I know my net worth to the penny.

[LuckyCharms]

I know my credit card balances, loan balances, mortgage balance, IRA balances, and bank account balances to the penny.

I have a massive spreadsheet that I take 5 minutes to update every morning. I have been doing this for at least 20 years. Since it was set-up many years ago, it is not a big deal at all to update, and it makes life easier when you have up to the minute personal financial information at your fingertips.

Because of this, I am very sensitive to any change in the economy that can be felt by average schmucks like myself.

Something has become very apparent over the past year. Before the last year, every month it seemed that I was able to get ahead by a few bucks, or at least not go backwards. This is not so anymore.

I started noticing that despite managing my money even better, and being even more frugal, I slowly started going backwards every month. And every month, the rate of that decline is increasing terrifically.

So I started to look closer at this. It is being caused by a combination of factors: Increases in gas prices, grocery prices, home and auto maintenance costs, and finally HEALTH CARE COSTS which have absolutely gone through the roof. I took a closer look at health care premiums being paid, and I just don't see how these premium increases can be sustained for another few years. Also, the general inflation that I am starting to see is very ominous, and will only get worse when the tariffs really kick in. I'm sure you are all feeling this.

I have been absolutely perfect at managing my money my entire life, but last month, I had to take a personal loan to get rid of a credit card balance that was maxed at a high rate.

I'm sure I am not telling you anything you do not know...but if you take a day and really analyze your expenditures, you might be shocked at what is happening when you see the numbers written down. I think the economy is going to go FUBAR sooner rather than later. I do not plan on buying any big ticket items anytime soon.

Good luck.

[radical noodle]

1. I keep track but

not as diligently as you do. My husband and I are retired so get social security, pensions, and annuity payments monthly. Those payments are always the same. It takes more and more of our income each month to cover those expenses and we owe nothing... not even a mortgage... and still find it difficult to make ends meet. I don't know how people without pensions and savings can possibly make it with the inflation that is coming our way.

[LuckyCharms]

2. Hopefully, the Social Security COLA increase this year will be...

substantial, but I believe since they use that "chained CPI" index (I think that is what it is called), I'm not sure if the increase in the real cost of goods to people on fixed incomes will actually be reflected. There is so much with the economy that needs to be addressed, but it never will be with this president and this congress. I'm praying for the blue wave in both houses.

[radical noodle]

9. The last time we got a small raise

the larger Medicare payment took all the extra plus more. I'm with you on the blue wave! I want a freaking tsunami!

[Glamrock]

3. Perhaps it's your anal bleach spending....

Seriously though, you are right. I left my last job for a number of reasons. But, I did tell my Republican buddy I was working for that I had, at max, two years to get caught up before the GOP drove the economy over the cliff. Fuck I hate being right about this shit.

[LuckyCharms]

6. Your last sentence...

I'll be serious for once...I'm not sure of your age, but I think I have finally reached a point in my life where I am right about pretty much everything. I think whether you want to or not, as you age you can you automatically can relate current events to history, and make good predictions.

I'm always telling people younger than me...YOU BETTER LISTEN TO ME! I'M TELLING YOU WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN! And if they don't listen, I pull out the...

[Glamrock]

8. You're a TPB fan?!?!?

Goddamn. I love you even more now Luck!

I'll be 47 in 4 days(how the fuck did that happen?)

And you're right. As am I. It's funny. It took the last crash to make my parents see me as an adult. I kept telling my parents during the Bush years, "we're headed for a crash, we're headed for a crash." Dad told me they'd look at each other and ask "wtf is wrong with that boy?" after I left. Then it hit. That's when I became a man as opposed to the child they saw in their minds eye. Just recently started ringing that bell againgoddamnit! I'm beginning to hate wisdom. There ain't no surprises, dig?

[LuckyCharms]

12. Oh yeah! Big TPB fan here!

I'm 59. Dad died when I was a young boy. Mom died not too long ago. I was her caretaker for many years before she passed. Lost my remaining siblings due to estrangement after my mom passed. Dealing with a few life threatening health issues at the moment. Took on physical and mental challenges recently to bolster my self-confidence, because I was heading down a hole. A lot of things turned to shit for me in the past 5 years or so. Cultivated a messed up sense of humor to help me deal...I'd be curled up in a ball of depression otherwise!

