cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/17601144
Even as inflation continues to cool into the second half of 2024, many Americans say they’re still struggling to make ends meet.
Roughly one-third of U.S. workers say they’re living paycheck to paycheck and have nearly no money for savings after paying their monthly bills, according to a survey from personal finance website Bankrate.
I never stopped living paycheck to paycheck since I turned 18 back in the early 2010’s. None of these people even realize just how shitty it is, and has been, for the last 20 years. You ever had to use a fucking credit card to pay rent just to keep a roof over your head because you couldn’t get to either one of your 2 jobs because your car broke down? I did about 8 years ago and I’m still paying it off. If I have any kind of emergency, whether it’s medical or otherwise, I am completely fucked financially.
Personal tip. Don’t close your credit card after you fill it up on rent and trying to stay alive because it ruins your ability to get any other credit card for years. I had to get a card that has a $500 annual fee because I was flagged as a risk because I asked for my card to be cancelled so I could pay it off without fear of adding more to it.
This was also during my time where I only slept 2 days a week from my 3 jobs and school so I was definitely not entirely coherent. Couldn’t even reopen the card later.
Honestly since 2008 it’s been about cheapening the experience of being alive or getting cheaper people with no respite for anyone. We can’t all start doing better or the rich feel less rich and we see what happens when they raise the ladder with them.
I just emptied out my 401k cause I will never need it and it will never be enough seeing how the act of retirement always seems to be a rising level too.