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A lot of the middle class has a straightforward shot at retiring wealthy. If you invest $X per year (and adjust it for inflation) for 43 years (22 to 65), and g

A lot of the middle class has a straightforward shot at retiring wealthy. If you invest $X per year (and adjust it for inflation) for 43 years (22 to 65), and get a return of 7% after inflation, then you can withdraw $23X per year until your 90. For whatever income you define as wealthy, a huge chunk of society can afford to save away 1/23rd of that annually. Under today's taxes in the US, those gains are tax advantaged compared to income, so take whatever salary you define as wealthy and put away 1/29th of it per year, roughly. It's not accessible to everyone, but calling it "fucking dire" is just fearmongering people into being even worse off with the lottery.

taurath 5y ago
> It's not accessible to everyone, but calling it "fucking dire" is just fearmongering Individual economics are dire in terms of how much it costs to have basic security with housing specifically. Median home price in the US was $222k in 2008, its $400k in 2022. Rents have gone up accordingly. Average person sees their paycheck go less far every year, and then add inflation on top of it. Putting away $1k in a year sure doesn't seem like it helps you. Everything works out pretty well for you if you somehow own a house in the US, just hope you aren't behind the curve on assets.
- 6gvONxR4sf7o 5y ago
  > Median home price in the US was $222k in 2008, its $400k in 2022. Rents have gone up accordingly This is between misleading and untrue. Home prices have gone way up, while home monthly payments haven't, due to the extremely low interest rates on mortgages. This means that downpayments are less accessible, but the rest of the payments are about as accessible as before. Until 2021, monthly payments were actually unusually cheap for the last bunch of years. Probably offsetting the higher down payments and lower inflation. But the big one is that rents haven't gone up accordingly. I couldn't find 2022 data, but from 2008 to 2020, median monthly rent went up from $783 to $1,104. In 2020 dollars, it went from $941 to $1,104, or 17%. It's significant, but nowhere near the doubling you posted.
  - taurath 5y ago
    It’s a good point that offsets a bit of housing costs, when going from higher interests rates to lower. However when housing prices go up while the low rates stay the same housing still increases in cost. Rent amts have not stayed the same, they’ve climbed.

taurath 5y ago

> It's not accessible to everyone, but calling it "fucking dire" is just fearmongering Individual economics are dire in terms of how much it costs to have basic security with housing specifically. Median home price in the US was $222k in 2008, its $400k in 2022. Rents have gone up accordingly. Average person sees their paycheck go less far every year, and then add inflation on top of it. Putting away $1k in a year sure doesn't seem like it helps you. Everything works out pretty well for you if you somehow own a house in the US, just hope you aren't behind the curve on assets.

6gvONxR4sf7o 5y ago
> Median home price in the US was $222k in 2008, its $400k in 2022. Rents have gone up accordingly This is between misleading and untrue. Home prices have gone way up, while home monthly payments haven't, due to the extremely low interest rates on mortgages. This means that downpayments are less accessible, but the rest of the payments are about as accessible as before. Until 2021, monthly payments were actually unusually cheap for the last bunch of years. Probably offsetting the higher down payments and lower inflation. But the big one is that rents haven't gone up accordingly. I couldn't find 2022 data, but from 2008 to 2020, median monthly rent went up from $783 to $1,104. In 2020 dollars, it went from $941 to $1,104, or 17%. It's significant, but nowhere near the doubling you posted.
- taurath 5y ago
  It’s a good point that offsets a bit of housing costs, when going from higher interests rates to lower. However when housing prices go up while the low rates stay the same housing still increases in cost. Rent amts have not stayed the same, they’ve climbed.