I struggled with this as well and then I started asking people about it, I grew up lower middle class and there were some very rough stretches of time during my

I struggled with this as well and then I started asking people about it, I grew up lower middle class and there were some very rough stretches of time during my childhood. What I've observed: 1) They're not saving for retirement. $0. 2) They spend a lot using credit. New vehicles with 2k down and high monthly payments. High monthly credit card bills. 3) They have a lot of stuff but are essentially living pay cheque to pay cheque. One thing that surprised me was working at a company that got acquired and payroll got moved to the parent company which had a pay schedule that was 1 week later, so they told us we would get paid one week later than we had historically. Inconvenient, but no problem for me. Out of an office of about 40 people 15 said they wouldn't be able to pay their bills. These were all people who made over 6 figures. Another thing I've noticed is that many people don't look at absolute price but instead look at monthly payment, I think raising interest rates are going to hurt a lot of people that from the outside seem to have a dream life.