf

View attachment 412852

Here's the plan I submitted to the building inspector when I converted a 1-car garage into the kids bunk room... noted as bonus room on plan. They have a small sectional, bunks, desk, lego table, and TV in there. Sleeps 4-5 kids depending on if they share the bottom full size bunk.

The "office" is circled in purple. It's a solid 10 square feet cutout in the master that perfectly fits a desk. The master bedroom is unused space from 7 am until 9-10 pm. No need to build a whole extra room for an office.

No dining room, but a big island that allows 5 to eat at it. Also have a big covered patio in the back with our dinner table.

If you don't like this layout... I love this 1400sf 4 bed 3 bath number from the same designer.


View attachment 412855
View attachment 412854

View attachment 412853

The keys for us are smaller rooms that serve multiple purposes instead of just sitting empty all the time.

That's pretty sharp. I did build a separate office in our new house because my wife and I both work from home. I also put the kids rooms upstairs in the attic space. But it's not 1,400 sq ft.

 

[johnson86-1]

Most people don't chart out their finances early in their careers. If you do, stuff like this is just an annoyance.

I have charted out my finances from the beginning and this is way more than an annoyance. We probably have been hit harder than most people that haven't lost their jobs, but if we don't have some significant above inflation increases this has tacked on 10 years to our projected retirement date.

I think this started with doctors and lawyers who lived their early lives in debt, because they expected to make much more income soon enough. That attitude spread to other workers who do not share that income path. Those people spend too much, and there's the problem.

I think it was sold to people by financial advisors and the finance industry as consumption smoothing. You start out accruing debt early, then your income and expenses match as your income grows, and then you start saving later in life. Your consumption stays more or less the same over your life so you aren't unnecessarily depriving yourself early on and then having "excess" savings or consumption late in life.

Aside from the obvious danger of assuming you will steadily grow your income, it also ignores that people don't want steady consumption, they want steadily increasing consumption. So they just end up going into debt and continuing to take on more debt to finance more consumption.

 

[AstroDog]

Yeah I can’t handle that Trump Clownshow either…..

Gas was $1.89 per gallon in MS under him

Mtg. rates were around 2% under him

The military was full of real warfighters under him….not a bunch of alternative weak lifestyles like now.

Russia wouldn’t have dared invading Ukraine under that Clownshow’s regime.

China wouldn’t dare invading Taiwan under him

Inflation was Waaayyy down in Clownshow Trump’s admin.

The Southern border was absolutely secure under that Clown

Unemployment was at an all time historical low under that Clown.

International trade was more fair than ever to the U.S. during the Clownshow era

2nd Amendment and Religious rights were protected better than ever

Strongest relationship with Israel ever, which kept the peace in the middle east

Could go on and on……..but yeah, you are right…..we should never want anything again like we had in that Clownshow Trump Admin. Lets keep it going good with the Biden/Harris team. What’s next?...probably an all out Civil War.

 

[johnson86-1]

@SandWolf

View attachment 412852

Here's the plan I submitted to the building inspector when I converted a 1-car garage into the kids bunk room... noted as bonus room on plan. They have a small sectional, bunks, desk, lego table, and TV in there. Sleeps 4-5 kids depending on if they share the bottom full size bunk.

The "office" is circled in purple. It's a solid 10 square feet cutout in the master that perfectly fits a desk. The master bedroom is unused space from 7 am until 9-10 pm. No need to build a whole extra room for an office.

No dining room, but a big island that allows 5 to eat at it. Also have a big covered patio in the back with our dinner table.

If you don't like this layout... I love this 1400sf 4 bed 3 bath number from the same designer.


View attachment 412855
View attachment 412854

View attachment 412853

The keys for us are smaller rooms that serve multiple purposes instead of just sitting empty all the time.

It's hard to reset expectations. We have a pretty large master bedroom and it's nice when we're in it, but we're really barely in it. If we had tried to make it a more reasonable size (say 12x12), then the question would have been resale b/c it would have been out of whack with the rest of the house. I fought to not have a dining room and just have a table in open space between kitchen and living room (where we'd actually use it daily instead of using the island half the time) and lost. We have 3 rooms that are basically den/living room/playroom functionality. We certainly could have gotten by with just two of the three. I will say if I'm using the home office, I'm working late so having it in the master wouldn't be ideal but I also could just use a dining room table at night.

