I remind myself that liberalism is the worst crisis facing this country and hopefully the mid-terms will result in sending a lot of libs back to their retirement homes.
How Are You Coping With Inflation?
- Thread starter Monroe Claxton
- Start date
We refi'd to a 15 year mortgage at 2.5% in April 2021, iirc. We originally got a 30 year in 2015, so we had already built up decent equity. My plan is to have the thing paid off by the end of 2023. Absent something really unforeseen, my wife and I will never have a mortgage or other debt again in our lives.
Like LineSki, I graduated college right after the 2007-2008 recession and struggled hard to get on my feet. I've been broke as a joke before and I don't ever want to go back. I understand the argument that I should be taking the money I'm paying on a loan with a 2.5% interest rate and instead putting it in assets like index funds or rental properties that have a much higher expected rate of return.
I prefer to retire debt at 2.5% collateralized against an asset that is appreciating at a crazy rate right now (that I also happen to live in). With the LET'S GO BRANDON stock returns of late, the value of my house has increased at a much higher compounding rate of return than my index funds in the last few years. The crazy appreciation rate of residential real estate is almost certainly not sustainable and I am still full funding my IRAs (marcus welby while stocks are on blue light special).
Historically, the appreciation of residential real estate basically tracks with inflation and stocks beat inflation, especially when including dividends. We are in a weird inversion of that and it likely will not last more than a few more years, if even that long. If I could predict market prices, I wouldn't be slumming around practicing law and posting on a message board. I'd be on a yacht, being fed peeled grapes by a never ending stream of Instagram "influencers" and telling my jewish lawyers to figure out a scheme to fully fund UK NIL deals while creating me tax losses.
Once we've got the house paid off, I'll probably spend the rest of my life threatening to divorce my wife if she even mentions getting a HELOC to do a never ending stream of home "improvements" but at least I'll be recession and inflation proof so long as I can scrabble together enough cash per month to eat and do the other basics. In related news, I drive a 2009 Lexus and plan to drive it until I die.
In other words, like John Goodman's character in The Gambler, I'm working my *** off to get to a Position of F*** You. "Own your house, have a couple of bucks in the bank, don't drink -- that's all I have to say anyone on a social level."
Like LineSki, I graduated college right after the 2007-2008 recession and struggled hard to get on my feet. I've been broke as a joke before and I don't ever want to go back. I understand the argument that I should be taking the money I'm paying on a loan with a 2.5% interest rate and instead putting it in assets like index funds or rental properties that have a much higher expected rate of return.
I prefer to retire debt at 2.5% collateralized against an asset that is appreciating at a crazy rate right now (that I also happen to live in). With the LET'S GO BRANDON stock returns of late, the value of my house has increased at a much higher compounding rate of return than my index funds in the last few years. The crazy appreciation rate of residential real estate is almost certainly not sustainable and I am still full funding my IRAs (marcus welby while stocks are on blue light special).
Historically, the appreciation of residential real estate basically tracks with inflation and stocks beat inflation, especially when including dividends. We are in a weird inversion of that and it likely will not last more than a few more years, if even that long. If I could predict market prices, I wouldn't be slumming around practicing law and posting on a message board. I'd be on a yacht, being fed peeled grapes by a never ending stream of Instagram "influencers" and telling my jewish lawyers to figure out a scheme to fully fund UK NIL deals while creating me tax losses.
Once we've got the house paid off, I'll probably spend the rest of my life threatening to divorce my wife if she even mentions getting a HELOC to do a never ending stream of home "improvements" but at least I'll be recession and inflation proof so long as I can scrabble together enough cash per month to eat and do the other basics. In related news, I drive a 2009 Lexus and plan to drive it until I die.
In other words, like John Goodman's character in The Gambler, I'm working my *** off to get to a Position of F*** You. "Own your house, have a couple of bucks in the bank, don't drink -- that's all I have to say anyone on a social level."
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Buying practically everything online rather than driving to various places to shop is a great way to fight inflation.
