I’m not struggling personally. Most of my close peers are doing okay, but we’re much closer to the end of our working careers than the beginning. We’re established and at least had the chance to make our large purchases earlier in our lives (education, housing, cars, etc) when things were cheaper and a dollar went farther.
If we had to do the same with today’s financial environment we’d be in worse shape. Some of my peers didn’t make some of those big purchases back then and are staring down tougher choices.
For most of the those of working age today, I don’t see a workable path long term if this keeps up. Costs continue to spiral upward for the basic needs (food, housing, etc), and the job market is such a polluted game of cat and mouse jobs are incredibly hard to get (and keep for that matter).
We’re by no means struggling relative to what many are going through right now, but we definitely already lost multiple safety-nets in a very brief amount of time under Trump’s 2nd term.
I have some friends that are doing okay but they were able to buy houses before everything went to shit. Those of us that didn’t are all pretty fucked.
I’ve been aggressively cutting my food bill and making do with the cheapest staple foods. Not ramen, but like the cheap vegetables, bulk rice and legumes, not much meat, no dairy. Making my own sweets, bread, ECT. Lots of soups, stews, vegetarian curries. Getting free fruit from neighbours trees. That’s the biggest expense I can cut right now. I’m increasingly frugal on just about everything else, and doing side gigs wherever I can. I even stopped buying books and started going to the library once a week.
I wouldn’t say I’m struggling, but I’m all out of things to cut.
We’re living in the worst K shaped economy in recent history. yeah. We are.
My sales had a significant drop the past several months, it’s now just barely over my bills. And my bills are really small compared to most.
Quite freaked out about it. Keep thinking sales are coming… Xmas is soon… Where are the sales?
I setup rain water catchment and solar power, so at least I have free water and power.
Counted my stash of canned foods yesterday and checked all the experation dates.
Just making sure I have: food, water, shelter. No matter what happens, hopefully I can ride it out here.
I’ve ramped up my garden from a hobby to being more productive for food this year.
Engaging in more rain catchment as well, though I need to get bigger tanks – at least some IBC totes, but ideally a 500 gal cistern. My pool is admittedly also my emergency water ration. Solar, I have panels and am amassing pieces, but I haven’t quite figured out how I want to integrate it. I have what is needed for a primitive off-grid setup, should it be necessary, but would love to go a couple steps further.
My biggest objective is getting proper acreage somewhere with water that I can transition into a more sustainable homestead.
You mention Xmas and last year was the first one all adults in my extended family agreed not to exchange any gifts, both to save money for rainy days ahead, and to also pinch this economy further to prove a point and bring people to wake up and vote Democrat (most sadly only learn by how it impacts their bottom-line, or the big numbers at the gas pump). We plan to do the same this year as well. Sorry you’re caught up in that.
One thing I’ve noticed is that movies and TV shows don’t use exact amounts of money anymore.
‘The Rockford Files’ always talked about Jim’s $200.00 a day fee, and characters would say things like ‘Hey, this is a fifty dollar jacket’ or ‘That house must have cost $100,000.’
The $5.00 milkshake was a big plot point in ‘Pulp Fiction.’
Prices are going up so fast that what was unreasonably expensive when the script was written will be the norm by the time the show gets aired.
I noticed that when watching How I Met Your Mother as a teenager, they almost always avoid naming specific amounts of money. The narrator might replace an amount of money with “crapload” or the characters might show eachother a money offer on a piece of paper. Older shows like All In The Family, made in the 70s, frequently mention specific amounts of money but now, with inflation, those amounts of money sound laughably low. Bread for 11 cents? I always figured modern shows avoid mentioning specific amounts of money to try and keep it timeless so in the future people won’t laugh at what was considered a high or low amount of money at the time
To be fair, they’re trying to make “evergreen” content, meaning it stays funny/meaningful/believable/etc. no matter how far into the future that you watch it.
That wasn’t really a thing until the 90s though. Probably started with The Simpsons
Not struggling, but I’m in a very fortunate position with my career
Yes. Just got a raise and an unexpected large one. Wont do jack diddly to my overall situation. Still haven’t had a good steak in better than a year and there’s only so much ramen you can eat.
We should be doing well. But over the last 5-6 years we’ve been stagnating. Inflation, increasing costs overall thanks to factors like tariffs and stupid wars, artificial scarcity in the tech world…all of it has eaten huge chunks out of our buying power. We’re at the age where we should have “made it”, but it’s just the feeling of “where did it all go? Why aren’t we getting ahead?”
No, and as far as I know all my friends in real life and family is doing fine as well.
Yet my feeds are full of memes about barely surviving. I’m guessing that this is mostly due to feeds ending up very US centric, and the situation there is probably a lot worse than Sweden.
Well, when you think about memes in general like much of the information around social media, rage gets clicks. People aren’t sitting reading happy news about firefighters saving kittens everyday, it’s unfortunately not how most people’s brains are wired.
Not struggling, but not living the high life, either. No retirement savings, so I’ll be working until I die, probably, but at least I like my job.
This is me, except I don’t like my job either. Still, when I compare my situation to others in my city, it could be much worse.
And while I don’t have any retirement savings yet, I’m 35…if I can get that ball rolling soon, I’m hoping I’m not completely fucked.
Myself and my wife. Yes. Most other people we know. Somewhat. My area has all sorts of million plus condos and homes and even 10 mil plus. So someones not struggling.
Not everyone. Only about 90% of the world’s population.
I am well off, but not well off enough to lift other people out of their misery. I contribute what I easily can, but every day I wish for the world to change, even if that means having less income as a result.
I often think that if I won the lotter or such while my personal situation would change it would still be depressing because of the world situation. Its like even with excess what charity to focus on. Unfortunately I think anything excess would need to be used for politics nationally to try and change things which would be so much less personally satisfying than working with charities locally.
