Beware Of The Doom Loop.

[arakboss]

American Families Risk Falling Into A Doom Loop

Families who cannot manage their debt and expenses could end up in a financial death spiral—where debt payments and other expenses continue to increase, while income remains the same or even decreases.

www.forbes.com

Read More

 

[parallax]

I saw on bloomberg t.v. today, there are an alarming amount of people, not making their cars payments ,,,, forecast not looking good.

 

[TTSX]

Good thing I live in a cardboard box, drive a tonka truck and eat packs of ramen.

 

[Nosferatu]

Good thing I live in a cardboard box, drive a tonka truck and eat packs of ramen.

And most importantly, have an inflatable spousal unit with no dependents.

 

[Alexx1401]

I have been saying for a while I suspect to soon see a rash of bankruptcy filings and a LOT of cars for sale that got repoed over this. Its amazing the payments many set up to have some new car.

 

[arakboss]

I shouldn't have read that article before bed. I had a nightmare that my employer shut the place down overnight and I didn't find out until I showed up for work the next day.

I have a feeling things could finally be hitting the skids with the economy. CNBC pundits keep talking about a soft landing or saying that we have already went through the recession. This seems silly but if they are right and things just get better from here, then yay for us. If things go bad from here, we as a country will have earned with our reckless spending policies.

 

[Alexx1401]

I shouldn't have read that article before bed. I had a nightmare that my employer shut the place down overnight and I didn't find out until I showed up for work the next day.

I have a feeling things could finally be hitting the skids with the economy. CNBC pundits keep talking about a soft landing or saying that we have already went through the recession. This seems silly but if they are right and things just get better from here, then yay for us. If things go bad from here, we as a country will have earned with our reckless spending policies.

Because of who in in the top spot the "news" will be saying all is fine two days after a major crash. Remember Baghdad Bob? US tanks in frame behind him as he said no Americans were there. This is the media here. Place could be on fire and they would say nothing to see here.

 

[Mike7b]

What's the old saying, its a recession when your neighbor loses their job, its a depression if you lose yours.

 

[TTSX]

Joke's on you. I've never had a job a day in my life






Because I work nights

 

[monkeybutler]

I shouldn't have read that article before bed. I had a nightmare that my employer shut the place down overnight and I didn't find out until I showed up for work the next day.

I have a feeling things could finally be hitting the skids with the economy. CNBC pundits keep talking about a soft landing or saying that we have already went through the recession. This seems silly but if they are right and things just get better from here, then yay for us. If things go bad from here, we as a country will have earned with our reckless spending policies.

It's pretty simple. The economy has cycles. Don't spend too much or you will be fuxed on the down cycle.

 

[Member 74756]

Good thing I live in a cardboard box, drive a tonka truck and eat packs of ramen.

You can afford ramen. wow nice. lolololol When I was stationed in Okinawa, in 79 they were 20 for a buck at the base px, and even cheaper if you went off base to one of the local stores, of course the locals hated us, so I just bought it on base.

 

[Richo877]

.

 

[arakboss]

I'm in a tight position, myself. Wife, 4 kids, and 1 income that's meager at best. Our union contract was "the best they'd ever seen" when we signed it in 2021, but it equates to less than 5%/yr increase for journeyman. To put a number on it, the highest pay is just over $45k/yr. The cost of living grossly outweighs my income. My rent goes up next month and I'm paying 9% more for housing, which is already almost unachievable at $1700+ per month for a cramped apartment. A mortgage would be cheaper, but there's no real way to save or invest. Down payment is impossible to make and the income requirements would say I'm nowhere near capable of making payments (even though I'm paying more for someone else's property). The little bit I did have put away wasn't significant enough to do anything with, and we just had to eat $5k in vehicle repairs on the wife's van because we aren't in a position to get another vehicle, and like I said, 4 kids to shuffle around. Wife can't work because it would cost us more in childcare expenses than she'd earn. We've been liquidating resources to cover expenses, but it's about to come crashing down. Every year gets more expensive and net worth dives deeper into red. A lot of folks say you should just spend less money than you earn... Just the cost of housing takes 67% of net, the rest is divided up among other expenses and there's literally nothing left. I used to have assets and safety net, but every year, more is gone and there's nothing extra to put away.
I don't generally put myself out there and spill it all because I'm not fishing for sympathy or to be a charity case. I'm just putting this out here because I want to address that it's a pretty common scenario in today's world. There's a lot of people in the same position, or worse, and anyone that didn't have resources to aquire property in the last 20 years is ultimately bubblegummed in the society we've built. If you're single, no dependents, can take roommates, live with family or have a working spouse, there's a good chance you can get by just fine. A lot of people are hurting.

No easy answers to fix your situation. Housing cost these days are ridiculous. That won't change around here since the population continues to exceed the supply of housing. In my previous marriage we struggled raising two kids with two incomes. I don't know how you are raising four on one income. Hope things get better for you.

 

[Richo877]

.