Food stores and a couple of other things like laundry are the obvious exceptions. Last year I put nearly 2,000 less on my car by not going to CVS, Home Depot, or the local mall every time I needed pharmaceuticals, hardware, tools, or clothes etc. Amazon Prime now has 1 day delivery on a lot of Prime items now including Sunday delivery.
Food stores and a couple of other things like laundry are the obvious exceptions. Last year I put nearly 2,000 less on my car by not going to CVS, Home Depot, or the local mall every time I needed pharmaceuticals, hardware, tools, or clothes etc. Amazon Prime now has 1 day delivery on a lot of Prime items now including Sunday delivery.
I’ve started doing the same. It definitely saves money by keeping me and the family out of the store, but I feel like a lazy bum watching my mail guy have to get out and carry a big box to the porch and the whole time I already know it’s just paper towels.
Got three happy meals, a quarter pounder with cheese and a small frozen coke at McDonald's Last week and it was $28 which is ridiculous!!!!
Not really, especially if you can support the local mom and pops that need foot traffic to keep them afloat.
save gas and save time not driving parking shopping etc. not to mention depreciation and maintenance on your car.
How many "mom and pop" B&M stores does anyone seriously patronize these days? Ours local mall looks like a ghost town compared to the WalMart Parking lot up the street. WalMart, Target, Home Depo, Lowes and the drug chains rule.
It works both ways....the stores you mentioned all have employees that need customers to keep their jobs. On-line shopping is fine for some things, but to use that as a crutch to save a nickel during this liberal led disaster is just that....a crutch.
No longer have a mortage...if you have the resources to do so, make an extra payment each year. You'll be glad you did.
This crap all started in 2017, so we’ve had time to adjust. Still sucks though. Other than work, most of our travel miles are making trips from Savannah, to Knoxville to see our granddaughters and to Lexington to see my son and daughter. We made the Knoxville trip again last weekend. Savannah-Knoxville round trip in late 2016 cost us maybe $75 for gas. Last weekend cost us $180. But gas has dropped 60 cents down here in the last couple weeks, so maybe things are looking up.
Cole still pretending this didn’t start in January of 2017?
Great advice! I make a principal payment each month on my mortgage and on track to pay off the loan much sooner.
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The destruction started January 21 2021.
The virus will magically reappear around
Sept. 1...mark it down...Still see young people wearing mask in stores and even outside. Guarantee plans and lockdowns and all the steps for another stolen elections are in place ready to be rolled out.
Lmao. Under no circumstances will this happen. There will be no more lockdowns or anything close to that in the United States due to Covid.
Remember when you all said Covid would magically stop being an issue on January 21, 2021 because it was just a way to discredit Trump? That never happened and it was a big issue for much of 2021. Now you're claiming it's going to make a comeback around the midterms? Here's a hint: Covid isn't a political tool used to harm Republicans like you think it is.
The exact day deficits and inflation mattered again.
Maybe not but it is an obsessive fixation almost exclusively associated with one side of the political aisle.
Cole still pretending this didn’t start in January of 2017?
It did start under Biden, but he inherited a global pandemic. Doesn’t matter what I say-if you’re a Trump fan, you’re gonna say this is 100% Biden’s fault, despite the fact that it is a supply chain issue caused by COVID and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which is affecting every country in the world.
Just looking at global inflation rates makes it quite clear Biden isn't the cause.
US inflation for June year over year: 9.1%
UK: 9.1%
Netherlands: 8.6%
Germany: 8.2%
This is a worldwide issue right now. China is still shutting down cities in a their pursuit of zero Covid. Fertilizer prices are still off the charts and supply is low. Shipping is still a mess. To think that all these issues were put into motion in the last 18 months is foolish.
