Posted on 04/25/2025 6:40:18 PM PDT by Red Badger
U.S. debt absolutely affects your income. The Fed has been inflating dollars by printing more to pay the debt, and you're able to retain less of your dollars due to increasing costs, taxes, and fees which have increased largely due to that debt.
My grandmother would send her minks to a place that did cold storage. Can’t think of anyone who stored them at home. Different time.
Yes, people either did it directly if they lived near the fur storage companies, or they would do so through a local drycleaner who would have them delivered to a fur storage company.
The Fed should not be printing money.
I can also remember that, from that time period, the rule of thumb for investing was to look for a P/E ratio of 10 or less.
I wasn’t investing much tin those days although I do remember getting and IRA or something to that effect for 12%.
The banks were really pushing it and when I went to a now defunct bank to cash it in, they were really snotty to me.
Hey, if they didn’t like me getting that much they had no one to blame but themselves. The bank offered it.
I switched banks very shortly after that. I had no intention of keeping my money somewhere where I was treated so poorly.
Which, now that I think of it, makes me wonder if most of today's investors may actually be speculators, and just not realize it.
As a dad, one of the best things I ever did was to get my oldest son into investing. I was a little ahead of the game several years ago, so I offered to give him $1k with the one condition that it be invested in stocks.
The other day I asked him what his portfolio was worth, and he told me it's currently at $100k, mainly due the the fact that he has continued to invest. He's become quite savvy, too.
My son actually did begin investing early, because he had read about the difference between investing X at age 25 vs 30 and it made a huge difference.
Kind of like the doubling a penny every day for a month concept.
The difference isn’t so noticeable at first but then it reaches a point where it just takes off.
My oldest and spouse paid off her loan about 30k and have good military monies that pays their mortgage. His base pay is good and she does well. Both bring in over 200k. They are about 35.
The second and spouse just bought a fixer upper have 5 kids and live on his salary. They live a smaller life. He makes about 80k I est. When she does get back to work I imagine she will bring in 100 as a nurse specialist. They are about 33.
The next is single owns a trades company and has his own home and apartments. He grosses north of 500 k I wo guess and nets about half of it. 30 years
The last is mentally ill however is able to have a commitment and marriage work I fast food management They own a home together a real house and they won’t get any further in life. But they hold their own. 27
In 1986 you paid for an apartment, a new car payment, school tuition, and utilities and I assume some food?
On $3.35 per hour or $67 per week or $3,350 per year? In 1986?
Boy in our area that may have worked in 1966. But not in 1986.
In 10 years you’ll have 25000.
Nails and eyelashes.
“ China went from a poor country 50 years ago to biggest economy in the world based on purchasing power index, by focus on manufacturing.”
China has factories that have zero human employees operating the machines. According to Charlie Kirk, there is at least one factory in China that is putting out one smart phone every minute with zero human hands touching it. The building is dark. It is all AI and robots. China has many people who are very good at Managing these factories. Cheap shoes and clothes are now being made in other countries.
My wife and I were “barely getting by financially” in the 1970’s - 1980’s. We often ran out of food for weeks.
Then we learned about tithing and things turned around very quickly.
Bogus news. Every industrialized country has automated factories. Even Vietnam and India. But countries like China must find some work for 1500 million people. At least half of that population are working age adults.
I had a roommate for a couple of years which helped. Also, I did make tips which I didn’t post about. Tips were maybe 20-30 a night at the steakhouse I worked at.
That would change things.
You’re right - then a few decades later in one of the early liberal violent tantrum movements, women wearing minks would have their coats spray painted with red paint while they were wearing them. Commie influenced ‘protests’ played out by democrat ‘youth’ spraying while wearing expensive leather shoes...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.