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It seems to be affecting nearly everyone I know, with a few exceptions.
C is a cousin of my wife's. She and her husband have run a business that was first brick and mortar, then rolled over to 100% internet. They live very cheaply in Kansas. Every winter C would rent a modest place in Key West. This year she was unable for the first time to save enough to pull that off. Her Dad is in a nursing home in Florida. A WW2 vet, he cobbles together VA, Medicare and his life's savings to live okay. C manages his affairs. Who'll go first, her Dad or his ZIRP-hammered dough? Her visits have become problematic.
I post this not for sympathy for C but rather as an example of decades of modest choice being negated.
F has spent the last 3 decades in construction management. He cannot find work. Salaries have dropped precipitously and construction superintendents are required to bring their tools to the jobsite, when there are listings. He's flat broke. Never a prizewinner for personal finance management, his future is dystopian.
There used to be enough slack in the economy to include those who worked hard but were poor self-managers. No more.
J is an electrical contractor who inherited a piece of a small manufacturing business. The latter is just holding its own, covering (reduced) salaries to the three partners. J's electrical work is nil. His electrical training was track housing, monkey see, monkey do. A hard worker, he's clueless on electrical theory. I've answered his load calc, motor control, etc. questions over the years. Now if he calls he sounds like he's on the edge of hysteria.
Not a worldly guy, he may in the end be road kill.
C is a cousin of my wife's. She and her husband have run a business that was first brick and mortar, then rolled over to 100% internet. They live very cheaply in Kansas. Every winter C would rent a modest place in Key West. This year she was unable for the first time to save enough to pull that off. Her Dad is in a nursing home in Florida. A WW2 vet, he cobbles together VA, Medicare and his life's savings to live okay. C manages his affairs. Who'll go first, her Dad or his ZIRP-hammered dough? Her visits have become problematic.
I post this not for sympathy for C but rather as an example of decades of modest choice being negated.
F has spent the last 3 decades in construction management. He cannot find work. Salaries have dropped precipitously and construction superintendents are required to bring their tools to the jobsite, when there are listings. He's flat broke. Never a prizewinner for personal finance management, his future is dystopian.
There used to be enough slack in the economy to include those who worked hard but were poor self-managers. No more.
J is an electrical contractor who inherited a piece of a small manufacturing business. The latter is just holding its own, covering (reduced) salaries to the three partners. J's electrical work is nil. His electrical training was track housing, monkey see, monkey do. A hard worker, he's clueless on electrical theory. I've answered his load calc, motor control, etc. questions over the years. Now if he calls he sounds like he's on the edge of hysteria.
Not a worldly guy, he may in the end be road kill.
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