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.
At least you understand.
Better to be lucky than good! I’m glad you lucked out selling when you did. I always like to see people do well. Kudos.
Yeah, my wife & I hit the jackpot last year, too, but the FTB & IRS fixed that on 4/15.
Better find a way to shelter those gains or you too will be contributing to that great big bureaucratic slush fund in the sky.