How are you guys doing?

wayoflife

wayoflife

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Staff member
With inflation going up and up, interest rates at a crazy all time high, stocks falling, bonds loosing, all kinds of banks failing and with the very real chance of a recession looming, I was just curious to see how all of you are doing. Is any of this stupidness affecting you personally and/or financially? Are there steps or measures you're now taking to help protect you and your family from shit hitting the fan? So much of this feels so familiar and I'm hoping all of you are okay.
 
With three kids, we've noticed a much bigger pressure in groceries and every day expenses. We have that feeling like something big is near. Like animals before an earthquake, seems obvious that more is to come. We're being very cautious about large purchases of any kind right now.

As far as preparedness, I've had that mentality since about 2007, even before the last crisis. Same gut feeling too before it happened. Not out of paranoia, but rather just seeing the writing on the wall, we've always had supplies on hand to make sure we can get through any practical survival situation. Even for something like a storm or natural disaster. That also goes along with tools and skills. I don't get rid of tools and I'm always willing to learn a new skill. Saves money and may be something I'll have to rely on in the near future.
 
While I wished the writing on the wall would not become a reality, I followed my gut feeling and glad I did.
I paid off the house a few years ago, but fucking property taxes jumped 40%! WTF.
I've decided to pay off debt and halt large purchases, cut back on eating out from 3-4 times a week to once a month.
Fucking hamburgers turned into a $15 gourmet meal for the same shit that was $5 in early 2021, yep, cause and effect of a puppet regime.
All my clients are in O&G and they are having hell trying to get financing from banks they have been doing business with over the last 30 years; been down this path before so as long as they don't throw in the towel, I'm prepared to ride the year out. I'm not ready to retire so planning on a phase 2 if I need to go beat the pavement for new clients.
I've been buying supplies and rotating food items out long before now (grew up with this), my daughter laughed until her last visit and asked if she could "shop" my pantry, she is definitely feeling the cost of food and goods pain. I still don't understand how she goes thru so much TP lol
Like Mad Max, I am prepared, and she knows where to go if shit hits the fan hahaha
Still looking for property to get away from all this shit and have a place to go to live in ignorant bliss even if only for a few days at a time.
Thanks for asking (y)
 
I apologize in advance for how long my response is. I think, as a country, we are approaching a precarious position. I have seen the writing on the wall for quite some time, and I have been working on a plan to weather the storm. Unfortunately, life keeps throwing curveballs.

Right before the 2008 downturn, I was forced to walkway from the small construction business I built when I broke my back in a car accident. I struggled to find a new career, eventually working my way up into middle management roles in the technology sector. All that has become apparent is I am not a good fit for big corporate life.

I was in another car accident last summer, where I hit the left side of my head on the side roll bar, the base of my neck on the top of the headrest, and the top of my head on the soundbar. Needless to say, I suffered a concussion, but based on the minimal damage to my Jeep went undiagnosed; I have had a constant headache for the last ten months. After six months of trying to cope with the headache and continue a mentally demanding job, putting in 60+ hour work weeks, my doctor placed me on medical leave. My recovery has been better since I have been allowed to heal; however, I still have a ways to go before I improve. Under the guise of a company-wide downsize, I was "laid off" at the end of February.

An opportunity looks to have become available that aligns with a passion I have had for about 35 years. The challenge is the current financial conditions are causing banks to retract. At the same time, I am knowledgeable and passionate about the industry and have solid business acumen; I lack work experience in said industry. I have spoken to three banks that said they have frozen funding new commercial loans.
 
The scare for us started during Covid... we thought we were going to have to move because there was no way in hell we were vaccinating our kids or ourselves. So thats when we started being extremely cautious. Stocking up on supplies, food, etc. and watching our spending. Before Covid hit I had drawn up a 2 story addition for our house, gathered the finances and refied to a low rate.... but we decided not to pull the trigger.. knowing it would stretch us to thin.. plus we may move. We just recently decided (now that the Covid Mandates have subsided) to go back to the drawing board. But I am downsizing a lot... single story, bare minimum, only what we need. It will be more than half the cost, but we'll see where we stand in this recession by the time I am done drawing the plans. And if the shit hits the fan, we will deal with what we have. Very fortunate for us, our jobs were not really affected by covid... the residential construction (in this area) and paper/printing industries seemed stable during covid. But with a recession... it's just really hard to say. I feel like there has been a nervous uncertainty for us since 2020... Will work dry up, can we afford to live here? It really sucks to live in that fear. And we feel it for sure now when buying food, utilities, etc just like everyone else. We are just trying to be cautious financially, stay healthy and enjoy time with our kids.
 
