anyone else feel like they're getting completely broken in 2025?

[Anonymous]

Yeah I’m in tech and my income hasn’t gone up significantly over the past several years, I’ve been stagnant at low 300k and once I hit my RSU cliff in 2026 it’ll fall to the mid 200’s. Adjusting for inflation my income will be where it was when I first started at this company before Covid (high 100’s). The tech job market isn’t great right now so I’m not optimistic about breaking back into the 300’s any time soon.

Meanwhile, costs have increased everywhere. I’m definitely not struggling but the margin of comfort isn’t as high as it used to be. Thankfully I’ve saved/invested fairly aggressively and my net worth is hitting all time highs, but still nowhere near enough to retire at least not in the US.

[Anonymous]

I have two teenage boys and they eat like there is no tomorrow. I am a middle-aged woman who could eat Cream of Wheat for dinner most nights. DH has more appetite than me. We spend so much money on food. I want them to be grown and flown and paying for their own food!

[Anonymous]

NP. I've cut way back on spending because all our insurance rates have gone up so much, plus groceries are crazy expensive. I'm 50 yo woman who lost her job during the pandemic and haven't been able to get back in. DH is in a C suite job for a small company and none of them have gotten raises since the pandemic.

I agree with a PP. The stock market has made it so we haven't gone in the hole.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, 2025 is only two weeks old, so I can’t say anything particularly terrible has happened in that time.

However, I’m a small business owner, and I do believe the economy is a lot worse than is generally reported. I don’t doubt the reports from people here who recently doubled their income and now have a $600K HHI, but I suspect that type of success is limited to a small number of jobs in a small number of industries in the big cities.

I think everyone else is finding things getting harder.

I think this is off by a lot. The economy is way stronger than we think -- Trump will take credit for what I think will be a 2-3 year very strong economy. PP is not wrong on prices but wages have increased by a lot over the last couple of years.

Are you sure PP is not wrong on prices? The same government statisticians that produce numbers saying the economy is great also say that inflation is only at 2.9% - why would that be so devastating to PP? PP must be exaggerating.

Actually homeowners insurance increases aren’t really factored into inflation

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/29/business/economy/home-insurance-inflation.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, 2025 is only two weeks old, so I can’t say anything particularly terrible has happened in that time.

However, I’m a small business owner, and I do believe the economy is a lot worse than is generally reported. I don’t doubt the reports from people here who recently doubled their income and now have a $600K HHI, but I suspect that type of success is limited to a small number of jobs in a small number of industries in the big cities.

I think everyone else is finding things getting harder.

I think this is off by a lot. The economy is way stronger than we think -- Trump will take credit for what I think will be a 2-3 year very strong economy. PP is not wrong on prices but wages have increased by a lot over the last couple of years.

Are you sure PP is not wrong on prices? The same government statisticians that produce numbers saying the economy is great also say that inflation is only at 2.9% - why would that be so devastating to PP? PP must be exaggerating.

Actually homeowners insurance increases aren’t really factored into inflation

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/29/business/economy/home-insurance-inflation.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

From the article: "Last year, premium rates for owner-occupied housing were up 11.3 percent on average nationally, based on data from S&P Global Market Intelligence."

[Anonymous]

Agreed. Our home owner's insurance went up significantly. What I was really watching was my healthcare premium. (I have to buy my own healthcare insurance.) My premium in 2023 was $800/month. It went up to $1200/month in 2024.

[Anonymous]

In the same boat except we haven’t seen the property tax increase yet and experienced most of this in 2024. The health insurance cost is what is most painful. We went from zero employee premium to close to 10k and at the same time moved from a low deductible plan with excellent OON to a crappy high deductible plan where it feels like the insurance company will never pay out for anything. Income was flat for many years as expenses went up so to get back on the retirement track I returned to work. We are still behind with me working where we were pre-COVID. I know people talk about how salaries increased but not for DH and in my case I make so little that I was sent a letter from payroll educating me on EIC which tells you that I could never afford to support myself. It’s awfully depressing. I really try not to think about it.

[Anonymous]

Where do people live?

In DC homeowners hasn’t really gone up much…maybe 5%, but that’s just a $100 nominal increase for the year.

Pissed that health insurance goes up…like 7%. I don’t get why this country isn’t wildly enthusiastic about socialized medicine (except seniors and veterans who all have it). Health insurance premiums are effectively a tax and for generally mediocre coverage with lots of copays and deductibles.

Car insurance didn’t go anywhere…actually decreased a tiny bit.

Grocery prices generally the same…admittedly I don’t buy brands and am fine generally buying whatever is on weekly sales.

[Anonymous]

In the past 18 days we've had 1 daughter with covid, dh had the flu and my 18 year old who is set to take her state practical esthetician licensing test this Wednesday has been diagnosed with carpel tunnel syndrome and has been to the er and 1 orthopedic doctor who referred her to another. So financially it sucks because we have a $6000 deductible and the medical bills are coming in already.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where do people live?

In DC homeowners hasn’t really gone up much…maybe 5%, but that’s just a $100 nominal increase for the year.

Pissed that health insurance goes up…like 7%. I don’t get why this country isn’t wildly enthusiastic about socialized medicine (except seniors and veterans who all have it). Health insurance premiums are effectively a tax and for generally mediocre coverage with lots of copays and deductibles.

Car insurance didn’t go anywhere…actually decreased a tiny bit.

Grocery prices generally the same…admittedly I don’t buy brands and am fine generally buying whatever is on weekly sales.