[Ilsa]

16. I had to look this up, including what

the trailer park boys is. OMG, that looks like a delicious show! I have both netflix and Amazon Prime, so I'll look for it as soon as I finish The Americans.

[LuckyCharms]

17. It's a show out of Canada, and it's brilliant....

You'll laugh your butt off.

[Honeycombe8]

4. I keep track, but not THAT closely.

I haven't noticed inflation that much yet. But cost increases are happening...I notice my grocery bill the most. I have no medical issues...and my shocking increase in medical happened several years ago when I had to go on the ACA individual policy program. Thank goodness I was able to get a subsidy...no way I could have afforded it otherwise, esp since it was lousy coverage and I couldn't find a doctor to take it.

I go on Medicare next year, so my out of pocket will increase, but no more have to worry about getting stuck with the enormous private coverage bill. And Medicare is much better coverage (with supplemental plan) than the ACA. Phew.

Groceries are going up. My auto ins. went up 30% because of a flood in the area last year...all those claims.

But health care is a huge problem for everyone. In a few years, we'll all be devoting ourselves much of the time to paying insurance companies.

[SCantiGOP]

5. Good analysis, Lucky

But some people just know that Trump gave them a tax break, so they ignore the small indicators and trends you describe.

There are a lot more people whose bottom line is impacted by a 50 cent/gallon change in gas prices or a 5% increase in grocery prices, than there are those who are impacted by a 5% swing in the stock market.

[LuckyCharms]

7. One tab in the spreadsheet is used...

to predict my tax refund received in the following year. I knew that whole tax cut thing was a bunch of crap when I saw that my refund amount dropped almost exactly by the increase in my take home pay on a yearly basis.

[BSdetect]

10. Avoid any use of credit cards unless you can absolutely pay it off when due each month.

Never owe them a penny.

[we can do it]

15. Thank you, this makes life much easier.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

11. I keep track, but not as closely as you do.

I don't know where you live, although you are apparently still employed which makes a huge difference in many ways. I'm retired. I live on Social Security, a very small pension, and income from investments. It's significantly less than the national median, and less even than my state's low median.

Here's my financial strategy, without giving specific sums of money.

At the beginning of every week I take out of my checking account a set sum of money which then gets divided thusly: gas, entertainment, health and well being (pays for body lotion, personal hygiene products, toilet paper, tissue, and the like), clothing, miscellaneous, "Christmas Club", and weekly grocery/spending money. The first six amounts go into envelopes. The last into my wallet. I have not updated that amount in about six or seven years, and I'm managing just fine. Gas has been more and it has been less than it currently is where I live ($2.89/gal earlier today). It helps enormously that I only need to get gas about once every three weeks unless I'm on a road trip. I have found that paying for all those things with cash helps me keep my spending under control. For instance, earlier today I got a hair cut at Great Clips because I had enough money in the health and well being envelope.

Since I'm on Medicare, my SS increases have been completely consumed by Medicare increases since I started collecting nearly four years ago. Sigh. But if you're still working you are probably screwed over by health care premium increases. You have my sympathy.

For me, grocery increases have not been that noticeable. I did have to cut out one grocery item, sparkling water, since about five years ago I decided I could no longer afford that luxury. At first I really missed it, but now it would seem like a silly indulgence. It no doubt helps enormously that I live alone, like to cook, and can eat quite frugally if I put my mind to it.

Someone with children is in a totally different place.

Luckily, that weekly sum of money is not all that I have available to me. I have a cushion in my budget, which has allowed me to make improvements in my small home: I've landscaped both front and back yards, and still have more to do in the front. I need a new dishwasher (the old one stopped working years ago) and I'd like to replace my washer and drier. Those are both achievable goals for me. I'll just have to save for a time. Maybe a year or more. But I'm not likely to face a serious crisis, unless either the washer or the drier breaks.

