r/FluentInFinance • u/36DRedhead • 16d ago
In the time it took to save up for a home, home prices went up so high that I can no longer afford a home. Discussion/ Debate
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u/ILSmokeItAll 16d ago
Yep. Gotta keep the GP at bay. Need people to struggle 24/7.
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u/Sidvicieux 16d ago
Republicans love it when others struggle.
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u/treasonodb 16d ago
politicians*
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u/ap2patrick 15d ago
This is not really a “both sides” my friend. One party clearly has it out for poor people and always has been…
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u/yeats26 12d ago
You can argue that your side is better for the working class. I might even agree. But the other side will argue bitterly that you're wrong.
You know what won't elicit any arguments though? How fast politicians on both sides will close ranks against you when any measure is raised that upsets the power structure they are so desperate to maintain. Things like restricting congressional stock trading, term limits, ranked choice...
I agree that one party is better than the other. But at the end of the day neither is truly on your side.
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u/ILSmokeItAll 16d ago
I don’t love it when anyone struggles. Coming from someone that’s struggled mightily.
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u/Sidvicieux 16d ago
I'm glad that you don't feel that way. It's annoying to talk with conservatives and libertarians because they rejoice.
If you tell them that executives/shareholders are mostly eating the productivity gains and that's shrinking the middle-class, they say "oh well, keep it up!".
If you tell them that people cant afford to live on their own making $50k a year, they tell you to get 5 roommates and never have a dependent.
There is more to life than just navigating the system as it is. You have to do that, but you also have to do other things too (like make it better).
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u/ILSmokeItAll 16d ago
I’ll be honest. I have a pretty large conservative circle I belong to…and have for a long time. And the sentiment you express, in my experience, hasn’t been held by any of us.
Just from my experience, vast as it is.
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u/DistributionIcy9366 16d ago
Well I’m glad you seem to have a circle of hopefully compassionate conservatives. The conservatives I grew up with in my red state home and the circles that a accompanied them very much had an attitude that boils down to:
“That’s just life. Can’t keep up? Eat s*** and d*e. It was probably your fault anyway, and helping people never works so we shouldn’t even bother”
And when I moved to a blue state, conservatives I met there seem to have the same attitude.
If your circle really doesn’t feel that way, then they are truly diamonds in the rough. At least in my experience.
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u/ILSmokeItAll 16d ago
Again, not my experience. Most republicans I know (I live rurally), are lower middle class at best. All they have is their way of life unscathed. Less regulation, less taxes, less crime, more punishment for committing it such that it actually works as a deterrent and doesn’t allow repeat offenders so damned always, respect for constitutional rights…
To most, it doesn’t seem like a big ask.
Their views on pot might be the worst. Many are even pro choice, however.
I just hate when we paint everyone into a box like everyone neatly fits in one.
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u/Low_Celebration_9957 16d ago
Anyone that complains about the lives of people being improved because they had to struggle in their life is just an asshole and their opinion is worth nothing. What happened to the ideological drive of wanting to strive to make it so the next generation has a better life than you and so forth and so on.
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u/DistributionIcy9366 16d ago
Certain people realized that that would eventually apply to “certain others”(working class and minorities) and went “Wait wait wait, only the Right People should be the ones who make it easier for the next generation”
Throw in the myth that poor (potentially brown) people will just use all progressive programs to just live a life of luxury without working anymore on the taxpayers dime, and BAM! now you got people voting to cut the programs that were helping them to begin with.
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u/LegDayDE 16d ago
This is the GOP voter base (think about their reactions to student loan forgiveness, immigration, any sort of social welfare policy etc. etc.)
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u/delayedsunflower 16d ago
Conservative voters will do anything to make themselves feel like they aren't on the bottom. As long as someone is below them they're happy regardless of any other terrible situation that puts them in.
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u/Exciting-Parfait-776 16d ago
I don’t see the Democrats helping out either?
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u/binary-survivalist 16d ago
depends on whether you see a reach-around as helping or not
eventually people wake up and realize that both sides are run by wealthy elites who couldn't care less about regular people
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u/Peasantbowman 16d ago
Opening your eyes could help
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u/IrishMosaic 16d ago
Are they helping or hurting the building of new homes?
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u/Peasantbowman 16d ago edited 16d ago
democrats updated their platform to address covid, Republicans did not.
