There’s been much ballyhoo lately about cost of living and affordability in media lately (deservedly so, imo) but I’m curious how hard it is for those of us who are a little more capable than normies (we like to think).
Feel free to be somewhat vague. Not asking anyone to doxx themselves. I’ll start.
In my mid-thirties. Married, two kids. Combined income is just under 100k. We live in a low cost of living area which has helped us a lot. We were able to buy a house in ‘21 with a 15 year mortgage and it feels like we got on the last lifeboat off the Titanic. We’ve been able to build about a 200k net worth, about half of which is home equity.
Day to day expenses are getting tougher, however. We’ve never had a car payment but our older kid has started school and that has put a strain on us since he goes to a private Christian school. I’ve worked in education and I consider sending a kid to public school to be akin to child abuse.
It feels harder and harder to save and invest. Just making ends meet with two kids in this red state feels like a Herculean task. Wondering if anyone else feels the same way.
I'm going alright as a mid-40s single guy. Not necessarily as a result of the economy though. Some luck fell into it as well as some intentional decisions the last 20 years of my life. I'm self-employed about half contracting and half building business opportunities, took a buyout from a corporate job a couple years ago. I make just over 100k, I could probably do more if I really wanted to nose to the grindstone at the cost of other things. Not really any change from when I was a corporate, I was just a peasant.
I minimize money that goes to bankers, meaning I avoid interest on loans. I had a car loan once, but not for a while. I don't remember the last time I paid interest to credit cards. Never had student loans. I do have a mortgage on my house, it's sub 3% and I just haven't bothered with it. I moved out into a sub-sub-urban (small town) neighborhood before Covid clownery, and that worked out well. I also minimize subscriptions, I hate monthly bills. I save money and/or buy assets. I've had this approach since I was young 20s, and it's paid off well.
Day to day I haven't noticed a ton, mainly because by coincidence I started really focusing on cooking and food quality the same time everything got expensive, so I still spend less than eating out a lot more did. Insurance costs have gone bonkers. Everything else was basically already set for me. Travel has gone up, but I've been spending more time on that with extended family and less on exotics anyway.