Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think we also need to have a reset on what makes life enjoyable. Not everyone is meant to have overseas vacations and eat out everyday. Our great grandparents didn’t splurge on things like that but this culture of greed you talk about makes us think we need to. We are bombarded with what others are doing on social media. I don’t think people truly understand what living within your means actually means. If you can’t afford to pay off your credit card then you certainly shouldn’t be having that extra cup of coffee. OP you said what kind of life is that without these luxuries, you need to find happiness in everyday things. If I died today, I’m not thinking about how I never traveled to Europe, I’m thinking about how I could have bonded with my children more. We also live in a world of replace rather than repair. If we learned to fix things instead of rushing out and replacing appliances, we could save there too. You also don’t need to have the most modern kitchen and furniture. Society should accept that hand me down furniture from our parents is just fine. Ask yourself why you don’t like your grandmother cherry furniture, it’s because you are bombarded with ads and pictures of modern styles to make you purchase more. Things are only more expensive because we feed into this culture.

Life is about choices, your post is a "me", not "we" post. We do our own repairs. We don't travel. We do fast casual as a nice dinner out. We shop at Walmart and Aldi's. Things are expensive because you feed into the culture.

I think the point is more that previously middle class and upper middle class professionals could easily afford some luxuries that they can't now. No one likes to feel like there is a drop in their purchasing power. A Friday night takeout or date night on the weekend at a casual restaurant were not seen as real luxuries but were part of the middle class/upper middle class lifestyle. Eating out now is literally insane--we are lucky enough to be able to afford many luxuries but I know many people now that simply can not swing it even though they make the same income as before. Even family style/casual restaurants in suburban NY are charging 35 plus dollars for average entrees. The same dish just 4 years ago was close to half the price. And the same thing applies for almost every aspect of life.

The cost of repairing items particularly appliances is insane. Our oven (reputable brand), only 3 years old and just out of warranty had a $1000 repair. We certainly don't know how to repair this ourselves. I don't think the focus is simply that people should want less, there should be a real understanding as to what has caused such a CHANGE in purchasing power.

I agree with this. Eating out is very expensive, even at mid-tier places and chain restaurants. We took the kids to the movies last weekend, one of the cinema drafthouse type places, and dropped $160. Neither the movie nor the food was particularly good.

And hotels? Very expensive. Hotels and airfare are just so high. Yet, the planes and hotels are crowded. I wonder if people are traveling and maxing out their 401k or putting in 5% and traveling.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think we also need to have a reset on what makes life enjoyable. Not everyone is meant to have overseas vacations and eat out everyday. Our great grandparents didn’t splurge on things like that but this culture of greed you talk about makes us think we need to. We are bombarded with what others are doing on social media. I don’t think people truly understand what living within your means actually means. If you can’t afford to pay off your credit card then you certainly shouldn’t be having that extra cup of coffee. OP you said what kind of life is that without these luxuries, you need to find happiness in everyday things. If I died today, I’m not thinking about how I never traveled to Europe, I’m thinking about how I could have bonded with my children more. We also live in a world of replace rather than repair. If we learned to fix things instead of rushing out and replacing appliances, we could save there too. You also don’t need to have the most modern kitchen and furniture. Society should accept that hand me down furniture from our parents is just fine. Ask yourself why you don’t like your grandmother cherry furniture, it’s because you are bombarded with ads and pictures of modern styles to make you purchase more. Things are only more expensive because we feed into this culture.

Life is about choices, your post is a "me", not "we" post. We do our own repairs. We don't travel. We do fast casual as a nice dinner out. We shop at Walmart and Aldi's. Things are expensive because you feed into the culture.