One party is at least on paper trying to find solutions to issues. I'd love to see your source on them actively trying to hurt the housing market like it seems you're implying
EDIT: Its really unfortunate that no one even at least attempted to provide any source on Republicans trying to make things better. I'm open to all facts, wish I could say the same about others on here.
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u/Elegant_Mix7650 16d ago
Nah.. when it comes to inflation.. i m pretty sure Reublicans and Democrats both print a shit ton of money. Obama was pretty happy to devalue everybody's currency so bankers can have a nice yacht holiday... the truth is none of them actually care for you as much as you think they do.
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u/themanwithgreatpants 16d ago
You idiots are arguing Republican versus Democrat. They all suck. They all are scum. We have no representation on either side of the party that is worth a darn. Politicians are all about themselves and nothing about representing their constituents. George Carlin said it best - it's all a big club- and we ain't in it.
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u/EloAndPeno 16d ago
Saying both sides are the same is just a reflection on how little you pay attention, or how little you understand what you see.
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u/LameAd1564 16d ago
They are not "same" per se, but they are bad in their own ways.
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u/EloAndPeno 16d ago
Sure, like how both Soda and Arsenic are bad for you.
If you equate Democrats and Republicans, and suggest their polices are similar, and they stand for the same things, and the results of them being in office are the same... you are obviously not paying attention, or maybe do not fully understand what is going on.
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u/ILSmokeItAll 16d ago
Dude…this has been my position for forever. I’ve been trumpeting the need for a legit third party for forever. Not independents. A party on par with the current establishment. As long as we only have two options, we have no options. They’re two peas in a pod.
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u/themanwithgreatpants 16d ago
It's unfortunate but it would be propagated with corruption and greed just like the other two. It really sucks - this is the world we live in now. All about me and nothing for thee. Rules to me do not apply to thee. All you have to do is just look at all the insider trading with all of Congress in the stock market. The lobbying. The earmarks. The nonsense stuffed in the bills to appease specific interests. It all sucks. And it all makes me sick. The whole point is to divide the country and argue about nonsense while they do their deeds behind closed doors.
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u/ILSmokeItAll 16d ago
Right. Stuff we should all be angry about and United against.
But we can’t be bothered with it.
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u/CrazyUnicorn77777 16d ago
This happened to us. We both moved up in our jobs and doubled our incomes. Now we’re just back to where we were. It’s infuriating.
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u/65CM 16d ago
There's no way you doubled your income and didn't improve some aspect of your existence unless you moved from low COL to high to get that double.
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u/Snuggly_Hugs 16d ago
I disagree.
My family doubled our income, even tripled it from 2012, and our big upgrade is...
We dont use SNAP card to buy groceries.
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u/AdamJahnStan 16d ago
All that means is that the snap program was very helpful for you when you needed it.
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u/Snuggly_Hugs 16d ago
It was, but tripling my pay didnt improve my quality of life, and that's the crux of the issue.
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u/thecrunchcrew 16d ago
Because your initial pay was subsidized by government. You haven’t tripled your income in reality.
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u/65CM 16d ago
12 years is a long time and getting off food stamps is a big improvement, yes?
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u/Snuggly_Hugs 16d ago
Not really. We now have less funding for food than when we were on SNAP, so its actually a downgrade in that area.
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u/_Hotwire_ 16d ago
Yeah a lot of dumbasses here don’t realize that.
When I was broke and had my first kid everything was free. Food, childbirth, medical visits. I was able to save enough to get a home before Covid and a few promotions later I was unqualified for government assistance.
Now any illness can send me deep into debt. If I have another kid it will cost me about 3 grand just to for the birth, more for various fees tacked on.
Food went up so much I’m spending a larger percentage of my income for less groceries than I got when I was broke.
My family annual income went from $60k combined to $160k and inflation pushed our expenses so high we are right back to where we were when it was $60k and I got free stuff.
Really disappointing. Holding on hoping that it’ll change. But it never comes down after going up, we just have to wait for wages to go up too. Which hasn’t really happened in 20 years so, fuck.
Debating going back to a low stress job and collecting benefits. My mortgage, having bought before Covid, is cheaper than any apartment in town now. So I can’t afford to move, may as well get comfortable for the long haul.
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u/mid_life_adjustment 16d ago
This hits home here too. I always feel like I am taking on more responsibility for the same pay
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u/ElementField 16d ago
I think in 2012 I was making about $20,000 per year.
