Do you now need a double income household to retire?

oh stop complaining OP... sheesh!!🫨

If you choose to live somewhere expensive, yes. If you compromise and live somewhere cheaper, you potentially retire earlier and/or more comfortably.

Coffee’s cheaper where you live?

R3 you might want to acquaint yourself with cost of living differences. Yes, coffee (and everything else) is cheaper in different areas. I bought a bag of coffee two days ago for $8.99. Prices will be different in Manhattan and Honolulu than they are in Des Moine or Kalamzoo.

I would think this is common sense? Where do you live?

And what is a "double income?"

Grow your own coffee!

But where is it both cheap and not an isolated shitthole full of MAGAs?

Coffee prices are affected by issues endemic to that market in addition to general inflation and tariffs. Not a good benchmark for prices generally

Smaller towns aren’t necessarily that much less expensive. I just randomly selected a nice looking restaurant in Des Moines, and it’s not much less than similar in larger cities.

The idea of picking up and retiring to a new area at 65 is odd to me. Abandoning your social networks at that age - and often access to top notch major city health care - may save money but seems kind of like saying “I can save money if I never buy anything”. Of course, you do what you have to do. But I also find you dont spend as much in retirement as you do in your 40s and 50s - and can access discounts such as daytime dining and free events that you couldn’t when working.

And really? Americans have consistently opted for a lower standard of living for themselves. When given the choice between deficit and debt spending, immigration, education, tariffs and foreign trade? They always chose the one that lowers the value of their dollars and increases the prices we pay.

its pretty grim. Thanks Reaganomics. My grandmother was a seamstress widowed at 50. She retired with a small pension, social security, a bit of savings, and health care paid by her company that miraculously continued and supplemented Medicare. she had a dignified life into her late 90s.

That’s because the rich are totally in charge of our political decisions and do what benefits them personally.

"inflation is MUCH higher than the claimed 3%." VS "JoE BiDEn dID ThAT"

Not exactly true. Harris won voters over $100k, Trump won voters under that. The small sliver of rich people who benefit from Trump were able to use fear of transpeople, immigrants, foreign trade, and high prices to convince poor people to make themselves poorer.

R8 You’re not supposed to talk Des Moines!

[quote] Harris won voters over $100k

These days that’s middle class.

Does anyone have any data on how the ones with real power—the billionaires—voted? I’d bet 80% Trump.

Can anyone here with economic knowledge make a good argument for food prices dropping,, ever?

I was watching The Sopranos and Christopher stiffed Paulie with the bill on a Saturday night dinner with the guys with their Goomars at a fancy restaurant.

$500 for dinner for 8. Including drinks*. That amount of money would have made me ill 20 years ago. But now? It’s a veritable bargain.

I live in Sydney which is one of the most expensive cities in the southern hemisphere. In a fancy local date night restaurant, I could not imagine paying for 3 courses, sides of greens and potatoes, cocktails, wine and coffee, for 8 people, half of whom probably ordered steaks or prime rib and brandy to finish… for less than $2000.

A depression will drop food prices.

[quote] Can anyone here with economic knowledge make a good argument for food prices dropping,, ever?

You don't need economic knowledge to understand that with accelerating climate change, food prices will only ever rise as it becomes harder to grow crops. Here's a random example of soybean crops being impacted in Illinois. We are staring upcoming food shortages in the face but no one will say it out loud.

Actual famine seems like a far stretch. But I grew up in the 70s and 80s. We did not have nor expect the variety and quality of food that is now commonplace. Going out to dinner was not something even people with money did frequently, and McDonald’s wasn’t multiple times in a week.

If that’s what we go back to - Americans are not going to take it well.

R17, the price of food itself is only tangentially related to the astronomical cost of restaurant meals in the world’s major cities — especially at the high end.

I can enjoy wonderful koshary in Cairo, with extras, for under $5 USD a person at a perfectly good restaurant.

Meanwhile, a Chanel Large Classic Flap is $12,000 USD in 2025, up from about $5,000 ten years ago — and $2,850 in 2010.

Inflation is terrible! Apparently, purses cost $10 K now — but that doesn’t mean wheat or onions do.

Packages sold by weight, not by volume.

Yes, but the weight of the package keeps shrinking while the size of the package stays the same. It is deceptive.

It's even worse here in Norway. The price for chocolate is insane now.

R23 We have a new word here in Norway: krympflasjon. Shrinkage inflation. They shrink the products, but still keep the price the same, or in some cases increase them.

We call that shrinkflation in the US and it's rampant.

I just checked my Sam’s Club account. My coffee was $16.94 for a 40oz bag a year ago, and $20.98 last week. So 23% higher, not 66% as the OP claims. But I have no doubt more is on the way.

It cannot be overemphasized how much the American middle class just looks like a bunch of delicious hogs ready for butchering to our billionaire overlords.

"B-b-b-but I want to be a billionaire someday! And I will be, too, just as soon as I get the funding for my startup company, but it's hard what with working 40 hours a week at an office and paying for daycare for my kids. But I don't want high taxes when I'm a billionaire so you better keep those tax cuts for them, and give them subsidies, too. Cut that government waste! Did you know Obamacare hasn't made a dime in profits since they started it? Cut it! Drain the swamp!"

R2, but as others have hinted at - prices are going up everywhere in the US. If we all move to the sticks, we aren't getting the cheap deal we would have gotten before 2021.

The problem with the idea of moving to cheaper locales is that, as people migrate, it “gentrifies” those cheaper places, effectively pushing out the locals because housing prices go up, then more expensive stores and restaurants come in, etc.

Yes, R31, and since the Pandemic, that is already well under way.

My hometown of Portland Maine used to be affordable pre-2021. Everyone moved there and now all my local contacts who grew up there had to move to the burbs or rural areas in order to afford it. This is common all over the US.

When I was close to broke in my 20s, I lived with 3 housemates and got very thrifty with food. If I have to lean in that direction again, I can do it. There are tons of resources online for ways to shop, cook, and eat low cost while still eating healthy food that tastes good. And… You can drink water most of the time.

I want to live my life luxuriously!

Panama grows both cocoa and coffee.

Just sayin'.

A thrifty guy can look like a million! All metro NY gays of certain age know how it's done!

In the past 8 years, I have seen my HOA and my property taxes go up. Healthcare premiums go up and car insurance increase. Groceries and utilities too. I feel you OP.

[quote] Shrinkage inflation

R25 That’s a great name for a medication for erectile dysfunction.