I'm perfectly happy that we're in our house because of the rock bottom interest rate, but it's definitely overkill. Would have been much better off building two houses and renting one of them. Granted that would have been more expensive overall because of the extra kitchen and lot, but if the financing would have been treated the same, it would have easily been worth it.

 

[johnson86-1]

Yeah I can’t handle that Trump Clownshow either…..

Gas was $1.89 per gallon in MS under him

Mtg. rates were around 2% under him

The military was full of real warfighters under him….not a bunch of alternative weak lifestyles like now.

The rot in the military has been going on a long time and was there with Trump. Vindman's fatass was military and I think relatively successful there.

Russia wouldn’t have dared invading Ukraine under that Clownshow’s regime.

This is probably correct but it wasn't rational for Putin to invade this time, so I wouldn't bet much money on it.

China wouldn’t dare invading Taiwan under him

Inflation was Waaayyy down in Clownshow Trump’s admin.

The seeds for this inflation were planted before and during trumps time also. Biden did put it into hyper gear with ridiculous stimulus overkill, but Trump didn't exactly do anything to avoid it or postpone the reckoning.

The Southern border was absolutely secure under that Clown

Unemployment was at an all time historical low under that Clown.

International trade was more fair than ever to the U.S. during the Clownshow era

2nd Amendment and Religious rights were protected better than ever

Courts were protecting the 2nd amendment and religious rights. That's not a knock on Trump. It's just reality. Certainly he didn't go out of his way to target religious with the executive branch, but I'm not sure how much that happened before Obama's presidency.

Strongest relationship with Israel ever, which kept the peace in the middle east

Could go on and on……..but yeah, you are right…..we should never want anything again like we had in that Clownshow Trump Admin. Lets keep it going good with the Biden/Harris team. What’s next?...probably an all out Civil War.

I'm not disagreeing that Trump on policy was relatively good and way better than anybody had a right to expect before he was elected. But not everything good or bad during a presidency can be fairly credited to or blamed on the president.

 

[OG Goat Holder]

The seeds for this inflation were planted before and during trumps time also. Biden did put it into hyper gear with ridiculous stimulus overkill, but Trump didn't exactly do anything to avoid it or postpone the reckoning.

Yeah the economy has been a house of cards for a long time. The pandemic exposed it, and the majority of people did not learn anything. It's worse than ever now.

 

[ckDOG]

Yeah the economy has been a house of cards for a long time. The pandemic exposed it, and the majority of people did not learn anything. It's worse than ever now.

Turns out that making money cheap for a very long time has an inflation impact. Whudathunk it? Combo that with a massive global demand disruption with a subsidized reset and here we are. Wish I could say it's a U.S. problem and we can fix it quickly with policy but I'm afraid that ship has sailed long ago. Current admin basically lied and tried to downplay it as a short term bump. Of course it will come back down but it feels far from "transitory inflation" and more of a long term wobble and going to hurt for a while. I guess technically it is transitory but using that word has a short term association with it.

That's one big thing I want in our next President - skills in delivering bad news. Be honest. Lay out the facts and tell the people what to expect even if it's news they don't want to hear. Be clear on what you can and can't do. If they feel you aren't doing enough - fine, they'll vote you out. We have this weird expectation that the President can snap his fingers and fix or ruin things overnight and every topic/debate is framed that way. It's counterproductive and getting very old. Bring honesty and nuance into politics.

 

[Boom Boom]

Turns out that making money cheap for a very long time has an inflation impact. Whudathunk it? Combo that with a massive global demand disruption with a subsidized reset and here we are. Wish I could say it's a U.S. problem and we can fix it quickly with policy but I'm afraid that ship has sailed long ago. Current admin basically lied and tried to downplay it as a short term bump. Of course it will come back down but it feels far from "transitory inflation" and more of a long term wobble and going to hurt for a while. I guess technically it is transitory but using that word has a short term association with it.