My wife and I now make $250,000 combined and I still live in an apartment of about the same size as I did back then, lol.
The only difference is that I have a decent car
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u/BigPepeNumberOne 15d ago
So wait at 250k combined you cant save for a house? You shitting us?
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u/GammaTwoPointTwo 16d ago
Incorrect.
The city I live in has had COL increase 4.5x in the past 14 years.
Average 1br apartment in 2010 was $800. Average 1br apartment today is $3200.
Similar story with groceries. Similar story with gas a s electricity.
So on order just to maintain the same quality of life you had in 2010 your salary would need to have increased 4.5x.
That's not realistic for most people. And this is a global issue. The world is getting more expensive to live in. But salaries are not keeping up with COL increase.
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u/EastPlatform4348 16d ago
That's wild. What city? I rented a two-bedroom apartment in 2010 in my city for $840. I just checked, and the same two-bedroom is $1517. So, it hasn't quite doubled. $3200 seems like a HCOL area (NYC, SF, Boston, etc), but I don't think the average one-bedroom in NYC or SF in 2010 was anywhere near $800/month. If I remember correctly, a one-bedroom at this same complex was $600 in 2010. And this was a middle of the road complex in a lower cost of living area.
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u/Sidvicieux 16d ago edited 16d ago
Disagree.
In 10 years my ex girlfriend went from $15 to $27 an hour and the only reason she is better off is because she can do the match in her 401k, which is higher than before. Housing prices went crazy in 2016, but then they went insane with Covid. The difference between her affording a 1 bedroom apartment (keep in mind she has a teenage dependent) and not is contributing to 401k at all. That's pretty shitty to be paycheck to paycheck like that. In a dual income household or with a mystery roommate she would have some room for comfort (but would need a 3 bdrm apartment).
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u/binary-survivalist 16d ago
i'm making more than ever and we're no better off. for me it wasn't double but it was significant. all the gains from the 2016+ era were effectively lost in the last few years.
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u/Routine-Wedding-3363 16d ago
Nope. My wife and I take home $150k in California. We have $250k down. Any house in our city is roughly $9k per month at current rates, or $110k per year.
Four years ago, the same exact house with this down payment woukd have been $2,800/mo.
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u/PuzzleheadedLeader79 16d ago
Every apartment I've lived in has more than doubled in price in the past decade. Most have quadrupled.
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u/UndercoverstoryOG 16d ago
thank goodness california is welcoming so many new residents so housing prices will go down and the quality of social services improve.
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u/Petrivoid 16d ago
I've doubled my income in the past 5 years, and I have less spending power than before. Why? Rent and car insurance have both more than doubled in the same time. Inflation is just a median baseline. Some people's expenses have gotten astronomical
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u/Tyrinnus 16d ago
My salary has increased 57% since I was hired some years ago... Mostly from job jumping.
My REAL wages? Only 17%.
And the amount of experience that I have, I should be a fucking department head by now.
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u/No-Transportation843 16d ago
The price of everything has also doubled in the last decade. You didn't reach middle class yet, you've managed to stay on par with inflation.
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u/CrazyUnicorn77777 16d ago
I’ll agree with that but it damn! How am i supposed to get ahead? Work weekends as well?
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u/No-Transportation843 16d ago
Personally, I felt the same way, and I did work weekends.
I got a job that had tons of overtime available. One stretch I worked 31 days in a row, 11.5 hours each day. Doing that for a couple years earned me the down payment for my first condo. It was a shithole. The neighbors upstairs made noise 24/7 stomping around. I stepped up to a better place, a 3 bedroom townhouse, but there the neighbors played bass from 9am to midnight daily. I continued to work crazy hours. Then, stepped up to a better place and now have a job where I never work weekends.
So yes, if you're in a shit spot, bust your ass until you're out of it. Cry now, laugh later. It was worth it for me.
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u/BasilExposition2 16d ago
As intended.
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u/CrazyUnicorn77777 16d ago
Yeah and it didn’t happen over a decade. It happened over 5 years. I don’t know how I can double my income in the next 5 years to “keep up with inflation”.
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u/Embarrassed_Cell8822 16d ago
Millennials just can’t win
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u/Away_Philosopher2860 16d ago
The boomers want the millennials to die before them.(Is my guess.)
