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.
Broke and currently unemployed. The UK job market is absolutely fucked. Thought my 20 years of construction, painting and decorating would make it easy to find another job. Boy was I a moron.
What was a easy job to get into when I was a lad (retail, hospitality etc) is now not even replying, if you don't get auto rejected due to the personality tests for the most part, Had to go on universal credit so now twice a month struggle sessions for my 400 handouts. While the immergrant "engineer" his words, claims his wife would find it easier to learn the language of the djinn than English and gets no pushback.
If I had the capital I'd go self employed again in a heartbeat, but not there yet. Hopefully something will come along. 3 more interviews for the week. Caretaker at a local school, cleaner/maintenance at the county court and maintenance at a pub chain. Fingers crossed.
Good luck, it's tough as shit even when you have options. I basically live on the edge of civilisation and rely on public transport which doesn't get me very far for work around a dead tourist area where there's almost nothing and nobody hiring.
At least the guys at my struggle session just leave me to it because I come across as competent. It's still fucking soul destroying.