That's one big thing I want in our next President - skills in delivering bad news. Be honest. Lay out the facts and tell the people what to expect even if it's news they don't want to hear. Be clear on what you can and can't do. If they feel you aren't doing enough - fine, they'll vote you out. We have this weird expectation that the President can snap his fingers and fix or ruin things overnight and every topic/debate is framed that way. It's counterproductive and getting very old. Bring honesty and nuance into politics.

I would put this as turns out you can't keep wages at rock bottom forever even as profits soar, that eventually wages will have to start rising, and when they do you'll get inflation.

I'm pretty sure the 10 to 20 year lookback at this period will clearly show that wages went up and inflation followed, then wages stagnated again (our entire system is set up to achieve that) and inflation lowered with it. Money spent won't corrolate, as it never has.

 

[horshack.sixpack]

Trump got elected because the Dems had a bad candidate in Hilary and Trump was an unknown without a lot of baggage at the time. Biden got elected because as Trump became known and turned off millions with his idiocy (namely his twitter account and big mouth) and lack of self control while Biden played "rope a dope" from his basement and let Trump self destruct. If these two old fools are the candidates God only knows what will be the deciding factor

I was tired of politicians, knew very little (100% my fault, as there was plenty to know) about Trump except he wasn't a lifelong politician. I was so bought into political rhetoric in 2016 and not very good at vetting my "news" so I was an anybody but Hillary person. Trump flipped me to an anybody but Trump (or MAGA type) person. Basically if they are not publically and regularly calling out Trump and his movement for what it is, I'm voting for whatever candidate is, until I'm certain that we won't have that career criminal in office again, nor any of his disciples.

I'm reminded of a statement that Billy Graham made early in the Religious Right movement, circa 1981, Parade Magazine: "It would disturb me if there was a wedding between the religious fundamentals and the political right. The hard right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it."

Prophetic...

 

[mstateglfr]

Food is insane. You can't even cook a meal for less than $30 anymore. I've moved to lower quality meat cuts when a purchase it.

What the 17 are you eating?
A meal for 4, plus leftovers, can be easily made for $20 or less.

2.5# of chicken breast at $2.99/pound.
half a large tub of spinach for $2.50
3 carrots for $.25
2 tomatoes for $1
1 pint fresh blueberries for $3.99
dried cranberries- $.25
sliced almonds or crushed pecans- $1

This will serve 10 people and costs $18. It will serve dinner, allow for seconds, and provide leftovers for the next day.




1# of of 99/1 ground turkey and 1# of 93/7 ground turkey from a 48oz pack - $9
2# of rotini- $2
.5 jar of pesto- $2
Jar of pasta sauce- $3
28oz can of crushed tomatoes- $2
28oz of diced tomatoes- $2

This will serve like 14 people and costs $20. You could have dinner for 4, everyone have seconds, and everyone have leftovers the next day. And there would still be some left over.




Im sure this is where you criticize what I selected, either silently or post a response. But reality is that there are countless ways to cook healthy and complete meals for 4 for less than $20 and have leftovers.

 

[Boom Boom]

I have charted out my finances from the beginning and this is way more than an annoyance. We probably have been hit harder than most people that haven't lost their jobs, but if we don't have some significant above inflation increases this has tacked on 10 years to our projected retirement date.

I really don't see how. If you are saving 20% of income (or much more!), then 10% more in expenses shouldn't change things too much. I guess if your wages are completely stagnant it matters more, but they shouldn't be for nearly anyone. Keep in mind there should be savings gains from all of this too, that are probably easy to not count as correlating with all this stuff.

I think it was sold to people by financial advisors and the finance industry as consumption smoothing. You start out accruing debt early, then your income and expenses match as your income grows, and then you start saving later in life. Your consumption stays more or less the same over your life so you aren't unnecessarily depriving yourself early on and then having "excess" savings or consumption late in life.

Aside from the obvious danger of assuming you will steadily grow your income, it also ignores that people don't want steady consumption, they want steadily increasing consumption. So they just end up going into debt and continuing to take on more debt to finance more consumption.

I'm sure people do that, but it's unwise.

 

[mstateglfr]

I'm no Trump fan. I don't know why you bring him up.

Republicans are drawing a hard line on spending right now which is why we're dealing with a potential gov't shutdown (again) and democrats are running to every hot mic blaming republicans for trying to kill grandmas instead of taking an honest look at what's flushing this economy down the toilet.