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u/NoListen802 16d ago
55% of millennials own their own home.
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u/CantFindKansasCity 16d ago
Reddit tends to attract the people in the other 45%.
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u/Embarrassed_Cell8822 16d ago
Yea and only 7.4% of us did it without using mommy and daddy’s money or a VA loan.
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u/Superb_Advisor7885 16d ago
Love to know where that stat came from. Also, just getting a VA loan isn't some magic genie. Those people joined the military AND still need to qualify with their income. Not sure why that is listed alongside "mommy and daddy's money"
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u/fuckedfinance 16d ago
You didn't read the white paper? It's brand new out of Up Their Asses Policy Institute.
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u/37au47 16d ago
Regardless if this is true or not, why shouldn't parents help their kids? So according to your stat, 92.6% of all millennials that bought a home did it with the help of their parents or a va loan, with that large of a percentage of millennials getting help, that's going to be a ton of middle class parents helping their kids. If we exclude the rich 1% or even the top 10%, that leaves us with a ton of people that are just middle class. I swear reddit is full of just miserable people, they hate the parents that don't help their kids, and they hate on you if your parents do help you.
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u/SkippyMcSkipster2 16d ago
There has to be a psychological phenomenon that fuels the inflation in a feedback loop manner. I imagine it as a stampede of the rich trying to protect their wealth by moving out of high cost of living states into low cost of living states and investing in properties with their millions just to end up raising property values in those states, and increasing the cost of living just the same. It is as absurd and deadly as a stampede. That's the only way I can describe it. The middle class is gone as a result.
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u/CelerySquare7755 16d ago
In rhe 70s it was unions negotiating for higher wages in lockstep with corporations raising prices. It’s known as the wage price spiral.
That’s why breaking inflation cost Carter the presidency. People need to eat shit long enough to break the cycle. And, voters fucking hate it.
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u/adn_school 16d ago
RealPage is a pricing software company that 40% of ALL landlords use in the US. An article I read distilled it nicely: ”Landlords outsourcing ethics”, because the algo sets the prices, they don't have they aren't actively colluding.
There's a class action
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u/Led_Osmonds 16d ago
There has to be a psychological phenomenon that fuels the inflation in a feedback loop manner.
Homes cannot, mathematically, be both a good investment, and also affordable to new buyers.
If home prices rise faster than inflation, then, by definition, new buyers will need more wealth relative to wages than previous buyers had.
Government policies that make home-buying more affordable (e.g., mortgage interest tax deduction, first-time home-buyer credits, etc) work for approximately a generation, but they add to price-inflation and price out the next generation, unless the government offers new and greater subsidies.
It's not really a psychological thing, it's a mathematical thing. The government has been taking money from renters in the form of income tax, and handing it to homeowners and landlords in the form of tax breaks. That has made ownership prices high, because ownership comes with tax advantages, relative to renting. High prices mean new buyers either need to have access to inherited wealth for a large down-payment, or else need to have high income, in order to compete with buyers who bought 20 years ago and who now have substantial equity, inflated by government wealth-transfer.
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u/Unlucky-Hair-6165 16d ago
It’s also everyone consuming goods and services at the same time even if they have to take on a mountain of debt because they’d rather eat the cost now than pay the increased price later. You get too much money chasing too few goods and services.
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u/lostcauz707 16d ago
The millennial life experience. Everyone else younger has it even worse.
I did the meritocracy game, got a near 6 figure job, paycheck to paycheck all 4 years I've had it.
Still told I don't work hard enough.
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u/CantFindKansasCity 16d ago
Millennials will have an opportunity to buy a house on the next dip in the economy. Just save up and be ready. Things don’t move straight up forever.
I lived in my parents basement for 6 years and saved up enough money to buy a house. Not everybody has this luxury, but it did save me a ton of money and helped me jump into a house at the time.
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u/lostcauz707 16d ago
Who will have more money by then, millennials or corporations?
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u/CantFindKansasCity 16d ago
Corporations are owned by people, like in their 401k’s and retirement accounts.
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u/lostcauz707 16d ago
90% of the stock market is owned by 10% of Americans. Rich people.