Ha, ha, ha! Socialized medicine is not the way to go. It will definitely separate the haves from the have nots. I grew up with a career military father and lived socialized medicine through military hospitals. I almost died at 12 years old with walking pneumonia because no doctor would give me a chest x-ray at Bethesda Naval Hospital, now called Walter Reed.

My family never had a doctor patient relationship with one specific doctor because you get who is working that day when you go in for an appointment or an emergency. In our country, if we have socialized medicine, people will sit in clinics or hospitals for hours on end, seeking the treatment sanctioned by the government. People of means and wealth will pay a doctor to treat them and go on their way. It would be similar to the concierge model of medicine where money talks, and you get good service. Ask our neighbors to the north in Canada how it’s working for them and how many people come to the lower 48 to see doctors because they don’t want to wait weeks or months.

My friends that are business owners who provide healthcare plans for the employees tell me that their health premiums that they supplement for their employees go up 20 to 25% year over a year. Some business owners only cover employees now and no longer cover family members because this expense is too great for their bottom line.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where do people live?

In DC homeowners hasn’t really gone up much…maybe 5%, but that’s just a $100 nominal increase for the year.

Pissed that health insurance goes up…like 7%. I don’t get why this country isn’t wildly enthusiastic about socialized medicine (except seniors and veterans who all have it). Health insurance premiums are effectively a tax and for generally mediocre coverage with lots of copays and deductibles.

Car insurance didn’t go anywhere…actually decreased a tiny bit.

Grocery prices generally the same…admittedly I don’t buy brands and am fine generally buying whatever is on weekly sales.

Ha, ha, ha! Socialized medicine is not the way to go. It will definitely separate the haves from the have nots. I grew up with a career military father and lived socialized medicine through military hospitals. I almost died at 12 years old with walking pneumonia because no doctor would give me a chest x-ray at Bethesda Naval Hospital, now called Walter Reed.

My family never had a doctor patient relationship with one specific doctor because you get who is working that day when you go in for an appointment or an emergency. In our country, if we have socialized medicine, people will sit in clinics or hospitals for hours on end, seeking the treatment sanctioned by the government. People of means and wealth will pay a doctor to treat them and go on their way. It would be similar to the concierge model of medicine where money talks, and you get good service. Ask our neighbors to the north in Canada how it’s working for them and how many people come to the lower 48 to see doctors because they don’t want to wait weeks or months.

My friends that are business owners who provide healthcare plans for the employees tell me that their health premiums that they supplement for their employees go up 20 to 25% year over a year. Some business owners only cover employees now and no longer cover family members because this expense is too great for their bottom line.

Know several folks in Toronto that love the system.

The US already has healthcare deserrs in rural areas…but city folks will be fine under a Canadian system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, 2025 is only two weeks old, so I can’t say anything particularly terrible has happened in that time.

However, I’m a small business owner, and I do believe the economy is a lot worse than is generally reported. I don’t doubt the reports from people here who recently doubled their income and now have a $600K HHI, but I suspect that type of success is limited to a small number of jobs in a small number of industries in the big cities.

I think everyone else is finding things getting harder.

I think this is off by a lot. The economy is way stronger than we think -- Trump will take credit for what I think will be a 2-3 year very strong economy. PP is not wrong on prices but wages have increased by a lot over the last couple of years.

As I said, I'm sure in your bubble (and other bubbles) things are going well—maybe better than ever—but that's not the case for large parts of the country, perhaps even the majority of the country. I am always amazed at the blind spot that your ilk possesses. It's likely why you were so blindsided and distraught on election night.

Yes, it hurt on election night to realize that I’m in a bubble of facts and data and the candidate of falsehood and delusion managed to win. Seriously, the metrics on the economy have been good and people’s gut instincts that they haven’t done well are just a reflection of shared misconception, not of reality.

[Anonymous]

We are house hunting. It’s horrible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, 2025 is only two weeks old, so I can’t say anything particularly terrible has happened in that time.

However, I’m a small business owner, and I do believe the economy is a lot worse than is generally reported. I don’t doubt the reports from people here who recently doubled their income and now have a $600K HHI, but I suspect that type of success is limited to a small number of jobs in a small number of industries in the big cities.

I think everyone else is finding things getting harder.

I think this is off by a lot. The economy is way stronger than we think -- Trump will take credit for what I think will be a 2-3 year very strong economy. PP is not wrong on prices but wages have increased by a lot over the last couple of years.

Well, the interesting thing about the current moment is that over 150 million people just got the chance to voice their opinion on the matter, so we actually know how the economy is treating them. And they did not say that the economy is "way stronger" than anything. Even Democrat strategist James Carville recently said he was wrong about the election because he neglected his famous mantra: "It's the economy, stupid."

As I said, I'm sure in your bubble (and other bubbles) things are going well—maybe better than ever—but that's not the case for large parts of the country, perhaps even the majority of the country. I am always amazed at the blind spot that your ilk possesses. It's likely why you were so blindsided and distraught on election night.

You do realize it’s “heads I win tails you lose” right?

The wealthy people that voted for Harris are that much wealthier today…and the 150 million you reference will continue to get steamrolled by the world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have two teenage boys and they eat like there is no tomorrow. I am a middle-aged woman who could eat Cream of Wheat for dinner most nights. DH has more appetite than me. We spend so much money on food. I want them to be grown and flown and paying for their own food!

Wut.

Are you me? I do this often.