For those serious about retirement preparation, I heartily recommend the Bogleheads community. They offer free, simple, proven ideas that can be life changers.
Source: personal experience. Retired a bit early 2 years ago, much credit to Bogleheads.
I retired at 59 about 2 years ago. My career was coding and product development, I put together some ideas about what I’d code after I left the workplace.
To my surprise, I haven’t missed it at all. Playing music, reading for pleasure and language studies ( to help with a part time volunteer gig ) have totally met my needs. You never know.
A few years back a great doctor working at a local children’s hospital took his own life. News said he’d become despondent over children dying when he couldn’t save them. The whole thing is heartbreaking.
In the long run, inflation is probably the most potent tool in the government toolbox for managing the debt. Raised interest rates are the brakes on that tool.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see above average inflation sporadically jumping up for a while.
Arbitrarily decided by the person with political convictions blinding them.
Yes, it happens to both sides. People convince themselves their side always makes right decisions, the other side always wrong.
The truth is that the secret sauce is in the pendulum going back and forth. The excesses of one side are soon erased by the other. It is working, as it has for many years.
A visit to Disney World introduces some questions that bring doubts to this article. The park is overrun with young families, with a great many speaking English as a second language. They don’t seem to be top percenters, but they’ve got cash for tickets and food. ( The food seems to be priced about 5x what I’d imagine it to be at a real store. )
If they truly are poor, they’re surely living YOLO.
The Disney World visitors are a specific group of people. The vast majority of them do not go there every week, nor every month. So the behavior you observe in there is not representative of the routine behavior of those people.
In other words, yes, they may pay 5x the price for a meal in an amusement park that they visit once a year. That does not mean they are willing to pay anything close to that for a meal every week or every day.
Most families I personally know who have gone it’s far from an annual trip. This will be their once in a lifetime or maybe once in a decade trip to Disney World. Literally saved up and planned for years for that “dream” family vacation.
Like when I was poor living in a trailer park with my parents going out to eat at Olive Garden or Red Lobster was a special occasion. We got to go to the “nice” restaurant and splurge. I doubt anyone who frequents HN from the US considers those to be “nice” or “high quality” restaurants. To some on HN Disney World is or could be an annual trip. For most others it’s a major event. I’m sure a significant amount of debt is accrued in a many cases to make their vacation a reality.
It's my observation over time that there has been a sharp increase in the what people would call the "bare minimum" life. I think it's a combination of credit, a loss of stoicism, and social media pushing a distortion of reality.
Evaluating the financial situation of a group of people by visiting Disney World is about as canonical example of sampling bias as you can get. The people who are at Disney World are the people who can afford to be at Disney World.
I used to use the two car method. I was single and carefree, so I had a Corvette and a hot rod El Camino. Perfect for a young shade tree mechanic.
Then I was taking a long trip in the El Camino and overheated, cracking the heads. While the machine shop work was underway, one of the half-shafts driving the Corvette broke loose, severely beating the underside of the car.
It was bitterly cold January, and I was left going to work on a bicycle.
I sold both classics and bought a new Saturn. Much less style, but much more reliability.
Source: personal experience. Retired a bit early 2 years ago, much credit to Bogleheads.
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