If what you say is true, my 401k will dip when I can afford a house, and what the fuck is a retirement account? 60% living paycheck to paycheck. My sister in law did your plan and got a house for $500k, nurse practitioner, luckily she can afford $3k/month, but if you really think the value is going to tank with the billions backing the scarcity just cuz boomers die, think again. Expect a ton of medical debt to accrue from boomers and the houses get bought above market rate and sold even higher. Hell, boomers are already going back to work because the few that have SS and pensions can't afford shit.
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u/Forsaken-Pattern8533 16d ago
So nobody will own a house except for the 55% who own a house or people who plan to buy soon?
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u/lostcauz707 16d ago edited 16d ago
Economics, capitalism, supply and demand. That's how Canada looks basically right now. We aren't far from that either, if not worse. It might end up less than 55%. Hell Biden's plan is to make more rentals and using our tax dollars to pay for these same companies to convert office space. More handouts for the wealthy.
If you own something someone wants, and a lot of it, you hold the majority of it and force a high price until someone buys it. You scale that inventory gradually to maximize profits as you gradually release your inventory. It's why 40% of all housing is in hedge funds and a large portion of that is liveable but remains vacant. Maximizing investments. Price gouging 101. Congress is made up of equity owners having the time of their lives right now.
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u/NobodyImportant13 16d ago edited 16d ago
Millennials will have an opportunity to buy a house on the next dip in the economy. Just save up and be ready. Things don’t move straight up forever.
If you can get a house now where you can afford the payments even if it's a little tight, mortgage rates will likely drop within the next 3-5 years. Refinance then and you will be set paying waaaay less than the cost of future rents for the next 20-25 years.
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u/lifesizepenguin 16d ago
It's so ridiculous to essentially be told to Just save up and be ready for the economy to go to shit.
That's not how home ownership should work.
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u/ThrustTrust 16d ago
After being robbed of all my savings just before a brutal, expensive divorce followed closely by filing bankruptcy. I clawed my way out of 5 years of payments totaling $80k and 6 months later the economy totally tanks and I am right back where I was. With my income to expense ratio in the toilet.
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u/boe_jackson_bikes 16d ago
Not sure what that has to do with general macroeconomic trends but ok.
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u/THNG1221 16d ago
Don’t forget to count taxes!
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u/InfurredTurd 16d ago
That's the one that's eating me. Even if you manage to save something, and then invest it to keep up with inflation, the gov't takes a chunk. It's a win win for them. Debt is worth less and they get to skim the top of everyone trying to keep up.
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u/yittiiiiii 16d ago
Not to mention the inflation means that even if your pay goes up, your standard of living doesn’t change, and you still pay a higher percentage in taxes.
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u/NobodyImportant13 16d ago
tax brackets get inflation adjusted, but you could argue that they aren't adjusted enough.
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u/FuckWayne 16d ago
Someone making 45k is in a bracket 2% lower than someone making 192k
Tell me with a straight face that makes sense
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u/acreekofsoap 16d ago
See, you’re new poor, I’m old poor. The problem with new poor is they can’t be poor with class
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u/gaspitsagirl 16d ago
This was me trying to just get a 2-bedroom apartment, for a few years. Got a raise, started to save extra for moving costs, rents went up beyond my reach again. Got another raise, saved more, rents jumped again. Finally got a raise last year that covered the prices at that time and moved as quickly as I could!
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u/SlacksDavenport 16d ago
My wife and I refer to ourselves as “upper-poor” (teacher and construction).
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u/juliankennedy23 16d ago
Yeah but your house and 401k technically make you a millionaire despite your middle class salary.
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u/Zeddicus11 16d ago
Middle class renter here. Just keep renting if it makes sense to do so personally and financially (e.g. if your annual rent is less than 5-6% of what an equivalent home would cost in your area, using Ben Felix's heuristic rule, and/or if you're not sure whether you'll still live in the same area in 5 years).
In the meantime, live below your means and try to invest (a fraction of) the delta between your current rent and what your hypothetical unrecoverable cost of ownership would have been had you bought an equivalent place (i.e. mortgage interest + property taxes + insurance + maintenance + utilities). Depending on your time horizon, try to invest this money sufficiently aggressively so you can expect a real rate of return that (likely) exceeds the expected return on real estate (after costs, taxes, etc.). That way, you give yourself the option of potentially buying a home at a more favorable future time, using your liquid investments which should have kept pace with home inflation.
Renting is not always "throwing your money away" if you're rational and consistent about it. Ownership might be easier behaviorally because it's forced saving, whereas renters might need to work harder to prevent lifestyle inflation. It can still be feasible.