Republican Legislators have been, on recorded record, calling out the fringe crazies of their party for what that small group is trying to do. The ones calling out others typically then end up acquiescing to the extreme and vocal minority because its all bonkersville over there, but even they recognize the absurdity of what the small vocal part of their party is doing.

When the Right has been in control recently, spending was up overall(even though McCarthy claimed it was 0, and also used data from when Democrats had the majority/were in power. Its because he likes to play numbers games and ignored 'budget authority' spending.)
Republicans are trying to add random stuff and so far, Biden isnt agreeing. MTG, Gaetz, etc are clowns and have McCarthy by the balls because McCarthy was so 17ing desperate to be Speaker, he agreed to some seriously absurd demands. Thats why we are where we are right now- clowns are running things and trying to force a shutdown.
Meanwhile, the Senate passed a 79 page bipartisan bill because there isnt the same level of extremism over there as in the House. McCarthy even acknowledged the value of the Senate's bill, but he is powerless because clowns have his nuts in a death grip and are threatening to rip em off.
Guess who is pushing for the shutdown and egging the clowns on?...the guy you are not a fan of. He has publicly urged them to stand firm and shut it down if needed.



Thats the reality of what is happening- inmates are running the asylum. If the right actually gave a 17 about government debt or government spending, they would fix it when they are in power. But they dont. They just hold these semi-annual attempts at 'gotcha' politics.

Looks like I am taking a page out of your book and I will claim I am only responding to you when you post blatant lies.

 

[dorndawg]

Yeah I can’t handle that Trump Clownshow either…..

Gas was $1.89 per gallon in MS under him

Mtg. rates were around 2% under him

The military was full of real warfighters under him….not a bunch of alternative weak lifestyles like now.

Russia wouldn’t have dared invading Ukraine under that Clownshow’s regime.

China wouldn’t dare invading Taiwan under him

Inflation was Waaayyy down in Clownshow Trump’s admin.

The Southern border was absolutely secure under that Clown

Unemployment was at an all time historical low under that Clown.

International trade was more fair than ever to the U.S. during the Clownshow era

2nd Amendment and Religious rights were protected better than ever

Strongest relationship with Israel ever, which kept the peace in the middle east

Could go on and on……..but yeah, you are right…..we should never want anything again like we had in that Clownshow Trump Admin. Lets keep it going good with the Biden/Harris team. What’s next?...probably an all out Civil War.

LOL

 

[Rupert Jenkins]

People see inflation at 7% last year and 3.7% this year and buy what the current party is telling them about "bringing inflation down."

Inflation is not down. It's a compound statistic. It's 3.7% higher than the highs of last year. And real inflation is much higher than the 3.7 we're seeing reported.

Most Americans are too dumbed down and lied to by the democratic propaganda wing known as the MSM to realize these inflation numbers are year over year. It's actually close to 18% higher than 3 years ago. Dems say it's coming down. It's actually going up less thanks to exorbitant interest rates. Good luck watching your kids buy a house. Make sure you vote for Biden and the rest of the democrats. We may freeze to death but at least we won't get our feelings hurt by mean tweets

 

[Rupert Jenkins]

Definitely triggered.

Show me on the doll where Drebin hurt you. You can tell me. You are in safe space here

 

[L4Dawg]

We paid off our mortgage two months ago. We refinanced once during it. We used the savings from the lower interest rate not to reduce the payment, but to take five years off the repayment time. I don't miss that payment at all.

 

[ckDOG]

I would put this as turns out you can't keep wages at rock bottom forever even as profits soar, that eventually wages will have to start rising, and when they do you'll get inflation.

I'm pretty sure the 10 to 20 year lookback at this period will clearly show that wages went up and inflation followed, then wages stagnated again (our entire system is set up to achieve that) and inflation lowered with it. Money spent won't corrolate, as it never has.

Money spent won't correlate bc it ignores the supply side of supply/demand. Double whammy here bc of juicing the demand side (increasing consumer cash in consumer driven economy automatically increases demand) with no corresponding increase in competition/market entrants to address that added demand. Unemployment is historically low after "the great retirement". The incremental labor isn't there to allow the markets to adapt to increased demand at a speed the results in manageable inflation rates.