For me it helps that I grew up relatively poor. Went hungry more than I care to discuss. I needed serious dental work as a child/teen, and most of it was done through a charity clinic, to which I gave money for a number of years. When I was a sophomore in high school I had a Saturday babysitting job that paid very little (I'm thinking it was $3.00, but that sounds low even considering this was 1964, although an inflation calculator says that would be a bit more than $24.00 today, which would be reasonable.) and every week I used that money to buy groceries for the family. I was one of five children still at home at the time (oldest brother was away in the army). My mother had moved us away from an abusive alcoholic father, across the country, and although as a nurse she had no trouble finding a job, nurses back then were paid very little. She worked every extra shift she could get, and it still wasn't really enough. Friends saw our need and quietly gave us clothing, and for all I know gave Mom some money.

I think that because I've lived to learn on very little, having spent the first part of my life with almost nothing, I sometimes get impatient with complaints of the middle class. I AM NOT suggesting you are complaining unnecessarily. I am actually in a lot of awe of your detailed spreadsheet. A few years ago I started a similar spread sheet for my bills, but didn't keep it up. I really should restart it.

I will add this. I have been collecting SS as a divorced spouse since I turned 66, getting 50% of what my ex's amount would be at his full retirement age. He's younger than I am and is still not collecting. I am turning 70 next month, and in September will start collecting on my own account, which is several hundred dollars more than what I'd been getting. If I'm lucky (a bit of irony here) my ex will not collect his own SS until he turns 70, then die shortly thereafter, whereupon I'll go back to collecting as his widow, which will be another several hundred dollars more. I know. I'm lucky that I fit this very specific demographic.

Here's another thought. Among the reasons it is so hard for people to live within their means, let alone save anything, is that we're surrounded by messages to buy, buy! BUY!! Especially if you watch commercial TV. It's hard to know which is worse, the ads that promise life will be perfect if only you buy this product, or the unrealism of TV shows in which the characters live in apartments their real counterparts could not possibly afford. It's completely human to compare ourselves to others, and when we see marginally employed people living in totally cool apartments, or a credit card ad that assures us we can definitely afford that impulse trip to a Greek island -- just charge it -- we compare ourselves and we come up short.

At this point in my life, nearly 70, I don't have much desire to own new things. So those purchases are easy to resist. But I recall my younger days, and I KNOW how strong is that desire to acquire things. We used to call it "keeping up with the Joneses." Is that phrase still in use?

[LuckyCharms]

13. Thank you for sharing this!

I've always paid off my credit cards. A few years ago, I made a decision to do a complete remodel on my home. I did most of it myself, but the raw materials were expensive. I figured I better do it now, because my body was not getting any younger, and I was unwilling to see my primary asset get dilapidated. Those costs are now over, and the house is good for another 25 years. The remodel put me in a position that causes me to struggle financially now, but it will resolve itself in about 6 years, hopefully. I too grew up poor, and have never lived above my means. I have everything I want, and nothing I don't need.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

18. Sounds like there is a light at the end of your tunnel.

Which is good. Depending on what your mortgage and equity situation is, you might benefit from a second mortgage on your home or any other way to tap the equity. I figure that if I end up in assisted living some day, selling my current house will help cover that cost for a number of years.

Being used to living below your means is helpful.

[anarch]

14. I don't track things nearly as well as it sounds you do, but have noticed the same trend

I put it down partly to several unexpected, large expenses during the Spring that have put me back by several thousand dollars--now that you mention it, at least half of that is healthcare costs (out of pocket payments, I mean...I'm not even counting the cost of insurance, which has gone up as well but I was at least expecting that part).

I'd also point to utility costs, which seem to have shot up over the past year...I'd have to go back and review the bills over the past couple of years, but I can say I was basically able to cover my monthly expenses (albeit barely) in the past, but nowadays it's a struggle to break even, and 2018 has been a net loss so far. I'm just talking about barely scraping by...I don't have any budget whatsoever for things like entertainment, new clothes, etc.

And I'm definitely feeling the inflation at the grocery store...the net effect is that I basically can't afford to live anymore, and I really don't know how long I can keep this up before I have to downsize dramatically, move to a cheaper area...or something, I don't know, nothing really sounds feasible and it's not like I'm living the high life...

I just want to be able to keep a roof over my head, and feed myself and my family, and that's not possible in my current situation (the same situation I've been in for several years), entirely due to the rising cost of living outpacing any increases to my paycheck. I'm willing to bet that's a pretty common story.

But hey, look on the bright side, corporate profits have never been better!

[kimbutgar]

19. Great idea

I keep my statements but I should record it all on a spread sheet.