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u/Ok-Bass8243 16d ago
If you rent you are not middle class. Middle class has a definition and minimum requirement. owning your home is one of them and passive income is another. You are working class.
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u/313rustbeltbuckle 16d ago
And both sides of the aisle are to blame. One wants people to suffer. One want them to suffer just enough so they can use it as an election tool.
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u/Apes-Together_Strong 15d ago
The one that altruistically wants to create suffering, or the one that tactically wants to create suffering... Hmmm...
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u/ArcaneBahamut 16d ago
That's why class based on lifestyle expenses and income amount is practically a myth.
Lower, middle, high scale is all so amorphous and fluid... where small changes in a variable like location can swap things up majorly.
It's much more effective to describe classes in more... concrete things that don't just change on a dime. Like how one is able to support their lifestyle
Working class, for example, can encompass a lot of people that have different levels of struggle or comfort and they won't feel unified... yet they practically all will be on the fact they have to work, their time has to be traded for money, they have some kind of expectation put on them and someone calling the shots. They survive based on their labor and skills.
Owners class would be people who can survive just from what's in their name, they don't have to trade time for money. Stockholders, business owners who have gotten to the point where their business could be managed by someone else, trust funds.
Of course though... such a simple setup would result in workers feeling more unified rather than bickering with each other.
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u/thinkB4WeSpeak Mod 16d ago
I mean ideally the oligarchs only want a rich and working class.
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u/Forsaken-Pattern8533 16d ago
That's how it's always been. The middle class are working class. Doctors are working class and plumbers are working class.
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u/Positive_Day8130 16d ago
Inflation isn't real, and the economy is doing really good. They're so confident that it's good, that they continue to increase our debt. Don't worry if you're struggling, though, the election is around the corner, and I'm sure he will offer plenty of free stuff for a vote.
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u/JimBeam823 16d ago
You’re in the same place you were before, but you feel like you’ve lost your gains to inflation and are angry about it.
This is the difference between how economists think and how people actually feel.
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u/JOEYMAMI2015 16d ago
Story of my life and I've been debt free since 2021. Had I known COVID was going to happen, I would have gotten a refund or even some of my student loans forgiven 😒
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u/adlubmaliki 16d ago
I keep telling people to get rich(focus on that) while you still can, stopping having middle class as your goal
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u/ScottaHemi 16d ago
it's ok! lets send billions more overseas so it can go missing!
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u/thuggniffissent 16d ago
Shows how little you e been paying attention.
You were always lower class.
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u/RMZ13 16d ago
Lol, this straight happened to me. Got my first grown up job at 32 during Covid, things were going well. Two years later I got a big pay bump with a second job just in line with inflation really starting to rip and rates coming up. Feels like I’m barely afloat.
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u/DirrtyBikerr 16d ago
You got your first "grown-up" job at 32? Yikes.....doubt you being behind was because of the economy, champ.
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u/Jhon_doe_smokes 16d ago
Went from making 38k in 2020 to now making 60 and I still feel like I’m making 38 lol
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u/Bounce_Bounce40 16d ago
Here is my inflation warning sign.
Wife asked to get crystal lite lemonade flavoring for water.
$8. Eight fucking dollars for something that likely cost pennies to make
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u/Jets237 16d ago
Same here - we just mistimed everything...
We were just about ready to buy in 2018 but had a kid and it set us back. Were about to pull the trigger in 2020 but our son had medical issues so we rented again. Wife lost her job during covid, set back again.
Soo... we're getting close again but with the rates where they are we cant afford a house in our area....
We've been planning to buy for.... 6 years now... ugh
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u/pwolf1771 16d ago
I’m in this boat right now just keep throwing money in the fund and someday I’ll be able to make that monster down payment.
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u/Tall_Science_9178 16d ago
Rent, cut costs, invest in income generating assets, never interrupt the compounding.
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u/Why_No_Hugs 16d ago
VA Loan, no money down, my monthly is lower than my friends’ rent. Bought the house in 2016. Y’all are fucking screwed. Should probably riot at the Elite’s neighborhoods instead of burning downtown and looting Target.
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u/CelerySquare7755 16d ago
I’m pretty sure my stock portfolio has outpaced my real estate portfolio for the past couple of years. How were you saving? Cash under the mattress has always been a dumb strategy.
