Tag: economy

The Lifestyle Creep

This is a part of a newsletter from my wealth management company. I was hesitant about sharing this article because the way it is written implies it concerns only very well off people, so I felt like it will be perceived as “rich people problem.” Still, I believe that the issue is rather universal, and that any time someone experience a substantial increase in income, there is a possibility of the “lifestyle creep.” I think, that stories about people who won a lottery and soon found themselves broke, can be attributed to the same effect.

Here is how this article starts:

Lifestyle creep happens when your expenses increase alongside your income. As you earn more, it’s easy to spend more freely, perhaps without much thought. As income increases, it’s only natural to want to improve your lifestyle, and there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, either, up to a point. Without keeping tabs on the cumulative effect of daily financial decisions like business class upgrades or pricey dinners, it’s easy to lose track of how much you’re saving versus spending. After all, as the name suggests, lifestyle creep happens slowly.

For high earners, there’s enough cash coming in that makes it easy to cover just about any upgrade, so the cost can seem small when considering the big picture. But unless you’re tracking your saving and spending, you risk getting used to a lifestyle that you can’t support once you stop working. So the key to enjoying your success now — and maintaining that standard later — is ensuring your savings rate increases at least as much as your additional spending.

I do not want to cite practical calculation examples from this article, because most people do not have that kind of money, but the general idea is that when a person ‘s income increases substantially, they should use not more than half of this increase for “quality of life improvement” (actually, they recommend 30-40%), and the rest should go to increasing the retirement savings. Again, the principle behind it is that people expect to maintain the same lifestyle after retirement as they had before, so they should budget for that.

The final paragraph of the article reads:

You can only spend a dollar once. But there’s also no prize for being the richest person in the graveyard. Being intentional about how you spend and save your money can help you maximize both. So before upgrading to business class, run the numbers to see how all your incremental lifestyle improvements add up relative to your savings.

I think that balancing between these two (“enjoy the day” and “richest person in the graveyard”) is indeed difficult, and I do not think I always make right decisions. But I know since the time I was very poor (and it happened to me more than once during my lifetime) that budgeting is critical, and good budgeting can improve one’s life more than moderate pay increase. Of course, I am not talking about people leaving below the poverty level, and of course, I am not implying that everyone should be happy with what they have. It’s the season of giving, after all.

Well, I really hope I didn’t offend anybody, and I hope that I was able to express my thoughts.

TIME Magazine: The Myth of the Male Breadwinner

Like this article states, “Implying it should be the standard for all because it is the way it “always” was, however, is wrong—literally, and because it holds everyone back from their full potential: both women and men.”

Continue reading “TIME Magazine: The Myth of the Male Breadwinner” →

Time Magazine:The Dating Wealth Gap

Time Magazine article The Dating Wealth Gap is Getting Wider talks not about the “gap in wealth” between two people dating, but more precisely, about situations when women make significantly more than men. That reminded me of how I recently saw a discussion about DEI where people said, “Well, nobody would object if the wife brings home an extra 30% of the income.” When I saw this comment, I thought: that has nothing to do with women’s equality! I wonder how you would feel in a relationship when a woman makes four or five times more than her partner! Or even fifteen times more. If everyone feels comfortable in this situation, we can discuss equality!

Continue reading “Time Magazine:The Dating Wealth Gap” →

TIME Magazine: Buying Groceries And Other Economic Questions

I am back from my best vacation in many years, and the first morning started as usual, with listening to WBEZ while I was showering and getting ready to go. The commentator discussed the US economy during Trump’s four years and Biden’s four years. I am glad when people make a fair comparison, especially when they don’t forget to point out that presidents have a very moderate influence on the economy during their respective terms.

Here are two articles from Time Magazine on economic issues. The first one is about the prices of groceries which is how most people perceive the state of the economy. And the second one is about inflation from the macroeconomic’s perspective.

How to Buy Groceries Right Now Without Breaking the Bank

Continue reading “TIME Magazine: Buying Groceries And Other Economic Questions” →

“Doom Spending”

I am not sure whether this article from the Sun-Times is related to my previous post. When we saw Vlad and Dylon in DC, we talked a lot about saving and spending. I mentioned “The Future Self” book, which I like and recommend to everybody whenever the conversation touches the spending/saving topic. It looks like their family savings and spending activities are balanced because Vlad is a spender, and Dylon is a saver. And I am both:). Anyway, here is an article. Surprisingly, I can relate!

Continue reading ““Doom Spending”” →

Guaranteed

The two-year pilot program, which provided guaranteed cash payments for its participants, ends in December.

Here is a WBEZ episode that recaps the results of the program. The most important aspects highlighted by  author and scholar Eve Ewing are the following:

More flexibility. A lot of other assistance programs dictate how funds can be spent. Guaranteed income programs let people use the money however they want.