 

[stateu1]

Most Americans are too dumbed down and lied to by the democratic propaganda wing known as the MSM to realize these inflation numbers are year over year. It's actually close to 18% higher than 3 years ago. Dems say it's coming down. It's actually going up less thanks to exorbitant interest rates. Good luck watching your kids buy a house. Make sure you vote for Biden and the rest of the democrats. We may freeze to death but at least we won't get our feelings hurt by mean tweets

I have a kid graduating state in December and it scares me to death how he’s gonna afford housing. Luckily he was left a decent amount by his grandmother, but how in the hell can a kid making $75k a year afford a decent house in a decent area?

 

[mstateglfr]

FFS, this thread. I couldnt help myself and responded to a political comment by Drebin, but this entire thread is just full of misinformation, ignorance, and misdirected blame.

Here is reality-
- the US had low interest rates for way longer than it should have. A correction was inevitable. It was known back before the pandemic that a correction was coming, so the shitshow of spending during the pandemic only made it worse. Hell, an inevitable correction was discussed on SPS back then. And it was discussed during the pandemic while Trump was in office. And it was discussed during the pandemic when Biden took office.
The 17ing correction was inevitable because of our monetary policy.
Who kept pushing for low interest rates well past when they should increase? Thats who to blame(along with those that kept em low).

- The pandemic absolutely increased inflation. It helped push entry level wages up and it caused both Trump and Biden to write checks to citizens, even if those people werent financially hurt by the pandemic(my Trump check was a helluva bonus since neither I nor my wife stopped working). Money gets printed wages increase, and cost of goods increase?...inflation follows. I learned that back as a kid, it should be pretty damn easy for everyone to understand as adults.

- Gas prices arent the fault of a president. There are simply too many variables when it comes to gas prices to honestly blame(or credit) a president.
Gas prices rose under Trump.
Gas prices dropped under Obama at the start.
Gas prices were lower at the end of Obama that when he started.
Gas prices continually rose under Bush,.

Adjusted for inflation, gas was at $4.78 in Bush's last year. That's higher than it's averaged under Biden and higher than it's even been for 1 year under Biden.
I really do love that gas was higher under Trump for every year compared to what it was at the end of Obama's time in office when Trump was elected. Trump comes in, gas goes up, and gas stays up.

 

[mstateglfr]

I can't decide what is worse - the fact that Trump is still in consideration, let alone leading the polls OR the fact that Republican Party can't muster up a candidate that can make Trump irrelevant.

The only rationalization that I can come up with for him still being around is that GOP has run off a large contingent of educated and rational voters.

I also cant believe Democrats cant muster up a candidate that makes Biden irrelevant.

 

[LordMcBuckethead]

I'm not talking political BS here. I kept thinking prices would return to reasonability about 3 years after the COVID shutdowns, but they haven't yet. Gas is up, groceries are up, restaurants are STUPID high, construction prices through the roof, housing way up, on and on and on. Stock market not keeping pace. How do you save?

I keep a tight lid on my budget and I usually try to say things aren't as bad as they seem, but they are. My next vehicle will definitely be a hybrid. I have nearly cut restaurants out. Buy clothes at co-signment stores. Cut out a lot of expensive activities.

This crap gets a little discouraging at times, I'll be honest. Somehow I want to blame it on the baby boomers. Most people just continue to pay the prices, so they just keep going up. I can't make myself do it.

Here is the simple answer, the prices are never going down. Both parties, and I do mean both parties, spent money to keep the entire economy afloat during the pandemic. Even Trump wasn't going to VETO the spending, because he knew it had to happen. The ramifications of not doing it, FAR FAR FAR outweigh the inflation we are seeing now.

Let's say for an instance, they added 33% new money to the market out of thin air. Then inflation will not stop until it reaches the 33% overall level. The equation is very simple. If you have a total of $100 dollars in the entire world, and you just arbitrarily add $33 to the total, then the worth of all money goes down 33%.

As ESSER and ARPA money goes through the economy, construction will get cheaper. When wage earners take a hit and realize that a person at a zero skill job can't demand 18/hr, all other things will balance out. But it probably will never go down back to what it was.

Gas is up, because OPEC wants it up. Gas is up due to global conflicts. We could drill more, but until it hits a high enough mark, domestic oil production isn't going to ramp up.

