I’m not, have a pretty high double income. But, a lot of my friends are. I’m starting to notice things getting more expensive, but I was pissed off before that.
I don’t have to be struggling myself to be upset at how things are going. I guess not everybody is like that.
My situation exactly. I get pissed off thinking about how unaffordable everything is for the majority of people right now.
Not just financially, also mentally and emotionally!
Struggling?
No.
Drowning, yes.
the finances I have to manage are a 12 pound bass hanging off 4 pound line.
I have been rather fortunate, and well paid (~$120K after taxes and savings). Even 3 years ago, I didn’t have to think about money day to day. I was brought up with a very modest lifestyle, so the things that feel extravagent to me were affordable in that context.
Today my wife and I eat out less, shop for groceries differently, and plan things that used to be a small purchase more carefully. It’s not a struggle in the important senses, but I have a clear feeling of “it’s going to get worse”, and I want to make lifestyle adjustments ahead of that rather than falling behind it.
I’ve been unemployed since 04-2025, and while I still have a long way to go, my savings are starting to dwindle. The job market is tough for coders that find generative AI, wasteful, unethical, and a copyright hazard, in addition to not being much impressed with the output, even from tests earlier this year. I wonder if the new convenience store needs people.
21 years?
I read that as April 2025, ~17 months ago
04-2025=-2021
2026-(-2021)=4047 years
April 2025. It’s the longest I’ve been unemployed since my first job out of college.
One thing I’ve noticed is that movies and TV shows don’t use exact amounts of money anymore.
‘The Rockford Files’ always talked about Jim’s $200.00 a day fee, and characters would say things like ‘Hey, this is a fifty dollar jacket’ or ‘That house must have cost $100,000.’
The $5.00 milkshake was a big plot point in ‘Pulp Fiction.’
Prices are going up so fast that what was unreasonably expensive when the script was written will be the norm by the time the show gets aired.
I noticed that when watching How I Met Your Mother as a teenager, they almost always avoid naming specific amounts of money. The narrator might replace an amount of money with “crapload” or the characters might show eachother a money offer on a piece of paper. Older shows like All In The Family, made in the 70s, frequently mention specific amounts of money but now, with inflation, those amounts of money sound laughably low. Bread for 11 cents? I always figured modern shows avoid mentioning specific amounts of money to try and keep it timeless so in the future people won’t laugh at what was considered a high or low amount of money at the time
To be fair, they’re trying to make “evergreen” content, meaning it stays funny/meaningful/believable/etc. no matter how far into the future that you watch it.
That wasn’t really a thing until the 90s though. Probably started with The Simpsons
Not struggling perse but yeah shit has gone up way more than my pay check. Paying double for groceries what I did a few years ago, paying 50% more for gas than I did a year ago electricity doubled. Pay went up a few percent…
Everytime i manage to save a few thousand and think im adding to my savings, suddenly we need a root canal, i blow a tire, doctor wants an MRI because he felt something odd… and poof, all my savings are gone.
I literally refuse to look at our bank balance. The moment I look and think “oh, that’s better than I expected” then the AC dies, or our roof starts leaking and needs replacement, or some other bullshit happens to consume every last penny we have.
I always thought i was 2 paychecks away from being homeless.
Now im also worried about the C level morons saying AI can do my job and let me go. They already require everyone use AI to gen code. Eventually, they will expect AI to architect the product too.
On the plus side, I have been in the biz long enough to have heard the “developers are a thing of the past” speech often enough to realize it’s bullshit. Unfortunately, I have also been around long enough to know that the idiots in the C suite will use any excuses to cut people loose if they think it can get them even $1 more on their next bonus. I also have never ever seen a dev let go because something came along that made them more efficient, quicker, and able to do more work in the same amount of time. What happens instead is that the already “overly optimistic” time lines get even shorter and more unrealistic.
The short of it is, if they let you go, it wasn’t because of AI, it’s something that they were planning on doing anyway.I know that doesn’t really help the anxiety, but understanding that can change how you react. For instance, rather than being upset with being forced to use AI. Lean into it. Learn what it can do and what it can’t. Fucking abuse the credits that they are paying for. When you run out, ask to be moved up to the next AI tier/usage allowance, and then do it all over again. Do shit like running 2 AIs on the same job and seeing who gets closer. Set up tests that have AI run these comparisons for you. Have AIs run subagents that rubber duck, review, test, verify, ect., the entire work ticket from end to end. Work on augmenting those skills that AI fails at, and add AI expert to your resume (because that is the next bullshit thing that companies will expect on resumes). But the big difference between you and everyone else will be that you have some real insight and experience to talk about with confidence.
And if your learning curve happens to cost them so much $$ that the AI vs employee cost difference begins to rapidly shrink, well that’s not really a bad thing for you either.
Yes.
Cost of life is a huge factor, I live in Italy, our paychecks are very thin but, especially in the southern regions, cost of life is relatively, especially if you don’t have to travel too far for work.
I’m able to save a few hundred euros per month (my paycheck is a net of about 1700€).
Not sure anyone asked you yet… tell us your story. Where you living and what’s the sitch?
Everyone except the already very wealthy yes.
Elect Republicans, get republican policies.
The country still hadnt really recovered from Reagan, then we got Bush, then we got Trump.
Obama and Biden could only do so much to stop the dumpster fire, and Nazis are famously bad for the economy.
the question wasnt specifically about the USA, but yes
Everyone except the already very wealthy
I think that’s not quite right. I think there is a (now approaching vanishingly small middle class) which goes from like top 10% but less than 2% or 3% earners who are still doing ok. This is the household income at like 175k to probably… Idk 300k?
Compared to 40k/yr yeah that’s very wealthy, but compared to 600k+ it definitely isn’t.
