Feels like it. I'm getting the most pay in my life and 5 years ago it would have been comfortable. Now with the cost of everything I'm just eeking buy. Hell I drive a 30 year old car still as I can't afford a new one or even a newer used one

Not everybody.

All of the worst people you know of or can imagine are doing GREAT.

Yeah, shits tight and every institution is in decay. On the other hand it's only gonna get worse until it gets better, so theres that.

I’m good. Though, I feel like I don’t really have the life I expected for my current level of income. Like my parents made a lot less, but had it better.

I'm not struggling but damnit i want some fucking slack.

Nah, I'm doing just fine. I have a steady job, frugal lifestyle and quite substantial savings/investments for someone my age. I could live for years without income.

As lower income households struggle to afford Walmart, Walmart is growing in popularity with higher income households seeking out sales.

"Walmart posts worst comparable sales performance in six years"

The US consumer is flashing red flags all over the place

K shaped Economy Hits Walmart

We don’t generally have to worry where our next meal is coming from, but there is little to no wiggle room after that. Savings? Lol. Investments? See savings. No vacations. No subscriptions. Just rent, food, and bills. We’re one unexpected large expense away from homelessness at any given time. But we do have the essentials covered.

Financially, no. Emotionally, fuck yeah.

Financially? No, I’m doing pretty well, having made a lot of boring but good long term decisions, gotten a few lucky breaks, and had the sort of career where I’ve always been able to find a new job when I needed to. Though with the rise of LLMs that may not be true in a few years.

Health wise though? Fuck. And the mental fallout from that sucks.

I'm very lucky

I live in a civilised country (not 'Murica)

A few years ago I worked my arse off doing something very niche and managed to save a lot of money

I live a fairly simple life, but I do drink a lot, so that's an expense I could cut

I travel a lot at the moment, and when I stop doing that I'll be able to save quite a lot of money

I know how fortunate I am, and how difficult it is for some people, especially in the US

3428 people are doing quite well and the rest of us are allowing it.

I have moved back in with parents, who are struggling to pay their own bills. It's mutually beneficial, but goddamn does it make transitioning hard. I doubt they would kick me out since they'd lose the house when they can't pay bills, but in the meantime I would need to find somewhere to put up a tent and hope I can store my stuff somewhere cheap.

Since my spouse got fired over a medical issue, and their health has since spiraled, we have been eating through our savings. "Luckily" I just started a second job today.

Sure would be great if you could survive on a single income as a family like people used to be able to do. We'd have to make billionaires extinct first(and even then it'd be a long road getting from here to there) and unless society does a 180, that's not happening.

I am.

I'm so god damn hungry.

Struggling a bit more financially but I prepared for this tbh. I expected shit to get bad, and still think it will get worse.

To put things in perspective I'm learning stuff in case the next depression happens soon, like planting potatoes, food preservation...

Save whatever money you can now. This might be the least you struggle financially for years.

No. But I do feel slightly bad about it.

Don't have kids I guess? 🤷

Yep. They're boiling frogs.

It’s pretty bad at the moment.

Had to sell the helicopter after last quarter’s revenues tanked and fell prices are out of control. Kinda awkward since the yacht still has a helipad.

Really just hoping people are too into their own yacht to notice..

It's pretty standard to have to choose between paying rent and eating, now. My electric bill is three months overdue. I'd not even be online if I wasn't pointing a cantenna at the store down the hill. I think the only bills I'm current on are my email, which I'm not sure I'll be able to swing $50 a year when it is due, but for now it's current... And my VPN.

I just went to Costco for a monthly-ish grocery trip. This month was 700, whereas in previous months it has been 4-500. I'm not even buying beef. I'm in a privileged position to still afford my groceries, but honestly I'm dancing on a knife's edge right now.

Pretty much, yep. The only people I know who aren't are old, and even they're feeling the pinch.

Everyone around me claims they are struggling, but they objectively are not.

FWIW, the income of people I'm talking about typically around 150-300K a year. They are simple angry their money doesn't go as far as it did and they can't take multiple vacations per year anymore. or they aren't getting the massive returns on their stock portfolios they were a few years ago.

I make the low end of that, but I live a low-cost lifestyle and I don't have expensive 'needs' like travel, luxury items, etc. what baffles me is I often meet people make less than I do... spending way more and basically loading up on debt and being angry about it.

i'm fucked.

My economy is incredibly solid, and I'm not the most frugal. Could live off savings for more than a year.

Living in Scandinavia, background in physics.

We live pretty frugally in comparison to our peers. Less than $30 a month in subscriptions, our utility bills are low, we eat out maybe once a month and every other meal is made at home. We thrift and get just about everything we can second hand from yard sales or friends. It used to be that we were putting aside money, now there's less extra. We're getting ready for worse, and planting fruit trees, learning gardening and canning, and reaching out to our neighbors.

Of course not. Nothing is ever the same for everybody

I overdrew my account less than 24 hours before my paycheck cleared.

Not just financially, also mentally and emotionally!

I've sometimes seen credit card debt used as a proxy for financial difficulties. For the US:

https://wallethub.com/edu/cc/credit-card-debt-study/24400

So...there are some things that aren't ideal about that graph. For one, it's not inflation-adjusted; a dollar in 2000 is just under $2 in 2026. So it's got an upwards-trending line, but a very substantial portion of that is actually just the result of inflation. And I'd kinda prefer to have a median value, though since I'm just comparing relative numbers rather than getting an absolute value, it's probably not a huge deal.

But based on that, credit card debt has increased. And for most age groups, it's higher in inflation-adjusted terms than it was 25 years ago. The 18-29 group is about the same, in inflation-adjusted terms

they had an average of about $500 25 years back, and about $1000 today. That's an increase of about 2x in nominal terms, so no movement in real terms.

But people in their 40s have about 3x the amount of credit card debt in nominal terms as did the same age group in 2000. So that's a real increase; it's about 1.5x in real terms. Ditto for people in their 50s.

People in their 70s have something like 6x as much in nominal terms, or about 3x in real terms, as the people who were in their 70s in 2000, which is a pretty meaningful increase. For them, it's not a COVID-19 surge, but just a long, sustained drift.

Note that if you're asking about, say, just the last few months, OP, this only runs to late 2025.

One thing I've noticed is that movies and TV shows don't use exact amounts of money anymore.

'The Rockford Files' always talked about Jim's $200.00 a day fee, and characters would say things like 'Hey, this is a fifty dollar jacket' or 'That house must have cost $100,000.'

The $5.00 milkshake was a big plot point in 'Pulp Fiction.'

Prices are going up so fast that what was unreasonably expensive when the script was written will be the norm by the time the show gets aired.

Financially and every other way one can struggle. Life is tough right now. 😓

It’s always something.

— My Life

No. I brought up four kids by myself. Last left in 2021.