I think the point is more that previously middle class and upper middle class professionals could easily afford some luxuries that they can't now. No one likes to feel like there is a drop in their purchasing power. A Friday night takeout or date night on the weekend at a casual restaurant were not seen as real luxuries but were part of the middle class/upper middle class lifestyle. Eating out now is literally insane--we are lucky enough to be able to afford many luxuries but I know many people now that simply can not swing it even though they make the same income as before. Even family style/casual restaurants in suburban NY are charging 35 plus dollars for average entrees. The same dish just 4 years ago was close to half the price. And the same thing applies for almost every aspect of life.

The cost of repairing items particularly appliances is insane. Our oven (reputable brand), only 3 years old and just out of warranty had a $1000 repair. We certainly don't know how to repair this ourselves. I don't think the focus is simply that people should want less, there should be a real understanding as to what has caused such a CHANGE in purchasing power.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t mean groceries and gas and the things politicized and blamed on Joe Biden. I actually think groceries, gas, property taxes, my personal car payment and mortgage are not all that bad.

But I mean, the general annoyances of LIFE are so expensive. Home maintenance. Car repairs. Broken appliances. That sort of thing.

And then when you actually want to treat yourself with something that doesn’t even seem so extravagant, like an evening out, or ordering a pizza, or getting a cabin for the weekend (so I’m not even talking about overseas vacations and shopping sprees), those things are so expensive. I thought those kind of treats would be reasonable for middle class people to partake in from time to time. But all these fees, taxes, included gratuities, service fees and all that crap.

I know this board skews wealthy (reportedly) but it just seems impossible to accumulate any kind of meaningful liquid cash savings or an emergency fund when everything cost so much. Yeah I could just “do without” and just put off enjoying myself indefinitely, but what kind of life is that, I have relatives who died of cancer in their 40s, died in car accidents, so to a certain extent you have to live for the moment.

Middle class people aren't generally outsourcing their repairs and aren't taking weekends away in cabins or expensive meals. You aren' middle class.

Anonymous wrote:I think we also need to have a reset on what makes life enjoyable. Not everyone is meant to have overseas vacations and eat out everyday. Our great grandparents didn’t splurge on things like that but this culture of greed you talk about makes us think we need to. We are bombarded with what others are doing on social media. I don’t think people truly understand what living within your means actually means. If you can’t afford to pay off your credit card then you certainly shouldn’t be having that extra cup of coffee. OP you said what kind of life is that without these luxuries, you need to find happiness in everyday things. If I died today, I’m not thinking about how I never traveled to Europe, I’m thinking about how I could have bonded with my children more. We also live in a world of replace rather than repair. If we learned to fix things instead of rushing out and replacing appliances, we could save there too. You also don’t need to have the most modern kitchen and furniture. Society should accept that hand me down furniture from our parents is just fine. Ask yourself why you don’t like your grandmother cherry furniture, it’s because you are bombarded with ads and pictures of modern styles to make you purchase more. Things are only more expensive because we feed into this culture.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think we also need to have a reset on what makes life enjoyable. Not everyone is meant to have overseas vacations and eat out everyday. Our great grandparents didn’t splurge on things like that but this culture of greed you talk about makes us think we need to. We are bombarded with what others are doing on social media. I don’t think people truly understand what living within your means actually means. If you can’t afford to pay off your credit card then you certainly shouldn’t be having that extra cup of coffee. OP you said what kind of life is that without these luxuries, you need to find happiness in everyday things. If I died today, I’m not thinking about how I never traveled to Europe, I’m thinking about how I could have bonded with my children more. We also live in a world of replace rather than repair. If we learned to fix things instead of rushing out and replacing appliances, we could save there too. You also don’t need to have the most modern kitchen and furniture. Society should accept that hand me down furniture from our parents is just fine. Ask yourself why you don’t like your grandmother cherry furniture, it’s because you are bombarded with ads and pictures of modern styles to make you purchase more. Things are only more expensive because we feed into this culture.

Life is about choices, your post is a "me", not "we" post. We do our own repairs. We don't travel. We do fast casual as a nice dinner out. We shop at Walmart and Aldi's. Things are expensive because you feed into the culture.

