The Economy is Great. The Middle Class is Mad by 6IXSTRINGJACK

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The Economy is Great. The Middle Class is Mad

POSTED BY: 6IXSTRINGJACK
UPDATED: Friday, April 29, 2022 12:10
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Friday, April 29, 2022 12:10 PM

Quote:
If the middle class is feeling left out of one of the strongest economies in decades, when the unemployment rate is at a historic low, it’s a grave sign that social discord is coming. Right now, there’s no Great Recession, no tech meltdown, no collapse of complex real estate investment products to explain away why things are tight. On the surface, the economy looks buoyant. But like Swope’s slowly cooking frog, lots of middle-income earners are realizing that they’re in hot water and going under. “It’s not like this volcano came out of nowhere,” says Reeves, the Future of the Middle Class Initiative director. “To some extent, we’ve seen these long-term shifts in the economy like sluggish wage growth and downward mobility. It can take some time for the economic tectonic pressure to build sufficiently—and now the volcano is erupting.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/the-economy-is-great-the-middle-clas
s-is-mad/ar-AAWGAQK?li=BBnb7Kz

Yes, But...

The examples given in these articles are poor ones.

Other than feeling resentment for how easy the Baby Boomer generation had it before them, forgive me for not having sympathy for a family of three that is struggling with an income of over $120,000 per year. Even in Biden*'s shit economy after 20 years of stagnant wage growth and higher than they report inflation.

Take this for example:

Quote:
For Jen [redacted], 35, who lives in a suburb of Phoenix, the rage arose when she calculated how much she owed on her student loans: although she’d borrowed $22,624 and has paid off $34,225, she still owes $43,304.

I mean, what the fuck? Either she is lying, she is ignorant of how much she actually initially borrowed and paid off so far, or these numbers are real and she's a fucking idiot. There is no option D. This is an one example of a person who probably shouldn't have gone to college. Make no mistake... There are millions more of these.

Quote:
(She’s in a dispute with her loan servicer, Navient, about how her repayments were calculated.)

She'd better godammned well be. But she probably won't get anywhere with that because SHE signed all the papers without reading the terms and understanding what she got herself into. On top of that, she didn't even bother looking into this until 11 years after she graduated college. The only way she's getting out from under that loan is to pay more per month than the interest, which she obviously hasn't done one single month for 11 years. Might I STRONGLY suggest to Jen that she get that loan refinanced to something less resembling a Payday loan before the FED raises interest rates again?

How much are these people paying for their cell phone plans? Their Cable TV/Internet? How many streaming services do they subscribe to per month, and how many of those have they not even watched once in the last month? How often do they eat out at restaurants? How often do they buy a new car? How much do they spend per year on their clothes and shoes? What is their yearly Amazon expenditures on "stuff"?

I mean, look. I get it. The economy right now IS fucked. House prices are fucking ridiculous AGAIN because after only 14 years we've turned real estate into a huge fucking bubble through speculation AGAIN.

But if you're making 6 digits and seriously struggling, you need to re-prioritize EVERYTHING in your life right now. You need to buckle down and have a few "tough" years of living without all of the extra things you've surrounded yourself with and brown bag your lunch every day.

Pay those debts down, from highest interest rate first to lowest last. Refinance any stupid loan terms you were foolishly paying while rates were at record lows NOW before it's too late to do that. Fuck keeping up with your "friends" and live with that used car for a few more years than you would have. Introduce yourself to Goodwill/Thrift Stores. Get rid of your streaming services. Shave down your cell phone plan, or better yet, go to a company like US Mobile or Consumer Cellular and save a bundle every month for the same thing without any contracts. Fight with your cable company for a lower price every time they hike it up.

Once you've paid off all your debt with the money you've saved by not living like an asshole anymore with your 6 figure income, keep up these new good habits at least until you have 6 months worth of income saved up for a rainy day, and then NEVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE allow your savings to dip below that level.

By this time, and YES... it will take time, you should have started to develop some healthier financial habits and learned that you can easily live without some of the things you never thought you could. Stick with that. Don't fall back into those bad habits that got you in trouble in the first place.

Keep saving. Now instead of drowning in stupid debt surrounded by stuff that you don't technically own, you actually own everything that you survey and you're building up that down payment for a house. Resist the temptation to blow that on stupid shit like jewelry or a cruise or your third new car in 6 years. Staycations are your new yearly getaway at least until you buy that first house. Your kid is going to love it.

And while all of these good things are happening because YOU are making them happen, keep in mind that the housing market WILL crash again. You missed your opportunity 12 to 14 years ago either because you were too young and/or because you had not set yourself up in a financial position to take advantage of the huge market correction.

If you're making 6 figures right now, you owe it to yourself not to make that mistake this time around.

And when you get into that house, you pay extra every single month until that loan is paid off early. The amount of money you won't be paying in interest when you make extra payments every month is INSANE. Loan Amortization on mortgages is one of the biggest rackets in the country. (I mean... Next to student loans I guess if your numbers provided above are actually real, Jen).

And once you've paid that house off. Shit... If you're still lucky enough to have that 6 figure income at that point, it would almost be a job to figure out how NOT to live below your means with that money.

Due to taking advantage of the previous market crash and the willingness and ability to take on a large rehab project that I knew would take years to complete on my own, I bought a house with cash 11 years ago for $5,000 less than my buddy just paid for his new car last year. It was roughly 1/3rd the price the previous owners had paid for it only 5 years before I bought it. That was with money I had saved up in just over 4 years during the mid-2000's while making less than half of what your income is, Jen.

Since I moved in, in 2011, my income has been just over $70,000. That's not per year, Jen. That's total. $70,000 total income in going on 11 years.

And I've got more money saved up right now than I did 11 years ago. Not much, and it certainly doesn't beat inflation (so it's really less), but I'm just illustrating the point of how powerful it is to get your finances in order and treat debt of any kind like the plague. Imagine how much YOU would have saved up during the previous 11 years with your household income if you didn't have rent/mortgage.

Fuck what your friends and family think of you, if they'd think less of you for driving around a car that is 8 years old or wearing some clothes you picked up at Goodwill. Chances are, they don't care at all and that's all in your head. If they do care, you need better friends.

My buddy who bought that car that cost almost as much as my house? He loves bragging about the crap he buys. When he told me he paid $1,800 for his new iPhone I just laughed and told him "that's cool. I'm going to buy 3 more months of not having to work for somebody else with my $1,800".

To all the Jen's and Jen's spouses in America, get your shit together and stop waiting for Big Daddy Government to save you. With a six digit income, nobody is more equipped to put you into a better financial situation than you are yourself. And with or without that income, nobody else even cares.

Good luck.

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