I am definitely not like others, I have only paid like 3 times on OF and they were like $5 each. Sometimes you just really want to see what that person looks like. 99% of the time I don’t care and free is cool. Never got exploited, or had an unhealthy attachment.
I watched the trailer and saw that it was Bigmode as well and got even more excited. Looks like a solid game so far.
I live in North NJ. From my understanding, it’s about as bad as it gets. House was 330k 10 years ago. We also have crazy property taxes, so that alone is 13k a year. I also live in a very rural area which was the only option for the area if we wanted some space and also keep house prices semi cheap.
We purchased the house for around 300k, and even with the market today, it’s about 500k. Sure, it could go for higher whenever we do sell, but it’s not an investment. With our current loan we will have paid over 500k over 30 years, so I really am not expecting to make out from this. The only way this makes me money is when I retire (which is close to payoff anyway) and move someplace way cheaper than we’re we live now.
I don’t make 200k, but together with my wife, we make a little under that. We both have cars, and both are paid off. I still have the first car I ever brought, which is a Nissan Sentra 2006 basic model. So, 17 years on the same car and hers is a 2015 Toyota. We do have 2 kids and brought a house in 2015. The last 4 years have been almost impossible to make ends meet, and all we try to do is survive with the very occasional do something for the kids. I have tons of housework I can’t do but also can’t pay for either. Because of this, we also can’t move until it’s taken care of, so we’re kind of stuck here as well. We have no money to save or invest. Did we make some bad decisions? Sure, probably shouldn’t have had kids for starters. They cost a fortune. But my point is we aren’t doing anything crazy here, it’s just that more and more things are taking our money and prices also went up. It sucks because all I want to do is live and get by, I don’t really have any grandiose dreams of doing crazy things or buying tons of stuff. I just want to get by as my parents did, which seems impossible today.
As someone who falls into this category, yes I have a mortgage, yes I have kids, yes it’s insanely hard to juggle it all and keep your head above water… I have worked hard since 15 years old with only 2 times since having longer than 2 weeks off consecutively and I just turned 40. My job is fair, but can have long hours, on call, and work on weekends. The salary seems great, but where I live, plus being 2023 it just barely cuts it. As it is now I can get by, but my future for retirement looks pretty bleak right now. My wife has a decade old student loan that’s $500 a month and interest has basically kept it there and I have no way to afford paying over that amount which even if I did would still take 10 more years to possibly pay it off so this loan is for life.
So stagnant wages, student loan debt, rising costs on everything, no programs to help middle class, and finally the need for services or certifications that appear to be needed more and more for everything which also takes your money. If I can barely get by I don’t want to see how people less fortunate seem to do it… I honestly think about what if I didn’t have kids probably weekly because it seems like the better decision for survival. It’s messed up that you can do everything right yet still feel so close to failure at any given emergency. So screw her and her so called “hard life”. People our age do deserve better and more needs to be done to help. You know how much of a difference it would make if we had free daycare like some other countries? That’s just one thing and it would turn my life around tremendously. There is so much that can be done, but it never does.
I have a soft spot for hungry man dinners… I never had them often but even growing up they were probably a once every 3 months type of fast cheap meal. Tried them a few years ago and it was shockingly still the same, which I can’t say about most things 20 years later. I also love the brownie! If you use the oven it comes out fine and very crispy.