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Two years ago, nothing much changed for me. My work continued through the pandemic, no one was quarantined, my state had no mask mandate, I never shared or ran out of toilet paper, gas was cheap, prices were decent. Now everything has gone up significantly except my salary. I have less disposable income. That is not a positive.
I think part of the divide might be between those who worked remotely throughout the pandemic and those who lost their jobs. For the former, it was possible to pack away huge amounts of money during that time because there just wasn't much to spend money on while the world was on lock down, and later supply chain issues also discouraged spending. We ordered new windows in 2021, and it took more than a year for all of them to arrive, so that wasn't exactly inspiration to do a whole house renovation. For the most part, it was a make do and mend kind of time, and, for me, it remains one. So now, some are sitting on much larger savings and investment accounts than they were in November 2020, which means, yeah, they are better off.
Well, the good is that my income has risen dramatically (20%) in the past 2 years! The bad it is that because of inflation it is SO much harder to make ends meet now than it was with my lower income 2 years ago. Other than my mortgage, most of the expenses for my family of 6 have nearly doubled in 2 years: Car insurance (from $500 to $800/month), gas (from $250/month to $500/month), electricity (from $250/month to $400/month), and food (from $1000/month to $1600/month). Not to mention the increased crime rate--our neighborhood has been dealing with multiple car break-ins every month this year, we hadn't had any in the 8 years prior.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Originally Posted by kj1065
I think part of the divide might be between those who worked remotely throughout the pandemic and those who lost their jobs. For the former, it was possible to pack away huge amounts of money during that time because there just wasn't much to spend money on while the world was on lock down, and later supply chain issues also discouraged spending. We ordered new windows in 2020, and it took more than a year for all of them to arrive, so that wasn't exactly inspiration to do a whole house renovation. For the most part, it was a make do and mend kind of time. So now, some are sitting on much larger savings and investment accounts than they were in late 2020, which means, yeah, they are better off.
Yes, that was us. Our credit union savings accounts have never been so much, though we have lost a bit now on our retirement investments.
Like you, we had to wait just over a year to get our house painted, and got a credit union home improvement loan as soon as we agreed to the $8,500 amount. We were able to pay it off before they actually did the job, while waiting due to the paint and labor shortage. Fortunately the painting contractor honored the original price despite the cost of everything going up in that time.
I also bought a classic car project in January and was able to pay cash for it.
It's dangerous to plan your retirement spending on optimal returns.
agreed and i have additional income from commercial real estate to help with our spending. The point is our investment portfolio increased substantially in the Trump years and the current economic conditions have not required us to make major changes to our lifestyle. Alot of that is also from learning about withdrawals, expenses, portfolio types from these forums.
Remember those horrible days with Trump’s mean tweets? Life is so much better now.
Yea those tweets kept me up at night - counting my increases in my 401k, SEP and investment accounts. Now i cant because i am so embarrassed by out presidents lack of civility and his inability to read the teleprompter or just plain lies every times he speaks. But thats just me.
Two years ago, inflation was nowhere near as high as it is now. Also, most people had more money in their 401k accounts before the stock market slide.
Generally speaking, are you better off now than you were two years ago?
Yes! Two years ago I had a huge kidney stone, and needed surgery. Then I got pneumonia. Twice. Then a friend died. Oh...then Rona reared her fugly head, so there's that. So yeah, generally speaking I'm doing much better than I was two years ago.
Of course better off than two years ago, and not because of money or politics. No amount of money can make up for being stuck at home and not going out to meet people.
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