An investment in public safety. Ewing says when people return from jail or prison and have alternative forms of income, that decreases the likelihood they’ll resort to violent crime.

One word: Dignity. Ewing says guaranteed income challenges the notion of “deservingness,” and that the right to safety, education and housing should not be decided by economic status. 

The Guaranteed podcast.

In The News

First of all, I can’t even describe how happy I am with the new child credit included in the COVID relief bill. First time in the US history, it means the guaranteed income. As some of the political commentators say, it feels weird that people pay less attention to that measure than to anything in this bill.

My friends in Finland would not understand why I am so excited about this, because they had child credit forever. But for us – what a difference! Jus$900t think: if this would be on place when I first came to the US, I would have extrs $900 a month! OK, adjusted to inflation it would be more like $600 at that time. But thinking that back then, my monthly net pay was $2,333 and I spent $1000 a month on daycare – can you imagine?! I am so happy for all the parents, and so proud of our country:)

On the same note – finally the vaccinations started to pick up. Although the vaccination efforts are driven by the states, you can see what a difference a leadership on the federal level can make. I am hopeful, like I haven’t been for a long time.

While America Aged: a Book Review

While America Aged: How Pension Debts Ruined General Motors, Stopped the NYC Subways, Bankrupted San Diego, and Loom as the Next Financial Crisis is a relatively short book with a long title. At first, it felt boring, and I wondered why I am reading it in the world, but it ended up being very enlightening. 

One thing that puzzles me is the difference in the pension systems between the US and the rest of the first world. I knew that many big American corporations had pensions in the past, but by the time I entered the US workforce, they were eliminated everywhere except the governments. I learned how pensions in big corporations, like GM, were first established and how they played their role in attracting workers in the absence of Social Security. Later, the pension design flaws led to the financial crisis. 

When the US car manufacturers were in a severe crisis ten years ago, people would say that American cars cost more than Japanese cars because American workers “cost more.” What never occurred to me was a notion that it’s not that American workers were paid more, but that American car manufacturers had to invest huge sums of money in the workers’ pensions. At the same time, Japanese companies do not need to do so because they have government retirement programs. 

Some parts of the book made me think about the Russian pension system. In Russia, the retirement age for women is fifty-five, and for men – sixty, which is so early that I can’t even wrap my head around it. 

When a couple of years ago, the Russian government announced that they would increase the retirement age, everybody started screaming. What is worth noting, though, is the fact that in Russia, people file for retirement when they reach the age of fifty-five or sixty respectively, and they continue working, receiving both the salary and the retirement benefits. And when I try to explain that that’s wrong, they say that “pensions are so small, you can’t survive on a pension alone, you need to work. I do not understand how it does not occur to anybody that pensions can’t be bigger if people only work for half of their lives. 

When I express my opinion that pensions are designed to provide income for those who can’t work any longer, that it is something like insurance, people are telling me: no, we are entitled to receive a pension after we reached a certain age. 

I just gave up on understanding :). But the funny thing is that in this book, when some municipal employees were receiving both their salaries and pensions, it is described as something outrageous, like the lowest possible morale :). When the workers were given extra shifts or better positions during their last year before retirement, the schemas were described as fraudulent, but that precisely what everybody was doing back in the USSR. 

Very interesting reading, I am telling you 🙂

What Finland Has To Offer

My daughter sent me this link yesterday. She commented that one of her friends considered it as a backup plan if Trump would win. As for that statement, both she and I agree, that fleeing the country in difficult times is not right, and if Trump would win, we would stay here to fight.

But I also agree with her, that is is an example of excellent marketing, and moreover, both she and I know that it’s all true.

I am not saying I will never ever move to some other country; after all life proved I can’t ever make the “never” promises, but one thing I am sure about: I will never ever move somewhere for pure economic reasons. I like a lot of things in Finland, and I want many of them to happen in the United States, and I will work on making them happen here. At least now, there is ahope that some of thet will be possible:)

Illinois Entering Phase 4

Tomorrow, Illinois is entering Phase 4 of its recovery plan. I am not sure whether the video I am posting here, will stay long enough, but I am going to give it a try.

Here

It’s a long video, but I wanted to post the whole thing because there are lots of important things in it. The most important message is very simple: although we’ve made lots of progress, the virus is still there, and there is still no vaccine. I really hope that people will behave responsibly.

Public health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike had strong words for people who refuse to wear a face covering in public. She said it is “a game of Russian roulette.” She even pronounced Russkaya ruletks in Russian!

I am hopeful. I am glad the State of Illinois has such good leadership. I hope that people will behave responsibly. This morning on WBEZ, I heard a discussion about students returning to colleges in the fall. Hopes are that there will be positive peer pressure because you can’t really police students on campus. And that’s my hope as well. During the current health crisis, the younger generation appeared to be more responsible than the older one, on average, of course. We shall see. I will be posting about our reopening, and about the health situation in the state.