Price shock, the best investment of my life or what to believe

[beachmouse]

Originally Posted by hotzcatz

I suspect a lot of it may be increased demand to rebuild places wrecked by storms, floods and fires. On our island, we lost about 700-800 houses from lava last year. Things are pretty busy around here, contractors won't even give bids on projects unless they either get paid to give a bid or are guaranteed to be given the bid. How crazy is that?

We're Hurricane Michael disaster area-adjacent. It's hard to find a reputable contractor to return your call for less than what they think will be a $50K project. It took us probably eight months to find someone willing to touch a screened porch rehab that included replacing wood posts with aluminum because the roof is a part of the house and it actually required a week's worth of two skilled carpenters to do the post swaps rather than being a project where the GC could use any day laborer looking for work from the Home Depot parking lot. And probably cost twice as much as it would have a few years back.

Next up- a bathroom rehab that involves fixing some water damage from an incorrectly leveled tub. It's a small space and we want a very simple tub-shower replacement with IKEA level vanity. The GCs get insulted if we tell them we don't think it's a $20K project for them.

[lchoro]

There's also the gaps they have to fill between projects. If they take on a lot of small projects, they end up being unavailable for more lucrative projects for businesses that also keep their employees on site every day.

[StealthRabbit]

Building trades...
Prices of raw materials and labor have climbed significantly in last 10 yrs. Quality has tanked (everyone is busy at the moment)

thus...
stay healthy and DIY

or

Wait for the significant upcoming downturn in economy / building trades.

I anticipate a LOT of blood letting. (for everyone except banks, they seem to always come out OK).

Warning: A lot of the QUALITY workmanship will evaporate / more 'real' craftsmen are dying daily.
Some trades will disappear.

Replacement tradesmen / materials are not always equal to the old stuff.

[CaliRestoration]

Originally Posted by RememberMee

I don't understand why some people bring stock market into this. Are you bonafide leech class living off family trusts and such? A working stiff by definition lives off selling his butt to live a day.

That's 100% bull.

It would be VERY EASY to imagine some working stiff, say $60,000 a year (even assuming no raises or salary increases), creating a valuable portfolio in the $200,000+ range if they diligently invested over the past 10 years.

People make excuses for not investing their money, or making their dollars work for them instead of the other way around, but if you stopped dropping $500 on a car payment, or spending $50 a night eating out, the picture to prosperity would become much clearer.

A lot of pointless gnashing of teeth when people could use more financial discipline.

[anononcty]

Originally Posted by RememberMee

....



Branded tools I am interested in definitely got higher in price

and lower in quality, but I did not run statistical analysis so I will not make strict numerical claims. At the fresh glance prices are at the very least 50% higher across the board with some prices much more inflated. My point remains - investing money in long term use/shelf life items beats anything an average person like me can expect from banks and investment wizards.

Alot of Craftsman Tools are made in Taiwan think particularly the socket wrench sets. Always look for any product is made, don't assume because the manufacture is counting on that. Food producers to similar things with packaging reducing the size but keep the same labels etc but you lose out.


I am hearing or seeing conflicting information on scrap metal and recycling. If the domestic economy/manufacturing was booming that much wouldn't scrap metal hold high?