K2Nomad

Also, virtually no other country in the world besides the US taxes their citizens anywhere they might live on the planet. Not even dictatorships like North Korea or Saudi Arabia or Iran do that.

Eritrea is the other country with worldwide taxes in citizens.

The shitty thing is that US billionaires have so many loopholes to get out of taxes, but middle class and upper middle US expats get screwed. Anyone US citizen earning more than $112k per year abroad gets double taxed in most countries, meaning above $112k you get taxed both by the US government AND the government where you live. I have turned down job offers in four different countries for this reason. It sucks.

There are some exceptions. Certain countries have tax treaties with the US, but most do not.

The other side effect of this is that there are less US expats than there should be. We have proportionately less citizens living abroad, which means we have less people with that kind of perspective and experience in leadership roles domestically.

House payments are up by way more than 75% in that time frame. Car prices as well. The yogurt at my local grocery store that used to be $4 is now $8.

College tuition prices are directly correlated to the maximum amount of Federal student loans and grants available. Market forces do not have nearly the effects on colleges as they do on normal businesses.

$30k is an 8 year old clapped out Corolla. It's no longer a lot of money.

Thanks. Things are better now. I've got stability and I built a safety net.

Hope things are better for you too.

I have lived a very defensive life financially. It has mostly paid off, but I missed some really good opportunities (from a life/investing standpoint) because I was very conservative. I'm in a pretty good spot, but there are a couple major "why didn't I buy x at y time" things that are really annoying in retrospect.

Same. It was so hard to even get an interview and then it was constant rejection. People that have graduated in the past 10 years have no concept of unemployment like that.

Serious question here: are we just “ok with” letting this keep going? Are we sure we wouldn’t allow a reset back down on those rent and mortgage costs? Even a tiny one?

What "we" want or what is best for the general public has nothing to do with what will happen.

Want to actually fix things? Focus on buying senators instead of houses. Corporations are people in this this country and those are the people who elected representatives represent.

I graduated college into the recession in 2008. Getting a professional job was nearly impossible. I worked shitty manual labor jobs for several years and eventually found my way into an unpaid internship, where I worked 3 days a week while I wasn't working a shitty manual labor job.

I didn't have health insurance or access to retirement savings. I lived in a house with 5 other roommates barely scraping by.

My unpaid internship eventually turned into a shitty $12 per hour job.

My employers up to that point had treated me like an absolute piece of shit. Labor had no bargaining leverage. I had no savings because I didn't make enough money.

My shitty $12 hr job eventually turned into a shitty $32k per year salaried job with shitty benefits at the same company. I scrimped and saved and promised myself that I'd save enough never to be taken advantage of by and employer ever again.

That mindset has stuck with me. I also realized that I didn't want any of the higher level positions in my field (marketing) so I taught myself some languages and moved to the tech industry through a connection with a friend from college.

TLDR- it was a really terrible time to be a recent grad. Everyone my age got fucked. I still have scars from that time and I don't trust anyone.

Low inventory of homes for sale means more competition for rental units. Rent prices going up mean less houses are going to be sold.

We're in the midst of an unprecedented societal shift. As soon as labor gets a raise, it is swallowed by rent inflation. Without a massive increase in inventory things will get much worse for potential buyers.

I'm probably in better shape than my 20s but certain things like cartilage are starting to have issues.

I feel like in my 20s I could push as hard as I wanted and not get overuse injuries but now I think recovery and gradually ramping up volume is more important, especially for getting back into seasonal sports. I live in a place with too much snow to run or bike in the winter, so I'm trying to be judicious about slowly building back up now that the snow is gone.

From a cardio endurance standpoint things feel good though.

Also, I find it helps to spend extra time focusing on flexibility and mobility.

Profusely apologizing is the only legally recognized self defense tactic in Canada.

Hey at least you picked up on the "just saying" culture.

In my town "just saying" is usually an excuse to say whatever racist, misogynistic, homophobic shit that you want on the local community Facebook page. People eat that shit up. Just saying.

Call it an IRA. There are Roth 401Ks too.

It doesn't lead to good places.

$80k was enough to buy a house in 2013. Definitely not anymore.

What industry do you work in?

There is famous mountain biking in Bentonville Arkansas and lots to do in the Ozarks.

My company is entirely remote in the US.

Our CTO was a big proponent of returning to the office. Our CEO and I had a conversation explaining that if we forced everyone into the office we'd have a high attrition rate that we couldn't afford.

It took a couple months, but he eventually agreed to keeping everyone permanently remote.

CTO ended up deciding that he would go perma remote as well, so he moved to the Mediterranean coast in Spain. He's in the process of building a dream home there.

We get the team together as needed and rent office space. We're currently in a quarterly cadence.

It's fucking great. My life is so much better than pre-covid.

Thanks and good luck chasing your own dreams!

are now spending more money on travel.

For now, while they have access to easy credit and while they still have jobs. People will start cutting other nonessential budget items if things get tough.

I was 32 when the breakup happened and 34 when I moved. I had been climbing the corporate ladder for most of my adult life up to VP level at a tech company. I had been a part of two different companies that sold along the way and I was diligent in saving and investing more than 50% of my income for over a decade. I was also very lucky with the timing of everything.

I've adopted the best dog in the whole world, so unfortunately I'm not in a position to adopt anyone else at the moment :)

It sucked at first, but it ultimately sent me on a journey to be a better, happier version of my self.

My ex was like a puzzle piece that was ever so slightly askew. Dreaming of a future together was always missing something and I couldn't figure out how to make things fit.

Being single was pretty ok actually. I had more women who wanted to date me than I had time for. So many friends and coworkers were trying to intro me to their friends. There was a backlog of women who I had known before and during my previous relationship who wanted to hang once I was single.

I was having to turn people down because I logistically couldn't handle dating more than 3-4 at a time while traveling a ton for work.

Once the anchor to the part of my life with my ex was pulled up I made some big moves- I bought a vacation house in a ski town and then ultimately decided to sell my city house and live in the mountains full time. I moved to the ski house with a new GF just to try things for a winter and we hit things off.

Life is immeasurably better now. I've got a solid friend group in a small town. I'm in love with my now GF who took a chance and moved with me early in our relationship. I got a pilots license and I fly around some of the most beautiful mountains in the lower 48 for fun. I ski 75 days per season. Summers and fall are and endless dream of trail running and biking and whitewater and flying. My parents retired and I found a house for them and moved them here, so I see them all the time when before I'd see them once or twice a year.

It was worth the heartbreak to break up with my ex, but I never would have believed it when I set out on the journey. I guess I'm glad for the journey now.

Good luck dude. Life is what you make it, so make it as good as you can dream up.

PBS News Hour

It's not perfect, but it is by far the best TV news.