So, save money when you can or earn more money. Those are your options.

As a business owner, every single person in my employment is outpacing inflation through raises and bonuses. Why, because I understand that $100 dollars three years only buys $67 worth this year. I view raises as an equation.
Inflation Rate + Raise Percentage = Pay raise amount.

But my industry is protected from direct issues with inflation, as when the price goes up so does my revenue. But it is not protected from market slow downs.

 

[mstateglfr]

I was hoping we can keep this conversation sane before you use the red herring of Trump. Everybody knows Trump will not be reelected, but both Dems and Repubs keep mentioning his name to derail the conversation, which to me is disingenuous to the real problems we have. I'm not trying to blame anybody for how we got here, that bogs us down and finger-pointing, which doesn't solve anything.

Does everybody know that? Currently, I genuinely think he will be re-elected.
If the election were today, I honestly believe that Biden would receive more votes and that Trump would win the Electoral College.

I have seen and heard nothing that makes me think otherwise. Polls show Trump with the nomination and either a head to head with Biden or slightly ahead of Biden.

I am interested in hearing why you are so confident in him not being re-elected.

 

[LordMcBuckethead]

A few thoughts:

I'm not talking political BS here. I kept thinking prices would return to reasonability about 3 years after the COVID shutdowns, but they haven't yet. Gas is up, groceries are up, restaurants are STUPID high, construction prices through the roof, housing way up, on and on and on. Stock market not keeping pace. How do you save? My understanding is OPEC is driving much of this gas price spike, along with with a few refineries being offline earlier in summer due to heat. Labor isn't getting any cheaper anytime soon. 75% of restaurant experiences suck these days, especially in the middle market type places. Fast casual is the woooorst - $17 for a chicken Ceasar wrap, "there's the water over there, get your sandwich at the counter, and also please don't forget to bus your own table" and then you're gonna hit me for a 25% tip on the front end? Kiss my ***. I mainly hit up local sammich places, tacaquirias, or go to nicer places (albeit less often). Stock market is doing ok, it usually starts going down this time of year - S&P 500 is up 12% YTD and 17% last year. Now until Dec is probably a good time to buy. Heck, if you disagree with that, CDS at most banks are up over 5% which is beating inflation.

I keep a tight lid on my budget and I usually try to say things aren't as bad as they seem, but they are. My next vehicle will definitely be a hybrid. I have nearly cut restaurants out. Buy clothes at co-signment stores. Cut out a lot of expensive activities. I wouldn't buy a new vehicle now unless I just had to. Demand is still high, the strikes are going to have an impact, interest rates suck.

This crap gets a little discouraging at times, I'll be honest. I hear you, and no doubt real people are struggling. Groceries are out the ***, I feel for families that are barely scrapping by. That said, all of us would be better off to turn off the news sites and go outside to look at some leaves. Fall is dope. Somehow I want to blame it on the baby boomers. Well, probably 80% of bad things *are* their fault. Most people just continue to pay the prices, so they just keep going up. I can't make myself do it. The American consumer truly is an amazing machine of consumption. One way or another, things keep rocking along.

Damn, I have never agreed with everything someone has said before. Well done.
By the way, it is the Boomers fault. Either through their actions or inaction, all things are.

 

[Rupert Jenkins]

You are correct Glfr. We have had it good for way too long. We need some 3rd world problems and now we are getting them. Besides I am sure most of yall make the equivalency of a senators salary and so you should be able to send 3 kids to private school and Ivy league colleges and own at least 2 or 3 multi million dollar homes. If not you just don't know how to manage your money. I think Joe Biden or Bernie Sanders has a book out telling you how to do it

 

[LordMcBuckethead]

Gas is cyclical, and Saudi Arabia slashing output for the remainder of the year is a big part of current price hikes.

Otherwise, inflation has been in check (not increasing/decreasing slightly) for a bit, but is still high and I don't think that we will ever see things get back to pre-COVID levels, so the best you can hope for is that inflation finds its way back to what we have gotten used to over the last few decades and it doesn't get way higher. I suppose that you could also hope that wages find their way up, but that would involve companies taking less profit, among other changes that are not likely to happen.

