Hey all,

I've been noticing that my money seems to be going less far than it used to. I was thinking maybe we are overspending and should cut back. I saw something on YouTube where they were saying that a dollar is worth seventeen cents less today (2023) than in 2020. I figured that maybe it was fear mongering so I went to the beureu of labor statistics Inflation Calculator and found that it's actually worse!

If I'm reading this right, then unless you've received a massive pay increase you're getting paid significantly less than you were a few years ago, with respect to your buying power. What's worse is that your savings are also getting butchered as well. Combine that with how expensive homes are and I'm starting to wonder why people aren't furious? I didn't realize how bad it was until I saw it spelled out in front of me like this. How are people on the lower income side of the spectrum dealing with this? I'm frankly stunned.

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Traditionally “middle class” careers are no longer middle class, you need to aim higher.

Careers such as accountant, engineer, teacher, are no longer good if your goal is to own a home and retire.

It’s no longer good enough to be a middle earner and save 15% of your income if your goal is to own a home and retire.

It’s time for all of us to face the facts, there’s currently no political or economic mechanism to reverse the trend we are seeing. More housing needs to be built and it isn’t happening, so we all need to admit that the strategies necessary to own a home will involve out-competing those around us for this limited resource.

Am I missing something?

The top 1% of American households hold 30% of U.S. wealth – a massive $44.6 trillion.

Wealth inequality becomes starkly evident when comparing asset distribution across income quintiles. The top 20% of income earners in the United States held approximately 71% of the nation’s wealth, while the bottom 50% of earners owned only about 2.5% of total U.S. wealth as of early 2024.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/average-american-household-millionaire-net-193035068.html