Anonymous wrote:I got laid off a week ago. At 62, I’m not sure I’ll find a full-time job again.

Coupled with the horror show of the incoming administration and the miserable weather, 2025 is pretty sucky so far.

Anonymous wrote:4 years of Biden catches up with you

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Anonymous wrote: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.

I hear you. I had to have emergency major surgery on January 3 a few years ago. OMG, the bills! Not a happy new year then, for sure.

I love the United States and I am proud to be an American. I feel like as a country we are being taken for a ride. Our healthcare expenses are absolutely insane.

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Anonymous wrote: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.

I hear you. I had to have emergency major surgery on January 3 a few years ago. OMG, the bills! Not a happy new year then, for sure.

Anonymous wrote:The price increases in everything has us paying close attention to our spending. We’ve been using YNAB to proactively plan, and we’re checking the budget before we spend. It makes a big difference - it’s how we know we can’t afford to travel for spring break this year. Last year we would have assumed we could have afforded it. And sure, we probably could have made it work without going into debt, but it would have been stressful. With YNAB it’s very clear to see that we need the money for other things.

But we’d definitely have less flexibility to deal with the price increases if our housing was more expensive. I’m grateful that we bought an inexpensive home, one year out of grad school when our salaries were at their lowest point. Over the years, and as our income has doubled, I’ve regretted not stretching, but really, it was a godsend. I’m also grateful for Public Service Loan Forgiveness, and our loans being forgiven under the Biden Administration. I’m so glad that’s behind us.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Not in a bubble. The economy was not the key thing in this election. It was the fact that Harris was not a serious person or candidate. And the people never know the economy until time has passed. Economy was quite strong under GHWB but Clinton potrayed it as weak and people believed. Clinton's great economy was GHWB's. Same at the end of Clinton, the bad economy was his not W's. This time the great economy will look like it is Trump's but it was Biden's.

Anonymous wrote: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.