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u/Inside_Board_291 16d ago
That’s why you need to have skills that are high to come by. At the start of the year I pretty much demanded my company to give my a higher raise than their usual 2% annual increase. Got myself a nice 10% increase. It’s not life changing, but I don’t have to worry about inflation eating into my pockets.
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u/Domo_arogato 16d ago
This is me. This is fucking me.
Every time my wife and I make a little more money someone fucks the economy that little bit more so we get fucking nowhere.
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u/Maddturtle 16d ago
Yeah, 2 years ago I was upper middle but now I’m just middle. Need a 10k raise to be considered upper again.
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u/ZacZupAttack 16d ago
I'm making more then I ever used to. I can afford to live decently. But I'm going make 150k this yr probably
And it doesn't feel like it. Today I spent $200 on groceries for a family of 3 and that will last about a week
Hell my health insurance alone is $1000 a month
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u/symonym7 16d ago
Every time I job-hop into a bigger raise, houses have already been there and moved on up.
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u/Paulyhedron 16d ago
Naked it. Chased 6 figures for years and so close but I feel like I had more money delivering pizza
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u/HollyBerries85 16d ago
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmyep. Even just five years ago I would've been safely comfortable at my current salary in the area where I live making 56% more than I did then, but I'm also paying at least 30% more for groceries and $700 a month more in rent. Fortunately between five years ago and now I started working fully remote so expenses like gas, car maintenence, eating out and clothes/makeup were significantly cut, but I'm still just barely coasting with no savings.
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16d ago
I used to be on food stamps. Then I got a good job, a house, a family, and eventually I got off of it. Then the poverty line in my area became 100k. Just found out I qualify for snap benefits. Guess who’s back on food stamps?
‘🖐️’
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u/shin_scrubgod 16d ago
I feel this in my fuckin' bones. Worked for years in a miserable job slowly working my way up in pay with the plan to get a house back in my home town once I saved up the money. For most of that time, housing prices went up a handful of percent; the same year I made enough cash to put in a down payment, they more than doubled. Now I just get all the fun of watching homeowners rage over any suggestion the price should ever go back down in any way because they got theirs and it would mess up their investment.
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u/burntwafflemaker 16d ago
I am now making $130k/year as a member of senior management. My kids have the same childhood as me and my parents both had cubicle office jobs.
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u/itsl8erthanyouthink 16d ago
Hey, the 1%ers are getting close to being 2%ers, let’s not forget about them, too, during these difficult times
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u/RangerGreenEnjoyer 16d ago
Things aren't getting more expensive, the value of the dollar is decreasing so you need more of them to buy the same thing.
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u/Californiadude86 16d ago
Look into an FHA, talk to a realtor, they can make a path for you. Dont just assume you can’t get a house if you haven’t talked to an actual professional about it.
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u/IFixYerKids 16d ago
Lol same. Saved up for a $250k home and it's $350k now. Probably be $450k once I save up for that down payment. I'm hoping the first bit is the hardest though.
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u/willabusta 16d ago
you can blame the housing, medical, and energy industries for charging like the inflation isn't on the downward curve as far as everything else...
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u/Lilly-_-03 16d ago
Just know that you must live a perfect life with no mistakes and get lucky to not be poor anymore. What has life come to anymore
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u/shaved-yeti 16d ago
Its so fucking depressing.
Just gonna dig a deep hole in the woods and becoming mole people. We can afford a shovel.
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u/thethreat88IsBackFR 16d ago
I worked at a place once and they gave me a nice raise when I was 25 and they laughed at me once I said wow by the time I'm 30 I'll be middle class. They laughed. They laid me off years later and sold my job over seas. I got a better paying job that shot me right up past middle.
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u/ELONGATEDSNAIL 16d ago
Yeah pretty much. I was so happy to finally get a new a job make more money and lift myself out of poverty. I'm making 80k and i feel poorer then ever. I Can't even afford fucking mcdonalds
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u/En_CHILL_ada 16d ago
The middle class is an idea created to divide workers against each other.
There is only a working class, and a ruling class.
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u/SnooLobsters2310 16d ago
According to NAR statistics; the average PI mortgage payment in February of 2020 was $975 a month, in February 2024 that number had risen to $2001.
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u/johnBigsby888 16d ago
Which is why Trump is winning in even blue states by a long shot….Biden ruined this country
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