We know exactly what happens: Republicans right now will act like the president and government are 100% responsible for everything, while democrats downplay the role of government and act like the US is helpless and any policy will have minimal impact. After republicans take over next year and we’re still in this mess (I predict we’ll start getting better in 2024) the exact opposite will happen and the roles will reverse. In 2024 Biden will then act like he’s responsible for the turnaround during re-election while republicans will act like it was the fact that Republicans were elected in 2022 and that the president doesn’t really have any control over any of this stuff anyway.
You don't think tanking our domestic energy production and printing 40% of the dollars on Earth in his first year did nothing? Really?
Yep. Wash, rinse, repeat. Facts rarely matter-at the end of the day, politics is about emotion. I would argue since it’s so important and impactful, what people do and how people vote should matter more than soundbytes and whether you’ve got a (D) or an (R) next to your name, but that’s just not the way it works.
Before Biden the republicans printed trillions of money in the form of stimulus checks and PPP loans, a lot of which were unnecessary. They were also frauded of literally billions that will never be recovered. It was a complete **** show by both sides. The republicans started the mess by printing tons of money and the democrats continued it with incredibly stupid policy. Thank god Manchin stopped the dipshit democrats from printing another 3.5 trillion which would have been a catastrophe.
I already lived pretty cheap as it was, so about the onl thing I've changed is not buying some stuff, not because I couldn't afford it, but because I didn't think it was worth what it was priced at. Like the frozen gluten free pizza I used to get every couple weeks cost $9, not it costs $12. I can easily afford another $3, I just don't think it's big enough or tastes good enough to warrant spending $12 on it.
I’m sorry you weren’t alive in 2020, but way back then there was a Republican government and president. They passed a 1.5 trillion dollar stimulus bill, wide-sweeping cash grab unemployment benefits that weren’t questioned, and gave business PPP loans they didn’t need and people stimulus checks even if they were still working. It was wild.
Sorry you've never taken an econ class. Inflation is too many dollars chasing too few goods. When they basically double the money supply in 2021 it tends to have an effect on inflation which dwarfs the other horrible decisions made by pub and especially governors.
Inflation is more likely 15-17%...unless you trust govt accounting
The 3 trillion "covid relief" that was passed as soon as D's took over was a starting cause. The other "relief" packages were budgeted for that one wasn't, at all, just as the tax cuts were (the gov was actually bringing in revenue HIGHS at that point while paying less taxes) All of this started happening waaay before putin. Yet this admin, and I guess some ppl actually believe, Biden is just an innocent bystander and all these things just keep happening. My favorite was "Putins tampon shortage" ...or pandering liz warren talking about how everyone was price gouging which mysteriously just happened after 40 years.
Everyone should be buying drinks for Joe Manchin. The economy may of collapsed if build back better was passed.
Of course their solution is apparently to spend more money, or tax us all more so we have to become poorer. Brilliant.
At this point ppl have to be an outright apologist, like Ed. The cheeto man has been gone for almost 2 years, time to for them to find a new shtick
Only on weekends when they aren't making decisions......otherwise, it's a toss-up.
I can imagine being in a 2.75% 30 year when inflation is 9%
In January of 2017, gas was $1.60, milk was $1.50/gallon, and lumber prices were dirt cheap. By late 2018, gas was $2.80, milk was $3.50, and lumber prices were starting to soar. Other than Covid locking down the country, resulting in a drop in gas prices in 2020, everything has been trending the wrong direction since January 2017. I said the day Trump was elected, it would take a decade to recover from his time in office. And this Weekend Bernie we have in the Oval Office now sure isn’t the answer. If you voted for either of these clowns, you are part of the problem.
Buckle your belts buttercups. I graduated from UK during the Carter years. Inflation was out of control 10 - 14% with a horrid recession. My career was ruined before I could even start. A few weeks we only had green beans and baloney to eat. I bought my first house with an adjustable rate mortgage starting at 11.3% and peaking in the mid 80s ate 14%.
Now my retirement investments are hosed but the good news is the Social Security cost of living adjustment will be awesome next year. Maybe in double digits.
Now my retirement investments are hosed but the good news is the Social Security cost of living adjustment will be awesome next year. Maybe in double digits.