Companies will never take less profit, they pass on cost increases to the consumers.... always.
So if everyone gets a pay increase, then the CPI will go up accordingly. It is like giving federally backed student loans that you cannot default on..... prices just go up.

 

[Beretta.sixpack]

I don't want Trump but if you would like to recommend a viable alternative (Rep or Dem) I'm all ears.

I havent read through all the responses, but saw this after my dad and I just discussed this last night. Assuming since this is a pretty conservative board, and with the thought of getting whoever is currently running this country out of office, I am full support of Nikki Haley. Just hear me out....depending on what poll you look at, 65 - 75% of the country supports Ukraine....regardless of how you feel about Ukraine, you have to recognize that is a big majority....So if you are looking at viable candidates from a conservative view, Nikki Haley is the only one that supports Ukraine on the republican ticket. I think this a MUST if you want to get the bat siht crazy that is currently running this country out of office. Trump and Rhamaswamy have zero chance. ZERO.

 

[Perd Hapley]

I would put this as turns out you can't keep wages at rock bottom forever even as profits soar, that eventually wages will have to start rising, and when they do you'll get inflation.

I'm pretty sure the 10 to 20 year lookback at this period will clearly show that wages went up and inflation followed, then wages stagnated again (our entire system is set up to achieve that) and inflation lowered with it. Money spent won't corrolate, as it never has.

I would think recent wage stagnation has affected the lower-middle class and lower class far more than the middle-upper middle that typically drives most economic activity and productivity, although the middle and upper-middle has been also affected somewhat - depending on industry / sector. Some more than others here.

It’s just too big of a problem to have a single root cause. There are multiple inputs, and even those inputs are complex just in a vacuum by themselves. Just an example here. Ultimately, real wages cannot increase in general if real productivity drastically decreases. And there is no way for real productivity to do anything but drastically decrease when you have an abrupt mass exodus from the labor force. So you could say, “The labor exodus….that’s it!”. But even that didn’t have a single root cause. A mass labor exodus was coming at some point no matter what, with the impending baby boomer retirements. But it was accelerated in 2020 with many who were not yet there, but close enough to say 17 it. Then you had another large group of younger people quitting so they could become single-income households, after figuring out by necessity that they could do it. Another large group that took lower paying / lower required productivity jobs because it offered them 100% remote work and geographical / time management freedom.

Then in addition to the above, you had the decade of post-Great Recession super low interest rates, which facilitated the post-COVID literally free interest rates (because any rate below the historical inflation of 2-3% is quite literally free money in real terms). The Trump tax cuts which facilitated corporate excess with stock buybacks and thus increasing artificial stock market valuation….that was another more subtle capital injection that wasn’t really needed. The global supply chain reliance on China and other volitile overseas economies for semi-conductors. The usual oil / gas volatility from OPEC. I could go on and on.

It’s like there were 8 different sticks of dynamite that were all linked to a single fuse, and COVID was the match that lit the fuse. They were all little tiny bombs that were going to sporadically explode anyway over the next half decade and create problems, but it would have been more manageable with various measured approaches if dealing with them one by one. Not the case with all of them at the same time. Effects are still being felt, and will be for some time.

 

[ckDOG]

Show me on the doll where Drebin hurt you. You can tell me. You are in safe space here

You too? I'll say it again, there's a great deal (defined below) of Biden immigration policies that mirror Trump. Just go to post title 42 policies and asylum treatment as a starting point. I'm not saying that in a positive or negative context. Not defending or praising one or the other. I said that in context of picking on people who participate in tribal politics who have no idea that their heroes and enemies really don't deviate that far in American politics and that the BS narratives we are fed often don't focus on reality. It's meant to get a rise out of us. Drebin has been conditioned to do that. Possibly you too? I understand. The media conditions us to do this despite it being counterproductive. Once you accept you are just being toyed with for clicks, views, and fear based votes, politics will become less stressful.

 

[mstateglfr]

The astounding thing is that the Democrats know that if they run anyone other than Biden or Harris, they easily defeat Trump. Also, the GOP knows that if they run anyone but Trump, they easily defeat Biden. At least one side will eventually blink. My money is on the Dems because such a large part of the GOP is all about Trump. They have an easier out than the GOP does.