Anonymous wrote:I think we also need to have a reset on what makes life enjoyable. Not everyone is meant to have overseas vacations and eat out everyday. Our great grandparents didn’t splurge on things like that but this culture of greed you talk about makes us think we need to. We are bombarded with what others are doing on social media. I don’t think people truly understand what living within your means actually means. If you can’t afford to pay off your credit card then you certainly shouldn’t be having that extra cup of coffee. OP you said what kind of life is that without these luxuries, you need to find happiness in everyday things. If I died today, I’m not thinking about how I never traveled to Europe, I’m thinking about how I could have bonded with my children more. We also live in a world of replace rather than repair. If we learned to fix things instead of rushing out and replacing appliances, we could save there too. You also don’t need to have the most modern kitchen and furniture. Society should accept that hand me down furniture from our parents is just fine. Ask yourself why you don’t like your grandmother cherry furniture, it’s because you are bombarded with ads and pictures of modern styles to make you purchase more. Things are only more expensive because we feed into this culture.

Anonymous wrote:The prices at McDonald's tell a crazy story. The dollar menu is gone. I paid $15 for two fish filets this week. $20 used to feed a family of four.

Anonymous wrote:I don’t mean groceries and gas and the things politicized and blamed on Joe Biden. I actually think groceries, gas, property taxes, my personal car payment and mortgage are not all that bad.

But I mean, the general annoyances of LIFE are so expensive. Home maintenance. Car repairs. Broken appliances. That sort of thing.

And then when you actually want to treat yourself with something that doesn’t even seem so extravagant, like an evening out, or ordering a pizza, or getting a cabin for the weekend (so I’m not even talking about overseas vacations and shopping sprees), those things are so expensive. I thought those kind of treats would be reasonable for middle class people to partake in from time to time. But all these fees, taxes, included gratuities, service fees and all that crap.

I know this board skews wealthy (reportedly) but it just seems impossible to accumulate any kind of meaningful liquid cash savings or an emergency fund when everything cost so much. Yeah I could just “do without” and just put off enjoying myself indefinitely, but what kind of life is that, I have relatives who died of cancer in their 40s, died in car accidents, so to a certain extent you have to live for the moment.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The prices at McDonald's tell a crazy story. The dollar menu is gone. I paid $15 for two fish filets this week. $20 used to feed a family of four.

Someone has to pay for those minimum wage increases.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The prices at McDonald's tell a crazy story. The dollar menu is gone. I paid $15 for two fish filets this week. $20 used to feed a family of four.

Someone has to pay for those minimum wage increases.

Anonymous wrote:The prices at McDonald's tell a crazy story. The dollar menu is gone. I paid $15 for two fish filets this week. $20 used to feed a family of four.

Anonymous wrote:I think we also need to have a reset on what makes life enjoyable. Not everyone is meant to have overseas vacations and eat out everyday. Our great grandparents didn’t splurge on things like that but this culture of greed you talk about makes us think we need to. We are bombarded with what others are doing on social media. I don’t think people truly understand what living within your means actually means. If you can’t afford to pay off your credit card then you certainly shouldn’t be having that extra cup of coffee. OP you said what kind of life is that without these luxuries, you need to find happiness in everyday things. If I died today, I’m not thinking about how I never traveled to Europe, I’m thinking about how I could have bonded with my children more. We also live in a world of replace rather than repair. If we learned to fix things instead of rushing out and replacing appliances, we could save there too. You also don’t need to have the most modern kitchen and furniture. Society should accept that hand me down furniture from our parents is just fine. Ask yourself why you don’t like your grandmother cherry furniture, it’s because you are bombarded with ads and pictures of modern styles to make you purchase more. Things are only more expensive because we feed into this culture.

Anonymous wrote:What’s happening is your income and spending on day to day needs isn’t leaving enough cushion for the categories that are less predictable.

You have to make more money or scale back on something like housing.