It seems like every generation include mine as been saying lately that the middle class has been eroded and continues to only get worse. And well they are pretty much right. If you haven't received a 15% raise or changed jobs to earn 15% more money your buying power has been hammered due to inflation and other matters of the last two years and trust me it was worse before this.

History shows us a horrible path the United States has been on.

1950's

1950's your income was roughly $3,300
Your home would cost you around $7,354
and your care would run you $1,510

Now within there are improvements, buying things for within the house and yada yada but what this shows us is with saving from your single job you could in theory pay off your house and car within 5 years.

2022

Fast forward 50 years to 2020 and the median income was $40,480.
Your home would cost around $415,000
and your car would cost you around $26,000

That means it would take you at least 15-20 years to pay all of this off a drastic increase of 3x to 4x compared to just 50 years ago. Now when you're talking about life spans that's a drastic jump in what you're able to afford.

Now yes prices of everything have gone up by a large amount but there's a lot of other factors that people simply are not putting in. Most of these calculations you find seem to live the luxury middle class lifestyle and not so much middle class. They factor in $400 car loans, huge student debts and crazy expenses on food. Now sure if you factor all those things in and you're not smart about how you use your money you're going to be in trouble and that doesn't matter who you are.

It Could Just Be YOU

What's important to learn is you can make small changes and simply be smart about how you do things.

For example I try and save as much money as possible wherever I can. I drive a old 2006 car that I've had since 2007 and yes it gets beat up a bit but being that I work from home I no longer have the expense of gas, driving my car all over the place having me replace it within a few years like most people and that also results in me having less insurance on the car because of the age and because of the low mileage. All things you should consider when applying for that new job as you might be surprised when you factor in extra travel time and so forth you could be taking a hit to your pay.

Things like a food budget can be quickly brought down if you find yourself eating out or buying things not on sale. In fact you can even start growing some of your own food and start saving money.

The bottom line is the next time you hear someone crying about not being able to live a middle class lifestyle you most likely need to seriously consider they are over spending on many things or simply make bad choices in their life.

Cost Reduction

One of the easiest is to simply not eat out. You can take a dinner for two at $50 - $75 and quickly reduce that down to $20 - $25 and have a nice dinner at home. That saves you $25 - $50 each time. Across a month that's $200 which could go into savings adding up to a nice chunk of $2,400. Live that way for 5 years and you now have a solid emergency fund of $12,000 that's also increasing via interest all because you were a little smarter with how you used your money.

The biggest comparison I can do from the 50's to today is just how much people over spend and drive everywhere. To me it simply doesn't make sense. It's like your running away from your home, where you live because you don't really enjoy it or something is missing. To me you should find a solid plot of land and build the things you enjoy doing right at home. Handyman and craftsmanship is a trade everyone can learn and it's crazy rewarding.

Yes, Crypto

Now of course I have to throw in this little extra here at the bottom and say the internet was the first spot people could learn and start to make a ton of money in and now the second is cryptocurrency which allows you to earn income from the comfort of your home. Further increasing the amount of money you can generate and ultimate put into savings or even some type of crypto savings. Heck Coinbase is paying 5.1% APR on their stable coin at the moment.

With that being said there are always options both to increase your wealth and also reduce your expenses. It really just comes down to the person and realizing all that extra flash doesn't matter at the end of the day. What really matters is providing a stable healthy environment for yourself and the family you might be raising. So go out there and start making things happen! It's literally at your fingertips.

Posted Using InLeo Alpha