Americans’ net worth surged at a historic pace from 2019 to 2022, a reflection of the pandemic era’s tremendous economic swings and the wealth generated from homeownership and financial assets, according to Federal Reserve data released Wednesday.
So, from my personal perspective, mine and my wife’s wages did go up during those years. Quite substantially, I might add. Mine by $5/hr to $20/hr and hers by nearly $10/hr to $24/hr. Not without some time with us both being unemployed during the pandemic.
However, none of that helped us. We had to declare bankruptcy. Both our cars died and we couldn’t afford new ones, so we borrowed one until IT died and saved some money for a new (to us) car. Now we’re in more debt than before the bankruptcy thanks to that car and credit cards that I had to take out for us to be able to afford to eat during some hard times.
We’re paycheck to paycheck. Barely. Literally everything is more expensive. It took our entire savings (about $6k) just to move down the road to another apartment that wasn’t going to jack up our rent by $300/mo. Almost every dime goes to paying bills.
My net worth is negative. Has been since I was born. And I see no way out.
So, from my personal perspective, mine and my wife’s wages did go up during those years. Quite substantially, I might add. Mine by $5/hr to $20/hr and hers by nearly $10/hr to $24/hr. Not without some time with us both being unemployed during the pandemic.
However, none of that helped us. We had to declare bankruptcy. Both our cars died and we couldn’t afford new ones, so we borrowed one until IT died and saved some money for a new (to us) car. Now we’re in more debt than before the bankruptcy thanks to that car and credit cards that I had to take out for us to be able to afford to eat during some hard times.
We’re paycheck to paycheck. Barely. Literally everything is more expensive. It took our entire savings (about $6k) just to move down the road to another apartment that wasn’t going to jack up our rent by $300/mo. Almost every dime goes to paying bills.
My net worth is negative. Has been since I was born. And I see no way out.