It is real estate AND the budget crisis AND food and fuel inflation. It is 401k’s going down to 201k’s. And more Californians have lost their jobs. Unemployment has gone from 4.9% in 2006 to 6.8% today. To me, that’s just a number. To a guy without a job, that has real meaning.
My mother feels worse off and she’s retired. She doesn’t care what her long paid-for house is worth, or that the government is $30 billion in debt. But she is flipping mad over the cost of food and gas.
There is plenty to make Californians feel financially worse off. Generally, they are. Will wages soar to accommodate the latest inflation? I don’t see it. I see wages stagnant or falling.
I understand why Californians feel worse off, because most of us are.
I’m one of the few that is actually better off than a year ago, and that is by sheer luck.
My husband had a ton of stock options, and when it hit $60 per share, we decided we should take the money and run. Literally, 1 month later it was down to $23/share. At 60, we made a lot of money. At 23, they were worth zero. In other words, we got lucky.
If it weren’t for us selling the stock options, we would be way worse off.
Our gas, grocery, insurance, clothing bills have all gone up drastically. Because of the bad public schools in California, we have put our kids in private school and tuition has gone up a ton.
During the same time, our home value has dropped, and it is much harder to sell a home.
My friends are struggling this year. I have friends at my church that are really feeling the pinch. The real estate impact is huge because it impacts realtors, people doing loans, etc. It’s not just about house values dropping.
It’s scary right now.