Currently, neither of these claims can be even remotely defended. Polls universally show results differ from your claims. Polls show Biden either beating other GOP candidates by a lot, or by small margins. But none show a candidate that will 'easily defeat Biden'.

DeSantis is down 1-4 points vs Biden depending on the polls.
Ramaswamy is down .7-4 points vs Biden depending on the polls, and was actually up 1 over Biden is a single poll.
Pence is down 1-6 points vs Biden depending on the polls, and is somehow actually up 1 over Biden in a poll.
Scott is a wash- up or down 1 point vs Biden.
Haley is up on Biden in a bunch of recent polls.


Haley is at like 5% last I saw. So unless she somehow triples her support to reach DeSantis, she isnt even in 2nd place. And Trump currently has 11 times the support vs her in the polls. 11 times. Voters clearly want Trump to run and win right now.

 

[thatsbaseball]

I havent read through all the responses, but saw this after my dad and I just discussed this last night. Assuming since this is a pretty conservative board, and with the thought of getting whoever is currently running this country out of office, I am full support of Nikki Haley. Just hear me out....depending on what poll you look at, 65 - 75% of the country supports Ukraine....regardless of how you feel about Ukraine, you have to recognize that is a big majority....So if you are looking at viable candidates from a conservative view, Nikki Haley is the only one that supports Ukraine on the republican ticket. I think this a MUST if you want to get the bat siht crazy that is currently running this country out of office. Trump and Rhamaswamy have zero chance. ZERO.

Wife and I have both agreed we'd be very happy with Nikki Haley.

 

[L4Dawg]

Currently, neither of these claims can be even remotely defended. Polls universally show results differ from your claims. Polls show Biden either beating other GOP candidates by a lot, or by small margins. But none show a candidate that will 'easily defeat Biden'.

DeSantis is down 1-4 points vs Biden depending on the polls.
Ramaswamy is down .7-4 points vs Biden depending on the polls, and was actually up 1 over Biden is a single poll.
Pence is down 1-6 points vs Biden depending on the polls, and is somehow actually up 1 over Biden in a poll.
Scott is a wash- up or down 1 point vs Biden.
Haley is up on Biden in a bunch of recent polls.


Haley is at like 5% last I saw. So unless she somehow triples her support to reach DeSantis, she isnt even in 2nd place. And Trump currently has 11 times the support vs her in the polls. 11 times. Voters clearly want Trump to run and win right now.

The polls also show that the majority of American's want neither to be the next President. If one party breaks free, it will win.

 

[L4Dawg]

Wife and I have both agreed we'd be very happy with Nikki Haley.

Me too.

 

[ckDOG]

I havent read through all the responses, but saw this after my dad and I just discussed this last night. Assuming since this is a pretty conservative board, and with the thought of getting whoever is currently running this country out of office, I am full support of Nikki Haley. Just hear me out....depending on what poll you look at, 65 - 75% of the country supports Ukraine....regardless of how you feel about Ukraine, you have to recognize that is a big majority....So if you are looking at viable candidates from a conservative view, Nikki Haley is the only one that supports Ukraine on the republican ticket. I think this a MUST if you want to get the bat siht crazy that is currently running this country out of office. Trump and Rhamaswamy have zero chance. ZERO.

I like Nikki and would be thrilled if she is the nominee. She's conservative and I don't feel would try to govern like a psychopath and hinted at understanding reality/comprise in the last debate with her abortion and debt commentary. There's no perfect Republican or Democrat but she surely would signal a return to normalcy on the GOP side if she got the nod.

 

[Seinfeld]

I have lots of older clients in the same boat. They bought a 4-bed house in 1997 for 225k. Now they are empty nesters and their house is worth 600k. The problem is a 2 bedroom new(er) construction in the same area cost around 600k.

If you want to hear how dumb I am, I thought that using some of the equity I’ve built over the last 15 years to buy a place in the Heber/Greece’s Ferry area might be a smart alternative to burning cash on expensive travel. As I’ve since found out, if you want a badly outdated 1400 sq ft cabin within a mile of the water, yeah… that’ll be around $450k

The time hung is, though, people keep buying these places and it really begs the question… how many people are you passing by every day that are on the absolute brink of financial bankruptcy?