My main point being that “very wealthy” is very VERY relative.
As someone making a household income of 200k, pre COVID was wonderful, actually didn’t have to worry about even thinking about money, now though, shit is getting thin… if it’s that way for me I feel horrible for everyone else less well off. Really is a shit show when 6 figures can’t secure you from having to go paycheck to paycheck.
I mean yeah by the time you’ve got 36k (or more) for mortgage, 35k for daycare, if 200k pre tax and married 30k to the fed, 20k groceries now probably, 10k for car payments (presuming 2), then state and property taxes, insurance, maintenance, clothes, diapers maybe, benefits, gas (probably idk we went electric), yeah I could see how that money goes fast.
It’s definitely first world problems because it beats renting and 3 jobs and grandma watches the kids, but to do all the things you’re “supposed to do” by 1950s standards you probably need something north of 250k/yr.
Yeah I’m lucky that my kids are full grown though they both still live with me because the job market is ass and my oldest is low functioning, and my wife is disabled, so still taking care of all 4 of us off my paycheck and my wife’s disability, I’m going electric next year probably(if my work bonus comes through) though I’ll still have to buy my youngest’s gas for his trips to college etc. really hoping things make a change for the better, else I’ll probably never retire, and I’ll still be housing my kids until they inherit the place.
even something as simple as owning your house makes finances so much easier.
Everyone except the already very wealthy yes.
That’s not true
EDIT: The downvotes for these three words, which are objectively correct, are so stereotypically Lemmy 😆. These people are addicted to ruminating in misplaced hopelessness
Paycheck to paycheck gang with very little if anything goes wrong
Feels like it. I’m getting the most pay in my life and 5 years ago it would have been comfortable. Now with the cost of everything I’m just eeking by. Hell I drive a 30 year old car still as I can’t afford a new one or even a newer used one
Motorcycles are much cheaper, easier to maintain, and convenient if you don’t live in a place with snow. If I ever go back to America, I am selling my 20 year old toyota and buying a sensible Honda Motorcycle.
I would totally ride a motorcycle if I wasn’t surrounded by people on their cell phones not staying in their lane.
The bigger danger is people not looking or their brain not working and pulling out directly infront of you.
Unless you live in America, then the biggest dangers by far, accounting for >3/4 accidents are drinking and riding or going into a turn too fast for conditions and eating shit.
Here in vietnam, its probably people with a phone in their hand riding into the back of stuff, then alcohol.
In Cambodia its probably people with shit tires and no helmet lowsiding and getting squished by an oncoming truck or banging their heads.
I’ve been bumped by people doing the no-look-lane change once hard enough to deform my foot peg, as long as you have grip, there is a lot of force trying to keep a moving bike upright.
I actually used to ride believe it or not. But with starting a family and the insane amount of distracted driving here in the US I quit. It’s disturbing to see people with their phone in their hands while driving. Plus I didnt want to leave my family without a father. I loved riding and still miss it
I used to ride, but even bikes are getting quite more expensive, and it’s much dangerous to ride on at least in the US as everyone is driving bigger and bigger vehicles and more distracted as well.
I know Harleys are overpriced, but you can get a brand new cb750 for 7-8K, cheaper most of the world.
What is weird is that much cheaper bikes the third world gets are way more expensive in the US, a XR150L is 3.4K in the US, a CB150 verza has the exact same engine, it’s less than half the price in Indonesia.
Same with the Honda Wave in asia vs Grom in the US, they switch the functional frame/clutch for something “sporty” and just double the price.
you can’t afford a 25K civic or similar?
issue i see with people is they seem to want 50K cars. at least going by the average price of new car purchases, but most car buyers buy like 2x the car they actually need.
Something like 65% of people can’t afford a $1k emergency. NO thry can’t afford a payment on a 25k civic. We are all people scraping couch cusions to get a used car lot $4500 Toyota.
Don’t know about you, but a $4,500 used Toyota in my neck of the woods would be an early 2000’s Toyota with 200k+ miles and in serious need of expensive repairs. And those living paycheck to paycheck wouldn’t have a way to put down the cash to buy even that car.
Nope not with kids and a lack of child care. One parent stays at home as their paycheck got devoured by child care and I work. Both of us with degrees in tech too. Once both kids are in school maybe she’ll be able to work part time but obviously someone still has to go pick up the kids. I have zero family support. My parents died of cancer and meth.
I’d love a hybrid civic or corolla. Hybrid mostly to save on gas. I absolutely don’t need a F150 or something
childcare is about 3K a month max in a HCOL. even with 2 kids that’s 6K a month.
if you both have degrees in tech in your 30s, you should both be making like way more than 6k a month. neither parent should stay home, unless it’s a lifestyle choice. i have known a few people who did this. a dual income tech couple should be pulling in well over 200K/yr
and yeah if you are poor because of lifestyle choices… that’s not struggling. that’s you choosing to make less money than you could. or i suppose you could be 24 or something and both be making 60K, but why you had kids so early is against a lifestyle choice and your struggle would again be self-imposed.
and by the sounds of it you very much could afford a cheap least or car payment. a lease on basic hybrid civic is 250/mo or so. sounds you aren’t open to leasing a car though and think you have to purchase it outright.
Got to love when people say 24 is young to have a child and it’s a choice. Not every state allows abortion, and even with birth control and contraception, children occur.
Then the dogshit advice to lease… Sure, it might make sense to some, but it’s almost always a terrible choice.
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At least in the US the average new car price is now close to $50k. That’s the reason car loans now are going upwards of 7 years. A lot of the car price is more and more expensive safety features being added on cars. Add in, you are quite a lot safer in a modern new car compared to even a 20 year old car.
Not yet.