It’s definitely been and up and down few years, fortunately more up than down but nevertheless, it definitely is harder to get ahead now than ever. While we can afford to live just fine everything keeps getting more and more, and with 3 kids and future financial planning it’s def getting tougher and tougher, and to boot, depending on where this next election goes, it’l might be even harder to invest and succeed. My goal is to retire by 50 and live off investments. So with everything going up around us, medical bills, ect, it’s gets harder and harder, but just gotta sacrifice certain things, and keep the main thing the main thing, fortunately still have a Jeep and a good family around me, so can’t really complain!
 
Again, groceries are crazy. My wife does all the grocery shopping and as much as we bitch about the prices I think it really bothers her that we can't just buy anything we want at the grocery store. I know it sounds like a first world problem but we liked to think we had hit our financial stride in the last few years and working this hard to have to make cut backs on groceries is a real shitty feeling. Unfortunately, my wife works in the mortgage industry... She is one hell of a hard worker so she has survived multiple rounds of layoffs. We normally splurge on summer and sports camps for the kids during the summer months but this year we will be dialing that back a lot as well. I have been on a Ramen noodle lunch diet for a few years with no signs of that changing any time soon. On the positive side I have been working on a giant can rotator for the pantry so we will have some short-term food security. Our only car loan is almost paid off and my middle child will be out of preschool this year so we should see some savings there. But Hard times make strong men so we are buckling down and digging in to weather whatever is on the horizon.
 
benatc1 said:
It’s definitely been and up and down few years, fortunately more up than down but nevertheless, it definitely is harder to get ahead now than ever. While we can afford to live just fine everything keeps getting more and more, and with 3 kids and future financial planning it’s def getting tougher and tougher, and to boot, depending on where this next election goes, it’l might be even harder to invest and succeed. My goal is to retire by 50 and live off investments. So with everything going up around us, medical bills, ect, it’s gets harder and harder, but just gotta sacrifice certain things, and keep the main thing the main thing, fortunately still have a Jeep and a good family around me, so can’t really complain!
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Very much same... Even after recent promotions & pay raises we're feeling more broke now than ever before in our 20+ years together. I planned on a supplemental retirement job when I hit 50 anyway but its looking more and more like it will be a "Need to" instead of choose to.
 
Well my wife got a 12% raise over the last 6 months so thays been beneficial. However leaving the federal government and starting a business has made things interesting. The comfy steady income I had, made it easy to settle in and let life run its course. Now that I'm on my own it's a different story. It's a lot of work however I wouldn't change things. Being home to care for our daughters during the day is saving us a ton of money, but that savings is going to food. The only way to get out of costco for under $200 is to only buy a rotisserie chicken and a hotdog combo...haha. The price of gas was coming down but that's gone back up. We drug our feet in refinancing Lisa's jeep (Maybe would have dropped 1 point) and now our 3.99% is looking pretty good. The lowest rate our CU is offering is 4.49% for new auto loans. My 401k (federal version) has shown 5% growth YTD, but still hasn't recovered the 25% loss it suffered last year. We trimmed a lot of unnecessary spending and eat out a lot less. We purchased our house low and refi'd to 2.99% 2 years ago so we still have a substantial amount of equity and i dont ever see us being upside down in it thank goodness. Although we did have to replace out AC unti last year which sucked ad i usually do all my own repairs and renovations. All in all I think we'll be ok and being that my business is a legal crack dealer (coffee) with little overhead we should be able to weather the storm. It's definitely going to be interesting to see how our gov shakes out. Now to find more time to get out with the Jeeps.
 
WJCO said:
We have that feeling like something big is near. Like animals before an earthquake, seems obvious that more is to come.
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Agree 100%.



Disciple Off Road said:
Definitely scary times. I’ve been preparing for a while actually to be safe as the signs of this were already showing. I have plenty of guns and ammo so let me know where base camp will be when shit hits the fan LOL
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That’s always a good place to start!
Like the man said: "Violence is the Supreme authority from which all other authority is derived"



A few years back a read a great story about a guy who was trapped in a city for a year during the Bosnia/Kosovo war. All services were down and if you went outside you died.

Some of the things that were really important: firearms, booze, small manufactured items like nail clippers, tweezers, hand tools, etc. The most important were skills. Fixing things, making things. I would add network and friends to that.
 
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